AI War Beta 6.044-60.45 "So That's What A Vines Map Looks Like" Released!

[Mick]

It's basically like the Blizzard school for game design. "Inferno mode seemed to work fine in-house, so before we shipped it with the game we doubled all of the stats of each enemy to make it as hard as we wanted it to be. Probably."

Double is twice as good right? They should have quadrupled it and made it four times as good. That's how balance works right?

[Kahuna]

Well, I very much meant the balance approach of 'make it really possibly overpoweredly strong, and then tone it down to a reasonable level later.' It's just that Inferno took forever to get that adjustment. ...Is it bad that I now want a superfortress controller? Per-planet caps of mini-superfortresses.
Also, Dire Guardians terrify me and I know at some point I'll have to let them into my house but I'm scared. Their numbers are big. =(

I was surprised by how easy destroying Dire Guardians was.. first I looked at their stats and then the description of the Dire Guardian Hive. I pooped my pants a little bit when I was first about to destroy one of those Hives. I lost surprisingly few ships though. I guess I had a very strong fleet. About 1400 ships in total including Experimental Micro Parasites, Mark V Vampire Claws and Mark V Cutlasses and some reclaimed Mark III ships. I think they're ok.

[keith.lamothe]

Yea, they're kinda scary but if you have a big enough hammer (even without any superweapons) anything dies.

But you can't let a Dire Guardian catch you off guard.  Earlier this morning I saw a Dire Needler Guardian win a 1v1 with an Armored Golem.  The DG was pretty busted up in the process, but you should see the other guy.

[madcow]

For some reason I have this mental image of Keith sitting down at his computer sipping his coffee before work and thinking "hmm, lets see what happens if I put a rabid barracuda and knife-wielding monkey in  the virtual thunderdome this time. Oh, Not coded yet?  Ahh very well for fun let's try hunter killers and dire guardians instead."

[keith.lamothe]

For some reason I have this mental image of Keith sitting down at his computer sipping his coffee before work and thinking "hmm, lets see what happens if I put a rabid barracuda and knife-wielding monkey in  the virtual thunderdome this time. Oh, Not coded yet?  Ahh very well for fun let's try hunter killers and dire guardians instead."

For the last few months it's been caffeinated soda instead of coffee, but yea.

[chemical_art]

It depends on what dg pop as well. I finally beat ny first lure because i zerged while they had a 2 tractors and one arty. They simply couldnt fire.fast enough.

[keith.lamothe]

It depends on what dg pop as well. I finally beat ny first lure because i zerged while they had a 2 tractors and own arty. They simply couuldnt fire.fast enough.

Even high-cap ships can be useful

[tmm]

Hello, all. New user here.

Love the game, currently doing a game similar to that one "Contradictions and Silliness" [having issues with H/Ks]. But nevermind that.

I...think this is the topic to post this.

Silence is Treason, citizen.

Please report all further observations during your mandatory non-mandatory observation period using form XZ7f/JTY-48.  All observations during your non-mandatory mandatory observation period are to be reported using form JTY-48/XZ7f.  All frivilous observations are to be reported at once to your Team Leader, who will determine if you are to be shot for being an annoyance.

IntSec will be by to collect you during your next sleepcycle.  Unless you snore.

Have a happy day.

And remember: The Computer is watching.

[ZaneWolfe]

Hello, all. New user here.

Love the game, currently doing a game similar to that one "Contradictions and Silliness" [having issues with H/Ks]. But nevermind that.

I...think this is the topic to post this.

Silence is Treason, citizen.

Please report all further observations during your mandatory non-mandatory observation period using form XZ7f/JTY-48.  All observations during your non-mandatory mandatory observation period are to be reported using form JTY-48/XZ7f.  All frivilous observations are to be reported at once to your Team Leader, who will determine if you are to be shot for being an annoyance.

IntSec will be by to collect you during your next sleepcycle.  Unless you snore.

Have a happy day.

And remember: The Computer is watching.

~considers for a moment and then shoots both tmm and The Silent Watcher, for clearly being a commie and a mutant traitor respectively~

Well with that out of the way, I have some feedback on the new turret controllers. While it is possible for their numbers to spiral out of control, I found that on 1-2 HW (or 2 players with 1 HW each) that their numbers to be rather reasonable and well within balance IMO. Yes they are fairly strong if you start getting multiple controllers, but you are talking about taking multiple worlds at that point and given that you need to give up MKI - MKIII to use them it seems fair to me.

Now while I haven't checked all the math yet, I did find that its about the same power wise. Assuming they scale like fleetships you get the effectiveness of 5 MKI caps with a full cap of MKVs yes? Then with a full cap of MKI - MKIII you have the effectiveness of 6 caps of MKIs. So just going off numbers wise it would seen that MKVs are slightly weaker, with the trade off that you can put a LOT more of them down. (Yes I know that its not a perfect 1:1 like this, but it is close) This makes them VERY useful for defending remote systems and goes a LONG way to making distributed defenses more useful. (And less suicidal for those of us with something crazy like 4 exo sources) All in all I love them so far and hope they don't get a nerf. (And when combined with a spire city I find that they can make mini chokes further improving the ability of distributed defense)

I don't see it replacing chokes unless you give per planet caps to the really big defenses like heavy beam cannons, fortresses, and Z-Trader toys (I can see certain people laughing madly at the idea of per planet Superforts and Inhibitors. Or that could just be my maniacal laughter at the idea) but it certainly makes the idea vastly more useful. After all the biggest problem with distributed defenses is that you only had so many defenses to build and your ships couldn't be everywhere at once.

[keith.lamothe]

I don't see it replacing chokes unless you give per planet caps to the really big defenses like heavy beam cannons, fortresses, and Z-Trader toys (I can see certain people laughing madly at the idea of per planet Superforts and Inhibitors. Or that could just be my maniacal laughter at the idea) but it certainly makes the idea vastly more useful. After all the biggest problem with distributed defenses is that you only had so many defenses to build and your ships couldn't be everywhere at once.

Yea, I never want DD to replace chokepoints.  Having a single chokepoint for the really overpowering attacks in map situations that allow it is totally fine with me.  But I'd like to at least motivate outlying defenses even for core-defense purposes, and also to make satellite-defenses possible.

[ZaneWolfe]

I don't see it replacing chokes unless you give per planet caps to the really big defenses like heavy beam cannons, fortresses, and Z-Trader toys (I can see certain people laughing madly at the idea of per planet Superforts and Inhibitors. Or that could just be my maniacal laughter at the idea) but it certainly makes the idea vastly more useful. After all the biggest problem with distributed defenses is that you only had so many defenses to build and your ships couldn't be everywhere at once.

Yea, I never want DD to replace chokepoints.  Having a single chokepoint for the really overpowering attacks in map situations that allow it is totally fine with me.  But I'd like to at least motivate outlying defenses even for core-defense purposes, and also to make satellite-defenses possible.

Then I feel that Core Turrets as they stand certainly improve DD, not sure if its enough to do what you want, but certainly improves it a great deal. They even got me to deal with Dark Spire plot again simpluy because I can now build defenses on those DaS worlds that actually matter, (miniforts do very little to the DaS units) without pulling away from my main choke(s).

[Arc-3N-4B]

Wait, Dark Spire ships dying on a planet with a Vengeance Generator doesn't spawn more?

...Wow, now I feel like an idiot. *Builds core turrets*

Also, I'm lucky I don't have a drink - when I read that Paranoia stuff =P. Shame I've never actually played, though - but I know a thing or two about the setting.

[doctorfrog]

I should add that I really do appreciate your frank feedback as it was obvious to me that you were specifically trying to not be mean/offensive/etc, and we do need to know when something isn't up to snuff.  Doesn't mean we'll always agree, and generally we look for more than one source of a particular complaint, but anyway.

I appreciate that. I don't have the chops or experience that a lot of folks have to offer suggestions about real technical stuff about game balance and so forth, so I try to contribute the feedback that I can, with the understanding that it can't always be done, or is often not even perceived as a real problem. (In other words, I totally know I'm a picker of nits.) No worries!

[LaughingThesaurus]

Well, even if they aren't that bad, I actually like 30-40 planet maps. The increased density probably makes the lairs quite a bit harder. I dunno, it's something I'm probably going to try out eventually. Just not immediately.

[keith.lamothe]

Well, even if they aren't that bad, I actually like 30-40 planet maps. The increased density probably makes the lairs quite a bit harder. I dunno, it's something I'm probably going to try out eventually. Just not immediately.

It actually seeds fewer lairs on smaller maps.  Though to some extent you're still more likely to encounter one early, depending on the map type.