AI War Beta 7.019-7.020 "Oops MkII" Released!

[TechSY730]

Not sure if I should file a bug about this.

Remains rebuilders are still sort of "messed up" in priorities.

If your command station goes down, then during the countdown time where it can't be rebuilt, the remains rebuilders won't target it, but instead will target things like turrets. Fair enough.

However, if there is not enough energy left for the turrets (like if you set up an energy reserve), then the remains rebuilders will try and fail to rebuild the turrets. Again, fair enough.

However, once the command station becomes eligible to be rebuilt (the countdown, well, counts down), the remains rebuilders will stubbornly continue to try to rebuild the turrets, just sitting there, instead of breaking off and rebuilding the command center (so it can rebuild the energy reactors needed to rebuild the turrets).

If I save and reload, if the command station is now eligible to rebuild, then the rebuilders will break off and rebuild the command center, but they won't do it on their own without a reload.

I can try to provide a save during the time that the command station rebuild timer is still going so the cleanup drones will "reacquire" the command that will make them stuck.

[TechSY730]

Not sure if I should file a bug about this.

Remains rebuilders are still sort of "messed up" in priorities.

If your command station goes down, then during the countdown time where it can't be rebuilt, the remains rebuilders won't target it, but instead will target things like turrets. Fair enough.

However, if there is not enough energy left for the turrets (like if you set up an energy reserve), then the remains rebuilders will try and fail to rebuild the turrets. Again, fair enough.

However, once the command station becomes eligible to be rebuilt (the countdown, well, counts down), the remains rebuilders will stubbornly continue to try to rebuild the turrets, just sitting there, instead of breaking off and rebuilding the command center (so it can rebuild the energy reactors needed to rebuild the turrets).

If I save and reload, if the command station is now eligible to rebuild, then the rebuilders will break off and rebuild the command center, but they won't do it on their own without a reload.

I can try to provide a save during the time that the command station rebuild timer is still going so the cleanup drones will "reacquire" the command that will make them stuck.

OK, I have gotten a save with this.

CORE 2 in the save file has a downed command station with the countdown going, but one remaining heroic remains rebuilder left on it. Note that I maintain an energy buffer of 160000, so even though I have 100,000 energy, things aren't building as that is effectively -60000 for those purposes.

Please excuse the sniper guardian infestation, exterminators are in route and will deal with it shortly.

Note that the remains rebuilder will try, and fail, to rebuild a turret (due to lack of energy), and then won't go back to the command center to rebuild it once the timer expires, which is needed to rebuild the energy collector to get the energy.

[Aklyon]

Is it just me, or are there considerably more starships this time around?

I'm routinely encountering upwards of 5 or even 10 starships on almost every planet in a 7/7 game (Spire Hammer/Turtle, uh, Neinzul Youngling (?)/Vanilla), all expansions.

We're doing FS, though haven't even got the first shard, and I think we're sitting on 150 AIP or so right now, but it's been happening over several games, and at >100 AIP.

I thought it was just the AI Type for the first game we played (side note: Fallen Spire shard chase + Mad Bomber/Warp Jumper huuuuurt) but it's consistent with other AI types.

We've got upwards of 500 AIP in my current MP game, and we're getting around 50 starships a wave. However, a couple of us started with multiple homeworlds, so that may be skewing things.

[Draco18s]

My "What Memo?" game is over 600 AIP (single homeworld start, though now with two players) and we're getting around 50 starships per wave.  It's not quite there, but I don't recall the exact numbers.

(My friend did exclaim at one point, "700 incoming starships!?" when it was actually 700 cloaked ships and 30-odd starships).

[Arc-3N-4B]

Yes, well, we're still on low-ish AIP (and on 7/7), but still, dealing with 3 mk3 zenith starships on the second planet out, when you've got an absolute joke of a fleet...well.

[keith.lamothe]

The AI has the same "max number of starships I can have on guard-duty on a planet" logic as before.  It also has the same max-number-of-guardians-guarding-a-planet logic, though it now cares less about what specific objects the guardians are guarding. 

Before it used to get 1 free starship and 1 free guardian per eligible planet, where now each planet gets something like 25% of its reinforcement budget for buying either guardians or starships (randomly picked each time, if both are still eligible).  Though in most cases that side-budget will be low enough that it just means "1 of them".  So you're generally getting 1 of those added per reinforcement cycle per reinforced planet rather than 2, but overall if it rolls starships a lot (or already has as many guardians as it can, or can't have guardians for whatever reason) you can see faster starship population growth than you would have before.

Anyway, I'm sure you can arrange for a suitable accident to befall those Zenith Starships

[Arc-3N-4B]

We were fighting off a Mk3 Rude Gesture, and mid-way through punching through the forcefields, the planet reinforced and something like five starships spawned at once (plus a few fleetships).

By "reinforcement cycle" is that per guardpost or just outright per planet?

[The Hunter]

Yes, well, we're still on low-ish AIP (and on 7/7), but still, dealing with 3 mk3 zenith starships on the second planet out, when you've got an absolute joke of a fleet...well.

And MK4-MK5 starships are common in midgame now, not even close to homeworlds yet, lol.

[Mad Rubicant]

Definitely seeing more starships than before you changed the code. I may have jumped up to 8/8, but the AI can't be getting that many more.

It's a big difficulty spike on offense, since now I'm dealing with Zenith Starships/Spire Starships more regularly. High mark Zenith/Spires.

[TechSY730]

Well, time to turn on reinforcement logging and find out is going on

[Vinraith]

I'm glad this isn't just me. I'd recently cranked up the difficulty and thought it might just be that, but every game I've tried lately has ended with a threat swarm of starships stomping me flat.

[Mad Rubicant]

Alright, starting a new game to get those first reinforcement pulses. Gotta get to 40 minutes before the starships start showing up, though.
And here's the first reinforcement where starships are showing up.
AIP 30, 8/8, 1 homeworld.
It looks like the AI is going into the deep negatives for a lot of these starships.

[keith.lamothe]

It looks like the AI is going into the deep negatives for a lot of these starships.

Definitely, and that's what it used to do too.  But instead it got starships AND guardians for free, independent of each other.

[Toranth]

It looks like the AI is going into the deep negatives for a lot of these starships.

Definitely, and that's what it used to do too.  But instead it got starships AND guardians for free, independent of each other.

Indeed, and I'm see the current state as a happy improvement.
Raid Engines might need a touch up on how they get Starships, or something, though.
I randomly played against a Raid Engine AI type - Ok, fine, Warp Jammers got a lot of work out.  Then I lost a system to a CPA and didn't get back for a little while.  When I did, less than an hour later, there were something like 300 starships.  The 10,000 fleetships I could handle (warheads, ho!) but that many starships was just GG.

[Mad Rubicant]

It looks like the AI is going into the deep negatives for a lot of these starships.

Definitely, and that's what it used to do too.  But instead it got starships AND guardians for free, independent of each other.

It still feels like more starships, but I think I'm encountering less guardians.
Here's a reinforcement log from 7.001, exact same settings as the last one I uploaded. Waaaay less starships.