AI War Beta 7.043-7.044 "Beltsander of Worlds MkI" Released!

[Lord Of Nothing]

Finally able to access the save R.E. fallen spire not resolving, so if you need evidence: (Yes, the Mk3 nuke is an edge case situation, but isn't it rather the point that Imperial Spire are supposed to be able to punch through anything? (Well, with possible exception of 10/10))

Original post for reference:

The Transceiver fleets seem to me to be falling behind in power again- The game I'm playing at the moment, the final AI homeworld seems to have them pretty much stalled, between the endless flood of special forces, the attack retaliation exos, the FS exos, etc- This is only difficulty 9, FS 5, 3HW's, so I hate to think what it would be like on more extreme settings. I had to set off a mk3 nuke just to kill the counterattack guardpost waves from their general assault and get the sim speed above -20! (They killed all the counterattack guardposts of three rude gesture subcommanders within about 4 minutes of each other, at over 1000AIP, and most of them belonged to a mad bomber.)

Suggestions:
Imperial spire ships: 10x health and attack (Although x100, to be back to their original pre-deflation values, might still not be overkill), Artillery Immunity, Forcefield Immunity.
(Is implosion immunity a thing? Because they should have it.)
5 Minutes after tranciever activation, subspace pulse kills all counterattack guardposts without retaliation.

[Draco18s]

(Yes, the Mk3 nuke is an edge case situation)

Nuke?

Also, why would you need a Mk3?

[Toranth]

(Yes, the Mk3 nuke is an edge case situation)

Nuke?

Also, why would you need a Mk3?

For dealing with lots of Counterwaves when your fleet is busy elsewhere, nukes are pretty useful.  I've done similar before, during a Showdown, for example.  I'll admit I've never done a Mk III Nuke, but setting off a half-dozen nukes didn't used to be that uncommon.  Not like AIP or economy matters much at that point.

[Aklyon]

If you're dealing with a lot of counterwaves, isn't there more things immune to nukes than immune to other warheads?

[Draco18s]

Not to mention that a Mk3 nuke blows up every planet in the game which revokes supply.  You can't fund a military without energy production and there are NO nuke-immune methods of generating power.

AIP might be meaningless, but the inability to build, power, and fleet mobile military is kind of a problem.

[Toranth]

Not to mention that a Mk3 nuke blows up every planet in the game which revokes supply.  You can't fund a military without energy production and there are NO nuke-immune methods of generating power.

AIP might be meaningless, but the inability to build, power, and fleet mobile military is kind of a problem.

Except that during the Transceiver victory, you don't need any of that, because the Imperial Spire Fleet is busy warping in every minute or two.  You just need to keep stuff like, oh, counterwaves?, from killing you before the AI dies.

Same thing, in the Showdown, nuking is frequently a good solution.  Mk III I've never done, and can only envision a few circumstances it'd be useful, but I've tossed Mk Is all over the place, with an occasional Mk II as well.  It's a niche response, but not irrational.

[ZaneWolfe]

I'm not entirely sure if this is a bug, but I have found an 'interesting' issue with post-hacking responses. Specifically, if you kill the command station right after you are done, it COMPLETELY NEGATES said response. Nothing will appear on the planet and normal countdown that shows in the top left of the screen will just vanish. It doesn't need to happen exactly after you are done hacking, given you some time, but it can be used to negate a particularly deadly post-hacking response entirely. Now, as I said I am not sure if this is a bug, because it does cost you either 15 or 20 AIP, depending on if the warp gate is still around, so its not entirely without cost. However, I would definitely say it's an exploit that should be fixed.

[Lord Of Nothing]

(Yes, the Mk3 nuke is an edge case situation)

Nuke?

Also, why would you need a Mk3?

As has been said elsewhere, counterwaves, plus the fact that the sheer numbers of ships in the galaxy in general was killing my simspeed. (It was at about 25-30 real seconds per game second- this computer is getting on a bit.)

[KDR_11k]

Huh, so you can theoretically block a Wrath Lance beam using a sufficiently large, sufficiently high health target?  That's... interesting, but probably not actually useful to know.

A ball of cannonfodder will work too. The beam doesn't keep going just because the unit it hit was destroyed instantly (though I think each visible WL beam is multiple actual beams so it hits like 3 things). Takes a WL quite some time to chew through a ball of infiltrators or junk like that.

[keith.lamothe]

Huh, so you can theoretically block a Wrath Lance beam using a sufficiently large, sufficiently high health target?  That's... interesting, but probably not actually useful to know.

A ball of cannonfodder will work too. The beam doesn't keep going just because the unit it hit was destroyed instantly (though I think each visible WL beam is multiple actual beams so it hits like 3 things). Takes a WL quite some time to chew through a ball of infiltrators or junk like that.

Each visible beam is just 1 beam (zoomed in far enough, at least), but if it destroys a target and has damage left over it continues to the next one.  But eventually it will stop, with enough fodder in the way.

[ZaneWolfe]

Found what may be a new bug. I got a starting Exile of 7 in my branch of an X map, and nothing in my branch is 7 away from it, so I figure I would hack each of the starting points of other branches to see which is closer. Now, I get 1 away from the center of the map, capture the planet, since its going to be my choke. I did NOT do an Exile hack yet, since its in my branch of the map still. Suddenly, it gives me an Exile pop up, saying its 4 away. I check the big map, and see that it is indeed 3 away from the starting Exile data. But... I never hacked for it, just captured the planet. Is it supposed to do that?

[Aklyon]

Occasionally.

[ZaneWolfe]

Occasionally.

So there is a chance, all be it a rather low one, of it randomly giving Exile location data? QUESTION! If I were to capture the Exile's location world, without having hacked for it, would I simply be given the Exile?

[orzelek]

Occasionally.

So there is a chance, all be it a rather low one, of it randomly giving Exile location data? QUESTION! If I were to capture the Exile's location world, without having hacked for it, would I simply be given the Exile?

Indeed you would. And that might not be good actually but Exos for un-repaired one are quite tame. For actual Fun you need to bankrupt yourself 10 times over and repair it

PS.
7.044 is not released according to Wiki (and yes it has been nagging me from few days;) )

[keith.lamothe]

Indeed you would. And that might not be good actually but Exos for un-repaired one are quite tame. For actual Fun you need to bankrupt yourself 10 times over and repair it

Actually it shouldn't send any exos for merely holding it, before you start the repairs.  Do you have a save where simply capturing the planet triggers the exodian blade exos?

PS.
7.044 is not released according to Wiki (and yes it has been nagging me from few days;) )

Whoops, just corrected that

Working on 7.045, hoping to get that out tomorrow.