Botnet Golem causes both exo's AND a +100 AIP penalty on repair

[zoutzakje]

copied from my mantis post:

I'm playing with Botnet golem on hard and regulair golems on medium. I've been getting exo's that say they're from Broken Golems - Hard, which should be Botnet Golem - Hard. And now that I managed to repair the Botnet, I suffer +100 AIP, while I'm clearly playing the Botnet on hard and the other golems on medium. I'm guessing the Botnet finds it quite hard to adept to the fact that he is no longer a regular golem, but the god of golems instead, and thus acts accordingly.

Uploading 2 saves. The first one has the botnet repaired at 89%, so before the +100 AIP. The second save is right after I suffered this severe penalty. Serves me right for wanting to abuse the botnet I guess. Still a bit harsh though

EDIT: Energy cost seems to be where it's supposed to be though. Botnet costs me 80k energy, not 800k.

MORE EDIT: This unfortunate accident does bring me an idea. Broken Golems, Botnet and Spirecraft - Very Hard. Combine effects of Medium and Hard and voila.


So? What do you guys think of a very hard option?   Yes, I enjoy pain. Virtual pain that is.

[Phantom]

I remembered the botnet golem was really OP. He can blow up a bunch of ships and turn them to FRD zombies that can be a nice buffer zone for defense last time I played coop with a buddy. We both had like 2 botnets each before there was a 100+ AIP penalty. I guess the penalty may be nice so I can just repair him to about 95% or something and leave him there and just grab him if situation demands it. My second favorite golem would be armored golem (20+ AIP ain't so bad to me). I like making him 1 v 1 a fortress xD the fortress lose and the golem wins. Its like a mobile fortress that's stronger.

[zoutzakje]

yeah armored golem is good.  He doesn't exactly know how to stop waves, but sure he can kill structures and forcefields. My fav golem (besides the botnet) would have to be Black Widow golem with it's paralyzing tractor beams. You can just take away 200 enemy ships and there is nothing he can do about it.

[KDR_11k]

I don't know why but the game loves to give me cursed golems. They're nice snipers.

[Coppermantis]

I don't know why but the game loves to give me cursed golems. They're nice snipers.

Those are one of my favorite Golems. Their downsides are negligible if you have a good economy and they're useful in a lot of situations. Plus, my first Golem I found was a Cursed Golem, so I have some nostalgia for them.

[chemical_art]

yeah armored golem is good.  He doesn't exactly know how to stop waves, but sure he can kill structures and forcefields. My fav golem (besides the botnet) would have to be Black Widow golem with it's paralyzing tractor beams. You can just take away 200 enemy ships and there is nothing he can do about it.

WHAT! The armored golem doesn't stop waves?

The armored golem, at least when I used it during 5.X days, messed with wave logic so that it could distrupt waves in such a manner no one else could compete.

[KDR_11k]

The separate faction made me wary of even enabling the botnet but before that was in place the botnet felt a bit underwhelming. Sure, it zombifies insanely fast but there's so much stuff it simply cannot touch that it sometimes feels completely useless. The insanity inducer seems to underperform as well, my Neinzul champ should be zombifying 12 ships per volley but it seems to do far less than that. Also I just remembered that the botnet cannot attack MkVs? Does the Insanity Inducer have the same issue? That would at least explain why it does less than expected though a mention of that in the module description would be nice, not everybody can be expected to know that a rare superweapon that requires its own minor faction and gives a massive AIP penalty has such a specific drawback. The worst part is that spire fleet ships are immune to reclamation despite having a cap of 48 on normal (half the fighter cap), the gravity drains appear like swarmers and yet they act like starships?

[zoutzakje]

yeah the botnet can not hit mk V ships, so it's completely useless against Core/Homeworlds. But even though there is a lot of reclaim immune stuff out there, the Botnet can still take care of pretty much your entire defense and/or offense in most cases. Use it for every reclaimable wave and send it with your fleet to neuter a planet that has been building up reinforces for too long, and you'll have thousands of zombies roaming through your empire in no time. Just don't play with the Devourer on because he likes to nom nom nom at all your zombies. Especially if he's on hunting-mode in one of your systems.
I actually didn't care much about getting that extra 100 AIP, even though it was a bug. It just means more and more powerful zombies for me.

[KDR_11k]

I guess my Neinzul champ doesn't botnet all that well because it botnets slower and the main gun and bomber drones tend to wreck a lot of stuff as well...

[Pluto]

Recently played a game where I got lucky and paired a botnet with a black widow.  Tractors prevented anything from getting within range, while the botnet took the potshots from a distance.

[TechSY730]

The separate faction made me wary of even enabling the botnet but before that was in place the botnet felt a bit underwhelming. Sure, it zombifies insanely fast but there's so much stuff it simply cannot touch that it sometimes feels completely useless. The insanity inducer seems to underperform as well, my Neinzul champ should be zombifying 12 ships per volley but it seems to do far less than that. Also I just remembered that the botnet cannot attack MkVs? Does the Insanity Inducer have the same issue? That would at least explain why it does less than expected though a mention of that in the module description would be nice, not everybody can be expected to know that a rare superweapon that requires its own minor faction and gives a massive AIP penalty has such a specific drawback. The worst part is that spire fleet ships are immune to reclamation despite having a cap of 48 on normal (half the fighter cap), the gravity drains appear like swarmers and yet they act like starships?

Yea, most if not all zombie reclaimers cannot shoot at things that are immune to reclaim. This offsets their generally very high DPS.

Anyways, good point about some of the higher cap spire fleet ships. Those shouldn't get immunity to reclaim (like Z elec bombers, sniper fleet ships, and Z sentinal frigates are NOT immune to reclaim, despite having lower caps than even S grav drains)
Whether they should keep their immunity to insta-kill is something I don't know yet.

[KDR_11k]

Also while we're at it 100k engine health for a ship with a normal cap of 48 is a bit high... You'd probably kill it before breaking its engines.

[Phantom]

I should have grabbed the botnet earlier... lost at 255 AIP... was playing too defensively. I should have grabbed and plunge earlier but the crossplanet attack took me out followed up with a 1000 AI wave to crush up what was left

[zoutzakje]

I'm always a bit hesitating when it comes to getting that botnet or not. I like it what it does, but it often makes defending so very easy. It feels cheesy. I usually know ways to win without it anyways. Except for my current 7/7 game. Without the botnet I'd be dead. 638 AIP at 8 hours in is a bit much, even at 7/7 (538 without the bug, but that's still a lot).