Can anyone save this game? Aka Backdoor hacker is terrifying

[liq3]

14 hour game, I've given up at this point. It's a fallen spire campaign with 5 cities and the galactic capitol, but the AI has gotten insane, and that Backdoor Hacker... Why is it only a moderate? I'm curious if anyone thinks they could finish it though. Also, any strategy tips would be greatly appreciated. Attached save. And what do people generally think is the acceptable AIP to win these days?

Picture is worth a thousand words. PS. Those 12,000 ships are going to be Infiltrators.  >D

[Diazo]

First, all backdoor hacker does is remove your defense in depth as they will always have a way in to your homeworld.

In a normal game where there is no-exo wave source, I am of the opinion that this is only moderate difficulty.

I'm actually facing one in my current game, but I'm playing a low AIP game with most options off. (AIP is looking to be in the 50 to 60 range when I start my first HW attack.)

That's a very different beast then what you are facing. In a game with exo-waves enabled, defense in depth is mandatory, you simply don't have the time (and forces) to kill the exo-waves before they reach your command station, even if you have every scrap of your forces in your home system.

I'm not going to call a backdoor hacker an impossible challenge to complete a FS campaign with, but surviving those final 30 minutes will be very close to impossible.

As for your current game, I'm not sure I have any advice for you. I'll take a quick peek at the save but you are in a tough spot regardless.

D.

edit: Taking a quick peek at your save, the only suggestion I have is to see if you can find the knowledge for Gravity Turrets. That will buy you more time but I can't say if that will make it winnable.

Hopefully someone with more FS campaign experience will come along, because I prefer low-AIP games, I very rarely play FS myself so I don't have any other suggestions to help out.

[Draco18s]

The part of backdoor hacker that really kills you is their being able to hit the world's adjacent to your home. If that planet has no hostile or neutral neighbors, the ships spawn at the edge of the gravity well,  making it really hard to defend against.

[onyhow]

You have a lot of HaP left, start using them to hack for knowledge. Use those knowledge to start unlock more turrets, fortresses. EMP mine would be a good idea, if Infils cause problem, then also get Counter Dark Matter turret. Gravity turrets would be essential to slow the waves from wormhole down before it hits your CS. And then combine that with EMP for maximum effect. After you got gravity, try unlock some spider turrets too...and maybe some Riot Starships. Slow as many enemies down as possible.

Since you can't do defense in depth, the only possible way is probably to stack everything possible on your HW.

[The Hunter]

Backdoor hacker FS is easy compared to Warp Jumper FS, I've attempted that once, it was silly. As for your game gravity turrets and mines is way to go, also get golems and trader toys if you have them enabled, and stack forts onto HW, stack all forcefields too and get military mk3. It could also help to have a few martyrs and warheads cloaked nearby.
Though, you really need to reduce your AIP(If you can), the AIP is more problematic here than the Backdoor hacker.

[Aklyon]

Reduce AIP and FS are not exactly mutually exclusive, but pretty dang close, Hunter.

[liq3]

Though, you really need to reduce your AIP(If you can), the AIP is more problematic here than the Backdoor hacker.

Yeh, I had that +100 AIP human colony thing enabled (didn't know what it did in lobby) and failed to save it... :<

I'm not sure how gravity turrets are supposed to help. The exo-wormhole is so close to my home station it's silly.

if Infils cause problem, then also get Counter Dark Matter turret.

Oh gosh how did I miss that Infils have Dark Matter ammo. Unfortunately the infils themselves aren't really the problem any more. It's the 12 FULL mark III carriers that spawn, cause there's so many ships -.-. Tho the counter-dark matter turrets would certainly help.

The part of backdoor hacker that really kills you is their being able to hit the world's adjacent to your home. If that planet has no hostile or neutral neighbors, the ships spawn at the edge of the gravity well,  making it really hard to defend against.

Yeh, this is the real problem. I could defend my homeworld for another 7 hours if I really want to... But the waves on my adjacent planets are a huge problem. Get almost no free time to go on offence (I managed to survive this save for another 30 minutes... another 30 minutes of death D:). The real problem is that when my adjacent planets die, the energy collectors die, and the energy problems lose me the game.

[Shoat]

I can't really think of a way to win that savegame, to be honest. It's all about surviving as long as possible now.

Catching large amounts of Carriers usually requires lots of stationary and mobile defenses, even more so if there's such a short distance from the source (backdoor) to your home command station, so your defenses will be put to their limit from "normal" attacks already. Don't think you can survive the huge shitstorm that is triggered by trying to get the last step of the FS campaign done (which is the only thing that can turn this into a win), even if it doesn't come in through the backdoor at all.

Unfortunately the infils themselves aren't really the problem any more. It's the 12 FULL mark III carriers that spawn, cause there's so many ships -.-. T

Yeah, it's a common problem in late-game: Carriers are infinitely more dangerous than what they contain would be.

The only thing they're merciful towards is the fps, though considering that you often need hundreds (even on very low caps) of ships to even stand a chance to fight them off successfully, the game usually switches to seconds per frame (instead of frames per second) mode anyway.

[onyhow]

I think you can control how carriers move with Forcefield now...so...one plan is to surround the wormhole with forcefield so that the carrier will be stuck there and keep hammering it with fortress and HBC...

Also...yes gravity will help...mk 3 grav turret slow enemy down to speed of 8!

[Draco18s]

The part of backdoor hacker that really kills you is their being able to hit the world's adjacent to your home. If that planet has no hostile or neutral neighbors, the ships spawn at the edge of the gravity well,  making it really hard to defend against.

Yeh, this is the real problem. I could defend my homeworld for another 7 hours if I really want to... But the waves on my adjacent planets are a huge problem. Get almost no free time to go on offence (I managed to survive this save for another 30 minutes... another 30 minutes of death D:). The real problem is that when my adjacent planets die, the energy collectors die, and the energy problems lose me the game.

Bingo.

Caused me to lose my most recent game too.  I was tearing my hair out trying to figure out A) what the AI did to get waves there in the first place and B) how the hell I could do anything to actually slow them down.  Even with removing the "that will just eat me" units from my fleet, waves (normal waves!) would chew through my entire fleet--including starships--in about 30-40 seconds.  And I'd reduce it down to about half-size (so you know, only about 200 units left).  With "one tenth" being sufficient to on-nom its way through basically everything-that-isn't-my-home-planet.  Because there were a lot of targets to choose from and its impossible to defend ALL of them.  (2 directly adjacent, 3 adjacent to those, 4 adjacent to those...hooray honey comb)

[onyhow]

Energy wise the only way possible is to build several matter converters in safe places...and maybe unlock mk 3 Econ station to help with it.

[Draco18s]

Energy wise the only way possible is to build several matter converters in safe places...and maybe unlock mk 3 Econ station to help with it.

No.  Not really.  3 of them would equate to a planet and RUIN your metal economy.  When I was losing I was losing on the order of four to six planets and unable to do jack about it.  3 planets was sufficient to knock me into ultra-negative power (even without a fleet in service).

[The Hunter]

If you can't get FS victory you could always try to just rush AI Homeworlds with FS fleet also.

[Shoat]

If you can't get FS victory you could always try to just rush AI Homeworlds with FS fleet also.

Defending against 12 MKIII carriers spawning right next to your home command station with every single wave will probably keep a good portion, if not all, of the FS fleet busy.

[keith.lamothe]

12 carriers + 1 MkIII Lightning warhead = ?