Capturing Ion Cannons

[corfe83]

I recently captured my first Ion Cannon Mk. I, that was defending an important chokepoint. I spent significant effort in doing so and felt pleased with the result, until I realized that AI progress was at Mark II, so the Ion Cannon Mk. I didn't seem to do hardly anything for me.

Is it true that capturing Ion Cannon Mk. I is relatively useless if AI progress is at Mk. II (and likewise for capturing Ion Cannon Mk. II if AI progress is at Mk. III)? Under what conditions could the AI send mixed-Mark-waves at my planet (does it do so at cross-planet attacks, or are there certain game creation settings that will enable this)? I don't like the idea that an Ion Cannon can go from being extremely useful to being practically useless so suddenly!

[x4000]

Generally the AI doesn't used mixed-level waves, but there might be some prior planets hanging around that might be mark I still.  So if you killed their command station and their ships then came flooding out at you, then this would be useful in that context.

But I do have good news!  Well, on two fronts:

1. The Ion Cannons also damage engines.  So, even though they aren't going to be killing any higher-level ships, they will still be stalling them out, which is nice.

2. The tech level of the AI can be lowered!  Just go kill some datacenters as part of some long-range raiding, and viola.  You won't be able to keep their waves at Mark I forever, but you should be able to keep it lower for a good while, at least.

[corfe83]

Ah, that makes sense. I was still hoping to be able to use its insta-kill ability permanently, but engine damage + faster reload rate than spider turrets + tons of health makes it decent to keep around, I suppose. Thanks for the quick reply!

[x4000]

You bet!

[Ozymandiaz]

The AI also seem to like to attack it, and in my experience that is a good thing since it has buffer to outlast the waves while you kill em .

[x4000]

The AI also seem to like to attack it, and in my experience that is a good thing since it has buffer to outlast the waves while you kill em .

Oh yes, another excellent point.  Especially paired with spider turrets, this can spell the difference between losing your command station and having enough time to weather the assault without actually losing anything significant.