Dealing with Eyes (and Forts)

[TechSY730]

The AI Eye has always (in multiplayer) for me spawned crazy fast until we reach the point where the eye trigger condition is not met.  It's capable of punting out hundreds of ships in a second.  That's why we don't just send the whole fleet in, only take stuff good against Command Grade (I think?) hull.

If it has forced you to think this way and send in smaller strike forces, then it has done its intended job.

Yes it is annoying as hell, but they are supposed to be.
(I'm not saying you said that they are annoying, but just restating the sentiment that other have felt)

[ShadowOTE]

Heh, I remember first running into an AI Eye. I had a huge blob, and was handily defeating the ships as fast as they spawned. Took me a bit to realize they weren't just abandoning their guard post or roaming special forces. After that, it was easy enough to kill the AI Eye, but it was still pretty funny. Of course, this was back before parasites and MRS were both nerfed...

[Zeyurn]

Yeah, I really like how AI Eyes are working out now, actually.  I was a little skeptical at first but they seem to be doing what's expected.

[snrub_guy]

I like them, they make you rethink plans on occasion, while not making every planet a slog.

[Zeba]

Sniper turrets make a great way to neuter a system under the new antiblob mechanics. Establish a small beachead with some light starships for the damage bonus and riot starships with full shield options for any long range incoming fire along with a small amount of your highest mark triangle ships to kill off anything that gets close. Don't forget to also have some scout starships to counter any ai sniper fire or to decloak any ai ships or guard posts. Then build some forcefields and place the sniper turrets behind them so they don't get the 75% penalty to damage. After that you can simply snipe the command station and retreat to your defensive front or neuter the system by taking out all the non wormhole guardposts. Snipers also seem to work really well on guardians and starships too so that certainly helps.

[Fleet]

When I used sniper turrets in the past, eventually the AI just seeded counter sniper turrets everywhere. This was a long time ago, in 2.something. Are offensive sniper turrets more viable now?

[TechSY730]

When I used sniper turrets in the past, eventually the AI just seeded counter sniper turrets everywhere. This was a long time ago, in 2.something. Are offensive sniper turrets more viable now?

Counter sniper turrets are turrets right? And how does the AI use turrets now? 

[Zeba]

When I used sniper turrets in the past, eventually the AI just seeded counter sniper turrets everywhere. This was a long time ago, in 2.something. Are offensive sniper turrets more viable now?

They seem to be rather effective so far but are fragile if you don't protect them. Plus they are kinda expensive to build in the numbers you need to take out a system in a reasonable time. So seems fairly balanced for the results.

[Shrugging Khan]

Sniepr turrets suffer damage reduction by force fields now? 

I just wasted a million units of crystal.

[TechSY730]

Sniepr turrets suffer damage reduction by force fields now? 

I just wasted a million units of crystal.

They always have silly. Even when they could shoot through enemy forcefields, they still had that damage reduction.

[Shrugging Khan]

Och noez...and there I was, thinking those things simply ignored FFs 

[superking]

I dont like the insane power of the new forts, or the new eye mechanic.. it seems like just buffing the eyes HP a bunch would've been prefferable to giving it gigantic unkillable HP and the requirement to hit all the gaurdposts first.. removes the strategic choice and makes for grinds

[Suzera]

400m hp isn't "unkillable", it's just "buffed by a bunch".

[Shrugging Khan]

I haven't had much of a problem with them so far. There's dozens of ways for drawing the enemy's mobile ships away, and Bomber Starships make short work of most, if not even all guard posts. Schwoop da Woop, eye goes down. Then again - by the time the eye is dealt with, there's nothing left anyways.

[Red Spot]

I dont like the insane power of the new forts, or the new eye mechanic.. it seems like just buffing the eyes HP a bunch would've been prefferable to giving it gigantic unkillable HP and the requirement to hit all the gaurdposts first.. removes the strategic choice and makes for grinds

Actually it adds some strategic choices, before you just nuked the Eye and moved on. Could even pull it of wacking it with a full fleet, which is why it was there in the first place.
Now they actually have some intimidation-factor and require you to make some choices, even if those are only about timing.