Differing AI command stations?

[chemical_art]

Would it be possible, based on seed, to have the ai have different command stations, such as military, logistic, economic ones?

[Shrugging Khan]

I'd like that...and to see the AI rebuild command stations in exchange for AI progress reductions 

[keith.lamothe]

I'd really like to do something like this too, kinda like when guard posts got all their variety

[chemical_art]

I'd really like to do something like this too, kinda like when guard posts got all their variety

The variety would help prevent cookie cutter approaches to all assaults.

Military stations get a flat boost, maybe even a long range translocation shots as well (or does raiding need any more discouraging? maybe just the boost*).

* Or  it not effect starships and/or maybe certain dedicated raiders.

Logistic stations give the flat speed reduction and ai speed boost.

Economic stations...maybe a reinforcement multiplier and/or the dreaded ai wave boost multiply er (have that mechanic come back with a vengeance?)

[Spikey00]

The problem with this is that it would probably make AI types and structures such as armour boosters, munition boosters, etc. redundant to the command stations.  They need something more unique.

[chemical_art]

The problem with this is that it would probably make AI types and structures such as armour boosters, munition boosters, etc. redundant to the command stations.  They need something more unique.

Maybe. But if you gave the military station a rate of fire bonus instead (if the code allows that) then each station would be unique. I don't know of anything that boosts ai speed while reducing player speed (grav drill does boost) while ai reinforcements are possible they are rare since they (memory hazy here) may raise AIP. And if so there is nothing preventing the reinforcements to stack, while the ai wave multiplier will be unique since I think it is nothing at the moment I think.

[PokerChen]

It would be nicer I think if the AI had a different variety of command stations to choose from. I tend to think that logistics command stations in the AI hands will be particularly aggravating.

At the moment I normally send a detachment of starships and immune-to-insta-kill fleet ships to an ion-cannoned / AI-eyed planet,

On the other hand, it would make Spirecraft Seige Towers more useful on offense... we can also, say, adopt the Infiltrator from its obsolete counter-turret role into a counter command-station role by giving them immunity to speed reductions (NOT gravity) and translocation (then would be *really* deadly in the hands of the AI )  They're not technically infiltrating though.

 = = =
Here's a few ideas.
Aggressive command stations
 Always true:
 - Begin the game with increased number of ships. 2x for mark-I, 1.75x for mark-II, 1.5x for mark-III and 1,25x for mark-IV.
 - Ships on this planet gain a small boost in attack power (+10%)
 - Armed with lasers, equivalent in power to laser guardians of the same mark or one higher (the strongest offensive guardians IMO)

 Condition:
 - When adjacent planet is neutral or player-owned, (1) multiply its border aggression limit by 0.125, and (2) during reinforcement, receive a small amount of ships as freed threat in addition to normal reinforcement. (!)

Warp-attack command stations
 Always true:
 - This command station has an in-built warp-gate and so cannot be gate-raided. On the plus-side it's 5 less AIP for you.
 - However, a warp attack launched adjacent to this command station has more ships. when calculating ship numbers, increase the effective AIP by 80. (muahahaha) Potential tactic to avoid such event is to build a warp-jammer command station.
 - The station itself is highly armoured and takes longer to destroy.
 Condition:
 - When destroyed, launch attack wave with low warning in the local area - on the planet or adjacent planet. The chronogically inverse of a raid-engine in the sense that it launches a wave when it last sees you. Of course, the warp-jammer command station will be useless if the counter-attack wave spawns on the planet the AI command station is at. Just a hint...

Attritioner (radiological) command stations
Always true:
 - Has an in-built attritioner like the AI-type or spirecraft attritioners. This attritions at the rate of 300*Mark/s, encouraging player to neutralise the planet early.
 - Armed with a shorter-range translocator to reduce the number of incoming bombers trying to take it out.
 - Longer-ranged tachyon beam. Your spirecraft penetrators are not safe either! *shakes finger* Do not make planet-wide as we still want scouts here.
 
Vanilla command station
 Always true:
 - Sweet-and-easy to destroy...

NB: To enable knowledge-raiding, I would advise that when all guardposts are neutered the attacks of these command stations be removed. This could be difficult to code, however.

[Wanderer]

It would be nicer I think if the AI had a different variety of command stations to choose from. I tend to think that logistics command stations in the AI hands will be particularly aggravating.

I like that idea better.

However..

Warp-attack command stations
 - However, a warp attack launched adjacent to this command station has more ships. when calculating ship numbers, increase the effective AIP by 80. (muahahaha) Potential tactic to avoid such event is to build a warp-jammer command station.

Oh hell no.  Imagine something hammering at you with 90 AIP instead of 10 in the early moments of the game.  Get one of these next to your opening homeworld and you'd just restart.  They'd have to be raid-engine level of rarity and not allowed to start next to the homeworld.  Gyeeeaaahhh...  I still don't like it, even WITH those restrictions.  The rest sound alright, that, no, just no.

A couple of other possibilities:
Support Station
Frees half of its cold storage to assist any locally connected world.  Perhaps streams zombies in to support at 1/10 K-Raid levels of support, or make a more linear increment for support of adjacent systems.  (Particularly necessary to reduce at that volume for AI 9+)

Train Station/Special Forces Station
Nothing more then acts as a SF Station or Train Station until destroyed.  You can't remove the flow of those forces without removing this base as well.  SF forces in particular will have a higher chance of choosing this location as their next place to visit.

Never-Neutered
Take your pick for a name.  Will rebuild lost guardposts at Mark I, say 1 every 10 minutes.  Don't completely remove the effort a player has taken in hammering down a Mk IV. :-)

AI Important System
Reserved for systems the AI has deemed important for reasons known only to itself, this system receives 1/10th of its reinforcement as core ships.  Note, the reinforcement values won't change, they're not additional, just take a 10th of the reinforcement and reinforce like a homeworld.

Neinzul Cluster
This AI station has been adopted by the Neinzul as a home.  Since AI functionality has not been interfered with it hasn't ridden itself of the local infestation.  System is treated like one of the Neinzul AIs.

Research Station
All the knowledge in this system is kept inside the command station.   In order to learn much here, you have to K-Raid it.  As a bonus, though, there's 4500 K available in this system.  If you blow the station you can only get 1500 normally.

Paranoid Station
All the guardposts are within range of each other and the cmd station on this system.  It'll probably be pretty easy to wander through without engaging a post, but everything around the cmd station will make it incredibly painful to try to fight your way through.

Just to make some that are good for the player too:
Glitched Station
Station receives 60% of normal reinforcements because its calculator is broken when it sends back orders to the AI Homeworld.

Blind Station
This station can't go on alert, because it can't see a dang thing.

Hyperactive station
This station is permanently on alert because of some subspace interference.  This might bite you in the rear if there's something you want on it, but otherwise it's just a resource drain to the AI.

Scrooge station
This station doesn't come with the ability to supply its neighbors.  It's tight-fisted with supply and thus is one less system you have to 'cut off' if you want to power down FFs, Forts, etc.

Resource Dump
Or, AKA, "Raid me Please".  Cmd Station is a Distribution Node as well, but never trojans.  Maybe has a few extras hanging around.

[Shrugging Khan]

I like all the suggestions in here. INCLUDING the +80 AIP Warp Attack Station.

[Wanderer]

I like all the suggestions in here. INCLUDING the +80 AIP Warp Attack Station.

I'd rather see it as a percentage, say, 10-20% of current AIP.

[Coppermantis]

It would be nicer I think if the AI had a different variety of command stations to choose from. I tend to think that logistics command stations in the AI hands will be particularly aggravating.

I like that idea better.

However..

Warp-attack command stations
 - However, a warp attack launched adjacent to this command station has more ships. when calculating ship numbers, increase the effective AIP by 80. (muahahaha) Potential tactic to avoid such event is to build a warp-jammer command station.

Oh hell no.  Imagine something hammering at you with 90 AIP instead of 10 in the early moments of the game.  Get one of these next to your opening homeworld and you'd just restart.  They'd have to be raid-engine level of rarity and not allowed to start next to the homeworld.  Gyeeeaaahhh...  I still don't like it, even WITH those restrictions.  The rest sound alright, that, no, just no.

A couple of other possibilities:
Support Station
Frees half of its cold storage to assist any locally connected world.  Perhaps streams zombies in to support at 1/10 K-Raid levels of support, or make a more linear increment for support of adjacent systems.  (Particularly necessary to reduce at that volume for AI 9+)

Train Station/Special Forces Station
Nothing more then acts as a SF Station or Train Station until destroyed.  You can't remove the flow of those forces without removing this base as well.  SF forces in particular will have a higher chance of choosing this location as their next place to visit.

Never-Neutered
Take your pick for a name.  Will rebuild lost guardposts at Mark I, say 1 every 10 minutes.  Don't completely remove the effort a player has taken in hammering down a Mk IV. :-)

AI Important System
Reserved for systems the AI has deemed important for reasons known only to itself, this system receives 1/10th of its reinforcement as core ships.  Note, the reinforcement values won't change, they're not additional, just take a 10th of the reinforcement and reinforce like a homeworld.

Neinzul Cluster
This AI station has been adopted by the Neinzul as a home.  Since AI functionality has not been interfered with it hasn't ridden itself of the local infestation.  System is treated like one of the Neinzul AIs.

Research Station
All the knowledge in this system is kept inside the command station.   In order to learn much here, you have to K-Raid it.  As a bonus, though, there's 4500 K available in this system.  If you blow the station you can only get 1500 normally.

Paranoid Station
All the guardposts are within range of each other and the cmd station on this system.  It'll probably be pretty easy to wander through without engaging a post, but everything around the cmd station will make it incredibly painful to try to fight your way through.

Just to make some that are good for the player too:
Glitched Station
Station receives 60% of normal reinforcements because its calculator is broken when it sends back orders to the AI Homeworld.

Blind Station
This station can't go on alert, because it can't see a dang thing.

Hyperactive station
This station is permanently on alert because of some subspace interference.  This might bite you in the rear if there's something you want on it, but otherwise it's just a resource drain to the AI.

Scrooge station
This station doesn't come with the ability to supply its neighbors.  It's tight-fisted with supply and thus is one less system you have to 'cut off' if you want to power down FFs, Forts, etc.

Resource Dump
Or, AKA, "Raid me Please".  Cmd Station is a Distribution Node as well, but never trojans.  Maybe has a few extras hanging around.

I quite like these ideas, although some of the tougher ones, namely the neinzul and warp ones should be coded to seed farther away from the player start.

[PokerChen]

I like all the suggestions in here. INCLUDING the +80 AIP Warp Attack Station.

I'd rather see it as a percentage, say, 10-20% of current AIP.

The actual increase is highly negotiable.   I could also go with some sort of a mix, like min( 100, 20+10% ). I want it to *be* a little scary, and  anything less than 20 AIP is a small number of ships...

Neinzul Cluster
This AI station has been adopted by the Neinzul as a home.  Since AI functionality has not been interfered with it hasn't ridden itself of the local infestation.  System is treated like one of the Neinzul AIs.

More Neinzuls! MOAR! This command-station produces a clutch of neinzul ships when disturbed.

[TechSY730]

I like all the suggestions in here. INCLUDING the +80 AIP Warp Attack Station.

I'd rather see it as a percentage, say, 10-20% of current AIP.

The actual increase is highly negotiable.   I could also go with some sort of a mix, like min( 100, 20+10% ). I want it to *be* a little scary, and  anything less than 20 AIP is a small number of ships...

I say make sure they cannot spawn next to human homeworlds, so you have a choice in the matter whether to trigger their "wrath"

Also, something like 60 extra AIP for wave calculations seems more appropriate.

[chemical_art]

or 20 * mk of the world.

You know how the bad luck rolls with those mk IV's...and the first wave still has the small wave rule.

[Wanderer]

I like all the suggestions in here. INCLUDING the +80 AIP Warp Attack Station.

I'd rather see it as a percentage, say, 10-20% of current AIP.

The actual increase is highly negotiable.   I could also go with some sort of a mix, like min( 100, 20+10% ). I want it to *be* a little scary, and  anything less than 20 AIP is a small number of ships...

I'd like that particular station to have an independent off switch then.  At AI 9+ you really have to understand the impact of 40-60 AIP difference in a wave, nevermind 100.  Everything else just makes it interesting, that can be a complete game-breaker, particularly earlier in the game.

Edit: When I mention independent off switch, I mean something like:
Variable AI Command Stations Yes/No. 
Warp Gate AIP increaser Command Station Yes/No.