Exodian Blade assault on HW *Spoiler*

[Vyndicu]

BEWARE lot of spoilers. Turn back if you haven't already done so.





First off the "exo-waves" reacting to my repairing exodian blade was really underwhelming because I manage to get it up running before the first exo-wave timer hit 13 mins (spire cities really help a bunch here!). I think the cost is somehow high even for a 5 spire city hub + roughly 23 command stations (mark 2-3 econ station unlocked and used with 120 planet + 10 nomad galaxy). I do not envy those who have to struggle with the same cost with less to work with. I am actually tempted to trigger a forestfire hacking respond without actually let it complete (scrap the hacking at 10 second left or something) to take advantage of salvages to speed it up. Ditto for exo-waves hostile deposit for the WIN!

Secondly, can I say that the amount of HP exodian blade has isn't enough to last very long for what it has to do? For example, I took the blade and used it to blow a lance wraith core guard and I was forced to retreat to repair it (got out at 51% hp). It was impossible for my fleet due to distance between wormhole and wraith guard post to take it out quickly the other option was of course blade but still... Which lead to my third point.

SERIOUSLY?! Incoming golem each 5 second coming out of the AI wormhole? Of course this AW's wormhole is so far far far away. I attached a picture (pre-assault attempt) to show how painful it would have to take it the normal way. With exodian? I don't think it is possible. The other AI's homeworld is a breeze and I could take it with just my spire fleet alone which is why I want to test exodian on a harder one to see how it does.

It doesn't help me much that the only two core guard within range to fire at the wormhole's entrance is neinzul spawning core guard and of course wraith lance core post. Most of the other core post are either out of range or not worthwhile to notice here. Even the fort mk 3 under two core shield doesn't count at least not with the amount of firepower I can field that is mobile or otherwise.

I am playing on 5/5 The tank/Vicious Raider with both secondary being chivalric.

[Labfiend]

Yeah, I got the wrong impression from the lore text on completing the repairs and thought I had to go straight to the endgame or lose.  I wasn't quite ready but figured the exodian would be more than powerful enough once I saw how hard it hit.  The units that kept spawning on the homeworld once the exodian arrived overwhelmed both the exodian and my entire fleet, and ended up killing me startlingly quickly.  I was playing on a 5/5 so completely did not expect to be killed that handily.  Not saying that the response necessarily needs to be lessened, just pointing out that it is pretty extreme.

[Vyndicu]

I think the number of ships coming out of wormhole definitely need a 'tone' down in volume. AI throwing artillery/curse golem each 5 second is kind of harsh when I had to pull back to repair for a second attempt or risk losing it. I even tried to use fallen spire shield modules but they were being popped under 30 second as soon I relocated the exodian blade I guess from lot of long range fires because nothing could get under 13000 range and stay alive for a frame.

The first assault the reacting exo-wave?/exo-wormhole force? (dunno what to call them) was so pathetic it didn't even register on my mind. Actually correction it look just like your 'typical' stragetic reserves wave at first. Didn't realize they were being pulled directly from the wormhole until the second assault.

[keith.lamothe]

Yeah, I got the wrong impression from the lore text on completing the repairs and thought I had to go straight to the endgame or lose.

Actually you got the right impression: the exodian-response exos get stronger with each spawn, so unnecessary delays are highly contra-indicated.

Not saying that the response necessarily needs to be lessened, just pointing out that it is pretty extreme.

It is, definitely.  If you get the blade to that exo wormhole you win the game, so getting it there has to be made a very serious challenge even just by itself.


I'm willing to reduce the spawns somewhat, but I think first folks should try to beat it as-is.  Try new stuff, try stuff you'd normally think is crazy, etc.  Use warheads heavily as if you didn't have anything to lose, that kind of thing.  This is meant to be a challenge that requires different solutions than you're used to.

[Vyndicu]

The period exo-waves targeting exodian blade while it is not at a HW was a joke considering how much firepower I had minus exodian's firepower. Even when I lost at least 3-4 solar systems choke hold and one nomad while assaulting. I still manage to hold the mark 4 next to AI world cleared and 6 hop behind the enemy line without going into brownout.

Going straight into AI's world front up is definitely not going to be easy. So I am trying an alternative way by rolling back to before waking up exodian blade and try a different way. Perhaps figuring a way to make exodian blade's trip much quicker (from wormhole to exo-wave wormhole-wise). I will take a good look at spirecrafts and warhead and other unorthodox tactics.

One thing I think is extreme annoying and still struggle with in this run is when a lightning warhead (from neinzul rocketory corp) hit a nomad. The wormhole exit is typically so extreme CLOSE to the shield/fort/command station that it can blow up everything as soon it exit. Then when I try to ORDER remain rebuilder to start the fort back up with command station back up. It will not and instead focus on 200 other minor stuff that don't need to be UP now. Same problem as shield and I had to go in and clear all threat and keep AI from thinking of attack it before either fort or shield is back up.

[Vyndicu]

This recent boost to FS (3x hp/firepower) couldn't have come at a better time! I am in middle of a hacking attempt and gosh. Enough said.


I am just curious from a CPU hardware point of view, CAN anyone run this savegame at normal speed or higher? You have been WARNED as this savegame is not for computer with faint of heart specs. I have a 6 core Phenom 1075T CPU and it run at the lowest setting Okish which is strange because I know I had worse (50k dark spire comes to mind) and didn't run that horrible.

Watch out for the stealth wave to your HW and I built a tachyon warhead just for that if you plan to complete it and I may wait a bit on completing this hack myself. You may want to move your golem group 3 around a bit to contain some of the waves.

Also for some reason the AI is spamming powerslaver and gravity guardian despite having most stuff being "immune" to swallow or out range them. Furthermore I only have unlocked spire blade mk1 and neinzul starship mk1 that it. Not that I am complaining as the number of spawns alone is enough to knock around my main FS fleet.

[Eternaly_Lost]

This recent boost to FS (3x hp/firepower) couldn't have come at a better time! I am in middle of a hacking attempt and gosh. Enough said.


I am just curious from a CPU hardware point of view, CAN anyone run this savegame at normal speed or higher? You have been WARNED as this savegame is not for computer with faint of heart specs. I have a 6 core Phenom 1075T CPU and it run at the lowest setting Okish which is strange because I know I had worse (50k dark spire comes to mind) and didn't run that horrible.

Watch out for the stealth wave to your HW and I built a tachyon warhead just for that if you plan to complete it and I may wait a bit on completing this hack myself. You may want to move your golem group 3 around a bit to contain some of the waves.

Also for some reason the AI is spamming powerslaver and gravity guardian despite having most stuff being "immune" to swallow or out range them. Furthermore I only have unlocked spire blade mk1 and neinzul starship mk1 that it. Not that I am complaining as the number of spawns alone is enough to knock around my main FS fleet.

Runs just fine on my machine, and I don't have anything turned down. I can even turn the Performance profile upto high with no issues, although anything above that does start to slow down a bit.

[Vyndicu]

That is odd that we have different performance. I am just curious is there something different about your setup than mine? Windows 7 64 bit, CPU already mentioned, 8.2 GB, and GTX 660 (not that AI is a heavy graphic game).

[Eternaly_Lost]

That is odd that we have different performance. I am just curious is there something different about your setup than mine? Windows 7 64 bit, CPU already mentioned, 8.2 GB, and GTX 660 (not that AI is a heavy graphic game).

I got an Intel i5-3570k here (Running on windows 7 x64 as wss). Generally running about 3.8 Ghz. 16 GB of Ram and an SSD drive, and if it would matter a gtx 670.

AI wars generally runs nicely upto around the 12 City or so. Then the SF starts to slow thing down quite a bit, and I need to make certain I cycle the game to avoid Memory errors.

[TypoNinja]

I'm willing to reduce the spawns somewhat, but I think first folks should try to beat it as-is.  Try new stuff, try stuff you'd normally think is crazy, etc.  Use warheads heavily as if you didn't have anything to lose, that kind of thing.  This is meant to be a challenge that requires different solutions than you're used to.

I think the problem with the level of reaction here can be summed up really easily.

You need more force to get the Blade to the Exo-Wormhole than you do to simply take the system by brute force, and the blade it self is no where near enough power to make up the deficit.

This makes me question the point of the Blade itself, finding an ally to help kill the AI that instead makes it much much harder to win? Why do I want to use this game feature? Why would the human resistance want to? The Spire pisses off the AI like nothing else, but The Spire also hand me a very impressive array of tools to help deal with my new problems. The Blade seems to lack this counter balance, no good to go with my downside.

[ZaneWolfe]

I'm willing to reduce the spawns somewhat, but I think first folks should try to beat it as-is.  Try new stuff, try stuff you'd normally think is crazy, etc.  Use warheads heavily as if you didn't have anything to lose, that kind of thing.  This is meant to be a challenge that requires different solutions than you're used to.

I think the problem with the level of reaction here can be summed up really easily.

You need more force to get the Blade to the Exo-Wormhole than you do to simply take the system by brute force, and the blade it self is no where near enough power to make up the deficit.

This makes me question the point of the Blade itself, finding an ally to help kill the AI that instead makes it much much harder to win? Why do I want to use this game feature? Why would the human resistance want to? The Spire pisses off the AI like nothing else, but The Spire also hand me a very impressive array of tools to help deal with my new problems. The Blade seems to lack this counter balance, no good to go with my downside.

I'm going to have to agree, partly, with this bit Keith. My 2 HW Fallen Spire fleet has trouble getting the Blade to the exo-wormhole, unless its really close entry wormhole where my fleet comes in. And I already know my fleet could take the AI HW in question. I've got 8 Spire Cities. They could stop Exogalatic Strike Forces cold all by themselves if the damn things didn't rush past my fleet to hit whatever they are targeting. Sure I would suffer serious losses, but my FS Fleet is still going to win.

However, I am not sure that simply lowering the Blade response is best for this. You only need to hit ONE of the AI HWs when you use the Exodian Blade. That is a pretty damn serious boon IMO. I've taken out one AI HW with my FS Fleet, lost too much of it and died to the response from the AI before I could bring my fleet back up. And my static defenses by that point can stop CPAs and Waves solo, and even once took out an Avenger backed Exo force. (Granted the Avenger Nuke on Death killed the planet anyway, but my fleet was busy trying to win the game on the other AI HW in that game so I didn't care.) So having to deal with only 1 of the 2 AI HWs is a big benefit, at least IMO. Perhaps the Exodian Blade itself can be buffed. Maybe making it into something on part with a Spire Dreadnought or an Avenger, both in survivability and in damage output. It's supposed to be a Game Ending Superweapon, so I see no real problem with it being on par with some of the most powerful single ships in the game. (Though naturally the GSC and Motherships should still be more powerful) It wont stop the response all by itself, even if buffed as much as I'm suggesting, but it will be a better help to deal with said response. And you can NOT simply keep it indefinitely. The ever growing response, even if capped at certain points before hitting an AI HW, will still make that impractical. Just my $0.024.