Gravity Troubles

[Shrugging Khan]

Sitrep I: Holding a gravity drill situated above a hostile wormhole. Friendly Wormhole is at the far end of the system. Marauders are attacking. Marauders are very fast, immune to gravity affects, and have radar dampening. My gravity-immune Golems are too slow to catch them. My Bombards cannot attack them due to the dampening. All other ships have no hopes of catching them due to their speed being cut to 8. And turrets do not have sufficient firepower to outlast the marauders.

Sitrep II: AI Eye in system. One spire shield guard post remains to keep it alive. Below the guard post sits a gravity guardian. The Guard post is radar dampened, obviously. The problem is probably self-explanatory.


I require solutions. Warheads are not an accepted method.

[TechSY730]

Sitrep I: Holding a gravity drill situated above a hostile wormhole. Friendly Wormhole is at the far end of the system. Marauders are attacking. Marauders are very fast, immune to gravity affects, and have radar dampening. My gravity-immune Golems are too slow to catch them. My Bombards cannot attack them due to the dampening. All other ships have no hopes of catching them due to their speed being cut to 8. And turrets do not have sufficient firepower to outlast the marauders.

Sitrep II: AI Eye in system. One spire shield guard post remains to keep it alive. Below the guard post sits a gravity guardian. The Guard post is radar dampened, obviously. The problem is probably self-explanatory.


I require solutions. Warheads are not an accepted method.

What in the world is a sitrep?

Anyways, about number one, I think Keith has expressed a desire to remove the marauders and the resistance fighters' gravity immunity, to help prevent nasty cases like that. Other than that, I don't have anything. Just chip away little by little, and they should eventually die.
I would like to say this again, it would be nice if it could be made such that no ship has a radar dampening range less than their weapon range (remember, smaller radar dampening range is better). It just doesn't seem right that the marauders can shoot at stuff and have very little risk in return because of their radar dampening. If a ship is going to shoot at something, it seems like they should at least be close enough to be at some sort of risk. (Guard posts seem like one of the few things that deserve an exception to this rule)

For number two, you could try transports full of bombers and bomber starships. The transports will be slowed down too, but at least they will keep the bombers alive a little longer. Send in some empty "lure" transports up front if you want to increase your chances further. Those golems also seem like a good way to chip away at the spire shield guard post.

[Shrugging Khan]

"Situation Report"  

Chipping away is a little hard, since the friendly wormhole is far away from the action and the marauder frigates are really having quite a time shooting down incoming ships by the hundreds. Really, I can hardly bring anything at all close enough to them to damage them.

Problem with a bomber assault is, as said, the eye. I'll be trying a ranged bombardment by means of cursed Golem, reporting back once its done.

Update: Managed to kill about half of them by luring them over the wormhole, then popping the Golem through. A few minutes later, the remainder of the marauders fled. Go figure.
Problem now is that my weapon of choice is damaged way into the red - so there go another few million resource for repairs.

Update: Scratch that, can't use the Golem at all. Radar dampening prevents it - and the enemy presence in the system is still to strong to just move it up to the target.

[TechSY730]

For number 1, starships maybe? They are chunky enough such that even marauders will take a while to whittle down a starship. However, you will probably need to retreat them once they start attracting their attention, thanks to the fact that most of don't have gravity immunity. But they should be tough enough to survive the retreat, unlike fleet ships.

[Shrugging Khan]

No chance, those marauders have high enough damage output to blow starships to bits by the time they would pass the damening range.

Just noticed, auto-kiting might be to blame. I could've probably happily sent a fleet blob or golem to take them out if they didn't use it...do marauders have a native retreat range, or is it such that the menu setting actually affects both friendlies *and hostiles*?

Edit: They do not have a retreat range. Thusly auto-kiting affects all factions...which makes it heavily exploitable, I fear.

[TechSY730]

No chance, those marauders have high enough damage output to blow starships to bits by the time they would pass the damening range.

Just noticed, auto-kiting might be to blame. I could've probably happily sent a fleet blob or golem to take them out if they didn't use it...do marauders have a native retreat range, or is it such that the menu setting actually affects both friendlies *and hostiles*?

Yep, its a glitch. Right now "enemy to all" and "allied to humans, enemy to AI" minor factions are mistakenly using the auto-kiting setting of player 1. I haven't seen that fixed in 5.001, so I'm not sure when its going to be addressed.

Also, what starships were you using? The Mk. Is I can most certainly see falling quickly, but ones that are Mk. III and up seem like they should be tough enough to stand up to them (maybe even Mk. II ones).

Of course, you may not have them. Unlocking higher Mk. starships doesn't seem as popular right now as unlocking higher Mk. fleet ships.

[Shrugging Khan]

Actually, I tend to unlock...nothing at all. I abhor the cheating AIs at levels 9 and 10, but if I'm free to unlock whatever I please, then 8 quickly becomes way to easy. So my self-imposed challenge is to not unlock anything until I can positively not progress any further without it.

Anyways, back to the damned guard post. Tried a Hive Golem, but the wasps (all 500 of them) were all shot down before reaching the post. Tried a bomber blitz complete with electric bombers and bomber starships, but it was quickly intercepted by the eye zombies. Tried another bomber attack without fleet bombers, but damage output was way too low, and the ships below the forcefield quickly took down the bombers.

[TechSY730]

Actually, I tend to unlock...nothing at all. I abhor the cheating AIs at levels 9 and 10, but if I'm free to unlock whatever I please, then 8 quickly becomes way to easy. So my self-imposed challenge is to not unlock anything until I can positively not progress any further without it.

Anyways, back to the damned guard post. Tried a Hive Golem, but the wasps (all 500 of them) were all shot down before reaching the post. Tried a bomber blitz complete with electric bombers and bomber starships, but it was quickly intercepted by the eye zombies. Tried another bomber attack without fleet bombers, but damage output was way too low, and the ships below the forcefield quickly took down the bombers.

...

Well, I did suggest in another thread that the higher Mk. gravity guardians don't have quite the absurd range they currently do. (Also, I wouldn't mind that rate relative to Mk. that they decrease speed wouldn't be as high as it is now, even if it means making higher Mk. player gravity turrets a little less effective as well.)

Also, are you trying to take out the gravity guardian itself, or is it under the forcefield?

[Shrugging Khan]

It's under the FF.

So far, all my attempts to overcome the defenses have failed, but an infernal plan has ripened...

I'll just drive my hive golem right on lovably top of the damned thing, unload all the wasps and LMAO when the gravity guardian suddenly has 500 melee ships in its face.

[TechSY730]

Actually, I tend to unlock...nothing at all.

I forgot to say this earlier, but I am saying this now.

There is your problem.

Some challenges the AI puts out are balanced assuming you will actually be using the knowledge you acquire. So you really shouldn't be complaining if your underpowered army for that stage of the game (outside of captured awesome stuff like Golems) is under-performing. 

[Shrugging Khan]

Frankly, my line of thinking is "If it can hit me at early-game, it ought to be possible to handle it without unlocking things". Also, golems really counter the disadvantage.
Speaking of golems again...


Great Success for glorious nation of warghl rarghargl! Plan worked. Wasps just needed to be carried to the point prior to deployment.

[TechSY730]

Frankly, my line of thinking is "If it can hit me at early-game, it ought to be possible to handle it without unlocking things". Also, golems really counter the disadvantage.

Wait, early game? Did you really want to try to start taking such tricky planets at the early game? It seems like you go for a few easy ones first, and then once your economy and tech is strong enough, then you move on to the tricky planets.

EDIT: Nevermind, I didn't read that through. You just said you think you should be able to survive the early game without researching new stuff. You never said that the situations you asked about were in the early game. In fact, if you had a Golem, that is almost a guarantee you are not in the early game.

[Shrugging Khan]

Nah, and I thought "I have a trio of golems" kinda compensates for the "I don't do research" factor.

Nevermind.

I just wish I hadn't played 16 hours into this campaign only to wish for the ability to turn off marauders. Oh, if only the update was to arrive...!

[TechSY730]

Nah, and I thought "I have a trio of golems" kinda compensates for the "I don't do research" factor.

Nevermind.

I just wish I hadn't played 16 hours into this campaign only to wish for the ability to turn off marauders. Oh, if only the update was to arrive...!

What version are you on?

Sadly, 5.001 doesn't seem to be removing the gravity immunity of the marauders (or the resistance fighters). Too bad, as it seems to be a planned balance tweak, and in your case, a very helpful one.

[Shrugging Khan]

5.0, of course.

Since I'm already complaining about my campaign: I haven't raised by AIP by any points for a number of hours, yet Roaming Enclaves and Marauders seem to hit more and more frequently. What determines the rate at which these two minor factions attack?