AI War Beta 7.021-7.022 "Champion Alter-Ego" Released!

[Faulty Logic]

And how could you sabotage the Raid Engine without triggering it?

Step one: load hacker into normal transport.
Step two: deliver hacker.
Step three: hope the AI doesn't happen to use a tachyon pulse for a minute.

This will only have a chance at working with really low hacking response.

[Draco18s]

Assault transports have a gun, hence the name "assault" and are meant for "assault"ing things.

(Which only reminds me of the RL gun debate in the US and "What did you think an assault weapon was used for?")

[keith.lamothe]

How much faster does the Strategic Reserve refill if this is happening?  And is there any indication of it happening, other than the SR going up or the waves getting bigger? I guess vs very high difficulties you'll tend to die before the AIP gets high enough for this to trigger, but it seems like having a rapidly-refilling strategic reserve could still stonewall the player at the AI homeworlds.

I don't think it would be a big problem unless you had many thousands of AIP.  If you do you're probably playing FS or dying, either of which can solve the problem of being stonewalled at the homeworlds

But if it turns out to be a problem in practice I can just have it shunt it all to waves instead of filling the SR first.

Also, if you neuter a planet down to just an AI command station, that reduces the reinforcements that planet gets, right?

Yes, and that will actually have a more profound impact with the new math than with the previous.  Previously the AI still basically got the same number of "pulses" regardless of the number of guard posts, it just used somewhat different math for the pulses that had to be redirected to the command station due to lack of posts.  The main thing killing posts achieved in the past was reducing the pop cap of the planet (which it still does).  But now the posts also give +10% each to the reinforcement's (which just has one pulse now) strength, where the new math tends to give similar results as the old math at around 8 posts per planet, so killing them is a straight advantage.  It's possible that this will overly motivate killing lots of guard posts, we'll see if that becomes a problem.

As I understand it, those reinforcements are just lost, rather than going to the SR/waves, yes?

That's correct.  That's not lost strength, that's just not getting a bonus to the strength.

[tadrinth]

Hrm, if the AIP cap for reinforcements is Diff * Diff * 5, that's 245 AIP for a Diff 7 game.  I'm pretty sure I was over 300 AIP when I won my first game, so I would have been running into it.  I can't imagine getting anywhere near 500 AIP on Diff 10, though.  Now that reinforcements over the cap are redirected rather than wasted, is that cap's scaling going to be adjusted?  Seems like harder AIs should be fairly aggressive about redirecting strength to their homeworlds and then to offense.

I like being motivated to kill guard posts.  It's the one easy decision without huge tactical implications, because it only costs time, and not very much.  It's also something you can have inexperienced friends do in multiplayer as a default activity.  The only thing I'd worry about was if it became worthwhile to aggressively kill wormhole guard posts, and I can't imagine that being the case. 

[keith.lamothe]

Hrm, if the AIP cap for reinforcements is Diff * Diff * 5, that's 245 AIP for a Diff 7 game.  I'm pretty sure I was over 300 AIP when I won my first game, so I would have been running into it.  I can't imagine getting anywhere near 500 AIP on Diff 10, though.  Now that reinforcements over the cap are redirected rather than wasted, is that cap's scaling going to be adjusted?  Seems like harder AIs should be fairly aggressive about redirecting strength to their homeworlds and then to offense.

That may come later, yes, but for now I left it as is.  Bear in mind that the AIP-cap is not the only place where reinforcements hit a cap.  So some of it will be hit on Diff 10 even under 500 AIP.

[Kahuna]

I can't imagine getting anywhere near 500 AIP on Diff 10, though.

If you're going to win the game the AIP can easily get that high. Just go rambo with Warheads and pop AI planets for Knowledge.

[keith.lamothe]

New one