Mark V Plasma Siege Starships one shot Command Stations under Force Fields

[Kahuna]

I have to ask Kahuna [...] are you happy with 8.0 overall?
Or do you still feel like it is "buggy" and "unpolished" to the point of being a shadow of the SlimDX (3.X) days?

I'm very happy with 8.0. The game seems polished to me.

The only bugs I can think of at the moment are the "Assault Transport's range bug" and the "Scouts And Missile" galaxy map display mode not showing missiles (aka warheads).

The game seems to be working as intended. There are a couple of minor problems though. Some ships/unlocks/structures are overpowered.. some are underpowered. AI Carriers need a small change to avoid the ""how much vs-heavy stuff can I build?" contest"

AI War has improved a lot since I started playing a couple of years ago. AI War was version 5.xyz when I got into it. All the resources.. Metal, Energy etc. seem to be working very well. I also like the per planet caps even though I was sceptical before it was implemented. Imo Energy prevent the per planet turrets from being overpowered. Hacking works very well although SuperTerminal hacking response might need to be looked at. The response might be a bit too intensive. I still need to try hacking the Super Terminal for ~150 AIP reduction and the nuking the response for a total of ~100 AIP reduction and see if it's worth it.

EDIT:
AI Homeworlds and difficulty (without super weapons) seem to be balanced too. Although my last 10/10 win was really easy.. but that can be fixed by tweaking the settings.

[Hearteater]

Just checking briefly on Mark IV vs Core Guard Posts and I noticed a few things. First, Core Worlds (the Mark IV systems adjacent to AI homeworlds) actually have Mark V guard posts, with Mark V stats, while the homeworlds have Core Guard Posts with basically Mark VI stats (20% more health and DPS than Mark V). However they often have a few odd stat tweaks, such as ROF or damage that might be making them less effective overall. For example, Core Missile Mark I-V have 30k range, but Core Missile only has a 12k range! It also has a different set of hull multipliers and gets only x4 instead of x6 against those hulls. Against Ultra-Light, a Mark V Missile GP does 12k DPS while a Core Missile GP does 16k. Notably, Core Missile GPs do NOT get a hull multiplier against Polycrystal, while regular Missile GPs' do (and get x6 at that). Therefore, against Bombers, non-Core GPs' deal x3 DPS and from a much greater range.

[Kahuna]

I'd like to add that Zenith Siege Engines are pretty stupid. I'd not mind if they were just removed from the game.
An otherwise easy wave with 200 Mark III Zenith Siege Engines one shotting your Command Station under dozens of Force Fields is utterly stupid and frustrating.

How about changing Energy Collectors so they only require supply to be built so they wouldn't magically self destruct when the Command Station dies.

[Fleet Unity]

I'd like to add that Zenith Siege Engines are pretty stupid. I'd not mind if they were just removed from the game.
An otherwise easy wave with 200 Mark III Zenith Siege Engines one shotting your Command Station under dozens of Force Fields is utterly stupid and frustrating.

How about changing Energy Collectors so they only require supply to be built so they wouldn't magically self destruct when the Command Station dies.

That can be annoying but totally removing a ship would cause all kinds of errors if they were in use in a current game.... Too bad there was not an extended way of selecting what ship types you want to see in a given game instead of using the ship settings window as some cannot be disabled. I usually use complex and do not disable any ships that can be built but having this option to select what ships you want to see in your game would be a helpful option to have.

[Kahuna]

Well editing the .sav file to remove the ship unlock from the AI is always an option but still..
..arf

[Fleet Unity]

Well editing the .sav file to remove the ship unlock from the AI is always an option but still..
..arf

True but this may remove the ship for being able to be build by the ai, but this does not remove the ones already built so you will still have to deal with those ships. Same goes if you hack and corrupted the design in the game. This also does not stop them from getting MKV  if the have a fab for it or just happen to unlock it as hacking says core research and development is handled in an isolated network.

[Kahuna]

Zenith Siege Engines are a problem only if they're in waves. Rei forcements aren't a problem. Also editing the save file gives you time to setup your empire and scout the galaxy. So if the AI unlocks them later in the game you can just corrupt the Design Backup and Warhead the wave with the 200-500 Mark II - III Zenith Siege Engines.

[Qatu]

Frustration from siege engines and plasma starships is what makes me often use protector starships. To avoid making the game easy and remove the frustration I don't take them on offense, I leave the protectors on defense besides my command stations filled with anti-energy modules. This makes the game much less stressful when playing at lv9+ against starship heavy AI, everything AI, heroic AI, nemesis faction and probably some more. Heroic AI is probably the worst as the first wave can already be fatal if they roll lots of bomb modules.

[Kahuna]

Hysterical maniacal laughter in
1..
2..
3..
mMM-BWAHAHAHAHAAHAHA

..Great. Go ahead. Unload those Hunter/Killers right in front of my Command Station.
There's 2 Mark III, 2 Mark II and 1 Mark I Hunter/Killer.