I just nuked 417k ships like herp a derp

[Kahuna]

Some time ago there was a thread about Super Terminal hacking response being too powerful

Well..
..I just hacked the Super Terminal for 248 AIP reduction.. so the AIP was reduced by 124 (It decreases the AIP by 2 and increases it by 1 @ every tick). The Super Terminal spawned over 505k strength when it died which resulted in a total of ~417k ships. Then I just nuked them like herp a derp. There was still over 6k Mark V fleet ships left in addition to the ~100 Mark V Raider, Spider, Missile and Tractor Guardians though. I popped most of the Guardians with some Lightning Warheads and my defenses killed the rest..
..32 of those Mark V Raider Guardians attacked my beachhead planet and holy balls.. Raider Guardians are scary. They didn't destroy the Command Station though.. but still.

Before the nuke:


After the nuke:


Before I started the hack AIP was at 282. After hacking the Super Terminal, nuking the 417k ships and stopping the Mark V Ships and Guardians AIP is at 212. So I managed to reduce the AIP by 70. I'd say that's a good deal. AIP Floor is now at 197.

I was just wondering if this is even supposed to be possible? Too overpowered/cheesy?
I mean this is just funny!

Check out the NukeEm.sav if you want to see the situation yourself. When you load the save file pause as soon as you see the "Load Completed!" text and go to the Super Terminal planet. It's the planet with the ~60k AI ships.. LoL. P5 (Priority 5) in the galaxy map. Disable Assault Transports' stand down mode, unload them and pop the Super Terminal.. then scrap the Nuke. Don't be surprised if the game freezes for a couple of seconds LoL.

[keith.lamothe]

Hahahaha.  I guess it was the only way to be sure

And yea, if a player's willing to go through all that, 70 AIP net reduction was more than earned.

It's pretty funny when the "only a small piece of the attacking force" phase means that there's still over 6,000 threat ships out there.  Something tells me those threat ships are more interested in running than fighting.

[Aklyon]

Well, the nuke has to live up to its name somehow

[Zair]

I'm just amused that a nuke went off and the result is still a net loss of AIP.

[onyhow]

I never dream that ST cheesing will be back...boy, that's a LOT of AIP down, even after nuke!

[Toranth]

While impressive, both that you survived a 124 point net AIP reduction AND the aftermath - I'll just point out that a simple 74 net AIP reduction would have been between 1/4 and 1/10th the size, and you still would have been able to use the planet afterwards and a much lower AIP floor.

If you can manage to get 100+ net AIP reduction AFTER the nuke, that's when this can safely be considered 'broken'.  Although I'd still call it sufficiently high-risk for the high-reward as to be OK.

[Kahuna]

Yep. I would have hacked much longer if I had more Hacking Points available. Maybe I should have saved the Super Terminal for later. I tried hacking with something like -90 hacking points but the 2 million ships just froze the game and almost my computer. I killed the process with Comodo KillSwitch. Would have been fun nuking the 2 million ships. The aftermath wouldn't have been so much fun though.. There would probably have been hundreds and hundreds of Mark V Guardians.

Anyway.. I'm happy with the current situation. Next I will destroy the 2 or 3 remaining Data Centers and clear the way to the AI Homeworlds.

EDIT:
Also it doesn't matter that I lost the Super Terminal planet. Besides having the Super Terminal it was useless. And I don't find the 197 AIP Floor to be a problem because I have only 2 or 3 Data Centers left so I wouldn't be able to go much lower than 197 Effective AIP anyway. And increasing AIP gives me more Hacking Points for the next Knowledge hack so there's that.

[Nodor]

It's nice to know that you can still break 100 AIP reduction from a Superterminal.  Knowing how to pull that off will be useful.

I still feel like the hacking points are better spent on opportunities other than the Superterminal.

[Malkiel]

Kahuna: doing things because SUPERCAT CAN!

in recent games I've avoided the superterminal, in one game I even cleared the system and just flew through it without laying down a command post because I didn't want to deal with it.
When I do use it, it's for 20 net reduction then kaboom!

Frankly, the new hacking options are too far superior to superterminal for my playstyle, as I hate having to defend (or even take) irreplaceables.

The main question in my mind is "Can Kahuna come up with a non-nuclear way to pull something similar?" Because that 50 AIP plus the risk of having a nuke exist (one stray ship while you're not looking) is simply too great imo.

Perhaps using Exodian Blade on the superterminal planet.... In any case, awesome play as always Kahuna, look forward to seeing what craziness you'll cook up next!