Just encountered the AI Mothership

[TechSY730]

[Sir t]

Fun, isn't it?

[Sunshine!]

What?  How does one encounter the AI mothership?

[Zeba]

Is that the sound of the devs cackling ebily in the distance? 

[Ozymandiaz]

I have yet to encounter that one

[Sir t]

What?  How does one encounter the AI mothership?

Do you REALLLY want to know? 

[Commiesalami]

What?  How does one encounter the AI mothership?

Do you REALLLY want to know? 

Yes, I have a morbid curiosity and sadist tendencies

[keith.lamothe]

Is that the sound of the devs cackling ebily in the distance? 

  Definitely.

For those asking how to encounter it, it's something that can be generated by the new (as of 5.003) ai-homeworld-defense spawns in the Fallen Spire campaign.  I just figured I'd let the first wave of victims players find it for themselves

[Red Spot]

Is that the sound of the devs cackling ebily in the distance? 

  Definitely.

For those asking how to encounter it, it's something that can be generated by the new (as of 5.003) ai-homeworld-defense spawns in the Fallen Spire campaign.  I just figured I'd let the first wave of victims players find it for themselves

You .. you ... yes, you ....
I just said to myself I would play next game without FS, seems you got me hooked again 
 

[TechSY730]

Well, it will be tricky, but I think I should be able to take it out. It will take lots of Spirecraft implosion artillery, Spirecraft rams, and a gigantic number of bombers (backed with the rest of my fleet, of course), and I would have to lure it off the AI homeworld (those Core guard posts HURT), but I think I can pull it off.

No matter what though, I am going to suffer MASSIVE losses.

Before I try this though, is my understanding correct that the AI Mothership will only spawn once per homeworld? That is, if I do somehow manage to kill it, will the AI just spawn another one once I go onto the same homeworld again?

[keith.lamothe]

Well, it will be tricky, but I think I should be able to take it out. It will take lots of Spirecraft implosion artillery, Spirecraft rams, and a gigantic number of bombers (backed with the rest of my fleet, of course), and I would have to lure it off the AI homeworld (those Core guard posts HURT), but I think I can pull it off.

I don't think you'll need to lure it, I think it will come after your home command stations, basically like the Avenger.  Though maybe I made a mistake in setting the flag.

No matter what though, I am going to suffer MASSIVE losses.

Definitely, it's the one thing in the game that can stand up to a full-out FS fleet and have a decent chance at winning.  Even an avenger basically insta-pops when facing down a full fleet (DN on down).  The Mothership can stand up a fair bit longer (the armor is insane, though even it doesn't hit the 80% damage-reduction cap against the DN's main cannon), and usually can take out enough of the opposing fleet in the first few salvos to bring its incoming-damage rate down.

But I'm guessing that if you clog its target lists enough with little stuff while your main firepower is off the planet, and then pop them through a nearby wormhole and alpha-strike the mothership, you might be able to take it out before it returns the favor.

Before I try this though, is my understanding correct that the AI Mothership will only spawn once per homeworld? That is, if I do somehow manage to kill it, will the AI just spawn another one once I go onto the same homeworld again?

It can spawn multiple times (it isn't the only one, as the description implies).  Basically every time there's an FS exo-galactic strikeforce (the announced ones), it "deposits" a percentage of the points used for that attack in a defensive "bank", and when you trigger the spawn on an AI homeworld it just dumps all those points into the strongest force it can make.  Starting with the strongest single lead ship it can make.  So once the total in the bank exceeds the cost of a mothership, that guarantees that a mothership will be part of the spawn.  But it would take a fair number of exogalactic assaults between AI homeworld assaults to rebuild the bank that much.  Certainly by then you'd have had time to completely rebuild up to your full fleet capacity, unless the mothership's attack or whatever had caused you a permanent loss of territory, etc.

[TechSY730]

Good to know. Despite its insane firepower and durability, I think that taking it out will be less aggravating than surviving two more shard escort missions, and the increases to the exo-wormhole (or whatever they are called) strikes that three more city hubs will bring. The AI starts using golems in its Fallen Spire exo-wormhole strikes if I get too many more hubs, right? As they are now, these forces are causing massive losses even when I have max ship caps of everything. And they come like every hour or something. If golems are starting to be thrown into the mix, I don't think I will be able to handle it.

[Sir t]

The only time I got Golems in the exo-galactic fleets is in the countdown at the end, at which point you have a full spire fleet backing you up. That's difficulty 6 though.

When defending against the waves you really have to place your spire cities in the places you think they will come, and have your turrets off the beaten tract so the ai will lose ships on the way through. The cities will stop all but the heaviest exo- galactic attacks, especially if you plant turrets and maybe a fortress inside its shields (spire shields don't affect firing from inside to outside the shield) and a military CS, so its good to plant them where the AI is likely to come. If you are taking heavy losses then only fight where you have heavy defenses and cities backing you up.

I actually killed the Mothership the first time I encountered it, when I blundered into the HW by accident on the core retrieval mission. I didn't have the whole spire fleet with me (I had 2 BS and 4 cruisers with escorts and a lot of ordinary stuff, boosted by a spire flagship) It took a while to go down but I killed some of the other big ships around it first and then pounded it with everything.

[BobTheJanitor]

Hopefully you tested to ensure that the win-condition final super spire fleet can kill this mothership? I would be sad to get to the end of a full FS campaign and come riding in heroically with my super-dreads only to see them all get vaporized and release an angry mothership to come barreling down on my homeworld.

[keith.lamothe]

Hopefully you tested to ensure that the win-condition final super spire fleet can kill this mothership? I would be sad to get to the end of a full FS campaign and come riding in heroically with my super-dreads only to see them all get vaporized and release an angry mothership to come barreling down on my homeworld.

Yes, I tested that exact case, the mothership goes poof with the other core-shields, and if it spawns after the initial pulse it goes poof within a second or so