Newbie questions

[Bognor]

At the moment, I've settled on a weird tactic of building a few space docks directly on a wormhole to a fortified planet and having them warp in automatically.

Nothing weird about that. This is a fine way to use younglings and other really cheap ships.

[Draco18s]

At the moment, I've settled on a weird tactic of building a few space docks directly on a wormhole to a fortified planet and having them warp in automatically.

Nothing weird about that. This is a fine way to use younglings and other really cheap ships.

I've used Youngling Nanoswarms like that.  It's basically a mushroom cannon.

[Kingwood]

Thanks for all the replies here. Much appreciated!


Since I don't know how useful individual ship classes are, it's currently hard for me to decide when to download a ship class from a backup server and when to corrupt it.

I am currently playing against a 7.3 difficulty dual-type AI (Grav-Driller/Spireling) with 2 backup servers near me. One with a Gravity Ripper, the other one with a Spire Corvette in it.

Is it more useful to me as a player to corrupt these or should I download them? What do I base my decision on? The other AI? (It's a Counter-Spy/Neinzul Viral Enthusiast). In my opinion, the Grav/Spireling-AI is much more threatening.

[Draco18s]

Since I don't know how useful individual ship classes are, it's currently hard for me to decide when to download a ship class from a backup server and when to corrupt it.

Mostly:

If the ship is giving you a problem, corrupt it.
If you do know the ship and like it, download it.
Else
Just ignore it.  You can only corrupt/download so many designs before it becomes too expensive.

[Winge]

Since I don't know how useful individual ship classes are, it's currently hard for me to decide when to download a ship class from a backup server and when to corrupt it.

Mostly:

If the ship is giving you a problem, corrupt it.
If you do know the ship and like it, download it.
Else
Just ignore it.  You can only corrupt/download so many designs before it becomes too expensive.

This.

In general, I corrupt the 'spawner' ship types, and I would probably corrupt Zombards too.  I would probably download things like Space Planes, where I believe I can make more use of them than the AI.  In general, I'm more apt to corrupt than download, though, as there will be a good mix of ships available from fabricators and ARS.  There are some ships that I really just don't care to face when I'm attacking (Tackle Drone Launchers being one of the biggest violators).

[The Hunter]

2 backup servers near me. One with a Gravity Ripper, the other one with a Spire Corvette in it

Spire corvettes are fun ships, basically mini FS ships, might be worth downloading. Though i dont think you should download both, unless you are doing FS or What memo game.

[Draco18s]

Gravity Rippers are kind of "meh."  They aren't devastating in the AI's hands and kind of hard to use in the player's hands.

IIRC their shots make units come to an immediate halt (and have to accelerate again).  It's Gravity Drains that are awesome.  They're mobile grav turrets.

[Breach]

Hey,

Don't mean to hijack the thread at all, just a quick question that's related to one in the first post:
If I buy Vengeance of the Machine separately at GamersGate does anyone know if I get a Steam key with it?

[Kingwood]

I emailed Arcengames with proof of purchase and actually just received a Steam key for VOTM and AS from Chris.

[Breach]

I emailed Arcengames with proof of purchase and actually just received a Steam key for VOTM and AS from Chris.

Alright, thanks very much for the answer!

[Draco18s]

You have to unlock the expansion within the title itself.  So I'm not sure it matters.  Steam won't recognize that you own it (thus allowing you to buy it again), but it will be active inside the game.

I've got Zenith and Neinzul that way.  Then LotS was a gift from Chris/Keith for my help squashing bugs, so I'm not sure if that one is registered through Steam itself either.

[Kingwood]

I added the keys Chris gave me to Steam, and the two expansions now show up along with the others (Right-click on AI War -> View downloadable content), where previously they did not. I think it does matter, actually, but I might of course be mistaken.

[Diazo]

For integration with Steam (the overlay), all that matters for registration is the base game, registering the expansions has no gameplay effect.

You can register as many expansion through steam as you want and those expansions will be downloaded by steam automatically, but you can also install them directly.

I believe I only have the base game and the first (or maybe first two) expansions registered, all the rest I simply pointed the installed to my steam folder and it's worked flawlessly.

Note that if for some reasons you verify your Steam cache, it will delete any expansions you have not registered, but that just means you have to find the installers again, it does not affect the game once it is running.

D.

[Draco18s]

Huh.

Steam tells me the only one I don't own is LotS.

*Shrug*

Good to know.

[Tridus]

That's the best one!