No Mark V Guardians?

[Kahuna]

So I was going to start a new game..
AI 1: Brutal/Teleporter Turlte
AI 2: The Core/Vanguard..
..I was hoping the AI 2 would only use Mark V Guardians.. Nnnope. I are disappoint. Will have to figure out another potentially nasty but not impossible combo.. Impulse Reaction Emitter would have countered those Mark V Guardians pretty hard.

[Qatu]

 When I was playing a lot a couple weeks ago vanguard vengeful and brutal seemed bugged, might still be.

 My favorite game setup is AI opponents (everything/special forces captain)*2, swallowers disabled, schizo+cross planet waves, no minor factions, hybrid+advanced at 4 and preemption at 7. It fun, challenging and winnable on 80 planet simple map with no pausing at level 9.

 Instead going with (everything/vicious exotic)*2 makes for a really easy early game with the constant AI delivery of resources but late game it's just so much work. I wouldn't play this at level 10 without spirecraft, but then I don't play level 10 or spirecraft games anymore so.

[Kahuna]

10/10 - Peacemaker/Raid Engine / Alarmist/Technologist Turtle will have to do for now..
..hahaha I wanna see how far I can get without dying or getting too frustrated. If I win Keith better buy me a beer.

Settings:



EDIT:
I'm still not sure which Bonus Ship I should choose..
..Neinzul Youngling FireFlies are OP but those AI types and settings would justify using them. They would be very useful against huge waves aka for defense. Especially waves from Raid Engines. On the other hand Teleporter Raiders or EyeBots would make raiding much easier. The ability destroy or ignore Force Fields is very important.

[Cinth]

Seems like you want a Technologist Vanguard (if it existed)

[Kahuna]

Seems like you want a Technologist Vanguard (if it existed)

Good point. I should try Vanguard/Technologist Turtle and see if that works..

-Vanguard=all guards and reinforcements are Guardians.
-Turtle=more reinforcements.
-Technologist=tech level is normal tech level+2.
-AI 2 should be Alarmist/x so I could accidentally alert all of those Guardians.
-9/9 Preemption would release most of those Guardian reinforcements as threat.
-9/9 Hunter would make triggering those Special Forces Alarm Posts undesired to say the least.
etc

..planning my own death

On the other hand Peacemaker/RaidEngine is a perfect combo. Those Mass Drivers protect the Raid Engines from human Raid Starships. Ion Cannons protect them from fleet ships.. and then Raid Engines send those waves of course.

On the other.. foot? Alarmist/Special Forces Captain could be interesting too.

Arf.. so many options..

[Cinth]

Don't forget the reprisal waves from salvage lol.

I've been trying to get a foothold against a Starship Fanatic/ Vanguard pairing for awhile now.  That first wave though...

[Toranth]

I've been trying to get a foothold against a Starship Fanatic/ Vanguard pairing for awhile now.  That first wave though...

I just had the opposite problem in my last game.  Vanguard/Quadratic - First waves were easy, last was hellish.  There was well over an hour between the last two waves, but the final wave's strength was over 50,000 Str vs 2000 Str for the other AI.  All Guardians.  I'm glad I finished the game when I did, the next wave would have been truly nasty.

[Cinth]

16 HW fun times...  That first wave is really nasty since you need good firepower inside the first 2:30.


I think I might have to science out Quadratic though...  I wonder if I can get it to crash the game with a massive wave  >D

[Toranth]

I just had the opposite problem in my last game.  Vanguard/Quadratic - First waves were easy, last was hellish.  There was well over an hour between the last two waves, but the final wave's strength was over 50,000 Str vs 2000 Str for the other AI.  All Guardians.  I'm glad I finished the game when I did, the next wave would have been truly nasty.

Talking to myself here... I went back and re-checked that log.
By "well over an hour", I apparently meant "Over 5 hours".  And while 50,000 Str is a lot more than 2,000 Str, the 2,000 Str waves were coming every 10 minutes.  The next Quadratic wave would've been Strength 100,000 - but it wouldn't have arrived for almost 10 HOURS. 
That means a Quadratic AI player will send 10 waves in 50 hours of game time, roughly (AIP dependent).  Total strength of those waves will be 200 * (2^10 - 1) = 200 * 1023 = 204,600 Str.
The normal AI, in the meantime, sends roughly 300 waves, totaling about 5-600,000 Strength.

So, while the individual waves of the Quadratic AI are nastier after the first, they take SO long to come that the overall strength sent is about 1/3 that of a non-Quadratic AI.

Soooo... I think Quadratic may need a buff.

I think I might have to science out Quadratic though...  I wonder if I can get it to crash the game with a massive wave  >D

Unfortunately, according to the logs, the Quadratic is capped at 10,000,000 Strength per wave - AFTER multiple HW, Difficulty, and Handicap checks.  That'd be the 20th wave, which will arrive between 400 and 600 hours after the 19th wave in a 16 homeworld game.  In a 1 homeworld game, it'd be around 13 months.

[Draco18s]

Unfortunately, according to the logs, the Quadratic is capped at 10,000,000 Strength per wave - AFTER multiple HW, Difficulty, and Handicap checks.  That'd be the 20th wave, which will arrive between 400 and 600 hours after the 19th wave in a 16 homeworld game.  In a 1 homeworld game, it'd be around 13 months.

#NewAchievementTime

[Kahuna]

So, while the individual waves of the Quadratic AI are nastier after the first, they take SO long to come that the overall strength sent is about 1/3 that of a non-Quadratic AI.

Soooo... I think Quadratic may need a buff.

CPAs come every 2 hours yet they're more much more dangerous than all the waves combined. Destroying 100k ships is ridiculously easy if the ships are one by one. 100k at once would kill you. Which is why Quadratic is more dangerous than most of the other aggressive AI types imo.

In my current game AI 2 10 Diff Alarmist/Quadratic just sent a wave of 34000 Bombers. In-game time: 7 hours. It forces me to use a couple of Warheads which increases AIP which increases the size of the next wave. It's a downward spiral. For comparison AI 1 Diff 10 Peacemaker/Raid Engine sends waves with about 7200 ships.

[Draco18s]

Hey, at least it's not (Dreamworks) The Penguins of MADAGASCAR: (Nickolodeon) Dr. Blowhole returns (AGAIN!)

[Toranth]

So, while the individual waves of the Quadratic AI are nastier after the first, they take SO long to come that the overall strength sent is about 1/3 that of a non-Quadratic AI.

Soooo... I think Quadratic may need a buff.

CPAs come every 2 hours yet they're more much more dangerous than all the waves combined. Destroying 100k ships is ridiculously easy if the ships are one by one. 100k at once would kill you. Which is why Quadratic is more dangerous than most of the other aggressive AI types imo.

In my current game AI 2 10 Diff Alarmist/Quadratic just sent a wave of 34000 Bombers. In-game time: 7 hours. It forces me to use a couple of Warheads which increases AIP which increases the size of the next wave. It's a downward spiral. For comparison AI 1 Diff 10 Peacemaker/Raid Engine sends waves with about 7200 ships.

Yes, it is true that as a practical measure, AI strength is superlinear for unit count. 
However, consider this:  Your last wave of 34,000 Bombers at Hour 7 was probably your 6th wave, I'm guessing, or possibly seventh.  That means you'll be waiting for either 3 or 6 hours until the next Quadratic wave.  The wave after that will probably never happen, as you'll have already finished your game by then.

So, sure, you spend a few AIP to kill those 6th, 7th, even 8th waves.  I'd consider a good trade to exchange, say, 20-30 AIP for an AI never sending waves again.

[Kahuna]

So, while the individual waves of the Quadratic AI are nastier after the first, they take SO long to come that the overall strength sent is about 1/3 that of a non-Quadratic AI.

Soooo... I think Quadratic may need a buff.

CPAs come every 2 hours yet they're more much more dangerous than all the waves combined. Destroying 100k ships is ridiculously easy if the ships are one by one. 100k at once would kill you. Which is why Quadratic is more dangerous than most of the other aggressive AI types imo.

In my current game AI 2 10 Diff Alarmist/Quadratic just sent a wave of 34000 Bombers. In-game time: 7 hours. It forces me to use a couple of Warheads which increases AIP which increases the size of the next wave. It's a downward spiral. For comparison AI 1 Diff 10 Peacemaker/Raid Engine sends waves with about 7200 ships.

Yes, it is true that as a practical measure, AI strength is superlinear for unit count. 
However, consider this:  Your last wave of 34,000 Bombers at Hour 7 was probably your 6th wave, I'm guessing, or possibly seventh.  That means you'll be waiting for either 3 or 6 hours until the next Quadratic wave.  The wave after that will probably never happen, as you'll have already finished your game by then.

So, sure, you spend a few AIP to kill those 6th, 7th, even 8th waves.  I'd consider a good trade to exchange, say, 20-30 AIP for an AI never sending waves again.

Well yeah that's very true. Maybe the recharge time of the waves should increase by 50% instead of 100%.