Prerelease 3.189 (Balance Changes And Bugfixes)

[superking]

Yeah, when I see a type III or IV I anticipate the presence of a fortress and an ion cannon, I'm surprised by their absence rather than their presence.

yeah

but it wasnt always this way

[Fleet]

is it intentional that almost every III/IV has a fortress? I find the need to go through the 'terminate the fortress' routine prior to sending in the main fleet every time (at difficulty 8, it seems like almost every world is III/IV :p) is getting a little infuriating

I find myself playing "terminate the ion cannon" game very often, and somewhat less frequently the fortress popping (although that still occurs a lot, and sometimes with two fortresses on a planet).

With the high Mk ions being seeded independently of the lower Mk ones, they appear on the majority of planets I visit. 

[Lancefighter]

Odd that - i play the 'eliminate the mass driver' game more often than 'eliminate the ion cannon'... but 'eliminate the fortress' game far more often.


On the bright side, it looks like the AI will never respawn a tachyon emitter once you destroy it (and remove remains). That makes it SOOO much easier.

[Spikey00]

Raid starships could make it a lot easier on those types of systems with mass drivers, or you could try a supply line cut-off if that is possible.

PS.  I just realized starships did 10 engine damage... LOL.

[Lancefighter]

raid starships dont instadie to mass drivers?

[HellishFiend]

raid starships dont instadie to mass drivers?

I'm not sure if they take reduced damage or if I just move too fast, but if I recall correctly, I've successfully used Raid Starships to make hit and run strikes on AI worlds with mass drivers before.

[Spikey00]

Perhaps its the mass driver bonus on the module forcefields?  I'm not quite sure on that.

[Lancefighter]

Perhaps its the mass driver bonus on the module forcefields?  I'm not quite sure on that.

... you mean, RIOT starships?

I mean, i know raid starships have different multipliers on them (and siege starships cant kill them well for that reason), but i didn't think it was that profound against OMDs

[Spikey00]

...I think I'm probably drunk right now.  First I confuse armour ships with anti-armours, and now it's gravity drills and mass drivers...

Eh, for mass drivers I would just play as if it was not there, save for avoiding the use of starships.  Raid starships can be useful because they aren't 1HKO'd by them (I believe), but I generally cap the planet before doing anything with a planet that has a mass driver.

[Lancefighter]

eh thats the thing - I cant 'play like they arent there, except not using starships'... because if i didn't use starships, I wouldnt have anything to take the planet with!

On the other hand, I found a much simpler way to deal with grav drill planets - fortresses.

[Spikey00]

Bombers + transports, destroy command station, retreat.  Crash assist command station if you can get one to last the first few seconds on planet, get possession of mass driver, use it as bait!

[Lancefighter]

Bombers + transports, destroy command station, retreat.  Crash assist command station if you can get one to last the first few seconds on planet, get possession of mass driver, use it as bait!

... eh right. except that really, mass drivers arent useful on the defense, because the number of starships the AI sends on waves is very low. And we all know why high mk ion cannons are also useless..

[HellishFiend]

And we all know why high mk ion cannons are also useless..

I've been gone awhile... why are they useless?

[Spikey00]

And we all know why high mk ion cannons are also useless..

I've been gone awhile... why are they useless?

Amplifies incoming AI waves; poses significant danger in deep territory due to counterwaves.

Bombers + transports, destroy command station, retreat.  Crash assist command station if you can get one to last the first few seconds on planet, get possession of mass driver, use it as bait!

... eh right. except that really, mass drivers arent useful on the defense, because the number of starships the AI sends on waves is very low. And we all know why high mk ion cannons are also useless..

eh thats the thing - I cant 'play like they arent there, except not using starships'... because if i didn't use starships, I wouldnt have anything to take the planet with!

If you capture the structure, then the AI doesn't have it anymore, and thus it doesn't pose a threat anymore to your starships, correct?  :\

[Lancefighter]

... your not getting this - without the starships, how am i supposed to conquer the planet in the first place! My entire game revolves around the use of these starships . . .

I even unlocked mk2 dreads for a reason i cant fathom (mostly to spend resources, actually). Somehow the benefit of having more dps at that range wasnt useful really :\ in the end, it more than doubled the survivibility of my dreadnought stack, so it wasnt that bad :p