Private alpha of Vengeance expansion has started

[chemical_art]

Yes, in addition to the new regular guardians.

I can't find those showdown devices though, even in the encyclopedia (at least not yet)

[Toranth]

So.  Showdown Devices.
Anyone who HASN'T played with them yet, I suggest skipping this post.  It's a fun little chain of events, and I'd hate to spoil anyone from having the same !!fun!! I was gifted.




Diff 7/7 random easier.
8 Champions
60 star X map.
I start at the center of the X.  Conveniently, all the Devices were in the branches away from the AI HWs.
So, slowly clear out the back branches, fortify the HW, expand a little, and try capture the Devices.  Read the description, figure "I'm fortified, I can handle this."
Wrong.  Attempt #1 terminates less than 10 minutes later.



Alrighty, then.  I think the man just ordered MORE FORTRESSES.  So, I do the Nebulae, ride the ST to bring the floor to 160 or so after clearing out the back sections, get all the K, unlock lots of defensive stuff, build some trader goodies, including multiple Ion Cannons.  This system is FORTIFIED.  Got it?  FORT-I-FIED, as in 40 forts.
So, Attempt #2.  I knew I could handle it, and sure enough, I did.  Everything ran into my grinder and evaporated in a sparkly mist, illuminated by the glow of the HBCs... until the end.  Yeah, that.  Didn't work so well, didn't read the description too closely, and was quite surprised at what happened to my defenses.  So, attempt #2 didn't go so well, either.

Attempts #3-6 tried a variety of minor changes, finally using Riots and Shieldbearers to protect my Home Command Station.  Eventually, it worked.  Barely.  Plasma Rifles at Dawn, indeed.  It's MAD for the galaxy.

Seriously.  I've had multi-mothership exowaves RUN AWAY from defenses half as strong as what I had here.  That was impressive.  And my first impulse is that it'll need to be toned down a bit.  The crazy firepower isn't too bad, but the special effects are kinda absurd.

I'm not sure of it at the moment, and I think I want to hear some other folks chime in before I really decide... but right now, it seems MUCH harder than I would expect, even on only Diff 7/7.  What I was fighting against is what I would expect at Diff 9 or higher.  And I don't even want to think about what this'll look like at Diff 10.

[keith.lamothe]

Plasma Rifles at Dawn, indeed.

I congratulate you, presumably the first to get that   I'll leave it at that for non-spoiler purposes, but I look forward to hearing more feedback on these.  I think it's a fun addition to the game, but I'm sure the balance could use work.

[chemical_art]

@keith

how do you find them? I just did a 30 planet game and I couldn't see them. Where are they generally? And what tech lvl are they?

[keith.lamothe]

@keith

how do you find them? I just did a 30 planet game and I couldn't see them. Where are they generally? And what tech lvl are they?

If you turn on the immobile-minor-faction filter they'll show up as "SD" (Dyson Sphere shows up as "DS", etc).  They try to seed fairly spread out.

If you don't see any on the filter with scouting: are you sure the map actually has 30 non-nebula planets?  Some map types actually aren't guaranteed to produce the exact amount, and if it's even 29 the devices won't seed.

[Aklyon]

Well, that was entertaining. Apparently even on diff 1 you can only smash so many things up before the vengeful AI throws more ships at you than the rest of the galaxy combined has and it becomes a problem for your single planet.

[keith.lamothe]

Well, that was entertaining. Apparently even on diff 1 you can only smash so many things up before the vengeful AI throws more ships at you than the rest of the galaxy combined has and it becomes a problem for your single planet.

Given the exo multiplier on Diff 1 (0.15, I believe, as opposed to 7's 1.0), that's fairly impressive   What was the final AIP?

[Aklyon]

Well, that was entertaining. Apparently even on diff 1 you can only smash so many things up before the vengeful AI throws more ships at you than the rest of the galaxy combined has and it becomes a problem for your single planet.

Given the exo multiplier on Diff 1 (0.15, I believe, as opposed to 7's 1.0), that's fairly impressive   What was the final AIP?

110.

300% handicap on me/ both AIs, 10/10 resistance fighters/dark spire/fallen spire traders golems/botnet easy.

[Fluffiest]

I see the plans to make an unwinnable 1/1 game are well underway.

[@B0FH]

I see the plans to make an unwinnable 1/1 game are well underway.

Love it! Though to be honest I struggled 10/10 without handicaps a year or so ago now, and the difficulty has jumped up since then anyway!  May have to see if that bug still exists come release of 7.0

[keith.lamothe]

Love it! Though to be honest I struggled 10/10 without handicaps a year or so ago now, and the difficulty has jumped up since then anyway!  May have to see if that bug still exists come release of 7.0

The AI stands ready, challenger

[Vyndicu]

I found two bugs. I think they are easy to miss. First off if you select a command station and click on defense tab. Then switch selection to a colony ship then you have to re-click on the only tab to pull it up. I have seen it with lab/colony ship/command station to name a few.

For the second one.

http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/576738217944653096/10CF9BC7A3AF6120F7D92B6BAEEF0AD49BFC80D9/

The enclave drones are just idling (the missile drone are the only one in range) despite having roaming defender from special force shooting at my fleet. Although to be fair the system's defender are still sleeping.

I attached a save game of the above screenshot.

[LordSloth]

The center of the wheel is an interesting place... I can start off my homeworld with sixteen adjacent systems, but no more.

Driven to experiment, I can get a lattice homeworld with eighteen adjacent systems... 285816735.

I'll try out Chivalric, Bouncer, Showdown Devices, and Hunter/Hunter, and see what feedback I have to offer.

[LordSloth]

Oh and a question I've long forgotten to ask, should player-homeworld-adjacent planets get starships, either at spawn or within 13:33 minutes? Fortunately I'm not dealing with Starfleet Commander or MK IV worlds.

Oh... AI Hunter/Killer 45 AIP, 1 Hour 1 Minute. Part of the Patrol, I presume?

It will be ...interesting... to try and hack an ARS.

Hmmm... looks like it might actually be cowardly starships from waves, not reinforcements or anything... that might explain it? I'll have to play closer attention tomorrow.

[Tridus]

So, Spider V turrets...

I'm playing a game right now where I'm basically ignoring AIP. Yeah, not the smartest thing to do. So far I've got one Spire City, a Botnet & Armored Golem, and two Turret Controllers (Needler and Spider).

The first thing I notice is that the Spider V turrets have a m+c cost of  1380/s. The Needler V is 109/s. While the spider should definitely cost more, the build times seem off (the Needler takes three times longer to build, which is why the cost is so much lower per second).

The second thing is that the Spider in some situations can be downright goofy. If you look at Murdoch in this save, you can see a wave of Zenith Reprocessor III's attacking. Look at how far they got from the wormhole before the turrets disabled all of them. (ie: not very)

It's probably not that big a deal since they're not nearly so effective against huge waves (700 fleet ships instead of 50 larger ones like reprocessors) or against sniper immune ships, but in this case I thought it was pretty goofy how they so easily crippled a wave at 550 AIP.