Questions Concerning the Human Rebellion Colonies

[Wingflier]

I have a couple questions concerning this minor faction:

1.  In the description it states "every 5 hours or so, a rebel colony will spawn but need your help" blah blah blah.  However, every game I've had this on, the colonies don't spawn until the 8 or 9 hour mark.  Is this intentional?  Why is it taking so long?

2.  Can the AI get lucky and accidentally reveal these before the 2 hour timer is up?  In my current game, an EMP Guardian detonated on the planet (which is weird, since how would it have known it was there?) revealing it, and killing it before I had time to get there.  Is that a bug or intentional?

Thanks.

[junkdog]

2.  Can the AI get lucky and accidentally reveal these before the 2 hour timer is up?  In my current game, an EMP Guardian detonated on the planet (which is weird, since how would it have known it was there?) revealing it, and killing it before I had time to get there.  Is that a bug or intentional?

If I'm not mistaken, EMP guardians detonate every time they enter a system. I've had scouts destroyed that way.

[Wanderer]

I have a couple questions concerning this minor faction:

1.  In the description it states "every 5 hours or so, a rebel colony will spawn but need your help" blah blah blah.  However, every game I've had this on, the colonies don't spawn until the 8 or 9 hour mark.  Is this intentional?  Why is it taking so long?

The description is inaccurate, your understanding is.  They usually kick in around 8.5 hours, sometimes a bit earlier.  The only reason I can see for the extension of time is that having to go save one (and defend them all) every 5 hours could get annoying, FAST.

2.  Can the AI get lucky and accidentally reveal these before the 2 hour timer is up?  In my current game, an EMP Guardian detonated on the planet (which is weird, since how would it have known it was there?) revealing it, and killing it before I had time to get there.  Is that a bug or intentional?

Thanks.

It's intentional.  It's like any other cloaked item.  Blow the cloak and they die.  However, they do re-cloak for 2 hours if you lose the local command station so they really have to go out of their way to kill it (like with EMP Guardians).  If you'll notice when you free an EMP guardian, it fires off anytime it enters a wormhole.. even on AI planets.  It just goes boom everywhere.  Frickin' menace to society.

[zoutzakje]

hell yeah, EMP guardians are a pain. Make them one of your first priorities when taking out enemy systems. And yeah, I think the behaviour is correct, even though I have never experienced the exact same thing.

[Diazo]

Interesting, they are not tachyon immune either, so if the AI has something like Sentinel Frigates unlocked, they can also be revealed early that way.

I wonder if they should be both tachyon and emp immune? They have a +100AIP penalty on death so punishing the player for an unlucky spawn location does not feel right to me.

D.

edit: Or if the AI is the Counter-Spy type, the rebel colony would get attacked by the counter-spy as soon as it spawned, not 2 hours later once it's cloak went down.

[Hearteater]

EMP immune shouldn't be needed, since they only way an EMP guardian would be moving between systems is if it was released by the player.  So that's just something you need to watch for when playing with Human Rebellion Colonies on a high enough difficulty to have EMP Guardians.

[zoutzakje]

EMP immune shouldn't be needed, since they only way an EMP guardian would be moving between systems is if it was released by the player.  So that's just something you need to watch for when playing with Human Rebellion Colonies on a high enough difficulty to have EMP Guardians.

I agree. Tachyon immunity still seems necessary though.