Questions from an old player

[Entrenched Homeperson]

Quick question: Do any of the Warp Gate fabricators cooperate with the special Starbase docks you get from successfully defending minor factions in the champion nebulas? Many of them are deep in enemy territory for me, but they are solid units to add to any attack, especially since in my current game I have 4 AI Eyes within 3 hops of my home planet.

[Fleet Unity]

Yes the Starship Warp gates, any ship you build in the nebula they will warp to them as long as its not in stand down mode also they will be paralyzed for 60 seconds on a friendly planet and longer on an enemy one. Also just FYI none of the nebula ships can be put in transports at all.

[Entrenched Homeperson]

Thanks, I'll be putting that to use!

[Fleet Unity]

No problem those nebula ships are almost like starships and with each new allied faction you can get more to use I will not tell you how many as I do not want to spoil it for you but they come in handy to have as part of your fleet.

[Entrenched Homeperson]

I think I've screwed around enough. Time to go end the AIs for the first time in two years. The Champion thing was really damn cool, is it always the same missions? Either way, I'd like to try playing a Champion in a multiplayer game.

[Entrenched Homeperson]

...or I could just Turtle for 6 or 7 more hours.

[RockyBst]

I'm kinda intrigued how you managed to get hacking to -1000. That takes a concerted effort.

[Toranth]

I'm kinda intrigued how you managed to get hacking to -1000. That takes a concerted effort.

Not really that hard.
Let's say you've hacked some stuff, including 5 Fabricators.  Then your last hack is a system with 3 Fabricators in it.  BAM!  -1000 HaP.  Same thing can happen with Design Corruption or Download. 
Finally, you can do simultaneous hacks in different systems to rack up the hacks without too much bad response.  I usually try to end my hacking with a 3 or 4 system hack, or which 2 or 3 usually can succeed, which will put me at -1000 or so.  This is a little cheesy, but it does quite effectively terminate your hacking.

[keith.lamothe]

I'm somewhat wondering if Hacking should be changed to never go negative, but instead increase AIP by the corresponding amount if you try to go negative.

Just a thought, not racing off to do it.

[Vinraith]

I'm somewhat wondering if Hacking should be changed to never go negative, but instead increase AIP by the corresponding amount if you try to go negative.

Just a thought, not racing off to do it.

I like that idea. It does seem fairly abusable (and fairly counter-intuitive) as it stands.

[keith.lamothe]

On the other hand, it would have to be really clear to the player that letting a particular hack continue was going to cause AIP.  Going from +200 to -1000 hacking (or whatever) because you didn't notice that there were 3 fabs instead of 1 is one thing.  Having that same situation suddenly cause your AIP to go from 200 to 1200 is quite another.

[Vinraith]

On the other hand, it would have to be really clear to the player that letting a particular hack continue was going to cause AIP.  Going from +200 to -1000 hacking (or whatever) because you didn't notice that there were 3 fabs instead of 1 is one thing.  Having that same situation suddenly cause your AIP to go from 200 to 1200 is quite another.

Yeah, giant red flag required. Heck, in some ways simply disallowing a hack that would take you into the negatives might be more humane. That eliminates the "angry AI response" aspect of things though, which has a lot of narrative appeal.

[keith.lamothe]

Yeah, giant red flag required. Heck, in some ways simply disallowing a hack that would take you into the negatives might be more humane. That eliminates the "angry AI response" aspect of things though, which has a lot of narrative appeal.

Yea, and actually preventing the hack would be complex in the code.  Or rather it would be fairly simple to implement, but telling the player about it and/or not having the AI do its normal response to the presence of a hacking unit would be complicated.

I don't mind people digging a deeper hole

[RockyBst]

AIP might be a touch harsh. Maybe just a stronger response, such as a mothership for every 100 negative HaP ...

[keith.lamothe]

Yea, but the response is already very harsh.  But only if you actually continue hacking at the new negative level.  Even a single tick at -1000 is probably like a wrecking ball to the face.  Though not necessarily if you have one of those backed-by-half-the-galaxy chokepoints like in that screenshot above.

And AIP probably isn't a good shunt for it anyhow, as that would make superterminal hacking get very strange indeed.  Though I guess it could just cause the terminal to explode if hacking ever hit zero during it.

So perhaps there needs to be an additional one-time response to each increase in "negative hacking", just so you can't just do one last mega-hack that puts you in negative 4 digits without at least paying something in return (aside from forgoing all future hacking forever).