What, the hell, was that (newbie question)

[keith.lamothe]

All right, I beat them to the ground with a massive smile on my face. In fact, it was just that I wasn't prepared for anything like that, and indeed those were Cockroaches, like 1500 of them as you said.

Congratulations! 

And yea, a cockroach post was another theory that came to mind, I just didn't figure that they would be able to punch through everything you had and have enough self-attrition time left to get all the way to your homeworld.  I'll probably add a note there at the end of the tutorial to be very careful about that cockroach post

Anyway, I think the overall experience was a very important last point for the tutorial to teach you: be very, very careful about AI homeworlds.  Do not attack without checking and understanding the type of each core post, etc.  Most of the types are basically just really big versions of the normal guard posts, but others (the brutal-picks, mainly) are much, much worse.

[Advenas]

Thank you, thank you.

Well you could let it like that, I think the people who will really dig the game won't be afraid of this and (like me and others) will try to solve the problem.
Making mistakes and knowing that you have to be careful is the best way to progress in any game.

(Or just put a joyful "FATALITY" when the Cockroaches begin swarming)

[zoutzakje]

congratz on beating the tutorial ^^
I had the exact same thing when i first started out. Didn't expect the roaches and they managed to get to my homeworld and wipe me out. Needless to say i was much better prepared the second time.
You'll find out that a lot of things can kill you in AI war. Things like " oops didn't see that Raid Engine" or "what's that tiny ship doing there close to my homeworld? Never seen it before....OMG NOOOO!" have taken me out more than once.
And then, after dying a bunch of times, you finally get that first 7/7 victory. So satisfying

[DrFranknfurter]

Just beat a game against difficulty 7, first win since getting Vengence of the machine (Very impressed with everything I've seen and I only wish I could jump forward in time to play with whatever double-edged elegantly entertaining toys the next expansion will add). AIs were exotic/zenith exotic/tank and during the last battle I said "...oh no" at least a dozen times laughing every time. I've started a lot of games but don't usually get to the end because my very old laptop really can't handle major fights... or multiple HW starts... or gaming in general really... so reduced planets to 40 this time and it helped, FPs dropped to a minimum of 1.2/s! at the very end of the very last battle for a while despite all that (a new computer is enroute, looking forward to bigger longer games and moving up from ultra-low caps) but even inspite of that it was amazingly fun, it just meant that the last battle was in slow-motion.

My little moments of sweet surpirse:
1. Moved my fleet past a sentry eye on the IV world adjacent to the last AI homeworld... wait, what? oh no... zombies, lots and lots of zombies
2. Sneak past them quickly only to find Wraith lance guard post... oh no!
3. It has External invincibility provided x1... wait, what? oh no!
4. What's that massive ship? ...oh... please no. (It's very far away, wraith lance between us)
5. Also, Cockroaches! Strategic reserve and...aww My champion and scout starships are dead... blind now... oh no!
6. Zombies have caught up with me... oh no.
7. AI has shiny new Golems, exo waves arriving... lots of golems... Dark spire are attacking 4 worlds, 40-60 ships on each planet due to vengence generator mayhem... Nasty implosion guardpost still alive, if I lose the last of this fleet it's gg time...
...
8. You win.

I love those moments, there are so many in this magical game that even if you feel fairly (over)confident due to fallen spire + a nice cap of core ships you can still be thrown by something simple - I couldn't really scout by the midgame due to the zenith AI's sentinel frigates and their little tachyon beams covering every wormhole... no scouting + major deepstriking on a snake map = lots of nasty surprises and you have to pass through them all to get to the prize.
Thank you for every single "oh no!" It's addictive, I want more!

[keith.lamothe]

oh no!

AIW, in a nutshell

Together with occasional "oh yeah!" moments.  Usually in this order.

Thank you for every single "oh no!" It's addictive, I want more!

Glad to hear you're enjoying it   I'm figuring you've got plenty more to find in there, but rest assured that we seek to add many more.

[DrFranknfurter]

I'm very much looking forward to activating the lobby options I haven't tried yet (and yes, still quite a few that look interesting and painful - showdown, cookie monster, neinzul rocketry, shark, hunter... drone launchers I feel like I've barely scratched the surface, haven't tried using half the bonus ships yet and don't know their secrets and forbidden cheese).

So many toys still to play with and I do love that each ship has a very different value for you and the AI. Sentinels as a poor mans tachyon net for example. I thought fighting Zenith would be easier due to lots of reclaimable AI ships + Botnet golem (hard)... It was at the start but at 5h+ with a high AI progress the game changed and I saw each new AI ship unlock with increasing fear and dread. Armour rotters, mkV ships backed by Implosion artillery? oh no! Spire or mkV = Immune to reclaimation, the bane of the botnet, didn't see until too late and I watched them chew through my retreating golem which had just escaped a volley of (possibly dire) implosion shots taking it from 87% to 33%. Nibble nibble... nibble... nibble... dead.

I love that I had to change my plans... EMP guardians were a scary development, as was taking planets with vengence generators and dealing with the resulting chaos behind the frontline.

All in all, thank you. Don't stop reaching for perfection because the potential here really is infinite.