Um.. Exo? What?

[Kahuna]

Holy shit what the hell are these exos? I just attacked an AI Homeworld once.. almost managed to destroy all of it. Are these those exos from destroying the Core Guard Posts?

If they are then they obviously have been buffed like hell. Because to be honest.. I don't even remember seeing "Core Guard Post Exos" before this.

"Lauori (AI 1 Homeworld) Assault Provoking Exogalactic Attack in xx:xx" I've never seen this text before.

If that's just 1 Exo and it's that brutal then apparently winning the game on high difficulty levels without superweapons is meant to be impossible. I doubt a full cap of all Armored Warheads would stop that much stuff. Even if it was enough building those (Armored) Warheads would take like hours.

EDIT: YEESS! Cookie Monster destroyed all of those Starships for me! Go Cookie Monster! Go!

EDIT2: Ok.. one of my whipping boys popped the first Exo like a balloon (after Cookie Monster ate all the Starships). The same whipping boy destroyed about half of the second Exo without using any Warheads, Munitions Boosting or my fleet. Aka it seems like 10/10 is still doable even without Superweapons. Just requires more tedious micro and planning. And time of course.. which I have at the moment.

EDIT3: Aaand I easily stopped the Exo at my Homeworld. I'm laughing right now. No Warheads used. Just Turrets (and Mark II Munitions Boosters at my Homeworld).
Also a clarification: There seems to be 2 Exos in that screenshot. The one with the Cursed Golem was the first one. Cookie Monster helped me stop it. Then I stopped the second one.

EDIT: Yeah.. I just destroyed the AI Homeworld in one go even before the first exo. Took a couple of minutes. That's kind of funny. Gonna just nuke the next CPA and finish the game.

[Cinth]

Quick answer from the wiki

7.029

The "when a core guard post dies, launch a revenge exo" logic has been replaced by logic where:

    When a core guard post on an AI HW drops below 75% health (or dies), that HW schedules an exo 10 minutes from then.
    When that exo launches, another larger exo is scheduled 30 minutes out. Then another still-larger 30-minute one after that, etc.
    If the AI home command station on that planet dies, any of its scheduled assault-provoked exos are cancelled (even if the other AI home command station is still alive).
    Just like the logic this is replacing, it doesn't happen at all if the "Lazy AI" lobby modifier is on.
    Grav Reactor core posts don't trigger this, since they sometimes have to be killed much earlier in the game.
    Thanks to Faulty Logic and others for inspiring this change.

[Kahuna]

Quick answer from the wiki

7.029

The "when a core guard post dies, launch a revenge exo" logic has been replaced by logic where:

    When a core guard post on an AI HW drops below 75% health (or dies), that HW schedules an exo 10 minutes from then.
    When that exo launches, another larger exo is scheduled 30 minutes out. Then another still-larger 30-minute one after that, etc.
    If the AI home command station on that planet dies, any of its scheduled assault-provoked exos are cancelled (even if the other AI home command station is still alive).
    Just like the logic this is replacing, it doesn't happen at all if the "Lazy AI" lobby modifier is on.
    Grav Reactor core posts don't trigger this, since they sometimes have to be killed much earlier in the game.
    Thanks to Faulty Logic and others for inspiring this change.

Ah ok. Thanks.
That's a really nice change. Could use a buff though (maybe).

[Cinth]

NP.
Also in that line of changes the budget was reduced or brought down a bit. 

[Kahuna]

Grav Reactor core posts don't trigger this, since they sometimes have to be killed much earlier in the game.

Hm..

since they sometimes have to be killed much earlier in the game.

Why is this?

[TechSY730]

Grav Reactor core posts don't trigger this, since they sometimes have to be killed much earlier in the game.

Hm..

since they sometimes have to be killed much earlier in the game.

Why is this?

Two words, Snake Map.


Ok there are other possible degenerate cases too, but on games like snake map, grav reactor posts made getting to the other planets needed to take out the grav reactor posts (if playing with core shield gens) near impossible to reach , and you couldn't avoid it due to map geometry. This was a degenerate case Keith apparently considered too severe to risk, and so made that change.

[Kahuna]

Ok. Makes sense.

[Kahuna]

Gonna just nuke the next CPA and finish the game.

Done. Ridiculously easy. The difficulty needs a hefty buff. Will post suggestions tomorrow.
Ahh.. always feels good to see the "You Win!". Even after 2125 hours of playing.

[Cinth]

And was the Mantis report filed? 

[chemical_art]

[I always feel the stick into the mud]

So...what is the the trade-off for these "free" AI units?

This won't stop a successful steamroll, only a failed attack / stalemate, which in my book is a situation for save scum.

Perhaps if AI core posts didn't regenerate would I consider this fair, but since they regenerate I just feel this is punishment for those players who are not experienced.

[Cinth]

Didn't the players ask for homeworld attacks to be harder?

[chemical_art]

Didn't the players ask for homeworld attacks to be harder?

The very experienced on the forums might have...maybe.

For the casual player though, this is just another head ache. There is very, very little documentation for this, as evidenced by a master player being confused as evidenced the OP.

In short, for me, this is an example of the needs of the few causing the suffering of the many.

[Hearteater]

This discourages the kill off every guard post in BOTH homeworlds, then simultaneously finish off both AI homeworlds, thereby avoiding the AIP penalty for killing one. That particular strategy is general superior to killing the homeworlds one at a time, and actually comes with the advantage of creating a reinforcement dump on the first AI homeworld you clear. With a proper beachhead you murder all the reinforcements automatically while you go get the second homeworld ready. That kind of defeats the spirit of the game a little (not to mention negating the Avenger plot).

[Cinth]

All I can say is it was "inspired" by Faulty and has been in since May 20 (patch notes I copy/paste has the exact release).


From the release overview :

The revenge exos launched by dying Core Guard Posts have been replaced by a different form of exo provoked by AI-Homeworld-assault that isn't as strict about when the player needs to switch back to defense. It will hopefully still fulfill the goal of making most AI-HW assaults a "multi-stage boss fight", but there won't be as many stages and it won't be as tied to your specific actions during the fight (so you're basically never motivated to "hold back" to avoid tripping the next "stage", etc).

Edit: After skimming 10 pages of that releases thread... the highlight was the introduction of Warp Relays.  I'm done digging around for now but I've given you all a place to start looking.

[Faulty Logic]

So...what is the the trade-off for these "free" AI units?

The trade off is that the core posts don't launch an exo on death, and AI homeworlds only cost 20 AIP.

This won't stop a successful steamroll, only a failed attack / stalemate, which in my book is a situation for save scum.

Yes, that's what it's supposed to do. It also prevents "long siege" cheese.

Also, there's the "Lazy AI" option if find the homeworlds too frustrating.

Done. Ridiculously easy.

What settings/map/strategy were you using?

The difficulty needs a hefty buff.

I think it's more that some human units need a nerf.