What happens if you don't get the (AIP) memo?

[PokerChen]

Why on earth else would you allow us to have parasites?

I've played with Parasites specifically against 'Everything' AIs - the aim of the game was Grand Theft Cosmo, where I unlocked no fleetships except those parasites.

[chemical_art]

On track to win at around 12 hours using blade spawners, fireflys, rams, and an in all starship philosophy.

Starships rock now, but I've experienced netflix syndrome for sure.

EDIT: This is a iron man session, heh. It's been a long night.

[chemical_art]

Alright notes from my iron man game:


-Starship only games now very viable. Efficient in every way...just don't ever let them get wiped.
-Seriously, Starships 
-New threat mechanics work nice.
-Didn't lose a single planet.
-Only fleetship purchase was for bomber II's and SBS II's.
-Bought III's of flagships, zenith, spire, siege, heavy, and lastly parasites.
-OMD's more then ever just chip away starship paint
-Bonus starships need to be buffed, at least in health.
-Since the AI HW lose is lessened, it is actually worth trying to hold them for the huge amount of resources on it.

[RCIX]

Current status: 1 lightning warhead used, 2 nukes used, at least 1 more scheduled (possibly 2; plasma eye + anti-starship arachnid guard post under force field is nasty). Wiped out or can easily wipe out the majority of my home cluster otherwise. ~300 AI progress.

[Hearteater]

Yeah, I'm afraid Starships might be a touch too strong at the moment.  OMDs need a buff certainly.

[chemical_art]

Yeah, I'm afraid Starships might be a touch too strong at the moment.  OMDs need a buff certainly.

Well you see they are strong true.

However, when I say don't let them be wiped, I mean it. I had a powerhouse economy after taking an AI HW and III harvestors, yet if my fleet was wiped it took  hours of pure building just to get them back. Just my IV's alone took over 8 million resources to recover from. That's an hour just for 10 ships. 10 glorious ships, but I couldn't use them if things were running hard. I was only able to win with 12 hours because my fleet only wipped to gun down each AI HW. If I was in a harder game where I actually had to rebuild defenses and such I would simply not be able to afford them. As it was, I had to use my younglings to keep my corridors cleared to ensure they weren't banged up as they moved around.

[Hearteater]

Time to replace can't be a balance factor because the player can basically always wait that long.  It is making annoyance the downside.  Also, keith already pointed out zenith V is like 90% of a golem!  That's a touch much don't you think?

[Cinth]

Anyway we'll try it out on a 120 and see if we can take them all

Gotta catch 'em all! (And now I'm getting disturbing vibes by trying to match up the lyrics of the Pokemon theme song to AI war)

EDIT: Cinth, what are the single AI units on most of your planets?

Sorry I missed this yesterday.  Those singles are SF posts.

[Cinth]

Yeah, I'm afraid Starships might be a touch too strong at the moment.  OMDs need a buff certainly.

Well you see they are strong true.

However, when I say don't let them be wiped, I mean it. I had a powerhouse economy after taking an AI HW and III harvestors, yet if my fleet was wiped it took  hours of pure building just to get them back. Just my IV's alone took over 8 million resources to recover from. That's an hour just for 10 ships. 10 glorious ships, but I couldn't use them if things were running hard. I was only able to win with 12 hours because my fleet only wipped to gun down each AI HW. If I was in a harder game where I actually had to rebuild defenses and such I would simply not be able to afford them. As it was, I had to use my younglings to keep my corridors cleared to ensure they weren't banged up as they moved around.

What was your final AIP and how many planets did you take from the AI? 

[keith.lamothe]

Wait, is the goal here to see how high we can crank up the aip by taking planets, or to play as if we don't care?

The specific goal I had in mind is to kill as many of the non-HW AI command stations as you can before the high AIP kills you.  But just having fun playing without the usual restraint is the more general idea

SF has about 28k ships

Nuke it?  And btw those SF posts in non-AI territory are buffing the SF size (in AI territory they don't do that, and instead function as eligible spawn points for them), so you may want to go ahead and kill those.

Keith, do you want us to avoid using a ST to crank down the progress in this test?

Sure, that's fair play.  It may make the overall game's result more ST-related than AIP-related.  Have y'all run into the new-ish ST-hacking response in an earlier game?


@chemical_art: how many AI command stations (other than that home one) have you killed thus far?


On starship balance, we do need to take another look, though I imagine going starship-only is harder on the higher difficulties.  If someone can go starship-only on 7.6 that doesn't necessarily bother me.  The 7-8 range is a bit of a playground if you're used to 9+.

[chemical_art]

Time to replace can't be a balance factor because the player can basically always wait that long.  It is making annoyance the downside.  Also, keith already pointed out zenith V is like 90% of a golem!  That's a touch much don't you think?

Well, it also costs 90% of resources to make one then it is to repair most golems, so I don't really see the problem.

I mean the armored golem costs 20 million to build, so in practice it costs 2 million to repair it (iirc). The Zenith starship costs over 1.5 million to build. And while it is tough, it has a sliver of the dps of golems.

[chemical_art]

What was your final AIP and how many planets did you take from the AI?

Final AIP was at the floor, around 220 I think. Not counting any one's HW, I took 7 planets. Of those, one was taken for terroritory, one was taken for the adv starship constructor, one was for the spire archive, and the rest were ARS's.

I'll also add the RNG for ARS were really, really nice to me. In order I got railcruisers, fireflys, and mini rams pre storming the first AI HW. All three were not reclaimable, so the AI's brutal pick was nullfied.

[keith.lamothe]

The Zenith starship costs over 1.5 million to build. And while it is tough, it has a sliver of the dps of golems.

The mkV Zenith Starship actually has 80% the DPS of an armored golem, I was noticing last night.  It's actually pretty close to the widow in both hp and dps, too.  MkIV is obviously a bit lower, but still in the ballpark.

[Cinth]

SF has about 28k ships

Nuke it?  And btw those SF posts in non-AI territory are buffing the SF size (in AI territory they don't do that, and instead function as eligible spawn points for them), so you may want to go ahead and kill those.

I usually don't play with nukes    About the SF Posts, I know about that part.  It's a habit form my usual games where I don't want the excess AIP (all those +1s add up).

[chemical_art]

The Zenith starship costs over 1.5 million to build. And while it is tough, it has a sliver of the dps of golems.

The mkV Zenith Starship actually has 80% the DPS of an armored golem, I was noticing last night.  It's actually pretty close to the widow in both hp and dps, too.  MkIV is obviously a bit lower, but still in the ballpark.

Ah, bonuses.

DPS of V Zenith:

1.6 Million vs bonuses with no armor

DPS of BW

1.75 Million, also blows out engines, also passive 200 ship paralysis

DPS of Armored golem:

2.5 million, ignores armor