What's with the wardens?

[Kahuna]

What's with the wardens?? I've been under attack non stop for an hour and don't see the end of it Haven't noticed this before. I saved the game and loaded again and it seemed to calm down a bit.
And yes my AI War addiction took over. I started playing again.

[keith.lamothe]

For a long time the wardens were basically dormant, not sure how it got that way.  Several people were noting how they never really noticed the wardens when they were enabled.  About a month and a half ago I straightened out some of the numbers (the stats on their drones were really out of date, for one).  Apparently something worked

In general here's how it works:

Spawning logic
1) Every 25 seconds (on wardens = 4/10; lower intensity gets higher interval, higher intensity gets lower interval), it does a warden check.
2) During a warden check, first it adds the number of human metal and crystal harvesters to the warden counter.
3) Then, if the warden counter >= 1300, it does a warden spawn on an AI homeworld.
4) The number spawned is based on the special difficulty modifier, which is based on difficulty, number of human homeworlds, number of human champions, and AI handicap.
- On single-homeworld, no champions, difficulty 7, this is 1.
- On single-homeworld, no champions, difficulty 10, this is 5 (the interpolation is not linear, it grows slowly between 7 and 8, and fast between 9 and 10).

Individual Warden logic

1) Squadron building/deployment
- Every second, at 50 + the number of metal+crystal harvesters to this warden's build point total
- On high caps, 600 build points equates to one ship in the internal squadron
- On high caps, a warden can only hold 250 ships
- If the internal squadron exceeds the minimum for a spawn (on high caps, 100), then:
-- If antagonized, deploy squadron.  Can be antagonized by:
--- Was damaged by a human ship in the last 10 seconds.
--- Has a target it is shooting at.
--- An enemy unit is within 4000 range.
--- On or adjacent to a planet with a harvester, deploy squadrons
 
2) Warden Movement
- If on a human-controlled world, and not heading towards a wormhole (or headed towards a wormhole but not as part of a chain leading to an AI homeworld), clear all commands.
- If no commands, and on a human-controlled world, get a wormhole path to an AI homeworld.
- If no commands, and on a non-human-controlled world, get a wormhole path to a human world.


Anyway, if anyone has balance feedback on these, I'm happy to hear it, though if the faction intensity and/or the AI difficulty are really high it's generally going to be nasty.  I haven't heard much about them in a while.

[KDR_11k]

Given the description I would have thought that nukes would also have a major effect on the wardens.

[Winge]

Given the description I would have thought that nukes would also have a major effect on the wardens.

Indeed.  Then again, I would think that nukes have a major impact on the game, period. 

[keith.lamothe]

Yea, nukes should tick them off something fierce, but I never got around to adding that.

I could pretty easily have it multiply the contributions to the overall faction counter by 1 + (number of nuked planets * 0.4) or something like that, but I'm not sure you'd like the result.  Particularly if zenith miners were involved.

Thoughts?

[Draco18s]

Yea, nukes should tick them off something fierce, but I never got around to adding that.

I could pretty easily have it multiply the contributions to the overall faction counter by 1 + (number of nuked planets * 0.4) or something like that, but I'm not sure you'd like the result.  Particularly if zenith miners were involved.

Thoughts?

Do it anyway.  If someone chooses to play with Zenith Miners, they get what they asked for.

[chemical_art]

  I haven't heard much about them in a while.

I'm sure you're aware of this, but just in case...

The minor factions that get the vast majority of attention offer some form of benefit to players, even if the ai gets a benefit too.

Those miner factions that offer no form of benefit get much, much less attention.

For example, I remember wandering nenzul enclaves used to get lots of attention for it added chaos. Sometimes it was friendly, sometimes it was enemy to only you, sometimes enemy to all. Now, though, its almost as forgotten as wardens.

[keith.lamothe]

I'm sure you're aware of this, but just in case...

The minor factions that get the vast majority of attention offer some form of benefit to players, even if the ai gets a benefit too.

Sure, though I think hybrids are an exception to this.

[chemical_art]

I'm sure you're aware of this, but just in case...

The minor factions that get the vast majority of attention offer some form of benefit to players, even if the ai gets a benefit too.

Sure, though I think hybrids are an exception to this.

Agreed hybrids are the exception, but I lump them in the same boat as "x - hard". If the ai benefit is dramatic enough (hybirds, exo-waves) then the players take notice.

Which actually may be the direction you want to take wardens and their ilk. Make them less often but have more "omph" so they are noticed.

Actually, no, I don't think that's the case. Launching warheads at players is pretty dramatic. Which makes me wonder why hybrids are used. Maybe its because its not a matter of the ai not just hitting harder but somehow hitting smarter, since hybrids are perceived to be smart, or at least complex? At least with hybrids you can engage in a mini war with them as you deep strike to hit their factories. While with wardens and enclaves and such its a matter of " yawn or ugh. A random obstacle that I can't really counter, at best I can move around"

[Draco18s]

I'm sure you're aware of this, but just in case...

The minor factions that get the vast majority of attention offer some form of benefit to players, even if the ai gets a benefit too.

Sure, though I think hybrids are an exception to this.

Last I checked, Hybrids were not a minor faction.

[Kahuna]

Yea, nukes should tick them off something fierce, but I never got around to adding that.

I could pretty easily have it multiply the contributions to the overall faction counter by 1 + (number of nuked planets * 0.4) or something like that, but I'm not sure you'd like the result.  Particularly if zenith miners were involved.

Thoughts?

YES! Punish me! I have a bad habit of playing with Ziners set to 6!