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[forsaken1111]

Actually, I should say that it isn't easy. But like Draco said, knowing what you are doing allows you to make even level 10 AI underestimate you, and then you utilize the AI's "quirks" brutally and you can make the game easier than it ought to be. Small maps are "cheating" from now on for me.

Such as Raid Starships. There's just so many things broken with them I won't even list them all here. I might go to the AI War forums and make suggestions.

What is the intended purpose of the raid starship?

[umiman]

The raid starship is a relatively low hp starship that is super duper fast (fastest thing in the game by far) and bypasses anything that stops regular ships including shields, mines, tractor beams, black hole generators, etc.

It also sports the most powerful gun in the game outside of the giant laser cannons. In other words, it's a super fast ship with average hp that can out damage per second an armada. The only problem with it is that it costs a heck of a lot to make and takes longer than a spire starship to build. Once you have them out there though, you can destroy entire systems without a single casualty. Heck, if you were good enough with micro, you could decimate both core homeworlds without a single loss too. Just keep running away while shooting. If the AI used raid starships in bigger numbers, no human player could survive any encounter. I literally cannot fathom how you are supposed to stop say.... 9 raid starships from sniping your home orbital stations while having enough resources to attack.

Of course Kael was so skeptical when I was telling him how ridiculously powerful they were (How could you not be?). Glad to see he came around, hehe.

Note: There was one thing that annihilated all my raid star ships though. The dyson sphere. Killed all of them in seconds.

Nopte 2: Kael and I are now literally among the best players in the world for this game. Hahaha! Not even three days of play time.

[Draco18s]

Small maps are "cheating" from now on for me.

Either small maps or starting with more than one home planet.  That's how I got my Godlike: 10 planet map, 8 of which I started with.

If you want to get even cheesier than that, go into the game settings and Edit Players and invite in a friend (or three).  You yourself count as "8" players, then they show up and get the "joined the game, single core command station" but start with 8 random special units.  Each.

I would wager that if you did that and got 8 people into the game you could rotf-stomp two level 10 AIs on 60+ planet maps.  It would not happen quickly though.  If you try and fleet that many units the game WILL lag.  In a game I'm playing with one friend (we each started with 4 homes and are fighting two AI 8s) we get a HUGE lagspike when the AI assaults this one planet because my Lightning Turrets blow up some 2000 ships at once and the host computer has to dedicate all possible CPU towards deleting those units (and other such processes from dead units).  Takes a good minute or so.

The raid starship is a relatively low hp starship that is super duper fast (fastest thing in the game by far) and bypasses anything that stops regular ships including shields, mines, tractor beams, black hole generators, etc.

Raiders (IIRC) are faster.  148 speed.  Yes, they're stupidly fast.  Bullets don't even more that fast (except that if a ship is traveling faster than the bullet, then the bullet's speed is [target's speed] +2*).

*They're thinking about raising it to [target's speed]+5, because Raid Starships are unkillable when the AI uses them against you.  It shows up, nukes a building or two, and heads to your next planet before any of the shots you fired hit it.

This is why Gravitational Turrets are so good (aww...what's that?  Your speed is 2?  Poor baby).

[Pandarsenic]

Hey, when did this thread happen? <_<

I'm really going to have to finish that tutorial.

I HAVE BEEN SAYING THIS ALL WEEK ._.

[Pandarsenic]

FUCK CORE SHIPS.

That is all.

[Draco18s]

FUCK CORE SHIPS.

*Fleets parasites*

CORE SHIPS, FUCK!

[KaelGotDwarves]

We tried another large game today. It also went... badly.

This is not a rushing game. It's not played the same way like other strategy games where you can land grab. You have to set up defensive chokepoints, perimeter turrets, pick and choose which systems are worth it and when to attack before taking all the systems next to you and pissing off the AI and goading them into attacking with waves of 12000 ships.

EDIT: Which isn't to say it wasn't fun though. Because we should do it again.

[Draco18s]

This is not a rushing game. It's not played the same way like other strategy games where you can land grab. You have to set up defensive chokepoints, perimeter turrets, pick and choose which systems are worth it and when to attack before taking all the systems next to you and pissing off the AI and goading them into attacking with waves of 12000 ships.

Exactly.  Its surgical precision tactics; you can't brute force the AI because the AI is bigger, stronger, and more plentiful.  And occasionally, smarter.

[Pandarsenic]

Doing a solo game soon; should I start with a level 6 or a level 7 AI?

[Zai]

Doing a solo game soon; should I start with a level 6 or a level 7 AI?

Compromise: Play against one level 6 and one level 7.

[Draco18s]

Doing a solo game soon; should I start with a level 6 or a level 7 AI?

6.  Though you may wish to start at 5 for your early games.  You can't really lose at AI 5, but AI 6 it can take you out if you make a big enough mistake.  AI 7 will just nom through your defenses because you haven't figured out how much you need yet.

AI 8 will nom your command station before you HAVE defenses (if it starts with force-field immune fleet ships that it throws six or eight your way as a probe).

[KaelGotDwarves]

This is not a rushing game. It's not played the same way like other strategy games where you can land grab. You have to set up defensive chokepoints, perimeter turrets, pick and choose which systems are worth it and when to attack before taking all the systems next to you and pissing off the AI and goading them into attacking with waves of 12000 ships.

Exactly.  Its surgical precision tactics; you can't brute force the AI because the AI is bigger, stronger, and more plentiful.  And occasionally, smarter.

The AI still have no idea how to react to a fleet of raid starships, even on level 10. I keep up the attack conventionally and build a series of nearly impenetrable defenses. Then I send my fleet of raid starships and engineers through several systems to raid their home planet. They'll send a few of their starships to attack, I just move in, attack, move out- have engineers heal up again. Rinse and repeat. Then I attack the guard posts - using the Raid Starship's ability to get AI ships to chase me, and kill them. Eventually it gets to the point of whittling down 20000 enemy ships where I can pull an Ender on the AI and just charge straight for the core command and take them out while absorbing losses. Before I finish off the first AI I can split my raid starships and micro them at the same time. The Raid starhips may have relatively low hp but once i get inside the enemy forcefield it forces the AI to attack my raid starships outright, and I can have them dance out of range again. This whole strategy works unless I'm playing against gravity-well AI.

Pic related:

Not to scale. If there are enough AI ships they may glitch through the forcefields, but nothing enough tractor beam turrets can't handle. Make sure to leave clear paths for those BLOODY trains. I have other ships/units in there like mines, etc. This setup can defend a chokepoint from pretty much anything. Except a fleet of raid starships.

[Pandarsenic]

I'll do a 5 and a 6 first, I suppose.

[Draco18s]

You forgot the Gravitational turrets (slows all units speed to 2 at Mk2, which you can turn off if you want to fly YOUR ships through) and the Radar Jammer (Mk2) keeping the AI's ships from even FIRING AT the tractor beam turrets.

Also, with such a setup, you don't need the FF-generators (or the MRSs), just a half dozen remains rebuilders.  Add a black hole generator for super-impenetrable system (ships CAN'T LEAVE).

Yes.  I've done this.

List:
189 Tractor
96 Tractor Mk2
85 Tractor Mk3
20 Flak
219 Basic Turrets
194 MLRS
138 MLRS Mk2
One player's worth of Heavy Beam Cannons (Mk1 to Mk4, as they were unlocked).
Planetary Shield Booster
Planetary Shield Inhibitor
Black Hole Machine
2 Grav Turret Mk2
Radar Jammer Mk2
A Super fortresses

I should note, however, that this was all on the singular planet between our home systems and the AI.  There was no other way in, so we didn't need to worry about running out of turrets.  Galactic corners (one chokepoint) are generally not advised, as a wave will be MUCH larger than most defenses can handle, whereas if you split the defenses in two and then split the waves in two...they're manageable.  However, we'd build this system up over a long period of time while taking the full sixth of the galaxy (13 planets of 80) we were sequestering ourselves in.  Such corners are rare, though, so don't turret the hell out of one point and have a weak front elsewhere.

[umiman]