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IDProjectCategoryLast Update
0024452AI War 2Balance IssueFeb 23, 2021 3:20 pm
ReporterArnaudB Assigned ToChris_McElligottPark  
Severityminor 
Status resolvedResolutionfixed 
Product VersionBeta 2.742 Hacking Balance 
Fixed in VersionBeta 2.746 Release The Warden 
Summary0024452: Magedrifter diff10 win - Stupid warden and too late Marking up
DescriptionSo, pure 10 got beaten by Magedrifter on the last beta., in 6h39.

The points:
-Playing low AIP (hugging the floor) truly is the way to beat diff10. Maybe make IA get mark III much earlier, since hitting the Homeworld at Mark II give an IMMENSE advantage (lower mark for hunter, warden and praetorian ships).
-The warden has a bad case of stupid. A large amount of strength of the warden get stuck next to a player planet, usually a choke, and proceed to spend the entire game here. Often if you avoid killing the warden this way, you can get a hundred to five hundreds strength chilling while you're working on grinding your way through the galaxy. I'd suggest forcing the Warden periodically to fall back toward the core planets then pick new options, maybe during the CPA so the player can't take advantage of it too much.
-Nerfing the harmonic might need to be considered, the subverter too, as apparently with how "easy" it's to get them compared to before the game is much easier. Alternatively, raising energy cost of all turrets a bit might be warranted. This option requires further testing.
-Wave becomes pretty trivial at a point, though I think that's a mix of playing low-AIP at the floor and AI Mark II being too low. To my knowledge, Mark III becomes a lot more difficult. It might be warranted to make wormholes invasion come more frequently and earlier on diff10, as Magedrifter was able to see to his energy need with a cluster that he didn't need to defend behind his choke.

On the upside, hacking points seem right. He managed to spend them all, didn't use warp gate hacking due to failing to know it existed, only picked the first hack boost for his Lones and he found the Lone/officers useful and worth the AIP even on diff10.

He also didn't use Raid at all, instead going Exotic, artillery and something I don't remember. Given Raid took the spot in the last diff10 victories, this is good news for the game's variety.

*Another possibility to make higher difficulty properly challenging: make Shark B on by default for higher AI difficulty. (Shark B gives the AI ships to "go for the throat" when a command station dies.) Magedrifter reported that he beat CPA by sacrificing his logistical station and holding his military choke with his fleet, then finished off the weakened remnants before taking back his planets.
This would be doubly useful to appropriately "punish" scrapping and rebuilding command stations, without some arbitrary timer or awkward mechanic. It'd be a nice limitations to station swapping and cheese with rebuilding military station all over a planet, while still allowing players to use that option for planets they take the AIP for.


I provided his save shared in discord below.
TagsNo tags attached.

Activities

ArnaudB

Feb 19, 2021 11:55 am

manager  

charge.save (1,295,452 bytes)

Chris_McElligottPark

Feb 23, 2021 3:20 pm

administrator   ~0060615

Okay, 2.746 has all the possible things we could want to make things more interesting for him at this level, now. We'll need a new diff 10 win and a new save, I think, if the bug is to be reopened. Hopefully that won't happen for a while, though. :)

Issue History

Date Modified Username Field Change
Feb 19, 2021 11:55 am ArnaudB New Issue
Feb 19, 2021 11:55 am ArnaudB File Added: charge.save
Feb 19, 2021 12:35 pm ArnaudB Description Updated
Feb 23, 2021 3:20 pm Chris_McElligottPark Assigned To => Chris_McElligottPark
Feb 23, 2021 3:20 pm Chris_McElligottPark Status new => resolved
Feb 23, 2021 3:20 pm Chris_McElligottPark Resolution open => fixed
Feb 23, 2021 3:20 pm Chris_McElligottPark Fixed in Version => Beta 2.746 Release The Warden
Feb 23, 2021 3:20 pm Chris_McElligottPark Note Added: 0060615