Phase Jump Disco Hopscotch Patty Cake

I was wondering if anyone who has played against the normal ai/hard ai has noticed this. I was playing Singleplayer last night, (mind you I'd rather play MP, but we get a we'rd game crash dump error, when our systems are 100% stable and up to date), and after colonizing an outer desert planet that was next to a wormhole and also a choke point, I started to build it up. Well, of course, I get no real attacks from the ai so I continue on my way upgrading tech and planets.

After I had a very sizeable force built up and good tech I went forward to blow some stuff up, this is where the problems come in. This was a 3 person FFA, 2 computers and me. I would go to the wormhole just to find the ai chilling in the wormhole doing nothing, then instantly deciding to target me. They didn't have an alliance or anything that I was aware of. Now mind you I was able to handle both their fleets so I started micro'in to attack and kill their capitol ships. I managed to kill 2 of about 7, but then they all retreat into the wormhole. I follow them and then the come back to the other wormhole. So then I have to follow and they end up destroying an astroid.

My problem comes down to this. The computer hopscotches like a bunch of punk ferrywinkles. Not just in wormholes, but also with phase jumps. I'll phase jump a fleet and the instant my phase jump starts, they are phase jumping a full fleet into the planet I'm leaving. I phase back, they retreat and don't fight, even though they have a force almost the same size as mine. The computer will never fight me if it has even 1 less ship then me. That does not seem like it desirable gameplay mechanic. It wouldn't be so bad if I weren't phase jumping back and forth the ENTIRE GAME.

In fact, the only time I kill his forces is if I phase ontop of him and kill his capitol ships before they can retreat. I've also noticed I can bait them by sending in weaker forces ahead and letting them think they can go rape the force, then phase jumping on top, but again, they instantly retreat, many times before a battle can even begin.

I then went to attack one AI player, well, of course the instant I phased to kill his planet, the other ai player, orange, would come and attack my now empty planet, I return, he runs. Wash, rinse, repeat. It is very frustrating. I would notice that sometimes the two ai would attack eachother, so they definitely had no alliances, but I never saw them attack each other's planets.

In closing, I absolutely HATE, DESPISE, LOATHE, the phase jump hopscotch you have to play with the computer. I realize now that if I want to beat the computer I have to have 3 fleets, 1 for attacking and 2 for defending when the computers decide to team up 90% of the time in an FFA.

Anyone else notice something like this? Have any useful or at least non-troll comments? I'll take constructive criticism. I realize I shoulda had 2 fleets and that woulda saved me a lot of headache, but damn the hopping around instantly crap.
8,761 views 2 replies
Reply #1 Top
Well, later into the game you could get some phase jump disrupters around your important planets, this will severely slow down your opponent's phase jumping, allowing you to take down some of his ships.

On top of that you could consider getting a flagship with the ability to prevent an enemy ship from phasejumping. (Allows you to quickly gank that battleship :))

I don't have much experience playing the AI though since I find the game a lot more enjoyable in multiplayer so that's the only 'advice' that I can give you.


I'd like to add though that I do think it'd be interesting if there was a bigger delay on phase jumping, at least for the larger ships. This way you wouldn't be able to just jump into a planet's gravity well mindlessly, go "oops" and jump back out instantly.
Reply #2 Top
I completely agree with you on the delay for at least bigger ships on phase jumping. Thanks for the comments. I was playing as Advent BTW, (go figure I played as eldar in Warhammer 40k, Aeon in Supreme Commander, lol ). When you say you play multiplayer, do you use ironclad's MP or do you do a lan or direct ip connect with friends? I ask that specifically because my friends keep getting a dump error that makes the game exit. I guess thats a topic for another day, just I haven't seen anyone else posting about dumps and the game exiting in MP only.