Entrenchment = easy mode ON?

from Sins Forums

I'm kind of a rookie player so try not to be too harsh on me.

Me and a friend started playing cooperative games against AI about a week ago.  Pre-Entrenchment it was pretty easy to find a balance between fun and challenging.  Then we dl'd Entrenchment.

In a multiple star galaxy my partner would build 2 starbases in our star grav well.  I would hop over to new star system, place 1 or 2 starbases in the grav well, and then we wouldn't see any enemy ships for 3 hours.  As soon as enemy ships fly past a starbase they engage.  Mostly anything other than scouts or seige boats.  The enemy AI basically suicides small fleets with 2 caps and 10-20 support ships into our starbases.  I spent 2 hours colonizing a 30 planet system with almost no resistance to speak of whatsoever. 

The last game we played was a 4 star, 59 planet game.  There was 2 of us on a team, and we put all 4 enemy AI players on the same team.  All of them on Aggressor tactics, 2 of them normal, 2 of them hard.  There was absolutely no challenge whatsoever.  All enemy craft would suicide themselves on any starbase we put in their path.

If I flew into a grav well with 2 enemy starbases, and I wasn't loaded for bear with a sizeable fleet, I would jump out of the system and keep on going.  The enemy AI doesn't do this. 

It seems our only option is to continue cranking up the AI and the number of enemy AI players we fight against.  At some point they overwhelm us too early before we can get defenses up and get anything researched.  But, if we can get a starbase built, it's pretty much game over.  No challenge.

I guess my question is does anyone know if this is a common complaint, that there might be a future patch for?  Am I the only one annoyed by this?  A well configured starbase can easily wipe a small fleet with 3 capital ships.  And they just keep suiciding all of their units into our starbases.  It's kind of dumb.

 

9,413 views 16 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

how do you build more than one SB in a GravWell. Should not be possible.

Also, try a singlestar-system. It will make entrenching a littlemore challenging.

olli

 

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting ollibert, reply 1
how do you build more than one SB in a GravWell. Should not be possible.

Also, try a singlestar-system. It will make entrenching a littlemore challenging.

olli

 
End of ollibert's quote

You can build up to 4 starbases in the gravwell of the star.

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Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top

OMG, I had NO idae after all this time you could build more than one SB in a star's GW.  And I was in the beta (blush).

 

Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top

Hi!

All enemy craft would suicide themselves on any starbase we put in their path.
End of quote

AI stands for Artificial Idiot. ;) It will not adapt. If you want to have fun, you need to do that. Just stop using more than one SB in any grav well and you should be OK.

BR,  Iztok

Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top

Hm, the ai is pretty bad at taking on Starbases. They also have trouble with Marza's lvl 6 Missile Barrage. In fact, I've held off even unfair AI's with a Starbase and a Marza. There are a few things that the AI struggle with. I find it funny the amount of effort the AI will go to capture neutral extractors.

Anyways, to answer you question, yes this is kind of a common complaint and Ironclad is always working on ways to improve the AI. Up the difficulty and the number of AI and you will eventually find that balance. The AI will eventually start building Anti-Structure cruisers that will really hurt your Starbase.

Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top

My experience is that the AI is reacting to starbases in planet's gravity wells in a good way. Just not to SBs at stars, they fly straight through, even if that means getting shot to space junk by 4 SBs :-(

The AI really needs some routines to fly around or engage those!

Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top

Sounds like you need to check out teh internets. Ironclad Online. Play against other humans. That's the only fun way to play, IMO.

Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top

Try playing online - humans aren't that stupid!!!! :D

Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top

I have to correct myself: yesterday the AI directly attacked my star-starbase :-) Even destroyed it. I'm not sure though what was different from the other games? Maybe the medium random as opposed to the small random map.

Also: an AI fleet got into my space through a wormhole and split up instantly to attack two adjecent planets. Pretty good!

Reply #10 from Sins Forums Top

In all honesty, the biggest threat to any starbase (especially one covered by repair bays and other defenses) is a TEC AI's Ogrov spam. I played an Advent game once and was able to beat 2 enemy fleets attacking at the same time since Meteor just hits everything. And then a TEC AI jumped in with 35 Ogrovs. I kid you not. 35! No Starbase can live through that, meteor cooldown isn't short enough to have enough time :P

Carrier swarms also cause problems since stationaries still aren't that great against massed bombers, but in many cases you can just destroy the AI carriers and wait for their squads to blow up before your starbase does (I had an Orkulus barely survive at 200 hull hp once waiting for that to happen :P)

Reply #11 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Hack78, reply 8
Try playing online - humans aren't that stupid!!!!
End of Hack78's quote

dont be so sure about that.......

online = getting annoying imho   carriers.. flak... illums  thats about it.. no challenge either

but yeah.. it beats Single player...

Reply #12 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Annatar11, reply 10
I played an Advent game once and was able to beat 2 enemy fleets attacking at the same time since Meteor just hits everything.
End of Annatar11's quote

Yeah, you feel funny the first time you destroy two entire fleets with meteor strike. sadly, i am pretty sure it will be nerfed soon :'(

Mass disorientation is quite fun too : seeing a battleship making three loopings in a row is a lot of fun :thumbsup:

Reply #13 from Sins Forums Top

Well... some humans are that stupid O:)

In any case, playing against another human becomes a complete different experience. Not better nor worse, but very different.

Yes, it is more challenging, but at least for me, the game becomes a merciless race to crush your oponent with no room for error. Sure it can be gratifying and adrenaline inducing; but I wouldn't call the experience leisury or immersive.

The reason I like games like SOASE is because as a fan of sci-fi, I like to feel immersed in an alternative universe where i can play different scenarios and roleplay to a degree. With all its limitations, only the AI allows me to do that; plus allowing me to take my time and hit the "pause" button whenever real life comes calling in (which it does very often).

 

Reply #14 from Sins Forums Top

I don't know about that, had an intense battle with TEC AI on hard. We were bothing racing to each other's homeplanet, eventually we were both 2 planets away. I started to set up a defense, everything, mines, turrets and starbase upgrades. I built the jumpgate thing, forgot what those were called for the vasiari so i can send my main fleet to defened. This was it, the battle that determined it all. If i loose, i have no fleet to defend or attack with. If he loose, he has no main fleet. At the dned of the battle, almost nothing lived. I only had a starbase at 15% hp left and 25 ships left out of 150, he outnumbered me with about 225 : /. I was able to rebuild before him and pushed for his homeplanet before he surrendered after one last desperate defense. The AI has itss momments.

Reply #15 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Nabatam, reply 13
Yes, it is more challenging, but at least for me, the game becomes a merciless race to crush your oponent with no room for error. Sure it can be gratifying and adrenaline inducing; but I wouldn't call the experience leisury or immersive.

The reason I like games like SOASE is because as a fan of sci-fi, I like to feel immersed in an alternative universe where i can play different scenarios and roleplay to a degree. With all its limitations, only the AI allows me to do that; plus allowing me to take my time and hit the "pause" button whenever real life comes calling in (which it does very often).

 
End of Nabatam's quote

you read my mind ! :thumbsup:

Reply #16 from Sins Forums Top

Yeah, two starbases in a star's grav well is a safe and sure way to stop AI invasions of your star system forever.

 

The game and game mechanics advanced, but the AI did not follow.

 

It has also a tendency to build excessive amounts of scouts in the middle and late game for some reasons.

 

 

BTW: What was the reasons that we can build up to 4 star bases in a star's grav well, but only 1 in the well of planet? 4 Starbases are monstrous.