Devnull AAR
 

I'll try an AAR

The setup:

devnull 1.71
simultaneous turns

2000 point game
medium tech cost
1 good planet start
low technology start

FQM WPM Paradise Galaxy
Medium (but I'll generate one that has a good amount of systems)
No ruins


AIs

cue cappa
drushocka
fazrah
praetorian
norak
xi'chung

No neutrals
No space monsters this time around
Hard AI Difficulty (of course)
Medium AI Bonus (I'd like them ahead of me but not too far ahead, wish there was an x4)


To make things more challenging for an AI game, I did the following:

Change atmosphere of everyone to oxygen (AI not good at race management and too easy to steal ai ships)
Also use all rock planet types, for an added twist
No Trade (but surrender allowed)
Tweaked some of the weaker AI designs (Praetorian and Fazrah)


My Empire:
str 80
int 112
cunning 82
env resist 80
reproduction 110
happiness 105
aggressiveness 112
defensiveness 107
political savvy 50
mining 105
farming 90
refining 90
construction 120
repair 80
maint 110

Merchants
Organic
Advanced Storage Techniques

Plan to min-max to an extent, but not too much so it'll be more of a challenge.

Cosmetics:
Shadri shipset, but change the race picture to use ur-quan.
Not planning to act like ur-quan in the game, just enjoy the picture.

I don't plan on any involved story here, this will be more of a gameplay AAR.


Plan for early turns:

Build three base space yards
Retrofit space yards with a few storage components, siphon off some population for filling colonizers

Have space yards building colonizers
Homeworld will build colonizers, then small transports with sat launchers

What other worlds build will depend on what I find http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Research (general idea, I'll try to list the exact order I research during updates)
Base Intel projects (of course), Propulsion to 3
Organic Tech, Organic Weapons 2
External Mounted Missiles (for sats to guard warp points on borders)
Fighters, Small Weapons 2

Re: Devnull AAR
 

2400.0

Home system has a med and large non breather, plus two huge ice and gas, some assorted moons, 1 star.
It has 3 warp points and is at the lower middle left edge of the map.

---

built bsy, which built another bsy
built colonizer
colonize large non breather in system, build mineral storage (for now)

---

2401.0 - Explored 3 systems. One of them (two away from homesystem) has a huge and large breathable,
another has medium and tiny breather, 3rd has no breathers.
Will colonize huge and large breathers to develop resources, and tiny breather for storage (it is moon of huge oxy gas, so later on it will be protected even if it has space port on it).
Other planets in the system I plan to back fill later.

2402.0 - Colonized many (9) breathable with 2 more on the way. Most are large or bigger. Building space yards on some, while others I'm building research and mining. I think I'll start balancing development a little higher than exploration. The way the system branches out, there is only one area where further exploration won't cause me to have to split my (non existant) warp point defenses.



research:
basic intel
human intel
propulsion 2
external missles 1
propulsion 3 (completed 2400.5)
organic engineering (completed 2401.1)
repair (just something quick so I can get to ...)
organic weapons 1 (completed 2401.6)
ship construction 2
organic weaspon 2 (completed 2402.2)
small weapons 1
construction


No contact yet. I have a couple space yards coming online, I will probably build colonizers with those and fill in the systems. My homeworld is building small transports with satelite deployers. I think I'll switch to a smaller hull because I'm not building sats that fast. But the smaller transports double as pop transports, which will be helpful.

I'm building sats with 7 external missles (seeking parasite II). These are ok for wp defense, but definitely need to be supplemented (they can be on the wrong side of a warp point and not be able to hit the enemies). I'm hoping to get fighters researched reasonably soon to help them out.

Re: Devnull AAR
 

2403.0

No contact yet. I'm a little suprised, but happy as it gives me more time to build up. I'm starting to get ships headed to lay sats at wps, but
nothing is up yet. Two turns to fighters as well. Pumping out colonizers to fill in systems - FQM paradise gives a lot of planets!



2404.0

Still no contact. It will be embarresing if I screwed something up and the AIs arn't active. I have all but two warp points covered with at least some defense, and those two have ships enroute.
Since I have breathing room, and I'm swimming in resources currently, I'll start developing a monolith economy.

research

basic intel
human intel
propulsion 2
external missles 1
propulsion 3 (2400.5)
organic engineering (2401.1)
repair (just something quick so I can get to ...)
organic weapons 1 (2401.6)
ship construction
organic weaspon 2 (2402.2)
small weapons 1
construction
small weapons 2
fighters (completed 2403.2)
Military Science
Ship Construction 3
Point-Defense Weapons 1
Combat Support
Point-Defense Weapons 2
Ship Construction 4
Point-Defense Weapons 3
Organic Technology 1
Monolithic Construction 1
Propulsion 4
Cargo 2
Propulsion 5
Organic Weapons 3
Smaller Weapons 3
Propulsion 6

Re: Devnull AAR
 

Check your F2->players screen. Make sure the AIs aren't all neutrals.

(You can tell a neutral because their flags are nothing but a smoothly blended colour stripe with no symbols or anything)

Re: Devnull AAR
 

I looked at some of the screens but they did not show anything for races until you've encountered them. I'll try the f2 one just to be sure. At any rate, I'm sure they are not neutrals since I added them manually.

I logged in as one of the AIs (praetorian) and it had expanded some, so they are out there. Luckily that AI wasn't close to seeing its position shouldn't ruin the suspense http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif


More Research:


Organic Technology 2
Physics
Repair 2
Shields 1
Sensors 1
Engine Overloading Weapons 1
Deep Space Mining 1
Shield 2
Engine Overloading Weapons 2
Industry
Shields 3
Engine Overloading Weapons 3
Applied Research 1
Computers 1
Point Defense Weapons 4
Shields 4

I've had over 50 turns of build up. I'm starting to build LC en masse. I wonder how close to MEE I'm getting...

Re: Devnull AAR
 

I played about twenty more turns and still no contact. After that I gave up and logged in as the computer players. Turns out they were fairly bunched up on the other side of the map and I'd easily cover a 3rd of the quadrant before making contact. That would be fairly boring so I started over. This time and AI and I had homeworlds right next to each other http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif I don't want to play a game like that either.

Am I doing something wrong with the "Evenly Spread Players Across The Quadrant" setting? The last thing I do is generate the map (so I don't get ruins), do I need to add AIs after I generate the map so they get placed evenly?

Anyways I'll try some more games and once I have something reasonable, I'll restart this AAR.

Re: Devnull AAR
 

*sigh* I sympathize. The quest for The Perfect Game is a long and arduous one. I'm on my ninth experiment against the AIs; never got past turn 100 before deciding to try again with altered parameters. Yet each failure brings us a step closer to ultimate success, Grasshopper. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif

Re: Devnull AAR
 

I will try some more tonight http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Devnull AAR
 

Here are the new settings I am playing with. I may have the numbers for my race slightly off, I changed them alot. I also did some min/max'd all the AIs (nothing really extreme).

Turn Based

wpm standard paradise

1 good planet start
3000 point races

praetorian
norak
fazrah
xi'chung
drushocka
cue cappa
toltayan


Advanced Storage Tech
Organic

str 80
int 120
cunning 82
env resist 80
reproduction 110
happiness 110
aggressiveness 112
defensiveness 107
political savvy 50

mining 110
farming 100
refining 100
construction 120
repair 80
maint 110

---


First contact - fazrah on 2401.3. The xi'chung showed up a little bit later. Both have declared war on me. The fazrah have glassed a couple of small planets, but I'm beating them back using frigates armed with seeking parasite II. It is fun trying to fight a war and expand this early on. My main priority now is to get some missile sats at the warp points to give me a little breathing room.


Research

Basic Intel 1
Human Intel 1
Propulsion 2
External Mount Missile Weapons 1
Propulsion 3
Organic Engineering
Ship Construction 2
Organic Weapons 1
Repair 1
Organic Weapons 2
Military Science 1

Re: Devnull AAR
 

The AI beat me http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif I was doing a decent job of fighting off the fazrah, but then the Xi'Chung came at me in force, and that finished me off. So, I've started a new game, which is going better.

---


Turn Based (I like tactical combat a lot, although the 'everyone moves at once' part of Simultaneous is definitely cool)

wpm standard paradise

1 good planet start
3000 point races

praetorian
fazrah
xi'chung
drushocka
cue cappa
toltayan
norak


Advanced Storage Tech
Organic

str 80
int 120
cunning 82
env resist 80
reproduction 110
happiness 110
aggressiveness 112
defensiveness 107
political savvy 50

mining 110
farming 100
refining 100
construction 120
repair 80
maint 110

--

encountered Xi'Chung early on. They were fielding frigates with capitol missile 1. Not much fighting but they had some succesful intel attacks (ship bomb, cargo bomb). I get a kick out of taunting them with various demands and threats in the diplomacy screens http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif


encountered praetorian shortly after Xi'Chung. they wanted a treaty but I'm not interested. they refused to fight the Xi'Chung for me as well. they mostly fly a ship or two between one of my systems. I plan to put up sats on the wp top stop this.


Put up missile sats on the wp the Xi'Chung were using, but by this time they seemed focused on intel - I havn't seen a ship of theirs for awhile.
I Have decent development in 2 systems, and starting development in 3 others.


Encountered toltayan. I declared war, since I may want to expand in that direction. So far we have left each other alone.

About to complete fighters, I sent a colony ship through the toltayan border, and see a fazrah ship. I wonder if they are at war.
I've found the Xi'Chung homeworld, a few systems below mine. I may decide to expand that way instead. I currently have six systems fairly well developed.

2405.0 - I forgot to write dates down earlier. Still have six systems, but developing a seventh. Mass producing fighters to fortify warp point defenses, as well as an invasion.
Xi'Chung broke through one of my warp points with a carrier. The carrier was destroyed by missile sattelites but it managed to release 2 groups of 10 fighters that destroyed the sats.
However, I have been successful in containing the system using my own fighters, and am about to take the warp point back.
In prepartion for invasion I am building a fleet of carriers, but I also need to build support ships with pdc (for mines) and supply - I'd like some solar panels.



---

Research:

Basic Intel 1
Human Intel 1
Propulsion 2
External Mount Missile Weapons 1
Propulsion 3
Organic Engineering
Ship Construction 2
Organic Weapons 1
Repair 1
Organic Weapons 2
Military Science 1
Planetary Weapons 1
Small Weapons 1
Point-Defense Weapons 1
Small Weapons 2
Point-Defense Weapons 2
Combat Support 1
Construction

Re: Devnull AAR
 

2406.2 - encountered drushocka. judging from the warppoint they came in through, they may be warring (or allied) with the praetorian. I'm not worried about them yet, the warppoint is defended fairly well with sats and fighters. Next turn, I should start invading the Xi'Chung. I need more worlds to expand my research faster.

2406.3 - move into Xi'Chung system through warppoint at (4,0). Their defense consists of a bunch of missile sats. Lost a couple carriers and a sattelite transport, plus 1 carrier damaged. I still have a large enough force to contain the system. Leave some fighters and the damaged carrier to guard that warppoint (I have a repair ship en route), move the rest of the fleet to cut off the other warppoint at (12,4).
The system has 8 colonized planets, but 6 of them are tiny moons. There is a small moon and one large planet. There is only one frigate in the system, so as long as too many reinforcements don't show up before I cut off hte other warppoint (nebula system on the other side), I should be ok. I plan to glass all the planets and recolonize.

2406.4 - A second Xi'Chung system entered the system before I got to the warppoint. Glassed 2 out of 3 tiny moons in a sector with minor damage. Ran out of time to finish off the third moon in that sector.

2406.5 - Destroyed one of the frigates in the system. The other wants to escape but is blocked by my wp defenses. Sent fighters to glass a tiny planet, which succeeded. Then sent my fleet to a sector with 2 tiny moons, but here I make a mistake. The moons have some fighters, but I'm out of them in the carriers in my fleet! So I wind up having to ram the enemy fighters. No losses, but heavy damage. At this point I don't even bother attacking the planets, the fighters did too much damage.

Meanwhile I warp another carrier with a full load of fighters in as backup. I'll have some more on the way.

In another note, the toltayan warps a carrier sized ship with a talisman(!) through. My warp point defenses handle it with no trouble, but I'm worried about how far along they are in technology. I think I will need to build up my blockades.

2406.6 - Expend some fighters in destroying the last tiny moon in the first sector I attacked. Sent empty carriers back into my system to pick up fighters. Xi'Chung frigate has moved towards large planet, perhaps to defend or resupply.

2406.7 - Drushocka send some drones through, which destroy some of my fighters as they are tough for me to hit. Xi'Chung test some of my other systems with single ships but are dealt with easily. They also sent an intel attack my way but I've built up a large reserve.

Carriers, laden with fighters, are returning to the system I'm invading. For this turn I wait for them to reach the rest of my fleet.

I am getting close to having enough ships gathered for a second large fleet to attack the Xi'Chung in another sector.

2406.8 - Destroyed the colonies on the remaining two tiny moons (where I screwed up before). Set ships on course for Xi'Chung large planet and its moon. I have a couple repair ships in the system to catch up with the damaged fleet.


Research Continued:

Repair 2
Fighters 1
Ship Construction 3
Point-Defense Weapons 3
Monolithic Construction 1
Organic Technology 1
Astrophysics
Physics
Stellar Harnessing 1
Tractor/Repulsor Weapons 1
Shields 1
Stellar Harnessing 2
Propulsion 4
Shields 2
Propulsion 5
Sensors 1
Applied Research 1
Planetary Engineering 1
Cargo 2
Planet Utilization 1
Organic Weapons 3
Planetary Utilization 2
Smaller Weapons 3
Satellites 2


I'm going out of town today so I probably will not have another update until next week.

Re: Devnull AAR
 

Some of my research and gameplay choices may seem odd or sub-optimal. I am trying to do several things with this game.

1. I have played a few devnull games but I am not that familiar with it. Also I havn't played the game at all for sometime, and have forgotten a lot. So some of this is just learning about the game and mod.

2. The most enjoyable game for me is one where I have to struggle, but eventually overcome the AI. To that end, I am purposefully not going for a more optimal research/gameplay choices. If I focused more on weapons, ships, and I could probably out expand and overwhelm the AI. Instead I am trying to research things I havn't used much before and not expanding as much. Hopefully this will give me a greater challenge by letting the AI build up and use its bonus, and making me use technologies I don't normally use.

Satellites are a decent example here. Normally I do not use them too much, but in there they compose a good portion of my warp point defenses (with fighters being the other big part). devnull has 'external mounted missile weapons' which are 1 shot seekers that only take up 10kt of space. Putting these on my sats can be fairly effective in warp point defense against ships (unles you get bad positining). Since seekers cannot target fighters, I've also added some anti fighter rockets (in devnull normal pdc doesn't target fighters, but you get another high damage version that can). Alongside my own fighters (to overcome the sat mobility issue), this makes for decent maint free wp defense. These same sats can also be effective in tactical combat where you can do things like position sats just outside of a planets range or run your sat carriers ahead of your fleet, drop the sats, and have them retreat.

Its not pefect, but thats where the fun (struggle but triumph) comes in. So I decided to research sats 2 and try to use them even more, maybe with some direct fire weapons as well.


Another thing I normally wouldn't do is to research planet utilization and stellar manip. early on, but since I don't want to expand too fast, I'm going to squeeze what I can out of the planets I do have.

Re: Devnull AAR
 

2407.0 - lots of border activity. a praetorian fighter carrier almost broke through at one waypoint - some fighters there were away being refueled so I was undermanned.
Glassed the remaining Xi'Chung planets and frigate in the system. Sent colonizers in to repopulate.


2407.1 - The toltayans push hard on my borders, destroying some fighters and a couple missile sats with a group of 3 talisman equipped cruisers. I need to increase how those are fortified. Meanwhile, I'm concerned about stealth armor ships, so will research military science again.


2407.5 - My fear about cloaking was justified - Drushocka attacks one of my planets with 4 cloaked drones. Luckily I had some weapons platforms and fighters to defend. I'm making sure all my important planets are similarly equipped.
I am moving my first fleet (the one that took the Xi'Chung system) to refuel and then engage the toltayans. My second fleet is complete and is moving to attempt to capture another Xi'Chung system.

2407.6 - Invaded 2nd Xi'Chung System. There is currently a large battle going on between them and the Praetorians. The praetorians are closer so I attack them first.
Fought off more drushocka stealth drones -- moved a few ships to guard the planets in the system where they've broken through. Gathering up a few more ships (need some more minesweepers), and will move through toltayan system in a few turns.


Research:

Ship Construction 4
External Mount Missile Weapons 2
Shields 3
Tractor/Repulsor Weapons 2
Military Science 2
Organic Technology 2
Advanced Military Science 1
Industry
Advanced Military Science 2
sensors 2
Advanced Military Science 3
Propulsion 6

Re: Devnull AAR
 

2407.8 - Destroyed large Xi'Chung fleet with minimal damage. Headed to small breathable planet to create colony as base for securing the rest of the system.
I realize that I'm making way more resources than I'm using. So for I've just been building storage containers, but after reading some stuff on the forums, I'm now building 5 more space yards http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

2408.0 - Created colony in Xi'Chung system. Building a weapons platform, then a refueling station is next in the queue.
Warped 2nd fleet into Toltayan system - 44 mines swept - and am heading towards most populate planet, a tiny breathable.

2408.1 - Destroyed Toltayan breathable planet, along with a mine layer and four transport ships.

2408.2 - Yikes! A praetorian fleet of 5 battleships(!) and a few cruisers warps in and cleans out my defense. However, they take heavy damage from my missile sats. I send a carrier with fighters at them, which manages to destroy everything except for two BBs. One BB is heavily damaged, but the other BB is unharmed, and destroys my carrier and fighters without any significant damage. I have every planet in that system building fighters, for defense and to plug the warp point.

I glass another planet in the Toltayan system. This had a space yard, war shrine, and death shrine, but only had some space stations with missiles and a few missle weapons platforms guarding it. In the Xi'Chung system, I destroy a couple cruisers and a carrier that were near my colony.

I now have a level 2 hyper optics sat in nearly every system I control, so stealth armor cloaking should no longer be an issue.

2408.3 - Attempted to drive out the praetorian BB as well as a drushocka heavy cruiser that came through the warphole this turn. However, I get crushed. I don't have the staying power to get close enough to the long range weapons. I realize I'm rather behind in the tech race! I'll get fighers 2 next turn, hopefully that will help to some extent.

Warp through to another toltayan system, looking for better targets. Notice they have ice colonizers now, as there is an huge oxygen ice planet they have colonized. I will wait at the warp point to take care of any ships that follow me, and attempt to glass it next turn.

2408.4 - Luckily, the praetorian bb is going back, either to refuel or to fight elsewhere. The drushocka heavy cruiser is trying to go through another warp point, but I've reinfoced that and hopefully it will hold. However the troops are on the entrance side.

2408.5 - The drushocka cruiser takes the bait and is destroyed at the warp point http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

I glass the toltayan extra huge ice planet (I forgot the turn before)


2408.7 - Drushocka has been sendin drones through fairly regularly, but now they come in with a small fleet, through the same warp point that the praetorian fleet came in. They are possibly allied. I dispatch the fleet but do wind up taking some damage.

2408.9 - The 2nd Xi'Chung system is a mess. The praetorians, the Xi'Chung, and I all have a colony. Lots of ships have met their fate there. I'm having trouble reinforcing my own fleet due to pressure at other warp points from the drushocka and praetorian.
On the other side of the map, I'm returning the toltayan fleet for retrofitting. I have another smaller fleet in the system now. After some retrofitting, I should be able to blockade that system off and colonize it.
Building fighers and cruisers like crazy. Running a large mineral deficit, but I'll have minerals 2 researched in another 2 turns, which will hopefully help.



Research:

Advanced Military Science 4
Planetary Utilization 3
Fighters 2
Stellar Manipulation 1
Ship Construction 5
Organic Weapons 4
Deep Space Mining 1
Mineral Extraction 2
Stellar Harnessing 3
Combat Support 2

Re: Devnull AAR
 

Do you recall the construction details of the Praetorian BBs? I'm curious as to how they compare with BBs by another AI, the Narn.

Re: Devnull AAR
 

2409.3 - I have nearly secured the Toltayan system. There are no enemy ships in the system currently and I have one warphole guarded, and a large fleet 1 sector away. Providing that the toltayans don't have too many ships enter the sector next turn, I should seal it off and begin colonizing.
The toltayan ships are tough to fight, they are bigger, faster, and have better range, and talismans. I take heavy casualities when fighting them (except in warphole ambushes). Luckily, I have a lot of ships to lose http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

The praetorians are ahead in the 2nd Xi'Chung system. They have over twenty BB and light carriers in the system. I have a decent sized fleet but very outdated ships. I am building a 2nd fleet but I'm not sure how good it will be. The Xi'Chung have one planet left and one ship in that system. Their homeworld is in a neighboring system, but I havn't seen in there for awhile.

Wow: The praetorians send most of their ships through the warphole into my system. All are destroyed. I take some damage, but compared to their losses it is minor. It will be interesting to see if the Xi'Chung will be able to recover from this.

Research:
Computers 1
Deep Space Mining 2
Shields 4
Stellar Manipulation 2


I can l

Re: Devnull AAR
 

I'll take a look at the combat reports in my turn. I think I recall 6 or 8 PPBs as their main weapons, but I could be mistaken. I'm not aware of the Narn AI being available for devnull (but if it is, can you point me to it?), so the comparison might be a little off.

Re: Devnull AAR
 

I was mistaken http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

5 Engines
1 Heavy Mount Shield Depleter
5 Heavy Mount Anti Proton Beams
3 PDC
2 Anti-fighter Missile
2 Shield
1 Scattering Armor
1 Combat Sensors
1 ECM
1 Multiplex
1 Engineering Dept

Re: Devnull AAR
 

Thanks. The Narn are in the TDM Modpack; they're one of my opponents in a stock game against 5 AIs. Despite losing their home world, the Narn in my game got to battleships before I did. Coupled with their Talisman, the Narn PPBs gave me fits until I developed phased shields.

Typical Narn BB:

5 Ion Engine III (slow!)
1 Master Computer
6-7 Heavy Mount PPB V (dang!)
1 Talisman (yikes!)
2-3 PDC
3-4 Shield V (useless against my PPBs, muahahaha!)
1 ECM I or II
1 MultiTrack

So far the Narn are the only AI in the game to use PPBs. Now that I have phased shields, they should switch to APBs and take advantage of their perfect gunnery at long range.

If PPB vs shields works the same in Devnull as in stock, I would think the Praetorians would do better with all PPBs and no shield depleter on their BBs.

Re: Devnull AAR
 

PPB vs shields works the same in devnull, however each research level alternates between non-phased and phased (so level 1 shields gives you regular shield generator 1, level 2 gives you phased shield generatior 1, level 3 gives you regular shield generator 2, and so on). I find this diminishes the usefulness of PPBs.

I modified the Praetorian design a to somewhat min max them. So they have a better research ability than typical devnull. Most AIs seem to have BB now, with medium bonus. I'm only up to cruisers. Without my fighters, I'd be a goner.

Comparing to the Narn, the Toltayan BBS have a talisman and 4 or 5 APB and 1 or 2 torpedos. In devnull, torpedoes get a bonus to hit, and in later tech they are similar to stock null space projects (but reload of 4, bonus to hit, and I think better damage). My only complaint would be that the Toltayan BBS put the torpedos at the end. This maybe due to some AI limitation.

Re: Devnull AAR
 

Only had time for a turn and a half lately...

2409.4 - My fleet closes off the warppoint in in the Toltayan system, killing a Toltayan colony ship in the process. The Toltayans respond by sending five talisman equipped BBs through the warppoint. My defenses hold but take heavy damage to a few ships (none destroyed, however) and lose. I'm going to research better engines so I can catch up to the Toltayan ships. If I wasn't ambushing them at a warppoint, they would blast me to pieces before I do damage to them. I also need to start researching shield depleters, as I am relying too much on my fighters to knock out their shields (although they do a good job).

Suprisingly, the Xi'Chung send a large fleet of carriers and regular ships into a system next to my homeworld. It is a nebula sector in the warppoint that they come through. I barely fight them off, because the warppoint wasn't well defended and the fighters and sats are very old. I loose most of my defenses there. What saves me is that a third of their ships are missile carriers, which cannot target my units. I quickly ramp up construction to replace the fighters and sats, as well as ordering ships to head to that warp point. It will be several turns before the defenses are reinforced. Hopefully the Xi'Chung doesn't have another fleet waiting.


Research:
Propulsion 6

Re: Devnull AAR
 

2401.0 - The Xi'Chung have sent a few more ships through the system but nothing serious. The warp point they almost breached before is now fairly well guarded.

The toltayans warp a large fleet into their former system. The fleet is smaller ships,
with only 2 battleships, but I have bad starting positions. I loose two carriers and some fighters.

2401.1 - The toltayans warp another large fleet into their former system. They have one BB with a talisman but luckily I damage that component. The rest of the ships are carriers and small missile ships.
I have better position and take minor losses: a few dozen fighters aredestroyed, one ship is destroyed by missiles, and two others are severly damaged.

The Toltayan AI also appears to be doing the typical send four colony ships through a guarded warppoint. Good thing I gave them a bonus.

2401.2 - Praetorians send a decent fleet of 5 BBs and 5 carriers into my system. Considering they are the only race I'm not officially at war with, they sure attack me alot. Lost about fifty fighters.
I am also attacked by single toltayan ships, not anywhere near the disputed system. I wonder how big their empire is...


2401.3 - The Praetorians do it again, 5 BBs and 2 carriers, but at a less well defened warp point. Again my defenses hold, but I loose 3/4 of the fighters and half the ships. I need to do something or the toltayans and praetorians are going to wear me down.

2401.4 - The Praetorians are persistent, but they only have 3 BBs and 2 carriers, I have better position this time. I had fortified the warp point as best I could, mainly with fighters. It works. Next turn several ships will arrive as well.

2401.5 - First contact with Cue Cappa. A single battle cruiser is destroyed by my warp point defenses. Otherwise, Toltayan and Praetorian offenses continue, but with small fleets.

2401.7 - Cue Cappa moves in a small fleet into a seperate system. Luckily, they are destroyed without converting any of my ships.

2411.1 - I (finally) send in a fleet to secure the system in dispute by myself, the Praetorian, and the Xi'Chung. I move the existing fleet to block the Praetorians. However, I am unsure if it will hold against their typical fleet of BBs - it is mostly small ships and old fighters.

2411.3 - I secure the system with suprisingly little resistance. Perhaps this is the calm before the storm.

On this turn the first BBs are rolling off the space yard assembly lines. I've designed them with two Spinal Mount (I think its x15 size and damage) Lightning Guns, we'll see how they do. Because of thier size, they will probably hit first after armor & shields, but on the other hand they retrofit quite quickly, which is nice since I'm retrofitting them right away. They also make the ship about 50/50 in terms of organics to minerals, which is nice. Previous to that, all my ships cost many more minerals.

Research:

Propulsion 7
Shield Damaging Weapons 1
Stellar Harnessing 3
Planetary Weapons 2
Shield Damaging Weapons 2
Chemistry
Repair 3
Shield Damaging Weapons 3
Armor 1
Advanced Military Science 5
Shield Damaging Weapons 4
Armor 2
Propulsion 8
Armor 3
Ship Construction 6
Stellar Harnesssing 4
Computers 2
Ship Construction 7
Organic Weapons 5
Monolithic Construction 2
Armor 4
Organics Extration 2
Planet Utilization 4

Re: Devnull AAR
 

Its interesting to see so many empires with the talisman. Sounds like you've got your work cut out for you, but you seem to be doing well.

I'll have to try Devnull mod. I haven't reinstalled proportions yet, because I don't like how weak the AI is now, but maybe Devnull will be fun. That spinal mount sounds interesting.

Re: Devnull AAR
 

Actually there are only two empires with relgious in this game, and I havn't encountered the Norak yet. The toltayan are a thorn in my side but I'm catching up. At this point I'd say the praetorian are a bigger threat even without racial tech - they seem to be able to produce BBs much faster.

Yeah, Devnull has lots of cool toys http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif I only took 1 racial tech, but there are cross-over components for each (example: chant crystal which needs religious and crystal). They have a cool space monsters AI as well, although I'm not using it in this game.

The devnull AI probably isn't much better than any other mod where people have actually updated the files and test them (tdm, etc.) Thats why I've purposefully limited myself (no diplomacy, not researching combat as much, etc.). I suspect AIC/proportions would be the best AI, although I havn't played it myself.

Re: Devnull AAR
 

I've been busy, but I managed to play a few more turns.

Organic Technology 3
Weapons Platform 2

2411.5 - THe toltayans have another suprise for me = high quality emissive armor, which negates up to 60 points of damage. This makes them immune to all the ships in my fleets except the new BBs with the spinal mounts, and most of those are still in transit. Once again, my fighters save me, as even a small stack can get over 60 points.
I did get to use one of the Spinal Mount BBs, and it was quite fun. I can nearly gut an enemy BB with 2 heavy mounted shield depleters and 2 spinal mounted lightning guns. If they all, hit. Another aspect of using such big weapons is you are putting your eggs in one (well two http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif) basket.

Re: Devnull AAR
 

This was really fun to read!

Re: Devnull AAR
 

Remembering the good old days?