Author Topic: Swarm Allies  (Read 3432 times)

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Offline Arcanestomper (OP)

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Swarm Allies
« on: February 21, 2015, 07:24:56 PM »
So I was dealing with a swarm in a solar system one jump away from Sol.  Since it was so close I didn't want to give them too much time to build up.  So I built a fleet of destroyers with anti-FAC missiles.  I was able to destroy the soldiers handily, although it a lot of missiles.  I wasn't able to launch fast enough to kill the queen so I lured it into the outer system and hunted down the workers. 

I did make the mistake of getting a bit too close while trying to figure out its range and lost a few destroyers to meson fire.  So I figured it would be able to do eat the wrecks and rebuild.  But I figured I'd just come back once the wrecks were gone and kill whatever had hatched.  Then I would spend a few years researching enough beam tech to outrange its meson cannons and come back for the queen.

But then I spotted a new contact.  It was right on top of the queen, but it was a different class than I had seen before.  At first I thought maybe there was a new type of Swarm I didn't know about, but then I checked my sensor logs and it's an entirely new alien species.  Right on top of the queen and apparently not fighting the swarm.

I was confused.  I attempted to get within sensor range to try and get a look at it, but it launched a bunch of of really big ship killers at me and killed my scout.

I didn't think any of the swarm could launch missiles.  But I wouldn't think any other race would ally with the swarm.  So I have no idea what's going on.

Anyone have any hints?



 

Offline MarcAFK

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Re: Swarm Allies
« Reply #1 on: February 21, 2015, 11:36:50 PM »
Wow, this is new, maybe theres a bug that prevents swarm from fighting one of the other Spoilers?
" Why is this godforsaken hellhole worth dying for? "
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Offline GreatTuna

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Re: Swarm Allies
« Reply #2 on: February 22, 2015, 02:31:41 AM »
IIRC spoiler races start neutral to each other, though their uneasy relationships should deteriorate quickly if they continue to see another race ships.
 

Offline Arcanestomper (OP)

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Re: Swarm Allies
« Reply #3 on: February 22, 2015, 02:42:36 AM »
Well a couple things I've noticed after further investigation.   

The swarm hangs out in the inner system.     While the new guys hang out around the 4th system jump point which is about 1.    4 billion kilometers away.     So they probably don't see each other often.   

The only thing I saw being shot were warhead strength 11 missiles from the new aliens.     Given that they only shot about 2 of these every 20 seconds it's possible that they simply couldn't hurt the swarm queen through her shield.    While on the other hand the queen couldn't catch them as they have a top speed of about 5000 km/s.   

After clearing out the soldiers that the queen spawned off my wrecks, and staying well clear of my guess as to where the other ships were, I built some missile point defense escorts and went back in to try and check out the new aliens.     Once I got close enough I saw that there were actually three ships.     Two of about 8k tons and one 16k ton ship.     I was going to get in a fight and see what happened, but then I realized that I still couldn't kill the Swarm Queen.     Nor could I salvage the wrecks.     So I would just be feeding the swarm no matter whether I won or lost.   

Instead I backed off, and decided to come back later once I had sorted out the ongoing mineral crisis in my empire well enough to build some beam warships and finally kill the queen.     

However I did notice that through the whole encounter the other aliens weren't launching missiles or even chasing my fleet.     They didn't spend that many missiles killing my scout.     So I don't know if they had spent all their ammunition trying to kill the queen or what.   


It just seems really odd because I did an entire grav survey of the system and fought a prolonged engagement with the Swarm.   But I didn't spot these other aliens until something like a month after that when I was checking to see what the Queen's range was and if I could lure her around for a possible mine ambush.  So I don't if they were there all along and I simply didn't see them or if they came from another system.
« Last Edit: February 22, 2015, 02:49:16 AM by Arcanestomper »