AI War 2:Special Mechanics

A Note To Players from AI War Classic

Please note that pretty much every mechanic you are familiar with has been changed to at least a minor degree.

Every mechanic is more flexible now, with ranges of how they can function rather than just being on/off gates. Additionally, mechanics are now heavily dependent on the 8 basic stats of every ship, which are mostly new in this game (note that metal is discussed on that page but not counted as one of the 8 basic stats).

There are no longer any generalized "immune to tractor beams" (or whatever along those lines) properties. Instead, everything is more physically-based and the attacking system would instead say "I can only target ships with xyz physical property."

This does a few things:

• Firstly, it makes it so that ships don't have a ton of immunities and single-use stats (like engine health or paralysis resistance amount) defined. This makes tooltips simpler and more consistent.
• Secondly, it allows for variable-quality systems. Some tractor beams can be allowed to grab more powerful targets than others, for example.
• Thirdly, it makes it so the relevant stats needed to understand how a ship with a special ability functions are all on that ship itself; you can see what sort of ship stats it can hit with its ability, and what its ability does, all in one place. This again increases readability.
• Lastly, this future-proofs ships to a certain extent, which is particularly important in a moddable environment. The various physical stats are not arbitrary, but instead define physical properties of the ship. So long as someone who made a custom ship has defined those in a way that makes sense for their ship, then any new weapons introduced in future expansions, other mods, or similar will all "just work" with the custom ship with no changes.
  • In AIWC, we would have had to evaluate every ship to see if it needs new immunities to the new ability, by contrast, meaning that if a modder didn't do that their ship could act in unexpected ways with new features.

For Modders

For explanations of how to mod these mechanics onto ships, please visit the Modding Special Mechanics page as a reference.

Cloaking

Cloaking Field Generators are a non-weapon type of system on an entity.

Cloaked ships are completely invisible to enemies, although enemies will be aware that something is on the planet -- just not what it is, where on the planet it is, etc.

Cloaked ships cannot be directly shot at, although if they already had an incoming shot when they re-cloak, the shot will hit them. Additionally, if an area of effect attack is planet-wide or simply happens to hit the area that the cloaked ship is in, the cloaked ship will take damage as normal (but will not be revealed).

Aside from being revealed by enemy tachyon beams, the only other way that cloaked ships become visible is by firing their weapon systems. Every shot fired by a ship causes them to lose some of their internal cloaking points - the exact amount depends on the ship type. When their internal cloaking points are reduced to zero, they become visible.

After 5 seconds of having no cloaking points but not losing any cloaking points, the ship's cloaking points will return to full and they will re-cloak. If a ship has lost some of its cloaking points but not all of them, then it stays at that deficit until it next decloaks.

Tachyon Field

Tachyon Field Generators are a non-weapon type of system on an entity.

Tachyon fields are a form of radiation that hit all enemy ships within a certain area around the field generator, draining the cloaking points of the ships they touch and eventually forcing them to decloak.

Tachyon radiation is only effective against ships at or below a certain albedeo, and this is tachyon-field-generator-dependent. Higher-quality generators can hit higher albedos.

You'll find that the AI makes heavy use of these around its own wormholes. Your defenses against it are to either increase the cloaking strength of your ships, raid the system with a small force to remove the tachyon generators, or move quickly away from the sources of tachyon radiation.

Tractor Beams

Tractor Beams are a non-weapon type of system on an entity.

Tractor beams latch onto mobile enemy units and hold them in place relative to the position of the tractor-beam-emitter. If the emitter moves around, then the tractored unit will be moved with it -- even to other planets! Ships that generate bubble forcefields are the only ones who can be tractored but not dragged.

Ships that are tractored retain all of their functions except movement, so they are free to shoot at anything they want, including the tractor-beam-emitter.

Tractoring a ship is an activity that is actually reliant on TWO stats of the target, rather than the usual one. First of all, any given tractor beam can only grab units at or below a certain albedeo; otherwise the tractor radiation just rolls right off. Secondly, a tractor beam can only grab units at or below a certain engine gravitic exponent (gx); otherwise the engines of the ship simply overpower the tractor beam.

Each tractor beam emitter has a finite number of beams that it can send out at once, within a certain range. It will prioritize grabbing stronger ships that have been on the planet longer (such as when ships are pouring through a wormhole, it grabs the first ones first if strength is equal). Additionally, multiple tractor beam emitters working in tandem will each divide up the work to tractor as many targets as possible.

You'll find that these are one of the most powerful first lines of defense on your own planet's wormhole ingress points.

Gravity Fields

Gravity Field Generators are a non-weapon type of system on an entity.

A gravity field generator has a certain range and speed multiplier. Every valid enemy ship within that range will have its speed multiplied by the field's multiplier. If there are multiple overlapping fields hitting one ship, then the multipliers are cumulatively applied (aka, if both are 70% speed multipliers, it would be 0.7*0.7 = 49% as the final multiplier).

Gravity fields are only effective against hit ships that have up to a certain engine gravitic exponent (gx). Depending on the strength of the field, many ships that have strong engines will be completely immune to the slowing effect. No ships have partial immunity. As soon as a ship exits the field, it will pop back to normal speed.

Bubble Forcefields

A few ships have the ability to project their personal shields out in a wide bubble around themselves, thus providing a forcefield that protects all of the allied ships that are within its radius. For the ship generating the bubble forcefield, all of the mechanics here work the same as a personal shield, except that the regen happens far more slowly.

For ships that are protected by the bubble forcefield, any damage that would hit them is instead applied to the shield points of the protecting bubble forcefield. As the shield points of the bubble forcefield go down, so too will its radius, eventually leaving ships unprotected that were previously under its umbrella. If the last shot to hit the bubble forcefield does enough damage to completely destroy the bubble, then any extra damage does NOT spill over to the forcefield generator or the ship that was targeted. Bonus!

If it has been at least 5 seconds since the bubble forcefield generator was damaged by an external source, then that ship's bubble forcefield will automatically start regenerating on its own. It takes roughly 120 seconds for a ship's bubble forcefield to return to full health. This can (and almost always should) be accelerated by having an engineer repair the ship.

Personal Shields

Most larger ships (frigate and guardian sized or above) have some level of personal shielding to help augment their hulls. Damage is first applied to the shields, and then the hull. Damage from the shields spills right over to the hull if there is an overage. Any self-damage that a unit does to itself ignores its shields, however.

If it has been at least 4 seconds since the ship was damaged by an external source, then that ship's shields will automatically start regenerating on their own. It takes roughly 30 seconds for a ship's personal shields to return to full health. This can be accelerated by having an engineer repair the ship.

Engine Stun

Weapons that have an engine-stun ability on them will add a certain number of seconds' worth of engine stun to targets that they hit. If a weapon has an engine stun effect of 8 seconds, then every target it hits will have its engines stunned for 8 seconds. The effects of these stuns are cumulative, up to a maximum of 60 seconds.

However, an engine-stunner can only hit ships that have up to a certain engine gravitic exponent (gx). Depending on the strength of the stunner, many ships with stronger gravity-generating engines will be completely immune to the stun. No ships have partial immunity. Note that even if a ship is immune to the engine-stun from a weapon, the firing weapon will still do its normal hull/shield damage.

Lastly, when looking at a ship that has been engine-stunned, it's worth noting that the stun is less effective depending on how few second's of stun are left. At 1 second of stun remaining, the ship can still move at 90% of its normal speed. At 4 seconds of stun remaining, it can still move at 50% of its normal speed. By the time there is 7 or more seconds of stun remaining, the ship cannot move at all.

It is possible for engineers to repair engine-stunned ships to get them back online faster.

An engine-stunned ship can still use all of its abilities and weapons as normal; it simply cannot move (or cannot move as fast, if its stun has almost worn off).

Paralysis

Weapons that have a paralysis ability on them will add a certain number of seconds' worth of full-ship-paralysis to targets that they hit. If a weapon has a paralysis effect of 8 seconds, then every target it hits will cease every function for 8 seconds. The effects of these paralyses are cumulative, up to a maximum of 20 seconds. Note that this affects immobile units (Guard Posts, Turrets) as well as mobile ones.

However, a paralysis effect can only hit ships that have up to a certain mass tonne-Exponent (tX). Depending on the strength of the paralyzer, many ships of a larger scale will be completely immune to the paralysis. No ships have partial immunity. Note that even if a ship is immune to the paralysis effect from a weapon, the firing weapon will still do its normal hull/shield damage.

It is NOT possible for engineers to repair paralyzed ships to get them back online faster. The internal crew or repair systems have to take care of it themselves.

A paralyzed ship cannot do anything; that said, its shields do not go offline, and so bubble-forcefields will continue to work.

Ion Damage

Ion damage is a special form of radiation that affects ships of a lower mark level than the attacker. Notably, a weapon with ion damage can only hit ships that have a lower mark level than itself. Ion weapons also cannot hit markless ships.

The greater the difference in mark levels between the attacker and the defender, the more damage the attacker does. However, defending ships with a sufficiently high albedeo are also immune to ion damage. The ion weapon has a rating on itself that states what maximum albedeo it is able to hit; so not all ion weapons are equal.

Another inequality between ion weapons is just how much damage they do based on the difference in mark levels. Some may only have a 20% ion damage rating, and thus do 20% damage to a ship that is 1 level below them, 40% to a ship that is two levels below them, and 40% damage to a ship three levels below them, etc. Another weapon may have an 80% ion damage rating, and thus do 80% damage to a ship that is 1 level below them, and 100% damage to a ship that is 2 levels below them. The amount of damage caps out at 100%.

What exactly is the "damage percentage" based off of?

• If the defending ship has any shield points at the moment, then it is based off the percentage of the maximum shield points that ship could have.
  • So if a ship has 250 max hull points and 200 max shield points, and currently has 250 hull points and 10 shield points...
    • An ion weapon with a rating of 100% would do 200 damage to the ship, thus causing the target ship's shield points to drop to 0, and the ship's hull points to drop to 60.
    • An ion weapon with a rating of 20% that is two levels above the ship would deal 80 damage, thus causing the shield points to drop to 0 and the hull points to drop to 180.
• If the defending point has no shield points at the moment (regardless of whether their max shield points is above zero), then it is based off the percentage of the maximum hull points that ship could have.
  • So if a ship has 250 max hull points and 200 max shield points, and currently has 240 hull points and 0 shield points...
    • An ion weapon with a rating of 100% would do 250 damage to the ship, thus killing the target.
    • An ion weapon with a rating of 20% that is two levels above the ship would deal 100 damage, thus dropping the target's hull points to 140.

Reminder: if a potential target's albedeo is higher than the ion system is rated for, OR the potential target's mark level is greater than or equal to the firing ship, OR the target is markless, then the ion weapon can't even fire at the target.

Vampirism (Self-Healing)

When vampiric weapons damage another ship, they also heal the ship using them. Depending on the strength of their vampirism, they may heal by just a portion of the damage they damage dealt, or could even do a magnified amount of healing.

This first repairs hull health, and then if the hull is fully repaired it will start repairing the shield health (personal or bubble, if present) of the ship.

Self-Damage

When ships with self-damaging weapons damage another ship, they also damage themselves. Depending on the strength of their self-damage, they may do just a portion of that damage to themselves, or could even do a magnified amount of damage to themselves.

As with any normal sort of damage, this will first damage the shield health of the personal or bubble forcefield that the attacker has, and then it will switch over to damaging the hull of that ship after that.

Note that if another ship is protecting the attacker via a bubble forcefield , that doesn't cause the attacker to damage the external bubble forcefield protecting it. The attacker can only damage itself, whether that be its own shields or hull.

An attacker WILL kill itself eventually if it attacks enough, and it will consider this essentially the normal cost of doing business, so to speak. It won't hold back when an attack would cause it to kill itself.

Repairs To Ships (Engineering)

These ships are able to heal other ships that are damaged. Repairing the hull costs metal, but usually less than the cost of building a new ship. Repairing the personal shields of a ship helps them recharge faster, but does not cost metal. Repairing bubble forcefield shields *does* cost metal, however. Repairing the hull of crippled centerpieces can cost significantly more, depending on the game mode and game options.

Rebuilding

These ships are able to rebuild ships that have been destroyed and turned into burnt-out husks of themselves. This goes for things like structures and turrets - this is a convenience so that you don't have to manually rebuild your structure placements every time one dies -- you just have to have rebuilders handy and then pay for the metal costs.

Assisting Ship Construction (Also Engineering)

These ships are able to speed up the construction of ships that are either self-building or which are being constructed via a queue inside a space dock or similar. This ability is typically on engineers, but can be given to other ships as well.

Claiming Neutral Entities

These ships are able to go over to neutral ships or structures on planets you own (anything from golems or other ships that are capturable to simple metal harvester spots) and repair them to turn your team color and start working for you.

Overdrives Shields

These weapons completely eliminate the shielding on any ship they fire upon -- including entire bubble forcefields. This makes them very powerful, but they are completely unable to damage ship hulls.

Area of Effect Damage (Circular Variants)

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Area of Effect Damage (Beam Variants)

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Multi-Shot Salvos

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Zombification

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Nanocaustation

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Metabolization

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Spawn Camping

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Weapon Systems Damage (Strength/Reload/Range)

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Personal Shield Penetration/Damage-Boost/Penalty (With Variants)

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Armor Crush/Compression (Low/High Armor Damage-Boost)

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Implosion (High Energy Damage-Boost)

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Regen (Personal/Field)

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Regenerator (Global)

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Attrition (Personal/Planetary)

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Spawning Drone Ships

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Hydra

Spawning of Hydra heads is actually done in several different ways: Units such as the Parasite, Stingray, Vanguard and Warbird Hydra simply spawn their heads on death.

However, this is not the only way in which Hydra heads are generated. For example, Zenith Warrior scourge use a different Hydra head spawning system, in which they spawn heads as they take damage. The number of heads they can spawn before being destroyed increases with the mark level of the unit.

Damage Reduction Field

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Damage Amplification Field

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Damage Reduction Field

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