AI War:Capture and Reclamation
Contents
Capturing structures
| This page is updated for game version 5.035 and should still be correct |
There are many assets that the player can capture from the AI, and be used against them. Structures that can be captured from the AI have the Ability: Captured on Planet Ownership Change.
Ownership-change is triggered by the completion of any player Command Station, and will not revert to AI control if this command station is subsequently destroyed. The decision as to whether to capture a structure or destroy it depends on:
- its expected utility to the player, e.g. an Ion Cannon-I is almost always useless, and becomes so once the AI waves reach mark-II levels. Advanced Research Ships are always good to capture, but can be scrapped immediately afterwards without losing its associated bonus ship.
- AIP-increases when destroyed, while being owned by the AI, e.g. if your fleet is trapped by a Black-Hole Machines.
- potential scrap-value once captured.
It should be noted that some structures do not need to be captured in order to benefit the player: both Zenith Reserves and Distribution Nodes will always give the player their contents when destroyed. This can be handy when assaulting a particularly tough planet. Also, as many of these were introduced in the Zenith Remnant expansion, a player can alternatively acquire and build some of these structures from Zenith Traders (albeit at a high price).
Also check if the AIP Cost for destroying a structure is while under AI Control only or at all times. While some structures, such as the Black Hole Machine do not increase AIP if you capture them before destroying them, others such as the Zenith Reserve will increase AIP when destroyed both before and after you capture them.
List of capturable structures
In game, all capturable structures should have a flag stating "Captured on planet-ownership change" in its description. A list of capturable structures follows:
| Common capturables (in every game) | Rare capturables (except with certain AI-types) | Notable non-capturables |
|---|---|---|
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Broken Golems
This minor faction seeds repairable wrecks of Golems around the galaxy.
Reclamation
| This page is updated for game version 5.035 and should still be correct |
Mechanics
There are some ships in AI War that will allow the player or the AI to convert opposing ships to their side. This works by accumulating sufficient reclamation damage on a target ship before destroying it - a copy will then spawn with renewed health.
In general, it is only the Fleet Ships that can be reclaimed. Most larger ships have the Immunity: Reclamation that prevents them from being reclaimed. A few types of Fleet Ships do have the Immunity: Reclamation however so check a specific ships description for whether it can be reclaimed or not.
Basics:
- The amount of health of the reclaimed ship appears to be 100% in 5.035 (old mechanics has it equal to reclamation damage).
- A ship is marked for reclamation once its reclamation damage is equal to 50% of max health
- When the target dies, additional damage above 50% max-health "spills over" to units within range of 2000. This does not happen for Zombie-relcaimers (see below).
- It should be noted for players facing large parasite hordes that this damage seems to reset between wormholes (as of 5.035). that is, during a long fight You may choose to flee to an adjacent wormhole, then come back.
- We haven't tested whether reclamation damage is repairable - Zharmad 04:54, 4 June 2012 (UTC))
Damage:
- A ship that can reclaim will deal reclamation damage in addition to normal damage. This is equal to its normal damage scaled by a factor depending on relative ship-mark.
- Reclamation damage is scaled by the following multipliers as of 5.001:
- If the reclamator is 4 mks higher than the target (mkV shooting mkI), multiply by 64.
- If the reclamator is 3 mks higher than the target, 48.
- If the reclamator is 2 mks higher than the target, 32.
- If the reclamator is 1 mk higher than the target, 16.
- If the reclamator is the same mk as the target, 8.
- If the reclamator is 1 mk lower than the target, 4.
- If the reclamator is 2 mks lower than the target, 2.
- If the reclamator is 3 mks lower than the target, 1.
- Theorycrafting: What the multipliers effectively mean can be illustrated by Parasite versus triangle-ship scenarios. According to the above formula, A Parasite will reclaim a Fighter of the same mark after 3 shots. However, they will 1-shot reclaim any triangle ship with lower mark.
With respect to ship-targetting, most reclaimers will prioritise dealing sufficient reclamation damage to all ships in range - this means that having some conventional ships around to deal finishing blows will be more efficient than sending your reclaimers alone. Conversely, having too few reclaimers will generally result in targets being killed before sufficient reclamation can be carried out and therefore no gain.
Reclamation vs. Zombie-reclamation
Note that there are two-types of reclamation that can occur. The more common mechanic used by Leech Starships, Neinzul Youngling Nanoswarms, Parasites, and Spire Teleporting Leeches will simply generate ordinary ships, which may subsequently be controlled or re-reclaimed by the enemy. There is also a Zombie-mechanic used by Botnet Golems and AI-Zombie Guardians that generate instead a non-controllable version with black borders (zombies). These zombies are immune to further reclamation and act like allies to their owners.
