Short lived Duke

[Ehli]

I'd call that good luck, game really needs some higher level challenge - and nurturing the most lethal enemy of a big faction should provide one.
What made me wonder was that several users reported this instantly, and also because HOP started building in my sector at the same time Duke's shipyard became operational, which they haven't done before ever. Nor had i any kind of HOP incursion in my own space previously.

But maybe i'm just trying to defend ES's less then perfect defence AI
Could be just plain luck, Xenon somehow vanished from my game entirely, never thought that would be possible without player intervention, but they are gone now and i don't see any attempts on a comeback. So all factions have some surplus power for sure.
Duke has all the supplies he could ever need too, that might also be required for them to expand. I'd happily give them the HOP empire, their laws probably fit my trade interests well.
Did they build any sizeable fleet in your game? And did they have the resources to do so?

Plenty resources (trade game and friends with everyone), but fleets were so-so. Usually 3 or 4 dest, not more. Now I see a lot bigger ones. Probably 3.3 vs 3.0... or just "luck"

[pref]

Usually 3 or 4 dest, not more.

Heh.
HOP basic attack group has 20 of them plus loads of small ships. That's not more then a slight background decoration.

Also without any sector, their quota might be impaired. Curious if ES have thought about that.

[jlehtone]

Game was about 200 hrs old I'd say.
...
Again 200 hours in ...

So I still think it's just bad luck for you

"Luck", "statistics", how many "fake truths" can fit into a picture?
(233 hours, Teladi roam with ~15 destroyer groups.)

[pref]

Well, duke is up to 38 stations plus the SY i built them in about a game day.

So they definitely build a strong empire if they are well fed. Curious how the they will move on if i help them erase that station in Pious Mists along with all the def platforms.

[pref]

Think i went overboard with this.. i kept supplying Duke's builds in hopes of a good drug market at least, now they are up to 110 stations but not a single shady guy.

All this in my home sector, can't even use the map for Nopileos cluster as the whole display is messed.. I could design and place my plexes in a way that i could keep the sector playable, but now faction AI renders it unusable.
Meh..
Think after the plot is done and if they really don't expand i will have to eliminate buccaneers myself. Really sad.
Granted HOP access to my shipyard, but at this point they are not capable of doing much damage, all those stations are so tightly packed.

[aard00]

Wonder how split haven't managed to dominate the whole universe in half an hour.

This may help shed some light on this, from a different thread I posted:

Spoiler

Show

The original thread is in Spoilers.

That still doesn't sit well because HOP have been real warmongering sh*ts in my game, and deserve nothing other than complete obliteration! But it would be another option to play.

The issue is due to poor balance of HOP as a faction. Only HOP and ZYA wield doom fleets and unlike ZYA who suffer from bad management the HOP economy is usually quite strong. No other factions can handle their fleets because between inferior ships and smaller fleet sizes they never amass enough firepower in a single place to be even close to comparable. Additionally HOP destroyers have 2 shield generators and longer range so suffer less from hull wear-down when attacking stations than their only other rival, ZYA which only have 1 weaker shield generator. Then there is the fact that ZYA and HOP are at peace with each other so the only faction that could stand a chance at stopping them cannot, if the user even owned the DLC.

The issue is poor balance with Paranid designed destroyers and fleet sizes. HOP not only have the largest destroyer fleets by a significant amount but each destroyer is technically superior both in and out of sector to anything the Argon and Teladi factions can field by an order of magnitude. As such against the multiple HOP doom fleets there is nothing those factions can do and they will destroy anything they desire with minimal losses. PAR which has equal ship designs also loses out badly due to inferior numbers. The only time HOP ever loses is if the player dictates they do so or if they are unlucky and do not respond fast enough to a Xenon Branch 9 Destroyer I that solos their shipyard and/or warf which leaves them vulnerable to wear down over time as their ships split up for different duties.

The main doom fleets of HOP should only be used to for defence due to their size. Additionally both Argon and Teladi destroyers need a buff either stat wise, or the number that they field in each fleet. Currently a HOP Odysseus can solo 2 Phoenix destroyers at the same time.

ZYA suffers a similar problem purely because their destroyers are even more over powered in ship-to-ship combat. In out-of-sector combat no number of S or M ships can win against a few destroyers since every attack tick they kill 5 odd each due to poor gun damage calculations. I have literally had a single Rattlesnake with gun mods installed solo >100 Xenon S/M ships at once and all were dead in under 15 seconds. They only lose out due to their bad economy caused by their poor AI suiciding their Rattlesnakes against Xenon defence platforms (they are too close range with too little shield for this) and all their traders inside Xenon sectors (no blacklist for enemy).

[Raevyan]

Nothing we can do about it... I’ve asked multiple times to rework the other factions ships, especially destroyers (others have asked too), because the new split ships are way better in almost every aspect. I totally expect the same from the Terran ships.
Ego refused to rework the older faction ships and seemingly they are not able to up the numbers. If at least the AI wasn’t so bad... this would have slowed down HOP so much. It just hurts seeing a single destroyer killing one station one after another and patrol destroyers that are even in same sector don’t even care to defend but instead try to destroy the doom fleet on its own...

[Shehriazad]

I used my duke to completely replace HOP and PAR...his is the only Paranid faction left in my universe.

Granted he needed a lot of help, but it was worth it. A truly grand crusade.

[pref]

I used my duke to completely replace HOP and PAR...his is the only Paranid faction left in my universe.

Granted he needed a lot of help, but it was worth it. A truly grand crusade.

That was my plan too. I lost track of their carrier with Gride though.. but their flagship is doing fine at home. Helped her clear up the first pious mists sector, but then she started attacking random traders and miners and i left her alone.
Was that a mistake? Or they will build stations even if her ship is gone?
Thanks for letting me know though, i will keep Duke around then!

[pref]

Just fyi, seems Duke has no trade ships. Even though TEM had like 10 turret component stations none of their stations had any turrets.

Had 120 TEM stations tightly packed in their sector and 2 HOP attack groups could have cleared all of them without me intervening.

[Rei Ayanami]

I used my duke to completely replace HOP and PAR...his is the only Paranid faction left in my universe.

Granted he needed a lot of help, but it was worth it. A truly grand crusade.

Did duke in your game conquer other sectors? Or did they stay in their single starting sector, even after you wiped out HOP and PAR?