Alien station build spot (spoilers)

[ArcticISAF]

So I'm playing through on the experimental patch, and the aliens are building a station right on my doorstep, at Earth-Luna L-1. It's late 2025, and I am just shocked at them building right there, and so soon. I'm assuming it's all normal and expected, and I don't think it'll change much in reality but damn. Veteran difficulty for this one (and have beaten the game before a couple years ago).

Anyone experience such a build spot? Kind of curious if this is the play they make now.

[debott]

Yep, seems like new behaviour in the new update. Got a laugh out of me all right.

Although I think for me it was 2026/2027 on brutal, and I had the ships ready to blow them right up before their LDAs went online. Next colony ship is scheduled to arrive mid 2028, and with a fricking Titan in tow no less.

The aliens seem to colonize inner Sol much slower now, instead focussing on Jupiter and of course this new version of a 'castle drop'.

[ArcticISAF]

Damn. Yeah I saw the ships coming in for the moon, and I thought it was some targeted retaliation maybe (assassinated first alien soon before). So I shrugged and carried on. I have the capacity to build ships (one space dock lol), got good resources coming in at this point for free building but yeah... did not think for this soon for combat lol. 2026/2027 sounds a bit nicer, but I definitely would not want to be dealing with a titan coming in. I guess they really want that spot.

[CaptainSpacetime]

I haven't played a game on the new patch yet, but seems like a cool change. The aliens would of course want to keep a close watch on Earth.

[Ericus1]

It's a new mechanic for them under the new patch. They build a surveillance station in Earth orbit, and you definitely want to not let it come online but apparently it generates a lot of hate if you kill it.

[debott]

Originally posted by Ericus1:

apparently it generates a lot of hate if you kill it.

That is a price I am ready to pay.

[debott]

The titan escort turned out to much less scary that initially thought. My ships easily made it without a scratch.

The far more difficult part is to climb up and down Earth's gravity well, and the huge propellant tax this invokes.

Originally posted by Ericus1:

They build a surveillance station in Earth orbit, and you definitely want to not let it come online

So what do they do exactly? More abductions? Or is it a fleet rally point, which I would find incredibly scary.

[Ericus1]

Run abductions, beyond that I have absolutely no clue. Haven't seen one yet.

[ArcticISAF]

The one they've build near the moon has two of the surveillance arrays. So far it's been staring at me menacingly. Probably watching my people grilling in their backyards, documenting everything that goes on! I haven't noticed any activity that's connected to it, though maybe not seeing it I suppose (year is 2029 now). Patch notes for 0.4.46 suggests that they're supposed to build more? 'fix AI issue preventing aliens from launching surv hab while another one exists'.

Been fighting more with the protectorate and servants than the aliens, though that seems to be cheesing the aliens a bit (4/5 on the hate bar). Oh well lol. Kind of doing good I think? Kind of hanging in limbo.

[debott]

Look at us, poking at the shiny new alien toy with our nukes sticks, "But what's it do?!"

[Th3raid0r]

Same here in my game, though I roll with "Cinematic" until the game stops changing so fast. I missed when they dropped their first platform, but definitely noticed the larger station they started next. Right around 2032 for the ez difficulty. I decided that "The xenos MUST NOT have an earth orbit" and took it out with a freshly built fleet pretty quickly. Though I'm not entirely prepared for the total war that followed.

Oh well - that was probably inevitable.

Good thing I have battlestations coming online to make it costly...