Fallen Spire feedback

[keith.lamothe]

Two things.

1.

*Minor faction Fallen Spire ships buffed quite a bit.

WHY? They seem plenty powerful as they are now. 

Because people were reporting that the minor faction ships were failing in the final assault.

I'm not talking about the player-controlled ones.  I've added a note to that effect in the release notes.

2.

*The AI's (announced) exogalactic strikeforces provoked by the Fallen Spire stuff now also contribute points to a sort of "homeworld defense fund". If that has any points and an AI homeworld comes under major assault, a defense force is immediately spawned on that homeworld. This can prove... unpleasant.

This won't apply retroactively, will it? I am already a decent ways through the FS story in my current game, and have already eaten several FS exo-waves (and in one case, it almost ate me  ).
If it does not apply to already sent exo-waves, then I am going to wait until this patch comes out to resume my game, so I can "feel the force" of this new mechanic. 

It applies retroactively via a wild guesstimate since it's not fully possible to infer from a given state how many exo attacks have already happened and how strong they were, etc.

[TechSY730]

It applies retroactively via a wild guesstimate since it's not fully possible to infer from a given state how many exo attacks have already happened and how strong they were, etc.

So this means that there is a chance that loading up an existing game with a FS campaign in progress may be near unwinnable if this guesstimate over estimated.

Let's hope that is not the case. 

[chemical_art]

It applies retroactively via a wild guesstimate since it's not fully possible to infer from a given state how many exo attacks have already happened and how strong they were, etc.

So this means that there is a chance that loading up an existing game with a FS campaign in progress may be near unwinnable if this guesstimate over estimated.

Let's hope that is not the case. 

Worse come to worse, you can always say it was a unbalanced beta patch in the AI's favor. It's fun being a guinea pig, so to speak.

[TechSY730]

It applies retroactively via a wild guesstimate since it's not fully possible to infer from a given state how many exo attacks have already happened and how strong they were, etc.

So this means that there is a chance that loading up an existing game with a FS campaign in progress may be near unwinnable if this guesstimate over estimated.

Let's hope that is not the case. 

Worse come to worse, you can always say it was a unbalanced beta patch in the AI's favor. It's fun being a guinea pig, so to speak.

True, these are the beta versions. If something does go horribly wrong, well, I sort of asked for it. 

[keith.lamothe]

It applies retroactively via a wild guesstimate since it's not fully possible to infer from a given state how many exo attacks have already happened and how strong they were, etc.

So this means that there is a chance that loading up an existing game with a FS campaign in progress may be near unwinnable if this guesstimate over estimated.

Let's hope that is not the case.  

I don't think it's wildly over.  Might be under.  And it won't really impede at all winning via the alternate condition.  That was already challenging enough in my estimation.  But it was a little too easy to just gank the AI homeworlds with 2-3 cities worth of the special ships.

[superking]

played after long absence, 45 minute defender mode, 4  start planets, 2x 7.6 difficulty AI

spammed to death within 10 minutes each time with kill/death ratios exceeding 500% in my favour... there isnt much decision making because the waves arrive almost instantly, hit every planet at once and are followed almost immediately by another wave, and another.

maybe I'm doing it wrong?

[keith.lamothe]

played after long absence, 45 minute defender mode, 4  start planets, 2x 7.6 difficulty AI

spammed to death within 10 minutes each time with kill/death ratios exceeding 500% in my favour... there isnt much decision making because the waves arrive almost instantly, hit every planet at once and are followed almost immediately by another wave, and another.

maybe I'm doing it wrong?

Well, the lobby tooltip for that option does include "We suggest picking at least 8 planets, and no more than 15."  I'd say 10 or 12 would be better.  Personally I like playing on a concentric map and picking the central planet and 1 ring around it.  And if that's still a low number you can pick the planets on the second ring that are connected to the first.  That way you'll get hit by a fair bit of stuff but you'll be able to defend the entire position from 2-3 spots.  Until they crash through and then it's sort of a race to see if you can hold them off long enough to win via timer.

Might want to start at diff 7 too, since it is a pretty different mode and requires a bit of specialized learning, etc.

[Sir t]

There might be some iffy logic in the shard placement. I restarted after getting murdered in my last attempt (a 5500 cross planet attack was the final straw. Due to the civilian spire leaders my aip had creeped up to silly levels and I had stopped caring. It was 1070, at the end, difficulty 6. It was a 20 hour game when I waved the white flag.) and I decided to play a normal game difficulty 6, realistic map. After a while I had taken a few worlds I decided to build the survey ship and it tagged a world 8 jumps away from my home planet as the first spire point. The problem is that there were 2 other links from my HW that were owned by the AI and had planets behind them. The shard spawned the other end of a 4 planet string I had taken from the AI.

I can give you a save if you need one, but the one I have is probably a bit later and I've taken one more world since then.

[keith.lamothe]

That does sound odd.  If you can give me a save from before completing the first survey (on your homeworld) that produces that kind of result, I can inspect the logic of what's happening.

[Sir t]

Sorry kieth. False alarm. I've just loaded it up to check it and its actually an illusion caused by the map. The realistic map has several wormhole lines crossing one another that made it look like it was several junctions away. It's in actually 2 jumps from my homeworld. You can rest easy.

Sorry for crying wolf.

[Draco18s]

Sorry kieth. False alarm. I've just loaded it up to check it and its actually an illusion caused by the map. The realistic map has several wormhole lines crossing one another that made it look like it was several junctions away. It's in actually 2 jumps from my homeworld. You can rest easy.

Sorry for crying wolf.

Sounds like you need this feature.

[zebramatt]

Sorry kieth. False alarm. I've just loaded it up to check it and its actually an illusion caused by the map. The realistic map has several wormhole lines crossing one another that made it look like it was several junctions away. It's in actually 2 jumps from my homeworld. You can rest easy.

Sorry for crying wolf.

Sounds like you need this feature.

It was a nice feature, for sure. I miss spending a not-insignificant portion of my time tidying up galaxy maps!

(And no, I'm genuinely not being sarcastic...)

[Red Spot]

Two things.

1.

*Minor faction Fallen Spire ships buffed quite a bit.

WHY? They seem plenty powerful as they are now. 

Because people were reporting that the minor faction ships were failing in the final assault.

I'm not talking about the player-controlled ones.  I've added a note to that effect in the release notes.

I'll post a summery from my last game tonight or tommorow, I guess it should give you a good example of why the Spire assaults fail so very much.
(This game they only had to clear 2 sets of 1 core-planet + 1 home-planet, and both assaults failed so misserably that I eventually just butted in and finished it myself. Effectivly they try to take on a 400+ massive ship exo-attack "head on" ...  )

I have to check the exact saves but I should be able to give you a savegame where the spire ship are at the point of leaving my terf into AI-terf, allowing you to see how things go from that point on, if you want. (Exo attacks, 400 massive ship strong, are triggered 2min apart .. the Spire-AI cant get in between those attacks without getting wasted.)

You may need to savescum a bit to get around the 10k mk4 Maw waves though, playing on 5.001

Do really like the super DNs though, cant recall they where in my previous game, but I might have missed those still being amazed about the sheer power of a DN

[Buttons840]

If the shards were seeded into the map rather than spawned dynamically this might lead to a less grindy feeling, as you could expand quite a bit, and then when you started the spire campaign you might have 1 or 2 shards already on the worlds you own.  This also makes more logical sense, as presently the shard only exists once you actually look for it.

Unless it's like Schrodingers cat, which was neither dead nor alive until we actually looked at the cat....

[keith.lamothe]

It is very much a matter of its position not being determined until observed

Letting them simply seed (statically or dynamically) in human territory short-circuits a significant part of the intended challenge.  I'm looking into ways of maintaining the challenge while ditching the "treadmill" aspect of seeding distance depending on your currrent borders.