AI War Beta 5.040-5.041 Reenergized

[doctorfrog]

Neat, you took my name suggestion (which I stole from Startopia) for the Energy Collectors! 

Oh, that's what they called them?  I remember your post about Startopia but didn't remember the "Energy Collector" name from it

I'm gonna go ahead and decide to believe my earlier narrative 

[madcow]

I never bothered with optimizing energy usage, but I never played on those bleeding edge difficulties where it might make a difference, so cutting down micromanagement for those that want to is always a good thing. Though I wonder how it'll affect my golem usage, as I tend to power them down when not in use.


From a thematic point of view, I'm glad you can't power off settlements/cyropods, it felt a little strange saying "Hey guys, we know you're the last humans alive, but we need to turn off the life support systems now. Thank you, have a nice day." Unless like, you're actually Glados, then it might make more sense.

[Mánagarmr]

From a thematic point of view, I'm glad you can't power off settlements/cyropods, it felt a little strange saying "Hey guys, we know you're the last humans alive, but we need to turn off the life support systems now. Thank you, have a nice day." Unless like, you're actually Glados, then it might make more sense.

Hahahah! That made me laugh. Awesome, and yes, that felt wierd. So wierd I didn't even know it was possible.

[BobTheJanitor]

Though I wonder how it'll affect my golem usage, as I tend to power them down when not in use.

Same here. Although you had to keep the power around if you wanted to use them, so you either ended up swapping back and forth between a giant surplus and a small one, or you were a micro-fiend and you turned off all the extra power each time you powered down a golem. I am definitely not big on micro, so I just let all that power go to waste. Probably won't change my play style too much, now that I think of it.

[Mánagarmr]

It will likely not change at all, seeing as you don't need to power down the reactors for metal/crystal gains anymore, thus you'll always have enough power for the golem. Though I still power them down to prevent self-attrition.

[Wanderer]

From a thematic point of view, I'm glad you can't power off settlements/cyropods, it felt a little strange saying "Hey guys, we know you're the last humans alive, but we need to turn off the life support systems now. Thank you, have a nice day." Unless like, you're actually Glados, then it might make more sense.

Hahahah! That made me laugh. Awesome, and yes, that felt wierd. So wierd I didn't even know it was possible.

Heh, I was constantly doing this.

Commander: "Back in your cryopods people!  Settlement #2 is being taken offline!"
People: "Awww, AGAIN?!"

[BobTheJanitor]

It will likely not change at all, seeing as you don't need to power down the reactors for metal/crystal gains anymore, thus you'll always have enough power for the golem. Though I still power them down to prevent self-attrition.

So should golem self-attrition be the next micro thing that we complain about until it gets changed? It does seem a little more fiddly than the other more comfortably automated things in the game. Perhaps golems only self attrition on enemy held worlds but have no low power setting any more? That would effectively make them play the same for me, since I always low power them as soon as I get them back to safety.

[Mánagarmr]

It will likely not change at all, seeing as you don't need to power down the reactors for metal/crystal gains anymore, thus you'll always have enough power for the golem. Though I still power them down to prevent self-attrition.

So should golem self-attrition be the next micro thing that we complain about until it gets changed? It does seem a little more fiddly than the other more comfortably automated things in the game. Perhaps golems only self attrition on enemy held worlds but have no low power setting any more? That would effectively make them play the same for me, since I always low power them as soon as I get them back to safety.

That would, however, turn them into unmatched defensive things, which is probably what the self-attrition was partly put in to stop.

[BobTheJanitor]

That would, however, turn them into unmatched defensive things, which is probably what the self-attrition was partly put in to stop.

Makes sense, although in my experience having the right golem type means you can have it single-handedly catch entire waves for you with no real trouble. So they pretty much are defensive monsters already. It's not like waves are a big surprise, so you can easily have it low power down to the second the wave spawns and then bring it up instantly. So again, the same scenario except one requires a little more micro.

[TechSY730]

That would, however, turn them into unmatched defensive things, which is probably what the self-attrition was partly put in to stop.

Makes sense, although in my experience having the right golem type means you can have it single-handedly catch entire waves for you with no real trouble. So they pretty much are defensive monsters already. It's not like waves are a big surprise, so you can easily have it low power down to the second the wave spawns and then bring it up instantly. So again, the same scenario except one requires a little more micro.

Except that repairing it back to full health afterwords is no cheap proposition. In my experience, even repairing 20% of a golem's health would be very pricy. (Unless you are willing to abuse the repair assist rate cost glitch, in which case you can knock that down to moderately pricy). That can have a noticeable effect on the net state of things after the wave.

I proposed earlier somewhere that the self-damage is tied to when they fire their weapon, as opposed to just not being put into stand down mode (formerly, low power mode). This would simulate a similar effect (using it costs you resources if you want to keep it alive), but without the micro (when not in use, aka. not firing at anything, no self-damage).
Of course this would require some balancing (how much self damage per shot for each golem?) and probably something like auto-standdown once it gets to like 10% health or something (maybe configurable with a control option) so it doesn't kill itself without you noticing.

[Coppermantis]

It will likely not change at all, seeing as you don't need to power down the reactors for metal/crystal gains anymore, thus you'll always have enough power for the golem. Though I still power them down to prevent self-attrition.

So should golem self-attrition be the next micro thing that we complain about until it gets changed? It does seem a little more fiddly than the other more comfortably automated things in the game. Perhaps golems only self attrition on enemy held worlds but have no low power setting any more? That would effectively make them play the same for me, since I always low power them as soon as I get them back to safety.

That would, however, turn them into unmatched defensive things, which is probably what the self-attrition was partly put in to stop.

Meh. I just sat a Mk. II engineer next to my golem and it essentially nullified the attrition, allowing me to keep it online 24/7 on defense.

[keith.lamothe]

Meh. I just sat a Mk. II engineer next to my golem and it essentially nullified the attrition

And probably nullified part of your economy

[keith.lamothe]

5.041 out now, just added something (the line-place thing) I was in the middle of earlier today, now am switched over to expansion work for a while now

[doctorfrog]

Heh, I was constantly doing this.

Commander: "Back in your cryopods people!  Settlement #2 is being taken offline!"
People: "Awww, AGAIN?!"

I really like this! If the simulation went down to that level, you might see lower efficiency over time for the human unit you keep flipping on and off.

[keith.lamothe]

Heh, I was constantly doing this.

Commander: "Back in your cryopods people!  Settlement #2 is being taken offline!"
People: "Awww, AGAIN?!"

I really like this! If the simulation went down to that level, you might see lower efficiency over time for the human unit you keep flipping on and off.

Yea, they really don't like it when you flip them off.