Prerelease 3.093 (Huge golem rebalance, MRS buff, planetary summary fixes)

[x4000]

I think making fortresses and superfortresses modular is a really capital idea.  Would really help to make them more unique in general.  Cut down a lot on the number of simultaneous shots from their main guns, then make modules to go on them to add back in extra firepower, defenses, or whatever, for instance.  Sounds like a fun project for sometime after the next official release.

[eRe4s3r]

This would also make them much more valuable - atm you can build one in ~ 10 seconds, so it feels actually more like a REALLY cheap uber-defense turret.

Actually.. for the fortress upgrades theres so many ideas coming to mind, hangar/drone bays. More Storage, in-storage-repair, dedicated repair range in several stages, several different armor layers, several different shield generators, and guns.. well a trillion different guns but most importantly..

super-charging-up-instant-beam-of-doom (like beam frigates?, just way more awesome) ^^

[x4000]

Yes, fortresses need some love at some point in the near future.  Additionally, I think a lot of people (myself included) would like to see those broken out into three tiers that can be acquired.

[keith.lamothe]

It was a snap to allow them to mount mk I and II heavy beam cannons (if they were researched), but it would take a bit more time to implement per-planet-ship-caps for the player (unless I'm missing some easy way that's already available), and we're pretty crunched right now.

I'd like to just let them have the cannons as-is, but that would be balance sloppiness on my part.  In due time, good things will come to fortresses

[eRe4s3r]

Well the 1 per player per planet thing is already existing.. for command stations ;p Sounds like the code is already there for that.

Did you find what caused the resistance in my game to multiply like rabbits? (What would have happened if you had let it run for 5 hours? ;P)

[keith.lamothe]

Yea, there is the command station code, but iirc it's a bit welded to that particular case, though if Chris remembers differently...

And yes, the resistance rabbits have been fixed; I had a post ready to go with the changes I made but that got lost and I figure the changelist on the release will suffice   My guess is that after about 5 hours they would have let the smoke out of my machine.

[x4000]

Yes, that particular case is quite welded based on the centrality of command stations.  I actually used to have some code that would let it limit the number of certain types of ships on a per-planet basis, but I was never really happy with that implementation and it was something that I think was removed before the game was publicly released.  I don't even remember what it was limiting, at this stage -- maybe energy reactors.

[eRe4s3r]

Yeah i was just wondering what caused it.. it sounded like a unique issue. And interesting given that i would have guessed some people would have noticed before me? Heck i only got to play 10 minutes today and find this weird issue.. what a weird day ;(

The release notes are always so impersonal... and long! ;p

[keith.lamothe]

Basically your save file had a resistance fighter "counter" in the neighborhood of 25,000.  In normal play that would take 2,000,000 game seconds to achieve, so my guess is that there was some confusion in your save file over all those version changes.

It was set to not drop more than the existing number of allied ships onto a planet, so it basically doubled every 80 seconds ... my guess is it started with 18, the number of scouts you had on the planet, and things got rapidly out of control from there.

[eRe4s3r]

Ah well ;P I guess i was the only one who dragged such an old save upwards the versions. And into/through an expansion pack too. Thanks for the explanation

I guess i win the price for finding the most obscure and lol-inducing bug of the month? After all, who else got to brag with infinitely multiplying allies because he forgot some scouts on a planet?

[FrostyThePyro]

On a possibly related note, I have seen resistance fighters, but not marrauders in over a week.

[keith.lamothe]

Yes, I was looking at that code for the same problem (I fixed the one with resistance fighters not showing up much, I believe), but didn't see anything obviously wrong.

There is a check that if you're below difficulty 8 (iirc) it won't show on a planet up unless there are at least 100 AI and 100 human ships.  If I understood it correctly.

[RCIX]

Ah well ;P I guess i was the only one who dragged such an old save upwards the versions. And into/through an expansion pack too. Thanks for the explanation

I guess i win the price for finding the most obscure and lol-inducing bug of the month? After all, who else got to brag with infinitely multiplying allies because he forgot some scouts on a planet?

You also win "save inducing best line of the month" award: "Fighters launching a raid on you framerate" or something like that

[x4000]

Ah well ;P I guess i was the only one who dragged such an old save upwards the versions. And into/through an expansion pack too. Thanks for the explanation

I guess i win the price for finding the most obscure and lol-inducing bug of the month? After all, who else got to brag with infinitely multiplying allies because he forgot some scouts on a planet?

You also win "save inducing best line of the month" award: "Fighters launching a raid on you framerate" or something like that

That was classic.

[x4000]

The next version is now out: http://arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,4700.msg32147.html#msg32147