Right then, broke off the first couple of replies and... I've hardly dented this. I think I've made a monster.
Sweet.Do human rebel colonies still increase AIP by 100? If yes, it's an "insta lose button" and should be nerfed.
Yup, they most certainly do. Easy to change, though I disagree on +100 being instant death, at least below Diff 9 -- it's still harsh as hell though, regardless. Maybe the hit should be split between current AIP and floor, so it's more of a long-term crippling of AIP management rather than potentially immediate face-melting. The immediate rebellion was squashed and thus not a current threat, but the AI will be especially resistant to calming down under any circumstances afterwards as clearly this galaxy is not as pacified as it thought.
Or it could maybe just spawn a smallish Exo on death. Maybe a Hunter/Killer, that would be thematically appropriate. "Restless humans here? Search and destroy."
Also marauders and beachheads are overpowered. If I remember correctly marauders are sniper immune, have very long range and move quite fast. In addition to that they come from the edge of the gravity well. Making them about as annoying as Astro Trains. They're like AI 3 that's always a Warp Jumper.
Excellent, patterns are forming in what people are suggesting. This is good. Correct on the Marauder stats and behavior.
Dyson Gatlings don't seem to do anything anymore. Even a single laser or needler guard post will pretty much shutdown the Dyson Sphere.
Do you think it's purely a power creep problem that's making the Dyson irrelevant now?
^^imo the neinzul MFs are balanced and "do their job" as intended.
Vote against messing with the Neinzul noted.
Thanks for posting, Kahuna.
<Nebula/Champion snip>
That's basically asking for a redo of Ancient Shadows though, if that's a bit much then I'll cheerily ask for changes to roaming enclaves. The allied ones shouldn't all camp out on your homeworld.
<lol> Just a tad, this thread's titled Overhauling Minor Factions and Plots, not Expansions (Hmmm start new thread for that? Nah even I'm not that crazy (yet)).
I'm noticing a recurring theme though with people bringing up the Nebulae/Champions.
Another vote for messing with Enclaves, though. Am curious -- what would you prefer their behavior be? Distribute their camping across more of your worlds? Default to some of the more aggressive behavior? They've actually got the ability to take orders of a sort via chat commands, they just default to "sit on the homeworld and snuggle against the command station".
BTW, I understand now what Keith meant when I saw him reference the Enclave logic as being fancy -- they have an entire class of their own dedicated to controlling it. It's pretty cool, they even evaluate threats and intelligently choose targets if you let them off the leash and tell them they can go annoy the AI on their own. It's like Hybrids but for the player.
I would make Alt Champ Progress the default (intensity controlled by handicap), and make Nebulas a minor faction accessible to HCS players.
Filing this under another vote for "redo Ancient Shadows".
Seems like the nebulae are not overly-popular. I haven't tried them myself yet, but it does seem like they'd take you out of the main game a bit much (one of the reason I *haven't* tried them yet).
Thanks Radiant Phoenix!
It wasn't a challenge, really! It's a scale-of-work thing, as you said. Last time those topics came up, people generated enough ideas that there could have easily been an entire full-sized expansion centered around just one of those ideas. Heaven knows I've got all sorts of ideas for them, too
Hehehe don't worry, I believe you, I'm just poking fun, mostly at myself for that habit.
And seeing the reaction this one thread is getting, I suspect you are politely understating the avalanche that came out of the last similar discussion! I clearly underestimated how effective this bait would be to lure people back out of hiding -- not a bad thing though, lots of interesting stuff to read/possibly try to do.
Glad this sounds like fun to people.
I think Radar Jammer II should be a higher mark ability, but yeah, that sounds fun. Grav effects, tachyon range, Attritioner abilities, or let them spawn the Hacking special effects, too. Maybe give the Mk V version cloaking, for extra special fun.
Cloaked Beachhead... that would be sadistic if they spawned somewhere randomly on the planet, away from the turrets.
Yeah, some of the hacking effects like the Tachyon and EMP pulses crossed my mind, possibly on a timer like the Raid Engine. Lots of possibilities to consider, the trick will be picking out the ones that make people go "Oh Sh#%" but without going back to refusing to use the MF again. I wonder how much of a pain it would be to convert Beachheads into having a selectable intensity so the really bad stuff could be gated like the Astro Train types, some of the logic is already in there, just not really relevant since it's either 0 or 1 for intensity, effectively. Something to look at.
Plus, there's the luck factor - Since it removes supply, the Beachheads also turn off forcefields. That means that the Advanced Factory or Fabricator you were protecting is suddenly unshielded AND located at the same system-edge that the Beachhead waves arrive from. A little bad luck, and *poof*! That's just not fun to me. When I lose, I want it to be because I screwed up, not just because RNG decided to laugh at me for a few seconds.
Yep, if you're not already there when it spawns, you've already lost the planet, because your fleet will never make it there in time for a rescue. The ultimate reason supply cutting is no bueno. But defense *crippling* or MOAR ships spawning over time? That creates dramatic "hold the line until the cavalry arrives!" moments, which are awesome.
One minor faction or plot? Astro--right, other than those.
I'm tempted to say "beachheads" but really the only tweak those need is to be announced. I don't mind having to use my fleet for defense, but going "oh a wave of fighters, i can take that" and going out on an attack only to find out that it was "fighters and a beachhead" and not HAVING a fleet to defend with is a problem.
I could look at the logic that builds the announcement for waves, it already has some awareness of what's in there with how it tallies up fleetships and starships, and there's the announcement for "Massive AI Ships" too. Seems quite reasonable that a unit this unusual and dangerous should get its own warning.
Which brings me to what kills me:
Exowaves.
<snip>
Overhauling the whole Exo mechanic is a bit broad, but would it be fair to say that a good alternative would be making the Medium settings for the MFs that add exos on Hard more appealing? That way there would be something that gives a penalty, unlike Easy, but avoids the unwanted mechanic?
I already notice it seems like no one uses most of the Medium settings so they may be good candidates -- kind of amazed I haven't seen them come up yet, probably because they are so unpopular everyone forgot about them.
TBH I know I took a look at Botnet Medium, saw the 800K power requirement, said "lol wat(t)?" and ruled it out forever.
Alternative ideas to some of the penalties on the non-exo-causing Mediums?
Thanks for contributing Draco.
****
<looks around> I *think* that was about everything for the moment... sorry if I missed anyone.
