Prerelease 1.010E (Fix to "tug bug")

[ZarahNeander]

I don't like the reactor per planet thingie.

Started a game, in the beginning it was slighty annoying, mid-game onwards it was meaningless. And I don't see the point of 'defending reactors'. I defend the wormholes && my command station, so my reactors are auto-defended.

For me it does nothing. It doesn't add interesting decisions cause the algorithm to select a planet for the next power plant isn't exactly quantum physics It's super simple. I guess even Sins AI could do it *grin*.

I don't get it but maybe that's just me. However by all means 40% efficiency loss is way to high. In the beginning (and it's only relevant in the beginning) it's not me who wants to turtle. It's the AI splattering the near vicinity with fortresses and Mk3 stuff. It might turn a difficult situation in a hopeless one.


my -.02 € cent...kind regards..Pia Kraft

[x4000]

Hi Pia, thanks for registering your thoughts with this.  There has been a lot of discussion about this, and this was what was decided on by a number of the players.  I'm definitely interested in hearing what everyone thinks now that they see it in practice.  If a lot of players hate it, then I'll change it. 

Spreading your reactors across multiple planets is not meant to cause extra strategic decisions, but rather another defense point.  On the higher difficulties (or raider AI types), the AI is quite good at slipping wormhole defenses, and well-timed strikes against these energy reactors can bring down all your force fields, turrets, tractor beams, etc. 

Basically, it was far too easy for the players to previously just build all of their reactors on one highly-defended planet before, which led to perfect protection unless the game was actively being lost.  This meant that the only way to really have the energy balance go negative was through the overuse of parasites or something similar.  This new method of handling it is not super different overall, I don't think, but it creates many more potential chinks in the players' armor, which can lead to some interesting gameplay situations.  That's the goal, anyway!

[x4000]

But, you've raised a good point.  If this is going to be annoying for a lot of people, then it needs to be scrapped.  Or made into an optional-on feature, for those who want it.  So, I've created a poll:  [float=left][/float]

[Admiral]

Had a four hour session tonight with this version. No noteworthy problems noted. (Otherwise, they would be noteworthy and noted. Not to be redundant or anything.) Good times, despite playing against that annoying captain AI.

I still suck at not fully destroying sectors. I have two now that I have locked down with heavy defenses with the enemy's command post still alive.

I would really, really like some sort of world map "energy display" on there so I can figure out where to build my energy reactors. Perhaps something like: "Display Energy Reactors" which shows X/Y where X is the number of basic reactors, and Y is the number of advanced reactors, in every sector with a presence. This way I can tell at a glance where to build the next one.

Is it a bug that when an AI reinforcement happens, the new enemies appear at the command post AND any nearby wormholes, instead of just the command post?

Finally, I got some Mk III Engineers (thanks to parasites). Believe it or not, I think that the Mk II engineers are better. The teleporting is amazing, but the stealth... not so much. I'd rather have teleporting & stealth for Mk III, or just plain teleporting for Mk III, with maybe the ability to do two things simultaneously?

Cheers!

[Admiral]

Oh yes... My Mk II engineers seem to be a little schizophrenic. When there are many things for them to repair, they repair something, then teleport back to their free-roam point, then teleport to the next thing, and back again. (I had about 1,100 friendly ships and 18 Mk II engineers.) I kept being attacked by a lightning something or other, and it would take the engineers forever to cure my fleet of Mk 1 fighters unless I told them to stand there right next to the lightly damaged fighters and they cured them all very quickly.

[PhilRoi]

Had a four hour session tonight with this version. No noteworthy problems noted. (Otherwise, they would be noteworthy and noted. Not to be redundant or anything.) Good times, despite playing against that annoying captain AI.

I still suck at not fully destroying sectors. I have two now that I have locked down with heavy defenses with the enemy's command post still alive.

I would really, really like some sort of world map "energy display" on there so I can figure out where to build my energy reactors. Perhaps something like: "Display Energy Reactors" which shows X/Y where X is the number of basic reactors, and Y is the number of advanced reactors, in every sector with a presence. This way I can tell at a glance where to build the next one.

Is it a bug that when an AI reinforcement happens, the new enemies appear at the command post AND any nearby wormholes, instead of just the command post?

Finally, I got some Mk III Engineers (thanks to parasites). Believe it or not, I think that the Mk II engineers are better. The teleporting is amazing, but the stealth... not so much. I'd rather have teleporting & stealth for Mk III, or just plain teleporting for Mk III, with maybe the ability to do two things simultaneously?

Cheers!

i've wondered about the balancing of II and III engineers myself.  now that teleporting ships are not locked to a sector the balance has been knocked out a little bit.

[ZarahNeander]

I would really, really like some sort of world map "energy display" on there so I can figure out where to build my energy reactors. Perhaps something like: "Display Energy Reactors" which shows X/Y where X is the number of basic reactors, and Y is the number of advanced reactors, in every sector with a presence. This way I can tell at a glance where to build the next one.

+1

Otherwise;
while(!annoyed) {click; hmmNotHere; tab}

[darke]

I would really, really like some sort of world map "energy display" on there so I can figure out where to build my energy reactors. Perhaps something like: "Display Energy Reactors" which shows X/Y where X is the number of basic reactors, and Y is the number of advanced reactors, in every sector with a presence. This way I can tell at a glance where to build the next one.

+1

Otherwise;
while(!annoyed) {click; hmmNotHere; tab}

I just mouse over the planet in the galaxy map and check to see the number of "Energy: X" listed. If it's equal to or more then 2, then I've probably already plunked down one of each energy building there already.

[ZarahNeander]

I just mouse over the planet in the galaxy map and check to see the number of "Energy: X" listed. If it's equal to or more then 2, then I've probably already plunked down one of each energy building there already.

Great tip, thanks. Problem solved, case closed.

[x4000]

Had a four hour session tonight with this version. No noteworthy problems noted. (Otherwise, they would be noteworthy and noted. Not to be redundant or anything.) Good times, despite playing against that annoying captain AI.

I still suck at not fully destroying sectors. I have two now that I have locked down with heavy defenses with the enemy's command post still alive.

Haha, well, to each his or here own.

I would really, really like some sort of world map "energy display" on there so I can figure out where to build my energy reactors. Perhaps something like: "Display Energy Reactors" which shows X/Y where X is the number of basic reactors, and Y is the number of advanced reactors, in every sector with a presence. This way I can tell at a glance where to build the next one.

Okay, this is a good one -- added to my list.  In the meantime, you can accomplish this sort of thing with the Find feature (but it is slower to use, and doesn't contain both sets of info at once, which is why I'm going to add this as a separate display view).

Is it a bug that when an AI reinforcement happens, the new enemies appear at the command post AND any nearby wormholes, instead of just the command post?

Nope, that's the perma-cloaked wormhole command posts that are there.  If you want to destroy those, you have to destroy that command station! (The destruction of the wormhole command posts is then automatic.)

Finally, I got some Mk III Engineers (thanks to parasites). Believe it or not, I think that the Mk II engineers are better. The teleporting is amazing, but the stealth... not so much. I'd rather have teleporting & stealth for Mk III, or just plain teleporting for Mk III, with maybe the ability to do two things simultaneously?

Yeah, this is an interesting point -- doing two things simultanously won't happen, but teleporting with more health might be the way to go.  The stealth thing was marginal even before the teleporting ships could cross planets, and now that teleporting units are not restricted in that way, it makes the stealth ones feel super limited.  Added to my list.

[x4000]

Oh yes... My Mk II engineers seem to be a little schizophrenic. When there are many things for them to repair, they repair something, then teleport back to their free-roam point, then teleport to the next thing, and back again. (I had about 1,100 friendly ships and 18 Mk II engineers.) I kept being attacked by a lightning something or other, and it would take the engineers forever to cure my fleet of Mk 1 fighters unless I told them to stand there right next to the lightly damaged fighters and they cured them all very quickly.

Yes... all of the ships actually do that.  They only search for new targets in cycles (due to the CPU expense of that), so if they find themselves with nothing else to do then they just go back to their free-roaming/attack-move point.  For most ships that just causes them to "dance" slightly between targets, but since teleporting ship movement is instantaneous, it is a lot more noticeable.  It won't actually affect the speed of the repairs they do, since the speed at which they change targets is dependent on the target-selection cycle and not the movement (for the teleporting ones).

[x4000]

i've wondered about the balancing of II and III engineers myself.  now that teleporting ships are not locked to a sector the balance has been knocked out a little bit.

I should have read further down the post chain before posting -- but, this is exactly right.

[x4000]

I just mouse over the planet in the galaxy map and check to see the number of "Energy: X" listed. If it's equal to or more then 2, then I've probably already plunked down one of each energy building there already.

Great tip, thanks. Problem solved, case closed.

Definitely a good tip, but I still think the feature is useful for more of a quick look at the situation, so it's still on my list.

[darke]

Finally, I got some Mk III Engineers (thanks to parasites). Believe it or not, I think that the Mk II engineers are better. The teleporting is amazing, but the stealth... not so much. I'd rather have teleporting & stealth for Mk III, or just plain teleporting for Mk III, with maybe the ability to do two things simultaneously?

Yeah, this is an interesting point -- doing two things simultanously won't happen, but teleporting with more health might be the way to go.  The stealth thing was marginal even before the teleporting ships could cross planets, and now that teleporting units are not restricted in that way, it makes the stealth ones feel super limited.  Added to my list.

Two things might fix it. Firstly if it's possible any engineer (any tech level) is in the process of repairing a ship, the AI should see it as being a considerably higher threat and try to target it over anything else in it's attack range; the only problem to this I see is Ion Cannons and Snipers, but if you make them sniper immune that will probably solve the problem.

Secondly, make the cloaked engineers stay cloaked when repairing, but not sniper immune. That way for the most part the AI can't attack them except if you're careless later in the game where every-other-wormhole has a tachyon turret, or alternately the AI has the tachyon fighters.

The other alternative is to stop the Tech II engineers from being able to go through wormholes, actually an option I don't mind (and it can be themeatically waved away with story fluffy easily enough ). As inconvenient as it was on the odd occasion, it is nice to have some ships with a more obvious dedicated support role. Plus now the convenience of Tech II ones are known, people can drag through the mobile builder unit and build a few whenever they assault the world if they feel like, since it will now have an inconvenience penalty to counterbalance their somewhat better (relatively speaking) in-combat-repairing ability.

[x4000]

Two things might fix it. Firstly if it's possible any engineer (any tech level) is in the process of repairing a ship, the AI should see it as being a considerably higher threat and try to target it over anything else in it's attack range; the only problem to this I see is Ion Cannons and Snipers, but if you make them sniper immune that will probably solve the problem.

This is technically possible, but ships that are already attacking something else won't retarget, so I don't know how useful it is.  I'm thinking of basically making the Mark III both teleporting AND cloaking, to make it more useful.  Basically, just adding teleporting on to its existing featureset.

Secondly, make the cloaked engineers stay cloaked when repairing, but not sniper immune. That way for the most part the AI can't attack them except if you're careless later in the game where every-other-wormhole has a tachyon turret, or alternately the AI has the tachyon fighters.

I think this would be a bit unfair, especially since the AI also uses Mark III engineers and you would never be able to see them on their planets, which would be troublesome.

The other alternative is to stop the Tech II engineers from being able to go through wormholes, actually an option I don't mind (and it can be themeatically waved away with story fluffy easily enough ). As inconvenient as it was on the odd occasion, it is nice to have some ships with a more obvious dedicated support role. Plus now the convenience of Tech II ones are known, people can drag through the mobile builder unit and build a few whenever they assault the world if they feel like, since it will now have an inconvenience penalty to counterbalance their somewhat better (relatively speaking) in-combat-repairing ability.

This is true, but I think it would have a higher annoyance-factor.  I think I'll just go with cloaked/buffed/teleporting Mark III engineers of doom.  The Mark III engineers cost enough knowledge that they ought to be pretty awesome in exchange, since that's limiting other options.