Prerelease 1.014T (parasite cheat, font inclusion, energy rebalance, waves up)

[x4000]

The power requirements are definitely a lot higher in T, that's something that is being experimented with (see here for more details).  However, When you say "700k points," to what are you referring?  AI Progress?

[Bleek]

Yeah, the AI started with just shy of 700k progress!

[Bleek]

(see here for more details).  

Now it's becoming more clear.

I need to try again tonight building less resource hungry items because I simply got walked over by the AI after my third planet grab, the wave of 2,500 was just way too big for me (I was maxed out too).

Which brings me on to the question, if I'm only allowed to build ~120 of each unit how on earth can I take on the AI and where does the figure of 30,000+ units come from?

[Kalzarius]

Yeah, the AI started with just shy of 700k progress!

You mean a score of 700,000 points, right?  From the lower right hand corner?  700,000 AI progress would be the end of the world universe as we know it.

[Bleek]

Oh, was that a bug then?

I mean the three scores, AI 1, 2 and myself.

Obviously I start at some tiny number such as 10k, AI 2 (lvl6) was around 140k, AI 1 (lvl7) was just shy of 700k.

It pretty much meant after an hour or so the first major wave just walked over me. 

[Revenantus]

Which brings me on to the question, if I'm only allowed to build ~120 of each unit how on earth can I take on the AI and where does the figure of 30,000+ units come from?

I think the average ship cap is a bit higher than that. As the game progresses and you gain access to new ship types it's not uncommon to have a fleet consisting of several thousand ships.

The total number of ships on the map at once can easily number 30,000+. This is including your own ships and the ships that AI has defending its planets. In truth, 30,000 is actually a pretty conservative estimate - it could potentially be far higher, especially in multiplayer games.

As for why you can take on the AI, you just have to be in the right mindset;

The AI is the uncontested ruler of the galaxy, humanity has been forced to withdraw to but a single planet. The AI no longer perceives humanity as a threat, after all, they have limited resources and inferior technology, so it focuses on furthering its own agendas, though the nature of its goals are unknown to us.

The AI Progress can be thought of as a general indicator of how threatening the AI perceives the humans to be. The AI does not take kindly to humans destroying its Command Stations and Warp Gates, hence doing so causes the AI Progress to increase. Since the AI then considers the humans to be more dangerous, it devotes additional forces to defending its space and attempting to destroy them, and the AI's reinforcement rate and wave size increases.

This is where the grand strategy of the game arises. If humanity attacks the AI indiscriminately, the AI Progress will skyrocket, and the AI will devote a huge number of ships to eliminating the humans, and you will be destroyed by overwhelming force. Therefore, to win the war, humanity must choose its targets carefully, and strike only at key strategic locations.

Oh, was that a bug then?

I mean the three scores, AI 1, 2 and myself.

Obviously I start at some tiny number such as 10k, AI 2 (lvl6) was around 140k, AI 1 (lvl7) was just shy of 700k.

It pretty much meant after an hour or so the first major wave just walked over me.  

The scores are unrelated to the strength of the AI. The AI will often start with a fairly high score owing to the number of planets and ships/structures it controls.

Sorry to hear the AI got the better of you that time. Only the AI Progress level should affect the AI's reinforcement rate and wave strength.

[Haagenti]

By the way: what is the point of these scores?

They seem to be a waste of good screen space and could be deleted. If you need something like this, total # of ships might be more useful.

Or am I missing something?

[Revenantus]

By the way: what is the point of these scores?

They seem to be a waste of good screen space and could be deleted. If you need something like this, total # of ships might be more useful.

Or am I missing something?

Given the asymmetrical nature of the game the scores of the AIs seem fairly meaningless to me. I'm not sure telling the player precisely how many ships the AI has is a good idea though, I think they should just be removed entirely.

Player scores are far more interesting, and can provide a reasonably good method of comparing performance in multiplayer games, and will be even more interesting once scoreboards are implemented.

[Haagenti]

You can see the number of AI ships in the Score dialog: it is possible to get a graph of your # of ships and include the AIs, so this info is there anyway. Maybe not exact, but down to the nearest 200 or so....

[Revenantus]

You can see the number of AI ships in the Score dialog: it is possible to get a graph of your # of ships and include the AIs, so this info is there anyway. Maybe not exact, but down to the nearest 200 or so....

Shhh.... don't tell people. I don't approve of that kind of information being available before a game is completed.

[x4000]

You can see the number of AI ships in the Score dialog: it is possible to get a graph of your # of ships and include the AIs, so this info is there anyway. Maybe not exact, but down to the nearest 200 or so....

Shhh.... don't tell people. I don't approve of that kind of information being available before a game is completed.

I don't either in a competitive LAN context, but with an asymmetrical AI there's no harm in it.


For the AI scores, that's also based on the total number of ships build and killed.  So as the players progress, often they will overtake the AI scores if they are doing better on the killing front.  I suppose I could take the AI scores off, but I think that RTS players are just kind of used to having scores for the players, and in this case it also provides information on which AIs have been killed, etc.

[dumpsterKEEPER]

For the AI scores, that's also based on the total number of ships build and killed.  So as the players progress, often they will overtake the AI scores if they are doing better on the killing front.  I suppose I could take the AI scores off, but I think that RTS players are just kind of used to having scores for the players, and in this case it also provides information on which AIs have been killed, etc.

As you say, it may just be that I'm accustomed to scores for RTS games in general. However, I like having the scores displayed as I feel like it gives me a rough idea of how the game is playing out. Obviously, given the nature of the game, you can't use them to predict who is ultimately going to win/lose, but they give me an idea of if I'm gaining or losing ground against the AI. They also provide an estimate of how other human players are doing in comparison to each other and the AI. I'm assuming that one however, as I'm still talking some of my gaming friends into buying the game

[x4000]

For the AI scores, that's also based on the total number of ships build and killed.  So as the players progress, often they will overtake the AI scores if they are doing better on the killing front.  I suppose I could take the AI scores off, but I think that RTS players are just kind of used to having scores for the players, and in this case it also provides information on which AIs have been killed, etc.

As you say, it may just be that I'm accustomed to scores for RTS games in general. However, I like having the scores displayed as I feel like it gives me a rough idea of how the game is playing out. Obviously, given the nature of the game, you can't use them to predict who is ultimately going to win/lose, but they give me an idea of if I'm gaining or losing ground against the AI. They also provide an estimate of how other human players are doing in comparison to each other and the AI. I'm assuming that one however, as I'm still talking some of my gaming friends into buying the game

Yeah, I like it for the same reasons, honestly.  And with the comparisons between human players, that is entirely correct.  There's another sale coming up this weekend -- this one at GamersGate -- so you've got another chance to convince your pals to get into the game on a discount.

That will probably be the last discount for a good while (the only reason it is coming a week late is because we couldn't get it arranged to do it simultaneous with Impulse).

[dumpsterKEEPER]

There's another sale coming up this weekend -- this one at GamersGate -- so you've got another chance to convince your pals to get into the game on a discount.

Great! Do you happen to know what day it begins? I've got a LAN coming up with some of them on Saturday, and I'm trying to talk some of them into playing it then.

[x4000]

There's another sale coming up this weekend -- this one at GamersGate -- so you've got another chance to convince your pals to get into the game on a discount.

Great! Do you happen to know what day it begins? I've got a LAN coming up with some of them on Saturday, and I'm trying to talk some of them into playing it then.

Honestly, I'm not sure.  It seems that they announced the sale today, which is odd because I can't find where the actual announcement is.  I would imagine it would be by Friday at the latest, but probably earlier -- they will be sending out a email mailer, and featuring the game on their site at that time.  If you can find their announcement of the upcoming sale, it probably says the dates (and if you find it, I'd be curious to see that myself!).