Author Topic: Prerelease 3.114 (Release Candidate 1, New Control Nodes, Bugfixes)  (Read 5531 times)

Offline LintMan

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Re: Prerelease 3.114 (Release Candidate 1, New Control Nodes, Bugfixes)
« Reply #15 on: April 29, 2010, 02:31:05 am »
Yeah, Visual Studio rocks.  Now if only MS wasn't so keen on downplaying C++ in favor of their proprietary languages.

Offline zebramatt

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Re: Prerelease 3.114 (Release Candidate 1, New Control Nodes, Bugfixes)
« Reply #16 on: April 29, 2010, 06:41:57 am »
Any way to make the AI Alert box somewhat like the chat log icon? Hover over the icon and you can view the info.

If it's possible it would also help that we have one less obscure hokey to worry about :P

This.

Or at least spruce the window up a bit so it matches the rest of the GUI better.

Offline keith.lamothe

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Re: Prerelease 3.114 (Release Candidate 1, New Control Nodes, Bugfixes)
« Reply #17 on: April 29, 2010, 06:56:48 am »
The alert box is an extremely bare-bones window implementation; a more full-blown one would have pushed that feature way down the priority pile just due to the time involved.  Most of the windows outside the game are GDI+ and have a lot of problems as a result (it's great for normal windows forms but not so much once you get to the point that you need DirectX).  I'd like to spend more time on it but since we're planning to try to port it to Unity later this year and we've already got a much more developed windowing architecture worked out there...
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Offline WinterBorn

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Re: Prerelease 3.114 (Release Candidate 1, New Control Nodes, Bugfixes)
« Reply #18 on: April 29, 2010, 12:04:15 pm »
My comments in blue

-Added single-planet versions of the auto-build-engineerI|II|III|remains-rebuilder nodes. Yay

-Removed ClosesAttackDistanceTo value from fortresses and superfortresses since they were causing very non-optimal closing behavior, particularly against engine-dead bombers.   BTW, also fixed the AI forts close to zero distance behavior -- will make killing them a little harder since they dont try to get to the middle of my fleet ball any more.

-Rally posts now have a 900 collision priority (only below immobiles and ShipTypes Force_Field, Command_Station, Command_Station_Core) Thanks

-Added new Control Node: Reclaimed Units Rally to Rally Posts.  I realy like that reclaimed ships prefer to go to the rally point vrs the MRS - I can have one MRS with my fleet ball and a rally point in the rear area and the reclaimed ships will bypass the MRS and get out of the danger zone - please don't change the preference for rally points over the MRS.


Offline superking

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Re: Prerelease 3.114 (Release Candidate 1, New Control Nodes, Bugfixes)
« Reply #19 on: April 29, 2010, 01:23:44 pm »
The alert box dosnt refresh between games; I quit a game mid way through and started a new one, and all the AIP increase notifications from the previous game were still displayed

I just played through a game with  Beam turrets unlocked at the begining; they are incredibly good at just 750 energy each (same as 15 MRL turrets, with the benefit of having a much higher DPS vs groups, longer range and instant hit) and extremely effective compared to other turrets. also, despite high costs for a turret, it has a very short buildtime compared to starships. one beam turret on my homeworld managed well over 200 kills in the first two hours. I also hate fighting these in the AIs hands, they totally decimate groups. imma calling OP! also, placeholder fx is ugleh, needs to look more like freespace 2/homeworld beam cannons imo

also
Ion cannons (100)
Dreadnaughts (1000)
and I think flagships were 1000 too
dont really cost enough energy for their power imo- flagship is worth much more than 10 fighters. this is a problem in many cases since they are powerful units, yet they take low damage from that zenith unit that does damage proportional to power usage.

I think the warp sensor should cost more knowlege, at 250 its a no brainer choice every game (and gives you an uneven amount of knowlege, which is irritating!)

Vampires might be overpowered again now, in two hours into my current game with mk1 + mk2 unlocked they have some 400 odd kills and less than 30 deaths (and they are very cheap to reproduce)

I think riot starships would be less annoying to use if the AI didn't target the weapon modules, which could then be negliable cheap and fast to reproduce

are basic turrets good for anything? they seem terrible, and in no way worth 50 energy (especially when MRL is also 50 energy but with the benefit of being good) in my game they have a kill:death ratio of less than 1, which is awful for a stationary turret  :(

I discovered that massed dreadnaughts are indeed the answer to the starfleet AI  :)

I finally found the use for the fortress - garrisoning neutered planets you have cleaned out but not killed the com center  (to kill the constantly respawning gaurds)

I played my first game where I used minefields heavily, I dont see what everyones problem with them is. I spammed them as physically close to the wormhole as possible, maybe 200/critical wormhole, and they usually killed half an incoming wave nicely

did the triangle unit fighter receive boosts at some point? all the experimental fighter types besides bulletproof have much much lower health (between 8k-22k VS 56k)

Offline x4000

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Re: Prerelease 3.114 (Release Candidate 1, New Control Nodes, Bugfixes)
« Reply #20 on: April 29, 2010, 01:36:07 pm »
A few notes:

-The beam turret effect is not placeholder, that's unlikely to change for a long time, if at all.

- The warp sensor is something considered by most to be completely useless except for newbies.  Hence the low cost.  If it's useful for you, great, but it's cheap for a reason. ;)

- The basic turrets can be extremely useful, it just depends on the ship mix.  Same with vampires, a lot of it depends on ship mix as to whether they are good or not.

- Fighters have been boosted a number of times, but a lot of the stuff like bulletproof, etc, should have appropriate stats.  If you know of ones that do not seem right, let me know, but things like microfighters have less health (but other benefits) by nature.
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Offline superking

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Re: Prerelease 3.114 (Release Candidate 1, New Control Nodes, Bugfixes)
« Reply #21 on: April 29, 2010, 02:00:14 pm »
no way, I only just started using warp sensor and its well useful. on worlds with more than one wormhole, espcially far apart ones, its the difference between your fleet shredding them at the wormhole and most your fleet being out of position while the wave breaks out the wormhole defence and ownz your mines

I want to meet these pros who dont consider that useful  :P

Offline keith.lamothe

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Re: Prerelease 3.114 (Release Candidate 1, New Control Nodes, Bugfixes)
« Reply #22 on: April 29, 2010, 02:01:36 pm »
They would probably respond "what do you mean by 'worlds with more than one wormhole'?" ;)
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Offline Buttons840

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Re: Prerelease 3.114 (Release Candidate 1, New Control Nodes, Bugfixes)
« Reply #23 on: April 29, 2010, 02:02:58 pm »
"-Added single-planet versions of the auto-build-engineerI|II|III|remains-rebuilder nodes."

YAY.  What has changed since the last official release.  I'm still playing that.  3.060 I believe.

Offline Doddler

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Re: Prerelease 3.114 (Release Candidate 1, New Control Nodes, Bugfixes)
« Reply #24 on: April 29, 2010, 02:04:14 pm »
The alert box is cool but it might be nice if it auto-vanished after 10-15 seconds.  ctrl-alt-right click is so obscure, just right click would be fine?

Kind of responding to superking:

Vampires are fine when they're fighting ships, but I have serious issues countering AI vampires.  AI waves that include these are brutal, especially early on, because there's literally nothing you can do to stop them from from destroying your resources and command stations.  I've lost a few games so far from vampires I couldn't stop from destroying my home command center, the usual mix of tractors/forcefields and other defenses are completely ignored, and they happily bypass exo-forcefields and wreck resource production.

Sorry I'm ranting. :p

Beam turrets I like, but I think the description should be updated to show the multiple attacks, you still can't tell how much damage a beam cannon can do just by looking at the description.

I use basic turrets a lot. These games I tend to unlock Mk III basic turrets early on.  Unlocking max basic turrets costs about half the knowledge of the more specialized turrets and are good against most ship types.  You might have more success with laser and missle turrets, but basic turrets are cheap, fast to deply, and you can get max level with 2k knowledge, which is awesome.

Offline x4000

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Re: Prerelease 3.114 (Release Candidate 1, New Control Nodes, Bugfixes)
« Reply #25 on: April 29, 2010, 02:04:32 pm »
They would probably respond "what do you mean by 'worlds with more than one wormhole'?" ;)

Yeah, with gate raiding it's useless because you always only have one incoming wormhole to any planet. :)

What has changed since the last official release.  I'm still playing that.  3.060 I believe.

An absolute ton of stuff -- the full release notes are attached to the first post here.  It's really, really, a lot as usual.
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Offline x4000

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Re: Prerelease 3.114 (Release Candidate 1, New Control Nodes, Bugfixes)
« Reply #26 on: April 29, 2010, 02:05:49 pm »
The alert box is cool but it might be nice if it auto-vanished after 10-15 seconds.  ctrl-alt-right click is so obscure, just right click would be fine?

Regarding this, I'm wondering why isn't this just coming up in chat like with the technology unlocks?  I'm not sure why there's a separate interface here at all, honestly.
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Offline keith.lamothe

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Re: Prerelease 3.114 (Release Candidate 1, New Control Nodes, Bugfixes)
« Reply #27 on: April 29, 2010, 02:13:40 pm »
Mainly because I didn't think of the chat-line output.  And partly because I need that sort of mini-floating display for a ton of other requested features since the keyboard is basically full now.
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Offline x4000

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Re: Prerelease 3.114 (Release Candidate 1, New Control Nodes, Bugfixes)
« Reply #28 on: April 29, 2010, 02:16:47 pm »
I gotcha.  Well, lets put this stuff into the chat for the sake of consistency, and then this window thing can be used in the other stuff you are planning for layer, which should work out well.  Pretty much all notifications to the player (autosave, even the tutorial text) runs through the chat lines interface at present.  No worries, though. :)
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Offline superking

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Re: Prerelease 3.114 (Release Candidate 1, New Control Nodes, Bugfixes)
« Reply #29 on: April 29, 2010, 02:21:34 pm »
They would probably respond "what do you mean by 'worlds with more than one wormhole'?" ;)

Yeah, with gate raiding it's useless because you always only have one incoming wormhole to any planet. :)

so *thats* why you can destroy warpgates seperately!

I'm not ashamed, I beat dual 7.6 without being in the know. 8 has been difficult, now I know why  ;D