Author Topic: Prerelease 3.181 (New CoN features, AI Ship Counts Down, 45 New Guard Posts)  (Read 27112 times)

Offline zebramatt

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B: make them look like less floating twisted junks of metal and more guard-post-y?

I *really* like the visual style of the guard posts.

When it comes to gem not having white borders, I figure that makes them easier to identify or ignore; so for now that's what I'm using.

I gotta say, much as I like the new graphics - and I do - their mini icons not having the white border just jars with my sense of consistency!

Offline x4000

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Hmm, fair enough.  And I have been on the fence because of visibility concerns.  I'll probably add those in, then.
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Offline keith.lamothe

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I would also really like borders on those icons :)
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Offline x4000

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Offline Ozymandiaz

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I would also really like borders on those icons :)

Not to bash you X, but I have to agree. My engineer nature demands consistency ;)

The Guard posts looks nice tho! And there are some interesting ones as well. I like this direction of the game, makes all planets a bit more unique, and makes it interesting to attack.

I also survived the 700 core bombers + 2300 misc units released by this patch with minimal fleet ships lost (in fact, I got more MK IV zenith viral shredders now :) ), so not bad I guess :P

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Offline keith.lamothe

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I also survived the 700 core bombers + 2300 misc units released by this patch with minimal fleet ships lost (in fact, I got more MK IV zenith viral shredders now :) ), so not bad I guess :P
With all the attack mechanics like Waves, CPAs, CPA Waves, Border Aggression, Scrap Waves, etc, not many people notice one of the more perilous vectors: The Patch Wave ;D
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Offline x4000

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I would also really like borders on those icons :)

Not to bash you X, but I have to agree. My engineer nature demands consistency ;)

Yeah, I'm working on them now.  Originally I did not do them simply because I did not have time, and I was going to come back to them -- my engineer nature demands consistency, too.  But then I saw them in practice and liked how they were differentiated and easily identifiable versus all the other ships.  So I decided to leave them without borders, though not without some worries over visibility and consistency, etc.  Anyway, the people have spoken.

The Guard posts looks nice tho! And there are some interesting ones as well. I like this direction of the game, makes all planets a bit more unique, and makes it interesting to attack.

I also survived the 700 core bombers + 2300 misc units released by this patch with minimal fleet ships lost (in fact, I got more MK IV zenith viral shredders now :) ), so not bad I guess :P

Cool stuff!
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Offline zebramatt

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I would also really like borders on those icons :)

Not to bash you X, but I have to agree. My engineer nature demands consistency ;)

But then I saw them in practice and liked how they were differentiated and easily identifiable versus all the other ships.  


This wouldn't be a terrible thing to try to incorporate in some other fashion: an overlay on the icons (a little 'G'?); or a slightly different coloured border; or something to differentiate them?

Offline x4000

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Yeah, the next release has something along those lines for the intel summaries at least.
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Offline x4000

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Updates in 3.182 (Full release notes to be later today, combined with 3.183)

    *  When a large new AI Barracks is created, that can cause a momentary lag in the time, which we forgot to mention last game. Now there is also a message shown of "AI Barracks Created With Units: 1200" or similar, to let players know what is going on. These lag spikes are really temporary, not all that common (except when loading old savegames with tons of units over the ship cap), and lead to better performance on an ongoing basis in that savegame.

    * Previously, AI Barracks were not allowed to be created except when the attack + threat level was already over 1500. Before that point, it would cause border aggression only, which could be rather catastrophic with older savegames, especially longer ones. Now the AI Barracks are allowed to kick in at any time regardless of the attack + threat levels. This also will make the barracks more likely to be used during the course of normal games started in 3.181 or later.

    * Previously, Border Aggression could be really vicious, sending vast quantities of ships cumulatively into threat when there are a lot of planets all with fewer than 200 excess ships on them (the minimum to make a barracks). And it could also be really vicious in sending a lot of core or mark IV ships at the players when they were used to seeing mark I or II ships in a game.
          o Now the Border Aggression will never kick in at all if the attack + threat level is already 500 or more.
          o Additionally, when ships would be released via border aggression, and those ships have a tech level that is more than 2 marks higher than the current tech level of that AI player (so, mark IV/V ship with a mark I AI tech level, or mark V ship with a mark II AI tech level, basically), then these excess ships are simply exploded rather than being released. This keeps the ship caps pruned as needed without causing a ridiculous spike in difficulty and without having players ever get swarmed with core ships early in the game.

    * Refactored the ship category buttons at the bottom of the main screen to a two-tier model letting the player drill down to either the full list, the low-power list, the non-low-power list, or a list of a specific ship-type.

    * Command Stations and Guard Posts now get their own line of icons in the intel summary in the galaxy map. This prevents them from completely overwhelming all of the other special ship icons by their presence.

    * The ships that show up with an icon on the intel summary view have their own text line directly below in purple, but they were also still showing up in the larger lists of my/allied/enemy ships further down. Now they have been removed from those lower lists (but not the counts of enemy ships by mark level), so as to make those lists more focused and easier to read.

    * The non-core guard posts now have white borders like other ships. The core guard posts will soon.
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Offline carlosjuero

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Thanks for the updates, but in particular the ones I have quoted :) - sometimes it stands in good stead to be a guinea pig with a slightly unorthodox playstyle.

Updates in 3.182 (Full release notes to be later today, combined with 3.183)

    *  When a large new AI Barracks is created, that can cause a momentary lag in the time, which we forgot to mention last game. Now there is also a message shown of "AI Barracks Created With Units: 1200" or similar, to let players know what is going on. These lag spikes are really temporary, not all that common (except when loading old savegames with tons of units over the ship cap), and lead to better performance on an ongoing basis in that savegame.

    * Previously, AI Barracks were not allowed to be created except when the attack + threat level was already over 1500. Before that point, it would cause border aggression only, which could be rather catastrophic with older savegames, especially longer ones. Now the AI Barracks are allowed to kick in at any time regardless of the attack + threat levels. This also will make the barracks more likely to be used during the course of normal games started in 3.181 or later.

    * Previously, Border Aggression could be really vicious, sending vast quantities of ships cumulatively into threat when there are a lot of planets all with fewer than 200 excess ships on them (the minimum to make a barracks). And it could also be really vicious in sending a lot of core or mark IV ships at the players when they were used to seeing mark I or II ships in a game.
          o Now the Border Aggression will never kick in at all if the attack + threat level is already 500 or more.
          o Additionally, when ships would be released via border aggression, and those ships have a tech level that is more than 2 marks higher than the current tech level of that AI player (so, mark IV/V ship with a mark I AI tech level, or mark V ship with a mark II AI tech level, basically), then these excess ships are simply exploded rather than being released. This keeps the ship caps pruned as needed without causing a ridiculous spike in difficulty and without having players ever get swarmed with core ships early in the game.


Offline x4000

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Indeed! Thanks for your comments on that. I think that will make the upgrade a lot less painful for more people, too. :)
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Offline snrub_guy

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I was actually just reading the release notes, and I caught myself grinning. Grinning at release notes. Alone.

And now you say another release later today?

What are you doing to me?

What have I become?

Offline x4000

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Offline Vinraith

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Rather than blowing up the ships that are too high level to be reasonably released in border aggression at a given AI tech level, why not shunt them to a barracks (or possibly some new, similar structure specifically for this purpose)?

You know, I think about my post history, and I'm starting to think I advocate on behalf of the AI more often than I do anything else. ;D
« Last Edit: August 17, 2010, 01:48:51 pm by Vinraith »