Prerelease/Expans 2.001B (3 Golems, Omega Drive cheat, trial+, multiplayer fix)

[x4000]

not to ruin the party, but I'm somewhat against allowing colony ships docking inside transports

Because of the changes to supply, it's pretty much needed (in the past, all you had to do was get a mobile builder to the other location).  You're already at a knowledge loss if you buy transports already, so it's not something that is an obvious "always buy" that makes the game easier or anything.  For the majority of advanced players, I think that transports are still only something that are likely to be used in a minority of games.

also,
do you guys have any plans regarding making stations vs ships size factors larger?
right now i think homebases are a tad small compared to what they can actually do
unless this creates problems, such as less space inside forcefields etc.

As part of our 2.0 updates, we redid the graphics of all of the command stations, but we opted not to make them larger for the very reason you mention -- defensibility with force fields, etc.

[x4000]

Wow...the AI hates golems with a passion...they are almost a trap in thier own sense when you get one, within 2 minutes of repairing it 750 teleport raider attack the planet the golem is on and kill it(black widow one)

Bear in mind that the balance of all the expansion ships, Golems included, is not final yet -- this is part of that whole "seeking community feedback" thing, at the moment it is more of a rough draft than anything else.  In my own experience I haven't found them having that many teleport raiders after it, but rather I was able to kill off an entire Mark IV planet with just a single Black Widow (which I did lose in the process, but which I could have kept if I had supported it with other ships, or withdrew it for repairs, etc).

The Armored Golem works really well by itself, it is just a huge tank of a ship, but the Black Widow Golem is really meant more to be used in concert with other ships (the longer-ranged, the better).  I.E., if you take a Black Widow in close, shoot out all the engines, and then retreat it while (for instance) Zenith Bombardment Ships beat the crud out of those disabled ships, you can really clean up with it.

All that said, the balance is not necessarily perfect, and one or two games won't really give us too much information on that, because -- for example -- that wave of 750 teleport raiders may not have had much to do with the Golem.  Or, if it was that they were related, but were just part of the reinforcements that are accelerated based on the golem, then that might mean that Black Widows are simply underpowered against teleporting stuff.

In fact, I think that is likely to be the case.  I'll make the Black Widows immune to minor electric shots (and snipers if they are not already), which should prevent those sorts of edge cases from reducing their usefulness too much.

If anyone else has experiences (for good or ill) to share about the Golems in your various games, that is always welcome!  I'm looking for community feedback through a wide variety of games to help with getting the balance on these really finalized for our release in a few months.

[Gankenstein]

I take it we will be warned if it's not feasible to install these prereleases over the previous prereleases? E.g. I assume it's safe to install 2.001B over 2.001A.

[x4000]

I take it we will be warned if it's not feasible to install these prereleases over the previous prereleases? E.g. I assume it's safe to install 2.001B over 2.001A.

Yep, per the instructions above, as long as you have at least 2.0 installed already, you can just install this over anything.  So 2.001B can go over 2.000, 2.001A, 2.000C (when that is out), or whatever, without any ill consequences.  If you try to put it directly onto 1.301 (or further back, even) you'll be missing the stuff that was new in 2.0, though, is the only place where you run into troubles.

[dumpsterKEEPER]

not to ruin the party, but I'm somewhat against allowing colony ships docking inside transports

Because of the changes to supply, it's pretty much needed (in the past, all you had to do was get a mobile builder to the other location).  You're already at a knowledge loss if you buy transports already, so it's not something that is an obvious "always buy" that makes the game easier or anything.  For the majority of advanced players, I think that transports are still only something that are likely to be used in a minority of games.

I, for one, appreciate the fact that colony ships can now be put inside of transports. This allowed me to continue forward in one particular game where I was lacking a clear solution for setting up a forward base to attack the AI homeworlds. The planet that I wanted to build on sat on the other side of a large cluster of perma-mines, and because of the map layout, it would have been extremely difficult to work my way around the other side. I had originally unlocked transports thinking they would allow me to move my colony ship past the mines (I haven't had occasion to use transports much previously) but obviously that didn't work.

It was fun to see this release note and be able to continue on with that particular game

[x4000]

not to ruin the party, but I'm somewhat against allowing colony ships docking inside transports

Because of the changes to supply, it's pretty much needed (in the past, all you had to do was get a mobile builder to the other location).  You're already at a knowledge loss if you buy transports already, so it's not something that is an obvious "always buy" that makes the game easier or anything.  For the majority of advanced players, I think that transports are still only something that are likely to be used in a minority of games.

I, for one, appreciate the fact that colony ships can now be put inside of transports. This allowed me to continue forward in one particular game where I was lacking a clear solution for setting up a forward base to attack the AI homeworlds. The planet that I wanted to build on sat on the other side of a large cluster of perma-mines, and because of the map layout, it would have been extremely difficult to work my way around the other side. I had originally unlocked transports thinking they would allow me to move my colony ship past the mines (I haven't had occasion to use transports much previously) but obviously that didn't work.

It was fun to see this release note and be able to continue on with that particular game

That's pretty much exactly the sort of cases this is aimed at helping. Glad that change revived that particular campaign for you!

[etgfrogs]

In fact, I think that is likely to be the case.  I'll make the Black Widows immune to minor electric shots (and snipers if they are not already), which should prevent those sorts of edge cases from reducing their usefulness too much.

yes...i think that would help counteract the of the x3 waves because everything will target nothing but it when its around, i had reloaded the autosave since i wanted to see if it was a large wave, with it on another planet it was still around 245 teleport raiders(the ai still killed 3 of my systems with these because i didn't use forcefields) which makes sense being i had 260 ai progress on level 7 difficulty...oh and i love the spokes style map because of the almost garanteed 1 entrance homeworld


edit note: while on the subject is it posible to have the golems get selected with the rest of military ships when you select your entire fleet?

[Nibelung44]

I would like also to send praises for the new possibilities given to transports!


side question, I guess  I can't have a game started in 2.0 benefits from some of the expansion-only stuff? I don't mean bug fixes (like the Raptor II problem, thanks by the way), but say if I get a new adv lab can I get a ship from the expansion?

And all golems are placed at start? SO no golem in ongoing game?

[Spikey00]

I am unsure, but I believe Golems are created before the game starts (having omnipotence and searching worlds everywhere).

[darke]

If you load an old savegame with the new patch it seems to add golems. Well it did for me anyway.

[Spikey00]

Weird... seems that my friend (before upgrading to 2.001B) connects to a blank lobby when joining my 2.001B game (expansion enabled in Settings Menu for me) instead of receiving a "To connect to this server, you must be running version 2.001B of the game."

After disabling the expansion in the settings menu, my friend reports that he is able to connect now, but I don't see neither him or vice verse. 


After upgrading however, he is able to connect successfully.

[x4000]

If you load an old savegame with the new patch it seems to add golems. Well it did for me anyway.

Was that already an expansio-enabled savegame?  I'm guessing yes.  If the expansion is enabled in a savegame, then new expansion features will start showing up in that when you load newer patches.  However, if the expansion is not enabled in a savegame, no expansion features will ever show up in it (or should not), though new features that are not expansion-related would.  There's a whole long list of reasons for this (compatibility and so forth, for multiplayer as well as otherwise), which I don't want to enumerate right now, but I imagine a lot of that makes sense if you think about the various permutations of people with and without the expansion, or who play with it on sometimes but not always with differing groups of players, etc.

[x4000]

I am unsure, but I believe Golems are created before the game starts (having omnipotence and searching worlds everywhere).

This is true, however when an expansion-enabled savegame is loaded, if Golems (or whatever other capturables) have not previously been seeded, they will be seeded on the first load of the new patch version.  But that doesn't apply to non-expansion savegames (2.0 and prior).

[x4000]

Weird... seems that my friend (before upgrading to 2.001B) connects to a blank lobby when joining my 2.001B game (expansion enabled in Settings Menu for me) instead of receiving a "To connect to this server, you must be running version 2.001B of the game."

After disabling the expansion in the settings menu, my friend reports that he is able to connect now, but I don't see neither him or vice verse. 


After upgrading however, he is able to connect successfully.

Hmm... the blank lobby is wrong, it should give a warning message.  The inability to connect unlike versions is correct, though.  Can you report bugs and such of this nature in the Bug Reports forum?  Makes it easier for me to come back to those to fix them, as I've got a lot of balls in the air at once and can't just jump from thing to thing as they are reported.  Thanks!

[Kjara]

Ditto on that one, but the other direction, I got some sort of messed up lobby when I tried to connect to a 2.000 game with 2.001B(No players showed up, but I could put myself as the first player).