Prerelease/Expans 2.001ZE (Hive Golem, New Save Format, Train Population Nerf)

[raptor331]

I have an Idea for the fortress, it store ships, protecting them from raids and such. You can store stuff like Advanced Laboratories, or maybe give it the ability to do that one thing the Hive Golem does, Build short range small fighters that automaticaly attack any enemy units.

You know, making the fortresses able to transport units is a pretty cool idea, actually!

Thank You, I also said the same thing about starships, having the ability to hold a protective squadron of units that you assign to the starship. (nudge nudge)

[x4000]

I have an Idea for the fortress, it store ships, protecting them from raids and such. You can store stuff like Advanced Laboratories, or maybe give it the ability to do that one thing the Hive Golem does, Build short range small fighters that automaticaly attack any enemy units.

You know, making the fortresses able to transport units is a pretty cool idea, actually!

Thank You, I also said the same thing about starships, having the ability to hold a protective squadron of units that you assign to the starship. (nudge nudge)

Well, but that would make transports completely useless, is the thing.  I might do a starship line at some point in the future that can do that, but for now there's not time.

[raptor331]

I have an Idea for the fortress, it store ships, protecting them from raids and such. You can store stuff like Advanced Laboratories, or maybe give it the ability to do that one thing the Hive Golem does, Build short range small fighters that automaticaly attack any enemy units.

You know, making the fortresses able to transport units is a pretty cool idea, actually!

Thank You, I also said the same thing about starships, having the ability to hold a protective squadron of units that you assign to the starship. (nudge nudge)

Well, but that would make transports completely useless, is the thing.  I might do a starship line at some point in the future that can do that, but for now there's not time.

It wouldn't really make them useless becuase starships would logically carry less than transports(I also believe that the carrying capacity of transports should be bumbed up a bit)Plus ships docked in starships automaticaly attack any enemy units(unless the starship was shut down) within range, thus the units are not protected like they are in transports.

[Oewyn]

Couple of comments.

1) Area Mines may be too OP ATM.  If you place them carefully around a wormhole, 15-20 can insta-gib any size wave of mkI ships.

2) Ships paralyzed by emp mines are not targeted by turrets until they leave paralysis.  Turrets(except tractor beams) should at least target paralyzed ships if there are no other targets available.

3) The impulse ships(the ones that do damage based on the energy used by that ship) have no strong counter.  They do not do much damage to most ships, but no ship can kill them quickly.  Since they ignore tractor beam turrets, and sniper turrets, they proceed to kill off all harvesters on the planet until your forces can eventually whittle them down.

4)The build cost of decloakers(5000/15000) may be a little high for their limited utility.

[Lancefighter]

decloakers do have an awesome range... I think their issue is more 2k knowledge and small unit number(like 3 total?) . If not for the fact I havnt actually went against a Ai that loves cloaked units.

I do wonder, as well, why the cloaked tachyon emitter has a greater range than the uncloaked one. I would place them both at 750 knowledge and swap the ranges.

[x4000]

new exception:

12/22/2009 11:36:09 PM (2.001ZE)
-----------------------------------Application_ThreadException-----------------------------------System.InvalidOperationException: Collection was modified; enumeration operation may not execute.
   at System.ThrowHelper.ThrowInvalidOperationException(ExceptionResource resource)
   at AIWar.ForegroundObject.MovePlayerUnit(Boolean RecalculateFull) in C:\vcprojs\AIWar\Framework\ForegroundObject.cs:line 6648
   at AIWar.GameForm.RunNextCycle(Boolean DoRendering, Boolean DoScrollingAndInput) in C:\vcprojs\AIWar\GameFormParts\GameLoop.cs:line 1125
   at AIWar.GameForm.gameLoop() in C:\vcprojs\AIWar\GameFormParts\GameLoop.cs:line 245
   at AIWar.GameForm.GameForm_Load(Object sender, EventArgs e) in C:\vcprojs\AIWar\GameFormParts\Startup.cs:line 241
   at System.Windows.Forms.Form.OnLoad(EventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Form.OnCreateControl()
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.CreateControl(Boolean fIgnoreVisible)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.CreateControl()
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmShowWindow(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ScrollableControl.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ContainerControl.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Form.WmShowWindow(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Form.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.OnMessage(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)

Do you have a savegame that is able to trigger this?  I can't find anything that seems amiss in the code here, so I'm not sure precisely what is causing it.

[x4000]

I have an Idea for the fortress, it store ships, protecting them from raids and such. You can store stuff like Advanced Laboratories, or maybe give it the ability to do that one thing the Hive Golem does, Build short range small fighters that automaticaly attack any enemy units.

You know, making the fortresses able to transport units is a pretty cool idea, actually!

Thank You, I also said the same thing about starships, having the ability to hold a protective squadron of units that you assign to the starship. (nudge nudge)

Well, but that would make transports completely useless, is the thing.  I might do a starship line at some point in the future that can do that, but for now there's not time.

It wouldn't really make them useless becuase starships would logically carry less than transports(I also believe that the carrying capacity of transports should be bumbed up a bit)Plus ships docked in starships automaticaly attack any enemy units(unless the starship was shut down) within range, thus the units are not protected like they are in transports.

There are a lot of different transport models, and the one I'm using is most similar to the games I've always played the most -- SupCom, Age of Empires, etc.  Where you have a lot of little unarmed transports that you have to escort, etc.  I might to something else later down the line, but I'm definitely out of time for other features of that sort at the moment.

[x4000]

1) Area Mines may be too OP ATM.  If you place them carefully around a wormhole, 15-20 can insta-gib any size wave of mkI ships.

2) Ships paralyzed by emp mines are not targeted by turrets until they leave paralysis.  Turrets(except tractor beams) should at least target paralyzed ships if there are no other targets available.

3) The impulse ships(the ones that do damage based on the energy used by that ship) have no strong counter.  They do not do much damage to most ships, but no ship can kill them quickly.  Since they ignore tractor beam turrets, and sniper turrets, they proceed to kill off all harvesters on the planet until your forces can eventually whittle them down.

4)The build cost of decloakers(5000/15000) may be a little high for their limited utility.

1) I've been thinking the same thing.  For now I'm going to reduce their health/damage to 1/8 the prior value, and we'll see if that needs to come back up some.

2) I'll check on that, that's odd.

3) I'll check on that, also -- I just haven't put much time into balancing that particular ship yet.

4) Yeah, and LanceFighter's comments also are valid.  I think perhaps making it so that the player can have more of these, and the K cost is down to 1000 or so, and the C cost is down by half or so.

LanceFigher, to your other comment about the tachyon beam emitters, it's because they are different marks.  You've got mark I, which is non-cloaked and has a worse range (and costs less K), then you have mark II, which is cloaked and has better range, but also costs more K (and requires that mark I be unlocked first).  Interestingly, I see that the mkI was not properly set to be a prereq for the mkII, though -- that will be fixed in the next prerelease, thanks for catching that!

[Velox]

I have an Idea for the fortress, it store ships, protecting them from raids and such. You can store stuff like Advanced Laboratories, or maybe give it the ability to do that one thing the Hive Golem does, Build short range small fighters that automaticaly attack any enemy units.

You know, making the fortresses able to transport units is a pretty cool idea, actually!

     Perhaps even have them repair docked units (although slower than an engineer/MRS) to make it a more interesting thing to have on site than "big chunk of health that can't leave the system" (the interesting bonuses against annoying ship types is a nice step in that direction already, btw.)  Either way, I agree - this would be great.  It'd give your bomber wing a nice place to hide when a t-raider warp is incoming, etc.

[I-KP]

Seeing as we're talking about some Strike Transport lovin': http://arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,2579.0.html

Like the idea about making the Fortress a temporary hidey-hole for fleet ships should something nasty show up. 

[Shardz]

I absolutely love the new font

Though, speaking of font, i found a bug

When you put ships in low power mods (engineers for example)

You get this

Aha! Yes, I have a planet that has two metal mines attached that have a False label, as well! At first I thought they were mining for Fool's Gold or something since I'm new to this game, but apparently it's some sort of bug.    I'm glad that clears up that mystery!

[quickstix]

Forgot to mention just how good the font is looking right now. Really enjoyable to look at and fits in really well with AI War.

[x4000]

Forgot to mention just how good the font is looking right now. Really enjoyable to look at and fits in really well with AI War.

Excellent!  Glad to hear it.  Still more needs to be done with the numbering to make them as clear as possible, but it's nothing near as bad as the last one was.

[Lancefighter]

LanceFigher, to your other comment about the tachyon beam emitters, it's because they are different marks.  You've got mark I, which is non-cloaked and has a worse range (and costs less K), then you have mark II, which is cloaked and has better range, but also costs more K (and requires that mark I be unlocked first).  Interestingly, I see that the mkI was not properly set to be a prereq for the mkII, though -- that will be fixed in the next prerelease, thanks for catching that!

No wonder I couldnt figure out why anyone would use the uncloaked one!
I kinda figured they were supposed be the same type, one trading off range for cloaking..
Anyway, I guess that is solved

As per fortresses - perhaps make them a rally point/longer ranged repair station?  no tugs or anything...

[HellishFiend]

I'm wondering, will FRD be fixed in the next prerelease?