Prerelease/Expans 2.001ZL (4 Minor Factions, CPA adjust, Leech/Raid Star split)

[Sovereign]

A lot of this looks really decent, especially the minor factions. Give it a go later tonight. 

[Volatar]

The font is looking really great recently, but there are a few things I noticed that could use some changing:

-The small number 1 used on build icons looks nothing like the other 9 numbers in the set. It looks too small and thin. The other numbers fit pretty well together, but this looks like it's from a different font.
-There's not enough space after closing parentheses, so "(for a fee) to" in the Zenith Traders description looks too much like "(for a fee)to".
-There's not enough space after l (that's lowercase L). It can make letters look too close together ("lli" in "Rebellion") or merge a little bit (as in the case of "le").

I think that's it for now. Looking forward to having time to play with these new features!

Yeah, Marisa is still going to be looking at those some more.  The 1 in particular was giving her some odd trouble.

Cool, I noticed these problems too. Glad that they will be fixed 

Also, for the record, who is Marisa?

[x4000]

My wife.

[Velox]

     xx4000, if you will...

     

[Volatar]

My wife.

Ah, cool that she is getting involved 

[orzelek]

Thanks for new nice release

CPA change is very welcome - having these every hour or so was really detracting me from trying to take the game from start to end.

[Harry]

I *love* this release -- I was also having lots of trouble with hourly CPAs.  Now I see them once every 3-4 hours -- often enough that I can enjoy some "tower defense", but not so often that they detract from the fun of offense.  I do have a couple questions:

1. When I use the "O" (Scout) filter on the galaxy map, it seems to mis-report Remains Rebuilder Units as scouts.  I.e., I see a "Sct" on the galaxy map, but no little scout-diamond in the planet view.  Maybe I'm missing something?

2. Speaking of Rebuilders, I seem to have trouble getting them to do anything.  Are they supposed to rebuild broken turrets automatically?  Often I see them sitting doing nothing.  Do I have to put them in FRD mode?

But in general, I'm really glad I tried this pre-release.  I'm having my best game vs the 7/7 AI yet -- just destroyed a data center, AI Progress around 80, about to do some neutering and warp-gate raiding, and holding 5 planets after 4 hours, which is positively speedy by my standards.  Also, I'm learning the fine art of combatting cloaked units, raiders, and decoys -- it sure is fun getting different enemies every time you play. 

[x4000]

I *love* this release -- I was also having lots of trouble with hourly CPAs.  Now I see them once every 3-4 hours -- often enough that I can enjoy some "tower defense", but not so often that they detract from the fun of offense.  I do have a couple questions:

Glad to hear it!  Glad it's a hit with all -- orzelek, sounds like you were also having the same problem as Harry.

1. When I use the "O" (Scout) filter on the galaxy map, it seems to mis-report Remains Rebuilder Units as scouts.  I.e., I see a "Sct" on the galaxy map, but no little scout-diamond in the planet view.  Maybe I'm missing something?

Hmm, that's odd.  I'll check on that.

2. Speaking of Rebuilders, I seem to have trouble getting them to do anything.  Are they supposed to rebuild broken turrets automatically?  Often I see them sitting doing nothing.  Do I have to put them in FRD mode?

They have a certain radius in which they'll work, and that's all (it says it on the abilities listing).  If you want them to cover the whole planet, you would need to put them in FRD mode.  It can be nice to have the option to keep them in just one area, which is why it works like that, but for most general uses FRD is the way to go for them and for teleporting engineers on your planet, for that matter.  The target seek range on them is pretty much the same as engineers.

Other notes, just in case: do be aware that they require supply, so if that planet for some reason doesn't have supply, they'll just sit around stupidly.  Also, they only rebuild your turrets, not enemy turrets, just in case you were trying to rebuild enemy ones.

But in general, I'm really glad I tried this pre-release.  I'm having my best game vs the 7/7 AI yet -- just destroyed a data center, AI Progress around 80, about to do some neutering and warp-gate raiding, and holding 5 planets after 4 hours, which is positively speedy by my standards.  Also, I'm learning the fine art of combatting cloaked units, raiders, and decoys -- it sure is fun getting different enemies every time you play. 

Sweet!  Glad it's a hit. I think the 2.003 release (which is what 2.001 will be called when it goes official) really does beat the pants off the 2.0 release.  But, that's always the goal with every release.

[Shardz]

This release is more like an expansion to an expansion! Quite a massive mix of new stuff to ponder and wade through as the battle wages on at a computer near you. I love the idea of these "events" that these Zeniths create and gives even more of an optional edge of wonderful discomfort to the mix and to keep you looking around the entire theater for strategic opportunities. This also brings me back to a discussion in the forums about having optional random atmospheric anomalies that affect planets once in awhile that offer both good and bad opportunities that could further keep you on edge; real geek fodder stuff like asteroid storms sweeping through planets, electrical storms, gaseous/radiation clouds, supernovas, and stuff along those lines that would have separate "cause and effect" situations. It would be enough to throw off planned strategies and place game changing events into the world that would introduce yet more chaos to the table.  

Anyway, I'm rambling again and I do that often. Superb work on this release, I am humbled once again!  

[x4000]

Thanks, Shardz -- glad you like it.   Note that environmental stuff is perhaps going to be the cornerstone of the second expansion, just as the Zenith and their golems were the cornerstone of this one.  I'm looking forward to that, when it comes around time to start working on that in another 8-10 months or so.

[quickstix]

I've had another playthrough and my ships are still acting a bit weird. It's hard to describe.

I've had multiple occasions of ships not opening fire on enemy ships, even ones right next to them, unless I manually target the enemy ships. Seems to be most prevalent when the situation arises that my ships should absolutely cream the enemy (ie, fighters vs. bombers or viral shredders). Had a group of fighters and microfighters sitting right on top of about 6 enemy bombers, and would not fire a single shot until I manually targeted the enemy and queued the rest. When I did manually target, every single one of my ships opened fire.

I'll try a new game and see if I can recreate the behaviour.

[x4000]

If you have a savegame that can trigger it, that would be most helpful.  I still have yet to see that specific behavior, so I don't know what is causing that exactly.

[quickstix]

Recreated the behaviour in my save. On the planet Orzonai (to the right of my home planet), there is a group of fighters sitting next to a bomber and beam frigate, and are not shooting at the enemy.

[x4000]

Thanks!  Will test in a bit.

[quickstix]

One more tiny little thing!

Rally points are vanishing between saves and ships enroute to a rally point stop in their tracks. Tested in a brand new game. Set a rally point, made some ships, saved, came back and the rally point was gone and ships stopped dead in their tracks.

Thanks again x4000!

Edit: If it's not happening for anyone else, let me know as my game has been patched a heck of a lot and I was thinking of a fresh install.