Should we adjust Fallen Spire Shard Speed and Chase-exo spawn rate?

[keith.lamothe]

Ok, for a while a very common complaint was that the shards moved too slowly during shard recovery.

So I tried a fairly dramatic change: I quadrupled the speed of the shard, but necessarily had to quadruple the rate at which the AI's chase-exos spawn to go after it (and go after you).  If I don't keep those together it just makes it easier.  I actually left the spawn-rate at slightly less than 4x what it was, which is appropriate partly because 2 groups of 100 ships 15 seconds apart is generally more challenging than 2 groups of 100 ships 30 seconds apart.

Anyway, I've heard a number of requests since then to slow both back down, but I'd like some more quantified idea of what people want here so we don't just play a game of hopping back and forth between which group of players is happy this version

If you don't want one of the exact multiples above, just vote for whichever of the above you prefer and explain in the thread what speed you think is ideal and why.

[Faulty Logic]

Could you add a "Each shard has a different speed" option?

Because I would really like that, and it would counter the repetitive feeling of recovering the seventh freaking shard the exact same way.

[keith.lamothe]

Could you add a "Each shard has a different speed" option?

Because I would really like that, and it would counter the repetitive feeling of recovering the seventh freaking shard the exact same way.

You mean have early shards be slow, and later ones be fast, due to probable distance involved?

[Faulty Logic]

No, I mean have each shard select a speed at random, from the old speed to five times that speed.

[Cinth]

I kinda like the new speed. I don't like the final shard spawning on the other side of the map (bleh).

I would like to see some variation in what is spawned in the chase though. Always with the Spire Shield Bearers and Riots. They beeline right through whatever fleet you have escorting and tend to block wormholes.

[TechSY730]

While I would prefer a reduce the spawn rate to 3x of 5.0, and leave shard speed at 4x (thanks to Lanchester's laws, 1/4x the time but with 4x the rate of the opposing army would, on average, be HARDER than 1x for both. 3x for rate and 4x for time seems closer to the same balance)

However, shard chases do seem a bit too short now, at least for the first few ones. Thus, I wouldn't mind voting for 2.5x of the spawn rate and 3x of the speed, or even 3x of both. (Less extreme adjustment means less extreme balance shift).

[keith.lamothe]

No, I mean have each shard select a speed at random, from the old speed to five times that speed.

That would be pretty difficult to implement; the way the engine is I'd need to define a separate unit type per shard per speed possibility and have shard-spawn randomly select between them.

[TechSY730]

No, I mean have each shard select a speed at random, from the old speed to five times that speed.

That would be pretty difficult to implement; the way the engine is I'd need to define a separate unit type per shard per speed possibility and have shard-spawn randomly select between them.

Combinatorial explosion FTW! (Or FTL if you have to maintain it )

[Wanderer]

Honestly, I'm not sure that you couldn't speed up the shard and leave the exo-assaults as they were.  No, really.

The shard chasers were never REALLY the problem.  Your homeworld chokepoints either held while your fleet escorted it back in one piece, or they didn't.  That was always the real fight.  Quadrupling what they have to handle is just overkill.

I personally just wanted a speed boost.  That was it.  Let the waves keep coming after you for a while if you need them to, but kill the wall-clock.  The reaction to doing something WITH the shard always seemed more viscious then the chase groups anyway if you did gate-control.

Also, ever since the core-world final shard change I haven't even bothered to use FS other than a test game for the first two shards just to see how the improvements to speed was.  I don't feel like trucking the thing across the map, so my experience with this is VERY incomplete.

[Cinth]

I haven't recovered a final shard since the change. It's always been on the furthest core world. Escort 20+ hops, no thanks.

[keith.lamothe]

Honestly, I'm not sure that you couldn't speed up the shard and leave the exo-assaults as they were.  No, really.

The shard chasers were never REALLY the problem.  Your homeworld chokepoints either held while your fleet escorted it back in one piece, or they didn't.  That was always the real fight.  Quadrupling what they have to handle is just overkill.

I personally just wanted a speed boost.  That was it.  Let the waves keep coming after you for a while if you need them to, but kill the wall-clock.  The reaction to doing something WITH the shard always seemed more viscious then the chase groups anyway if you did gate-control.

I'm not sure you understand: if I had quadrupled the shard speed and left the spawns as-is, then assuming the shard had the same distance to travel only 1/4 as many chase exos would spawn.  I haven't changed the size of those chase exos (though I could).  I didn't want to quarter the challenge, so I made them spawn faster

[Faulty Logic]

that would be pretty difficult to implement; the way the engine is I'd need to define a separate unit type per shard per speed possibility and have shard-spawn randomly select between them.

Oh well. I would have thought you could make a modular shard, with only one module, and have it be a gravity effect, or something. But I trust that you actually mean difficult to implement, so, given that, I would prefer the current speed.

Of course, what I really want, and what would be really difficult to implement, would be an entire random selection of things the shard does to alter the chase.

And have the final shard be inside a spire superdreadnought, and balanced to compensate.

[TechSY730]

I'll vote for 3x for both, but I may change my vote if a spawn rate multiplier < shard speed multiplier option presents itself.

[Eternaly_Lost]

I know this idea came up before, but I want to throw it out again.

Why don't we move to a set attack time from the AI per shard, rather then how long it takes to get home.

Leave the speed alone, as you don't want wall time wasted just to get the shard in, but rather then stop the second you get home. You stop when the shard is home and the timer(based on each shard) has run out.

Think of it basically as the AI decides to send X units after a shard, but it takes time to get out, but it will always send some units after the shard if you don't return it home until it gets home.

Basically, as I am seeing this, it would go strong wave( stronger then we have now due to the fact that they would not all be the same strength), strong wave, medium wave, medium wave, weak waves until the timer has run out and the shard is home.

It certainly would be a bit of change, but I think it might work better and feel a bit more realistic. The AI is not going to throw everything it going to send in a wave at a shard every 15 or whatever seconds until it gets home. It going to send a large wave, then smaller waves as the rest of the assigned ships get there, until it just sends token forces at the shards if they are in the open.

[chemical_art]

I like the current system.

The rapid increase in speed and response causes the exo waves from being a slog where the goal is to mostly to prevent any enemys from touching the shard (since even a 5% damage from a wave is a cause of a concern when you have to repulse 30) to a more frantic response where you face a response that can serious wipe your fleet but you have to hold on for a much smaller amount of time.