Beta 0.803 now out.

[x4000]

Release notes: http://arcengames.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=Stars_Beyond_Reach_Beta_Release_Notes#Version_0.803

I honestly had not planned on working more tonight, but I got a surge of energy and a certain amount of inspiration, and here we are.  I'm going to try to disconnect for the rest of the weekend (well, except Sunday afternoon), though.

This version brings a lot of balance shifts in your favor.  In a few cases perhaps too much so, it's hard to say.  But it also fixes two conflicting things:
1. If you played a certain way (ptarth), then after a while into the game you would be just this unstoppable juggernaut with practically unlimited resources.
2. If you played another way (Watashiwa), then you'd get absolutely bogged down in disease in the early-middle game, and... well, not death spiral anymore, but certainly the fun got sucked out.
3. If you played yet another way (topper) and got unlucky, then your hungry citizens in your midsize town would turn cannibalistic and just absolutely murder one another as soon as food became scarce.

Funnily enough, we've had the following progressions in crime:
1. Very frequent mall shootings, with vicious rampages despite police out in force (this is prior to the beta, it was something I kept fighting myself).
2. Larger-scale riots for a variety of reasons, mainly trash and dead bodies (hello earliest days for Redshirts).
3. And now post-apocalyptic scavenging and fighting for supplies when Burger King closes down for a day.

I have to say, personally the exploits of all this sort of thing endlessly amuse me.  I'm somehow reminded of certain dwarves locking themselves in their rooms and feverishly creating some sort of insane object before murdering others.  Anyhow, in this case it's down to bugs, but it's been a very fun evolution to see in terms of how the crime balance numbers could cause such disparate effects.

All right, I'm out!

[TheVampire100]

I like the Nerfs the most honestly. I may be not as bad as ptarth and exploit the sh*t out of the game but since diseases are nor problem anymore I can literally dominate the game through income and military.
I like the new caps of the income buildings. they prevent players from spamming income in the beginning to rush their sonctructions. This was really mad, ad around turn 100 I could build a halfo dozen hazmats and other stuff. At around turn 200 I had always about 100k crowns as income.

I think military needs also some nerfing, especially helipads. They are waaaay to strong for being such an early military building and the have a big range especially with the right skills. You can nuke with one helipad almost any opponent building as long as it does not get intercepted. I can force my way into any enemy city only using helipads that are cheap, strong, have a big range and so on.

I prefer them over any of the newer techs that should replace them actually.I think I will work next on a only military city, stomping all the other races and publish it to show what i mean. The Burlusts wiould be the perfect race for it.

I'm also glad that the patches are now coming rather fast since the initial 0.800 patch (which took some time because of obvious reasons but was also more or less the key patch for everyone).

[Misery]

I have to say, personally the exploits of all this sort of thing endlessly amuse me.  I'm somehow reminded of certain dwarves locking themselves in their rooms and feverishly creating some sort of insane object before murdering others.  Anyhow, in this case it's down to bugs, but it's been a very fun evolution to see in terms of how the crime balance numbers could cause such disparate effects.

I had pretty much the same thoughts... alot of it is pretty hilarious.

[crazyroosterman]

holy smokes 2 up dates in one day 0_0 I wasn't expecting enougher for at least a couple of days. ps in my current game were me and the skylaxians are fighting(fighting and no stomping my head in) I'm helipads a bit weak though that might be due to the fact that I've only got 2 of and the buildings I'm attacking have stupid amounts of health

[Misery]

holy smokes 2 up dates in one day 0_0 I wasn't expecting enougher for at least a couple of days

It's Arcen, you see.... it's pretty normal here most of the time 

[ptarth]

1. If you played a certain way (ptarth), then after a while into the game you would be just this unstoppable juggernaut with practically unlimited resources.

Yes! Special mention as... "that guy". I'll have to do something special for you guys. Which brings me to:

• Attached is my latest experience.
• I have periodic saves if you want to check the development of the city at other stage.
• I'll wait to make more comments until other eyes have had some time on game.

[x4000]

Cheers guys, I really enjoy reading about your exploits.

Lots of stuff to come obviously in terms of balance, and also some AI in terms of making the computer opponents actually react better to when you do things like spam helicopter attacks at them.  There's a reasonable counter for that sort of behavior, but the AI doesn't take advantage of it yet.  It still has many strategies it needs to be taught in terms of military defense.  It's already pretty darn adept at tearing you apart on offense if it catches you backfooted, and its citybuilding AI is quite solid although probably could use some tuning.  Militarily defending itself is probably its biggest weakness at the moment, and honestly that's mainly because there's almost no code for that specific case just yet, and it just handles that in a very generalized citybuilding sense of getting "general coverage" for protection, rather than actually having extra logic for dealing with specific threats.

[crazyroosterman]

yea considering the fact that this is single player only I think it would be pretty important to make sure the ai isn't ridiculously brain dead like in civ 5 were you need dlc to propel the ai out of just being born state and into a toddler state were fighting it isn't a literal joke.

[TheVampire100]

Cheers guys, I really enjoy reading about your exploits.

Lots of stuff to come obviously in terms of balance, and also some AI in terms of making the computer opponents actually react better to when you do things like spam helicopter attacks at them.  There's a reasonable counter for that sort of behavior, but the AI doesn't take advantage of it yet.  It still has many strategies it needs to be taught in terms of military defense.  It's already pretty darn adept at tearing you apart on offense if it catches you backfooted, and its citybuilding AI is quite solid although probably could use some tuning.  Militarily defending itself is probably its biggest weakness at the moment, and honestly that's mainly because there's almost no code for that specific case just yet, and it just handles that in a very generalized citybuilding sense of getting "general coverage" for protection, rather than actually having extra logic for dealing with specific threats.

*replaces SBR-AI with AI War-AI*

Now we're talking :O

[x4000]

Yeah, the SBR AI has a lot more to do in terms of actually building its empire, which is where the focused has been thus far.  The AI War AI doesn't have as much to do there.  Then when it comes to aggression and whatnot, the SBR AI is pretty much in an infant state... but that won't last.  *cackles*

[TheVampire100]

The AI is currently passive-aggressive. It waits until you get too close to them and they will then attack you. Otherwise they don't bother with what you do.
Unless of course you piss off the Thoraxians, then you get incaded by giant ant men.

[x4000]

Yep, that's pretty much the state of it right now.