Author Topic: Stars Beyond Reach pushing into a June release.  (Read 28044 times)

Offline x4000

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Re: Stars Beyond Reach pushing into a June release.
« Reply #45 on: March 17, 2015, 09:17:12 am »
Hey Chris, I'm a huge fan of your games and would be happy to help out in any way I can. If that means helping test the game, I'd be really happy to do so. This is the only game I'm really excited about and have plenty of free time on my hands. Cheers!

(If you already have enough testers, I'm also happy to help donate to a kickstart etc)

Cheers, thanks a lot!  I've added you to the list. :)

Believe it or not, but there are occaisional games where my first solution ISNT just exploding everything.

Who are you and what did you do with Misery!?!? ;)

Of course, the diplomacy stuff in many 4X games can be a bit.... lacking.   That's been my experience with them so far and one of the reasons I"m so interested in this one.

That's exactly how I feel. I tend to feel it's normally one of the most often undercooked aspect in 4x's which is a shame. I've had a thing for messing with and watching AI play against each other since I was young. Drox Operative is pretty fun for AI shenanigans.

It's a tricky sort of a thing, because diplomacy isn't something that I want to be super-duper central in the sense that it is in some of the Paradox games.  I don't want to spend a whole heck of a lot of time as a player having to slog through menus for diplomacy, for instance.  But at the same time, there's a lot of powerful stuff that you can only access via diplomacy in this game, so depending on who you make friends with that determines your "extended skillset," as it were.  In a nonliteral sense, of course.

Testing diplomacy hasn't been my big focus personally yet with this game, although it got a lot of love and time in design and implementation.  I've been focused mainly on the citybuilding first, and am getting into the military more now alongside that.  As those are falling into line, and a bunch of GUI work related to them gets completed, then that feeds into diplomacy more.  Diplomacy is one of those things in this game that doesn't hit you from turn 1, because you have to have linguistic ability to talk to those you want to do diplomacy with, and that takes a while.  So it's more of a mid-game thing if you focus on it, or a late-game thing if you're focused less on it.

But one thing that I've been doing with the citybuilding is trying to make it so that there are better incentives for doing diplomacy earlier, too.  There's a fair bit of infrastructure required for getting a really good resource pipeline going, which is often important to long-term diplomacy.

This is kind of a funny game, because I'm not sure how many turns a given game will take... but it seems to be a lot.  I've played a hundred or two turns at a time, and with the way the balance is right now that's barely scratching the surface.  One of my foci has been making turns less granular, so I can get more done per turn and so that combat is resolved over fewer turns, but it's a matter of twisting dials and so forth until that feels right.  Still, the old tradition of ~200 turns for an average game is out the window here for sure, I think.

Take all of those last few paragraphs with a grain of salt, because they likely won't be completely true by the time we start beta testing with you guys.  That's a big part of what I'm balancing right now, is what feels the best in terms of speed of turns, how long x and y take, etc, etc.  I want all that stuff sorted out before you get in there, so something that was taking 10 turns isn't suddenly taking 1 and your strategies are all out the window.  Not that we won't make substantial shifts once there are testers around, but I'd rather start with something that I feel is stable and then polish from there, rather than still be in the midst of actively turning dials, heh.

And thanks a bunch Chris for putting me on the list! Aside from a few mods, this is pretty much the only strategy game I'm excited for right now :)

My pleasure!
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Offline Mal

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Re: Stars Beyond Reach pushing into a June release.
« Reply #46 on: March 18, 2015, 08:52:20 pm »
It's a tricky sort of a thing, because diplomacy isn't something that I want to be super-duper central in the sense that it is in some of the Paradox games.  I don't want to spend a whole heck of a lot of time as a player having to slog through menus for diplomacy, for instance.  But at the same time, there's a lot of powerful stuff that you can only access via diplomacy in this game, so depending on who you make friends with that determines your "extended skillset," as it were.  In a nonliteral sense, of course.

Testing diplomacy hasn't been my big focus personally yet with this game, although it got a lot of love and time in design and implementation.  I've been focused mainly on the citybuilding first, and am getting into the military more now alongside that.  As those are falling into line, and a bunch of GUI work related to them gets completed, then that feeds into diplomacy more.  Diplomacy is one of those things in this game that doesn't hit you from turn 1, because you have to have linguistic ability to talk to those you want to do diplomacy with, and that takes a while.  So it's more of a mid-game thing if you focus on it, or a late-game thing if you're focused less on it.

But one thing that I've been doing with the citybuilding is trying to make it so that there are better incentives for doing diplomacy earlier, too.  There's a fair bit of infrastructure required for getting a really good resource pipeline going, which is often important to long-term diplomacy.

This is kind of a funny game, because I'm not sure how many turns a given game will take... but it seems to be a lot.  I've played a hundred or two turns at a time, and with the way the balance is right now that's barely scratching the surface.  One of my foci has been making turns less granular, so I can get more done per turn and so that combat is resolved over fewer turns, but it's a matter of twisting dials and so forth until that feels right.  Still, the old tradition of ~200 turns for an average game is out the window here for sure, I think.

Take all of those last few paragraphs with a grain of salt, because they likely won't be completely true by the time we start beta testing with you guys.  That's a big part of what I'm balancing right now, is what feels the best in terms of speed of turns, how long x and y take, etc, etc.  I want all that stuff sorted out before you get in there, so something that was taking 10 turns isn't suddenly taking 1 and your strategies are all out the window.  Not that we won't make substantial shifts once there are testers around, but I'd rather start with something that I feel is stable and then polish from there, rather than still be in the midst of actively turning dials, heh.

And thanks a bunch Chris for putting me on the list! Aside from a few mods, this is pretty much the only strategy game I'm excited for right now :)

My pleasure!

I rather like the diplomacy and how it functioned in The Last Federation. I know that this game will be different in that you are not relying solely on it.

As far as strategy and tactics goes, I have always seen your games live up to define them both very well - Strategy is the overall playstyle and how it unfolds for the early, middle, and late game(hours of play and planning)...while your tactics is your short term advantages(couple of minutes of play) that play-out well for you...or at least do good at controlling the damage that your opponents are doing.

I am excited for this game! May the dialing go well and fall into place like a perfect domino array!


Offline Zebeast46

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Re: Stars Beyond Reach pushing into a June release.
« Reply #47 on: March 18, 2015, 09:44:17 pm »
Really excited!!!

Personally, I will probably donate if arcen decides to go down that path, mostly because arcen is one of those "good guy" companies (it even feels weird to call it a company because company sounds corporate and corporate is bad)
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Offline x4000

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Re: Stars Beyond Reach pushing into a June release.
« Reply #48 on: March 19, 2015, 08:16:02 am »
Cheers guys, thanks. :)

In a lot of respects, the diplomacy system here does share some inspirations with TLF for sure, although as you say it's less central.  In some ways it is also less complicated, but in others it's more complicated -- really the dynamic changes some because you're on a different level as a player than in TLF.  Here's your a full government, but also a new one -- whereas in the other you're not a full government... or when you are, you're implicitly hostile.

The simulations within each race are also more detailed in SBR than they are in TLF, but the simulations of interactions between races are in some respects less detailed because the races aren't so focused on trying to interact.  In TLF you were constantly trying to manage that and you had visibility into all of that.  Here that would be pretty invisible, so largely pointless; the parts that are visible and have a point are simulated, but the parts that would be invisible anyway are skipped.

It's funny, because they're like cousins, but at the same time fairly different. :)
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Offline crazyroosterman

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Re: Stars Beyond Reach pushing into a June release.
« Reply #49 on: March 20, 2015, 11:40:33 am »
I'm glad your not ignoring diplomacy since the diplomacy is what makes games like civ5 interesting to me. ps could you put me on the list please id love to help test this game?.
c.r

Offline x4000

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Re: Stars Beyond Reach pushing into a June release.
« Reply #50 on: March 20, 2015, 12:04:49 pm »
I'm glad your not ignoring diplomacy since the diplomacy is what makes games like civ5 interesting to me. ps could you put me on the list please id love to help test this game?.

Added!
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Offline Shrugging Khan

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Re: Stars Beyond Reach pushing into a June release.
« Reply #51 on: March 20, 2015, 12:20:51 pm »
Me too! Me too!
The beatings shall continue
until morale improves!

Offline x4000

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Re: Stars Beyond Reach pushing into a June release.
« Reply #52 on: March 20, 2015, 12:52:54 pm »
Me too! Me too!

Gotcha on there!  I had to do a bit of a double take, I figured you would already be on there!
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Offline crazyroosterman

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Re: Stars Beyond Reach pushing into a June release.
« Reply #53 on: March 20, 2015, 01:45:29 pm »
I'm glad your not ignoring diplomacy since the diplomacy is what makes games like civ5 interesting to me. ps could you put me on the list please id love to help test this game?.

Added!
awesome sauce!
c.r

Offline tbrass

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Re: Stars Beyond Reach pushing into a June release.
« Reply #54 on: April 01, 2015, 01:46:27 pm »
but I'm hoping that it will be no later than the first of April (insert jokes here). 

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Offline TheVampire100

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Re: Stars Beyond Reach pushing into a June release.
« Reply #55 on: April 02, 2015, 01:40:30 pm »
I cannot wait until this game is released. I'm a huge fan of the civilization-type of games and I think this will be an excellent game for me. Plus, it has AI War/Last Federation content in it, it MUST be good.
Are there any news on the final price of the game? i just want to know so I can put that much money aside for release.

Offline x4000

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Re: Stars Beyond Reach pushing into a June release.
« Reply #56 on: April 03, 2015, 05:03:10 pm »
Thanks for the kind words!  The final price for the game will be $20.  But if you get into the beta, you get a copy of the game for free.  Though if you do participate in the beta and feel like you want to give a tip (AFTER you're in the beta), that is always appreciated and we do have a way for you to do that.  http://arcengames.com/tips/

But please no tips sight-unseen, anybody who is reading.  Giving us a tip in advance is not a way to get yourself into the beta, and at any rate there should be no problem getting into the beta if you're interested, anyway. :)
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Offline TheVampire100

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Re: Stars Beyond Reach pushing into a June release.
« Reply #57 on: April 03, 2015, 05:31:59 pm »
20$ sound pretty much fine for me. That's a lot cheaper than similiar games (namely Civilization Beyond Earth).

I would really like to be in the beta but either way I would still pay the 20$. I think you deserve this (the creenshots I've seen so far look amazing. I like the more comic-like style compared to Civilization).

Offline Pumpkin

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Re: Stars Beyond Reach pushing into a June release.
« Reply #58 on: April 03, 2015, 07:53:56 pm »
20$ sound pretty much fine for me. That's a lot cheaper than similiar games (namely Civilization Beyond Earth).

I would really like to be in the beta but either way I would still pay the 20$. I think you deserve this (the creenshots I've seen so far look amazing. I like the more comic-like style compared to Civilization).
Go beta, then buy a copy and offer it to a friend. I'll do that; I owe him one, anyway.
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Offline Zebeast46

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Re: Stars Beyond Reach pushing into a June release.
« Reply #59 on: April 03, 2015, 10:15:13 pm »
Pumpkin, that was actually exactly what I was planning on doing.
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