A few thoughts after my first play through (and questions!)

[Mcrone]

Hello everybody, First off I want to thank the devs for making such a detailed game, I just started a game with the new dlc after not playing it for about a year and got completely sucked into it. After I completed the game, I ran into a few things that I thought here would be the best place to discuss.

1. Is the Pacifiers party for the Andors glitched? I didn't destroy any bases that formed over the course of the game, and when I tried to "pacify" a base and make the Andors take in the refugees, it said there were no picket ships available. If that is not a glitch, how do I make the Andors construct picket ships?

2. Speaking of pirates, I had 8 bases by the time by game ended, and they never formed a Pirate empire, I may have contribuited to this by always defending my outpousts, as they always went for them even when they only had a singe ship. Do I have to be willing to give my by outposts to make a pirate empire form? And from what I could tell, the best way to make pirates is to destroy the Medical, Economy, Environment, and Public order on the planet for the wanted pirate type, is this correct?

3. what is the best way to make ethnic minority's spread? Aside from Andor pacification, in my game I saw some Peltians move to the Andor planets, some Skylaxians move to the Andor planets, ( although they quickly died of plague) and Andors moving to both Peltians and Skylaxians planets. I kinda role-play, and the idea of ethnic minorities on all the federation planets Is a cool idea for me, so what is the best way to encourage "migration"? (is there any benefit for racial minorities on planets at all?)

4. It seems the plague event that happens when the Medical stat is high is a bit overpowered. Example: My Peltians have a crazy number of 10 billion citizens, they get the engineering plague by accident event, the entire population drops to around 3 million, not billion. I usually cant do anything because it decreases the population per month, and at crazy numbers. Is this working as intended, and if so, what is the best way to counter it?

5. For the Boarines, is their other ways to get them to like people beside attitude buildings? I could never get them to trade, even with solar unity, and what is the best way to make them not hate everybody's guts?

6. I almost forgot about this, it seems the Evuks bribing meter was broken. I got a guy up to 100% bribed, and he would never change, even if I used more bribing items. Is this a glitch? or is there a thing I have to do to trigger a opinion switch?

7. Oh also, what is the best way to get money? I was always running short by the endgame and could not afford to spam scientists/ manufactures from the black market.

Sorry for such a long list of questions, but I just finished a 10 hour marathon game that I got completely  sucked into all night, and just wanted to get these questions off my chest in time for my next game. Thanks in advance!
I also want to thank the devs for making such a great game.

Edit: added question 6/7

[ptarth]

• I can't actually address most of your questions.
• Boarine attitudes - There is a dispatch that improves the relations between 2 races, Laud Race from another Race that has friends, start trade routes with the Boarines with another race, Admiration bonus for others with all positive RCI (maybe).
• Money - Friendly dispatches that allow you to use your manufacturing skill are the most profitable regular action (e.g., build buildings or build station). You can get a high initial boost from giving everyone spacefaring technology. You can scam pirates by worsening the RCI sliders of a planet to make more pirate bases and then do the friendly kill pirate base mission.

[Captain Jack]

1. Can't help there, sorry.

2. I think the number of pirate bases needs to be really high. 8 isn't very high.

3. Pretty sure you make people want to move by lowering the emigrants RCI in one (or more) categories and having another planet with higher stats. The races might also need friendly relations.

4. Sounds like early beta SBR.  Pretty sure it's not supposed to be that bad, that's a mantis report.

5. You need to have other races initiate trade. Some Andor/Acutian actions could also help.

6. Not broken, but I'm pretty sure there's a delay built in to most attitude changes to prevent you from spamming bribe items until everyone does what you want.

7. Expanding usable land area. Uplift isn't bad, but usable land can make you hundreds of thousands of credit.

[Tolc]

Wait, you actually can get the Boarines to trade with other races? That's the first time I hear that....

Sorry, but I can't help you with the rest of the questions, because I never had those things happen to me so far.

[Mcrone]

Thanks for the responses guys. This really helps me out.
A few addition questions though, I was trying to do a game after my previous one, and my first game involved getting all the "Good" races planets RCI up and making them like one another. I mostly nuked the Burlust and Thoraxians whenever they tried to attack somebody. This forced me to simply make all the other races crush them when I finally made the federation. What is the best strategy to get all the races into the federation, for example, not completely destroying my reputation when I defend races from the Thorxian/Burlust fleets?
Also I was wondering if any future development is planned on this game at all? I know the developer has moved on, but a DLC came out recently, so will more be coming eventually?
Thanks for the previous advice!

[Captain Jack]

The best way to get the Thoraxians or Burlurst into he Federation is to make them one of the founding members. If you already have a Federation, do whatever it takes to make the Skylaxians and your target race best friends and have them pull the other side in.

The Burlurst have a special mechanism where they'll join the Federation if the Federation races have enough combined power to steamroll them. Getting that is pretty easy, especially once the Federation races like each other enough (they instantly share their technologies including manufacturing and weapons, which means the Fed's combined power is going to be huuuuge).

Oh yes, TLF did well enough saleswise to get multiple expansions, like AI War. Hopefully Lost Technogies and the Collection do well enough to prove they were worth that trust. I don't believe Chris has been involved with AI War's development in years beyond advising or lending a hand with code. This would be more of the same.

[Mcrone]

The best way to get the Thoraxians or Burlurst into he Federation is to make them one of the founding members. If you already have a Federation, do whatever it takes to make the Skylaxians and your target race best friends and have them pull the other side in.

The Burlurst have a special mechanism where they'll join the Federation if the Federation races have enough combined power to steamroll them. Getting that is pretty easy, especially once the Federation races like each other enough (they instantly share their technologies including manufacturing and weapons, which means the Fed's combined power is going to be huuuuge).

Oh yes, TLF did well enough saleswise to get multiple expansions, like AI War. Hopefully Lost Technogies and the Collection do well enough to prove they were worth that trust. I don't believe Chris has been involved with AI War's development in years beyond advising or lending a hand with code. This would be more of the same.

Thanks Watashiwa, One major issue I have through is at the beginning for example, the burlusts/thoraxians get uppity and decide to go crush the Andors or some other weak race. I usually intervene and destroy the armada to make sure the race doesn't go extinct. This leads to my reputation essentially being destroyed beyond repair, what is the best way to stop this? or, if this is unavoidable, what is the best way to get my reputation back up from crazy numbers like -100?

[ptarth]

You can't really. However, some races Boarines/Skylaxians/Acutians (I think) can invite other races into the Federation if the races like them.
In my last all race Federation run, I got everyone into space and shared all tech to make everyone like me. I then focused on not losing attitudes against the other races, even though in the end it wasn't that important. I spent lots of time not attacking, but building up the fleets of the races who were being attacked. That way I didn't get the negative attitude penalty. I then spent a lot of time improving the relationship between the various races using the dispatch option. I lucked out with the Thoraxians having the Mire and the Burlusts having horrible public order problems which limited the amount of troubles I had.
In retrospect, I think forming the full Strong Federation first, followed by a quick vote in of the others would work fairly well.

[Captain Jack]

The best way to get the Thoraxians or Burlurst into the Federation is to make them one of the founding members. If you already have a Federation, do whatever it takes to make the Skylaxians and your target race best friends and have them pull the other side in.

The Burlurst have a special mechanism where they'll join the Federation if the Federation races have enough combined power to steamroll them. Getting that is pretty easy, especially once the Federation races like each other enough (they instantly share their technologies including manufacturing and weapons, which means the Fed's combined power is going to be huuuuge).

Oh yes, TLF did well enough saleswise to get multiple expansions, like AI War. Hopefully Lost Technogies and the Collection do well enough to prove they were worth that trust. I don't believe Chris has been involved with AI War's development in years beyond advising or lending a hand with code. This would be more of the same.

Thanks Watashiwa, One major issue I have through is at the beginning for example, the burlusts/thoraxians get uppity and decide to go crush the Andors or some other weak race. I usually intervene and destroy the armada to make sure the race doesn't go extinct. This leads to my reputation essentially being destroyed beyond repair, what is the best way to stop this? or, if this is unavoidable, what is the best way to get my reputation back up from crazy numbers like -100?

Indirectly. Killing the aggressor's ships is the surest way of pissing them off. Find a third party who can broker treaties (the Skylaxians and Acutians are your best bet, Boarines need Solar Unity and Andors need the proper political party). Giving the defenders useful technologies and aiding their shipbuilding can help them put up a fight, and getting economic and industrial RCI values above the 80s can yield a massive benefit. Try Public Order and Economy! Planetary Ion Cannons are great but have a long build time; they're good if you know they'll be attacked in the mid-term future. Lastly, I like getting another race to attack the attackers. Boarines can be really nasty here, but that can backfire if their Rage Momentum builds to the point where they steamroll the guys you want cut down to size.

Dunno much about reputation recovery myself. Bribery maybe? I've managed to make everyone like me by attacking every pirate base in the system.

[Mcrone]

The best way to get the Thoraxians or Burlurst into the Federation is to make them one of the founding members. If you already have a Federation, do whatever it takes to make the Skylaxians and your target race best friends and have them pull the other side in.

The Burlurst have a special mechanism where they'll join the Federation if the Federation races have enough combined power to steamroll them. Getting that is pretty easy, especially once the Federation races like each other enough (they instantly share their technologies including manufacturing and weapons, which means the Fed's combined power is going to be huuuuge).

Oh yes, TLF did well enough saleswise to get multiple expansions, like AI War. Hopefully Lost Technogies and the Collection do well enough to prove they were worth that trust. I don't believe Chris has been involved with AI War's development in years beyond advising or lending a hand with code. This would be more of the same.

Thanks Watashiwa, One major issue I have through is at the beginning for example, the burlusts/thoraxians get uppity and decide to go crush the Andors or some other weak race. I usually intervene and destroy the armada to make sure the race doesn't go extinct. This leads to my reputation essentially being destroyed beyond repair, what is the best way to stop this? or, if this is unavoidable, what is the best way to get my reputation back up from crazy numbers like -100?

Indirectly. Killing the aggressor's ships is the surest way of pissing them off. Find a third party who can broker treaties (the Skylaxians and Acutians are your best bet, Boarines need Solar Unity and Andors need the proper political party). Giving the defenders useful technologies and aiding their shipbuilding can help them put up a fight, and getting economic and industrial RCI values above the 80s can yield a massive benefit. Try Public Order and Economy! Planetary Ion Cannons are great but have a long build time; they're good if you know they'll be attacked in the mid-term future. Lastly, I like getting another race to attack the attackers. Boarines can be really nasty here, but that can backfire if their Rage Momentum builds to the point where they steamroll the guys you want cut down to size.

Dunno much about reputation recovery myself. Bribery maybe? I've managed to make everyone like me by attacking every pirate base in the system.

Thanks everybody, I managed to get a game in which I got everybody in the federation. On that note, I have a small question, it seems that certain races were determined to go to war, despite it not being in their best interests, or that had a decent planet in which they had no reason to war. Near the end in which I would have to broker peace treaties to get them into the federation, the credit prices were crazy expensive. What influences the credit prices for the peace treaties, and what is the best way to drive them down? (for example Evuks, have a 117,000 credit price to stop attacking the bur lusts, they instantly declare war on some other race after that with the same ridiculousness price)
Also sorry for asking so many questions, the steam forums are dead it seems, and you cant really find the nuanced stuff by googling, so thanks for helping me out, to all those who have responded.

[ptarth]

Generally how much they like the race they declare on dictates price.

[Mcrone]

Hey guys, thanks for all the advice, I got another question if you guys don't mind me spamming this thread. (although not much happens around here it seems...)
I'm trying to get achievements, specifically the pirate empire one, the planet cracker one, Evuk self destruct with the gas giant, and finishing the game with a single race.
1. I got up to 12 pirate bases, by making sure the poor Burlusts never could ever recover their RCI's but a pirate empire never formed, I think it was due to the other races continually killing all the pirate ships? Is there an exact trigger to make a pirate empire spawn?
2.it seems once you request a planet cracker, everybody including the Actuians hate your guts, how would you manage to do it 3 more times? It rquires high ammount of reputation for the achtion to be available. As the achievement requires you to do.
3.What is the best way to make the Evuks self destruct their planet? and I assume you stop it through killing them all.
4. How do you finish the game with a single race? Making the federation requires 2 races, do you then allow a other race take over a federation member, and have the lone member go on a revenge massacre?
Thanks in advance guys, despite the forum being quiet, I'm quite impressed by the quality of the community here. quite a different experience from places like the steam forums for example.

[Captain Jack]

1. You need more pirate bases. I've yet to see one form and I have had games with 19 pirate bases.

2. Yep! That one's hard. You basically have to be besties with the Acutians. Also the reputation/costs vary somewhat with what Acutian corps are in charge. Try putting War into power.

3. If they're on a gas giant then they have a chance of doing it when fighting off an overwhelming attack. Overwhelming may be the key there, they need to feel completely cornered.

4. Bingo.