Current State Of Your Game

[Hyfrydle]

Now that I can finally play without too many errors I thought I'd post a quick update on the situation in my current game.

I started using the quickstart option and right from the start the Acutians detested me so I thought who cares they can't hate me more so I'll take their outposts and cause trouble whilst trying to get the other races on my side.

The second spacefaring race was the Thoraxians and I managed to get to about 70+ influence with them. I decided to give the spacefaring tech to the Skylaxians as I've found them to be good allies in most of my previous games.

I had to retreat from giving the Andors space tech it was just too difficult at the time so for a long while I just had three races in my game. I spent most of my time taking Acutian outposts and gifting them to the other races which really upset the Acutians for some reason 

The fourth race to enter the mix was the Boarines and I managed to get them on side too although I couldn't get enough influence as yet to start forming the federation.

Five years in the first war broke out between the Skylaxians and the Thoraxians who were pretty evenly matched I decided to side with the Skylaxians and help them in the attack. Consequently my influence with the Thoraxians dropped and is now -96.

Around about the same time the Thoraxians attacked the Boarine and I sided with the boarine which upset the Thoraxians even more. A year later the Boarines returned the favour and attacked the Thoraxians. By this time the Evucks and the Burlust had entered the action and I tried to get them onside by sharing tech.

Two years after entering the fray the Burlust decided to attack the Boarine who I again defended which reduced my influence with the Burlust. The Evucks stayed out of things and I had a reasonable level of influence with them.

I've now reached year 8 and something very scary is happening. Whilst the other races have been squabbling the Acutians have quietly been amassing a huge fleet which now totals 39 armadas with a space power of 307, as a comparison the next highest is the Evucks with 8 armadas and a space power of 163.

Relations wise the Acutians are friendly to everyone except me who they detest, most other races are neutral to the Acutians. I could really do with the Acutians power reducing but I'm not sure how to do it.

The Andor and Peltians are entering the fray soon so who knows how that will affect the mix.

Due to my earlier tactics I currently have an influence of -936 with the Acutians so I don't think we can ever be friends. I'm idolized by the Skylaxians and the Boarine but hated and detested my the Burlust and the Thoraxian.

I'm really intrigued how this will turn out and I really hope I can get the Andors and Peltians on my side.

I will post if anything major happens.

loving the game and can't wait for the quests to add some hard choices to an already very deep and engrossing experience.

I just noticed that the Acutians have science of 243.2 the next highest is the Skylaxians with 39.5. Also the Acutians manufacturing is high at 9 next highest is the Andors at 3 and their not even in space yet.

[Hyfrydle]

It's now the year 3012 and after much hard work on my part I got the Burlust and Acutian's to go to war by planting conspiracy evidence. I then took all the Acutian's outposts while they were away at war.

Also in 3012 the fledgling federation formed comprising of the Skylaxian's, Boarine and Peltian's. Hopefully the Andors will join when they finally get into space.

Things should start to get very interesting now that three races have joined forces the combined space power is 34 armadas with a power of 1400. The Acutians now have 51 armadas with a power of 1524, so the Andor's may just tip the balance.

Need to watch out for the AFA now and those dreaded assassins.

The Evucks have now joined up this is looking good.

[Hyfrydle]

Well I'm almost their just the Thoraxians and the Burlust to either join or get wiped out:



This is after 15 in game years and the battles are now becoming epic and it's tons of fun.

[topper]

Well I'm almost their just the Thoraxians and the Burlust to either join or get wiped out:



This is after 15 in game years and the battles are now becoming epic and it's tons of fun.

It looks like the federation has the 10x power that is required to intimidate the Burlusts into joining directly. You just need 10000 leverage with the prime warlord, which you can get from a series of Burlust duels with the secondaries (put in a word with our boss deal before you kill them)

[topper]

In my game, I just formed my first federation in the year 3013.

I kept the Thoraxians and Burlusts fighting for most of 10 years (evening the fight if one of them was going to win). This allowed the Boarines, Andors, and Peltians to become the three main powers and gain a tech lead through sharing research with each other. Formed a federation with Andors and Boarines, Peltians are glad to join for safety, Burlusts are intimidated into joining. Now I just need to conquer the remaining few races.

Maybe the Burlust ground forces will help take the Acutian homeworld which has had 10000 strength Boarine/Andor Armadas orbiting it for 5 years.

Also, the Evucks are not spacefaring yet. 

[Hyfrydle]

Wow great to hear how different the games can be. Did you use the quickstart or advanced start?

[topper]

Wow great to hear how different the games can be. Did you use the quickstart or advanced start?

That one is actually my second ever game using quickstart. I got rid of my first game since the balance changed and I had made some poor decisions. I am hoping to actually win this one 

The succession game over in the AAR forum used the advanced start, but there are not really any significant options there yet except for crash landing with a different race.

[Hyfrydle]

I finally won a game the Burlust and Thoraxians unfortunately had to die but these things happen.

It was a bit of an anti-climax I think some stats and perhaps a timeline of how the game played out would be pretty cool and a high score table with some stats so playthroughs can be compared.

Really enjoyed the game and definately want to play again to see how the next playthrough goes.

Well done Arcen this game is a fantastic and original concept and deserves to do really well.

More races, planet types in expansions would also be cool 

[Pepisolo]

Mantising. (This just means that I'm putting some of this feedback onto the Mantis bugracker for ease of access and visibility to the devs). Thanks!

[doctorfrog]

I'm at a weird midway point with the game. I'm not entirely sure what to do in my main testing game, in spite of the quite helpful advisory computer. I feel like that thing should glow every now and then. It's more helpful than the tutorials, since it at least gives a vague impression of what to do.

The effects of my actions show up mostly on spreadsheets and graphs, which my brain doesn't really "see." Mostly, what I "see" is ship movements, and little red numbers that I'm not sure are important or not. It's not that the information isn't available, it's just that I'm not sure what those numbers really mean in the big picture, or even what I want my big picture to be. Do I want to be loved? Do I want to make this federation, then wander off and die? Do I want to lead folks into war with each other until the whole works is a pile of smoldering ash? What's going to be the most fun for me, as a player?

So there's this sense of disconnect that I feel with the game. It's a bit like looking at a cloudy aquarium, occasional glimpses of meaning swimming in and out of the murk.

And yet, I find the game to be oddly compelling. I played it for two hours last night, on and off, and about an hour this morning. For me, that's a lot for any game. Part of it is that this is a game with interesting mechanics that I'm attracted to, and they're simply novel, a puzzle for my brain to unlock. This effect is usually temporary, and the novel-seeking portion of my brain will soon seek that pleasure elsewhere. But there's more to it than that, I'm also actually enjoying some of it, and in small chunks of clarity, I'm finding some real fun in there.

I'm probably going to take a step back after a few days and clear my mind, and see what a second close look can generate. I feel that there is a real good game in here, but it take some diligence to find--for both the developer to hone, and the player to break through to. There's no doubt that it's unique and even something that I've been looking for and haven't found out there.

I really hope that Arcen gets a good ROI on this one, because, like Bionic Dues, I think this thing is going to really open up after some prolonged attention.

[Shrugging Khan]

About 10-20 minutes into any game, I get errors all the time. No long games doable.

[keith.lamothe]

About 10-20 minutes into any game, I get errors all the time. No long games doable.

Are these mantis'd?

[Shrugging Khan]

About 10-20 minutes into any game, I get errors all the time. No long games doable.

Are these mantis'd?

Nnnnno, actually.

Sorry about that. Lemme grab some breakfast and I'll rectify that.

[Shrugging Khan]

Would you prefer ArcenDebugLog.txt, UnhandledErrors.txt or ErrorsReportedByEngine.txt?

[Hyfrydle]

I upload them all to be on the safe side