New version .906 (RAM Usage, Race Uniquness, Split Difficulty)

[x4000]

Release notes: http://arcengames.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=The_Last_Federation_Alpha_Release_Notes#Alpha_Version_.906

Restart steam to force a quicker update if you like.

This is the first one to go out both as a steam release and as an independent-updater release.  So if you haven't restarted steam yet, you can actually download it through the game itself; I gave it a shot and it worked just peachy.   That said, please do use Steam's servers when you can -- saves us a lot on bandwidth.

So what is new here?
1. Wowee was I able to get some impressive savings on RAM usage in there. 56%, to be precise -- or 1.5 GB of RAM usage savings when we're talking about all the textures being loaded at once (which is rare, but still).
2. We've split "Normal" difficulty into upper and lower normal halves.  The default is lower, and that's what normal previous was.  The new upper normal is halfway between that and Hard, more or less, and I think is appropriately named because it really is a good baseline version, but just for people on the more upper end of the spectrum.  IE, experienced gamers could easily just start with upper normal and be perfectly happy.
3. Also, I've done some dial-tuning and some technology-blocking to really bring out the already-pre-existing uniqueness in the races.  Some of the multipliers that were in there for things like technical prowess were too low to make a really practical difference, and so you wound up with everybody getting more same-y by the end of the game.  Interestingly, this should actually help to make the outcomes of games even more varied, since the asymmetry is higher.

Enjoy!

[Hyfrydle]

The new difficulty names might confuse newer players, how can you have lower normal and upper normal without a normal.

Maybe each difficulty should have an individual name.

Just a thought.

[Pepisolo]

The new difficulty names might confuse newer players, how can you have lower normal and upper normal without a normal.

Maybe each difficulty should have an individual name.

Just a thought.

I agree. Lower and upper normal just sounds weird. How about just going with boring old easy/normal/hard/very hard?

[Mick]

My OCD love of playing most games on "normal/medium" difficulty will have a lot of trouble if normal is in between the two options I have to select.

[Hyfrydle]

Anyone else finding the changes to tech a bit extreme. In my current game the Skylaxians are tearing through the tech tree, won't this give them a massive advantage once they become spacefaring?

Also having a real difficulty getting tech for myself and scared of been left behind. I don't want to steal because this will upset the races I want to keep on my side and researching is currently well beyond my budget.

I will keep trying but I was interested in other peoples thoughts.

[Tridus]

Anyone else finding the changes to tech a bit extreme. In my current game the Skylaxians are tearing through the tech tree, won't this give them a massive advantage once they become spacefaring?

Also having a real difficulty getting tech for myself and scared of been left behind. I don't want to steal because this will upset the races I want to keep on my side and researching is currently well beyond my budget.

I will keep trying but I was interested in other peoples thoughts.

Stealing is pretty much mandatory. You can make it up to them later.

[Hyfrydle]

Yeah I'm realising that but it just feels wrong stealing from potential allies.

[Mick]

Yeah I'm realising that but it just feels wrong stealing from potential allies.

I think the game is meant to have a "ends justify the means" feel. You don't make races like you because you like them back, but because it allows you to manipulate them easier. Notice the player character does not have an attitude toward the other races, they are all just pawns.

[Hyfrydle]

The tech changes are also making the lesser tech races less powerful in combat, at least it feels that way or maybe I'm getting better.

Also I have to say this the most stable version of the game for me so far no memory issues so far.

[Greywolf22]

I agree with the above..I know it's a bit nit picky but having a different name for each difficulty sounds like it makes more sense (and correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this how the other games have been in the past)...

Love having a bit more range in the difficulty though

[doctorfrog]

I think the game is meant to have a "ends justify the means" feel. You don't make races like you because you like them back, but because it allows you to manipulate them easier. Notice the player character does not have an attitude toward the other races, they are all just pawns.

What's weird about this approach is that the whole business that you're doing is essentially in their favor. It's hard to see them as mere pawns, or treat them as pawns, when the character you are embodying is essentially fathering them collectively toward an ideal, prosperous state. Your own death (personal and racial) is a foregone conclusion, and you're overcoming your own "slash and burn the fools" anguish in favor of the greater good of utter strangers.

It's hard to figure out your own motivation in this game (if it matters). What kind of character participates in the death of its own race, and then assists them in forming a Federation? It's hard to "feel" that sometimes, in a media form that's usually concerned only with self-improvement and revenge.

Future expansion ideas:

• "Cult of the Hydral Sacrifice" cross racial faction that hails you as a god-like savior figure. Your relationship with them might mirror the career of Malcolm X, or Jesus Christ, if they get too much power and start disagreeing with your methods.
• Secret project for the above: Budding Hydral larvae, in an attempt to revive the old race, instead breeds unspeakable replicating horrors (see Shar-Makai (http://mugen.wikia.com/wiki/Shar-Makai)).
• A credible external threat against the entire system provides some external motivation: even if you don't care much about a federation, Something Is Coming and it would be best to have as many races cooperating to stand a chance against it as possible. In the end, you spearhead a massive flotilla against whatever It is, made up of allied races. (Star Control's "Alliance of Free Stars")

[orzelek]

I have question for this texture thing - do you need to keep them in system memory or they get moved to GPU memory and stay there?
*looks at the graphics card - plenty of memory around there*

[gonekrazy3000]

well. having played the current build for over 4 hrs now i can safely say it doesn't
seem like any major errors are left. and its super stable!

[keith.lamothe]

I have question for this texture thing - do you need to keep them in system memory or they get moved to GPU memory and stay there?
*looks at the graphics card - plenty of memory around there*

The issue isn't really the available memory, it's the memory that can be addressed, since it's a 32-bit application.  So 4GB absolute theoretical max, but in practice somewhere in the 1.5GB to 2.5GB range, depending on system setup.  The texture memory has to be addressable by the same process as the rest of it, so it's all under the same umbrella there.

Further, while I certainly hope some of the textures get to stay over on the graphics card (where applicable), we have (iirc) completely zero visibility into what's actually being cached over there since Unity handles all the talking to the OS and such for the actual draw calls (multi-platform engine, etc).

From my limited knowledge, we basically can't count on the GPU hanging on to anything we send it for more than just that draw call and any immediately following it that use the same texture.  But I may be overstating the case somewhat

[Breach]

Things have improved hugely and the first battle is now a completely new beast from what it was all those versions ago.  I was worried initially that it might be too much but really the concepts are quite simple to grasp.

I can only apologise that I have not had much input into the process (not nearly as much as I'd have liked anyway) - a lot of work came in and overtime was the order of the day. I hope what suggestions I did offer were helpful and that the game is a great success - I'll be recommending it to others certainly. It's like nothing else out there at the moment I think.