Pssst! It's a secret to everybody. (Want to do some testing?)

[Misery]

Hm, would it make sense in-game though?  It sounds like it would be unintuitive. Er, maybe.  The rest of the game teaches and shows that your allies take damage from the same sources you do, so it might seem a bit strange/confusing if suddenly there's something that breaks that rule.

If that's not a problem though, then I'd certainly support the idea.

[x4000]

Well, we could have them still hit the non-player ships then, but they just magically take only 1% of the damage from those shots.  The player would probably notice the ships tanking the turret damage, but not much else.

[Pumpkin]

Okay, I loaded my beta test save, checked the hydral world's hostile actions and found the mission. I didn't noticed it before. I feels like there is a problem here: after hours of vanilla (or Betrayed Hopes) play, I learn to never check neither bother about the hydral's homeworld. I think something like an icon on top of the busted planet's image would do the trick. Is that in your coding range? Does it sounds like an actual problem, and is what I suggest a solution?

I figured that was the best place to put it.

Oh, yeah, sure. And it perfectly makes sense. My point (that I poorly expressed, sorry 'bout that) was that IMO it needs more visual hints that there is a cool mission available here. The busted hydral world is a place that had very few interest in the past game modes, right? I tend to never check what's available at the busted hydral's world, because there is barely never something interesting to do here. My question/suggestion was: is there an easy way to put some sort of icon or something to more visually show there is something available here?

It's loosely bound to the previous (vanilla) hydral tech missions: they are available from every planet. The "destroy pirate base" and "raid pirate convoy for loot" too, but it's not incoherent. However, I feel it perfectly makes sense to have your new Hydral mission available in the hostile acts toward the busted hydral's world. My (secondary) point is that now, it shows that the previous (vanilla) hydral missions are oddly available from every planet. In a perfect world (where everything is easy to code), I would have moved the old hydral mission in the busted world's list of actions. I feel it would makes more sense.

In all respect of your excellent job, Draco. It's just me doing my betatest job and pointing things. Do or do not but there is no try it's up to you (and your abilities (and if you agree (of course))).

PS: aren't the old (vanilla) hydral tech missions supposed to be in the ice belt? Hm. So is it still thematic and coherent and whatnot to have them accessible from the busted hydral world, as in my suggestion? Maybe not... Sad.

[Misery]

Well, we could have them still hit the non-player ships then, but they just magically take only 1% of the damage from those shots.  The player would probably notice the ships tanking the turret damage, but not much else.

Makes sense to me.  Just tell the player "It works because of science" or something, and there ya go. 

It'd certainly fix the issue at least, I think.  Probably.

[Draco18s]

Well, we could have them still hit the non-player ships then, but they just magically take only 1% of the damage from those shots.  The player would probably notice the ships tanking the turret damage, but not much else.

This is pretty much what I did.  It's currently set at 33% not 1% but it was super easy to do.  I have it called DamageMultiplierVsPlayer (the base damage is low, then gets multipliled to hit the player harder).  I also slipped in a DamageMultiplierVsShields so that NPC flagships will take even less damage but the fleet units (which are spawned from nothing and weak anyway) will still likely just explode.

I've (thus far) been unable to test if that makes enough of a difference (every time I've gone in to a contested fight to observe, none of the artillery turrets spawned).

[crazyroosterman]

I've been wondering do you get higher quality tech from the hydral home world or is it just like any were else? cause if so then I think the influence damage should be at least toned down since id personally never do that mission when I can do others that won't damage my precious influence?.

[Draco18s]

I've been wondering do you get higher quality tech from the hydral home world or is it just like any were else? cause if so then I think the influence damage should be at least toned down since id personally never do that mission when I can do others that won't damage my precious influence?.

It's different stuff.  The ice belt / asteroid mission gets you flagship abilities.  The homeworld one gets you a research tech.  A number of folks have said the influence cost is too high, so I'll cut that down.

[Tolc]

I was talking about the PM reply concerning the Steam key

@crazyroosterman: I'd certainly say that the techs you get from the new hydral mission are higher quality. The first of the two  I have so far is: Get 10% more influence reward IIRC. That is quite balanced up with the influence loss toward your "enemy" race, in my opinion.

[crazyroosterman]

I was talking about the PM reply concerning the Steam key

@crazyroosterman: I'd certainly say that the techs you get from the new hydral mission are higher quality. The first of the two  I have so far is: Get 10% more influence reward IIRC. That is quite balanced up with the influence loss toward your "enemy" race, in my opinion.

I had no idea you could hydral techs from the homer world mission but the influence price is mostly a thing in the early game unless said race is involved in a war getting that back is a pain.

[Captain Jack]

I've found a tech that gives a bonus to earned resources. It's hilarious how quickly they start to add up if you do a couple of freighter missions.

[Tolc]

That is actually what I like the most so far, the variation in new boni those hydral techs introduce. A welcome change to the "oh, nice, my ship's hull got a bit better...yay"