So lost - can anyone outline a basic strategy?

[tgb]

I think the 'so lost' problem in general would be alleviated by the game being more helpful about drawing your attention to important events. Right now you have the crawl down the right side of the screen that seems to want to tell me every time a Peltian sneezes. That's information overload. (And yet ironically not enough information, when I tried to click on one of the alerts assuming it would tell me more, it just made it disappear... after that I pretty much just ignored it) I need something to pop up with important details, like say someone just declared war on someone else, or big race relation changes, or some race is getting too far ahead of me in technology, or whatever. Like the 'X is now spacefaring', except even those announcements aren't terribly useful because it's all done with a voiceover which you can miss the pertinent details of if you're on default volume settings.

I'd like to see alerts prioritized in such a way that some will actually pop up a message for you to click out of, and perhaps even pause the game. This can be important if you're in the middle of fast-forwarding through years of dispatch missions and something happens that you might want a chance to react to immediately.

Good idea.  They need a system like Paradox uses that lets you filter out the category of announcements you think is unimportant.

[GC13]

And yet ironically not enough information, when I tried to click on one of the alerts assuming it would tell me more, it just made it disappear... after that I pretty much just ignored it

You should definitely Mantis that suggestion. The more urgent pop-ups when war is declared is also a great idea, but definitely make sure this one gets Mantised.

[zespri]

I think the 'so lost' problem in general would be alleviated by the game being more helpful about drawing your attention to important events. Right now you have the crawl down the right side of the screen that seems to want to tell me every time a Peltian sneezes. That's information overload.

Well I have been contemplating this, and I think that it's very difficult for the developers to know what is important any given moment. Yes, I totally agree with you, there is a distinct feeling of something missing when you do not get popups/higlights when something "important" happens. The problem is that I can't define what is important, and by the look of it neither can the devs. Can you? They did the best they could - give you *all* of the information and flexible ability to filter it. The only problem with that it that *YOU* need to know what you are looking for, what is important. And as a new player you don't have a clue.

(And yet ironically not enough information, when I tried to click on one of the alerts assuming it would tell me more, it just made it disappear... after that I pretty much just ignored it)

Well yeah. You need mouse over to read it, not click. I think the default conventions is that left click opens them and right click removes them. Not sure why the devs opted for the current system.

I need something to pop up with important details, like say someone just declared war on someone else, or big race relation changes, or some race is getting too far ahead of me in technology, or whatever. Like the 'X is now spacefaring', except even those announcements aren't terribly useful because it's all done with a voiceover which you can miss the pertinent details of if you're on default volume settings.

I play most of the games without sound as often I find it annoying. I did not even *know* there is a voice over. Actually being able to switch off the sound and not miss out on anything is a trait of good design in my book.

I'd like to see alerts prioritized in such a way that some will actually pop up a message for you to click out of, and perhaps even pause the game. This can be important if you're in the middle of fast-forwarding through years of dispatch missions and something happens that you might want a chance to react to immediately.

So the downside here is that you constantly get distracted with the pop ups, pauses and so on so you hate it so much that you turn it off. And now you are back to square one.

I'd like to see this aspect of the game improved but I do not know how to do this, any changes can actually make the matter worse.

[BobTheJanitor]

I admit to not really having enough experience to say what is important and what isn't. Obviously, that's the problem. But presumably some things like X is now spacefaring and X just lost a planet are probably rare and important enough to be worth a pop up and a pause. Maybe with options of "ok, now keep fast forwarding" or "ok, keep the game paused while I go look at what just happened" or something like that.

Edit: An example from something that just happened to me. I was about to research a 19 month project. I check my race relations screen: nobody at war, everyone at worst low neutral feelings towards other races. Hit super fast forward. Get the message that the Thoraxians went down and the Burlusts just captured a planet.

That's not fun, that's just annoying.

Checking my logs it appears that they declared war almost the instant that I clicked fast forward, and finished up just as I completed the project. My only alert to this is the computer giving me some amusing remark about it that may have to play for several seconds before I get to the meat of what just happened. So that even if I do hear the alert, while on FF many months can pass before you know what happened.

[galdor123]

So I just got the game yesterday. I saw some videos on it (TotalBiscuit and Quill18) and I thought that game looked awesome!

So, I'm in my first "real" game. Started at the Acutians, elected to kill their two flagships in the very first mission. I decided on a tentative gameplan: Stay enemies with the Acutians (they hate me anyway, so why not) and try to make everyone else like me. I want to try to get the Andors+Peltians+Skylaxians into the initial federation. Has not happened yet, though.

In some ways, it's going well. Everyone except the Acutians (they're at like -700 or so) really likes me. My influence ranges from 66 with the Thoraxians to 176 with the Skylaxians. I have mostly done this through quests (terraforming ones), helping the races to get spacefaring, and letting them use my outposts. Yes, I captured several Acutian outposts and lent them out. I gave up on that because I cannot hope to defend them against the Acutians with my paltry security goons.
I spent most of my time researching stuff, because I was not sure what else to do. I am trying to get trade going between the races, but the Andor don't seem to have any resources to trade (even after colonising two moons). I got the Peltians trading with both the Thoraxians and the Skylaxians, so relations there are good. Also I give most of my research to the Peltians, and make them gift the techs to all other races except the Acutians. I figure this make them stronger and like the Peltians more, who I hope will be in my initial federation. Also I have tons of voting proxys with them (like 8000) so it does not cost me anything really.
Relatively soon the Acutians attacked the Skylaxians. Not sure what caused this - was it my doing because the Skylaxians love me? Or is that random? Anyway those two have been blowing up their outposts, with the Acutians usually getting the better of the Skylaxians. Recently, the Acutians also attacked the Peltians - why? Because of good relations between the two?

Also, what is the best way to get credits? I have mostly used up my starting 15000 (from helping races get to spacefaring), and researching seems to generate relatively few credits.

That is all well and good, I mainly just need a way to get the Andor and Peltians to like each other.
BUT. I recently discovered that the Andors and Skylaxians are at war! Why was there no major pop up or something? I don't even know who started the war. Can I see that somewhere? And what can I do to stop this? I cannot tell to Skylaxians to stop attacking the Andors, and the Andors don't even have that option.
Also is there a quick way to see who is attacking a planet/outpost?

EDIT: I played a few minutes further, and the situation is getting complicated. The Burlusts have decided to attack the Peltians. So, I dueled their primary warlord, hoping that his death would stop the war - it did not. Then I spent my newly acquired influence with the new warlord to get them to stop attack the Peltians (they were bombarding and invading the Peltian planet). I could do the action - only they did not stop attacking! I even did t twice (waited several months in between), no effect? What am I doing wrong...

Also the Andor are attacking the Skylaxian homeworld. They already beat their defenses. Not sure how it progresses from here. I finally found the option to broker peace in their ruling party. Thought for some reason that you could only broker peace between two other races. However, the peace action would cost me 22k credits. I have less than 1k... so no luck there The funny thing is, the Andor even like the Skylaxians (+20 relations).

Haha this is kind of funny. Everything spiraled out of control. The Peltians were conquered by the Burlusts, who immediately lost the Peltian planet to the Acutians. Also everyone except the Thoraxians is in some kind of war, most planets are under siege.

Another question: does is matter if I join attacks/defenses? I joined an attack on a planet (killed like 30 flagships, successfully completing the mission), but it did not seem to have an effect.

[Rujasu]

Another question: does is matter if I join attacks/defenses? I joined an attack on a planet (killed like 30 flagships, successfully completing the mission), but it did not seem to have an effect.

The ships lost in the fight will be deducted from the map. 30 flotillas might not make a huge difference in a 500+ armada siege, but there are no ships in a fight that don't exist on the world map.