Author Topic: TLF Version 1.024-1.025 Released (Disease Resistance)  (Read 4213 times)

Offline x4000

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TLF Version 1.024-1.025 Released (Disease Resistance)
« on: June 05, 2014, 09:06:27 pm »
Original: http://arcengames.blogspot.com/2014/06/tlf-version-1024-released-disease.html

Version 1.024 is out, and while it is small it does have some really notable balance shifts in there.  Specifically:

- The way that research and property development dispatches are handled, and the way goons are used up with them, is now daily rather than monthly.  This makes it a lot more fair to you when you stop at any given time (if you don't complete the research all in one go).

- You can't farm the AFA missions for Credit anymore, at least not to the degree you previously could.

- Selling prisoners and free return of prisoners now work properly in all cases, which is a pretty big deal in your favor.

- Races now do their ship upgrade research in a secondary tech line, making it so that they don't get bogged down that anymore.  This will put a lot more pressure on you, incidentally, on higher difficulties later in the game.

- Diseases are no longer so ridiculously insta-devastating to certain populations.  They can still be really harsh, and further tuning may be needed there, but this is at least a very big step in the right direction.  Diseases should be meaningful, but not quite so overdramatic as they were.

UPDATE: 1.025 is now out with some bugfixes, both from this past version and some prior ones.

--------------- What's With The Shift In Schedule This Week? ---------------

This week has been a bit crazy for me.  My sister got married this past weekend, and I've had some things related to that that I've been working on while she is on her honeymoon.  I'd rather not say what, as it's a semi-surprise.  Anyway, that has sucked up a huge amount of my time, and I've been taking some time off to help work on that.  It's not a long-term thing, obviously, but it's something that I wanted to take some time and do for my sister since there's nothing direly important in terms of short-term schedule right now (for once).

Also I've been working on design work this week for both the remaining parts of the first TLF expansion (measure twice, cut once), and for the upcoming 4x that we are (at least for the moment) calling Spectral Empire, to come out next April.

There's also just been some general boring business-related stuff that had stacked up that I have been getting taken care of, too.  So it's been kind of an off week for me, but that won't be the case next week.  Thanks for understanding!

--------------- Ongoing Updates ---------------
The support of the community, and the growth of it, remain amazing to me. It's been about a month and a half since launch, and it's clear we definitely have a winner here.  We're continuing to expand the improve the game via bugfixes, balance updates, and new content, and plan to do so for the foreseeable future.

It won't always be on a consistent schedule, but if you're familiar with our post-release support for AI War: Fleet Command over the past 5 years, that's basically the arc that we are currently expecting here unless something unexpectedly changes.

At present we are also working on expansions for both AI War and TLF (TLF: Betrayed Hope). The expansion for TLF is expected to be available for preorder through our site in early June, with access to the current beta of the expansion.  The actual full release of the expansion is expected to be in early July, on all the existing distributors that carry the base game.

More to come soon.  Enjoy!

This is a standard update that you can download through the  in-game updater, or if you have Steam it will automatically update it for you.  To force Steam to download it faster, just restart Steam and it will do so.
« Last Edit: June 06, 2014, 10:14:56 am by x4000 »
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Offline TheDarkMaster

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Re: TLF Version 1.024 Released (Disease Resistance)
« Reply #1 on: June 05, 2014, 10:28:11 pm »
I'm a bit disappointed that there isn't a fix for the Boarines and Thoraxians not being able for create the federation, but I guess this has just been a really busy week for you.

Offline x4000

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Re: TLF Version 1.024 Released (Disease Resistance)
« Reply #2 on: June 05, 2014, 10:31:30 pm »
Yep, my bad on that.  Is there a link to where there is a savegame I can use to test that?
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Offline Thasero

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Re: TLF Version 1.024 Released (Disease Resistance)
« Reply #3 on: June 06, 2014, 01:53:16 am »
Uh... the patch appears to have made dispatches that require goons advance their progress by one month for every DAY that passes, with the result that research, property development, and outpost development finish almost instantly.

Offline TheDarkMaster

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Re: TLF Version 1.024 Released (Disease Resistance)
« Reply #4 on: June 06, 2014, 04:25:14 am »
Yep, my bad on that.  Is there a link to where there is a savegame I can use to test that?

It should be fairly easy to start a new game with either of them and then uplift the other.  The problem is that the option to form the federation doesn't exist for those two races.

Bug tracker link: http://www.arcengames.com/mantisbt/view.php?id=15353

I'll try to get my current game to the point where those two should be able to form the federation together.

EDIT: I've attached the save to the bug tracker post.
« Last Edit: June 06, 2014, 05:07:01 am by TheDarkMaster »

Offline x4000

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Re: TLF Version 1.024 Released (Disease Resistance)
« Reply #5 on: June 06, 2014, 09:23:22 am »
Thanks!  New patch incoming as soon as I fix two remaining issues.
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Offline x4000

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Re: TLF Version 1.024-1.025 Released (Disease Resistance)
« Reply #6 on: June 06, 2014, 10:15:18 am »
UPDATE: 1.025 is now out with some bugfixes, both from this past version and some prior ones.
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Offline MaskityMask

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Re: TLF Version 1.024-1.025 Released (Disease Resistance)
« Reply #7 on: June 06, 2014, 10:39:25 am »
I was always wondering about why "Join federation button" for Thoraxians only showed up when requirements were met.

I mean, every other race had the button from start, but not them... They were able to join federations, but it only way to know requirements was to check from federation progress screen.

Anyway, seems like Trifecta of superiority is now even harder to form up ._. I mean, previously creating strong federation was bad idea unless you were beating game upon doing it or were able to recruit fourth race fast, but now strong federation doesn't seem much of a bad option.

Offline x4000

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Re: TLF Version 1.024-1.025 Released (Disease Resistance)
« Reply #8 on: June 06, 2014, 11:15:16 am »
Yep, I didn't want the TOS to be something that would just smack new players in the face after they do something standard.  Overall some of those bad alliances are supposed to be like "whoa, what the heck just happened, THAT'S never been there before!"
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Offline nas1m

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Re: TLF Version 1.024-1.025 Released (Disease Resistance)
« Reply #9 on: June 06, 2014, 03:04:05 pm »
Thanks for the quick hotfix!

BTW, did you have a chance to look into this one yet? All the race specific ships and new ship models in general not unlocking would be quite an issue I guess...
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Offline x4000

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Re: TLF Version 1.024-1.025 Released (Disease Resistance)
« Reply #10 on: June 06, 2014, 03:08:46 pm »
Np!  And I have not checked on that one yet, as around that time we redid the system and I was waiting to hear if it is still an issue.  Does it seem to be?
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Offline nas1m

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Re: TLF Version 1.024-1.025 Released (Disease Resistance)
« Reply #11 on: June 06, 2014, 03:29:31 pm »
Np!  And I have not checked on that one yet, as around that time we redid the system and I was waiting to hear if it is still an issue.  Does it seem to be?
It does :-\. I started a fresh game half an hour ago. I will get back in touch in case something unlocks against my expectation. When should Model T unlock again?

UPDATE: I am in year 3016 now and have not seen a single ship type unlock...
UPDATE2: 3021 - still nothing
« Last Edit: June 07, 2014, 04:21:23 pm by nas1m »
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Offline PokerChen

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Re: TLF Version 1.024-1.025 Released (Disease Resistance)
« Reply #12 on: June 09, 2014, 05:40:58 pm »
Same here - I don't see anyone unlocking new ships as of 3010. Should it be this slow?

Offline nas1m

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Re: TLF Version 1.024-1.025 Released (Disease Resistance)
« Reply #13 on: June 10, 2014, 07:43:05 am »
Still no unlocks up to the year 3100 in my current 1.025 game :-\. I attached a fresh save to the mantis issue linked above as well.

Furthermore I came across a certain "imbalance" you might want to look into. Insane stuff (and really high negative numbers ;)).
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Offline PokerChen

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Re: TLF Version 1.024-1.025 Released (Disease Resistance)
« Reply #14 on: June 10, 2014, 03:04:28 pm »
 On a related note, I believe the recently introduced panic-response-to-looming-federation buildings are a bad idea - or at the very least, their magnitudes are a bad idea. For example, each copy of Skylaxian Armory is at least as strong as a space power tech, and also significantly better than a mark upgrade. Heaven forbid that they have 3 planets versus your 5. That's 1.4^15 (155x) for space combat, and 1.7^15 (2862x) for ground combat, if I'm reading the stats correctly. 155x in-combat ship attack modifier - now I don't have a convenient save, but wouldn't this mean one-hit KO at any difficulty?

 1.15 multipliers is roughly the maximum I foresee being balanceable. (1.15^15 = 8.13x , 1,2^15 = 15.4x) You have to keep pace with their other tech and also outnumber them 10:1. Even at this rate, the universal multipliers are akin to all of the mark upgrades at once. Consider a scenario of a UIS between Acutians, Boarines, and Burlusts. Three races with universal multipliers, versus your federation. Inducting the Evucks, Peltians, Thoraxians, or the Andors, provide no universal bonuses (save for shared science). You have to allow Skylaxians to build their own (max 6) and then induct them, otherwise you're facing the acutians with 1.5^4 ship building rates and 1.2^4*1.4^4 space power (effectively 40x space power). It gets old.

 Arguably, you can plan for this by never having UIS form by choosing better race orders - but this requires divine foreknowledge of the game, and would be patently unfun for anyone not in the know. Letting a hostile alliance/fear empire form will always be, to me it seems, game-blocking pain. I don't know if you're going to be getting  feedback from players who got badly pounced by patch 1.023, if they're still playing (that's another thread about the longevity).

 Are these numbers really correct, or am I just wasting time? Has any active member tried to tackle the numbers in a real game? There's no forum feedback.