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Travic posted:
Mining rights are golden and opens up exploits bigtime if that's your thing though. Send off 10 constructors to build mining stations in their space, then sell the stations for tech or cash or war with a third party. The fact that they gave you mining rights doesn't make them not desire any of your stations in their space with all their hearts. I belive they're real suckers for research and resort bases.
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Jun 1, 2014 19:00
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winterwerefox posted:So the race I colonized the planet with having a liking for lava planets doesnt factor into it at all, just my main race? The colony ship said colonize marsh and magma worlds, and the race in the colony ship said magma world favored. No its more the planet quality. anything below 50% (unless it has ruins, usually) should be ignored. 50% is the "will break even at some point" economic marker.
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Jun 1, 2014 19:01
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Yes, that's right. The race of the ship will factor into what it can colonise. Humans finding a Securan colony ship, that Securan ship would be able to colonise Desert worlds. BUT, even so, you shouldn't colonise a low-quality world. Less than 50% is asking for trouble. And Planet Quality is independent of anyone. A bad world is a bad world. 13% is 13% regardless of whether it's a Shandar or a Human doing the colonising.
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Jun 1, 2014 19:03
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Is there a way to see which planets/moons I haven't explored yet in a system, other than clicking each of them manually?
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Jun 1, 2014 19:25
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So how do I make defensive bases able to refuel ships as well, just add few docking ports and cargo modules? Edit: Designing your own stuff is so addicting. 
Zilkin fucked around with this message at 19:56 on Jun 1, 2014 |
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Jun 1, 2014 19:30
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Caconym posted:Mining rights are golden and opens up exploits bigtime if that's your thing though. Oh I agree absolutely. See this is why I will never reach the full potential of 4x games. Something like that would never have occurred to me. I just don't have a head for finding loopholes and exploits. 
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Jun 1, 2014 19:34
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Ahh ok, that makes sense. Thankfully the 13% planet also has a 50% scenery bonus and a ruin on it, so its not a total loss.
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Jun 1, 2014 20:28
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Thank you for the rundown. If Planetary Defense Units are so expensive, that would explain why I was going bankrupt near the end. If you don't mind me asking, what settings and techniques do you usually use during wars? Do you recruit troops manually? Do you put together special invasion fleets? I feel like I am really inefficient during wars and that it takes me a really long time to get enough troops together for a proper invasion.
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Jun 1, 2014 21:17
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Is there a spergy guide to ship components anywhere that I can read? The ingame encyclopedia doesn't really tell me much and I'm suffering from choice paralysis while building ships.
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Jun 1, 2014 22:20
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So, i've won two games making use of destroyers and then just refitting them as I make them bigger. I'm thinking about trying a different ship-building approach where I build a bunch of small ships instead. The problem with this approach is that small ships can't hold everything like an anti-warp, proxy sensor, bombs, troop bays, etc. That being said, they're faster in combat and I won't have to tech down the construction line so much. I've found both torpedoes and lasers to be viable, but not had much luck with missiles as an exclusive weapon.
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Jun 1, 2014 22:24
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Panzeh posted:So, i've won two games making use of destroyers and then just refitting them as I make them bigger. In my current game I'm using a lot of fast escorts and frigates with assault missiles and they can kite just about anything around. On my bigger ships I have phaser lances for their bonus against armor because missiles aren't as good against armor, even though its not very noticeable. I would also like some tips on troop recruiting and invasion force composition. It seems like a problem I run into is I see a bunch of troops on a planet and go to load them up but they're all garrisoned or aren't the right composition for the default army composition in transports so I always have a hard time completely filling my transports up, they're always like 2800/3000 or something. ProfessorGroove fucked around with this message at 22:52 on Jun 1, 2014 |
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Jun 1, 2014 22:29
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The problem with troops after Shadows came out, is that they added a bunch of specialized bullshit where the idea is that you land special forces first because they dodge interception fire and attack installations and planetary defence units in the back line. But the fact is that you can't separate them into transports so you just throw everything at a planet at once so even if your special forces take out the shields you'd be an idiot to bomb the planet with your whole army down there.
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Jun 1, 2014 22:44
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ProfessorGroove posted:I would also like some tips on troop recruiting and invasion force composition. It seems like a problem I run into is I see a bunch of troops on a planet and go to load them up but they're all garrisoned or aren't the right composition for the default army composition in transports so I always have a hard time completely filling my transports up, they're always like 2800/3000 or something. Keep in mind that troops can't be shared between individual ships so you will lose a little efficiency because of that. You need at least two troop compartments to hold a tank unit, too. Demiurge4 posted:The problem with troops after Shadows came out, is that they added a bunch of specialized bullshit where the idea is that you land special forces first because they dodge interception fire and attack installations and planetary defence units in the back line. But the fact is that you can't separate them into transports so you just throw everything at a planet at once so even if your special forces take out the shields you'd be an idiot to bomb the planet with your whole army down there. I noticed that, too. I keep some SF around to try to get the bonus but honestly I just jam all the guys in there and hope for the best, unless I can bombard. If I can bombard i'll just use that to get rid of troops.
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Jun 1, 2014 22:51
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It seems like I have a ton of infantry sitting around not getting loaded since even though the force is set to be 50% armor its still recruiting infantry and armor at the same rate. I'll try messing around with those settings and see if I can get things working more efficiently. Is there any way to see the stats of ground units in the game? edit: Wait it was the other way around. I guess I need to set the transports to load more armor. Or just uncheck the use default loadouts option I didn't see before and they'll just load everything up? Panzeh posted:Keep in mind that troops can't be shared between individual ships so you will lose a little efficiency because of that. You need at least two troop compartments to hold a tank unit, too ProfessorGroove fucked around with this message at 23:11 on Jun 1, 2014 |
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Jun 1, 2014 22:58
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ProfessorGroove posted:Oh so my transports with 15 troop compartments can't pick up more than the 8 tanks they already have in them? I guess i'm wrong about that or something. The troop carrying logic is bizarre and honestly to me the ground combat is pretty bad in this game. It could do to just be simpler.
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Jun 1, 2014 23:52
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Panzeh posted:I guess i'm wrong about that or something. The troop carrying logic is bizarre and honestly to me the ground combat is pretty bad in this game. It could do to just be simpler. I thought it might have just been rounding up. The fact that I have 4 races whose troops and armor are all named variations of "battlemech" or something like that doesn't help. What I did figure out is I had a bunch of armor piling up on my planets using just the default settings. Haven't completely figured out how to remedy that yet beyond turning the armor recruitment rate down and building more transports to load what they can. Oh nice I found it, under the ships and bases screen you can set transports to have the exact amount of each kind of troop you want and completely fill them up. ProfessorGroove fucked around with this message at 00:47 on Jun 2, 2014 |
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Jun 2, 2014 00:37
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bit late to the discussion, but if you find loros fruit, zentabia fluid or korrabian spice no matter what quality the planet has, colonise it ASAP. Bump it right to the top of your list of things to do. They are the three rarest resources (four now apparently, there's some sort of crystal as well) in game and they all give +30% development bonus as well as giving a fairly big diplomacy bonus to any empire you trade them to.
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Jun 2, 2014 00:50
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Zilkin posted:Yeah, that guide thought me more about DW than anything else. After reading it I couldn't even think of letting the AI design my ships and bases. That alone has really has made my gameplay way more efficient. Yeah I got the hang of fleet postures. another game had something similar for fleet. think it may of been StarDrive
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Jun 2, 2014 01:26
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Blinks77 posted:Sol seems pretty densely packed compared to the systems i've seen so far. To be fair, Sol is also pretty densely packed compared to the systems we've detected exosolar planets in so far as well!
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Jun 2, 2014 02:00
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If anyone wants to mess around with the hilariously imbalanced Sol System - here's the ME mod with added environment graphics from the shadows version and the map included (Uploading done in 15 mins or so): https://www.dropbox.com/s/mrd3afhhwmlvzq4/MassEffect%20mod%202.1%20Universe.rar Bear in mind none of the Human factions will get warp bubble without your direct editor involvement, for now. There is one faction for each ME race out there in the galaxy as well with a shadows start, but they are all pretty far away.
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Jun 2, 2014 03:28
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Phlegmish posted:Thank you for the rundown. If Planetary Defense Units are so expensive, that would explain why I was going bankrupt near the end. Yeah they're SUPER expensive. I have one, maybe two per planet if I feel I need a back-up. I put 6-10 regular troops per planet depending on how healthy my economy is and then 1-2 PDUs. Be proactive about recruiting troops. It takes time so queue them up long before you think you'll need them. The way I handle wars is divide my forces up into several fleets. Enough to cover most of my important/border/at-risk worlds. Base each fleet at one of these worlds and set them to defend the sector. You should get good overlap to cover more minor systems. Also, bow down before the god that is Long Range Scanners. I'm not kidding. Design super cheap stations with a long range scanner and place them throughout your empire as well as along your front-line so you can see out into the dark beyond (above your mini-map is a button that will show your scanner range as grey circles). If an enemy ship is detected (you will get an alert) and is headed into one of the zones you designated to be protected earlier the fleet will be dispatched automagically to intercept them at the target. I then build a fleet or two and tag team systems. Team A takes a system and holds it and Troop Fleet A moves in. While that is going on Team B takes a different one somewhere else in their empire. Leave 3-4 troops on the planet when you leave to quell the inevitable rebellion. On that note I recruit troops manually. Pick a few high pop worlds to put some of the Troop planetary improvements like cloning bay, armor factory, etc. Recruit from everywhere, but especially those worlds. And like I said earlier ensure a good mix of Troops/armor/a few special forces. Maximize the number of bonuses you can get for invading a world. These may be wrong as I'm working from memory. 1)Your attack strength is 2x> than theirs 2)You have space superiority 3)Your Armor attack strength is > than their Troop Strength 4)Your Special Forces Strength is > their PDU Strength Clone troops are also very good once you get them. They have low maintenance and are literally copies of the baddest motherfuckers in your empire. Capture a Boskara world and train up some units then clone them throughout your empire.
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Jun 2, 2014 03:43
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Why does my first pirate deal always go bad and they attack me anyways?
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Jun 2, 2014 04:44
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WYA posted:Why does my first pirate deal always go bad and they attack me anyways? Get the newest patch, it forces the pirates to give you a grace period before they can cancel deals and attack you. Mind you, they will always cancel deals at some point (unless you have very good relations with them, which is hard to achieve) because once you start settling other colonies they'll want to attack you for control of said colonies.
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Jun 2, 2014 04:50
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 My current game, using extended UV and playing as the utopia lava robots and I started my first years with warp tech slapping the largest pirate near me  . about 10 long battles latter I destroyed their super base and they just withered away.There has not been many planets I can colonize so far, since I start out being able to colonize volcanic worlds, the red empire whoms native worlds is desert found plenty where they came from, and even started to push into my powerblock. A war is going soon and I have increased my production of warships and have started raiding their new colonies to slow that advance The white guys, they used to like me, and now they too want the space I hold, had a very long term free trade agreement just smashed into the ground cause of it. I guess my space must be super rich compared to theirs
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Jun 2, 2014 05:17
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Westminster System posted:The main issue is "your colonies/bases trespass on our systems" is a huge-cockblock to diplomacy. I messed with the biases a little to setup certain conflicts using the editor - but given that the basis isnt set up for peaceful coexistence in general it is kind of okay. Earth as I expected is dominant, but closely followed by Mars. The rest are kind of.. sucky, but that might be fixable by messing with the population stats and what have you. I once had a game where me and an alien race spawned in the same system. We hated each other from the get-go because we both considered the system "ours" and the other assholes to be interloping squatters. quote:The real issue is how when unified, the Sol system would be kind of ridiculous, nearly every planet has 5 resources (granted, lots of multiples) and with all the colonizable planets/moons (fudged as alien-super tech terraforming in the past) all above 50% quality it'd probably be too much. Then again, research is set to expensive and no-one can discover warp-bubbles without manual editor enabling of the tech or me placing ruins to grant them on each Homeworld. Which I might do. When I saw your post about it was I gonna say, Sol's gonna end up completely insane when someone wins out and unifies it. You have nineteen worlds there.  e; I do really wish this game had terraforming or something. All those low-quality worlds sitting around just bugs me so much.
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Jun 2, 2014 05:21
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Its a fun mess around scenario, really, nothing more. Maybe good for an RP AAR - I can then "remove" or make the other worlds less useful, making them more of a drain/balanced out in the grand scope of things. Its a story telling mechanism more than a balanced scenario. Making a multi-system version with basic hyperdrives would probably be a good next step (and probably more balanced and fun).
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Jun 2, 2014 06:11
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I'm a tad confused at how you start a custom scenario, if you wanted to start a custom scenario in say Legends or Classic, do you just disable the story events for Shadows or what? Couple other minor questions. - Does the Steam overlay not work for this game? I can't even tell if the game is using DirectX what with the wacky windows GUI components. - Does the autorun actually do anything important? Because it doesn't work for me at all, just a black box. :I - Anyone got any suggestions on music for the game? Internet radio sites or whatever? Gwyrgyn Blood fucked around with this message at 06:49 on Jun 2, 2014 |
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Jun 2, 2014 06:39
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Gwyrgyn Blood posted:I'm a tad confused at how you start a custom scenario, if you wanted to start a custom scenario in say Legends or Classic, do you just disable the story events for Shadows or what? Gwyrgyn Blood posted:Couple other minor questions. - The steam overlay works for me. The system view with the ships and stuff uses directx and you can capture it with fraps, most of the other stuff is wacky windows gui and won't get captured though. - The autorun also gives me a black box. In previous versions it was fairly useless, you could use to to launch the game, check for updates, or look at the manual. Just use steam to do these things now. - The soundtrack for Total Annihilation is pretty neat, it's similar to what's in the game except it's by Jeremy Soule and uses a live orchestra. Alternatively roll the dice and try gbs.fm
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Jun 2, 2014 07:28
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Travic posted:Also, bow down before the god that is Long Range Scanners. I'm not kidding. Design super cheap stations with a long range scanner and place them throughout your empire as well as along your front-line so you can see out into the dark beyond (above your mini-map is a button that will show your scanner range as grey circles). If an enemy ship is detected (you will get an alert) and is headed into one of the zones you designated to be protected earlier the fleet will be dispatched automagically to intercept them at the target. Alternatively, redesign the stations you'll build anyway. Space port? Long range scanner. Mining base? Long range scanner. Research or resort station the automated constructors set up on some supernova in the middle of nowhere? You'd better BELIEVE it has a long range scanner on it. Ideally, you'll be informed when a space raptor farts on the other side of the galaxy and see incoming fleets with enough warning to set up a goddamned party. With cake. And lasers.
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Jun 2, 2014 08:57
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Gwyrgyn Blood posted:Anyone got any suggestions on music for the game? Internet radio sites or whatever? I usually turn the in-game music off (some tracks are good, but others are too bombastic for my tastes), and put on some Stellardone instead. It's pretty much the perfect space ambient music for this kind of game. For example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SN3mTAHrp90
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Jun 2, 2014 09:16
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Dallan Invictus posted:Alternatively, redesign the stations you'll build anyway. Space port? Long range scanner. Mining base? Long range scanner. Research or resort station the automated constructors set up on some supernova in the middle of nowhere? You'd better BELIEVE it has a long range scanner on it. Ideally, you'll be informed when a space raptor farts on the other side of the galaxy and see incoming fleets with enough warning to set up a goddamned party. With cake. And lasers. I wouldn't really recommend putting long range scanners on mining stations. They add over 400 credits to the construction cost, and about 200 to the maintenance. The biggest reason though is that you simply don't need that many long range scanners. Their range is massive and you can easily cover everything you need to with few well placed monitoring stations, especially if you add them to some space ports as well.
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Jun 2, 2014 09:26
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Zilkin posted:I wouldn't really recommend putting long range scanners on mining stations. They add over 400 credits to the construction cost, and about 200 to the maintenance. Yes, but those extra construction/maintenance costs go on the private sector balance sheet so I don't have to care too much about the mumbers. If they're going to depend on my fleets to safeguard their mining operations they can certainly pay for some extra redundancy in my sensor network (and time I don't have to spend designing and placing the things myself). 
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Jun 2, 2014 14:29
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Dallan Invictus posted:Alternatively, redesign the stations you'll build anyway. Space port? Long range scanner. Mining base? Long range scanner. Research or resort station the automated constructors set up on some supernova in the middle of nowhere? You'd better BELIEVE it has a long range scanner on it. Ideally, you'll be informed when a space raptor farts on the other side of the galaxy and see incoming fleets with enough warning to set up a goddamned party. With cake. And lasers. Yes sorry I should have explained better. Space ports and defensive bases and maybe research stations should have a long range scanner (as well as explorer ships in the late game for mobile exploration). The monitoring stations are there to fill in the gaps/back-up/ looking out beyond your territory. Also a note I forgot in the main post. Every world gets 2 medium defense bases with recreation and medical centers to spur planetary development. It would be more efficient to only have one with the civilian upgrades since they don't stack but that would require separate designs. They can shrug off pirate attacks and small raids by other empires by themselves, but larger fleet actions require back-up. Travic fucked around with this message at 14:50 on Jun 2, 2014 |
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Jun 2, 2014 14:47
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Hey Matrix, remember when this thread wouldn't have a new post for MONTHS? Ha, yeah. My Steam overlay doesn't work. It'll come up, but the rest of the interface it on top of it.
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Jun 2, 2014 14:55
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Gwyrgyn Blood posted:- Anyone got any suggestions on music for the game? Internet radio sites or whatever? If Legend of the Galactic Hereoes, taught my anything is you can never go wrong with classical music. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvNNeBPEH9A Starts at 1:31. Or the Homeworld soundtrack is also nice like ambient music. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqWcm6MMiHk
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Jun 2, 2014 15:43
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Gwyrgyn Blood posted:- Anyone got any suggestions on music for the game? Internet radio sites or whatever? Install Adblock and make a Steve Roach station on Pandora.
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Jun 2, 2014 17:08
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Huh, so it seems whoever "owns" the system (Earth in this case) is the only one with the modifiers for trespassing. Which works thematically well.
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Jun 2, 2014 18:21
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I bought the game on steam and cannot find a serialnumber to install the new patches. How dies it work? Will the patches come to steam (maybe a bit later)?
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Jun 2, 2014 19:28
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Nektu posted:I bought the game on steam and cannot find a serialnumber to install the new patches. How dies it work? Will the patches come to steam (maybe a bit later)? Steam is 100% up to date. As far as I'm aware.
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Jun 2, 2014 19:31
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Nektu posted:I bought the game on steam and cannot find a serialnumber to install the new patches. How dies it work? Will the patches come to steam (maybe a bit later)? Steam installs all patches automatically so you should be up to date. I have it on Steam and have been playing with the latest patch myself.
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Jun 2, 2014 19:34
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