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Perestroika
Apr 8, 2010

Glidergun posted:

You can have multiple vineships working on a system at the same time. Get a 10-ship fleet and you can entwine as fast as you can travel.

Even just having two of them outright cuts the time in half from 10 to 5 turns. It seems a really good idea to build a bunch early on. Having two or more in a fleet also gives them better odds at getting out alive when pirates jump them, so you can spread out more even when you can't babysit them yet.

I'm at my third attempt at a game now, and only now things finally start to click and develop a proper flow for me. I appreciate the depth, but goddamn this game can be overwhelming as all hell early on.

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Pierson
Oct 31, 2004



College Slice
Is there any situation in which you can't just annihilate everything using long-range tactics and ships entirely loaded up with long range-specialised missiles? They just seem to utterly shred everything.

Stellaris seemed to have the same problem and it made ship designing and combat super-dull.

Avasculous
Aug 30, 2008
I think there's a battle tactic that nerfs the hell out of long-range damage- like -50% or -75% for both sides. No idea if the AI is smart enough to use it though.

Dartonus
Apr 1, 2011

It only gets worse from here on in...
My missile-loaded fleets got shredded by a Riftborn fleet that was very slightly smaller (22CP to 24CP), with the Riftborn taking very little damage. I watched the battle to figure out what was going on and it seemed like every missile was getting shot down by the gatling turrets before reaching its target, so that might be a valid counter.

Avasculous
Aug 30, 2008

Perestroika posted:

I'm at my third attempt at a game now, and only now things finally start to click and develop a proper flow for me. I appreciate the depth, but goddamn this game can be overwhelming as all hell early on.

I wish there were a reminder if you haven't passed any laws in a while. Some of them are extremely powerful, and I keep completely forgetting to use them once I start getting the influence for it.

Jastiger
Oct 11, 2008

by FactsAreUseless
Ywah i haven't figured out the optimal ship design yet. Long rangr seems best but I'm sure gettin in close would be good too

Onean
Feb 11, 2010

Maiden in white...
You are not one of us.
I very much doubt there's an optimal ship design. It likely depends on the battle plans and modules you have available, techs researched, what your enemy is using, hero skills unlocked and so on. People are a little disappointed in the lack of micro available for battles, which is understandable, but the prep you have available beforehand​ adds plenty of depth for me.

Jastiger
Oct 11, 2008

by FactsAreUseless
So my influence has completely over taken the planet of the LUmeris next to me. What happens now? Can I ever make a claim on it?

Also it says "Buy out a star system". How exactly do you do that?

Baronjutter
Dec 31, 2007

"Tiny Trains"

Jastiger posted:

So my influence has completely over taken the planet of the LUmeris next to me. What happens now? Can I ever make a claim on it?

Also it says "Buy out a star system". How exactly do you do that?

There' a technology for it that allows you to gain systems through "pacific" conversion. Once you'll get a little icon on system's you've enveloped that allows you to snatch them at a cost that goes down the longer they've been inside your borders.

Ragingsheep
Nov 7, 2009
Which techs increase the size of your invasion forces and gives you access to tanks?

Pierson
Oct 31, 2004



College Slice

Onean posted:

I very much doubt there's an optimal ship design. It likely depends on the battle plans and modules you have available, techs researched, what your enemy is using, hero skills unlocked and so on. People are a little disappointed in the lack of micro available for battles, which is understandable, but the prep you have available beforehand​ adds plenty of depth for me.
I'm kind of the opposite and appreciate the more hands-off grand strategy-style of the military where you can tailor a fleet and their tactics and send them flying. I only assumed long-range would be overpowered because 4X games seem to have trouble making compelling and balanced combat. Nice to know I'm mistaken and the late-game is gonna require more thought.

Glidergun
Mar 4, 2007

Ragingsheep posted:

Which techs increase the size of your invasion forces and gives you access to tanks?

They're in the military tree. Ship modules that have a picture of three guys are troop transport modules and give you bigger invasion armies. Tanks I believe are a third-tier tech somewhere near the middle, and the icon that represents them is in fact a tank.

The Deleter
May 22, 2010
I'm starting to get big slowdowns on turn 100 with the UI, which sucks because I'm trying to goad my trees to invade Space Hitler and also the Academy is exploding. Having a bunch of fun, though!

Pierson
Oct 31, 2004



College Slice

The Deleter posted:

I'm starting to get big slowdowns on turn 100 with the UI, which sucks because I'm trying to goad my trees to invade Space Hitler and also the Academy is exploding. Having a bunch of fun, though!
Yeah everyone is, and people are saying it wasn't this bad in EA either. Feels like a patch should be on the way though.

Clarste
Apr 15, 2013

Just how many mistakes have you suffered on the way here?

An uncountable number, to be sure.

Glidergun posted:

They're in the military tree. Ship modules that have a picture of three guys are troop transport modules and give you bigger invasion armies. Tanks I believe are a third-tier tech somewhere near the middle, and the icon that represents them is in fact a tank.

It was changed to 2nd tier in the release patch.

Pierson posted:

I'm kind of the opposite and appreciate the more hands-off grand strategy-style of the military where you can tailor a fleet and their tactics and send them flying. I only assumed long-range would be overpowered because 4X games seem to have trouble making compelling and balanced combat. Nice to know I'm mistaken and the late-game is gonna require more thought.

I've been having success just filling all my ships with a mix of long-ranged missiles and lasers and spamming the Barrage tactic.

Baronjutter
Dec 31, 2007

"Tiny Trains"

It really does help to look at the enemy designs and use a good tactic. If they're all kinetic, then go for turtle. If they're all energy, go for shields. It can give you a massive advantage.
What I haven't begun to figure out are the advanced options where you can group ships together in formations, I have no clue how that works or what it does.

Davincie
Jul 7, 2008

how does the floating superstructures tech work? its supposed to add pop to gas giants, but im not seeing how. i can't find a building to build, nor a planetary specialization and it doesn't seem to be working from just researching the tech

also its odd that the trees appear to be the only pop you can't gene splice

Drunk in Space
Dec 1, 2009

Pierson posted:

I'm kind of the opposite and appreciate the more hands-off grand strategy-style of the military where you can tailor a fleet and their tactics and send them flying. I only assumed long-range would be overpowered because 4X games seem to have trouble making compelling and balanced combat. Nice to know I'm mistaken and the late-game is gonna require more thought.

To be fair, I think long-range does have a bit of an edge overall (in particular a laser/missiles + Barrage Fire combo) because longer ranges take priority over shorter ranges when establishing starting positions in a battle: for example, if one fleet uses Barrage Fire (Med-Long-Long) and the other fleet uses Team Spirit (Short-Med-Short), the battle will start in deference to the Barrage Fire ranges, i.e. the top flotilla will engage at medium, the middle at long and the bottom at long. This makes it harder to design a short-ranged fleet (particularly one designed around beam weapons) that works well, because even if you have the appropriate defenses against long-range (guns to stop missiles, shields to stop lasers), your opponent is going to have you under fire sooner at their optimal range, and therefore has a chance to cause serious damage and maybe pop several of your ships before you can start hitting them hard in return.

Of course, the AI is prone to serious brainfarts like picking short-range tactics when its ships are solely armed with missiles, so it's one of these things where it's only a big deal when the AI is actually on the ball.

Avasculous
Aug 30, 2008

Pierson posted:

Yeah everyone is, and people are saying it wasn't this bad in EA either. Feels like a patch should be on the way though.

Turning down the graphics to minimum didn't help with this at all.

Someone posted an interesting finding on the main forum though:
https://www.games2gether.com/endles...fs-a-lot?page=1

The Human Crouton
Sep 20, 2002

I haven't played or analyzed the tech tree enough, but I wonder if long range being superior is that bad of a thing. I mean, if I were designing a real life space fleet, it would be mostly ships that can hit the enemy at a range they cannot hit me.

Maybe the short range isn't supposed to be as good as long range. You just researched a technology to get better dust collection, and you also happened to get some close range weapons that can at least keep you in the fight. The other guy was willing to forego the dust collection so he could artillery you.

Not saying that is the way it was designed, but it it was I'd be fine with it.

Davincie
Jul 7, 2008

got another weird bug on a bunch of my systems, happens with every building i try

Onean
Feb 11, 2010

Maiden in white...
You are not one of us.

Baronjutter posted:

What I haven't begun to figure out are the advanced options where you can group ships together in formations, I have no clue how that works or what it does.
You want to assign your ships to the flotilla that best works for their weapons based on the tactics you're using.

Onean posted:

Just in case you haven't figured it out yet, Curiosities require a certain level of curiosity expedition power to see and interact with. I believe certain techs in the Science (bottom) quadrant and the tier bonuses (what you unlock by researching a set number of techs in a tier) let you see and interact with the higher levels. For example, I think there's a tier two tech that lets you see and interact with level three Curiosities, while the bonus for reaching tier three will set your ability to see them to level three, but you can only interact with level two. (I'm away from my computer at the moment so I can't double check, but if someone else can or already knows and can confirm or disprove this that'd be appreciated.)
Finally at my computer and able to double check this. I was partially correct and partially wrong.

The tier bonuses are for Luxury resources, like Redsang and such.

The techs are all that unlock other curiosities, for example the tier two Baryonic Shielding tech (the free movement tech) lets you see level 3 curiosities and explore level 2 curiosities. Any tech with the curiosity symbol, the 3D wireframe cube with a question mark, improves your ability to see and interact with them. It goes up to level 4, along with another one that I haven't taken yet and don't understand what it does since you can basically do that from the start. Maybe it shows curiosities on starlane systems that reveal non-starlane systems?


I'm taking a closer look at combat right now, just to get information out. I'll write up another post for it.

Jastiger
Oct 11, 2008

by FactsAreUseless
Is there any use for luxuries outside upgrading star systems? Seems silly to have tons of luxuries and only ever use 6 or so.

Baronjutter
Dec 31, 2007

"Tiny Trains"

Jastiger posted:

Is there any use for luxuries outside upgrading star systems? Seems silly to have tons of luxuries and only ever use 6 or so.

Sell on the market for pretty big windfalls, use as aphrodisiac for specific pops. Nothing gets me harder than super spuds.

The Human Crouton
Sep 20, 2002

Jastiger posted:

Is there any use for luxuries outside upgrading star systems? Seems silly to have tons of luxuries and only ever use 6 or so.

You can encourage certain species in your empire to breed faster if you have the exact luxury they like. I forget how to get to it exactly. I think the bottom panel of the Senate screen does it.

Jastiger
Oct 11, 2008

by FactsAreUseless

Antti posted:

The technology Emperor's Shadow has an improvement called Zelevas Incarnate in it. It's a monument to the Emperor. Maybe they forgot to update the quest objective text after changing the name of the improvement.

btw this didnt work. Still can't build "Mount of Zelevas" and I'm stuck on the quest.

The Human Crouton
Sep 20, 2002

Baronjutter posted:

Nothing gets me harder than super spuds.

You sure you want the whole world to know that, chief?

Popete
Oct 6, 2009

This will make sure you don't suggest to the KDz
That he should grow greens instead of crushing on MCs

Grimey Drawer
How the heck do you engage an enemy fleet? I had a mission to destroy a fleet that was moving between 3 different systems, I camped my fleet in the middle but every turn it would jump into my system and then move on to the next one and I couldn't engage it. I finally caught it but it took forever. Is there a way to setup an ambush?

Jastiger
Oct 11, 2008

by FactsAreUseless
Yeah has anyone completed the United Empires quest past chapter 4 part 2? I'm supposed to build a Mount of Zelevas and I can't find it ANYWHERE to build. I've been stuck on this part for like 60 turns its ridiculous.



Popete posted:

How the heck do you engage an enemy fleet? I had a mission to destroy a fleet that was moving between 3 different systems, I camped my fleet in the middle but every turn it would jump into my system and then move on to the next one and I couldn't engage it. I finally caught it but it took forever. Is there a way to setup an ambush?

You have to catch them when they are in orbit around a planet. You can corner them by surrounding them, but if they retreat they are gone. But remember, retreat takes half their HP. They can only really do it once.

Glidergun
Mar 4, 2007

The Human Crouton posted:

You sure you want the whole world to know that, chief?

Look, when the dev team was showing off the create-a-faction feature they used the potato icon and named them "Superstuds" for a REASON.

Pedestrian Xing
Jul 19, 2007

Popete posted:

How the heck do you engage an enemy fleet? I had a mission to destroy a fleet that was moving between 3 different systems, I camped my fleet in the middle but every turn it would jump into my system and then move on to the next one and I couldn't engage it. I finally caught it but it took forever. Is there a way to setup an ambush?

If you guard/blockade a planet with the shield icon on a fleet, enemies have to wait one turn before they can leave. Gives you time to attack.

Fhqwhgads
Jul 18, 2003

I AM THE ONLY ONE IN THIS GAME WHO GETS LAID

Jastiger posted:

Yeah has anyone completed the United Empires quest past chapter 4 part 2? I'm supposed to build a Mount of Zelevas and I can't find it ANYWHERE to build. I've been stuck on this part for like 60 turns its ridiculous.


You have to catch them when they are in orbit around a planet. You can corner them by surrounding them, but if they retreat they are gone. But remember, retreat takes half their HP. They can only really do it once.

If you can see which star they're en route to, and get there first, you can just 'defend' the star which I believe makes any ships who enter orbit have to stay there for one turn. That's where you get your chance to pop em.

Clarste
Apr 15, 2013

Just how many mistakes have you suffered on the way here?

An uncountable number, to be sure.

Popete posted:

How the heck do you engage an enemy fleet? I had a mission to destroy a fleet that was moving between 3 different systems, I camped my fleet in the middle but every turn it would jump into my system and then move on to the next one and I couldn't engage it. I finally caught it but it took forever. Is there a way to setup an ambush?

Use the Guard System command (the shield). Your fleet will stop any enemies from passing through for 1 turn, delaying them long enough for you to fight them.

Slab Squatthrust
Jun 3, 2008

This is mutiny!

Popete posted:

How the heck do you engage an enemy fleet? I had a mission to destroy a fleet that was moving between 3 different systems, I camped my fleet in the middle but every turn it would jump into my system and then move on to the next one and I couldn't engage it. I finally caught it but it took forever. Is there a way to setup an ambush?

Put your fleet in guard mode in a system, they get caught in a fight and can't just run past you.

e:fb

nessin
Feb 7, 2010

Baronjutter posted:

It really does help to look at the enemy designs and use a good tactic. If they're all kinetic, then go for turtle. If they're all energy, go for shields. It can give you a massive advantage.
What I haven't begun to figure out are the advanced options where you can group ships together in formations, I have no clue how that works or what it does.

The options do what they so, put your units into the lanes based on one of three priorities. Have you just not looked at it or are genuinely confused, because it's really simple and self-explanatory. You can also manually move your ships between lanes, which isn't explained at all last time I checked, so that's an understandable confusion.

The Human Crouton posted:

You can encourage certain species in your empire to breed faster if you have the exact luxury they like. I forget how to get to it exactly. I think the bottom panel of the Senate screen does it.

You can also spend them on minor civilizations to grant some sort of bonus (the last option in the negotiation panel). Sometimes they give you a pop, manpower, or other things.

nessin fucked around with this message at 03:33 on May 22, 2017

Onean
Feb 11, 2010

Maiden in white...
You are not one of us.

Onean posted:

Baronjutter posted:

What I haven't begun to figure out are the advanced options where you can group ships together in formations, I have no clue how that works or what it does.
You want to assign your ships to the flotilla that best works for their weapons based on the tactics you're using.

To elaborate on this, to unlock the extra flotillas you need to have a certain amount of command points and ships. You'll want to pick up the Autonomous Construction tech in Military tier 2 fairly quickly to enable this. Then, you can drag and drop ships between flotillas to best assign them.



Now, a little in depth look for combat. This is based off the Unfallen tech tree and the Unfallen starter hero's ship (Fedez-class named Drop) with all modules removed. The majority of the techs are the same, but other factions may have specialties or replacements I'm not addressing.

There's two types of damage and two types of weapons for each, so four different types of weapons. The range effectiveness determines a weapon's accuracy. Each weapon interacts with defenses a little differently as well.
  • Projectile weapons are Missile and Kinetic.
    • Missile range is: 100% long and 80% medium and they cannot fire at short. They are generally second for damage and have the lowest crit chance.
    • Missiles have 10% hull plating penetration and 90% shield penetration.
    • Kinetic range is: 80% long, 100% medium and 100% short. They can shoot down missiles. They're fairly even with Laser damage and have the second lowest crit chance.
    • Kinetic weapons have 30% hull plating penetration and 80% shield penetration.
  • Energy weapons are Laser and Beam.
    • Laser range is: 100% long, 100% medium and 80% short. They're fairly even with Kinetic damage and have the second highest chance to crit.
    • Lasers have 80% hull plating penetration and 30% shield penetration.
    • Beams are 100% effective at short range, and cannot fire at any other range. They have the highest damage by a large margin and the highest crit chance.
    • Beams have 90% hull plating penetration and 10% shield penetration.

Defenses contain the actual equations for how damage is dealt. Both projectile and energy defenses use the same formulas:
pre:
                                             Projectile/Energy Defense
Hull Plating/Shield Absorption % = --------------------------------------------- x 100
                                    (Projectile/Energy Defense + Hull Weakness)
You then take that value and compare it to the penetration of the weapon type using this equation:
pre:
Damage Absorbed % = Hull Plating/Shield Absorption x (1 - Hull Plating/Shield Penetration)
Damage absorbed by the shield is applied to the shield while damage absorbed by the hull plating is removed, any remaining damage is then applied to the hull. I'm not seeing anything that says if one takes damage before the other, or if they take damage at the same time.

Now, battle tactics. Turns out these are super important while starting out. Turtle adds 55% to Hull Plating absorption. Most starting ships have two hull plating modules which provides 17% absorption, so this raises it to 72%. Power to Shields adds 75% to Shield Absorption. Note that without shields this likely does very little to nothing, so refitting your ships with at least one shield module is probably mandatory. Doing so with even just a starter shield module bumps that up to 87% and 120 points of potential damage prevention.

If you want to look at this information for yourself, for example to check Hull Weakness, while designing ships enable the Detailed stats toggle on the top right. This is all from the tooltips of the various information that gets added by that toggle.

Onean fucked around with this message at 03:46 on May 22, 2017

Speedball
Apr 15, 2008

I'm a little fuzzy on what manpower actually does. Is it something I need to have my ships regenerate health?

Glidergun
Mar 4, 2007

Speedball posted:

I'm a little fuzzy on what manpower actually does. Is it something I need to have my ships regenerate health?

Manpower is used to initiate and resist invasions. Running out of manpower isn't going to have any negative effects as long as you're not in a boots-on-the-ground situation one way or the other.

EDIT:

Onean posted:

It also provides a damage bonus to your weapons in space battles. 20% when full.

or that i guess.

Glidergun fucked around with this message at 04:04 on May 22, 2017

Onean
Feb 11, 2010

Maiden in white...
You are not one of us.
It also provides a damage bonus to your weapons in space battles. 20% when full.

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Clarste
Apr 15, 2013

Just how many mistakes have you suffered on the way here?

An uncountable number, to be sure.
Manpower is the word they use for "troops", which I think is a weird choice. Although I guess they're also supposed to crew the ships? Ships having manpower is mostly just a way to avoid the tedious process of building Troop Transports that most other space 4X games require you to do.

Edit: Come to think of it, the idea that you need to get like 200 people killed just to add more tanks to your armies is a bit weird. Or maybe even like 200,000 depending on what exactly these numbers are meant to represent.

Clarste fucked around with this message at 04:15 on May 22, 2017

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