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Schnitzler
Jul 28, 2006
Toilet Rascal

Clarste posted:

My problem with the Vodyani is that their plot quest spawns a bunch of pirates at the beginning and that's incredibly annoying.

I do not know if this changes on the higher difficulties but on normal, a single scout with your starting hero attached is enough to wipe out both of the quest pirate spawns.

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TjyvTompa
Jun 1, 2001

im gay

The Bramble posted:

Has anyone posted a really clear explanation of trading corporations and how to get the most out of them yet? This is a particular system in ES2 that's baffling me more than others.

In addition to what the others posted: You can only build trade companies and subsidiaries on systems connected by a starlane. You can also buy more ships for each trading company, I make sure all my companies have 3 ships of both types, after that I find that the cost per ship is too high.

This game is a freaking buggy mess, really hope they can get some quick patches out.
Sometimes you can't queue the terraforming of 2 planets to the same type, you add the first terraform planet and the second one just won't appear in the queue no matter how much you click. But only sometimes...
The AI also sends me loads of messages like "do you want to join an alliance?" but they don't send the trade offer, it's just a button to close the message. I restarted the game and the very next turn every AI spammed me with science, trade and alliance offers.
In my latest game I can build an infinite number of the same kind of building, I build it and the very next turn I can build it again, they do get added to the planet. This did not happen at all in my first game.
When you colonize a planet one of your other systems sends food to it, depending on how far away this system is the colonization can go faster/slower. It seems the game will only select your 1st and 2nd system as a source for any planet so go in here and make sure you have a close by planet that isn't going negative on food.
Sometimes pirates will spawn endlessly around minor civilizations. Happened in my first game but not in my second.
The game doesn't move AI ships during the processing of the turns, it happens after your turn has started. In the beginning this is fine but by turn 90 the game will lag for a long time despite the next turn having started. The UI will behave very erratically during this time.
The UI text/numbers doesn't scale, when you get a high stockpile and income the numbers will go under the icons.
Economic victory seems a bit easy to achieve. In my first game I suddenly got a message that an Unknown AI had achieved an economic victory. I decided to continue any way since it was just like turn 120. Around turn 250 I got the message that I had won a conquest victory, got the achievements and score screen and all. Not sure what a conquest victory entails, I had not conquered anything.

Despite all this I really like the game.

Davincie
Jul 7, 2008

i agree with the buggyness, im personally going to hold off on playing this game until they fix the many game breaking bugs, but i don't think the ai alliance message thing is a bug. i think they are just notifying you that they want an alliance, and that they want you to offer one. i've seen them do both that, and then later send me an alliance anyway when i wouldn't answer

ZypherIM
Nov 8, 2010

"I want to see what she's in love with."

Do I need a certain tech to take over a minor faction? Only problem with the tech tree is finding crap that I have no idea of (once you kind of know it isn't too bad to find poo poo).


edit: question stands, but for unfallen you at least have to have a vine network to them before it even shows the option. It'd be nice if it was there but greyed out like other ones.

ZypherIM fucked around with this message at 16:47 on May 22, 2017

ZearothK
Aug 25, 2008

I've lost twice, I've failed twice and I've gotten two dishonorable mentions within 7 weeks. But I keep coming back. I am The Trooper!

THUNDERDOME LOSER 2021


Davincie posted:

i agree with the buggyness, im personally going to hold off on playing this game until they fix the many game breaking bugs, but i don't think the ai alliance message thing is a bug. i think they are just notifying you that they want an alliance, and that they want you to offer one. i've seen them do both that, and then later send me an alliance anyway when i wouldn't answer

I believe the AI messages are sent when their stance towards your Empire changes.

Avasculous
Aug 30, 2008

ZypherIM posted:

Do I need a certain tech to take over a minor faction? Only problem with the tech tree is finding crap that I have no idea of (once you kind of know it isn't too bad to find poo poo).

You need a tier 1 purple tech to communicate with them at all.

You boost your relationship with them by praising them (costs influence), bribing them with luxuries, and doing things they lIke (blowing up poo poo if they're warmongers).

The higher it gets, the more tribute they send you.

When it gets high enough (only like 60% of the bar), the option to Assist them opens- they give you a simple quest, and if you do it they join you outright.

Sometimes Assist stays grayed out because they are 'already aligned with someone else'. I think this means they've already given a quest to an AI.

Clarste
Apr 15, 2013

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

An uncountable number, to be sure.

Schnitzler posted:

I do not know if this changes on the higher difficulties but on normal, a single scout with your starting hero attached is enough to wipe out both of the quest pirate spawns.

That's an interesting idea, although the starting hero has a whopping +10 Influence while governing a system, which is kind of an absurd head start on converting minor factions, which leads to you steamrolling pretty early.

TjyvTompa posted:

Sometimes you can't queue the terraforming of 2 planets to the same type, you add the first terraform planet and the second one just won't appear in the queue no matter how much you click. But only sometimes...

It's 100% of the time if both the base planet type and target planet type are the same. And 0% of the time otherwise. My guess is that internally the game says "you're already building that though?!"

TjyvTompa posted:

The game doesn't move AI ships during the processing of the turns, it happens after your turn has started. In the beginning this is fine but by turn 90 the game will lag for a long time despite the next turn having started. The UI will behave very erratically during this time.

That's actually a gameplay feature. Simultaneous turns. It's mostly meant for multiplayer though, so they don' have to wait around for you to finish.

TjyvTompa posted:

Economic victory seems a bit easy to achieve. In my first game I suddenly got a message that an Unknown AI had achieved an economic victory. I decided to continue any way since it was just like turn 120. Around turn 250 I got the message that I had won a conquest victory, got the achievements and score screen and all. Not sure what a conquest victory entails, I had not conquered anything.

Economic Victory is way too easy right now, yes. Turning it off isn't the worst idea. Conquest Victory just means that you own like half the galaxy or something, regardless of how you obtain it.

Clarste fucked around with this message at 17:46 on May 22, 2017

Paper Kaiju
Dec 5, 2010

atomic breadth

TjyvTompa posted:

Not sure what a conquest victory entails, I had not conquered anything.


Conquest Victory just means that you have enough of the galaxy under your control. You can do this without ever fighting, if you can just claim enough systems without your empire revolting in expansion disapproval.

While we're on the subject of Victories, has anyone actually managed to win with a Science or Wonder victory? I just finished an Unfallen game, and I researched all four '... of the Endless' techs AND built all three Obelisks, without earning a victory. I checked the Victory display, and it confirmed that I had built 3 out of 3 Obelisks needed, but the Science Victory display was contradictory. It says 'Research all four victory technologies to win', but under that it says 'Progress: You have researched 4 out of 6 required Technologies of the Endless'. I couldn't find any additional Endless techs on the tree.

Eventually my alliance with the Lumeris triggered a shared Economic Victory, but then it ALSO said that we had a Wonder Victory. Does having a Alliance alter the victory requirements?

Clarste
Apr 15, 2013

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

An uncountable number, to be sure.
For the record, the simplest way to expand infinitely without happiness problems is to be a Religious Dictatorship, because they get a law that sets happiness to 50% regardless of all other modifiers.

Also yes, I've won with both Science and Wonder. Neither seemed bugged to me. Although that Alliance thing sounds plausible to me, if we can reproduce it.

Dartonus
Apr 1, 2011

It only gets worse from here on in...

Clarste posted:

For the record, the simplest way to expand infinitely without happiness problems is to be a Religious Dictatorship, because they get a law that sets happiness to 50% regardless of all other modifiers.

At least in my experience, conquering systems with this law active leaves them in "mutinous" status indefinitely (as opposed to "content" for 50% happiness). They may very well rebel as well, I did this with Cravers who don't get rebellions due to their special "Autocracy" government type. Thankfully, saving, quitting to title, and reloading is sufficient to put them into the "content" status, but it's still annoying.

Paper Kaiju
Dec 5, 2010

atomic breadth

Clarste posted:

For the record, the simplest way to expand infinitely without happiness problems is to be a Religious Dictatorship, because they get a law that sets happiness to 50% regardless of all other modifiers.

Also yes, I've won with both Science and Wonder. Neither seemed bugged to me. Although that Alliance thing sounds plausible to me, if we can reproduce it.

Okay, I just reloaded an autosave 5 turns before my victory, left the alliance, and immediately ended the turn. Next turn, I won with both Science and Wonder victories. So having a alliance must mean that both parties must contribute it in some fashion (Edit: I don't know about Wonder, but for Science they apparently must need 6 Endless techs between them). Which is kind of annoying, because it seems near impossible (at least on lower difficulties) for your ally to churn out enough Obelisks or Endless techs before the Economic Victory threshold is hit. If you're going to form an alliance, you apparently need to break it in order to win the game earlier if you're going for Science or Wonder.

Edit: As for Conquest, when I was playing Pacifist Unfallen, Approval was a non-issue for me, to the point where I was completely ignoring +Approval improvements. And considering how fast a full fleet of Vineships can claim systems, I imagine that they could push for an easy Conquest victory after the mid-game (assuming they don't get boxed in before then).

Paper Kaiju fucked around with this message at 18:17 on May 22, 2017

Clarste
Apr 15, 2013

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

An uncountable number, to be sure.
Pretty sure Cravers can still revolt, they just don't get the normal Dictatorship penalty of having them revolt at Unhappy (instead of Mutinous). I know this because they revolted in one of my games, overthrew their Autocracy, and installed a Militarist Democracy.

Yeowch!!! My Balls!!!
May 31, 2006

Clarste posted:

Pretty sure Cravers can still revolt, they just don't get the normal Dictatorship penalty of having them revolt at Unhappy (instead of Mutinous). I know this because they revolted in one of my games, overthrew their Autocracy, and installed a Militarist Democracy.

...weee hunger....
...for proportional representation....

Clarste
Apr 15, 2013

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

An uncountable number, to be sure.
...Okay, I just checked, that can't happen. I must've been thinking of some time in Early Access. They get huge FIDSI penalties, but don't actually revolt.

Avasculous
Aug 30, 2008

Paper Kaiju posted:

While we're on the subject of Victories, has anyone actually managed to win with a Science or Wonder victory? I just finished an Unfallen game, and I researched all four '... of the Endless' techs AND built all three Obelisks, without earning a victory. I checked the Victory display, and it confirmed that I had built 3 out of 3 Obelisks needed, but the Science Victory display was contradictory. It says 'Research all four victory technologies to win', but under that it says 'Progress: You have researched 4 out of 6 required Technologies of the Endless'. I couldn't find any additional Endless techs on the tree.

Eventually my alliance with the Lumeris triggered a shared Economic Victory, but then it ALSO said that we had a Wonder Victory. Does having a Alliance alter the victory requirements?

Yes, both. And yes, your alliance theory is correct.

I ran into exactly the problem you describe with the wonder victory- built all 3 obelisks, didn't get a victory screen for 3-4 turns.

I terminated my alliance and got the victory screen on end turn.

My guess is that for Science and Wonder, all members of the alliance have to satisfy the victory condition in order to get a shared win. It sort of makes sense as a balance measure for the Wonder victory- because otherwise you could pool the Strategics/Dust of multiple players to build 3 Obelisks really early.

It doesn't make any sense for the Science victory though, since you can't 'pool' science.

toasterwarrior
Nov 11, 2011
Dunno if my interpretation of the wording is correct but since the game states that Dust inflation is governed by the amount of Dust everyone in the galaxy makes in total, it implies that everyone is affected by the same rate of inflation regardless of how much Dust they make.

Which means the hilariously broken trade mechanic is also the most brutal economic warfare simulator as your maxed out trade companies generate a million Dust every turn, driving the galaxy inflation rate to some ridiculous poo poo like 256x and ensuring that the other factions won't be able to rush-buy poo poo or buy meaningful amounts of resources on the markets...

toasterwarrior fucked around with this message at 21:10 on May 22, 2017

NmareBfly
Jul 16, 2004

I posted my food for USPOL Thanksgiving!


I hope they can whack through the wide variety of bugs in this thing because as a relatively inefficient and easily satisfied 4X player some of the aesthetic and UI stuff in this game makes me want to never play another 4X. It's all just so drat slick and seamless even if I don't understand the utility of half the things I'm doing or where I'm going in the tech tree.

Someone earlier got this one and I did too -- playing Riftborn, got a random event where another race plopped down a pop unit and it over-wrote the one I had building an outpost. Whoops. Rolled back the save by one turn and it didn't happen again. :shrug:

I really like the Riftborn but they don't work quite as well thematically with some of the random event quests you get. They feel like they should be distinct enough that they get some entirely different strings and flavor text but that'd be a whole pile of effort I suppose. The main quest is great, I just mean the random one-offs.

I also want to take a moment to praise the soundtrack. Top two tracks IMO:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeGv-QtHyaA

or

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fM0JHl_EZJ8

Clarste
Apr 15, 2013

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

An uncountable number, to be sure.
The Riftborn became much more satisfying to me once I realized that building a Riftborn pop was usually a far more efficient use of production than an improvement or a ship. Although frankly I think their time bubble gimmick is kind of... boring? Annoying? It just feels like busywork, and I can't really imagine a situation where I'd want anything other than +25% FIDS on all my best colonies filled with super-pops. I kind wish that instead they'd gone all in on the reverse terraforming theme and been able to purge their planets of all life or something (something like Harmony in ES1).

Avasculous
Aug 30, 2008

NmareBfly posted:

I really like the Riftborn but they don't work quite as well thematically with some of the random event quests you get. They feel like they should be distinct enough that they get some entirely different strings and flavor text but that'd be a whole pile of effort I suppose. The main quest is great, I just mean the random one-offs.

If you're doing the Riftborn main quest, whatever you do, don't take the Ecology option for the last step.

It requires you to get 4 systems to 30% Ecologist. Note that this is not the Senate seats, which are easy to force with Lobbying or by just going Dictatorship. The quest wants the actual popular support to hit 30% in 4 systems.

Good loving luck. Riftborn get 1/2 influence from Ecology events, 1x-2x from everything else, don't grow food (+ecology), and have probably mainly colonized Sterile worlds (so no one else is growing much food either).

After 80 turns of researching every Ecology tech left on the tree one after another, building every +ecology building I could, passing 4 ecology laws (+ food), and finally spamming about 50 colony ships in a row in each system, I couldn't get Ecologist support in any system above rock bottom.

The Industrialist option, by comparison, is something like: Colonize 4 worlds with Antimatter and 2 worlds with Adamantium.

Clarste
Apr 15, 2013

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

An uncountable number, to be sure.
I got stuck on the same quest. I even tried gong Dictatorship so I could spread Ecologist propaganda, but then everyone just revolted.

Given that the goal is specifically four systems though, and not 30% of empire in general, I think the only way you could possibly do it would be to create flesh-ghettos out of Ecologist minor factions. Which sounds... incredibly tiresome unless you specifically plan this out from the very beginning of the game. On the other hand, it's simple enough to assimilate a minor faction system and then simply never build a Riftborn there. It feels bad not to use your mega-dudes, but it's not difficult.

Avasculous
Aug 30, 2008

Clarste posted:

The Riftborn became much more satisfying to me once I realized that building a Riftborn pop was usually a far more efficient use of production than an improvement or a ship. Although frankly I think their time bubble gimmick is kind of... boring? Annoying? It just feels like busywork, and I can't really imagine a situation where I'd want anything other than +25% FIDS on all my best colonies filled with super-pops. I kind wish that instead they'd gone all in on the reverse terraforming theme and been able to purge their planets of all life or something (something like Harmony in ES1).

I actually think the population gimmick is kind of boring, because it's such a no-brainer. As you said, they're outright better than a lot of improvements, so I found myself spamming population in every system for a lot of the time.

The +25% FIDS singularity definitely seems better than the negative starting one, and I agree that it's busywork to place- would be nice if you could automate refreshing it. I think where the choice might become interesting is because you can only have 3 up at a time, and the later ones are interesting:
-Expensive one that counts the top building in production as completed (not wonders, couple of other things). Not sure this beats +25% on a best system, but you can probably do some nifty things like use a big Industrial building to accelerate its own construction on a new system, and then spam pop way faster.
-Expensive one that I didn't try, lets you accelerate passing fleets and replay combats somehow?
-Insanely science-costly one (think like 1.5x the cost of Endless techs) that completely freezes a system for 10 turns- no production, nothing moves in or out, no hero reassignments. It's way too late to see having much impact, but if they notch that down I can see this being backbreaking.

Avasculous
Aug 30, 2008

Clarste posted:

Given that the goal is specifically four systems though, and not 30% of empire in general, I think the only way you could possibly do it would be to create flesh-ghettos out of Ecologist minor factions. Which sounds... incredibly tiresome unless you specifically plan this out from the very beginning of the game. On the other hand, it's simple enough to assimilate a minor faction system and then simply never build a Riftborn there. It feels bad not to use your mega-dudes, but it's not difficult.

Actually, I almost added the same thought to the end of my post. I didn't even try, because all of the Minor Factions I had at that point were similarly Industrial-minded. But as you said, it does sound really tiresome if you don't luck into it/have it set up way in advance.

NmareBfly
Jul 16, 2004

I posted my food for USPOL Thanksgiving!


I used a slowdown rift on an opponent's outpost system nearby, giving me time to build my own colony ship, slowboat over, then use the outpost improvement that steals food to build faster than him. It's a pretty dick move on their capital, too.

On quests, I think it would be neat if you didn't have to chose your resolution right off the bat and work towards it. What if all three options were always available, you just choose one once you've met the requirements for that particular branch?

toasterwarrior
Nov 11, 2011
Alright, some observations from my second test Empire run that may or may not be correct but whatever:

1) I think that missiles dominate because the combat engine models ship facing; for example, Empire ships usually have one topside hardpoint that turns into a 360-facing turret, while the rest of their weapon slots are built for broadsides. A railgun/laser on these slots will have a gun on each side, but since the engine has ships move parallel to each other like good old Age of Sail combat, you only get each broadside slot functioning at half its total potential. Missiles don't need proper facing, however, and the launcher on the "wrong" side gets to shoot too. Coupled with their good damage, that means missiles punch way harder than the other weapons even if they don't get to shoot as much.

2) I think that bigger ships are usually better than their fleet point equivalent in smaller ships, judging from some napkin math in the ship designer screen where I compared the attack/defense/health ratings of different ship classes. However, bigger ships having more utility slots that can equip projectile/energy damage boosters is what pushes them over the edge since having two boosters over one fudges the math somehow that bigger ships get much better efficiency for their damage boosts.

3) The problem with the above two points, however, is that I'm unsure of how battle phases and targeting work. Does a flotilla target one ship as a whole, or do they get to spread their attacks once the enemy ship has no more defensive ships? A big ship could very well insta-kill a smaller one, but if it only gets to target one ship per phase, does that mean its potential damage gets wasted? How bad is the missile's lower rate of attack in a pitched battle where phases get stretched out?

Clarste
Apr 15, 2013

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

An uncountable number, to be sure.

Avasculous posted:

I actually think the population gimmick is kind of boring, because it's such a no-brainer. As you said, they're outright better than a lot of improvements, so I found myself spamming population in every system for a lot of the time.

The +25% FIDS singularity definitely seems better than the negative starting one, and I agree that it's busywork to place- would be nice if you could automate refreshing it. I think where the choice might become interesting is because you can only have 3 up at a time, and the later ones are interesting:
-Expensive one that counts the top building in production as completed (not wonders, couple of other things). Not sure this beats +25% on a best system, but you can probably do some nifty things like use a big Industrial building to accelerate its own construction on a new system, and then spam pop way faster.
-Expensive one that I didn't try, lets you accelerate passing fleets and replay combats somehow?
-Insanely science-costly one (think like 1.5x the cost of Endless techs) that completely freezes a system for 10 turns- no production, nothing moves in or out, no hero reassignments. It's way too late to see having much impact, but if they notch that down I can see this being backbreaking.

Or:
  • Yes, you could do that... or you could just ship Riftborn pops from your main systems and get 25% more science and dust too. Since it doesn't work on Wonders, it strikes me as really bad.
  • Or you could get more dust, science, and production and win the game. I can't think of a situation where a single fancy maneuver like is worth the cost of falling behind on your general economic growth.
  • Assuming that your opponent has a system that's even remotely worth freezing, maybe? I mean I guess if someone else is building a Wonder Victory or something? Although given that you're the freaking Riftborn you probably could've already completed it yourself if you hadn't wasted all that time researching this instead of winning. ...You also lose the boost that would help you finish your Wonder 25% faster.

As for the pop gimmick, I'm a crazy person who actually liked the Sowers in the first game, so I dunno. I agree it's not really a choice in most cases, but it does affect the rhythm of their gameplay. You don't have to worry about wasting food by not colonizing an extra planet in time, for example. I like having total control of their population. As I said though, I just wish they'd had a more permanent terraforming gimmick instead of just constantly refreshing time bubbles. Make them even more about perfectly controlling their colonies, down to every detail. I think that fits their "pure order" theme better than time bubbles anyway.

Cease to Hope
Dec 12, 2011
there are a lot of interesting possibilities for ship combat micro with the high-tier bubbles, but I strongly suspect none of them are better than just using speed-up bubbles on your best systems to build more ships.

toasterwarrior
Nov 11, 2011
Ah, I remember now: the bigger ship classes have special attributes on their weapon mounts that further boost the weapon. IIRC the Empire carrier's topside turrets count as Heavy weapons; I assume that means they get damage boosts on top of all the other damage boosters you can put on that mean mother. That's why their damage ratings are much better than you'd expect.

Still, gotta find out if fewer ships don't waste shots against swarms of smaller ships.

ZypherIM
Nov 8, 2010

"I want to see what she's in love with."

So I don't think you're supposed to be able to build the unfallen "Center of Life and Light" more than once, but you can. I didn't quite notice until I had like 6 on one of my systems, haha.

Do spaceports do stuff besides let you send off populations to other places? It is a bit too micro-managing for me, at least for the unfallen I seem to keep a good growth anyways. Maybe the other races can use a giant food system and shipping people away better.

Clarste
Apr 15, 2013

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

An uncountable number, to be sure.
Spaceports are only for sending population, but you get them for free as a bonus for doing something you should be doing anyway.

Avasculous
Aug 30, 2008

Clarste posted:

Or:
  • Yes, you could do that... or you could just ship Riftborn pops from your main systems and get 25% more science and dust too. Since it doesn't work on Wonders, it strikes me as really bad.
  • Or you could get more dust, science, and production and win the game. I can't think of a situation where a single fancy maneuver like is worth the cost of falling behind on your general economic growth.
  • Assuming that your opponent has a system that's even remotely worth freezing, maybe? I mean I guess if someone else is building a Wonder Victory or something? Although given that you're the freaking Riftborn you probably could've already completed it yourself if you hadn't wasted all that time researching this instead of winning. ...You also lose the boost that would help you finish your Wonder 25% faster.

As for the pop gimmick, I'm a crazy person who actually liked the Sowers in the first game, so I dunno. I agree it's not really a choice in most cases, but it does affect the rhythm of their gameplay. You don't have to worry about wasting food by not colonizing an extra planet in time, for example. I like having total control of their population. As I said though, I just wish they'd had a more permanent terraforming gimmick instead of just constantly refreshing time bubbles. Make them even more about perfectly controlling their colonies, down to every detail. I think that fits their "pure order" theme better than time bubbles anyway.

Well fine! With your valid points and dislike for highly situational gimmick plays.

I'm going to do a playthrough where I just race to the freezing singularity and see if it's as potent as I think. Being able to shut an opponent's fleet out of the game for 10 turns at a time at any distance, in a way that can't be countered, repeatably, seems like it would make it really hard to lose a war.

I agree that no amount of usefulness can make up for the fact that you can probably literally complete a wonder victory before having that tech however.

Onean
Feb 11, 2010

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

toasterwarrior posted:

3) The problem with the above two points, however, is that I'm unsure of how battle phases and targeting work. Does a flotilla target one ship as a whole, or do they get to spread their attacks once the enemy ship has no more defensive ships? A big ship could very well insta-kill a smaller one, but if it only gets to target one ship per phase, does that mean its potential damage gets wasted? How bad is the missile's lower rate of attack in a pitched battle where phases get stretched out?

Tooltips! You're almost there based off the rest of your post, but there's a couple you apparently haven't checked. The ship's role tooltip will tell you it's targeting priorities, and there's another one, the name I can't think of at the moment, that says things like Focused that explain how it targets within a flotilla.

As for your first point, I'm pretty sure weapons being split across two sides is entirely cosmetic and doesn't effect their damage. If you watch a battle and turn on Scan View it will show damage numbers if you want to double check for sure.

Dartonus
Apr 1, 2011

It only gets worse from here on in...

Clarste posted:

I kind wish that instead they'd gone all in on the reverse terraforming theme and been able to purge their planets of all life or something (something like Harmony in ES1).

Fingers crossed that they plan for Harmony to return, their absence is conspicuous in that two different things (The Pulsos and the Dust To Dust quest) call out that they're still out there somewhere, and I loved both their playstyle and flavor.

The Unlife Aquatic
Jun 17, 2009

Here in my car
I feel safest of all
I can lock all my doors
It's the only way to live
In cars

Dartonus posted:

Fingers crossed that they plan for Harmony to return, their absence is conspicuous in that two different things (The Pulsos and the Dust To Dust quest) call out that they're still out there somewhere, and I loved both their playstyle and flavor.

They're in the files, so I suspect they're going to show up in an expansion.

Clarste
Apr 15, 2013

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

An uncountable number, to be sure.
But they already used the Disharmony pun. I can't think of another one.

Dartonus
Apr 1, 2011

It only gets worse from here on in...

The Unlife Aquatic posted:

They're in the files, so I suspect they're going to show up in an expansion.

Which file? I know there's one file there that was carried over from ES1 (GalaxySettings or something?).

Mokinokaro
Sep 11, 2001

At the end of everything, hold onto anything



Fun Shoe
Sorry guys, I've been busy and neglecting the OP.

If you've got some nice guides/starter info and other things that you feel belong in there, please link them.

Cythereal
Nov 8, 2009

I love the potoo,
and the potoo loves you.
I'm wondering if the Harmony are being reserved for an expansion because their central gimmick of not using dust would have much more significant consequences in this game - among other things you'd have to ask if the Vodyani leeching would work on them at all, and they'd obviously have a very different relationship with the Academy who play a bigger role in this game.

Rocketpriest
Nov 28, 2006
Alias: Non-Demoninational Minister Capable of Sub-Atmospheric Flight
So this game was basically my entire weekend - 18 hours between Saturday morning and Sunday evening per steam. I'm trying to figure out what settings will give me big challenging space battles. It was pretty easy in ES1 to get a nice constant meatgrinder situation going where I could just watch big ships shoot eachother forever, but after the early game the enemy AI basically seems like they stop making anything but a token effort to create fleets. I've got one super aggressive Vodyani game going where I basically super lucked out with a starting system that easily became an industrial superpower, and three minor civs in VERY close proximity to leech off so I'm getting hundreds of essence per turn, but so far I've only needed to maintain one combat fleet because it seems like the AI players just aren't interested in building anything to fight me with. I've just ended up siegeing systems one by one with the garbage new ground combat.

There's an aside: Ground combat is poo poo. I am not a fan at all, and it being THE way to agressively take a system suuuuucks. I basically just have a fleet built as troop carriers, dump thousands of manpower in a system, pull it back to my nearest occupied system to spend two turns refilling it and repeat ad nauseum. :airquote: compelling gameplay :airquote:

I did kind of get a kick out of restarting as supposed manufacturing powerhouse race the United Empire, only to be stuck in a constellation that has essentially zero industrial possibilities at all, but tons of research-heavy systems, so I've basically just been exploring and pumping all my influence into minor civ systems to expand even faster and just buy peace at any cost because gently caress it, I can afford the influence. I didn't even bother researching any military ship types (even the first small ones) because gently caress it, if these other races won't even fight me when I declare war, what's the drat point?

Seriously though: constant space battles against decent opposition I don't roll over in 20 seconds, it's all I want, loving how do I get it?

CommissarMega
Nov 18, 2008

THUNDERDOME LOSER
Tired looking back a few pages, and I might have missed this: How do you capture that one ship for that first Craver story mission?

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Dartonus
Apr 1, 2011

It only gets worse from here on in...

CommissarMega posted:

Tired looking back a few pages, and I might have missed this: How do you capture that one ship for that first Craver story mission?

Just have a ship, probably one of your scouts, in the Defense mode when it enters a node. I always pick the capture option on that quest because getting that Medium ship that early lets you just roll over the minor factions in land invasions.

Note that it's fast - 11 or so movement iirc. You'll want to predict where it goes, not try to chase it down.

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