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That gimmick's also directly counterable with crystal hull plates
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Oct 4, 2019 16:21
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Gort posted:That gimmick's also directly counterable with crystal hull plates
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Oct 4, 2019 18:39
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Trip Report: I took out my collection of Mass Effect empires for a spin, trying my hand at the Rachni on Grand Admiral. Everything seemed to be going fairly well by 2275, I had established myself economically, put together a small 4K fleet and set up 6k Bastion Starholds at all points of entry. Surrounded by the Geth, the Elcor, the Krogan, and the Systems Alliance. I had a small First Contact War with the expansionary humans that I was able to draw to a slight victory and claimed a few more systems as well as an uncolonized planet. Unfortunately, as I was developing my border defenses into 14k Star Fortresses I was suddenly invaded by the Reaper Vanguard through an unexplored wormhole. They quickly knocked down the 6k Starhold that had been defending the wormhole, and about 10k of Reaper fleets began sweeping through the center of my empire. With no real choke point to hold them at, and my friendly Salarian, Asari and Hanar allies too distant to rapidly support me, my poor little bugs never had a chance to recover. After a feeble attempt to recover the border station was turned back, the Rachni surrendered and accepted domination and eventual destruction by the Reapers. And thus art imitates art.
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Oct 4, 2019 19:34
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Fhqwhgads posted:Is there a good tutorial or guide on how to build fleets, especially in the endgame? I've got apparently everything researched (my research options are just thing++ now) but my fleets that are Titans, Battleships, and Cruisers are capping out at like 85k power when I'm up against like 200k fleets. So I'm running multiple fleets together but that doesn't seem effective. Are you fighting Fallen Empires and Awakened Ascendancies? The FE ship classes have way more slots than the regular human/AI ones, so a same-hull FE fleet will be massively more powerful than a regular one, even before all their repeatable techs are factored in. Just bring more fleets.
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Oct 4, 2019 20:46
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Yes, it's like a lava lamp.
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All FE problems can be solved by throwing kinetic artillery at them.
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Oct 4, 2019 21:19
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scaterry posted:Huh, do you mind elaborating on this? Are these free resources present on every difficulty? How much do they get? I know that if you tag switch to AI-controlled countries, they almost always have an energy deficit despite having positive energy, and always wondered why. code:
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Oct 5, 2019 14:58
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Splicer posted:I knew I was forgetting something! A lot of resource producing buildings and districts have this little block: ... That doesn't seem right. I set the values to 1000 and it doesn't seem to change their income at all.
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Oct 5, 2019 16:51
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scaterry posted:... That doesn't seem right. I set the values to 1000 and it doesn't seem to change their income at all. e: Yeah I did the same, it doesn't do anything. That's annoying. Splicer fucked around with this message at 17:28 on Oct 5, 2019 |
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Oct 5, 2019 17:14
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Splicer posted:Weird. That seems to be the intent, but maybe it doesn't actually do anything. That's the beauty of it!
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Oct 5, 2019 18:55
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Here's a fun fact: did you know that the research option to get droids requires the Colonial Centralization tech (from society research)? For some reason? I knew this, but I forget it all the time, because there is absolutely no indicator in the game that this is the case. Seriously, why is this game's tech system so loving bad?
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Oct 8, 2019 23:05
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Fister Roboto posted:Here's a fun fact: did you know that the research option to get droids requires the Colonial Centralization tech (from society research)? For some reason? I knew this, but I forget it all the time, because there is absolutely no indicator in the game that this is the case. Because it wants to be Master Of Orion's system but missed the point.
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Oct 8, 2019 23:14
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edit: nvm I can't read
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Oct 9, 2019 01:37
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Fister Roboto posted:Here's a fun fact: did you know that the research option to get droids requires the Colonial Centralization tech (from society research)? For some reason? I knew this, but I forget it all the time, because there is absolutely no indicator in the game that this is the case. 800 hours in and I had no loving clue about this.
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Oct 9, 2019 11:46
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Taear posted:800 hours in and I had no loving clue about this. Yeah stuff like that is basically impossible to know unless you look up the tech tree out of game.
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Oct 9, 2019 12:02
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Staltran posted:Yeah stuff like that is basically impossible to know unless you look up the tech tree out of game. I guess I had done to a degree - like from before the game told you X technology follows Y technology explicitly - but I still had no idea about that connection.
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Oct 9, 2019 12:02
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They did add categories to tech so all the techs that are involved in robots have that robotics icon on them. But droids are tier 2 and the society tech doesn’t have a tier 2 icon or group associated with it so it doesn’t work.
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Oct 9, 2019 12:21
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I would download one of the ironman-compatible tech tree mods (example: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1234426616 ), and use that instead of trying to memorize the tech tree. My tech tree pet peeve is the strategic resource techs. Why are synthetic plants and "normal" plants separate techs? How do we know how to make synthetic versions of resources we can't extract normally?
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Oct 9, 2019 14:49
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In my head the synthetic plants are grinding up tonnes of generic minerals looking for trace amounts of gas. Which is dumb but makes me less annoyed.
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Oct 9, 2019 14:58
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scaterry posted:My tech tree pet peeve is the strategic resource techs. Why are synthetic plants and "normal" plants separate techs? How do we know how to make synthetic versions of resources we can't extract normally? This would open up a research option that doesnt go away for industrial applications of the strategic you just researched and identified, and it would be the same tech you use to extract it as well as make synthetics. They way it works right now is infuriating because in almost every game i play my economy grinds to a halt because I run out of building space to make more CG factories, and without Strategics I cannot upgrade.
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Oct 9, 2019 15:49
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Splicer posted:In my head the synthetic plants are grinding up tonnes of generic minerals looking for trace amounts of gas. Which is dumb but makes me less annoyed. Maybe like synthetic oil - crude cannot be refined to the specifications of synthetic oil, but the raw material can be used to create synthetic oil.
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Oct 9, 2019 16:03
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Stellaris pushed out a 2.4 version today with a new launcher and a bunch of different optimizations and rebalancing. Sounds great, but frankly I think the installation is busted, since I haven't been able to get the game working ever since updating. Even rolling back to 2.3.3 or the test_branch doesn't seem to be working. After loading the game, it just freezes at the main menu. Looks like folks on the Paradox forums are grappling with a variety of problems, and Jabor is trying to address the issues. Might want to hold off on updating. https://steamcommunity.com/games/281990/announcements/detail/1606021911894402171 Kaal fucked around with this message at 17:39 on Oct 9, 2019 |
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Oct 9, 2019 17:14
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Brokenness aside: * Defensive Platforms placed on Outposts now provide 2 points of Piracy Suppression for their system. Neat! * Shift+clicking on ship count in the Fleet Manager now adds ships up to the nearest unit of ten, using ctrl fills up to the template max size Double neat! * Bunch of caching and optimizations to planet job calculations Potentially huge
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Oct 9, 2019 18:09
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Kaal posted:Stellaris pushed out a 2.4 version today with a new launcher and a bunch of different optimizations and rebalancing. Sounds great, but frankly I think the installation is busted, since I haven't been able to get the game working ever since updating. They think they got it. Jamor @PDX posted:Everyone who couldn't launch: we've messed with some backend stuff, verify file integrity and try again. Sorry for the hassle. Moah @PDX posted:Should be fixed now.
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Oct 9, 2019 18:56
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ulmont posted:They think they got it. I'm glad to hear it. My issues still seem unresolved, but I was able to identify a workaround. Namely, the game apparently just won't refresh the screen when I have it in Fullscreen (though I get sounds and can alt-tab in and out and see it refresh). Switching it to Windowed mode via the new launcher seems to have let me use the game normally.
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Oct 9, 2019 19:03
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Every time a patch comes out I always skim the notes to see if they've fixed the cybernetic namechange bug that's been there since.. release? Nope.
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Oct 9, 2019 19:04
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I've got 2 empty consumer factory jobs but these pops don't want to work them for some reason. Great patch paradox 
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Oct 9, 2019 19:09
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I tried disabling all my mods (none of them affect gameplay), and favoriting the consumer goods jobs, but nope, my pops would rather be unemployed than work there. 
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Oct 9, 2019 19:16
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I see the first of the month and the first of the year have rolled around so there go my ideas. Try disabling and reenabling the factory?
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Oct 9, 2019 19:18
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Getting rid of tiles was a very ambitious and good movie and I applaud the team for doing that. The general idea of the system that replaced it was also good. The actual implementation and design of the new system is very... not good. It's yet another system that isn't that interesting to interact with as a player, while at the same time seemingly incredibly difficult to program an AI to handle. They are still struggling with the AI that assigns pops to jobs and have been struggling since the system was released and it's also very performance intensive. The AI and sectors still can't figure out how to develop planets, specially buildings, and without massive handouts and cheats the AI would quickly see their economies collapse. And all this stuff does nothing to make mid and late game management easier, which was one of their goals for the new system. If anything the game is much more micro-intensive. Has there ever been a game in history, specially a paradox game, where the ideology of "Well we have this very micro intensive mechanic that's fun when you're small, but when you grow big you can just turn on an AI that will handle it for you!" actually worked out and didn't result in people still being "forced" to micro-manage because the AI is so bad?
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Oct 9, 2019 19:18
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Yeah, I'm getting the same thing. Two "unemployed" artisan specialists who don't want to work in the consumer goods factory which employs... artisan specialists. They occasionally go back to work there as time rolls on, so it feels like there's one check that happens often that tells them to stop work, and then another check that happens infrequently that tells them to start again. I'm also playing on the default settings, with no mods, and with a new game started on the new patch, just to make sure. I saw some other weirdness where my technician workers were rearranging their order on the screen every day. Not switching from one job to another or anything, just moving which pop was furthest to the left each time. I think that quote:* Bunch of caching and optimizations to planet job calculations might have hosed things up Gort fucked around with this message at 19:22 on Oct 9, 2019 |
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Oct 9, 2019 19:19
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Baronjutter posted:Getting rid of tiles was a very ambitious and good movie and I applaud the team for doing that. IIRC the governors in SMAC weren't bad but it wouldn't break the game's back like you could as a player.
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Oct 9, 2019 19:21
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hobbesmaster posted:IIRC the governors in SMAC weren't bad but it wouldn't break the game's back like you could as a player. Yeah, if a system is simple enough it's easier to have an AI for it. Like putting a colony in Moo2 on autobuild won't cripple your economy. Maybe they won't implement the most perfect minmaxed build-order but there's not really a fail state, there's no harm a colony can cause. Very much like a city in civilization. Eventually you probably want all the buildings, there's just a fairly optimal order to build them. I never had any problem with say, Civ4's citizen-placement or building AI. You tell it to go balanced or to go science and it does. It doesn't mean it only focuses on science to the point of starving citizens. Or that it builds 20 science labs it can't staff or pay for (because that sort of trap option doesn't even exist). It's all simple enough to work. I really think "4X" games need to really re-think how much detail they need. Detail is great, detail is fun, but if that detail isn't actually making the game more fun and is crippling the AI and performance then maybe it's time to go back to the drawing board?
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Oct 9, 2019 19:43
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I've always been a fan of the "zoom" mechanic games like Predynastic Egypt use. You start off with ten people in your group, and you tell each one where to farm, whether they should build huts, if they should go hunting, what should they hunt for when they do. You gather resources, other people flock to your group. Then there's a zoom out. You've now got a village. You don't order individuals around, you order families around. You grow bigger, now we zoom out to a city, and there are other cities to deal with, and you're ordering armies and merchant caravans about. Another zoom out, and you're a nation. And so on. Basically the point is to keep decisions interesting. When you play Stellaris, there are interesting decisions to be made early on - which system do I survey first, what district do I build first, which blocker do I clear, what do I research first, do I neglect my fleet to expand faster and so on. However, these decisions get less and less impactful as the game goes on - my first district makes a much bigger difference to my game than my fiftieth district. Deciding to build a fourth corvette is a much bigger proportional change to the strength of my fleet than the decision between say, plasma guns and railguns I might make later on. To keep decisions interesting in Stellaris, you have to eliminate the small decisions. What district I build on my thirtieth planet is a tiny decision that's almost meaningless to my empire in general. The specialisation of an entire world is more interesting. Maybe once your empire is a certain size you can just designate a planet a "resource world" and it produces energy, minerals and food with no other input required from the player. Or a factory world, which eats resources and puts out consumer goods. There would be some modelling of the build-up of the planet so a world that's been around a long time makes more than a newly-colonised one, but the players input would be minimal. Your empire's too big to require you to micromanage every world, just tell the bureaucracy what the world needs to do and let them get on with it. Alternatively you could implement a similar idea in a different way. We already have "end-state" worlds like ecumenopolises and hive worlds, why not make those worlds require no management? They just take in immigration and put out resources. Maybe have a decision on other worlds, "Feed ecumenopolis" and then any unemployed or unhoused pops automatically make their way to the ecumenopolis. That way you can have your mega-built-up world and your feeder worlds, and worlds could get to a final state where you don't need to upgrade anything any more. Gort fucked around with this message at 20:50 on Oct 9, 2019 |
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Oct 9, 2019 20:13
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I've never actually seen that sort of concept implemented in a game. The closest I could think of was Spore which isn't a very good example. Will need to check out this game I've never heard of. But I'd love to see a 4X space game do something similar. Start out pre-warp where you're just micro-managing your homeworld and making choices that shape your initial starting conditions. Then zooming out into your local solar system and its initial exploration and colonization. Then when you've got a few systems colonized systems them selves become the smallest unit of management, with any planets, asteroid colonies and mine and all that abstracted into one more macro-scale interface. Heck, depending on the scope of the game management could then further be zoomed out into the sector level. So over the course of a game, "earth" could exist as the following as the game progressed: -Your home world you manage the individual continental regions of. Build a new research complex in europe, start a project to clean up the oceans, deal with unrest and poverty in Australia, address the housing and consumer goods shortage in the newly settled Antarctic. -A unified economic/interface entity with global level management rather than regional. Earth has 8 farming zones, what continent they are on doesn't matter anymore. -Earth is simply a size 16 terran world, giving 16 planetary sector slots along with some special bonuses to the pool of system-wide slots of the Sol system. Sol has 17 farming sectors, which are on earth, which are on Ganymede, it doesn't matter, it's all pooled. -Earth is a minor line-item you can only really take note of when you click to expand the "sector details" of the Core Sector and see how it contributes to Sol's contribution to the Sector. Baronjutter fucked around with this message at 20:32 on Oct 9, 2019 |
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Oct 9, 2019 20:18
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Just in general I think that's a major problem with paradox games, that there are just no good macromanagement options for the late game. Like in EU4, how you still have to control all your armies manually in the late game, when you have probably a hundred different units scattered across the globe, and none of them do anything at all unless you explicitly command them to.
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Oct 9, 2019 20:21
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Fister Roboto posted:I tried disabling all my mods (none of them affect gameplay), and favoriting the consumer goods jobs, but nope, my pops would rather be unemployed than work there. code:code:So it seems to be working as intended, except game start is perfectly configured to make it look like it's hosed something up. 
Splicer fucked around with this message at 20:44 on Oct 9, 2019 |
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Oct 9, 2019 20:41
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Baronjutter posted:I've never actually seen that sort of concept implemented in a game. The closest I could think of was Spore which isn't a very good example. Will need to check out this game I've never heard of. Yeah, Predynastic Egypt is pretty cool, it has a free demo, and it's £7, so it's fairly painless to get a feel for. It gave me flashbacks to being a kid playing Civ 1, so that much is good.
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Oct 9, 2019 20:53
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Splicer posted:So if you have <=500 minerals and >500 or more consumer goods your game goes AAAA MINERALS and turns off all your artisans. Which is pretty reasonable.. except the game starts you with 500 consumer goods and you have net positive consumer goods so it produces a set of consumer goods and then nopes out of producing any more until your minerals go up or your consumer goods goes down Huh, so I have to make sure I never drop below 500 minerals, or I have to never have more than 500 consumer goods. Interesting, gonna see if staying above 500 minerals fixes it for me. Edit: Yep, selling consumer goods so I had less than 500 and then letting the month roll over fixed it. Gonna go post your code all over the Paradox forums, Splicer. Gort fucked around with this message at 21:04 on Oct 9, 2019 |
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Oct 9, 2019 20:56
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That seems good? Deeply non-intuitive, but good.
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Oct 9, 2019 21:05
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PittTheElder posted:That seems good? Deeply non-intuitive, but good. No, it's bad. If I want my artisans to stop working I'll turn them off myself. It might be a decent rule for the AI to follow, but it's nonsense to turn off human empire jobs due to some fairly arbitrary criteria.
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Oct 9, 2019 21:18
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