Question Thread.

[PDiFolco]

And now for something completely different [;)]: What are the system specs for the game ?
More precisely, will it run correctly on my old 2.4GHz Athlon, 2MB RAM and 128M 6600GT card ? [:'(]

[elmo3]

ORIGINAL: Tom_Holsinger

...Please be sure include "Eat 'em" as an occupation policy.

Soylent Green is people!

[Tom_Holsinger]

Elmo, one of my modded recreational buildings in Master of Orion 3 is:
 
Ithkul Recycling Facility - where deserving Ithkul are recycled.  Ithkul find it a useful source of spare parts, while non-Ithkul love to watch Ithkul get what's coming to 'em.

[elmo3]

[:D]

Edit - OT but MOO3 was a day 1 purchase for me. What a disappointment. It was unplayable with all the bugs.

[SeanD]

- What level of support can we expect after release ? Seems to me, these days developers/publishers are keen to get the product out, sell as manny as possible (understandable of course) and then bring out a few patches, some hotfixes and leave the game as is ! Problem is, most games still have lot's of problems (graphical glitches, obvious bugs, etc...) and they do not get fixed ever ! What is your take on this ?
Their are developers/publishers who are not like that ( Ironclad, CDProjekt/Stardock... to name a few) and keep on supporting their game even after several years, will you do the same ? For me, this shows a dedication not only to your fans, but also to your own creation !

I am not the developer so I can't speak for them but I can say that we have received every indication that Ntronium intends on supporting their product to the fullest extent both by augmenting features and fixing any issues that arises. If you're worried that this is a fire and forget developer, rest assured.

- What is your vision for the future for Armada 2526 ? How do you see it grow ? Graphically ? AI wise ? Gameplay ? In other words, what will be your focus ?

I know there are a lot of ideas bouncing around at their studio - most of which are super exciting, but we're talking about fairly far out in terms of our development cycle. This isn't a question I think anybody is going to be ready to answer for a while (as the game isn't even available yet!) but when the time comes we'll be more than happy to shed some light on future plans.

[SeanD]

What are the system specs for the game ?

We're still in the process of hammering out exact system reqs. I'm not ready to say what they will be yet. I think you should be in good shape with your system, though.

[elmo3]

ORIGINAL: elmo3

Will there be a demo?  I plan to buy either way but a 50 or 100 turn demo would be nice.

Yes, I quoted myself. [:'(]

[Tom_Holsinger]

Sean, I have several follow-up political system questions, about modding it.
 
First, is there a negative factor involving popularity, or unrest, or whatever, for colonies newly acquired from other empires?  By "acquire" I mean an already existing colony of another empire is "acquired" by your empire following conquest, trade or gift, as opposed to an otherwise vacant world which is newly colonized by your own empire.  As an example, MOO3 hits newly acquired planets with about a -50 temporary modification to Unrest, and this goes down to zero over about 3-4 turns, to reflect the locals being upset by a change in rulers.  MOO2 had a variant of this - the populations of newly conquered worlds suffered about a -33% productivity modifier, and how fast this went away depended on what form of government the acquiring empire had.
 
Second, if there is such a negative factor for newly "acquired" colonies, can players mod it?
 
Third, is there a player-controlled "assimilation/occupation policy" as such for newly acquired planets, or are those only subject to whatever factors affect popularity, unrest & whatnot for all worlds in an empire?
 
Finally, if there is a player-controlled "assimilation/occupation policy" for newly acquired planets, may players mod it?

[SeanD]

Will there be a demo? I plan to buy either way but a 50 or 100 turn demo would be nice.

No plans for a demo at this point. This doesn't mean "no" but it does mean not for a while.

First, is there a negative factor involving popularity, or unrest, or whatever, for colonies newly acquired from other empires?

Yes, though I can't speak to exactly how this works I know that there are penalties with a foreign population's happiness/public order if you forcibly take them over.

Second, if there is such a negative factor for newly "acquired" colonies, can players mod it?

To be blunt, I don't know. I'm not an expert on the modding aspect. The devs will have to chime in on that.

Third, is there a player-controlled "assimilation/occupation policy" as such for newly acquired planets, or are those only subject to whatever factors affect popularity, unrest & whatnot for all worlds in an empire?

Finally, if there is a player-controlled "assimilation/occupation policy" for newly acquired planets, may players mod it?

Can you explain this a bit more? I don't know what you mean here.


One additional note: The devs are very busy getting this game together now for release (as is always the case before any release) so they have limited time to hit the forums and field your questions. I'm doing my best to answer any queries but don't feel that you're being ignored if every question I can't answer isn't addressed by the devs. The devs are hard at work trying to answer your questions by getting the game released!

[elmo3]

Thanks for your efforts in fielding all the questions Sean.

[Tom_Holsinger]

Sean, here's my followup.:

ORIGINAL: SeanD

First, is there a negative factor involving popularity, or unrest, or whatever, for colonies newly acquired from other empires?

Yes, though I can't speak to exactly how this works I know that there are penalties with a foreign population's happiness/public order if you forcibly take them over.

That's standard in these games. It would be surprising if Armada 2526 didn't have such a feature.

Second, if there is such a negative factor for newly "acquired" colonies, can players mod it?

To be blunt, I don't know. I'm not an expert on the modding aspect. The devs will have to chime in on that.

It's moddable in MOO3 - there is even a file labelled "Unrest.txt".

Third, is there a player-controlled "assimilation/occupation policy" as such for newly acquired planets, or are those only subject to whatever factors affect popularity, unrest & whatnot for all worlds in an empire?

Finally, if there is a player-controlled "assimilation/occupation policy" for newly acquired planets, may players mod it?

Can you explain this a bit more? I don't know what you mean here.

MOO3 has a feature called the "Oppressometer" which was originally intended to serve this purpose, but the release version made it effective only empire-wide rather than set for individual planets, and it affects only the success of enemy spies at the cost of increasing unrest on all worlds in your empire.

The original Oppressometer concept was that players could reduce the chances of revolts on worlds with unrest problems at the cost of productivity decreases, particuarly in research, and some races actually had a productivity boost with higher Oppressometer settings, which borrowed a concept from Gordon Dickson's Dorsai science-fiction series, where the fanatical religious "Friendly" worlds required Inquisitions to keep religious disputes from getting out of hand.

The MOO3 team considered having a major domestic political system but gave it up in favor of simplicity. Here I am wondering if Armada 2526 has any means, other than "buildings" constructed on individual planets, of directly affecting unrest on individual planets, as opposed to something done empire-wide as in MOO3.

[Erik Rutins]

Here's a small excerpt from the manual regarding system details that may help:

The four factors governing the overall condition of the population in a colony are happiness, popularity, public order, and security. Each factor is related in many ways to the others and when all four of these things reach a low enough threshold in a colony, rioting or even full on rebellion can flare up.

Happiness – Happiness is a major factor in determining the governing power’s popularity and a colony’s public order, which is ultimately how well the population will function from turn to turn. A colony’s happiness is largely contingent on the environment of the planet the colony is in. Colonies that are on inhospitable places like irradiated or barren planets are less happy
than colonies founded in more hospitable environments. As technology advances, the player will have opportunities to artificially enhance the environment on a plane through terraforming. This, in turn, will increase population happiness as terraforming changes a planet’s environment more to its population’s liking. Advances in technology can also harm happiness in the form of heavy industry and mining. Colonies that have a large amount of heavy industry or mines, particularly core mines, will become polluted which will reduce happiness even on hospitable planets. As colonies grow in size, overpopulation will increasingly become a factor in a colony’s happiness. As a colony’s population approaches 70% capacity and above overpopulation will begin to negatively affect happiness. This negative effect will become increasingly severe as the planet reaches 100% capacity at which point it will be very difficult to keep a population happy enough to be fully functional.

Popularity – Although similar to happiness, popularity is another distinct factor in determining a colony’s happiness public order. As one might expect, generally unhappy populations do not find their leaders particularly popular. However, popularity is calculated by a number of factors that are quite different from the factors that determine happiness. Perhaps the most important factor in determining popularity is whether the ruling power is the same race as its population. The population of vanquished colonies do not generally view their conquerors in a particularly positive light, so the ruling power in a newly won colony will have to be careful, especially when they first take control of the foreign colony. Tax rates are also a factor in determining popularity. Taxing colonies can become a stubborn enemy of popularity because colony populations apply a “memory factor” to their tax rate. If taxes are raised and kept high for a long time, naturally the ruling power’s popularity will decline as a result. However, quickly lowering taxes will not immediately solve the problem as a population will remain angry over the previously high tax rate for some time afterwards. A third important factor in determining popularity is the ruling power’s bureaucracy level. As a race’s empire grows in size (i.e. the number of planets they control), their bureaucracy grows with it. Large empires will find that their bureaucracy can become bloated in which case a ruling power’s popularity will suffer. As empires become massive, the bureaucracy factor will make maintaining huge numbers of colonies a difficult affair.

Security – Security is much like the last line of defence for public order in the event that a colony becomes deeply unhappy and its leadership egregiously unpopular. Given enough security, even an enraged and rambunctious colony can be kept orderly for a time. The degree to which security can affect public order is based on the amount of security forces present in the colony. Marines and tanks are a helpful presence to maintain public order, as are orbiting ships with high ground attack values. In addition, security centers can offer a cheap and quick way to increase security in foreign colonies where recruiting marines isn’t an option.

Public Order – Public order determines how well a colony functions on a daily basis. Unhappy colonies can still function at full efficiency as long as public order remains steady. However, if the ruling power’s popularity drops low enough and there isn’t enough security present, a colony’s public order will degrade. If the situation continues to deteriorate, the situation in a colony can worsen from general unrest, to rioting (which interferes with production and output at the colony), to full on rebellion where the controlling power is expelled from the colony altogether.

[Tom_Holsinger]

Thanks, Erik, that answers most of my questions.  My covert objective here was learning if I could mod an occupation policy to create my favorite one of "Eat 'em!"
 
Here are some followups:  Are the effects of security centers moddable?  Is it possible to mod something like a genocide policy to eliminate undesirable populations?  We created a MOO3 mod for that with a building which makes population growth a really significant negative number, as opposed to a minor positive number.

[elmo3]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

...As technology advances, the player will have opportunities to artificially enhance the environment on a planet through terraforming...

Popularity – Although similar to happiness, popularity is another distinct factor in determining a colony’s happiness and public order...

Fixed two minor typos above. Let me know if you need a proofreader. [;)]

[Iceman]

If the situation continues to deteriorate, the situation in a colony can worsen

Could be better phrased [;)]

[elmo3]

In GC II the AI is generally weak at forming fleets.  It sends ships in piecemeal instead of forming up first.  Can any testers comment on how the AI handles fleet formation and coordination of attacks in this game?

[Erik Rutins]

In my experience, when the AI intends to engage in battle, it brings a substantial force.

[elmo3]

Thanks Erik.

[Aurelian]

In TSR's Star Empire, there was a flow chart of events that I've always wanted to see in a 4X game. IIRC, you could influence it to a limited extent. I recall one series in which you went from decadence, in which resources were wasted, to stagnation, in which among other things research stagnated, to expansionism. In that one, you had to conquer a star system every budget period untill you were no longer expansionist,(you moved to another box on the flow chart.) If you failed, your government was overthrown by a military coup, followed by war against another empire.

Annals of Rome had another feature I liked. A leader would decide he wanted the throne. He and his army would then march on Rome. You could either oppose it, or get out of the way. Either way, the game went on.

I'd just like something more than just putting the galaxy under my flag.

[Rexor]

Here's a question: Can ships board each other in combat? I loved that about MOO2.