Latest Update Plans

[madpainter]

IMO I really don't understand what the problem is with the AI getting peed off when my heavily armed "warship with cargospace" wants to stroll through their space. After all, they are looking after their assets, its a wonder that they allow my ships in at all.[:'(]
The only problem I had is that I didn't know it caused friction, now I know it does.....problem solved.

[Fishman]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

I'm glad I'm not in your merchant marine!

What are you talking about? Anyone would give their LEFT ARM to be in my merchant marine. We put the MARINE back in merchant marine! Why would you NOT want to be in my merchant marine? We'll give you a FREAKING BATTLECRUISER. It is NOT MY FAULT if you can't be bothered to keep it in good working order with the latest updates! Ask yourself: Do you want to fly for MY merchant marine, or one of those OTHER merchant marines, the ones who ships are constantly being EATEN because they don't have BIG FREAKING CANNONS and HUGE ENGINES?

So maybe I sound a bit callous, but that's because ANYONE WHO MANAGES TO DIE DESERVED IT.

[Engerya]

how about making the private trade ships neutral unless an Enemy empire declares a trade sanction or chooses to blockage a planet i think in times of bad relations we need the option of restricting raids to mining bases and singled out enemy military ships (if possible)

i would like to see more types of planets but more refined, Terran (continental, Marsh/Swamp, Jungle, Ocean), Ice (could also be a terran planet expericing an ice age), Barren (these planets are richest in resources due to low/no water, these types of planets could call for trading water with them), Toxic ( planets like Venus and neptune, their atmospheres contain heavy metals and acids), Volcanic, Gas, Habbital Gas giant(like Bespin from star wars in theory its possible to create a floating city/'s). i write all of the cause reducing the types of planets will make the game more of a race to see who can build the most colony ships the fastest.

[Erik Rutins]

Engerya,

You should add those suggestions to our wish list. [8D]

[taltamir]

has anyone tried armed colony ships? and change their AI from escape to engage?

[Malevolence]

ORIGINAL: taltamir

has anyone tried armed colony ships? and change their AI from escape to engage?

My colony ships are lightly armed, but have extensive shield/armor. I also make them FAST. I notice that many times it's a race as to whose colony ship gets to the planet/moon first. They don't engage per se, but they never run.

I have sometimes thought that the AI tracks my colony ships and tries to beat them to the planet on purpose.

[taltamir]

reason i asked is because colony ships will encounter a space bug or something, and then run away / get destroyed... i don't notice though because the galaxy is huge and i disabled warning about engagements (because i have several per second)... I or the AI end up sending more and more colony ships to said planet who all perish... i thought to try to make heavily armed colony ships and make the not run away... so they plough through... they might also actually reach the planet before being destroyed if fighting a superior enemy and just colonize it before dying. (I hope)

[JosEPhII]

I have started to arm all of my Colony ships. Especially when the Advisor constantly "suggests" Planet X345, were I've already lost 2 colony ships to Local Pirates! Or Moon BK37 were the Independent colony resides and the "local" Pirates have destroyed the last 3 attempts.

To watch the unarmed version trundle slowly towards the planet and all the while being pummeled by AI ships only to blow up is frustrating. So Yes I'm now arming/armouring/shielding/make go faster me colony ships.

JosEPh

[taltamir]

ORIGINAL: JosEPh_II

I have started to arm all of my Colony ships. Especially when the Advisor constantly "suggests" Planet X345, were I've already lost 2 colony ships to Local Pirates! Or Moon BK37 were the Independent colony resides and the "local" Pirates have destroyed the last 3 attempts.

To watch the unarmed version trundle slowly towards the planet and all the while being pummeled by AI ships only to blow up is frustrating. So Yes I'm now arming/armouring/shielding/make go faster me colony ships.

JosEPh

in those cases, its cheaper and easier to just pay the pirates for protection. when pirates start shooting on a colony ship i pause the game, pay them off while paused, order it to colonize again (since it switched to run away) and then unpause and watch as they blast anyone else trying to move in on my planet while letting me by

But yes, a lot of time you don't notice and that is just a PITA... plus i prefer killing pirates to paying them off

[jam3]

Please please please make the name changing on update stop in the ship designer. Easily the single most frustrating part of the game at the moment. Also make the number following the name dependant on the current number at the end of the string because for some reason it can jump from ms-1 to ms-5 for no apparent reason. Heck I will write the function for you in C++ or whatever language your using its that painful.

Also please put in an option to start from scratch no bases, no ships, and no tech. It is incredibly frustrating to have to reconfigure all your starting ship designs to whichever level of tech you randomly get. In other words the "save designs" feature is great but having to redo them because starting techs are different is a real pain.

Also a retrofit button on the ship screen that accepted single and multi-select would be really nice instead of having to put ships into a fleet just to give them the command, or go to them individually.

[Fishman]

ORIGINAL: taltamir

in those cases, its cheaper and easier to just pay the pirates for protection. when pirates start shooting on a colony ship i pause the game, pay them off while paused, order it to colonize again (since it switched to run away) and then unpause and watch as they blast anyone else trying to move in on my planet while letting me by

Just plating a colony ship in a few layers of armor is far cheaper than paying them off, as the price of paying them off is worth more than the colony ship is! Then you can watch as the pirate lasers ping ineffectually off the colony ship's armor plating, and the colony ship just ignores them and goes about its business. Maxos Blasters simply don't have the punch needed to penetrate Ultradense at any range, and cannot penetrate Reactive at anything other than point-blank.

[taltamir]

ORIGINAL: Fishman

ORIGINAL: taltamir

in those cases, its cheaper and easier to just pay the pirates for protection. when pirates start shooting on a colony ship i pause the game, pay them off while paused, order it to colonize again (since it switched to run away) and then unpause and watch as they blast anyone else trying to move in on my planet while letting me by

Just plating a colony ship in a few layers of armor is far cheaper than paying them off, as the price of paying them off is worth more than the colony ship is! Then you can watch as the pirate lasers ping ineffectually off the colony ship's armor plating, and the colony ship just ignores them and goes about its business. Maxos Blasters simply don't have the punch needed to penetrate Ultradense at any range, and cannot penetrate Reactive at anything other than point-blank.

But it costs more to plate EVERY colony ship, even those that don't need it.

And if I knew they were there I would have killed them before sending in the ship... About the only time ever that I run into pirates with colony ships is when I try to colonize a planet with ruins, the colony ship explores the ruins and discovers a pirate beacon... suddenly its surrounded by pirates. So I pause and pay them off rather... early payoffs are cheap, they cap at about 6000, but by then my colony ships are worth 12,000 each just for their advanced engines and reactor etc...
Besides which, i lose precious TIME... and there are hundreds of planets to colonize and colony ships only build at a certain rate... So yea, its totally worth it to pay them off with an insignificant amount of money to ensure I am the one who colonizes that planet with the ruins.

mmm... is the rate of building a ship related to its cost? would a 3000 credits ship take 1/4th the time as a 12,000 credit ship to build? if so it might be better to use non upgraded colony ships. I don't give a whiff about the price if it makes them faster (high amount of colonies established per second = win). But if it increases building time i might be better off with cheaper, slower, weaker ships.

[Okim]

Wanted to mention some recent bugs just to be sure they wont be forgotten.
 
1. bug with world annihilator crashing the game.
2. bug with AI constantly auto upgrading defensive station design even if automation is turned off.
3. graphical issues with world annihilator image not showing all of the lights (very minor, but annoying).
4. AI factions sometimes not removing military ships from your system if they are asked to do so. This situation commonly appears if you trade the whole system from that faction and they have some ships/fleets left there.
5. nuclear devastator obsoletes first torpedo and is obsoleted by other torpedoes.

[Fishman]

ORIGINAL: taltamir

But it costs more to plate EVERY colony ship, even those that don't need it.

What, like $100 a piece? I'd have to plate 50 colony ships to justify paying even $5000 to one pirate faction! And Kaltors don't take bribes. That armor is the difference between the colony ship being shredded and the colony ship managing to land with enough functional components remaining to establish the colony.

ORIGINAL: taltamir

Besides which, i lose precious TIME... and there are hundreds of planets to colonize and colony ships only build at a certain rate... So yea, its totally worth it to pay them off with an insignificant amount of money to ensure I am the one who colonizes that planet with the ruins.

Just as insignificant a cost to plate the colony ship with 2 or 3 armor plates, and it works better as a universal solution. And you get the clean satisfaction of not having supported anything reprehensible and odious, not to mention counterproductive to your long-term interests.

ORIGINAL: taltamir

mmm... is the rate of building a ship related to its cost? would a 3000 credits ship take 1/4th the time as a 12,000 credit ship to build?

No. The rate a ship builds is only loosely correlated to its cost. A ship's build time is more closely related to its size or number of components than to its cost. A ship that is expensive compared to one of comparable size and component count just means that it is being built using resources that, for one or more parties in the galaxy, are scarce, and therefore, the price of that resource is high. Of course, the person lacking that resource might not be YOU.

ORIGINAL: taltamir

if so it might be better to use non upgraded colony ships. I don't give a whiff about the price if it makes them faster (high amount of colonies established per second = win). But if it increases building time i might be better off with cheaper, slower, weaker ships.

Colony ships have this distressing habit of LIMPING to their destinations. Upon coming out of hyperspace, they will proceed to limp pitifully and slowly towards the destination. MUCH time is then wasted on this behavior, greatly increasing the likelyhood that they are shot down. Adding extra engines doesn't really cure the limping, but it helps because it makes the limp slightly faster. WHY ARE THEY NOT DRIVING FASTER? The ship is rated for a speed of 20! Why is it driving at a speed of 5?

[taltamir]

Colony ships have this distressing habit of LIMPING to their destinations. Upon coming out of hyperspace, they will proceed to limp pitifully and slowly towards the destination. MUCH time is then wasted on this behavior, greatly increasing the likelyhood that they are shot down. Adding extra engines doesn't really cure the limping, but it helps because it makes the limp slightly faster. WHY ARE THEY NOT DRIVING FASTER? The ship is rated for a speed of 20! Why is it driving at a speed of 5?

I noticed that and it seemed quite odd, maybe its supposed to be a "perspective" thing where they are going "into" the planet? but if so they should shrink, besides it makes absolutely not sense for them to do that since space is 3d and... yea its just confusing as to why they do so...
there is really no reason for them to limp to a planet when given a colonize command...
mmm... would giving them a "move to command" so that they move on top of the planet quickly, followed by a colonize command when they are already on top of it bypass the limping period?

Fishman, is 100$ worth of plating really enough?

[Fishman]

ORIGINAL: taltamir

Fishman, is 100$ worth of plating really enough?

The typical pirate weapon is a Maxos blaster. This weapon cannot penetrate even a single layer of UD at any range and can only barely damage Reactive armor at point-blank range. The colony ship only needs to survive long enough to land. So yeah, it's enough.

[Sliverine]

apparently why colony ships limp is maybe due to their poor rated acceleration? acceleration and top speed are kinda not the same...?

[Bloodly]

Colony ships have this distressing habit of LIMPING to their destinations. Upon coming out of hyperspace, they will proceed to limp pitifully and slowly towards the destination. MUCH time is then wasted on this behavior, greatly increasing the likelyhood that they are shot down. Adding extra engines doesn't really cure the limping, but it helps because it makes the limp slightly faster. WHY ARE THEY NOT DRIVING FASTER? The ship is rated for a speed of 20! Why is it driving at a speed of 5?

It's matching speed and course with the planet for the approach, sorta like a patrol or dock command-and planets move slow. At least, that is my belief. Why? God knows.

[Shark7]

ORIGINAL: Resan

Well a freighter isn't supposed to be a threat to anyone. And in no way to any base of any kind.

Not entirely, during World War 2 basically every nation had some form of 'Armed Merchant Cruiser'. These ships were nothing more than cargo ships that had hidden guns on them, usually a number of 6", 5" and 4.5" guns along with torpedo tubes and AAA mounts. They would fly under a neutral flag or no flag at all, then hoist their true colors only at the moment of attack (to stay within international laws of war), sinking or capturing enemy merchant ships. For all practical purposes, they were sanctioned privateers.

As to the effectiveness of these ships, the DKM Kormoran Armed Merchant Cruiser did actually manage to sink the Australian Light Cruiser HMAS Sydney in a gun battle off of Western Australia, basically Sydney left the area ablaze and was never heard from again. They did find where she sunk last summer...granted Kormoran itself was sunk in the battle as well, due to the fact that AMCs had no armor at all. While this is the extreme case, it does show the capabilities of the AMCs under good command.

[taltamir]

ORIGINAL: Bloodly

Colony ships have this distressing habit of LIMPING to their destinations. Upon coming out of hyperspace, they will proceed to limp pitifully and slowly towards the destination. MUCH time is then wasted on this behavior, greatly increasing the likelyhood that they are shot down. Adding extra engines doesn't really cure the limping, but it helps because it makes the limp slightly faster. WHY ARE THEY NOT DRIVING FASTER? The ship is rated for a speed of 20! Why is it driving at a speed of 5?

It's matching speed and course with the planet for the approach, sorta like a patrol or dock command-and planets move slow. At least, that is my belief. Why? God knows.

but it doesn't need to do so when its coming in to refuel, or ordered to just move to the planet. It would make more sense for it to move on top of the planet at its normal speed, then take a few "seconds" to colonize it (have a bar fill up) if it is intentional that colonization would take some time.