New v1.0.5.7 Public Beta Now Available!

[martok]

Outstanding news; can't wait to check it out!

[WoodMan]

ORIGINAL: elliotg

ORIGINAL: WoodMan

Hey Erik, I think I just came across a bug in the new Beta, don't know if it existed before the Beta or not, but I've never noticed it before.

I'm playing as Human who have Better Spies +15% as a racial trait. I found a large independant colony of Ketarov and colonized it, adding Ketarov to my Empire. A popup came up saying Ketarov have joined our Empire and given us Better Spies +15%.

In the diplomacy screen now, my Empire has Better Spies +15% (from Ketarov)

The other +15% from my Humans is now gone it would seem, so I have +15% rather than the +30% that it should be. The Ketarov bonus seems to have overwritten my Human bonus instead of added to it.

Attatched is save file

http://www.fileden.com/files/2009/5/31/2462189//Better Spies Bug.zip

I'll take a look at that savegame. But I don't think that this is a bug: you accrue racial bonuses in accord with the amount of a race in your empire. When a race comprises 20% or more of the population in your empire, then you receive all of their bonuses. When the race is less than 20%, then you receive proportionally less bonus. So in this case you must have about 6% of your population as Ketarovs (30% of full 50% bonus = 15% (6% is 30% of 20%)). Racial bonuses are not cumulative - simply the highest bonus in an area is used.

Hey Elliot, I did not realise that bonuses are not cumulative from several races and instead the highest was used. So in this case it is not a bug, as the % of Ketarov in the population grows or shrinks so will the % I gain from their spies. Thx for clearing this up.

[Vanguard_DW]

I see you say you've improved the distant settings for empires in the next version so I hesitate to make this report, but I just wanted to check something closely related.

Starting a game with manual settings always seems to dump independent versions of a species near to an Empire version of the species, basically Human empire has human independents close by, Sluken empire
would have Slukens close by etc, whereas using auto generated empires mixes the independents up so as a Human I could be located near any of the other species independent versions, makes it a bit more interesting to not be sure who's going to be nearby.

I think the problem is (as I think you've sussed anyway), is that using manual settings puts all individual species close together, eg. I started a game last night, manual settings, 1400stars, all twenty empires as Ackdarians, and we were within 2-3 stars of each other (Independents not too far off), and the main system had 18 occupied Continental planets in it[:)]

[jalapen0]

ORIGINAL: elliotg




Please let us know of any specific items you'd like to see [:)]

How about being able to disable space creatures?

[Wenla]

ORIGINAL: jalapen0

ORIGINAL: elliotg




Please let us know of any specific items you'd like to see [:)]

How about being able to disable space creatures?

HEAR HEAR! I second that!

[Shark7]

The space monsters are part of the back story, however, the few setting still sees far too many of them. I'd like to reduce it even further so they only appear in areas that is back story related.

[jalapen0]

ORIGINAL: Shark7

The space monsters are part of the back story, however, the few setting still sees far too many of them. I'd like to reduce it even further so they only appear in areas that is back story related.

Fair enough. +1

So, instead of a "none" setting, how about a "minimal" setting? Or if the devs are feeling generous, both? A setting of none if you don't care about the story.

[Erik Rutins]

Hi tkobo,

ORIGINAL: tkobo
Any other place to download this,when trying to sign up for the "members club" it tells me my email is already in use,but when i enter the email and ask it for the password it tells me "no account exists" .........

No other place to get it, but we can fix this issue. Can you please put in a request with our Help Desk? We'll need the e-mail address you are signing up with so that our admin can investigate and fix the issue.


Regards,

- Erik

[drillerman]

YES!!!! Less monsters please, it's like being in a Galactic zoo!
Also, I'd like to be able to add more/different ships for pirates so they don't use the empires ships!!!!
Come on guys, MODDERS are people too, we demand equality!

[Igard]

There are quite a few things that would make the game nicer for modding:-

- Option to turn off galactic history (this would also have the effect of always placing a race on it's correct homeworld)
- Ability to change resource names and attributes
- Ability to change tech names and attributes
- Ability to add up to 20 ship families into the mod folder
- Ability to name each ship design specifically for each ship set (if I want to name the Galactic Empires cruiser as a Star Destroyer, then it could be set via the text file)

These would be very nice improvements for modding.[8D]

[Barleyman]

ORIGINAL: elliotg

ORIGINAL: hidden_asbestos
This. This is more like it ! Thanks very much for these fixes, and I hope to see more UI stuff soon! [:D]

Please let us know of any specific items you'd like to see [:)]

listboxes you can grab from the corner and resize? It's always been my pet hate when programs have listboxes that are basically HUGE (up to 100s of items) but you are stuck to keeping them 1/5th of the screen or even much less. Think tiny windows default dialog boxes here.. [:-]

[Shark7]

ORIGINAL: Igard

There are quite a few things that would make the game nicer for modding:-

- Option to turn off galactic history (this would also have the effect of always placing a race on it's correct homeworld)
- Ability to change resource names and attributes
- Ability to change tech names and attributes
- Ability to add up to 20 ship families into the mod folder
- Ability to name each ship design specifically for each ship set (if I want to name the Galactic Empires cruiser as a Star Destroyer, then it could be set via the text file)

These would be very nice improvements for modding.[8D]

Going to take issues with just a couple of things here, not because they go too far, but because they don't go far enough. [:D]

- Option to have more than 20 races, which leads to...
- Option to have 20 or more ship sets
- Option to define new techs
- Option to define new resources

In other words, no real cap on what a modder can do. We can add to in lieu of replacing in game items.

[Astax]

Thanks for fixing zooming issue. That one was a major problem for me. Also the asteroid issue you fixed seemed more like a feature to me!!

[Igard]

ORIGINAL: Shark7

Going to take issues with just a couple of things here, not because they go too far, but because they don't go far enough. [:D]

Quite right too, but I was thinking one thing at a time.[:D]

All those suggestions are a big +1 from me.

[mizkif]

I've been getting a pretty consistent bug in this version as well as the last. I didn't see it reported yet but I apologize if it was and I didn't notice it.

Any large ship (I think I was noticing it as small as 600 or so) has bugged speed. No matter how it is designed, when it is built it will come out as having either very low or negative maximum speed. They can still use their hyperdrive but they're pretty much useless.

This has been completely consistent across all of my games. I just downloaded the new patch and started a game specifically to test this out, designing a size 1495 capital ship with 173 Vortex Engines and a max speed of 212, yet it ended up with a -6 maximum speed.

Is this a bug or am I overlooking something?

[taltamir]

Note that there is a change to the new fleet behavior from 1.0.5.6, where refueling/gathering automatically kicked in. Now this behavior is opt-in, i.e. you have to specifically request it by selecting these new mission types (from the pop-up menu or by using the ALT key). See the Improved Fleet Operations notes below for more details.

I looked in the right click menu and I don't see it; as far as I can tell it doesn't exist. Also, auto-fueling is great, and should be an opt-out if anything, rather then opt-in.

The problem was with the need to assemble and refuel every single ship when you ordered an attack. And as far as I can tell, this has been completely resolved by a new feature found in the options>Empire that lets you set "Fleet Attack Settings" where you type a numerical percentage for "first refuel when this percentage of the fleet needs fuel" and "first assemble when this percentage of the fleet is dispersed". You can set it to be "just right", for you. Based on how patient you are.

[taltamir]

ORIGINAL: mizkif

I've been getting a pretty consistent bug in this version as well as the last. I didn't see it reported yet but I apologize if it was and I didn't notice it.

Any large ship (I think I was noticing it as small as 600 or so) has bugged speed. No matter how it is designed, when it is built it will come out as having either very low or negative maximum speed. They can still use their hyperdrive but they're pretty much useless.

This has been completely consistent across all of my games. I just downloaded the new patch and started a game specifically to test this out, designing a size 1495 capital ship with 173 Vortex Engines and a max speed of 212, yet it ended up with a -6 maximum speed.

Is this a bug or am I overlooking something?

Engines add thrust linearly, size reduces thrust geometrically. Adding engines will add less and less speed, up to the point where they reduce your speed with every engine needed. I think the game should automatically prevent it:
1. When a ship design is confirmed, excess life support and habitation should be automatically trimmed.
2. When a ship design is confirmed, excess engines (that reduce or at least does not increase) speed should automatically be trimmed.
So a 179 engine design should auto remove about 140 engines, or however many it takes to reach the point where an extra engine will not improve speed.

EDIT: It seems I was wrong on several counts:
1. I just added a bunch of engines to a design and I think it was around 150 engines that speed started going down (using the fastest engines).
2. there is indeed a new bug in 1.0.5.7 that makes ships MUCH slower than what their design claims... for example, I designed a capital ship to which I added engines until it had a speed of 60 according to the design menu. However, it travels at a speed of 0. I created a bug report here:
tm.asp?m=2512947&mpage=1&key=&#2512947

[Shark7]

ORIGINAL: taltamir

Note that there is a change to the new fleet behavior from 1.0.5.6, where refueling/gathering automatically kicked in. Now this behavior is opt-in, i.e. you have to specifically request it by selecting these new mission types (from the pop-up menu or by using the ALT key). See the Improved Fleet Operations notes below for more details.

I looked in the right click menu and I don't see it; as far as I can tell it doesn't exist. Also, auto-fueling is great, and should be an opt-out if anything, rather then opt-in.

The problem was with the need to assemble and refuel every single ship when you ordered an attack. And as far as I can tell, this has been completely resolved by a new feature found in the options>Empire that lets you set "Fleet Attack Settings" where you type a numerical percentage for "first refuel when this percentage of the fleet needs fuel" and "first assemble when this percentage of the fleet is dispersed". You can set it to be "just right", for you. Based on how patient you are.

Didn't even check that. I geenrally gather to a point and refuel manually before attacking anyway...with multiple fleets so I can hit several enemy planets at one time. So the auto-fuel and gather for attacking hasn't really been an issue for me anyway.

[taltamir]

on further inspection, it isn't a toggle via the right click menu of the ship. Rather, when you right ctrl+click a target your options are "attack" or "assemble and attack".
that is nice; gives just the right amount of control. For undefended defended planets which need to bet taken quickly I give the attack order, for well defended ones "assemble and attack".
I am honestly not sure which of the two should be the default.

btw. just to be clear, this is FLEET behavior, right? We wont have ships individually flying into battle with 0 fuel, right? Because a ship without fuel is useless in combat and just goes to its death. What it should do is independently go refueling. Not fly with the fleet into combat while it is out of fuel.

[WoodMan]

Hi Erik, Elliot & All,

I have a major gripe with the current build of DW, please don't take this the wrong way Elliot, it's a brilliant game, but I think you should sort out this problem either a)before making this beta patch official or b) make the next patch focus entirely on this problem, giving you the ability to launch your current patch and then focus on this big problem.

In both the Beta patches I have yet to be attacked at all.  In the last official patch I was attacked by AI fleets, in one game I was actually eradicated very early on by a huge Haakonish onslaught, and fought a desperate war against some Ikkuro and Attuk at the same time in another game, the Ikkuro attacked me at several locations at once and kept coming relentlessly, the Atuuk instead had one huge fleet I couldn't possibly defeat with my forces, it was all good fun.  But since the two Beta patches I have never been attacked except by pirates.

In my current game (can upload if you wish) the Ackdarian and Boskara have been at war for a long time, I think somewhere between 10 and 20 game years even.  In that time, the Military Strength of the Ackdarian has remained about the same, the Boskara lost around 200, then went back up to stronger than they started.  Neither Empire has gained or lost a colony.  So, I suspect the AI war behaviour is not acting correctly, how can two Empires remain at war so long without actually fighting each other?  This also benefits the Boskara because Ackdarian Democracy has very low tolerance for war weariness, so basically the Boskara are winning even though they are not fighting because of the Ackdarian colonies will be suffering war weariness.

How it should work:  An aggressive Empire such as the Boskara, with a large military power, should declare war on its weaker target, immediately it should send one or several fleets out to invade its enemy, once it has captured its target planets, if it has weakened its enemy military and still remains much more powerful it should "steamroller" onwards invading more colonies.  The weaker defender should be trying to negotiate a truce.  If the Boskara attack fails and they end up with a military power less than the Ackdarian, then the Boskara should try to negotiate a truce.  The Aggressiveness of a race should determine how likely they are to accept a truce.  So, it should be easier for the Boskara to get a truce from the Ackdarian than vice versa.

So, basically what I'm saying is that long wars with no casualties or territory changes on either side should go, and shorter wars with much bigger consequences should be implemented.  If an AI declares war it should actually take action, if its losing it should take action too, like desperately increasing its military and troops, negotiating a truce or bribing allies to fight the aggressor too.

Along the same lines:  In my current game the AI Empires seem to have become stagnant, they have not colonised any new planets for a long time and are all stuck at between 4 and 9 colonies.  I have recently gone into the diplomacy window and traded galaxy maps with the Ackdarians, this revealed that they had discovered 5 or 6 continental planets that they could have colonised.  Also, when in the trading window it appears that they have around 100000 credits in the bank (from clicking over and again on their money for trade until none is left), so why is an Empire with 5 or 6 continental planets in range, plus Ocean planets, and immense treasury, not expanding?  Their military power has stayed about the same too (even though they are in the above mentioned war), its almost like they lost the will to live or something [:D]

So, in summary what I'm saying is please, pretty please can you focus on making the AI more adept at running its Empire, both in peaceful expansion and in fighting wars [&o]