DW : Shadows - notes as an Empire in the Age of Shadows

[Spacecadet]

A look at the Troops & Characters tab in the Colony screen:





A newer Troop look, and a few more options:
- Garrison
- Ungarrison

Garrisoned troops are prevented from automatically being loaded onto ships.
This helps insure that you have Troops remain on planets you want Troop defense available.

[Spacecadet]

The Fleet Screen:






A bit of a different look and some more options [:)]

[Spacecadet]

It's been many years later, we've built ships, explored, and finally researched Warp Drives!

Let's take a look at what our Escort now looks like:





On left you'll see we're starting to get sources for the resources needed, but we still don't have them all covered.


These should be small quick ships, so we don't want too much on them.
Note that even with two Reactors, we're still not getting the full Speed capability from the Warp Bubble.

Remember the Energy Output and the Energy usage from above?
Here's one early hit.

Check out that Range!
You're reading that right . . . 0.18 Sectors.

[Spacecadet]

So, 0.18 Sectors . . . what does that mean?


Here's a look at what a nearly fully fueled Escort can do :





So you thought . . . now I've got Warp Drive, I can conquer the Galaxy?

Well, that Escort can't even reach the first Star and return, which is very close.

Remember my comment at the beginning regarding Galaxy map size and Star Density?

This is actually one of the better scenarios I've seen.
A lot of the time the Stars are not quite so close as in this case.

[Spacecadet]

How about the Constructor?

Warp capable Constructor design:





Now we're down to eight Fuel Cells as size/speed/resources are a bit of a concern.
We've got three Reactors now, but we're still not getting everything out of the Warp Bubble.
We even had to add Life Support and Habitat to support the extra components.

Eight Fuel Cells and our range is a whopping 0.67 Sectors!

Simply put, the Warp Bubble is an Energy Hog [:D]

[Spacecadet]

A look at a fully fueled Constructor's 0.67 Sector range looks like:





In this case we're lucky.
We can reach and return to a few Stars in the neighborhood.

The question is, do those Stars have resources, and if they do, are they the ones we need?

Big maps
Fewer Stars
Lower Habitability
Fewer key resources

Sounds pretty rough.


Oh yeah, there are these little annoyances called "Pirates".

These aren't just the little buzzing nuisance Pirates you've seen before in normal DW.
These Pirates start out with Warp Drives, and I'm not talking about Warp Bubbles.
These Pirates are competing with you and every other Empire for resources . . . critical resources.
These Pirates have Constructors . . . and they can use them on anything.
Anything . . . let that sink in for a minute or two . . . anything.

[ASHBERY76]

Personally I would like range to stay small even with later tech.An exploration ship in Legends could map most of the galaxy from the start.

[Spacecadet]

That's all I've got for now on pictures and a quickie preview.

I'll add some more notes as I remember them, here are a couple more:

- Mines and Bases can now Retrofit
- You'll see Mines and Bases storing a few extra resources, this is to help them in Retrofit events
- You can "Gift" items to other Empires/Pirates (ships, Mines, maybe even Planets)
- AI Empires are now much better at building out Research capacity
- Early game + Tractor Beams + Rail Guns = Death . . . watch out
- Gravity Weapon + no Defense against it = ouch
- Pirate Raids . . . think of the Moon raid in Return of the Jedi

[Spacecadet]

ORIGINAL: ASHBERY76

Personally I would like range to stay small even with later tech.An exploration ship in Legends could map most of the galaxy from the start.

Not gonna happen here.

I've had fifty plus years into a 15 x 15, 700 Star game, with 10 Explorers still going.

For one, it takes time to research the Techs to build your Range.
For another, you're going to lose some Explorers to Space Monsters and Pirates, especially if you have them set to scout enemy systems.

[ASHBERY76]

Later game economy.Is it still the zillion credits in the bank with nothing to spend it on bloat.

[Bingeling]

There have been changes to the economy, with some new drains added. Lots of structures have maintenance now, for instance.

From what I have seen, though, "mature" empires still usually got money. And trade values get inflated. There is a lot to test, though, and I have never ran a game for very long in beta, but I have had lots of automated ones running overnight to find crashes and odd issues.

If you up the difficulty enough, I doubt excessive amounts of money is an issue anytime real soon, though.

[shinobu]

ORIGINAL: Spacecadet

That's all I've got for now on pictures and a quickie preview.

I'll add some more notes as I remember them, here are a couple more:

- Mines and Bases can now Retrofit
- You'll see Mines and Bases storing a few extra resources, this is to help them in Retrofit events
- You can "Gift" items to other Empires/Pirates (ships, Mines, maybe even Planets)
- AI Empires are now much better at building out Research capacity
- Early game + Tractor Beams + Rail Guns = Death . . . watch out
- Gravity Weapon + no Defense against it = ouch
- Pirate Raids . . . think of the Moon raid in Return of the Jedi

Yes- yes- yes! Fantastic! Thanks for the info Spacecadet...

[scotten_usa]

Destroyed Pirates do not respawn? Awesome! [&o]

[Shark7]

ORIGINAL: ScottenChi

Destroyed Pirates do not respawn? Awesome! [&o]

It is a choice, so those of us that enjoy endless pirate raids can have them, while those that don't enjoy pirates so much can actually rid themselves of them.

Pirates are a real challenge in Shadows.

[shinobu]

Can Pirates create troops? Wouldn't you need a population (i.e.- planet) to be able to do that? Just wondering...

[Bingeling]

Pirates can own colonies, and have defending troops, so I guess they can do all kinds of stuff with them.
What I have noticed is that pirate colonies don't create a zone of control.

They don't start with colonies, though, nor am I sure what they need to do for full control.

[jpwrunyan]

ORIGINAL: Spacecadet
- Mines and Bases can now Retrofit

In what way do they retrofit? It's the colony itself that retrofitted space stations and orbitals (my understanding). So with what does the base retrofit? Does it require a constructor ship to come and do the actual work? Does it require freighters to come with the supplies needed (or components)? I hope so. Because just retrofitting "magically" would be lame.

[jpwrunyan]

ORIGINAL: shinobu

Can Pirates create troops? Wouldn't you need a population (i.e.- planet) to be able to do that? Just wondering...

My understanding is that there are now boarding parties that "spawn" over time in a component called "pods" which pirates can make because it just requires a space station that can make ships.

Real troops can only be made on a planet.

However, when pirates raid a planet, it is the boarding party troops who fight against the ground troops. Likewise, I *heard* (ahem, hearsay) that boarding parties are not effective against troop transports when raiding a ship because the ship is full of, well, space marines.

I have not played shadows. I have only watched Das' videos. So I invite corrections if I am wrong.

[Spacecadet]

ORIGINAL: jpwrunyan

ORIGINAL: Spacecadet
- Mines and Bases can now Retrofit

In what way do they retrofit? It's the colony itself that retrofitted space stations and orbitals (my understanding). So with what does the base retrofit? Does it require a constructor ship to come and do the actual work? Does it require freighters to come with the supplies needed (or components)? I hope so. Because just retrofitting "magically" would be lame.

The line after "Mines and Bases can now Retrofit", "You'll see Mines and Bases storing a few extra resources, this is to help them in Retrofit events"

Depending on your Policy and design settings, the Mines/Bases will Retrofit when you complete research on a more advanced Tech that applies to them.

Once you build a Mine/Base, your Freighters will move a set amount of resources to each Mine/Base in order to be prepared for a Retrofit.

You'll find that your Freighters are much more active in Shadows, and the supply line is much improved.
I think there were actually more issue with the supply system than anyone knew, but it didn't really show up until the enhancements from Shadows [;)]

We're still testing/tweaking, and will be until well after the release - we (Testers) want this to be as good as you do [:)]

[Spacecadet]

ORIGINAL: jpwrunyan

ORIGINAL: shinobu

Can Pirates create troops? Wouldn't you need a population (i.e.- planet) to be able to do that? Just wondering...

My understanding is that there are now boarding parties that "spawn" over time in a component called "pods" which pirates can make because it just requires a space station that can make ships.

Real troops can only be made on a planet.

However, when pirates raid a planet, it is the boarding party troops who fight against the ground troops. Likewise, I *heard* (ahem, hearsay) that boarding parties are not effective against troop transports when raiding a ship because the ship is full of, well, space marines.

I have not played shadows. I have only watched Das' videos. So I invite corrections if I am wrong.

Not having played as Pirates myself, but having been on the receiving end, Pirate Raiders have a fair chance of succeeding even when they are out numbered (thus my reference to the Moon raid in Return of the Jedi).

As for Assault Pods, I think anyone can build/equip them once the research is complete (and there are multiple levels for this).
This is where you'll see my earlier reference to Boarding Defense equaling Habitat + Assault Pods.

Very early in the testing process, I lost a planet to a Pirate faction, which as you can imagine, totally shocked me.
I'm not sure where this stands now, as once burned, I've become much more defensive minded [:D]


This reminds of another piece of advice I should give to first time players.
I've played a lot of DW over the years (several dozen games just in Shadows testing), and for Shadows, playing in the Age of Shadows I've definitely had to change my play style.

I used to expand/Colonize like crazy.
I'm not saying you can't still do that, I just don't advise it with Pirates in the equation.

Maybe I got a little jaded, because initially the Pirates were just absolutely brutal (think multiple Shakturi Empires) . . . or course it didn't help that I was playing with some "minimized" settings which I've mentioned earlier on.
Quick expansion may still work to a degree, but with Pirates competing for the very thing you are (they're basically additional Empires without restraint), you may just find yourself losing planets to those Empires.


Of the expansions, Shakturi is my favorite, and Shadows is definitely a close second.