Component display issue

[Spidey]

So I wonder what the best reactor for my pathfinder is. Seems like it is a fission reactor, doesn't it?

[Spidey]

So I guess using this reactor instead would not be an upgrade in every way imaginable?

Seriously, Matrix and Code Force, this game was not released yesterday. You've had a very reasonable amount of time to kick these kinds of silly little flaws out of the game. I hate to sound harsh but really, you can do better than this.

By the way, this kind of thing is what happens when you use tremendously curious mechanics to determine what should and should not be considered "latest" components instead of giving the user that choice. If I had a list of compoments where I could flag some of them obsolete as I went on in tech, much like we can with ship designs, then this would not be an issue. But instead we have had this dreadfully clunky user interface for years and it feels like you've done very little to improve it.

Again, I hate to sound harsh but you can do better. You really can. And I would be so happy if you at least tried.

[Siddham]

Which reactor did you research first?

I ask because they are both in the same column on the tech grid, and may be considered equivalent tech levels by the AI; which may therefore display whichever you researched last, as the latest.

Just a thought.

[mordachai]

Yeah, this aspect is annoying. Having no way to choose one over the other - no logic that I can find to justify its decisions, it just feels ... stupid.

[deciplex]

The energy output is a little higher in the fission-based design. 'Research Priority' in the Empire Settings screen can impact how the AI designs ships, and if you have Raw Power selected that may be prompting it to select the reactor with the higher output even if it's inferior in other ways. Some races have this selected by default. Try selecting Balanced or Energy Efficiency and see if you get different results. You will probably have to do the auto-upgrade from the design screen, or delete the current design, to prompt the AI to make a new design for you.

[Spidey]

The issue isn't AI design inefficiency, though. What you're seeing in those screenshots is what I see when I design ships manually.

While it is annoying that the AI auto-upgrade doesn't go from a size 22 reactor to a size 15 reactor with practically the same energy output and much better fuel efficiency, the thing that is really frustrating me is that the fusion reactor is actively hidden in the interface even though it is the best reactor equipment available.

[Spidey]

ORIGINAL: Siddham


Which reactor did you research first?

I ask because they are both in the same column on the tech grid, and may be considered equivalent tech levels by the AI; which may therefore display whichever you researched last, as the latest.

Just a thought.

Your explanation may well be correct, though I could swear that this doesn't happen when you have multiple warp drives at the same tech tier available. Anyway, I just managed to finish research on fusion reactors when a disassembled derelict gave me the fusion reactor boost. I would not have researched it otherwise.

[Siddham]

Yes, it did occur to me to wonder why one would research both reactors
The only reason I can see would be from a fuel availability perspective...maybe

What I find with most complex strategy games like DW is that one must learn the peculiarities of the AI
No matter how many patches there will likely always be weird anomalies like you point to here

[mordachai]

... I wonder if there isn't a glitch in the logic for "best component" when a tech is acquired through disassembly instead of through research?

Purely anecdotally: it feels like most of my frustrations with tech-choices (either shown to me, as in your example; or automatically chosen, as in some of the complaints I've posted), happen after acquiring a new tech or two through disassembly.

Perhaps there is a hook or event that fires for the one, but fails to fire for the other - a hook that reprioritizes "latest" or "best"?