Matrix Games Forums

Last week I have been able to sneak in quite a few fixes and finetunings, even though officially being out of office, however upcoming week do really not count on me. Thats the bad news, good news is that from monday aug 28th i should be fully back in action and will call summer over-and-done with Will pick up all things from that point foreward. Cu you all soon. And once more... thanks for all the quick feedback and testing. Its literally priceless.

@Saurian
Fair point. Will consider some nudges, though I won't go as far as you suggest.

@Elver
I agree. It was already on my list. Its annoying and punishing not micro-managing.

Mechasaurian wrote: Fri Aug 18, 2023 1:40 pm the Quad Machine Gun (QMG).The infantry variant...

The Quad MGs is to me just a simple way of multiplying the defensive power of the standard MGs within a single unit: 500 MGs can now have as much as 4x the defensive attack power. As you say, they are simply better at doing the same 'job'...

I haven't ever tried to upgrade them, though.

Don_Kiyote wrote: Mon Aug 21, 2023 6:18 am As you say, they are simply better at doing the same 'job'...

Which is kind of boring. I'd rather QMGs fill their own special tactical niche than be "exactly like this other model but better in every way."

Don_Kiyote wrote: Mon Aug 21, 2023 6:18 am I haven't ever tried to upgrade them, though.

You can't upgrade them. That's kind of the problem.

With normal infantry and MGs, you can upgrade old models to newer standards. Let's say you have a standing army of infantry/MGs with Padded Envirosuits and Automatic Rifles.

If you've created a new MG model with Combat Armour and Gauss Machineguns, you don't need to completely replace them with scratch-built models - you can upgrade them in the field for much much cheaper than it would take to completely replace each soldier. This is not only convenient - it provides interesting judgement calls. Do you upgrade now to keep up with an opponent in the arms race or do you wait until later, saving your metal and IP for other tasks...thus potentially giving them an advantage while your units languish behind theirs in technology?

With QMGs, this is impossible. Once you've built a QMG, and it becomes obselete, you are stuck with it. You can scrap it, or shuffle it somewhere else, but you cannot upgrade it like you can other infantry models. If you want to keep up with the new technology you have no choice but to pony up the full price for scratch-built units. This is a hassle.

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Experienced several crashes upon saving, but not always repeatable.

I noticed its very difficult to destroy Militia Irregular Trucks, my troops keep missing most of the time. Good stuff otherwise.

It's still early feedback as I only played multiplayer and it's slow paced. I have to say that until now I really liked all the changes, the ammo factory, supply changes, extra IP from exposure with level 10 hazard forced to play differently, the mining rework etc. Lots of good ideas here.

Still fine-tuning all those recent big changes. Its getting more stable. But we'll need at least a few weeks more testing before even considering making this the new release version. New open beta coming up very soon now.

bump! Big patch

-Small Fix to Private Economy reopening closed/mothballed Assets when permitted again even if still food shortage (but enough pop to re-open said Asset and man future new agri asset)

Sweeeeet. I hope it works in games already in progress as i have 2 towns refusing to reopen vital assets, despite me pumping their population above required levels

The issue was that the Zone was waiting to be food independent before re-opening those Assets. It should re-open one every turn now.

-Increased the MoveRedux effect if Model is too heavy for its engine. Before -100% move redux resulted in Immobile, now this happens at -200%. Note that negative -100% means AP costs are doubled and -200% it is tripled.

It might be better if you rename that into a "AP cost surcharge" or something.
Because that is what it does: A +100% AP cost increase. Rather then a -100% penalty.

I agree!

bump! Subversion P.

Awesome updates Vic! It's nice hearing your behind the scenes thinking on these changes.

Looks like "Hard" and "Extreme" will definitely be more difficult going forward, but I really like the changes in Fate packs/points, chances for logistics upgrades, etc.

Thanks for the awesome game!

Whats the deal with artifacts anyway - i haven't gotten ANY in the last few games i've played. I feel like i'm using the wrong game options. What conditions need to be set for artifacts to appear?

Culture level was generally not very useful as well as qol other than just enough to build bureaucrat offices to the desired level. It's not a big deal to remove the fate benefit from increasing the level but it feels like it's something that could use a bit of love. I guess I can always hope it's something Republica will consider. Admin and tech are comparatively crucial.

mattpilot wrote: Fri Sep 01, 2023 2:25 pm Whats the deal with artifacts anyway - i haven't gotten ANY in the last few games i've played. I feel like i'm using the wrong game options. What conditions need to be set for artifacts to appear?

It can only appear in ruin hexes. Just like deposits, they are randomly seeded and you have to find them. How you find them, is either a small, random chance from having the hex in your border, I think it's a bit higher if you are mining the hex (you get no notification once found so you can easily miss that you are exploiting some without actually knowing it). The alternative is to play the archaeology stratagem which will reveal one hex one a successful roll... if there's one in the zone. It's a pretty cool stratagem for zones with several ruins hex as otherwise it can take a while to be revealed autimatically.

Also even once you found something most of the time it will give machines and high tech, artifacts are rarer.

Otherwise I think it's more changes going in the right direction. It wasn't uncommon for me to run my early energy economy on hex perks. 200 energy can be so much early game. Keep up the good work.

New 1.21p Changes (oops, corrected the version from o to p):
"Artifacts Nudges: *
-Less artifact sites in general on higher difficulty settings (from regular onwards. Or regular diff -40% sites)
-Portion of (very) rare artifact sites (of all artifact sites) is lower on higher difficulty settings (from regular onwards. On regular -50% occurrence Very Rare, -30% Rare, -20% Uncommon)
-Energy Lance from Uncommon to Common
-Grav Shield from Common to Rare
-Wasps from Rare to Common
-AntiGrav lifter from Uncommon to Common
-Assasin Droid from Very Rare to Uncommon
-Grav Collector from Uncommon to Rare
-Cloning Facility from Uncommon to Very Rare
-Aut.Clinic from Common to Uncommon
-Subterran Sensor from Common to Uncommon
-Subvocalizer Tower from Very Rare to Rare"

Nothing wrong with any of this per se...BUT -

Any faction fortunate enough to get something really great, such as the Cloning facility, now has a significant advantage that no other faction is likely to be able to match due to the rarity increase. Whereas before, everyone had a reasonable chance to get such a facility, or even more than one. Is this really the desired effect, a potentially lightning bolt game changer with no one else likely to duplicate it?

I would add that it would be nice to allow the gamer to set the occurrence probability of artifact sites during the game set-up. I would also add that in the last couple of betas the occurrence of artifacts has seemed a bit sparse. I did not realize how much I looked forward to discovering something, just from a fun perspective.

Thrake wrote: Fri Sep 01, 2023 2:44 pm

It can only appear in ruin hexes. Just like deposits, they are randomly seeded and you have to find them. How you find them, is either a small, random chance from having the hex in your border, I think it's a bit higher if you are mining the hex (you get no notification once found so you can easily miss that you are exploiting some without actually knowing it). The alternative is to play the archaeology stratagem which will reveal one hex one a successful roll... if there's one in the zone. It's a pretty cool stratagem for zones with several ruins hex as otherwise it can take a while to be revealed autimatically.

Also even once you found something most of the time it will give machines and high tech, artifacts are rarer.

Well.. i haven't gotten one in the last 5 games at least ... everytime i play that stratagem, it tells me they are quite certain there are no 'further' in my zones.

Hence i'm wondering if i'm choosing the wrong game settings..

Does the debug menu work for anyone else on 1.21p (after starting a new game)? I have userdebugger.txt set to true but it doesn't appear anymore.

Edit: Shows up when you enable testmode. I think previously it showed up on all singleplayer games when userdebugger was enabled, but I'm not sure.