Matrix Games Forums

solops wrote: Sat Jan 06, 2024 7:21 pm I am not a fan of having to build ammo factories. It is redundant. The old system worked fine.

Terrible!

/s

I guess you cant make everybody happy. I'm a huge fan of ammo factories, and not having to judge each and every single turn what to spend on replenishment. Maybe you'll come around I already have enough (interdependent) decisions to make in the course of a turn.

I recommend building them before building Basic Industry. Once built, your IP and Metal reserves will become much more stable.

any savefile from an AI that is starving without good reason would be welcome. please send it to vic@vrdesigns.net with some explanatory text about which AI and what please

Its possible this is confirmation bias, but i *feel* like major AIs struggle as of last couple of patches to handle / fully conquer minor AIs. I play mostly (almost exclusively) on volcanic planets with increased unit costs and what not. And i have a feeling that im seeing a pattern where AIs drive into minor AI's territory, physically overtake most, if not all of it, and then struggle to conquer the city hex itself. And its not for the lack of militay units, because when i attack them (or they attack me) they show up with light tanks and loads of infantry. Ive had games where i conquer 5-6 minors and snowball into oblivion before major AIs even finish up their first minor.

Note that this is complete opposite from about 6 months ago where i felt like major AIs were cheating because they would annex minor AIs in literally 2 or 3 turns.

Could there be some kind of issue with AI assigning priority to attack city hex or city attack having weird odds calculated? I could understand not attacking very early on, but once AI has 1 or 2 light tanks, you can beat minor city easily.

I have to dig up a save game when I get home but I lost last game and the ai wouldnt take my capital hex with only a shq on it.

Messed around in my current game. Whats happening is a compounding of issues all centered around food. The AI needs fuel for motorization so it makes biofuel. Biofuel requires food. Food is a very worker demanding resource so it takes workers. Massive worker pop requires food and more workers for food. Soldiers die and need replacements. Ai recruits just like us and takes from pop and workers. Problem telescopes.

vogt156 wrote: Thu Jan 18, 2024 3:57 pm Messed around in my current game. Whats happening is a compounding of issues all centered around food. The AI needs fuel for motorization so it makes biofuel. Biofuel requires food. Food is a very worker demanding resource so it takes workers. Massive worker pop requires food and more workers for food. Soldiers die and need replacements. Ai recruits just like us and takes from pop and workers. Problem telescopes.

This is in essence 70% of the reason why im able to beat AI in most of my games. Superior worker / food / industrial / fuel management and output. AI's put huge priority on putting out armor as fast as possible. As long as you can get a force composition that either counters or can just survive this early light tank rush, AI has virtually 0 chance to beat you.

If it curtailed its production of armor. Lets say, only a certain amount of fielded military personel can be mechanized-it would help. Of course, if it fielded more infantry it could still have problems from deaths but at the very least… it wouldnt have the issue of a voracious demand for fuel. Another solution would be to just give the AI free fuel and let the player deal with that disadvantage. (Or AI tanks dont use fuel but still create fuel points from logi)

I think AI should just have a balanced long term oriented development plan. So if you can sustain realistically say 500 fuel production, dont raise units that require 2500. Even if your stock is sufficient for several turns of over consumption, its still a terrible idea for AI in general.

As was said already, this isnt really a problem so much on planet with life, because there will usually be plenty of fuel around.

But when you play on scarcity resources planet the AI simply cannot manage fuel. They over consume by raising too many mechanized units, and then they cant make up with production because production of fuel is very tricky. You need lots of food which requires lots of labor and water to produce. Both of which are limited on low resource planets.

vogt156 wrote: Thu Jan 18, 2024 3:57 pm Messed around in my current game. Whats happening is a compounding of issues all centered around food. The AI needs fuel for motorization so it makes biofuel. Biofuel requires food. Food is a very worker demanding resource so it takes workers. Massive worker pop requires food and more workers for food. Soldiers die and need replacements. Ai recruits just like us and takes from pop and workers. Problem telescopes.

I highlighted the part that might be a core issue.
When making the Logistics and Economy design, did Vic include the fact that workers need food too as a upkeep resource?
Every building that needs worker, has a implicit Resource need via the workers - and then the workers needed to make food.

It might even be that farms produce too little, because they also have to feed their own workforce - which is substantial.

Here's a bug (maybe?) I've noticed -- my Democracy profile has been above 60 for 20 rounds now. I have the first level, Engaged Politicians. I have the third level, Open Politics. I don't have the second level Conflict Resolution, even though there's supposedly a 22% chance to acquire it each round. I've had a 22% chance for at least 10 rounds -- so something seems off about that percentage.

This isn't the first time I've noted such behavior -- in other profiles it will sometimes 'skip' the second level. It seems to happen most frequently after acquiring and then losing that second level. Presumably it will occur on higher levels as well, but I never seem to be able to maintain high profiles for that long. Edit: Three turns later, I received the second level.

Edit: And another mystery: A largely lifeless planet (proto-cellular microbial activity) , but somehow there's a couple Arachnids controlled zones? It's a Cereberus class planet, and nothing in the colonization or apocalypse logs indicate where they came from.

A 22% chance to get a profile is a 78% chance not to get it. Over the course of 10 turns it's 0.78^10 ~ 8% chance not to get it. Unlikely to happen in a singular game but likely to happen to a number of players among all SE games being played.

Thrake wrote: Sun Jan 21, 2024 8:37 pm A 22% chance to get a profile is a 78% chance not to get it. Over the course of 10 turns it's 0.78^10 ~ 8% chance not to get it. Unlikely to happen in a singular game but likely to happen to a number of players among all SE games being played.

I've maybe played 40 games, and have had it happen more than twice. Most of the time I notice it is when I'm really looking for that second card, so maybe it's something general and I only notice when I'm looking. Gut feeling is that it happens too frequently to be random chance.

bump! new patch. For gigantism lovers I added an experimental new Planet Class: Colossus Class

-If you switch to “Discovery Focus” you now loose 66% of your already accumulated Discovery Points. Was a bit of an exploit before.

I dont understand this .. ?

If you change the slider ?

Before the update, if you accumulated BP into the discovery task before activating the discovery focus you could evade the 66% malus. Now it doesn't matter when the focus is activated.

I guess i'm more confused about 'discovery focus' ... this a mechanic i've yet to find/use ? How do you 'activate' it?

Up until now i've only been dealing with the sliders...

mattpilot wrote: Tue Jan 23, 2024 6:16 pm I guess i'm more confused about 'discovery focus' ... this a mechanic i've yet to find/use ? How do you 'activate' it?

Up until now i've only been dealing with the sliders...

That one was added with the 1.21d release:

Added the feature “Discovery Focus”. Can be used by calling the Military, Applied or Economic
Council Director. Will focus the Discovery Task on a specific Tech Group. However keep in mind
that BPs spent while using Discovery Focus suffer -66% penalty due to forcing your inventors in a
certain direction and stifling their creativity. *

https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/view ... 7&t=396196

I was noodling around with the new Colossal planets and they are very cool. 5g.

One issue I found on planets cold enough to have snow is that the weather patterning on the surface is clear rectangles or vertical lines.

DasTactic wrote: Wed Jan 24, 2024 5:56 am I was noodling around with the new Colossal planets and they are very cool. 5g.

One issue I found on planets cold enough to have snow is that the weather patterning on the surface is clear rectangles or vertical lines.

Biggest issue I've found so far with high-G planets (3g) is that the AI tends not to develop an airforce, even though with enough development it is feasible.

I hadn't checked it out before but all the planets have random radii except for Moons. They are always the same.