ORIGINAL: Vic
Posted subversion 15 just before the end of the year. Sorry for my absence but there were some seasonal activities
Happy new year everyone!
Best wishes,
Vic
Well, that's understandable. Thanks for coming back before new years!
ORIGINAL: Vic
Oh... and on the Combined Beam weapon... well.... it is really the end of the line of the technology that started with lasers and it is very bulky and heavy. But weight does not play a role in combat, at best in mobility. It has its uses especially when facing large amounts of lower tech enemies. Also it consumes less Energy than Plasma weapons.
Combined Beam is currently only available on Turrets and Monitors though, something (like the Tacnuke suggestions) that could really use a change.
I played 2 different games now and it does appear that minor AI's are much better at protecting capital; i did see a couple of extremely fast major take overs of minors, but i dont have any idea what happened there (im talking like major snatching a minor within a couple of turns).
Couple points regarding design:
-It is still incredible easy, overall, to beat minors and annex their cities. This allows players to snowball extremely fast. I personally find it very unenjoyable to watch majors go from 1 zone to 10 extremely fast within only a few dozen turns.
-I dont know for sure whether this is true, but it seems to me like minor raiders and slavers react to human player differently to how they react to major AI. With human player, if you border a raider or a slaver regime, they will push into your territory and keep pushing as long as they possibly can, until you establish relations or block them physically. This does not happen to major AIs. And this kinda sucks because it allows Major AIs to focus their army onto blobbing (send everything toward 1 single minor and focus defeat them) until there are no more minors with cities that can be annexed. Meanwhile i am forced to essentially wipe out any slaver or raider faction i run into because if i leave that border open without units blocking movement, they will push all the way to my capital and declare war on me. What this does in practically every single game without mistake is major AI's blobbing like there is no tomorrow, and when you factor in the fact that they can web roads across the map at 0 industrial cost (something i cant do) it starts to feel fairly bad as its obvious im playing against the AI with completely different rules (something i personally dont find enjoyable and would even go as far as to say that i absolutely hate). I would suggest adding some sort of counter blobbing mechanic that persists on map even after land is conquered, something that would force major AI's to both slow down their expansion and garrison their land with units. Wildlife does this somewhat, but as soon as its wiped out, the land is basically 100% secure until another major walks over it. If wildlife was to respawn, or there were some events spawning things, it would get far more interesting.
-Today for the very first time i have encountered a farmers minor regime that was completely passive toward me. I did not push into their territory, i merely touched on it, and they didnt send any units to walk into my territory - i have never seen this before. Farmers used to react like slavers/raiders, and would be hyper aggressive. I dont know if this is a bug or a feature, but i like it.
-The event that allows you to talk to an AI core or whatever it was, the one where you have like 3 different options, it spawned a AI revolt with 2 walkers; One of those walker stacks acted sensibly and went all over my land in a predictable way. But the other walker AI unit weirded out. Instead of trying to snatch my land and be a nuisance, they instead walked into that passive farmer minor regime, cut their land in half, and it seems like they fought it out, because AI walker stack was wiped out. I have never seen this before either, and i assume this is new behavior. I find it strange that an revolt thats supposed to punish my country would just walk off into another regime.
Suggestions:
-Would it be possible to expand a little bit on regime archetypes? Its kinda boring when you happen to border 2 farmers minors and they are essentially the very same thing, same units, if you beat one, beating the other one will be the exact same experience. Maybe increase their unit diversity a little bit etc?
-I would like to argue that minor regimes (especially the ones with sizeable cities) should be buffed, significantly. Once you understand the basics of how the game works, it is incredibly easy to defeat them, i have done so with just militia units many times (and im not even talking about abusing the no garrison city bug). The main reason why im suggesting this is because it seems like major AI's are just steamrolling them within a couple of turns, leading to snowball of power effect in every single game, which means that every game is essentially the same. AI blobs all over the map. AI attacks you. Fight off hordes of AI trash units. Fun first half a dozen times, but gets old real fast.
-I would like a world generation option that disables guaranteed metal deposit for everyone. I find that this thing is the main reason for ridiculous amounts of blobbing. Regimes shouldnt be set up for full economic and industrial explosion from turn one.
-Same thing with having more powerful minor regimes, an option to turn that on/off would be awesome. I personally would prefer worlds that develop more slowly, as opposed to majors walking over 70% of the map within 100 turns. Especially because this behavior is 100% only possible because AI cheats with free roads.
In the Applied Engineering tech area, Propeller Engine Efficiency is still spelled "Proppeler"
Additionally, Mining Techniques is the sole linear tech that is not either Applied or Airforce council - I can't imagine that it and it alone is meant to be Economic Council.
Posted open beta v1.07... it concerns some minor fixes. Hopefully this is going to be the next official version.
I am focussing a little bit less on minor bug fixing (but will not postpone fixing game breaking bugs/crashes of course) the coming weeks since I want to get some new features in for v1.08 (feb).
You might see the first new feature "Scrap Stratagems" within 1-2 weeks in the open beta.
Best wishes,
Vic
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Posted open beta v1.07... it concerns some minor fixes. Hopefully this is going to be the next official version.
I am focussing a little bit less on minor bug fixing (but will not postpone fixing game breaking bugs/crashes of course) the coming weeks since I want to get some new features in for v1.08 (feb).
You might see the first new feature "Scrap Stratagems" within 1-2 weeks in the open beta.
Best wishes,
Vic
Any chance you can take a look at some of the balance issues this game has, such as laser rifles being too good (https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=4936051) or missiles being too overpowered as there is no defense against strategic bombardment (something like an anti-missile laser unit could work)?
Gonna second Arakorn here, the game needs a thorough balance pass across a lot of different features. Right now probably about half of all strategems, feats, government types, unit types (mech arty, jetpacks!) and a bunch of other stuff are just unequivocally worse than their alternatives so will never be used if a player has any idea what they are doing. This is without even getting into the laser and strategic warfare balance issues.
Just adding weight to the consensus above, even if the game has many balance issues, a quick fix to laser rifles and something to deal with strategic warfare would greatly improve balance without having to do a major rework of many other aspects
Dunno if there were some changes done with the AI into the latest beta patch but its kicking me in the nuts! Awesome! Extreme difficulty an all the planet creation settings that give more difficulty. Fast AI setting.
> What is the hardest thing in the universe?
> A diamond?
> No. 500 machine gun men on a mountain.
Changelist for v1.07.01
-Fixed a crash (caused with previous open beta)
Changelist for v1.07
-No longer access to RPG Infantry Brigade in Tech 4 start (you’ll have to develop a Model + Formation first)
-Road construction at very long distance from SHQ now also possible (was a glitch)
-Reduced XP spending on Resist Influence, Endurance and some other Skills
-Added chance for learning a random skill, not often, but possible. Much more chance if no other skill qualifies for spending XP on.
-Added in some securities for AI to not go overboard with Airbase construction and not produce any aircraft models with to low range either.
-Upgrading and Replacing in same hex and SHQ should now always work, even if logistical points is at 0.
Adding to what zgrssd said, when can we expect it (on steam)? Just finished a game today and I'd like to play with the improvements and would wait a few days for it
Adding to what zgrssd said, when can we expect it (on steam)? Just finished a game today and I'd like to play with the improvements and would wait a few days for it
Its already available on the steam open beta branch, it might take it a few more days to arrive to the stable version
Amateurs talk about strategy. Professionals talk about logistics!
Not sure if this is WAD, but cards you get freely replenished each turn like the Meet the Cult cards (and the CEO, Godfather, etc) can be scrapped. So, if you have a Cult that's one free scrapping point a turn, assuming you don't want a meeting:
