3128

That sounds great. From what I can tell, this new system is a lot more intuitive. Thanks.

3129

Oh, it’s vastly superior. The big economy rebalance patch was a complete win.

3130

The economic makeover is a big improvement. But wow, I still suck at the tactical game. I just find it so overwhelming. I can barely figure out what my own units can do, and then I face an enemy with 4 different types of units and mods, and I get impatient. Also I have trouble seeing what’s where on the map. Is there a mini-map for the tactical game?

Anyway, I’ll take a break and try again.

3131

I answered my own question about the residential sectors: each residential sector lets you add one more sector to your city, at 20 pop (for your first residential sector) and at 24 pop (for your second residential sector). In other words, the residential sectors replace themselves, but they don’t actually increase the number of “raw materials” sectors your city can have. The max city size is 7 sectors (core + 4 regular sectors + 2 residential sectors). So what’s the point of residential sectors? They do two things: 1) they increase the output of population in regular sector slots and 2) they allow for the upgrade of the new specialist pop-slot buildings, which produce more than the regular slots. In other words, by adding residential sectors, you will end up delaying reaching 4 raw materials sectors from pop 16 to pop 24, but end up with a vastly more productive city, both in total and per pop, in the long run. Also, the residential sectors don’t care about the terrain/climate bonuses on the ground (other than not being able to be built in mountains) so those crappy sectors with no double bonus can be used for residential. Overall, it’s a nice boost to “building tall” strategies but it does take a while to kick in.

3132

Thanks for writing up your findings wih the residential sectors Sharpe. I’d seen them and was unable to work it out in the short time I’ve played the game since the new DLC. My plan now is to sit down and really work out the game. I have a decent grasp of it but I see a long road of learning ahead. I guess that is where Campaign comes in handy to some extent, pushing me into getting familiar with the different races. Speaking of long journeys, it feels like this game has been on one. I bounced off it hard at release, then came back in around the first actual DLC I think, but simultaneously finding the learning curve to be steep. I understand where Spock is coming from with the vast wealth of stuff to track and think about. Or even the simpler things like unit upgrades and tracking those to make specialised super soliders. But Empire Mode has me genuinely excited, almost like it is perfect for me.

One thing that still gets me with this game though is the voice acting for the techs, especially Vanguard techs. Arrrrgh, it is just goddamn awful.

3133

There is no mini map. I don’t know why, as the very first game has a mini map.

However, zoom out and you should be able to see all your units.

The key thing to remember is the damage formula, and from that everything else in combat flows.

That formula is:

I = Incoming damage
D = Actual damage taken
R = Damage resistance (sum of shields, armor and elemental resistance)

D = I x 0.9^R

So, let’s say I have 12 attack, you have 4 shields and 4 armour.

That means I have 12 attack and you have 8 defence (R in the formula)

so, the damage I will deal to you is:

12 (incoming damage)X 0.9^8.

That 0.9^8 confused me too at first. So, let’s do that part of the sum first.

0.9^8 gets us 0.43.

Now take that number and multiply it by the incoming damage, which was 12.

You thus get

5.16 damage.

So, immediately you see that something with 4 shield and 4 armour is quite tanky.

Remember that, or as a very general rule of thumb, take away 10% for the first few points of defence, with diminishing returns the more defence there is, and you can’t go too far wrong.

Modify this by applying psionic ignores armour and melee ignores shields modifiers.

Just remove the shield or armour value accordingly.

Also, remember that some units will have (x) resistance.

That also goes in the formula.

So, with the above example, let’s say this attack is physical ranged, but you have kinetic resistance, of 3, well now your R value is no longer 8, but is now 11.

which means we use 0.9^11, which gives us 0.31, which we then multiply by the attack value *12( which then gives us

3.76 actual damage

So, that extra resistance is nice.

Once you get your head around that (it looks harder than it is) you can start to evaluate mods based initialy on how they modify this.

Shakarn get an early mod that inflicts “scan” on the enemy, the effect of whihc is to reduce all resistances by 2, non stacking.

Syndicate, Oathbound and Assembly get an early mod that inflicts -2 arc resistance, stacks up to 5 times.

So, with these latter, if the effect triggers, you can in theory get a unit to -10 arc resistance, which if you plug that into the formula, means even a light arc based attack like that of the Indentured can end up doing some heavy damage.

EDIT: the same formula applies for things that inflict statuses, as those typically have a an attack value. The inflict arc weakness for example is 8 on single attacks, 4 on repeating attacks, and this checks against the defence value of the target.

3134

Thanks for the explainer!

To be clear, the same formula applies even if R is negative?

What does this mean? Statuses are boolean rather than numeric. What value of D means the status gets applied?

3135

Thanks for that helpful summary of how damage works. I hadn’t realized that shields, armor and resistance are all bundled into the same variable, the “R” in your formula. That’s very helpful to know. Also, it looks like “R” decreases damage but that each extra (or marginal) point in “R” is slightly less significant, because the size of R declines logarithmically. Put another way, the first two points of armor do more reduction than the next two points of armor. I hadn’t realized that either.

Also, I’ve read guides that say you can’t unlock the whole tech tree, so it’s best to specialize. Do you agree with that? That makes sense to me, but I’m not sure which techs to skip and which to prioritize. I’m playing as the Amazons with the Synethesis secret tech, which is probably a sub-optimal pairing.

A related question about tech: how feasible is the “diplomatic” win? My instincts are those of a builder, not an aggressor. What techs should I be focusing if I want to win this way?

I read a guide that suggested beelining to the Technologist to win the “pioneer” bonus for it. I’m trying that, but it means spending a lot of cosmite early on, and casting lots of tactical ops. Is this something you recommend?

Another question I have is about early-game strategy on the strategic map. I’ve read that energy is the early-game resource to prioritize above all, although obviously they’re all important.

Also, should I be actively defeating every group of marauders near my first city? If not, which take priority – spawners? Those guarding some resource I want to exploit?

Sorry for all the questions. I really do want to get better at this game!

3136

Yes kinda. I don’t think you can actually get below 0 for normal defence, but I think you can for things like arc weakness.

I don’t know what boolean means, sorry :P.

The value of defence is the same.

So same formula as far as I am aware, different result, one result being damage, the other being getting the status.

3137

Amazons and synthesis are tough because you need to use the synthesis mods to make any of them work with your army wide subroutines. You can still do some neat stuff, though, like pairing guardian mods with the helmet like mods to give you a lot of evasion. Remember that evasion doesn’t work in melee, though!

3138

Sorry, boolean just means true or false instead of numeric. As in, you either get the status or you don’t. So my question is if my attack has strength 8 for a status effect, and the target has resistance 2, then I get D = 6.48. Does that mean that the status is applied or not?

3139

You’re welcome. This info was in one of the early developer diaries, and I have spent a bit of time asking more experienced players and going through the maths with them, because maths is a weak area of my knowledge.

I think in multiplayer this is very true. In singleplayer, depending on the map size and settings, less true. On extra large maps you will probably finish one of your research trees, probably the economic one, and not the military, because you get other races’ military tech too, so that’s a larger tree.

Regarding what to prioritise and what to skip, the underlying consideration imho comes down to combat effectiveness, which is a mix of damage output and tankiness, and healing.

IN other words, think about your warmaking engine, and pick the research you feels supports that.

For (anything) synthesis, I would recommend getting one of the mods that gives the tag synthesis to your units, because many of the operations trigger of this tag, including the mass healing one that I like so much.

This is essentially a wargame, so even if you want a peaceful victory, you still need a decent military.

The diplomatic win is the Unifier right? I think it’s entirely feasible, but you are going to have to turtle quite effectively. I think islands maps lend themselves most to this. And you will probably still need to fight a couple of wars, especially in the early game.

The pioneer bonus is a random hero item. I haven’t got that bonus in the last 500 plus hours lol. But,m the doctrine itself is much more useful, giving you extra tactical operation points and cheaper tactical operations.

In my current game, I got that turn 11. AI got it turn 7.

All the resources are imho important, and the game advances quite quickly anyway. From speaking to other players, it seems science is valued most, because it unlocks your cooler toys quicker, and those new toys give you different options as well as raw power, and sued well can be the game decider.

Also, food can be handled by having a super city focussed on food, which then shares it.

Energy, at least in the early game, can be scavenged by fighting at different sites. You can power your economy for the first 15 or so turns just by fighting I think.

Production is such that you need to really pile things on to get a clear production advantage, but again, opne mega city dedicated to production can be enough to build your armies. I tend to go for 2, one to specialise in one or 2 types of units, the other for other units, for example city 1 to just pump out Indentured and Overseers, city 2 to pump out Enforcers (as they come from a different barracks)

There are 2 types of marauders.

Those that go roaming, looking for trouble. Build up your militia defence buildings and you can fight these off easily enough by about turn 10 or 15. If you are assembly you can even exploit them for science.

Then there are the static sites, which you can ignore until you have stronger armies. These sites tend to be the more useful ones though.

I would recommend clearing an area around your cities so that marauders don’t spawn so often, gives you a safe space.

3140

Ahh, I see.

That’s a good question, and I am not sure.

I will find out for you.

edit:

OK, I did some digging.

It is the same formula, but it either inflicts or doesn’t, so it doesn;t do damage.

If the attack is 4, that is a base 40% chance to hit.

Status chance formula is the following: 10StrRes, in percent
Str is the effect strength (usually 4, 8 or 12). A 4 strength effect has a base apply chance of 40%.
Res is the resistance to status. The chance of the unit to resist the status effect when it does proc.
Res = 0.9^(elem + 2*(tier-1))

I had to go digging in the forums to find the above.

Higher tier units have innately higher resistance apparently.

3141

Thanks for your very helpful replies. You answered all my questions!

Incidentally, I do like wargames, so I don’t mind fighting. I was just curious how feasible the diplomatic victory is, because I like building things. It sounds like you usually win by other means – the secret-tech win, or total conquest? I suppose that’s true of most players? I’ve got 65 hours in this game, and I’ve won a few of the campaign missions, but I have not yet played through a sandbox game to its conclusion.

3142

Seconded, @BloodyBattleBrain! I just picked up the season pass as it was on sale, and I’m looking to dive back in. I made it through about 75% of the campaign before (I’m guessing), but I’m thinking the added meta-mode will make me want to do the skirmishes and not leave me feeling like I’m missing out.

3143

Secret tech victory is like a diplomatic victory in that it doesn’t require leaving your borders. You could try that. Failing that, I’ve won plenty of victories that were made easier by being in a one or two partner alliance when I hit the win condition. Domination victories count the total allied territory to determine if you fit them, too. Oh, and if you integrate two dwellings and are the highest level of reputation you can win a victory, maybe that’s what you meant by diplo victory? They all probably entail at least some defensive fighting, though, as most of the people who aren’t allied to you will declare war to try to stop your win.

3144

Thanks for your reply. I didn’t know that about integrating two dwellings; that’s good to know. I was thinking of the, uh, “Unity” victory? But I’m glad to know of these other victory conditions.

3145

I don’t think that’s the right way to look at it. The way it is set up, each point of resistance boosts your “effective hitpoints” against that attack by an equal amount - the amount of damage reduction on each hit is less as you stack R, but the number of hits they need to kill you keeps going up linearly.

I remember way back in City of Heroes days, this was a big deal. Because the damage reduction in that game was straight percentage-based, and stackable. So each 10% of damage reduction got more and more significant in terms of how much you should be afraid of some attacks. Going from 100% damage to 90% damage was barely noticeable. Going from 90% to 100% was rather profound. IIRC, they eventually capped the damage reduction - I think caps on basic formulas are a sign that something is wrong with the basic formula.

If CoH had used Planetfall-style damage reduction, they would have allowed a much larger range of build types and when balancing they wouldn’t have had to worry so much about exactly how much total damage reduction was available to a given build.

3146

So uh be careful about Overwatch mode when you give a hero some ridiculous AOE rifle thing, FYI.

I forgot how much I like Assembly/Synthesis. It’s a natural pairing, like Amazon/Xenoplague, but yo it’s so good. Electrocutioners with some t3/t4 Arc mods bring the pain.

3147

Does anyone know what happens to installed Mods if you replace them? For example, I picked up some Hero-only Mods as loot in battle, if I replace my installed mods on those heroes, do those go into storage where I can then stick them on my regular units, or do I just lose the Cosmite that I spent to originally install them?