We were talking about it on certain Steam forums I think. The point I’m trying to make is that it’s very hard to predict what happens till you know the game well. As in it’s the game you have to play well to enjoy. Of course you can say this about most strategy games, but compare this to AoW3.
AoW3 you can play with forced autoresolve and still have fun. If you know nothing of the game you can look at units, ranks and classes and get some idea of what happens. Elves are sharpshooters so I probably should build archers when I play as elves. Goblins are cheap and numerous. Fireball would probably work well against wooden trebuchet. That army has more high ranked units so it would probably win. That army has a lot of archers so I’ll probably lose some unit fighting it. Even if you know the game well you probably often make decisions based on superflous understanding of a situation like this.
In AoWPF rank doesn’t mean as much. Units are not intuitive, damage types are arkane. Worst of all all those modules make enemies unpredictable. And your army is even more unpredictable. Of course it means there is an infinite number of combinations and possibilities but it all becomes rather tiring. Every decision in this game has to be well thought out and informed. I can’t just send an army of 6 high rank combined troops to wipe out a 4 unit garrison because the actual combat is so complex now.
And it’s not even a criticism, not even saying this game is not for me. Cause it sounds exciting to me, it’s just I rarely find enough mental power to properly get into a game like this.
I’ve played around 6 hours the last few days, on a new galactic empire. I can’t for the life of me figure out how to win. Everyone is stronger than me, and after I’ve built a few bases, I have no idea what to do anymore. Its so weird. The last few games were on easy, and that was even worse.
Just as an example of that, I tried to wipe out some kind of bio-poison spawner site early in a game last night. Though I had more army strength it was a total stack wipe in the auto-combat. So I play it out manually and it is also a total stack wipe - the problem is that one enemy unit AOE attack at the start incapacitates some of my key units and everything goes to shit from there (made worse because I tend to clump my units with this race). One strategic turn later I have the precognition doctrine effect on everyone and it’s a stack wipe the other way in auto combat.
I hear you on this. I’ve never finished a “sandbox” game of Planetfall, and in most of them I’m doubtful I was winning. I often get to a sort of stalemate and start a new scenario. I’ve won a few campaign scenarios, at least.
As I mentioned earlier, if anyone has advice on the initial builds at game start, or build priorities more generally, I’m all ears! (As are most of my fellow Vulcans.)
I don’t have an awesome feel for guns vs butter in Planetfall, tbh. One thing to note is that your first Colonizer is very cheap, so I definitely prioritize that. And additional troops don’t really matter until you can field a second functional (can clear guardians) stack.
As with many strategy games, you play on an easier level to learn the game. Then you raise the difficulty level to play for real. And one of the cool things about the Galactic Empire mode is that you don’t have to win. Just jump in, do one of the secondary objectives, and abscond with your xp. It’s a whole new way to play, with shorter play times and greater variety!
I started playing again this week and am in roughly the same place. I picked the easiest settings as well to wrap my head around the game, but I’m finding that the AI is not making things … easy. I’m certainly being outproduced by a couple of nations, and combat is pretty even. I think I’ll get an alliance win, if that’s even a thing, but it’s proving more challenging than I imagined.
I think a big part of the issue is that I’ve a terrible understanding of mods and how to get different elemental thingies to work together nicely. I also don’t understand the techs yet, and only have the roughest sense of how to best use operations.
It also doesn’t help that the tool tips use lots of icons that don’t mean anything to me yet. This weapon will increase my fuzzy blue stuff power by 8, and add 1 to my blue thing as well. Awesome. :)
I’m thinking after this game I should probably revisit the tutorial campaign to speed up the learning a bit.
Fun times, though. I’m definitely enjoying the learning.
My first game lasted 4 hours…Which I think is quite a lot, and I quit and restarted it because once a war broke out, I had no chance.
As for the XP - Not hero xp ,right? But the empire thingie xp. The units and mods I could purchase weren’t any better than my own, right? Just of the other factions? How is that helping?
I think I’ll be going back to the campaigns, and see if I can understand them better.
Setting up your starting hero matters a lot - for those of you who are struggling early I strongly recommend giving your starting hero either Military Detachment for more starting troops or the hero trait that gives you the Imperial APC which is a fantastic support unit early. I also generally give my starting hero Veteran both for the extra 2 levels to start and for the 15% exp boost (which applies to all units). With these traits you will find the early battles much easier.
Second, in terms of early build/economy, look at the terrain around your city and figure out what that city will be good at. Specifically, look at the nearby sectors for which resources have the “double bonus”. Early on, I tend to look for sectors with double bonus in either industry or research to get those going. Energy is very important but early on you can make decent energy by choosing energy instead of other rewards on many combats. Only take non-energy rewards when they look immediately useful or really good in the long run. In terms of what buildings to build first, it depends on the terrain, once again. I generally build the colony hub building that increases Production first to make building everything else faster, but not if I have a good production sector nearby.
Typically I get the colony hub building built, then if my pop has hit 4, I go for an early colonize b/c getting that early second colony helps a lot. But, note, if you are doing that you are going to want to clear the way to your colony site and protect your defenseless colonizer while it builds the city. Then, I typically build a few units to round out my stack and bolster it. I often have a main stack with a “leftover” stack supporting, using the adjacent hex rule to make early battles easier without taking losses. I don’t wait to have a “second full stack” before sending more units to help the main stack.
I try to clear the red marauder spawners in areas near where I plan to build colonies, and the black guardian units on sites I want to exploit. I also try to clear out any quest enemies but sometimes you need to beef up your stacks for that.
While that’s going on my scout units are scouting around looking for two things: suitable colony sites, and the “independent” sites that can become colonies by paying influence. There is always one indie site of your faction near your starting city, with an influence cost of 45 typically - so at +5 influence a turn, if you save your influence you can get a “free” colony on turn 9. Combined with an early colonizer, that can get you to 3 (weak but growing) cities by turn 10.
Worth also pointing out that some combinations do better at clearing the independents and fighting the AI.
I’ve been having good results in my current game by using the vanguard calibration ability (engineers and vanguard hackers. I’m playing vanguard synthesis) along with the pug reset cooldowns ability.
Means I can have a sniper get up to 10 range, then 11 with the fire arms mod, who almost never misses.
Combine that with solid healing from an APC, the synthesis tactical operation and nanite injectors and you can tank stuff quite nicely.
Get the fireburst mod and you deal sick damage.
I guess my point here is to learn a few useful abilities and maximise them.
Fixed path preview. System was disabled but is now back. System will no longer show players the stored path for other players but will be able to use the path preview while selecting an enemy stack
For those seeking ‘how to start/first 6 turns’ kinda stuff, I’ll reiterate my enjoyment of Black Arrow Gaming on Youtube. I’m watching the AoW3 videos over Planetfall right now, but I’m going to assume his newer stuff is even better than the years old stuff I’m watching. They are more “Let’s Play” than straight tutorials, but he is one of the best I’ve seen in explaining the logic behind all of his choices as he’s playing, without bogging things down with too many details.
Alas, not written guides if that’s your preference.
Thanks for recommending Black Arrow Gaming. I started watching his ‘advanced’ series, and it’s great. He explains his thinking and moves at a nice pace – not too fast, not too slow. I’m going to watch more.
