3449

One other question, what does the red candle symbol mean? I can’t click on to take me to a contextual help page and searching for “I dunno, reddish candle thing” in the help isn’t going to find much.

image

Their infocard UI sucks. Every unit, ability, etc. has a bunch of effects and modifiers but you often can’t click through to get to relevant pages. Sometimes the infocard is good and explains what it does, like “Applies analyzed, reducing resistance by 2”. Most often it’s just “Applies one of 37 different status effects” and then you have to go search for it in the help.

Been away from the game for a while and all these annoyances keep coming back to me. :)

3450

The icon represents workers. The red one represents rebels. Check out the city tab where you assign your workers. Rebels are shown at the bottom.

3451

Thanks!

3452

I have this issue all the time. I think I’m slowly figuring out what all the icons mean but it’s super frustrating to see that something applies “2 [some symbol]” and have no idea what it means and no way to find out.

3453

I’ve been playing this game and trying to get into it but I’m having a hard time. It just seems so bland. Plus, figuring out what everything means is taking more out of me in frustration than the game is giving back in enjoyment. I think I’ll put it aside for now and come back to it when I’m in a more patient mood and have more focus.

3454

I think these 2 go hand in hand when it comes to this game.

There is some notable cognitive overload when you first start, and although it does lessen, every time I come back into the game after a break, there is some of it there.

and I think that if one is being overloaded, e.g. by trying to work out that such and such an icon or keyword means x, and the effect of x is y, but I have z which interacts with x, negating y…

then yeah, one might think the game is bland.

:(

I don’t think it is bland at all, but it can be hard to get into, and hard to get your rhythm going sometimes.

Someone on Steam asked for a beginners guide. My advice to them, copy pasted (NB they were playing as Vanguard):

Set up an easy/normal difficulty map, with max 3 opponents.

Next, assuming you stick with Vanguard:

in the military technology tree, research the first column, and the same for the economy tree.

Take the doctrine that gives free production points(?)

Mass produce Troopers.

Research the mod that extends range, and gives fireburst ammunition.

This is the kinetic research chain, just focus on that for now, and also the top military research chain, which unlocks your default Vanguard units and modifications.

In the meantime, scout aggressively.

When you find an enemy, or a neutral site, or any fight you fancy, send in your wave of troopers.

Set mass overwatch traps, use occasional troopers as bait to force the AI to come to you.

And that is it, for a very basic guide on what to do.

When you have that down, and have a good handle on why the range extension mod is good (extra range!) and get a sense of when to upgrade your troops, when to build them, when not to upgrade them etc, then start mixing in other troop types (Vanguard Fliers are basiclaly very fast Troopers:)), and experiment with them.

Vanguard are imho a pretty solid faction.

After the kinetic chain, you have the laser chain, unlocking a whole bunch more goodies.

That serves as a solid foundation to avoid/lessen the feeling of too much information, and also gives just enough that you can start to comfortably experiment with stuff.

3455

Latest Empire planet I’m messing around with xenodwarves, and boy if this combo just doesn’t work together like at all.

The dwarfy ramjets are pretty awesome, though. How they work against enemy submarines I’m not completely sure, but they’re quite strong.

Now I want to make synthdwarves. Feels like that could be quite strong.

3456

Those dorf helmets are waterproof so they work perfectly well! RAMMING SPEED!

3457

American football needs dorf helmet technology like yesterday.

Anyway, Lunch Punch the xenodorf starts with the xeno close combat kit (aw man I coulda called him Stinky Finger, oh well), right? Cuz punching. Whatever. The point is he found the Old Jetpack in the very first stack of neutrals he beplagued, and it’s still possibly the best item in the game for melee. Free action teleport! Omg! He’s stagger immune (cuz dorf) too, so he just teleports on top of whatever and rips its face off while the Ramjets YOLO into whatever. It’s glorious.

3458

Idk, I would have thought multiple pustules to tie the enemy up would work well with massed Bulwarks.

3459

Is there any research that unlocks the ability to negotiate the end of someone else’s war? I have the objective to ally with 2 dwarf factions - one peace loving and the other seems like a bit of an ass. They are warring. I can’t remember if I need a defensive pact before I become an ally. If so, then getting a defensive pact with the peace loving one now seems like a bad idea peace then I may have to go to war with the other, which ,makes becoming a ally later more difficult.

In any case I want to get them to stop fighting.

3460

My solution has been to crush the ability of the one you’re not friends with to wage war. Might be able to get them to vassalize once you’ve driven them before you &c &c. Otherwise, well, sometimes the iron price is the only one on offer.

I never worry overmuch about the special victory conditions if they’re tough to pull off, though. Always more XP to be had on the next planet!

Xenodwarves are going fine. I think the real juice – which I’ve more or less missed the boat on in this playthrough, c’est la vie – for xenodwarves might be to hook up all your Pustules and Destroyers and such with Ironbreaker mods for the absurd damage potential for really very little investment.

Bulwarks are a high-investment payoff that need mods and xp and maybe Foremen to take care of their accuracy problems, but they do seem to have exceptional damage potential for all that. Kinda hard to invest in both that and xeno nonsense and dorfjets at the same time, though, which is the trouble I’m having now.

In my defense, I haven’t played much dorf so this has largely been an exploratory game.

3461

Vassalage counts as an alliance? It’s been so long since I played I don’t remember how much of the details work.

3462

Maybe? Try murder first and see where it takes you, that’s what I always say!

3463

From the text description it sounds like it would work. Murder will probably be necessary…

3464

So Tom’s series of articles is highlighting the Galactic Empire mode and I’m enjoying that, but I do have to say you have to be careful about selecting planets. On the one hand, one of the main points of Galactic Empire mode is to expose the player to different setups and challenges but at the same time, some setups are pure ass.

I just tried an Empire mission on an island map and island maps SUCK for my playstyle. I hate them with a great and cosmos-devouring hate. I was forced to quit out to menu and delete that attempted world from my empire, wasting the time I had put into it (I hated that map so much I wasn’t going to even give it the dignity of a surrender and partial XP - I just expunged that sucker from my empire.)

Trying new things is fine but it was a reminder that I have developed my preferences for a reason…

The good news is that Empire mode does offer a pretty good range of options. The player just need to use good judgment in picking missions/maps.

3465

Sounds like you need more dorfjets, brother.

3466

It ended up being very simple. I was able to make defensive agreements with both. I guess since they were already at war I didn’t get asked to join their existing war. Three turns later and I made an alliance with both and won.

3467

The brake on expansion is that colonizers get progressively more expensive.

I don’t “cram them in” as you say, but I do try to fill up available space as resources allow. Keep in mind that murder is econ in AoW, since you get such huge boosts from clearing neutrals and dungeons and digs, and make sure you prioritize keeping your main stack (and later, multiple stacks) in the field.

3468

I had an amusing sequence last night.

I’m on a planet with extra RPR spawners and stronger RPR armies. Messing around with Shakarn for the first time (they’re interesting, I’m really feeling the lack of healing though). Right next to my capital, there’s a Hopperhound spawner, a RPR spawner, and of course a minor-controlled landmark.

As usual I immediately attack the landmark so I can annex it as my first sector. Lose my Infiltrator, but whatevs, worth it. Clear a couple neutrals, get some pickups, you know the deal. Get my first colony founded (annoyingly right on the other side of the RPR spawner that I can’t quite clear yet). Waiting for research to complete so I can mod my dudes and crank out another T2 dude and get the dumb spawner cleared.

The turn before that happens, the Psi-Fish spawn an attacking army on me, a freakin’ four-stack of Hopperhounds takes my colony, and a SIX-stack of RPRs take my capital. I’m cityless on like turn 10, y’all.

(Took the cap back right away and my colony the next turn, but STILL. Neutrals can be real buttholes in Planetfall, and I love it.)