Yeah, that’s really not necessary or really possible. Your focus should be on building up and maximizing your murderstack and not trying to build counters. Between multiple players, NPC factions, and “barbarians” to deal with you can’t counter. Just roll with what you got and figure out how to counter on a tactical level, as in how you actually play out the battle.
Yeah, that’s really not necessary or really possible.
Yes I got that, I just wish that it wasn’t the case.
I’m not really sure the game you’re describing would actually be fun to play, once you lay it all out like that an gameplay form.
If you want counters, there a few ways to give yourself options, without going crazy looking for perfect mod counters. Mods and operations that cleanse bad status effects are a big counter to a lot of the bad stuff the enemy can do to you. Several of the secret techs have these in fairly accessible tiers. Promethean has the Purification Field Mod and Celestian has a tactical operation that has a cleanse built in, IIRC. Another option is regeneration type mods and/or operations. Being able to automatically self heal can help you survive quite a bit of stuff. The Autonom sell a mod in their middle diplomatic status that allows self-repair of mechanical units which can be extremely useful. The Kir’ko and the Amazons both have regen mods in the early to mid range which can be very useful. Synthesis also has a tactical op that gives a temporary regen to Synthesis units and units with Synthesis mods. Also, things that increase to hit chance (or morale which then effects to hit chance) can also offset many of the nasty debuffs in the game which decrease to hit chance.
Basically, perfect counters require vast amounts of learning curve and are not always achievable, but there are a number of things you can do to give yourself options.
And of course there’s always just maxxing out murder-osity and Pwning via raw power, which works too.
when you replace mods you on troops you loose the associated special resources. i usually find the costs of switching and then switching back to be high. so instead of adjusting for the current enemies i try to make stacks that can overpower any of them. effective but it makes me feel like i’m not interacting enough with many of the games interesting systems.
this isnt a deal breaker for me, I still got lots of enjoyment from the game.
Debuff removal is so powerful as to be essential. Prioritize it always.
So I finished the “beginner” skirmish, and the first mission of the Vanguard campaign, and this game now has its hooks in me. I know most of you look down on the campaign, but I thought the additional direction was fun, and the terrible writing and voice acting is charming. I figure I’ll switch between campaigns and skirmishes. I still don’t understand how resources work - I’m basically trying to build structures that emphasize the same resources as the icons on the map.
So I started a skirmish with a Vanguard Voidtech melee hero. I now have two questions:
I forgot to check the box that let’s you save heroes for use later (and I presume they show up as AI heroes as well). Is there any way to do that after the game has started?
How experienced should I be before I try the Galactic Empire mode. I’m reading through this thread (I’m somewhere around last November) and it sounds really cool. But I’d like to get some flavor for the other races and techs because it sounds like I have to make a decision that will last the whole campaign. Or is that not the case?
So, closer to 2 1/2 questions.
For your commander, no. But it’s pretty trivial to remake them.
IMO all Galactic Empire all the time. You choose a new commander (and thus race/tech) for every planet. Think of it more like interconnected skirmishes with mutators applied to the map generation.
Yup, it’s literally just a context layer for skirmishes, there’s simply no reason to play a skirmish NOT in Galactic Empire mode, since you might as well be reaping the rewards for your time/effort. No permanent decisions required.
Good to know. Can I change difficulty along the way? Right now I am probably playing on the easiest.
I finally started to get the synergies in the tactical layer and it’s a very satisfying game. As others have noted, it works if you ignore the overcomplicated mess of some of the systems and just play.
Difficulty is also per skirmish - basically nothing is fixed at the “campaign” level.
So, when I am selecting a site for a new colony, do I want the site with the icons I want, or do I want to expand into the icons I want?
My current skirmish is not going well. Default settings, easy difficulty. I got sucked into a war through an alliance. Many turns later the enemy is invading and taking my cities. I have 2 left, and not much in the way of armies. I don’t know whether to start over, or play it out and see if I can salvage, or more likely, see how the enemy defeats me. I don’t know that I’ve ever lost a 4x before, so kind of curious to see how it goes.
The colony base sector’s sector bonuses don’t matter, no. You still get the benefit of special sites there, the +10 food for an agricultural dome etc, but as your colony base doesn’t have a sector exploitation, the food/prod/energy/research icons do nothing.
Go ahead and lose, and take screenshots for us!
I started over - I’m sort of interested in seeing what the different secret techs do, although I haven’t branched out to different races yet. I’m also enjoying the campaign. I think it will be a good introduction to the different races and the backstory.
I am missing something obvious - how do you create additional customer commanders? If I use the edit/customize button, it just overwrites the previous commander. I don’t see a “create new commander” option.
Iirc the original commander still exists…
IIRC there’s a “Save Commander” toggle at creation time. If you select it, the commander is saved and added to the pool of premade commanders as an option for future games, both for yourself and any AI players.
When you go to make another commander in a subsequent game, that has nothing to do with any commanders you’ve saved in the past.
Maybe I am not explaining well. On the character selection screen, there are two tabs - one for pre-existing characters, and one for customer characters. THere is no button for “create new character” only “customize character.” So if I customize a preexisting character (and click the checkbox for save character), does that overwrite the preexisting character? If I customize a custom character, and click the checkbox, it overwrites the old character, and I lose it.
I think.
You create Custom Characters by editing a Pre-Existing Non-Custom Character, by the end you just have to check the checkbox. They basically function as templates to start building from. Editing (and saving) from an Custom Character is treated as if you’re updating that custom character.
You can also make Characters before starting a game by selecting ‘Customize Commander’ on the Main Menu.
Jordi is a ninja!