3529

Jordi is a ninja!

3530

Not a Ninja, I’m just always lurking. Active development might have ended but I still keep an eye out.

3531

So, still enjoying this. I’m trying to step up the difficulty level as easy/easy is too… easy. But I can’t quite get the rhythm down. Also trying different races (Kir’ko) and secret techs.

I want to make sure I am clear on something. The little economy icons have no passive effect at all, correct. THey only come into play if you exploit the sector. WHich means they have no effect on a colony center.

The initial building you build in each colony (can’t remember the name, but you can only have one) is not going to be based on the characteristics of the sector, but on your needs - early ones you might go food, military ones you might go production, if you need energy or research, do those. Is that correct?

3532

Both of those statements are correct.

3533

Was just listening to this Explorimate podcast from last month in which strategy youtuber DasTactic explains why AoW:P is his favorite 4x. Pretty detailed and positive discussion.

I own the game but have only fiddled with the tutorial. I clearly need to spend more time with it.

3534

I find this counterintuitive.

3535

Yeah, it’s weird. Makes sense once you get used to it though.

3536

What is the gold helmet icon by some of the weapons and mods?

3537

Gold Helmet means usable by Hero only (not regular units).

3538

Aren’t all weapons usable by heroes only?

3539

To refine my comment the helmet indicates found/quest loot, usable by heroes only.

You can also buy weapons from the store which don’t have the helmet so I guess non heroes could use them, except non heroes don’t have a weapons slot. As a practical matter, what I said is accurate.

3540

The Explorimate podcast made me play this game. Thanks for posting it!

Question: can you play Empire mode in multiplayer, or is multiplayer just one world at a time?

3541

This is literally the first time i finally understood what those icons actually meant.

What a… non-intuitive system, tbh.

3542

Unfortunately, no. Empire is single-player only.

3543

I’m still trying to make progress in this game. Maybe after another 5 years i’ll have a few more campaign missions under the belt!

But man, i hate the combat system. The best way to put it is it feels like the kind of combat that appeals to people that like Balder’s Gate and the Divine Divinity games. And i guess it’s because i can’t figure out a way to make me playing the battle better than letting the AI autoresolve the battle. All games have an underlying logic to grok, and i’ve never really grokked the Age of Wonders underlying logic.

The big issue is that i can’t ever get the initiative and so am always advancing into prepared positions… there’s not really a great way to flank on these small maps. It’s also very hard to concentrate forces without getting pounded by AoE things. There’s also a ton of AoW logic about units engaged in melee (ie, adjacent enemies). So i almost always end up losing a couple of units per battle. And in AoW strategic terms, that’s a disaster, since these games more or less require “Perfect Play” except in very large, campaign decisive battles. Every time you lose a unit to creeps or barbarians, you’re playing badly. And i don’t like playing badly, so just going through the map makes me feel like i’m doing everything wrong.

What i really seem to want is some dang artillery.

3544

I haven’t found this to be true. I certainly haven’t ever save scummed to get a perfect battle result and win a pretty good rate of games. Attrition happens especially early on, but there’s costs to waiting for overwhelming force as well if you choose to avoid it.

Limiting casualties as much as you can is desired of course, but I haven’t ever felt like I had to go from flawless victory to flawless victory in order to stay competitive.

3545

The big picture on Planetfall combat is that it’s all about the special abilities, mods and the synergies between them. The biggest hurdle while learning the game is not knowing how exactly the enemy is pounding you into snot: they may be getting bonuses from their mods and abilities, they may be debuffing you with mods and abilities, etc. etc.

My suggestion, which I detailed way up thread, is to pick a fairly straightforward faction like the Vanguard or the Amazons, comboed with a suitably synergistic tech (Promethean for Vanguard and oddly Synthesis for Amazon) and then learn THOSE mods, abilities and synergies. You still won’t know what the enemy is doing to crush you, but you will learn how your own units work. Then you can gradually expand out to other combos and learn as you encounter various opponents.

The tactical game in Planetfall features a truly massive learning cliff but I feel like once you have climbed that cliff, it is also one of the best tactical games.

A few tips to help the climb: getting access to mods or operations that can cleanse status effects is one way to respond to the enemy screwing you over. The Prometheans have good mods and ops for that. Also, self-healing can be a huge way to avoid that “inevitable unit loss” you complain about - the Amazons have that, and both the Prometheans and Synthesis have some options.

As for the issue of being ground down by being forced to attack the enemy, you can use cover and overwatch to force the enemy to come to you on many maps. Learning which of your troops have overwatch is key. For example, your basic Vanguard Trooper, as weak as it is, is actually quite an excellent little core unit b/c of its range and overwatch. The Amazon core Hunters are also better than they seem, but only if you keep them in cover (they gain range from being in cover.) The range of your attacks and abilities is also a big deal. The Vanguard Trooper with a base 7 range is actually quite excellent for a tier 1 unit. Etc.

Things to avoid: in most cases, cheap melee units are pretty much redshirt fodder. There are some exceptions but relying on them too much leads to attrition. Melee can be excellent but works best on faster or more survivable units.

Another starting tip: choose a Hero with the package that includes the old Imperial ATV - that thing comes with a once per battle healing drone and that healing drone can dramatically reduce your early game attrition. I believe all races and factions have that option, although it does cost 2 hero points (but it’s worth it!)

3546

Also it’s not the end of the world if you lose units.

3547

So I woke up around 2am and decided to get in a little gaming to soothe the brain and ended up playing just past quarter to three, working on a game of Planetfall I’ve had on my drive for a while. Late game fighting against the Evil Psychic Jellyfish dudes (I forget what they are called) and I’m into the “experimental research” part of the tree, and my random research is… “Feline Chorus”. I look at the description and I’m like “what is this? Where’s my bonus armor or bonus damage?” And the description is “allows you to build Misfortune units” (which I recall are the fairly nasty cat creatures, so that’s cool) and then it notes “Misfortune units have Sadism which inflicts bonus damage on units with low morale”.

And that’s just a small example of the depth of cool stuff packed into this game. Not only can you make evil cat creatures to destroy the enemy, but they are sadists, who get a combat boost against the sad and beleaguered.

3548

So, just like actual felines, then?