Yes I saw that.
I also just realised that the increase hacking time contributed a lot to the increase in difficulty as well.
I was wondering why my games were so much longer, and had forgotten about the 180secs! Hacking times. And because I hack a lot, it contributed massively to the length of time.
Which affected troop build up as well as the growth in the power of the retaliation against hacks that is spawned.
So far I’m loving this patch. The hack times are generally lower. On difficulty 8, I did a “double fleet line” hack, and it took only 60 seconds – a hack that got me 4 extra Mk IV Assault Frigates, for only 15 hacking points. There was a counterattack but it was in proportion to the force I brought – tough but fair. Hacking times supposedly scale with difficulty too, so I imagine that hack would’ve been quicker on my usual difficulty (7 or 6).
Also, I like the permanent notification of instigator bases. A simple but essential change.
I decided to play a little above my pay-grade, at difficulty 8, because I wanted the “tower defense” feel I often got in the original game. So far I’m getting my wish, hehe. There’s a nasty instigator base just two hops away, and so far I haven’t been able to bust through to deep-strike that thing. The neighboring system isn’t garrisoned that strongly, but when I warp in, the AI counters by reinforcing it with ships from neighboring fleets, and I get pushed back. I don’t recall seeing that as much at difficulty 7. I still have some science to play with, so maybe I’ll buff up a bit more before trying again. Here’s a look:
Nice setup you have there!
Looks like you really lucked out with the fleet placement!
The datacenters are readily accessible also. Looks like a nice setup for a very possible win.
I agree, it’s a great map! We’ll see if I can pull it off. I’m going to try to finish neutering Sherborne now, see if I can deep-strike the Instigator just southwest of it.
I think I’m going to put this down for a little bit, because of how frequently these patches are coming out. I don’t want to play on old versions, but at the same time, this is the second game where I’ve been in the middle and the game updates, making things a little weird for my existing game.
There is a balance between being responsive and updating a lot, and updating so frequently that you feel like you’re lurching a bit. He might want to consider slowing down just a little and being a bit more deliberate with the fixes and changes.
I’m putting it down also, or may permanently revert to 1.002.
I was playing yesterday, on my invasion of a strength 11, level 2 world to destroy a minor data centre, a level 7 eye spawned and wiped out my invasion. It was only 24min into the game and the 4th planet I invaded. My AIP was 50 in a difficulty 6 scenario.
Seems like they hate players being about to perform AIP reduction and have created massive response. Just remove data centers already if you think such a mechanic allows people to beat difficulty 10 games.
Such drastic changes in game play vs that at launch indicates a lack of vision concerning the game systems.
Wish Arcen well, but the game balance changes between 1 patch and the next is enough for me to put it down.
Why not just make the difficulty go up to 11 for people who want harder games?
Yep, I agree. Maybe he should make patching an optional opt-in thing so that he gets a large database of voluntary testers? I’d opt in, because I don’t mind restarting a lot. I love the early game.
I like most of this patch so far. The hacking fixes seem good, and the metal and economy seem reasonable – although it’s still a good idea to invest in one level of metal tech. I’m not sure about the new deep-strike difficulty, not to mention the “reserve fleet”. I do enjoy that it’s taking me multiple tries to deep-strike the instigators that are plaguing me. They’ve been exciting suicide raids, heh. But that’s only a two-system strike; not sure if I’ll enjoy it as much if I’m trying in vain to get to a data center three hops away.
I haven’t had any Eye spawn in the middle of an attack, like @cicobuff just mentioned. Ugh! I wonder if that’s the new “reserve fleet” mechanic in action? The original game had something like that, but it usually hid it from the player more.
The forums mentioned that if you attack with more than 2 fleets, the Eye may be spawned. I think in my scenario was that I attacked with 2 fleet + 1 factory, the eye was not present. But I sent in my fleet which was handling some small spawn to join the mopping up operations. And suddenly I noticed that my fleet got decimated. So it seems that the 3rd fleet triggered it 1/2 way.
I’m not sure how it was coded but I’m too frustrated to try another game. The arbitrary nature of the game is just plain tired now for me. Ironically, the AI is supposed to be good, but in the end, the AI cannot live up to it’s claim and the game resorts to blatant game systems unavailable to players and worse, there is no warning given or any visible means of gauging how to counter the moves of the AI. If I need to read wiki and forums to figure out what the heck had happened, then the design had failed.
Kind of sad, I was hoping that this will scratch my Star Ruler 2 itch, which I still occasionally pull out for an “Invasion” mode game.
Makes sense to me. In fact, I don’t know why he has a difficulty 1-2 at all. No one ever seems to play on that level. Why not start with difficulty 3 as the easiest, convert 7 to 5, 10, to 8, and invent new difficulties 11 and 12?
Ah well, sorry you’re no longer enjoying it. I’ll miss bantering with you about the game. I’m still really enjoying it. I see the AI do plenty of smart things – punishing me when I leave something unprotected or when I take reckless chances. But I admit the frequent patching has been a bit disorienting. Fortunately, the latest patch is minor fixes, plus a greater number of hacking difficulty levels, which makes sense to me.
Historically, in the first game, 10 was deliberately kept nearly impossible to win. There wasn’t a need for an 11 or 12.
Yeah, I don’t feel strongly about it, as I have yet to beat difficulty level 8. :) My one win against difficulty 7 was a nail-biter.
Is it necessary to hack Global Command Augmenters, or can you capture them by building a Command Station next to them? If you do the latter, does the GCA give bonuses to all Command Stations or just the one it is next to?
You can capture them and get all the benefits without hacking them. The only difference is that if the AI destroys them then you will lose the benefits.
If you capture and then hack it costs fewer hacking points, but otherwise is the same as hacking without capturing first.
The AIP goes up when a captured GCA is destroyed.
Okay, thanks @magnet and @bobtree. My rule of thumb will be if it is in a sector that I plan to hold, I will capture the GCA otherwise I will hack it. I am learning to be more judicious in how I use hacking points.
Found what appears to be an experienced player doing a lets play at difficulty 8. He complains that he couldn’t find any high level lets plays at the start either!
Would still like to see someone making headway at level 9 or 10.
And another, but is release version:
Thanks for posting those. I watched a fair chunk of each. I thought the first one, by Flypaste, was better; he played at a reasonable pace and commented on his actions. He’s a regular poster on the Discord channel for this game, and he knows what he’s doing. He was playing at difficulty 8 and making good progress.
The second video had only music, and while at difficulty 10, the guy was playing recklessly and inefficiently, or so I thought. E.g., he didn’t clear the first system before trying to build his first logistical station, and he almost lost his homeworld straightaway as a result. Still, he’s obviously experienced at the game, as he did manage to survive and even prosper.
Me, I’ve now got close to 100 hours in this version. I can beat difficulty 7 but haven’t beaten 8 yet. That difficulty level is the sweet spot for me – a good challenge but not impossible. I can now pretty routinely get to the middle game – but I haven’t gotten further yet. One time a cross-planet attack buried me, just when I thought I had the game in hand. In another, I just got tunnel vision and ignored an assault on my homeworld. In my current game, I had 4 planets but just lost one to a cross-planet attack, and now I’m debating whether to retake the lost world or take a metal-generating converter; I’ll probably do the latter, as metal is tight.
I am finding Thotimx’’ series helpful, especially #6 on strategic thinking and his chess analogies to help guide one to being a stronger player.
That said, a level 5 AI snuck in the backdoor and snuffed my home system while I was playing yesterday.
Good interview with Chris on explorminate - https://explorminate.podbean.com/e/interview-with-chris-park-of-arcen-games/ I could listen to him talk about the game all day.
