How’s the AI. I got burned on Endless Space because of a lot of early praise, then the shine came off when people discovered the AI was pretty poor - but I had already purchased the game :( So I’m very interested in how the AI was.
I think it’s best if you read the authors blog post on exactly this matter from yesterday!
http://www.stardrivegame.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2578
Even without these improvements it was already competent, but not brilliant or anything. It was capable of using all aspects of the game on normal, and also put up a constant threat.
What it wasn’t capable of was to make use of the many exploits the game currently offers, especially related to research. Also ship design is somewhat unbalanced. It’s possible to create a titan that can spawn 14 heavy fighters instantly, which would otherwise take almost as much effort to produce as the titan itself. Except if these fighters get shot down, they just respawn after a while completely for free!
In my last game I didn’t have the need for any fleets anymore. One such titan was enough to hold back any amount of ships the AI was able to muster. But to be fair I also didn’t give them a chance to develop properly by misusing the other currently available exploit of rain-dropping ground forces everywhere right from the start of the game.
How does one get ground troops to another planet? Is there some special ship part that you need (like a troop carrier) that you fit onto a ship? I cannot figure out how to order troops to attack a planet or even just move them to help defend.
Right-click on the troop from the planet ground view launches them to orbit, then you control them as with any other ship. When they are near a planet, there is a button on the planet view to land them.
Thanks!
This game is looking better and better as it goes. I didn’t do the kickstarter, but I think I’ll wind up getting it sooner than later.
This game is plenty good. Its primarily a ‘light’ version of Distant Worlds but with better graphics. It lacks the Distant Worlds feel of a huge empire, but if you play it enough it gets you to the meat of politics and combat pretty quick. Imo, its more fun than Endless Space if thats any indication. I’d definitely recommend this game to any DW fans or even fans of Imperium Galactica II (which is an underrated space 4x game).
What I REALLY like is the ship builder… imagine mashing in Gratuitous Space Battles into DW… you get Stardrive. Really good beta so far! Can only get better.
also, the AI is serviceable… it works and is aggressive when it needs to be. as well, the automation is spot on when you know whats happening. Right now the game is in a better state than DW was at release. its not a ‘run of the mill’ indie space 4x game… it knows what its doing.
Also the dev has been very active and responsive to customer input; he is working on a scaling UI this week!
Anyone know how well this runs on not great laptop? Sounds great at first glance though.
Interesting and compelling description. I have to say that DW kinda turned me off with all the automation that’s pretty much required (I’m a base-building RTS lover at heart, although I have to admit to greatly enjoying Eufloria), but this one seems to strike a nice balance from what I’ve been able to see thus far - the starship fiddling, especially.
I have been enjoying this game for the last couple of nights. Still trying to get the hang of things, but it seems to be more 4X than Sins ever was and I like that.
I’d say that it’s more complicated. I wouldn’t say I like it better, but it has a distinct enough feel that it should hold its own niche in my rotation should it turn out to be good enough.
A little help from the hivemind would be useful: I’ve only spent a short time with it, and I still don’t have the hang of how to manage my ships, yet (I’m stupid that way … among many others, I’m sure ;). If I want to pull back my fleet from an attack, they’ll go to whatever planet I tell them (or the nearest base to repair if I pick that button), but then they turn right back around and head to the prior system and keep fighting. THAT’S annoying, because I usually want to rebuild the fleet in between skirmishes and they’ll arrive in a haphazard manner and get pounded because they’re so outnumbered all of a sudden.
Ships not listening to my orders and generally chasing ships way out and not returning to base is what drives me mental with this game, hopefully he will fix it soon.
Also a BIG fyi on the game. High taxes does not cause any chance of rebellion. Its just a way to manage cash/production… ie 60% tax really means 40 surplus 60 production. The downside of high taxes is when you do go in the red you will start getting more chance of rebellion. Maybe they should have named it some sort of balance between production / happiness or something… I literally taxed at 100% at some points when I didn’t need to build anything new.
Research is affected as well
So I’ve finally put a bit of time into this, and I’m digging it. It’s got some odd issues and such, but I like the mostly streamlined interface (except for the fleet screen, because whoa) and it seems much faster paced that most spacey 4X games I’ve played.
Is combat manageable, or does it boil down to throw a whole bunch of ships at the enemy and hope for the best?
So far it’s been manageable due to being able to pause and being able to put ships into fleets and give the fleets singular orders.
With the release imminent along with very fond memories of Master of Orion and Sword of the Stars, what is the feeling on this one? Is it actually release ready or is a beta going retail? The main feedback I am reading is that it is very solid, but has some late game performance issues (slow down and such). Give me a reason to go all spacey this weekend Brian. =)