1761

I think there’s a bug with starbases - they don’t upgrade beyond their basic weapons, right now.

1762

I don’t think they get all your new armor techs and stuff like that either. They scaling is just not right on them right now in a lot of ways, IMO. A fully upgraded starbase is a huge investment and I feel like it should take some serious effort to bring one down. I’m not sure if their designers agree with that or not, but I feel like that’s how it should be.

1763

I wish the star bases felt more like the ones in Sins of a Solar Empire. Like, they are expensive and stationary, but can slug it out in a fight with a fleet for a while before going down. Right now they literally last 5 seconds in a fight against a mid size fleet. Add to it the fact you can’t build stations near each other, and you can’t really put up any decent static defenses around your planets. And trying to have 10 different fleets around to defend everything would be SUPER annoying.

1764

I think stations are meant for multiplayer more than single player. There’s a real threat of small 500-1000 strength raiding parties knocking out every mining station you own in a war. These stations can knock raiding parties out and hold them in place until reinforcements arrive.

1765

I just finished up my first war and ended up vassalizing them. I wish there was some benefit, like getting 20% of their income or something. It looks like after a number of days of vassalization you can absorb them into your empire, so maybe that will be worth it.

I think a game like this, compared to a game like Civ - it feels kind of vague and hazy. I know that doesn’t make much sense. It also doesn’t feel like there is a lot to do because there just isn’t much detail in any one thing survey systems, Build mining / research stations, a limited variety of planetary improvements, and a very high level military system. It all lacks variety.

I know this all sounds like I don’t like the game, but that’s not necessarily it. It just seems like it’s missing stuff to make the list of tasks the player can perform more interesting.

1766

This game is a lot more fun, for me, when you dial back the amount of competition so the early/exploration game lasts longer. Wheeee more room for me! Yay!

1767

Careful, integrating subjects once vassalized is an ongoing process that can take 60-100 years (depending on pop of subject, I think) and costs 3 admin points per moth.

1768

integrating subjects once vassalized is an ongoing process that can take 60-100 years

Holy shit. I was planning on integrating some primitive screwheads via an observation post, but to hell with that.

1769

Primitives don’t take nearly so long. For me I was getting 3 progress points per month and needed 100 to complete it.

1770

Yeah, primitives are feasible. Vassals conquered by war are much more bothersome…

1771

Something strange is going on in my game as the United Nations of Earth. Not bugs, I think, no this is something more sinister.

First: a group of colonists decided to name their newly founded planet R’lyeh. On its own perhaps merely ominous, but:
Second: the scientist who surveyed that system is now a couple of years shy of being 300 years old (while my other leaders die around 150-160 years old, with the gene treatments they get). Clearly he is not human, which leads me to:
Third: Just inside the border of a Fallen Empire lies another system named Sol, looking from a distance very much like an exact copy of my home system. Yet, once I had gained access to it and surveyed it, I found that the third planet of that system was a tomb world, suffering from nuclear winter.

With every passing month, I find myself more and more doubting what we have been told about our history. How very convenient that we became star-farers around the same time as many other species. Too convenient. Having conquered, or allied with, half the galaxy, now I expect the Great Old Ones to reveal themselves at any point.

TL;DR: Even though the game has stopped providing scripted events, I find interesting stories to keep me going. :)

1772

That is a fun narrative.

1773

I’m find that enjoyable as well. I’ve been playing with an 800 star galaxy, which usually has 23 AI and 6 “advanced” AI players. After a few games where I was beset on all sides, unable to expand beyond 3 planets, I started over with 18 AI with 4 “advanced”. That has let me (and the other AIs too, for that matter) form an actual moderately sized empire before the inevitable border clashing begins.

1774

When I came across my first tomb world, I was terrified of a Necron Scenario. <.<

1775

In response to a Reddit thread asking “Does Ship Upgrading Take Too Long,” Paradox’s AI Lead responded, “Yes. Fixed in Clarke.”
The Clarke update is likely to hit beta on Steam next week.

1776

Reddit had a small thread where someone explored Earth. It was a tomb world. I was vaguely depressed, in the same way I was when one of my Space Kitty scientists kicked the bucket at the ripe old age of 107.

1777

107 Sheesh that’s like pre-school age for my “venerable” leaders plus all the tech life span enhancers. :)

I’m pretty sure I am solidly into the mid game. I have 5 full specialized planets, 2 of which are Gaia (2 tech, 1 minerals, 2 power) I’m researching Battleships and have rail gun and missile IV techs. 2 vassals and a partridge in a pear tree.

I got my second vassal because my friendly neighbor pulled a bone head move that I think might be an AI bug. I had done him a big favor by sending my Zentari Expeditionary Forces against his enemy 10 or so years earlier. I vassalized the religious space zealot and settled down for some re consolidation. My “friendly” neighbor should have thought first before he declared war on my vassal. Now at war I had no choice but to vassalize him now as well. It was a hard war. Even tech but I had a slight numbers advantage plus my vassal on his back door.

I’m playing a hyper space only game. It’s been very strategic. I would like to see some changes to how the ships use the lanes though. You shouldn’t be able to use the lanes unless you are out of the gravity well of the star in the system and you should have to be at the exit/entrance point. This would make defensive platforms and bases much more valuable and taking a system would be a lot more difficult. A big proglem now is that fleets chasing each other often end up jumping on to each other and it’s just a point blank jumble of ships. It would slow ship travel down but I think it would be worth it. System blockers like crystaline entities or amoebas would be more dangerous too.

I do see what people are saying now about the lack of mid game goals/events. I’ve been making my own so it’s still been a lot of fun.

1778

What happens if you don’t infiltrate. Is there a peaceful and happy way to to bring them in? I’ve infiltrated with all mine thus far because it’s an open option due to my policies.

I did re-absorb a vassal that I let go to independent once they were really, really loyal to me but it got out of hand fast… that took forever.

1779

I believe in the first game I played as a xenophile I was able to… I’m not sure if “uplift” is the right term for this scenario, but I was able to bring them up to speed on tech. It’s one of the four options available via the observation post. In any case, once I did that, they became my vassal.

1780

I think the changes you are suggesting would be interesting for a hyper-only game, but it would tilt the balance between different FTL types. One of hyper’s primary advantages is supposed to be the ability to ignore the grav limit and move quickly between systems. Maybe if you did this and at the same time made the other methods a lot slower. Overall the ship movement speed seems very fast.

I’d also like to see higher grades of hyper reveal new links. That would shake things up nicely :)