A rule of thumb for a "normal game is 10-15 stars per player. You can assume that 1/3 of the stars will be colonizable so you’re looking at 3-5 colonies before you bump into your neighbors. For 3 players I’d recommend 40-45 stars.
It could not be difficult to show the unexplored planets’ names in purple or orange or something. Rally points, a way to show the explored planets in the management view with compressed information, a way to show the explored planets without the cost prohibitive ones showing up, etc etc.
You can gray out unexplored stars by using the bar at the bottom. Click on the circle icon, then click on the star icon from the pop-out to gray out stars and leave explored planets the same. There’s a hotkey for that in the manual.
Click on the budget pie or hotkey “e” to bring up the empire summary. Click on the Explored Planets tab then either double click on the hazard rating of a planet or right click to get the sorting list for planets. Double clicking on the planet itself will take you back to the star map with that planet centered and selected. Click once and press “e” or “esc” to get back to the star map selected but not centered.
Rally points can be handy, but range would be an issue. How would you coordinate tankers with your fleets to ensure that you don’t run out of range 1/2 way to a long range rally point?
Ah, I see. But your presuming that I didn’t start 8 turns ahead of you to begin with :)
Yes, if I have an emergency, I’m certainly not going to build all 8 at one planet. But I usually don’t have emergencies that require immediate attention. Without that pressing need, I can que up ships at one planet if I want to.
Your strategy is needed if you are building fleets only for specific actions at a certain time. But I tend to build fleets for area defense/offense. You have to have some defense fleets so I build some all along, replacing obsolete designs with newer ones. When I want to take the offensive, I’ll build some additional ships, add them to an existing fleet and off we go.
Barring emergencies, I don’t think microing building is all that necessary, but that’s just one man’s opinion :)
Well technically it’s mentioned on page 15 of the new manual that comes with the expansion:
It’s possible for a player to encounter a planet, but not survive the turn, and so information on the planet isn’t marked on the Strategy Map (though they do get a visual idea of suitability in the combat turn – smart players should take note.) In these cases, the planet is marked black with a red X, until the player can properly explore the system. Until a planet is encountered, the system is marked with a star.
but I know you haven’t gotten the expansion yet Quitch. :)
There is also a new political view (space for hotkey) which makes for a very simple view of explored vs. unexplored systems and the extent of each empire and military forces. Very handy for people who have difficulty getting oriented on the more complex 3d map types.
Two equal players playing an equal game, the guy who does the above will win.
The thing is, I don’t think you have to or actually can play the game that way. You’ve got to have defensive fleets in place. It doesn’t take much to add some ships to make it offensive. I don’t see any need for any “microing” production in this game more than any other like Civ or GalCiv. Any game that has a que where you can’t produce units instantly has the same issue that you claim - unless I’m still missing something.
If every player could only produce fleets only when he needed them, and he and his opponent needed them at the exact same time, then yes, the guy that spreads production over a number of planets might win because he can produce faster. But the game doesn’t play like that. You produce can ships when you want and as I’ve also, said you need to have fleets all along.
You’re also ignoring travel time. Everyone can’t instantly move ships through space like the Hivers in your example. If it takes 4 turns to assemble ships at one point, that one point might be able in those 4 turns to build many of the ships you want. When travel speeds increase in the late game, the speed of fleet production/assembly matters more than earlier.
Yes, the instant travel time and ability to converge every warship you own in one system in one turn is what offsets the Hivers’ ultra-slow expansion rate. However, it’s also what makes them bastards.
When playing other races you have to have enough of a fleet to delay the attacking enemies long enough to get your fleet there. Defense platforms are good for that. They won’t wipe the enemy out, but they might eat up a few rounds in attrition while you scramble forces.
Well, those dumbfire missiles can really kick out a storm. The only problem is you really need to worry about friendly fire. It’s not good when a Liir cruiser dodges a wave of rockets and they go slamming into your own fleet. Very pretty though.
I’ve never played this game before and went to buy it.
This is an evil game. I stayed up past quarter to three. The interface is fine, certaintly better than the Imperium Galactica or such. The 3d strategic map is somewhat confusing but I can survive. I do not enjoy the tech screen - zooming in is very quick but zooming out (with mouse wheel) is very slow.
Ship design is decent. I usually hate ship design games because every 5 turns I have to go obsolete my entire fleet.
The game oozes a lot of flavor. The tech descriptions are somewhat confusing thought. I see my ships have Barrage hulls, AI Command hulls, Fire control, hammerhead. Point absorbtion. I’m going to assume point absorb absorbs damage, but where can I find this infromation? Also, what is the accuracy mod on the AI bridge?
Cluster galaxies seem easier to play - the chokepoints are easier for the human to defend, and the layout of territory is a bit neater for my poor brain to visualize.
I really like the warheads tech because they auto-upgrade.
Double-click on the tech icon to zoom all the way in and bring up the description. Double-click the icon again to zoom back out.
I’m going to assume point absorb absorbs damage, but where can I find this infromation? Also, what is the accuracy mod on the AI bridge?
The “i” icon on the bottom bar of the design screen toggles a description of the current ship sections. Point Absorber redirects some damage from energy weapons to recharge your own weapons faster. AI Command increases accuracy by 95% and also increases ship maneuverability and turret turning speed. AI techs are very powerful, just beware a rebellion. Having 1/3 of your empire rise up and seek your destruction can really ruin your day.
Well, I’m having quite a bit of fun with this game. Is the ‘An End to Flesh’ scenario supposed to be rather tough? I set the AI to medium difficulty and my fleshy allies are just getting destroyed by the ‘Singularity’ AI player. Playing the Hivers, I’ve tried to protect some of the nearby worlds of my allies, but the size of the fleets the Singularity is sending means the planets often get toasted even if I achieve a good exchange ratio and ‘win’ the battle.
I haven’t lost any of my original colonies, but man, it’s starting to look like a sea of red out there.
It is meant to be tough, from what I’ve heard. I’m playing it as Liir, and the AI has just started sending fleets across the rift. Deep space interception with fleets of disruptor DEs is fun :) The scenario seems a good way to jump straight into diplomacy and trade.
Command question: How DO I select the fleet composition and layout? I have my strikeforce CnCs. Is there a button I’m missing somewhere, or is the fleet layout supposed to show up by itself before every combat?
Gaia virus rocks! I like the neat and compact tech tree, and the pseudorandom component. My favorite way to play Moo1 was Uncreative.
Have a weird Liir game going. 6 players, 75 stars, rifts. Very early i meet another AI Liir race who signs a non-aggression treaty. 200 turns later only 3 races are left and the liir have stuck as loyal allies. Yummy preterraformed planets ;)
About 1/2 way down the left side is the fleet management button. You need to use it before combat, once the turn has ended it’s too late. Click on the starred fleet to select. Ships in the first wave will start on the field, drag them onto the layout for positioning. Reinforcements will enter in order from top to bottom, you can right click on the list to sort or drag and drop manually to put your support ships at the bottom. Squad buttons across the top of the layout allow you to set number groups (ctrl-1, 1, etc.) before the battle.
I’m enjoying this expansion quite a bit. It certainly doesn’t hurt that the super-large battles load very quickly now and I get no slow-down in the big fights on my new machine.
I’m wondering a bit about the energy-cannon line of weapons. These were extended quite a bit with the storm projectors and the triple-shot heavy energy guns. So they are really quite effective.
I’m wondering about counters, though. On the defensive side, the only thing that helps against them is energy absorbers, and that’s a low-probability tech with only one chance to get it. Shields stop them, but fall apart very quickly and generally seem pretty useless.
Given how extensive the energy cannon tree is now, I feel there should be a tech dedicated specifically to stopping them. Maybe one way to do it would be to have energy cannons only do 1/4 damage against full-ship shields. That way it would take, uh, 20 seconds to knock down a ship’s shields under heavy fire, instead of the 5 seconds (or 1/2 a plasma-storm burst) that it takes now.
I have a dumb question. How does Gamersgate work? Do you get a SN and download the game you order? Or does it install a bunch of crap itself to do the install and while running the game? I love Stardock as you have a normal copy of the software, but STEAM stinks in this fashion for most of its games. And I hate WildTangent.
I bought it (SotS exp) on Gamersgate the other day. I got a free account (usual info), logged in, bought the game via paypal and installed and ran the GG downloader, which is mandatory I think, as you have to log in to it with your GG account details. It basically just downloads and extracts a bunch of compressed files. That gets you a standard game installer package which you run to get the game installed.
At some point there is supposed to be some kind of phoning home, but it was transparent for me, so I guess whatever app did the phoning got a pass from XP SP2 firewall and Windows Defender. Once it’s installed and running you don’t need an internet connection or even the CD/DVD if, like me, you have a physical copy of the original game. The GG downloader is an app you run when you want to log in and download your games or other files. It doesn’t run as a driver or service as far as I know.
Energy cannons are somewhat unique in that they have three range bands. At point blank and long ranges the damage is much less, so stay outside ideal range or get into a knife fight if you can. Mass drivers have better damage than their energy counterparts at all ranges. Projectors are very tough if you have slow moving cruisers or dreadnoughts since you take most of the bullet storm. One tactic I’ve found effective to directly target the huge projector dish. Get a few escorting destroyers (less surface area for the projector storm to hit) to target the dish directly and disable it before you get into range with your bigger ships.
Also remember that traditional armors not only give you a chance to deflect ballistic fire but they do give you a HP bonus as well which helps with survivability. Additionally, you can try to keep your bigger ships head on to a projector to keep a lower profile and take less hits. This is especially good for the Tarkas with their reinforced command sections and a lot of forward firing weapons.
