Captainspire wrote:Also, on about all my games, the Yoral seem to overpower everyone else and have a more aggressive expansion. That’s just how they are it seems

Yes -- right now, the Yoral battleship and heavy cruiser seem solidly OP, and they are running over just about everyone in most games (though the two Ashdar factions sometimes do pretty well, if they get strong starting positions). We have a another big ship/weapon patch in the works, and after it goes in, we'll be taking a hard look at race/hull balance.

I really hate to say this, but I'm gona say it.

My favorite load out are Rail guns, Primaries and some other weapon.

Ok here it goes.

- Rail guns should have a working range but not function at close range
- Primaries. I love primaries. They take down any missile or small craft. But they also stack a lot more than another other PD weapon.
Like for PD mass drivers its 4 or 6 while primaries are 24. Shouldn't they be a lot less?

-Mirv missiles - Give the missiles a chance. 1/2 way to the target they break up, making it harder to shoot them all down.

I noticed you reorganized the ship tech list on the refit screen from oldest tech to newest tech and that helps. It also seems that when you research a new ship, the initial ship screen has the latest tech installed already. Thank you

Captainspire wrote: My favorite load out are Rail guns, Primaries and some other weapon.

Add force lances for the turret section, they punch through shields too, then you got my jousting team
If the other side got railguns too, it's a question who can move in the best alpha strike position and one-shot the other.

Captainspire wrote: Like for PD mass drivers its 4 or 6 while primaries are 24. Shouldn't they be a lot less?

Put em on a planet for whooping 42 pieces, no missile/bomber ever will get through that kind of Flak

Fun anectode: in my current game, where I was lacking behind science-wise early, I got through derelict colonies in short order battle shields and railguns.
Boy, became I the bully of the universe with that (the rest were going for (turbo)lasers/coil guns and are now catching up)

But as said, another design pass is coming, so it's just silly placeholder fun

SirDamnALot wrote:

Captainspire wrote: My favorite load out are Rail guns, Primaries and some other weapon.

Add force lances for the turret section, they punch through shields too, then you got my jousting team
If the other side got railguns too, it's a question who can move in the best alpha strike position and one-shot the other.

Captainspire wrote: Like for PD mass drivers its 4 or 6 while primaries are 24. Shouldn't they be a lot less?

Put em on a planet for whooping 42 pieces, no missile/bomber ever will get through that kind of Flak

Fun anectode: in my current game, where I was lacking behind science-wise early, I got through derelict colonies in short order battle shields and railguns.
Boy, became I the bully of the universe with that (the rest were going for (turbo)lasers/coil guns and are now catching up)

But as said, another design pass is coming, so it's just silly placeholder fun

When I said "Some other weapon" I just didnt remember the name of the gun, it is the Force Lance gun and its pretty effective. I used to like helbornes but range and first strike abilities beat powerful guns in a game like this.

I don't feel so much like a bully when after the 30th turn two empires declare war on me just because.

Captainspire wrote: When I said "Some other weapon" I just didnt remember the name of the gun, it is the Force Lance gun and its pretty effective. I used to like helbornes but range and first strike abilities beat powerful guns in a game like this.

I don't feel so much like a bully when after the 30th turn two empires declare war on me just because.

But the fun ends with force shields, they block the piercing ability and you suddenly have some quite weak guns. Better have some other tech in the backhand to switch quickly =)

How are ship maintenance costs calculated? I have quite the sizeable fleet (Several Gremak assault carriers, battleships and command cruisers) but I only pay 57 bucks. A battleship seems to cost only 3 coins, thats a very good mileage for such a big ship
I think the cost could be upped a bit per size class to be noticeable.

SirDamnALot wrote:How are ship maintenance costs calculated? I have quite the sizeable fleet (Several Gremak assault carriers, battleships and command cruisers) but I only pay 57 bucks. A battleship seems to cost only 3 coins, thats a very good mileage for such a big ship
I think the cost could be upped a bit per size class to be noticeable.

Yes. This is a high-priority balance issue that I really need to look at ASAP. Um, of course, the diplomacy and morale mechanics are also still underdeveloped in all kinds of critical ways, so in this case "ASAP" may actually mean "just before EA starts"

How are ship maintenance costs calculated? I have quite the sizeable fleet (Several Gremak assault carriers, battleships and command cruisers) but I only pay 57 bucks. A battleship seems to cost only 3 coins, thats a very good mileage for such a big ship
I think the cost could be upped a bit per size class to be noticeable.

Im betting that with the economy system still in the works, having a battleship cost 20-40 per turn would be their entire empire income if they made 7 or more. This also gives us the ability to gauge what full scale combat would be with fleets rather than be hindered from ever making a sizable fleet to begin with.

It seems odd that factories don't contribute anything to the empire when their host planet is on research/trade/city planning activities. I have no wish for factories to steal markets' thunder, but perhaps factories on planets running those settings rather than having an active construction project could produce some very modest cash income representing tooling the planet's heavy industry to manufacture of capital equipment, components, and mass-produced consumer goods?

nweismuller wrote:It seems odd that factories don't contribute anything to the empire when their host planet is on research/trade/city planning activities. I have no wish for factories to steal markets' thunder, but perhaps factories on planets running those settings rather than having an active construction project could produce some very modest cash income representing tooling the planet's heavy industry to manufacture of capital equipment, components, and mass-produced consumer goods?

What about soil/air pollution and material waste and energy use when building something vs not building anything?

I get what your saying though. The same thing could be said for planetary food surplus but going there demands a new match chart to take into account all the pros and cons. I think they already do that, to some degree, in MoO2?

-=Race population removal=-

Other than blowing the population off the planet, I cannot transport all of a population off a planet to be moved elsewhere.

So if I have 1,378,874 humans on a planet and I have two transports, it does not allow me to put 1 million on one transport and 378,874 on the 2nd transport. Also as a Granok, I may want to..."transport" them to a happier Marauder planet for "resettlement."

Captainspire wrote:Other than blowing the population off the planet, I cannot transport all of a population off a planet to be moved elsewhere.

As in many other games of this kind, you're not allowed to abandon colonies, so you need 2 full population to be able to transport.

There are a variety of reasons for this, but the chief one is the tendency of some players to abandon and raze bases rather than let them be taken by the enemy. This is appropriate in some settings. but not as much in others. If you have the transports you can evacuate most of your population ahead of an enemy invasion, and I think that's sufficient. A conquerer deserves to get at least a bit of infrastructure for his troubles.

Captainspire wrote:So if I have 1,378,874 humans on a planet and I have two transports, it does not allow me to put 1 million on one transport and 378,874 on the 2nd transport. Also as a Granok, I may want to..."transport" them to a happier Marauder planet for "resettlement."

If you're a Gremak and you want to do away with a certain population, you can enslave them and then either work them to death or sell them.

As in many other games of this kind, you're not allowed to abandon colonies, so you need 2 full population to be able to transport.

There are a variety of reasons for this, but the chief one is the tendency of some players to abandon and raze bases rather than let them be taken by the enemy. This is appropriate in some settings. but not as much in others. If you have the transports you can evacuate most of your population ahead of an enemy invasion, and I think that's sufficient. A conquerer deserves to get at least a bit of infrastructure for his troubles.

My pattern is that I have, already, two transports with Gremak, land them on the planet, then -try- to pick up the 1.5 million humans, to ship them elsewhere. It won't let me do that. I never thought of going through all the effort to invade a planet just to strip it and leave. I just bomb it out of existence.

If you're a Gremak and you want to do away with a certain population, you can enslave them and then either work them to death or sell them.

Oh? So enslaving them slowly kills them? That's a good alternative. I remember doing that once and it never improved or boosted productivity so I never did it again.

Captainspire wrote:My pattern is that I have, already, two transports with Gremak, land them on the planet, then -try- to pick up the 1.5 million humans, to ship them elsewhere. It won't let me do that. I never thought of going through all the effort to invade a planet just to strip it and leave. I just bomb it out of existence.

I don't see that as being a problem.

Captainspire wrote:Oh? So enslaving them slowly kills them? That's a good alternative. I remember doing that once and it never improved or boosted productivity so I never did it again.

Slaves have a special ability called "Forced Labor" that lets you spend a point of slave population for a production boost. We're still working on balance that makes slaves useful without making them overpowered or required.

Perhaps a ship design setting enabling you to designate where it belongs in your battle lines (say from 1 to 9). a Rating of 1 would be at point, a rating of 9 is in the back with civilian vessels. This way you could use the default formation already in place, just shuffling where different ship designs would go.

I was wondering, shouldn't the diplomatic currency not be accounted individual for every race? Currently I can save up points with other races to push a newly detected race into agreements without really knowing each other. (Yes, prices vary somewhat)