SirDamnALot wrote:- Is there a way to check the mercenary ship specs before buying them?

Not currently. We might be able to put an "examine" rollover icon in.

SirDamnALot wrote:- Are the mercs humans, like their "ambassador" or Ashdars, like their ships?

The pirate character in the Mercenary Exchange is a placeholder; it will eventually be a Phidi character.

SirDamnALot wrote:- It is noted that they may desert if you order them to do stuff they don't like.
What would that be? I guess attacking their race (see question above)

If your reputation with the host faction drops to unfriendly levels, there is a chance that mercenaries will desert.

SirDamnALot wrote:- How are the merc ships calculated? Do they have the tech level of their host race? Do they upgrade over time their stock of ships?

They do upgrade over time.

SirDamnALot wrote:- I was orbiting a raider colony, after blasting away their fleet (torpedo destroyers Ho!). Only leaving their asteroid station until i got more ships ready.
In the meantime, the Ashdars see their chance and send an invasion expedition. My advisor askes if I want to join the ensuing battle.
How would the AI see this? Would it take note which side I fire upon or would my meddling alone be seen as an act of aggression?
My standing at the time was quite friendly with the Ashdar (trade, science, open port treaty but no alliance) and at war with the raiders (of course, you don't demand tribute from a merchant prince without repercussions )

Currently, all three-party battles are a free-for-all, even if two of the parties are friendly, and there are no morale penalties involved. We have specific plans to fix this, but they are not yet implemented.

SirDamnALot wrote:- enemy transport ships did not flee combat, even after their escorts (Human pirates, Gremak raiders) disintegrated.
Intentional to avoid a goose chase through the galaxy?

I suspect this is because they had troops in them and so the AI viewed them as offensive.

Arioch wrote:

SirDamnALot wrote:- Is there a way to check the mercenary ship specs before buying them?

Not currently. We might be able to put an "examine" rollover icon in.

Nice
That remindes me: If a ship has a scanner, the tooltip on the build menu mentions it. Same with science stations ("gain +2 science..").
But if you have both, only one is mentioned in the tooltip.

Arioch wrote: If your reputation with the host faction drops to unfriendly levels, there is a chance that mercenaries will desert.

Oh that is a nice complication of things There's a reason Machiavelli was banging about owning a standing army instead of sell-swords

Arioch wrote: Currently, all three-party battles are a free-for-all, even if two of the parties are friendly, and there are no morale penalties involved. We have specific plans to fix this, but they are not yet implemented.

The multi factions battle are a really cool idea, even if they occour not too often.
Besides the AIs noting who is firing at who, it would be nice to have an option panel to choose whose faction is considered (currently) hostile in the encounter. (To avoid "oops" moments with missile retargeting or automated defense weapons
It's such a diplomatic faux pas if you want to help out against a common enemy and blow the wrong ships up )

Arioch wrote: I suspect this is because they had troops in them and so the AI viewed them as offensive.

A valiant, but hopeless, effort

So, the update is really cool , playing the Imperials feels a little like my favorite faction in SotS (Hivers ftw).

What I would want is that the fertility and minerals to be seen from the system menu just like the max pop and special resources are, would make deciding what to colonize and what planets to specialize far easier.

Also maybe a way to add notes to a planet other than changing the name.

I'd like a way to get random names appropriate to a given species for renaming planets. As things stand, I just have to guess, but it would be nice to know that what I'm renaming that nice new Island I just colonised is an appropriate Phidi name.

The behavior we agreed upon will be that you can't fire on ships unless you declare war first. To that end, when there is a potential for conflict with a fleet you're not at war with (such as when they want to colonize a planet you're guarding, or attack a minor faction you're friendly with, or just hanging out in one of your systems), we want to add a "parley" button so that you can threaten war in an attempt to force them to leave the system. So the result will be either they leave (with an appropriate reputation hit), or you have to go to war; no more penalty-free slaughter of colony ships.

SmaugTheDragon wrote:What I would want is that the fertility and minerals to be seen from the system menu just like the max pop and special resources are, would make deciding what to colonize and what planets to specialize far easier.

Mineral rich or poor is shown with an icon in the same place special resources are. Fertility isn't variable but is fixed by planet type, which you should be able to tell from the planet graphic itself.

Arioch wrote: Mineral rich or poor is shown with an icon in the same place special resources are. Fertility isn't variable but is fixed by planet type, which you should be able to tell from the planet graphic itself.

I've seen some Arids be high fertility and some be low fertility in recent builds. There's a visual distinction (high fertility Arids have natural greenery and open water on some of their surface), but is this intended behavior?

I think I have to pay some more attention to planet graphics as I did not know that there was a difference between a low fertility and high fertility ocean worlds.

As far as I'm aware, fertility of Ocean worlds is always Low.

The only case of fertility variability within a planet type that I know of is Arid type worlds (including Desert and Steppes), which have different fertility according to whether they have thin or thick atmospheres. But in this case there's a visual cue: fertile Arid worlds will exhibit noticeable greening.

Arioch wrote:As far as I'm aware, fertility of Ocean worlds is always Low.

"Fertility", fundamentally, is a confusing game mechanic, because it varies not only with the properties of planet, but also with the the species of any colonists. The biggest example being 'Iceball' worlds, which are 'high fertility' for any Orthin colonists, and completely unfarmable by anyone else.

Right now, Ocean worlds are set as 'low fertility for all races, with the exception of Threshers, who count them as 'high fertility'. I'm not sure if that level of complexity is necessarily bad, but, if we're going to keep it in the game, we certainly need to explain it better.

Arioch wrote:The behavior we agreed upon will be that you can't fire on ships unless you declare war first. To that end, when there is a potential for conflict with a fleet you're not at war with (such as when they want to colonize a planet you're guarding, or attack a minor faction you're friendly with, or just hanging out in one of your systems), we want to add a "parley" button so that you can threaten war in an attempt to force them to leave the system. So the result will be either they leave (with an appropriate reputation hit), or you have to go to war; no more penalty-free slaughter of colony ships.

Sounds good. Even without reputation hit, just shooting down the colony ship felt wrong.
Maybe have two ways for the colony ship dilemma, a "bugger off, or else!" message which is rude (reputation hit), but cheap (and may result in war) and a "pretty please leave" message that costs a nice sum of the political goodwill currency.

Arioch wrote: Currently, all three-party battles are a free-for-all, even if two of the parties are friendly, and there are no morale penalties involved. We have specific plans to fix this, but they are not yet implemented.

In the previous Steam release, if I was fighting a battle with an ally against a common enemy, we have started on the same side and were fighting together

It was hellish fun defending the ally ships...

So it seems to me that this was already implemented for allies

SirDamnALot wrote: Maybe have two ways for the colony ship dilemma, a "bugger off, or else!" message which is rude (reputation hit), but cheap (and may result in war) and a "pretty please leave" message that costs a nice sum of the political goodwill currency.

Sounds great, but this should then work the other way around as well meaning: The AI should be able to deny colonization for the player if they can afford the diplomacy currency. The player should then be notified which planet and why he/she cannot colonize and should only be allowed to do so if war is declared on the AI which has issued this.

Perhaps the most annoying ai action is to immediately, upon the player clearing pirates/monsters from a system, to send a colony ship there (ashdar imperials are very annoying doing this, with their 1 turn to get there from their home system). A 3rd option (we claim this system, please leave) should be open if the player was the one who actually cleared it.

Planets galore: When you start getting more than 10 planets, going to each one to select or check, or cancel can take a a while.
Possible Solution: On the same list of planets on the left, have a Quick Purchase option and or a clickable popup window with smaller icons to select the same task as you would on the larger screen.

Is it possible to put a background highlight or a star over the planets, drawn out on the bottom for those of us with short term memories to show us which planet we're selected on?

The Gremak raiders stop raiding even when they have a superior fleet. Did they ever?

Something silly: Naming my faction leader at the start of the game.
Maybe add a textbox on the galaxy setup screen with the current faction leader name as the default.