First time player observations (Full Version)

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Puzzlemaker -> First time player observations (12/31/2010 3:24:53 AM)

Sup guys, first time playing and first time posting. Just thought I would share some of my finds, observations, and bugs I found in my first full game through.

First of all, I -love- the fact that everything can be set to fully automated. It's fun to switch between doing different things in your vast empire. One thing though; some popups still happen that ask for input(Such as some random diplomatic stuff) even when it's set on full automation. I don't know if it's me being stupid and missing an option, or if there are some popups that always pause the game no matter what.

A problem I ran into was the huge numbers in diplomacy. Oftentimes it was hard to tell exactly how many zeroes there where. Adding in commas every three (Like so: 100,000,000) would solve this and make it more readable. Not that big of a deal, but it would be a nice touch.

The fact that you can attack empires without war declarations made me extremely happy. It really gave the feeling of being on the brink of war, when they would take pot shots at guys going through their system, or how you could deal with problematic installations without starting a full fledged war. Thumbs up.

Speaking of pot shots... dealing with the YOU ARE UNDER ATTACK!!!111 spam would be nice. I want to know when I am under attack, not when exploration ship #6 has had a single round shot at it. Plus I think it does each ship individually (Instead of by system, or by fleet), or something like that. Something to reduce the amount of spam would be nice, especially later in the game.

I had a strange bug where the cost to get a close ally of someone to attack his ally was negative. I suspect an integer overflowed, something to look into.

Speaking of diplomacy, I don't know if it's just the race I was playing (humans) but when set on automatic it felt the need to piss off every single race in existance. Just an observation.

I also felt like the AI didn't make super rare resources very important; it seems they should fight over them a bit more.

One thing that confuses me about creating ships; What exactly does making them a capital ship versus a frigate DO? Does it just effect the ships AI? And if so, how?

Oh, something really really annoying: When selecting the planet, it cuts off the summary view. I don't know of it's my monitors resolution (Quite large). Please fix this!

Fuel was a huge, huuuge, huuuuuuuuuge pain in my ass until I managed to figure it out, sort of. I still don't fully understand it, and it's not explained very well (How do I view what type of fuel my ships use?). I ran into a few cases where I wasn't able to refuel, and couldn't figure out why. Pretty frustrating.

Fleet invasion took me a bit to figure out. At first I was wondering why my ships weren't taking colonies, until I figured out that I actually had to invade them with soldiers, which makes sense. I also discovered that bombarding the planet doesn't really target the enemy troops, just... everything. So having ships in orbit around a planet doesn't help the invading armies at all, which is a little... odd. Seems that controlling the sky should give SOME sort of bonus. Maybe fighters should be able to target troops on planets? Maybe ships in the vicinity of a hostile planet should automatically blockade the planet which lowers the colonies defenses for invasion? I dunno. Just seems like being able to rain down nuclear bombs at will should make it easier to invade the planet.

That's about it for now. Great game, I really enjoyed playing it. So many possibilities, especially with the automation system. [:)]



Rosseau -> RE: First time player observations (12/31/2010 3:33:18 AM)

I'm going to be a first-time player pretty soon myself, so hoping the veterans answer some of Puzzlemaker's questions. Definitely appears the WitE of 4x games, which is a great thing, despite the learning curve. Thanks!



lordxorn -> RE: First time player observations (12/31/2010 3:36:38 AM)

Try the beta patch, it adds commas.

Give the fuel system a chance, it has been discussed in detail on the "Ban Fuel" thread.

The class of ship is mainly for organizing your fleets, because you can make a frigate the size of a cap ship. For example I use escorts and frigate only as escorts, or on automation to protect my private sector, leaving me to micro manage my fleets of destroyer, cruiser, and cap ships.

I would recommend not leaving diplomacy on full auto, maybe set to suggest and you will see some of the craziness your defense minister is pushing your state minister into. =P

For fuel make sure you design ships with at least 300 cap, and add a collector so your reactors dont burn fuel sitting in a system.

As far as ships in orbit you mention no bonus to invading troops? It makes sense to me because if your fleet in orbit were to open up, it would be the same effect as bombardment right? But you make sense about fighters and such.

glad you enjoy it, and welcome to DW!



Queeg -> RE: First time player observations (12/31/2010 3:39:19 AM)

Still working my way through my first game as well (after a few false starts). I still have most everything on auto. Great fun so far.



Gargoil -> RE: First time player observations (12/31/2010 3:42:33 AM)

One thing that confuses me about creating ships; What exactly does making them a capital ship versus a frigate DO? Does it just effect the ships AI? And if so, how? [:o] I doesn't always matter. The main reasons for these class designations - Specific missions (like exploration have orders that others do not), AI treatment when its one of their ships, your own organization, and what pirates would steal, design wise.

Oh, something really really annoying: When selecting the planet, it cuts off the summary view. I don't know of it's my monitors resolution (Quite large). Please fix this! [:o] Never seen this.

Fuel was a huge, huuuge, huuuuuuuuuge pain in my ass until I managed to figure it out, sort of. I still don't fully understand it, and it's not explained very well (How do I view what type of fuel my ships use?). I ran into a few cases where I wasn't able to refuel, and couldn't figure out why. Pretty frustrating. [:o] The design screen tells you what fuel it takes.

Fleet invasion took me a bit to figure out. At first I was wondering why my ships weren't taking colonies, until I figured out that I actually had to invade them with soldiers, which makes sense. I also discovered that bombarding the planet doesn't really target the enemy troops, just... everything. So having ships in orbit around a planet doesn't help the invading armies at all, which is a little... odd. Seems that controlling the sky should give SOME sort of bonus. Maybe fighters should be able to target troops on planets? Maybe ships in the vicinity of a hostile planet should automatically blockade the planet which lowers the colonies defenses for invasion? I dunno. Just seems like being able to rain down nuclear bombs at will should make it easier to invade the planet. [:o] Your ships will mainly help to draw fire from the space defenses so your transport can land their troops. Bombarding will hurt your reputation quite badly, so do it only if your playing in "EVIL" mode. [:D]




Puzzlemaker -> RE: First time player observations (12/31/2010 3:54:34 AM)

So you can't see what kind of fuel it needs just by clicking on the ship or something?  That's irksome.  What are the differences between the reactor types?

And since controlling the skies of a planet doesn't do anything, couldn't you just load of a ton of transports and bum rush the enemy capital with troops?  If so that's pretty stupid.

One thing I forgot to add:  Why is it that your capital has so much more population compared to your colonies?



Gargoil -> RE: First time player observations (12/31/2010 4:08:57 AM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Puzzlemaker

So you can't see what kind of fuel it needs just by clicking on the ship or something?  That's irksome.  What are the differences between the reactor types?

And since controlling the skies of a planet doesn't do anything, couldn't you just load of a ton of transports and bum rush the enemy capital with troops?  If so that's pretty stupid.

One thing I forgot to add:  Why is it that your capital has so much more population compared to your colonies?



You can see from clicking the ship with one additional click. The summary screen of the ship has a direct like to the design right there. Anyway, all your ships will be using the base fuel (caslon if I am spelling it right) unless you start with an advanced tech in options. As you advance your reactor tech, yes, you will start needing different fuel types. Very sensible in my view. It is an interesting gameplay mechanic. If you decided to have these advanced reactors, you are going to need to obtain that alternate fuel - maybe even fight for it.

As for the bum rush of planets, that is going fail or be very costly. But it does work. There is a whole thread on this subject, and the developers listen very well to these types of observations. I am very confident it will be addressed in a patch, most likely the next one. Something along the lines of a planet is going to need to be defenseless to invade or maybe space base defenses will be able to fire at ground troops.

Lastly, Capital planets are the Home Worlds. I agree the should start so much larger then colonies. But I would like to see colonies grow to be larger by mid to late game as well.



Puzzlemaker -> RE: First time player observations (12/31/2010 4:22:04 AM)

Ah, I didn't know you could view the design from the summary; That is very helpful, thanks.

Glad the troop bum rushing is being addressed, as well.

Edit: And that information about the calson is nice too. Is there a galactopedia page dedicated to fuel?



lordxorn -> RE: First time player observations (12/31/2010 5:39:16 AM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Puzzlemaker

Ah, I didn't know you could view the design from the summary; That is very helpful, thanks.

Glad the troop bum rushing is being addressed, as well.

Edit: And that information about the calson is nice too. Is there a galactopedia page dedicated to fuel?


From Galactopaedia


"All ships require fuel to move around the galaxy. Fuel is a critical resource that allows your empire to expand.

How fuel is used
Fuel is consumed by reactor components to generate raw energy. This energy is then used by all of the components on a ship or base that require it. This includes energy for engines and hyperdrives to move a ship. Other components that consume energy include: shields (when recharging), weapons, construction yards, and many others.

Each type of reactor consumes a particular type of fuel. Fission and Quantum reactors consume Caslon fuel. Fusion and HyperFusion reactors consume Hydrogen fuel.

Refuelling
Refuelling points are locations that are willing to sell fuel to the ships in your empire. This includes all friendly space ports, colonies and gas mining stations that mine a fuel resource. This also includes independent colonies. The location of refuelling points are indicated by a blue circular icon next to the system name when zoomed out to the galaxy level.

The current movement range of the selected ship is shown by a dashed gray range circle that can be seen when zoomed out to the galaxy level. This helps you to visually gauge how far a ship can travel before it requires refuelling.

You can choose to receive warning messages when a ship is low on fuel. You can then assign a refuel mission to the ship.

When a ship runs out of fuel it will automatically switch to using it’s emergency fuel supply. When using the emergency fuel supply the ship will move at one third of normal speed. The emergency fuel supply will last indefinitely, but you should refuel the ship to regain normal movement speeds.

Energy Collectors
Bases can typically supply most of their energy needs by using energy collector components. Energy collectors generate energy from the radiation of a nearby star, reducing the need for fuels like Caslon or Hydrogen. However energy collectors only operate while stationary, so they are typically only of use on immobile bases.
"

Also I will paste an excerpt from Jeeves guide that is a WIP, and he asked the rest of us to finish it since he is away from DW at the moment. Maybe one of the other testers or modders will finish it.

"a) Invest in explorers!
Rather than spending all of your initial cash on a colony ship or two and a construction ship, use some cash to buy four explorers. If your home system is quite near a nebula (within 2 million range ~ a sector), then consider designing and building at least one explorer with a long range scanner and PLENTY of fuel plus energy collectors on board. Be sure to add extra reactors to obtain your maximum hyperspace speed. I suggest this because you can often find restricted zones in nebulas — see the discussion f) Restricted Zones below.
"



hewwo -> RE: First time player observations (12/31/2010 1:51:44 PM)

Puzzlemaker, most of your observations are spot on and should be fixed/improved upon!



Spacecadet -> RE: First time player observations (12/31/2010 6:19:44 PM)

Fuel - it confused me too for quite some time early on, even with the Galactopaedia explanation.

Here's the simplest I can think to summarize it:

1.) Everything runs on Energy.
2.) You get Energy from Reactors (or Collectors when sitting idle).
3.) Reactors need Fuel to create Energy.
4.) The Reactor type determines which type of Fuel it needs - Caslon or Hydrogen.






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