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Malevolence -> Legends - Invasion and Ground Combat (11/19/2011 6:48:14 PM)
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There are some really great new major features in Distant Worlds Legends, like bonus resources, characters, carriers, rail guns and phasers --- but there are also a lot of little improvements you will notice when you play.
I usually follow a hyper-expansion strategy in my DW games, so I was really interested in some of the improvements to invasions and ground combat.
For example, the attrition rate for ground troops in battles is now spread across all troops in the fight, not just one troop being sequentially destroyed at a time. Battles continue until one force is annihilated, but you are going to see readiness and strength more uniformly effected in surviving troop units. To give the player more information about ground combat, some new details were added to the colony screen (see top image). Now we can directly see the force ratios involved and watch the changes during the battle.
In terms of protecting yourself from invasion, keep an eye out for an important wonder -- the Merkidor Planetary Fortress (see bottom image)...
quote:
An impregnable stronghold with heavy defensive weaponry. Defense against invasion is increased by +200% for the colony with this wonder. It also provides a +30% development bonus to the colony.
Located on the armor branch of the technology tree, the fortress is a huge benefit for protecting your most valuable colony.
The duration of ground combat has also been tweaked so that battles with large opposing forces progress more quickly. That said, both you and your opponent still have enough time for reinforcement strategies.
In past games, did your newly conquered colonies immediately rebel? Colony tax now immediately goes to zero after a successful invasion. No more instant rebellion due to the previous faction's high tax rate. Troops on a colony's surface also help deter civil unrest.
One final note regarding troops. It always bothered me that unfinished troop units cost me the full maintenance cost. I was disadvantaged for adding four or five units to a colony build queue. As each unit recruited to full strength, I was paying for all the units as if they were full strength. No more. Now troop maintenance costs only begin when a troop unit is complete. There are no maintenance costs for troops while being initially recruited.
There are many other little tweaks and changes that improve DW gameplay, but as a diabolical tyrant, I particularly like the changes coming to invasion and ground combat. Speaking of tyranny, keep watching for some more notes about the new population policy features.
[image]local://upfiles/34589/D5096715EF9241C7B6E40FBD4AFF87B2.jpg[/image]
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