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Twigster -> Unplayable My Ash! (11/9/2015 4:21:39 AM)
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I am running the game on my POS 4-year old Lenovo T-510 with Win 7. It is Extended AI Improvement Mod 1.05, Elliptical galaxy, 1000-star, 10x10 sector, Old expansion, Chaos/Extreme, Research at 999K, no space creatures, no Pirates. Colony prevalence and Independent life set to Normal; No enforcing colony range limits. Excellent home system, Size: Old, Tech Level: 7, Corruption: Normal. 16 starting empires, independents can grow empires. Enabled Disaster and Race-specific events only. Allowed Tech Trading, no Kaltors- this is a Sandbox game. Started just after 1.05 release, wanted to see what the new race performance was like. I am playing Zenox, starting government was Technocracy.
The Galaxy began in 2350 with 16 fully-formed empires. Early in their exploration, the Zenox discovered and implemented the Way of Darkness government (which they have had ever since). At that point I started RP’ing the now “evil” Zenox having the overwhelming desire to rid the Galaxy entirely of Keskudon (this was BEFORE I encountered the Keskudon), and wanting to enslave all other races not like them (BTW, this has lent itself to some RP “internal politics” as I went back and forth on that issue). At this point I just want to throw in my heart-felt and very well-deserved kudos to Icemania for the Mod: h-o-l-y s-h-i-t! (I remember reading somewhere that AI bombardment was ineffective- I really wish I had not read that, because it flatly just is not true). I make a save approx. every 45-60 minutes. Honestly, I have never reloaded back, I play through with what I get. That said, I try to be careful but I have a RL as well so I end up pausing often and am very thorough, the result being I have been playing this game for 5 months and am no further along than I am. I call it great fun.
The long-anticipated Galactic War began on 4 August 2552; it is now 13 July 2565 and the war is still on. Reputation is Satisfactory and War Weariness JUST went to Significant. My 94 colonies in 72 systems generate a GDP of 3532K; I currently have 2 Leaders (why? A minor race offered me a planet in exchange for trade sanctions against another race- the planet was their homeworld: I just went with it), 7 Ambassadors, 18 Planetary Governors, 18 Fleet Admirals, 18 Ship Captains, 8 Troop Generals, 20 Scientists (kept around for RP purposes), and 7 Intelligence Agents. ( I have lost at least 8 Characters to enemy action during the current war).Total pop is 737,486M, of which 252,166 are Zenox (with some minor variation RP-driven variation, my standard Population setting is Do Not Accept/Enslave- and just in case you were wondering, yes, Enslave does make one’s economic life a LOT more interesting). State economy COH is currently 38223K, ship and base maintenance is 1210K, troop maintenance is an eye-popping 1678K, facilities maintenance is 645K. Cashflow at present is -1970K. My Bonus income currently is just over half that. At present I have 4352 ground battalions, 441 warships, 53 defense bases, 18 x SSP, 8 x LSP and 11 Resort bases. Private economy COH is 204693K (that currently ranks me #8 economically in the game, thanks to the war), ship and base maintenance is 2671K, Cashflow is -558K (oh! Did I neglect to mention that earlier this year there was a COUP D’ ETAT which gave me even more rebellions, caused me to lose 4 planets just because and gave an already fun economic situation more gas). I had already lost four planets to the Keskudon. I have 1,657 freighters, passenger and mining ships, mining stations, etc. I am not taking advantage of any exploits.
As for Wonders, I have the Trade Guild, Holographic Universe, Koloros Medical Academy (take a guess at how much fun life becomes if I lose either of those?), Casidor Weapons Facility and the Galactic Archives. I also have the Unit Forum which, though not a Wonder per se, probably should be judging by how frequently the planet it resides on has been attacked. A global +20% Diplomacy has helped a lot. Significant Achievements are: Veteran of the Galactic War M, Marauder III, Planetary Warfare III, Conqueror III, Assassin III, Free Trader and What’s Yours Is Mine III. My score is 2,772, 598. The Keskudon’s score is 5, 581,623.
So, to performance issues. Full Zoom-out, does it crawl as described above? Yeah buddy! But you know what? I have noticed ZERO performance problems when fighting space and ground battles, or anywhere else and have learned to adjust to the choppiness. Basically because I wanted to, and to me it does not much in detracting play value. Just me. Yeah, some menus take some time opening- again a minor irritation to ME. I have learned how to tailor pop-up displays and all other notifications so that does not bother me. The only macro thing I have noticed as a bug is that for some reason, even though I order them built, ground troops will not build on a couple of planets- weird.
Could DW be better? Yep- I am looking forward to it. Until then, I intend to keep trying to conquer this Galaxy until A) I do (or lose), or B) DW2 comes out. Anyhoo, that’s my two cents. I am more than happy to post screen shots if anybody wants to see them.
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