Dev Stream (Friday, February 13th) at 3pm EST, Noon Pacific

Can Paul make another pass at Weapon and Defense balance? 

Beams are Overpowered and there is no reason to bother researching the other two weapon types at this time. 

My solution is to simply increase defenses (across the board) so that fights last a bit longer and decrease beam damage a bit. 

I like how the Honor Harrington Universe handles missiles vs. beams.

Missiles have a longer range than beams. You can extend the missile range via tech developments.  The downside is that laser (beam) point defense systems, counter missiles and ECM can stop/degrade missile attacks. Missile inventory is also limited, but it can be extended via tech or larger ships. Expend all your missiles and you are limited to beam or kinetic weapons until resupplied.

Beams weapons cannot be stopped, except by ship shields, but have a much shorter range than missiles. You can develop stronger beam weapons and improved shields.

This opens up several strategies:

• Develop Longer Ranger Missiles (which tend to be larger, thus fewer in inventory)
• Develop Smaller Missiles (thus you can carry more)
• Develop Faster Missiles
• Develop ECM to degrade missile attacks
• Develop counter missiles - for stopping missiles at range, not effective when missiles are close
• Develop point defense - for close in missile defense

Questions in the forums over  the last few weeks... 

Multiplayer

Some questions in this post Multiplayer Insight  Have you ever thought about having a multi-player dev stream over the course of several weeks with different non-stardock players?

1. Will multi-player get another look at an run through before release?
2. Lobby isn't generating all information on the games, could there be more information added to the lobby to tell people about the game type?
3. Could you add additional information in the diplomacy for multi-player games such as chat in trading screens?
4. Suggestion make it easier to see it's your turn when not on the main screen.
5. Sniperyeti Question: In multiplayer games, is there a way we could get an option to 'broadcast' our battle viewer to other players so they can watch it too?
6. CoffeeholicCielo In online multiplayer in the future or post release will we be able to show off our custom races by playing with our friends in the multiplayer 4 player game as well as show off our custom ships designs to them in war with the battle viewer by fighting their fleets?

1. When will the tech tree speed be added to the map screen or has this been scrapped?
2. A while back I had suggested using resources as a requirement or need for additional terraforming options.  Paul said he liked the suggestion but haven't seen or heard anything on if this may happen?  Thoughts?
3. Bamdorf In GC2 (Still a great game) there is now a community update working (nearly finished, I think) on  getting the AI to use their tech trees and build out their colonies properly in Twilight of the Arnor.   What testing is being planned to check this in GC3?
4. Bamdorf When I am building a ship if I wish to micromanage the use of credits, I have to switch back and forth between the planet screen and the shipyard to see if I am getting the ship in the right number of turns.   Is there someway this could be made less cumbersome?
5. jiraesch Whats in store for the political parties & government system? And for the politics/ideology in general?
6. jiraesch Will there be occupations, rebellions, uprisings etc.?
7. Werewindlefr  There have been mentions by Frogboy and the Stardock people that GC3 would have a more complex combat system, possibly with some pre-combat decisions. So the question is legitimate : what will be there? How will it work? 
8. ayork1  Why does the new tech screen only use half of the actual display?
9. mbrash5  Can we at least have the option to design our starter ships at game creation?
10. Rhonin_the_wizard  How will fleet formations work? Will we be able to select the formation type before the battle?
11. Rhonin_the_wizard  Will you modify terraforming before release? I think it could do with some improvements.
12. Larsenex  Is there a minimum memory needed to play on Immense sized maps?
13. CoffeeholicCielo  Is there a possibility in the future that we could have a choose beam color/missile exhaust color option.
14. CoffeeholicCielo  In the battle viewer, when mass driver shells and missiles make contact with ships I don't see any impact/explosive reaction. Will this be implemented in the future?
15. androshalforc  Is there any chance of complete destruction 2 ships with 1 hp left ship one fires missiles at ship two, ship two fires lasers kills ship one, missiles hit ship two and it blows up. no winner.
16. peregrine23  Up until this version upgrading from basic factory (cost 30) to xeno factory (cost 45) cost 15; now it costs 45. Is this a feature or a bug?
17. Rhonin_the_wizard Will civilization specific techs be tradable in the next beta version?
18. charon2112 Will we eventually see a galaxy map button showing all races starting positions if I want, like in GC2?  And how about the graphs, timelines and charts?
19. At this time can we get a general update on what is in the game and what is being left out for future DLC's, Expansions, or left out all together.  See below for examples...
• Customized home worlds for customized races
• 100 player games
• Interstellar Rifts (although talked about a little last week on didn't know for sure)
• Slow tech tree option for start of game.  (see the first question above)
• Special designed galaxies.
• And I'm sure many others.
20. androshalforc Will there be a map editor, and will it be awesome?
21. zingo77 When are you planning to introduce shipyard/planet governs?
22. zingo77 Also in the shipyard "repeat" or "repeat loop" button would be fantastic! Its ok to micromanage 60 shipyards, but when you get over 100+ its such a hard work. Kinda frustrating when shipyard runs out of build orders you have to shut it down by hand. Cant it do that by itself? And when its shut down i have to manually restart each one of them.
23. Sniperyeti Can we get an option to 'broadcast' or 'share' our battle viewer with other players in multiplayer games?
24. Larsenex Can Paul take another pass at ship defense values?

1. Yor question:  In Galactic Civilizations II Twilight of Arnor the Yor had a dampening effect in their ZOA where the top speed of ships would be reduced.  Is this going to continue in Galactic Civilizations III?
2. Altarian question:  Why does it seam the Altarians don't get as many terraforming options as other races...
3. 5myosin  Altarian question:  What could conceivably be on the Altarian planet that has such OP influence at such distance? And why didn't they take over the intervening tiles first?
4. peregrine23 Yor & Drengin question: The Yor and Drengin science and manufacturing buildings are significantly worse than the base equivalents used by the Terrans, Alterians, and Iridium (10%/20%/30%/40%/50% vs. 25%/30%/40%/55%/75%). Is this on purpose?
5. peregrine23 Yor & Drengin question: Are the Drengin and Yor research and manufacturing buildings supposed to be much worse than the standard versions? If so, why?
6. peregrine23 Thalan & Krynn question: Can we get any word on the major characteristics of the final 2 factions or the traits planned for the current ones?

Answered Questions...

Multi-player Questions

1. When playing the game where the same main race is being played by multiple players such as human Altarians and AI Altarians, maybe have the race colors be shifted slightly automatically so they don't appear on the mini map as the same race color?  Answered, in Dev Stream January 9th
2. Could you add more players to multi-player games please even if only AI?  Although by games release I would love to have a long game going on with 6-8 people where we get together daily/weekly for several hours to continue our game for however long it lasts.  Answered: in Dev Stream January 9th

General game play questions.

1. Will the UP selections be increased.  In a normal game with UP on frequent by turn 100-150 you have had a chance to vote on almost all of them if not all.  Answered: Dev Stream January 9th
2. What do the purple tile bonus icons indicate?  When playing the Altarians they don't seem to match up with any specific building types like the others do.  For instance "Orange" tile icons indicate it's a manufacturing bonus of some sort, "Dark Blue" indicates research bonus, "Yellow" indicates economic bonus, "Light blue" indicates either influence or morale, and "Red" indicates military/defense.  Answer by peregrine23 "Tourism" in previous forum post.
   
3. Larsenex When can we expect to see the next size up in Map sizes?  Answered Dev Stream January 9th
   
4. Larsenex When will we get more coherent and aggressive AI?  Answered Dev Stream January 9th
5. RobTzu Production and research not carrying over.  It's micro hell.  Where is this on the priority list? Answered Dev Stream January 9th
6. peregrine23 Is there any chance we will see an in-game blueprint editor? Answered Dev Stream January 9
   
7. Natasin The only question I care about is whether we can have a diplomatic option to have closed borders. Answered Dev Stream January 9th 
8. implodinggoat  Will the ships from the ship design contest and the honorable mentions be available for download in the Steam workshop at some point?  Answered in Dev Stream chat by Island Dog January 9th
9. kestlstw  Will starbases get a pass?  Specifically I would love to get rid of constructor spam, are there any plans to have another look at how starbases are built and work?  Answered in Dev Stream January 16th.
10. Larsenex When is the approximate month for (release of) the combat viewer?  Answered with the release of Beta 4 January 22nd
11. Bamdorf When might we see ship commanders in GC3 and will they gain experience?  Answer Seilore "They have stated in the past dev streams this would be in a future expansion or DLC."
12. Darken24  Will we be able to see if a civ has the venerable trait before we attack their homeworld?  Answered Dev Stream January 23rd
13. Why do the abundant game settings seem to be a lot lower than Galactic Civilizations II?  Is the game not able to handle the size you are attempting to achieve?
• Possible bug put more information on Galaxy settings.  Abundant habitable planets seem to be bad/broken in 0.61, I've selected this option in several games the first 18 stars I came across only 5 had habitable planets one of which had 2.  To me abundant habitable planets should be 1 on almost all stars with several with 2, 3 or 4?  Am I incorrect?  (Answered with posts on possible bugs)
• This appears to be an issue where it's set to something else for one game you exit to menu and go back in change to abundant and start new game it doesn't apply correctly to the next game. 
14. When putting a ship in the shipyard to build, say 5 colony ships so that way one doesn't have to keep going back to select a new ship every time a ship is built, and one gets a new model because of technology being researched, why doesn't the shipyard auto change these ships to the newest make?  This would be a pain to have to go in and change the list every time a new make becomes available.  (Answered in Dev Stream January 30th)
15. Bamdorf What is the plan for the ship designations (supply, escort...etc).  (Answered in Dev Stream January 30th)
16. DivineWrath  Does the AI ship designer design ships that use the carrier module? When I got around to trying it, I couldn't see any designed ships that appeared to use them. I had to design my own ship before I could test them.  (Answered in Dev Stream January 30th)
17. androshalforc  Will there be an avoid option for ship roles?   example   try to kill the support ships but stay out of range from assault ships. essentially try and flank the main melee happening in the middle of the map.  (Answered Dev Stream January 30th)
18. When will the final races be joining the game, originally the Krynn was set to be joining the game in Beta 4?  (Answered Dev Stream January 30th)
19. Along with the previous question will ctrl+n be enabled in the game similar to Galactic Civilizations II where it would generate a new map versus exiting the game and starting new? (Answered Dev Stream February 6th)
20. Stanley Tarrant  How will the planatary invasion viewer work? (Answered Dev Stream February 6th)

Race Specific Questions

1. What miner races are in the game? (Answered Dev Stream February 6th)
2. CoffeeholicCielo  Arcean question:  Is there a chance that the Arcean Empire will return as DLC or with an Expansion? (Answered Dev Stream February 6th)

It would be neat to have a late game super missile that could go off near a fleet and destroy any ship within X hexes. 6-8 hexes maybe. Would be particularly good for the fighter swarms that come from carriers

Will there be other minable Resources in the gold release or will that be for later

QUESTION: Will we be able to design our own tech trees and planetary improvements for custom races, at later phases of the game? We would be really grateful for those designers too!

Updated with replay.

Did you guys have open bar? I would like to think Adam was taking a Marco Rubio sip and not doing a line   It was certainly entertaining. Custom factions look really cool in a will be better done later way.  The "Brass Taxes" (27 minute 30 second mark) exchange was priceless though.   

It reminds me of the old "Duck Soup" movie. https://video.search.yahoo.com/video/play;_ylt=A2KLqIKhnt5UJlQAs_z7w8QF;_ylu=X3oDMTByYXI3cnIwBHNlYwNzcgRzbGsDdmlkBHZ0aWQDBGdwb3MDNA--?p=Duck+Soup+Taxes&vid=abfbb0819b1bff31e88570f74de3e661&l=00%3A18&turl=http%3A%2F%2Fts3.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DVN.608053789161817066%26pid%3D15.1&rurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DIVBZrYQE55I&tit=Hey%2C+I+gotta+an+uncle+lives+in+Taxes.&c=3&sigr=11blp4dkj&sigt=1151re8c2&sigi=11r920ih8&age=1296783745&fr2=p%3As%2Cv%3Av&fr=yfp-t-322&tt=b

No, I wasn't alive then, thanks! 

Just well versed in old things. Crap, I am old, but not that old!   

Although, to be fair, I am getting a little alarmed that Paul constantly gets the result wrong when the battle starts. Just saying you designed it and you should not be that surprised.

<Edit> "Is this February?" </edit>

Thanks for the work <Edit>  where you work so hard you question the month</Edit>

Did you call Brad Tywin Lannister??? 53:45ish mark) I would like to think he isn't THAT evil.

Brass taxes.

Seriously though, beam weapons need to be actual beams again.  Some blaster types are cool, but I'm seeing no real beams anymore.

We should not be allowed to vote for a Snathi DLC, much safer just to do a coup!