adamb1011

That's really not an exploit? haha seems a little OP then! compared to it's benevolent equivalent.

Actually, Frogboy - you should make a challenge based on what you said above! set some rules like: 1) large map 2) all 8 predefined races 3) godlike 4) you must play one of the predefined races 5) min-maxing is ok, but no cheese - ie sensor buoys, 3 constructor exploit, carrier spam, etc. You'd either be proven right, or you'd get a ton of valuable balance and AI feedback!

I can't count the number of times ive given up on insane maps! The amount of micro required after a while gets out of control. Also you are screwed without patriotic if you go for military victory. Started a medium map the other day, much more fun. I colonised about 1/4 of the galaxy and while I am miles ahead, it's still very interesting. will probably start a godlike game on the weekend, and play without any of the blatant exploits. Alth

I agree would be much harder without a custom designed race. Terrans are a particairily poor choice - their racials aren't very strong, although their tech tree isn't bad! But I can easily see how exploiting a long list of bugs or "unintended features", and designing the "perfect" race, etc can lead to some silly outcomes. ie, the whole take the 3 constructor and upgrade to colony ship thing is clearly an

I'm sure it's very possible to do all the things the OP is claiming. God like AI can't get close to a minmaxing human, even with all its bonuses. That said I don't think the OP is making a fair comparison. This is still literally the first release build (with a few tiny updates). Let's compare to 2 games with a great reputation for balance - sc2 and dota2.... Both of those had big balance issues during vanilla launch. Give the devs some time and the

I mentioned this in the other thread... but the easy answer is repair. right now repairing is so slow, and a really early military star base repair tech (or even base upgrade) would make a huge difference. ie, around the tech level of small hulls. If military star bases repaired at a rate of heavily damaged to full hp in a few turns (percent based repair) then I would build them early and often!

altarian tech tree is probably the worst. For a few reasons 1) their unique building sucks. needs major buffs. there's better ways to get manu and research combos. The use case is either really rare or non existent - especially as most people specialise planets. 2)far far worse: Their late game tetra forming tech is shockingly bad. No ultra tetra former means late game your planets will be awful compared to others. They only seem

Well, I think the devs mentioned that one of their goals post release would be to flesh out the star base system - either via expansion or dlc. I agree military bases just don't feel useful right now. although it would be a huge change, I think you shouldn't be able to stack economic star bases on a single planet. It takes too long, results in massive micro to min/max, and is generally poor game design. It would be a big change

Im not sure how you arrive at the "building econ starbases sucks" theory. Level 1 is amazing - i try and get that asap. But even further levels are really good, provided you can build multiple constructors on a single ship. Sure, the first few upgrades suck, but since you can build 4+ constructors early on in a cargo ship (after a few techs), the total bonus to your planet can be +50% or more off a single turn worth of production from a manu world. Better yet, it gives your manu

Any news on if the Altarian tree lacking terraforming options is a bug or balance choice?

Well, I find starbases are highly effective - but mostly as a way to burn off excess production on manu worlds when im not at war. Far more effective than projects IMO. See, unlike buildings, you can stack multiple constructor modules on a single ship. Once I get large hulls I can usually stack at least 6 construction modules on a single ship, and pump them out at 1/turn. This is roughly equivalent to about 1 fully upgraded factory, assuming you have researched a decent way down the manu line

cool that's about what my intuition thought. I was working off 25/75 roughly. I think by the time you factor in production bonuses etc this will be true. generally I use the main landmass for factories, stacking as much adjacency as possible, and remaining landmass for farms, trying to achieve about 25/75. As a very rough approximate.

awesome thanks for the tip

farms upgrade really aggressively though. Towards the endgame 1 farm is worth over 10 pop. I would generally neglect approval as it can be obtained by other means than buildings. arguably so can pop though - monsantium! I've generally built farms as I approach the pop cap, then let the planet grow towards the cap again, replacing another building each time. usually running at 100% approval. At some point though this strategy is likely to fall off hugely, to the poin

benevolent has some big perks too. For example, if you pick the 3rd colonising trait, it can fuel a mass galactic expansion. just load your colony ships up with 0.5 pop (basically 1 per turn) and when they arrive your new world starts with 5.5! magic!

That's actually an interesting point. There must be a value at which an extra farm diminishes below the value of an extra factory when calculating the overall manu of a planet. same deal with wealth and research. anyone worked out roughly what that point is yet?

You can survive without patriotic - at least to 100 planets or so, provided your planets don't grow too much pop. 1) always take the flat approval bonuses in the approval tech tree. I always beeline for the first approval bonus really early - and grab the second one towards the start of midgame. 2) approval relics are your friend 3) harmony crystals are even better. Trade your left nut for these! you can basically never have enough. 4)

Any news on when the next act of the campaign is finished? I feel like the first act ended on a cliffhanger - and there was no second act!

I'd love to see a video of your earlygame. I've never tried the malevolent path, maybe thats the issue. I'm usually researching or finished endgame techs by turn 150 - but I still typically have a lot of backfill on techs I consider less important. Like you, at this point though im building a huge super-ship while the AI has large ships at best. Absolutely agree with antimatter plants - only useful for hyperion buildings. And the other resource buildings. And agree

bumping this. I love the altarians and this is a huge issue late game. I don't think it's a deliberate balance choice? Also the social matrix tech path is woefully underpowered compared to other races. that building is basically worthless IMO

I'll write a review when I get home tonight. It will be positive! To all the detractors: I agree the game isn't perfect, and it's still a way short of the original vision frogboy and Co sold. The AI still has issues, it's not really balanced yet -although it's come a long way, and there's loads of tweaks and features to be added. BUT: they've tried damn hard and made what is by any objective standard one hell of a game.

I think you should be able to dump production into repair - using shipyards. So you can repair in 1 turn if needed, but it will basically cost you most of the production used for the ship. The game also probably needs a repair module for military starbases, available fairly early.

Yeah, I've experienced the exact same thing. The ancient trait is by far the best of all the options, assuming you have a decent number of relics and crystals. Although, you only generate 1800 RP naturally? At turn 150? That seems really low! Build some more research worlds :)

and 50% (extra) manu is nothing. I usually have at least +100% from 5 starbases, a relic (if im lucky), some nanos (traded), and random other stuff as I transition into midgame.

The other thing is you really should never build a planet with 100% labs. I tend to start with at least 3-4 factories minimum. This makes upgrading cost you substantially less. Generally, I try not to upgrade my planets all at once too. Ie once I research xeno labs, I will only upgrade to them once I have 3 research worlds. Then I will rotate between the worlds, meaning 2 are full research, and 1 is offline (full production) upgrading. I think that way you tend to strike a good