I also lost most of my weekend, great update!
Special mention for the explosive high intensity laser, so much fun I'm still driving the Sunder I got ages ago. Edit: realized this has been in for ages, just didn't notice in the notes and didn't use it
Some notes:
- Got an administrator pod early on, didn't find a way to dismiss her without a colony. 2500/month isn't that much, was just an annoyance
- Can't find a way to remove finished/unwanted fleet log entries from the exploration intel tab
- IIRC combat officers show the max level notice at level 15
- Waystation, patrol base and some other buildings show crew/supplies/... requirements that aren't affected by AI cores.
Probably intentional, just confusing(+same for the already mentioned different maintenance cost in new infrastructure view) - Plasma burn can glitch out on collisions. Tried to bowl a midsized asteroid into an enemy, speed stayed with my ship for ~5-10 seconds.
See the spoiler screenshot at the bottom.
- I think beta/alpha AI core maintenance reduction is a bit too high, they make hazard rating much less important.
You do have to collect them, but after that the benefits are ridiculously good - I think price of removing D-mods is a bit too punitive. Not really a problem, just looks strange that you can build 2 brand new ships instead of fixing up a slightly dented one
- Didn't find anything on planet size, does it affect colonies in any way?
- Is there a way to equip orbital stations? I paid an arm and a leg for the star fortress, would be nice adjust it and see its stats out of combat
For reference, I started with the scavenging/exploration skills and got into colony management after.
Found a system with 4 awesome planets(with 2 big ruins) just "south" of the core systems, no nebula between only downside is 150(the best anyway)/175/225/250 hazard. 1-1 domain era comm and nav.
I just plopped down beta/alpha cores on everything and they aren't that much different in profit(~150-250K at size 3-5).
Techmining/AI core drawbacks seem insignificant to me, compared to their benefits.
All my things being in 1 system probably skews the picture, but even 2 level 1 orbital bases and patrol HQs dealt with the task forces by themselves at the start(admittedly after 2 raids wrecking my unprotected free ports
).
After seeing what hegemony inspectors do when I uninstall AIs now they just run into mysterious enemies on the way.
Colony income is ~600-800K every month and I can easily kill everything thrown at them with a 1 Sunder/1 Hammerhead/1 Shrike(?)/~10-15 wolf fleet at level 40-ish, only coordinated maneuvers and ECM skills.
Just noticed I can actually build ~15 Sunders/Hammerheads a month so fleet composition will also get a drastic overhaul
Also not sold on ground defenses, similar to MoO2: the way the game is built you want space superiority anyway. Might as well go for starbase/patrols.
Ground defenses are essentially a stability bonus, not that expensive but slots are limited so their upkeep could be reduced a bit(you usually give up income to get them anyway).
Very first impressions so could overlook some obvious things ofc
Plasma burn glitch example, started next to the frigate at ~3000 distance in the top left: