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886

General Discussion / Re: What kind of ship do you like most?

« on: December 15, 2018, 04:31:21 PM »

My favorite size to fly is cruiser. I lack the twitch skill necessary to do well with fast little ships

This. So very much this.
I am so spectacularly bad at 'finesse' flying. It's not until Cruisers become available that I can start playing 'properly'.

My perfect ship is almost just a plain Dominator. If it had medium guns to cover it's behind instead of smalls, that would be more-or-less ideal.

Spoiler

This is what I spend the majority of my time flying once I've found all the bits.
Once you unlock loadout design, the flaks can be upgraded to dual, and the autocannons to railguns.
But even if all you can find is giant autocannons and hellbores for the large mounts, it still does an okay job.

[close]

So far I have found no other ship that I am comfortable enough with that I can just hulk apart giant fleets or stations.

A slab of armor with guns and rocket engines attached to the back. Silly pew pew zoom zoom lasers and excessive amounts of flashy shields are for chumps. Heavy armor, ballistic cannons and explosive shells on a hulk that refuses to die in the face of overwhelming odds is the true way to go.

887

General Discussion / Re: Getting rid of "Decivilized" colony status?

« on: December 15, 2018, 06:28:38 AM »

Reduce the effects of the decivilised condition by 1/3 of the original value for every 2 population levels of the colony.

Size 3 colony: -3 stability, 100% current growth bonus
Size 5 colony: -2 stability, 66% growth bonus
Size 7 colony: -1 stability, 33% growth bonus
Size 9 colony: Decivilised condidtion removed

888

General Discussion / Re: Colony tips and tricks

« on: December 05, 2018, 05:07:03 AM »

*missing the point*

Colony doesn't have Light Industry
Colony doesn't have Commerce
Colony doesn't have upgraded Ground Defences
Colony doesn't have upgraded Station
Colony doesn't have upgraded Patrol Base

Of course you're going to have a better income if you're min-maxing. But we're deliberately not doing that, because a new player definitely won't be.
And a new player will almost certainly build everything and upgrade it to max because that's how every other game in existence works.
And a new player will not have access to many (if any) form of industry boosting items, or nesessarily know what they can do with them.
And a new player will not know that free port = free money.
And a new player will not know that accessibility is literally a Jesus-stat.

Example:

Spoiler

Conditions:
150% hazard planet with 4 resources
Colony size 8
Player has Industrial Planning 3
Free port is off
No cores installed
Colony is ~40ly from core (as far away as I could find), which is most definitely not optimal and limits its accessibility (90%)
Colony has no waystation due to no room, and seemingly not productive (Why would you build a stockpile for suppiles and fuel on top an already huge stockpile of supplies and fuel? Deffo not something intuitve that a newbie would build on thier main (or only) world.)


Compare with same colony with commerce removed and waystation added:

Note: Shortage of volatiles due to faction interference - with full supply overall planet profit would be -30K.
Still in the red. Sorry.

[close]

Spoiler

Conditions:
175% hazard planet with 4 resources
Colony size 8
Player has Industrial Planning 3
Free port is off
No cores installed
Colony is in the core (Duzhak), which is most definitely optimal for accessibility (161%)
Colony has no waystation due to no room etc etc.

35K.
At size 7 this colony made 60K.
When it grows to size 9 it will go into the red.

[close]

As I have maintained from the start, you cannot run all industries on anything more than 125% planet with a high pop and generate a meaningful income without assiting it in some way.
Settling in or near the core worlds mitigates this due to the increased accessibility, which allows you some additional lattitude.

125% is still a good initial hazard limit for a colony which which does not require any special attention or manipulation.
Y'know, like how a new player who doesn't really know what anything does or what is optimal would probably do it.
Or someone who just doesn't want to use some things for RP etc. People are different yo.

889

General Discussion / Re: Colony tips and tricks

« on: December 04, 2018, 07:26:25 AM »

What I've learned so far due to my perverse obession with turning the worst possible hellholes into actually 'nice' places in every game with any kind of population management.

With the escalating upkeep costs as the colony grows, a planet with a rating of >125% will be unable to support any form of industry or fuel production unassisted in the long term.
While it might make a profit at size 3 and 4, once it grows to size 5 the upkeep costs start to outpace the profit generated by exports.

Adding nanoforges and synchrotrons will not boost production enough to offset upkeep on 150% and higher. Prioritise them to improving your already profitable industries. And use whatever is left over wherever they will fit.

Adding beta cores will allow you to run a full set of industries upto 250% hazard. (50% of 250 = 125, which is the max hazard value for industrial profit.) IF you also have the Industrial Planning skill (or hire someone who has).
Without this 30% boost, you can only go upto 200% hazard.
The extra production from alpha cores does not generate enough profit to extend this meaningfully. Although you may wish to use them to offset shortages.

Enabling free port will allow a colony to use all industries on a 175% hazard world without AI cores and still make a profit. Although, once it grows to size 7 you will not be able to turn it off without installing AI cores to reduce the upkeep.
If you do enable free port, make sure you also have a light industry running.
(Light industry is a bit of a conditional trap - It's incredibly good when combined with free port due to all the drug money. But if you don't want to use free port, it's the sort of thing you build one of somewhere with low upkeep and have the rest of your empire just forget it exists.)

Using cores and free port on a low hazard world is basically cheating.

Compare and contrast the harshest readily available world I could find.
Colonised solely for delicious minerals and some minor contribution to system defence:

Spoiler

[close]

The same world turned into a huge industrial complex with every bonus I could throw at it:

Spoiler

Approx 16x as profitable. And this isn't even taking into account the extra accessiblity the free port will eventually give.

[close]

tl;dr - If you don't want to do things to give the factions even more reason to hassle you, you are going to want to limit yourself to planets with a rating of 125% or less. With the sole exception of bare-bones mining outposts to cover needs.

890

General Discussion / Re: Just noticed how good D-mods ships are

« on: December 04, 2018, 05:30:24 AM »

Having your entire fleet be basically a flying junkheap is amazing for exploration purposes.
Combat, not so much.

It's really a great way of encouraging the player to use whatever they can find, regardless of what condition it is in until they can afford to buy/build pristine ships.

891

Suggestions / Re: Add Some Concrete Reliable Way To Hunt Down Ludic Path Bases

« on: December 04, 2018, 05:20:42 AM »

Yes. All of the yes.

Idea:

Spoiler

Requires either a military base or command HQ.
Add an option to put together a scout fleet, which would then use a similar mechanic to the faction expeditions.
Insomuch as it has a 'preparation' phase, which requires cash to start it off, an amount of stockpiled supplies and fuel, and some time.
When the fleet launches, it generates a <player faction> fleet which then promptly jumps out of the system and vanishes off into the black.

Over a period of some weeks/months, the fleet will accumulate data and then return to it's point of origin.
The player will then (if near a comm station) receive notification of a number of hostile bases found and thier location.
Small chance of the fleet being lost due to hostile action or just plain misfortune, with either a distress call (of varying quality and garbledness) with clues as to their last known location. Or smaller chance of a note from the base stating that the fleet hasn't returned and no word has been heard from them.

[close]

Alternatively, just put a conflicted looking guy in the bar/concourse area that can tell you where a Pather base is in the same manner as the weary drunken Pirate.

892

Suggestions / Re: 0.9 Thoughts and Requests

« on: December 04, 2018, 03:56:47 AM »

I have realised that I am a fool who is bad at explaining things.
With reagard to the beacon tooltips, below is what I was trying (and failing) to describe adequately:

If those could be appended with their classification, that would be lovely.

Also, a planet texture has begun to grate on me.
Venuslike.jpg
It really doesn't look 'right' as it's just too small, so when it gets stretched to fit a sphere it looks grainy and less than great.
All the other planet textures are 1024x512, this one is 512x256 like the stars and gas gaints where the grainy-ness either adds to the cloudy effect or just doesn't show at all.
I have replaced it myself with another larger texture for now (I have lots to choose from). Please consider doing the same.

893

Suggestions / 0.9 Thoughts and Requests

« on: December 03, 2018, 12:43:39 PM »

Intel

Would it be possible to include another filter tab soley to display all known hostile bases?
They are currently in the exploration tab, which gets kind of busy. (And most of which is duplicated in the fleet log). Separating them would be a fairly simple ease-of-use improvement.

Would it also be possible to allow filtering the planet list by resource?
A simple checkbox array would do just fine.

And could ruins be marked in some way on the planet list once they have been visited?
Something simple like:


In the system view, would it be possible to show an overview of the resources in the whole system?
Just the greatest value for each one if present would be fine.

Colonies

Could the industry mouseover tooltips have their cash output and overall profit generated added alongside the maintenance cost please?
Basically a consolidation of the Command -> Income breakdown, but accessible without having to leave the colony management screen.

If a colony is using stockpiled resources, could those resources be highlighted in some way in the stockpile 'market' screen?
A tooltip with 'days this amount will last' on it would also be great.

Would it be possible to look into the possibility of introducing some 'mundane' means of mitigating some of the maintenance costs on higher hazard worlds?
Possibly something that trades future growth potential for economic stability.
Eg:

Spoiler

Artificial Cavern System
Limitations: Planet is not habitable. Not a gas giant. Not a water planet.
Requires: x Industry slots. ~1 year of building. (thinking either 4 or 6 slots)
Cost: 250K credits * (size of pop -2)^2.  - 250K to excavate a size 3. ~20M to excavate a size 10.
Effects:

• Adds planetary modifier "Habitable Caverns" with -(current rating/6)% hazard modifer
• Reduces population growth by x% due to limited space (-50%, maybe greater)
• Reduces accessibilty by -10% due to congested entryways
• Increases ground defence rating by +50%

OR

Another skill tree to add some maint. reduction on higher hazard worlds. That way the player can choose that path if they want/need to.
Environmental Hazard Management
Class: Industry
Level 1: -15% maintenance costs on planets with a hazard rating of 150-175
Level 2: -25% maintenance costs on planets with a hazard rating of 200-250
Level 3: -35% maintenance costs on planets with a hazard rating of 275+

I have this weird complusion to create massive comfy metropoli every time population management is a thing in a game.
Eh. They're probably not terribly well balanced anyway.

[close]

I absolutely love the idea of being able to build bases out in the wilds of space like the pirates do. And would jump all over the ability to create a vast floating city in the middle of nowhere.

Spoiler

Not sure how this would be balanced though. Possibly through some kind of unlockable slot mechanic, or skill?
But I have the idea that they would have some industries 'built-in':

• Waysation (the graphic for this is a space station)
• Space Port
• Space Station

As a free floating station would essentialy be all those things. And maybe it would have a more limited amount of slots, and you'd have to build more yourself thus incurring more costs.
And if they're built around an object with resources, they can host industries to extract those.
Not really a priority. More of a whimsical dream.

[close]

General/Cosmetic

If a gas giant is colonised could the hyperspace well/entrance created by it's mass be re-named to match whatever the player calls the colony, or is this too much hassle for a cosmetic issue?

On the hyperspace campaign map, could hazard beacons have thier tooltips state which level they are?
They are currently all labelled simply labelled 'Hazard Beacon', with the only differentiating trait being colour. Of which, only the red really stands out.

894

Mods / Re: [0.9.0a] Unknown Skies v0.30 (2018/11/17)

« on: December 03, 2018, 10:31:45 AM »

They're not.
Alkali worlds are a nod to Star Control 2, where they were almost always full of various forms of life.

895

General Discussion / Re: How To Assault A Large Starbase?

« on: December 03, 2018, 10:22:29 AM »

Spoiler

Ships. Please stop. Range is good.

[close]

896

General Discussion / Re: Balance, skills and general musings

« on: December 03, 2018, 04:19:01 AM »

Fuel and supplies are also micromanagment.

Fuel and supplies are not in combat. And neither play an active role in combat that must be managed.

You don't have a monopoly on what is fun and isn't, neither do you have a monopoly on what makes good and bad gameplay.

Right back at you, friend.

897

General Discussion / Re: Balance, skills and general musings

« on: December 03, 2018, 03:23:55 AM »

Both maintenance and output scale with population, but in my experience on high hazard worlds (>200%) maintenance raises faster than profits, which is annoying. Stability also influences income.

Yeah, this is what I'm seeing as well. Confused me real good the first few times I saw the income jump into the red for 'no reason'.
I wasn't expecting a mining hell planet to ever be hugely profitable, but I was rather hoping that it would at least be sustainable. Or have some means of forcing it to be sustainable by giving up any kind of growth.

Ammochat:
Ammunition limits are not a fun mechanic that just creates micromanagement for sake of it.
Gameplay > 'Realism'

898

General Discussion / Re: How To Assault A Large Starbase?

« on: December 02, 2018, 02:17:06 PM »

So I brought all these ships to play with this giant base. But how do I stop them all trying to rub themselves on it like a bunch of needy space cats?

899

General Discussion / Re: Balance, skills and general musings

« on: December 02, 2018, 01:02:04 PM »

Does industry maintenance scale with population size?
I keep building nice 'just about profitable' mining places to to collect resources I don't have on my main worlds, which make ~10K.
But when I get a growth notification for them they now have -5K even though nothing else has changed. And in order to put it back in the black I have to remove the buildings, thus removing the point of why I created the place.

900

Suggestions / Re: Assorted 0.9 campaign feedback

« on: December 02, 2018, 02:53:49 AM »

The mission planet being red is fine, but why do ours have to be red? It's so unpleasant (mainly due to hiding the wonderful planet art), there's good odds I'll never use it again.

The shield image could stand to be a little more transparent. Although that's going to be a fine balancing act as the geometric patterned 'structure' is literally made of transparency, and making the red parts less opaque will also make the structure less distinct.


There really needs to be some way of finding pather bases that does not rely on the planet list exploit.
Pirate bases can be found by talking to dudes.
Admitedly, the pathers are not going to be frequenting bars all that much. But could we at least use our military bases to send out scouts to look for these places?
Have it cost money, supplies, fuel, whatever. And then some time later you get a report about the base(s) which are 'attacking' your colonies.

The same mechanic could also be used to set up patrols specifically to target pather terrorist smugglers. Obv. you can't make this 100% effective, but it would be a way to mitigate some of the obnoxious disruption while you're away scouring the entire sector looking for the source.

Some means of setting the loadouts of bases would be very welcome.
It could sit in the fleet doctrine area, and each base module/component could be adjusted in a refit screen with access to equipment you have blueprints for.

Also, in the doctrine settings, can we have an explicit 'forbid use of this thing' please.
Ships and bases will still use unwanted things even with ALL other items prioritised. And ticking everything you want instead of the 3 things you don't want is cumbersome as hell, and does not account for new acquisitions.