With all the focus on the rough edges, I'll just mention that I actually enjoy the pirate invasion event. Getting all your big boats out of storage to hunt down and destroy the offending pirate base is a satisfying bit of payback for the trouble they caused you. That is something intuitive that I understand.
I just don't enjoy it much when all the various invasion events are happening at the same time.
This.
It currently ~feels~ like colonies are set up and balanced for the post endgame, where the player has done absolutely everything already, explored everything in the sector and has nothing else to do other than sit in his space castle and build giant doomstacks for lols.
That all the AI responses are at this kind of level from the start, and only proceed to escalate is a hell of a trap considering you can get started on colonies before you even get your level into double figures.
Limiting colonies to the late game is one way of 'solving' this mismatch. Although it would be a pretty rubbish way of going about it.
Scaling the 'challenge' to the player's progress would be a much nicer way of doing it.
And as mentioned previously, there definitely needs to be some diplomatic means of managing this. Being to make trade deals would be ideal.
The issue is that the first time setting a colony you just don't know how much can you do and how bad effects all these modifiers have. It's not half bad if all you lose is your time and some money, if you can earn it back, but if you lose too much (or let your colony grow) it might put you a couple of hours back in your playthrough, if you don't save scum.
And this.
The first 'successful' colony I created was on a 175% tundra world. It had plenty of resources, and was far enough away from everyone else I thought it wouldn't be bothered much.
That when I surveyed it it giving me a Class V report was what convinced me to choose it. If it's Class V that means it
must be good, right?
Apparently not. It is impossible to make a profit without using either a free port or AI cores, both of which are sources of this comedy aggro.
Not that I was aware of what the %age meant in terms of colony potential.
Are we are limited to settling 100% worlds? If so, that is potentially going to be a problem. I have found a single 100% world in my current sector which is not one of the 'blank' worlds with no resources or conditions.
Is there any other way of allowing less than optimal worlds to become more than failure money sinks?
Perhaps if there were a building specialised in maintenance that could be used to reduce upkeep costs, that way you could trade industry slots for viability.
Or a skill that reduces maint on planets above a certain %? (Seeing as planet skills seem to be considered 'a waste'.)
Like the need for faction diplomacy above to mitigate, or even avoid the invasions. There needs to be some means of increasing efficiency that does not involve using AI.
Simply because not everyone wants "all drama all the the time".
Options are good. If a player wants to be a bloodknight in a fortress surrounded by debris, the game will accomdate that as it stands.
But what if you want to build somewhere 'nice', make friends with the factions, and explore the sector? Basically the colony equivallent of staying independant and never taking a commission.
