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[dmc9014]

Have played the game for years. absolutely love it. however I HATE the colony crisis feature so much i dont even want to play it any more.

just to be clear i'm not looking for suggestions on how to beat the feature. i want it GONE from my play sessions. I cant stand how arbitrary the entire system is. every play through is the same and is dominated by this damn feature. there is no realism in it either. i can wipe out every known base from the enemy and they still pump out fleet after fleet after fleet without any economy to do so. IT SUCKS.

please tell me there is a way to disable it.

[Killer of Fate]

data -> config -> settings.json

find this setting... Just ctrl+f

Spoiler

[close]

Set it to 0. That will probably do it. Though I cant test it for you atm.

[dmc9014]

thank you very much for the info.

i have ran my save for about 3-4 months since making that alteration and it does appear to have made a difference. the attacking fleets have slowed from a truly ridiculous non stop flow to now a few each month.

[Killer of Fate]

thank you very much for the info.

i have ran my save for about 3-4 months since making that alteration and it does appear to have made a difference. the attacking fleets have slowed from a truly ridiculous non stop flow to now a few each month.

that's odd. This setting shouldn't affect attacking fleets. It should affect the level at which crisis builds up... To nothing. I'm not sure what does that mean. But the crisis should be at permanent 0, unless there are some additional factors building it in this case.

[dmc9014]

i spoke to soon and yet another campaign ruined by the colony crisis system.

its worth stating my game is modded with nexrelian and a handfull of other popular mods.

heres how this this one started. early in the campaign after i got my first colony's up and running well the crisis started with the pirates. i had a fusion lamp ready to go. however kantas den decilized and kanta was nowhere to be found. so onward the crisis bar just keeps moving forward like a juggernaut.

i made the settings files changes and progress on the bar was brought to zero. HOWEVER THE FLEETS NEVER STOPPED. in fact other than the progress bar going to zero nothing changed. all the threats remained the same. so i killed a zillion fleets which are literally spamming my system and nothing changes.

then i eliminated the pirate faction completely. and guess what? the fleets never stopped. only a temporary slow down. and thats the problem with the colony crisis system. its all faked. all it cares about is the resolution event. and without a way to resolve it, it will continue to produce fleet after fleet out of thin air.

alex i love your game. its a work of art. but this colony crisis system just sucks.

[Phenir]

The fleets that roam your system will always be there until you resolve the major crisis of the respective faction. Rather than trying to reduce the bar buildup, just get it to go as fast as possible so you can do major crisis faster. You'll also get some benefits usually for resolving major crisis. Just go do something else while the bar builds up, your colonies will barely be affected while you are away. You only really need to be present when once the event triggered by the bar maxing out reaches your system.

[dmc9014]

im not convinced.
the concept sounds cool but every game feels the same. first its pirates, then its the path. the design poorly communicates what the player needs to do. resolution isnt always possible. and when it snowballs its WAY over the top. this single feature dominates the game and not in a good way.

[Phenir]

im not convinced.
the concept sounds cool but every game feels the same. first its pirates, then its the path. the design poorly communicates what the player needs to do. resolution isnt always possible. and when it snowballs its WAY over the top. this single feature dominates the game and not in a good way.

Resolution is always possible. Maybe not if you mod your game but that's not the dev's fault.
The game straight up tells you how you can get the other side to stop being a pain. You can pay tribute to the local pirate boss, same for the path. PL and heg are both resolved in the same way, joining the league. Diktat is stealing their core. For tri-tach, you can raid them to death. For church you just talk to their leader and tell them to stop. And all of these (except tri-tach) are not including the major crisis solution which is combat.

[Killer of Fate]

im not convinced.
the concept sounds cool but every game feels the same. first its pirates, then its the path. the design poorly communicates what the player needs to do. resolution isnt always possible. and when it snowballs its WAY over the top. this single feature dominates the game and not in a good way.

Resolution is always possible. Maybe not if you mod your game but that's not the dev's fault.
The game straight up tells you how you can get the other side to stop being a pain. You can pay tribute to the local pirate boss, same for the path. PL and heg are both resolved in the same way, joining the league. Diktat is stealing their core. For tri-tach, you can raid them to death. For church you just talk to their leader and tell them to stop. And all of these (except tri-tach) are not including the major crisis solution which is combat.

a veteran of the game explaining a new player how to enjoy it is the antithesis of good game design tbh. If an individual like this, which there are many of, say the crisis system in its current form is too dominating, they are probably right. We are the ones with a bias. And we should probably try to understand their perspective more than enforcing our own.

[dmc9014]

thanks for that killer of fate. i appreciate how helpful you have been.

im not great at explaining things via text about why i think its poorly designed but i will give it a go. both good and bad.

the good...
it does bring a feeling that the universe is alive. and the basic concept is a good counter to offer some challenge for colony which can be i win buttons.
each faction has different demands and triggers.
resolution can lead to bonuses/perks for the colony's.

the framework is good. but death is in the details.

the bad....
its mandatory if you grow your colony. it also initially unfolds the same way every single time. its like a job. and that alone after many play throughs really makes it more punitive than fun.

as i said earlier its poorly communicated. be honest, the first time you had to deal with the pirate crisis did you know who kanta was? where to find her? what her resolution states were? did you look it up on the web?

heres the part that really rubs me the wrong way. it feels like flipping a light switch. once the newness wears off and you have gone thru dozens of them you start to see how arbitrary the whole thing really is. examples below.
1) if kantas den decivs your screwed. i have witnessed the final fleet attack being comprised of 8-10 fully loaded fleets stuffed to the brim with capitals.
2) there appears to be no requirement in reality as to whether or not a faction actually could produce those fleets, in some of my games i have completely eliminated the faction and the fleets keep coming. its all fake.
3) why is there blowback AND onetime progress reduction events? so if a person actively defends the colonys it leads to a limbo state. you can fight them forever and all your doing is drawing things out. how does this make sense? really i have seen people defend this by saying your doing it wrong. REALLY? the real way to do it is to game the system, do exactly the opposite of what person would naturally do.

there is more but those are my top three for now.

heres a few suggestions on how to improve it. i know it could be alot to program and wouldnt be an easy fix.
1) tie the enemies ability to produce fleets to its current economic state. no more infinite fleets from thin air. less annoying spam and more meaningful engagements. put a face to that attacking fleet, give it some character. find a way to change that fight into something engaging and fun rather rather being repetitious and tedious as it is currently.
2) clearly communicate to the player (who may be new) whats about to happen, prior to the crisis starting. and when it does start have a npc dialogue pop up. put a face to it. give the player some agency in how in unfolds. want to say screw you this means war! lets go!, want to ease into with a more diplomatic approach thats cool too even if that means giving some ground.
3) if your a person who loves exploration like me and uses just a few colonies to fund that exploration, this system is just a huge pain in the ass. please make it a toggle in the campaign setup. if that wont work at minimum please allow resolution to be handled while out in the field. do we not have phones? the way it is now requires your physical presence and creates a feeling that im trapped in my own systems. i just want to go explore.

thank you for the awesome game alex.

[Thaago]

It sounds like most of your issues with this come from Nex. If you enjoy exploring rather than doing lots of things in the core dealing with other empires, you should probably turn that mod off. It's just not meant for what you want to do and it causes problems.

[Killer of Fate]

It sounds like most of your issues with this come from Nex. If you enjoy exploring rather than doing lots of things in the core dealing with other empires, you should probably turn that mod off. It's just not meant for what you want to do and it causes problems.

Oh, i didn't... Read through the thing properly. Yes, if it's a bug caused by Nexerellin that is causing endless fleets to spawn, then maybe you should try turning off the Nexerellin and then describing what your experience is...

Cause otherwise it just feels kinda... Uhhhhhhhhh...

[eert5rty7u8i9i7u6yrewqdef]

It sounds like most of your issues with this come from Nex. If you enjoy exploring rather than doing lots of things in the core dealing with other empires, you should probably turn that mod off. It's just not meant for what you want to do and it causes problems.

It functions mostly as intended with Nex, although weird things like the League sending AI inspection or the Hegemony sending blockades can happen depending on who owns what. Likewise, some events never end if a faction loses all of its world to invasions, but the new owners don't send the crisis fleet(s) for one reason or another.

I could have sworn there was a way to directly turn the system off in the game files, but I don't remember what it is now.

The only current way in-game to "remove" the feature is to sat bomb into de-civilization every world with a military market that was originally owned by a vanilla faction. The exceptions being the League and possibly TT as they give up after 1 bombing, as well as Pirates and Pathers as they have to be fully wiped out.

[Phenir]

im not convinced.
the concept sounds cool but every game feels the same. first its pirates, then its the path. the design poorly communicates what the player needs to do. resolution isnt always possible. and when it snowballs its WAY over the top. this single feature dominates the game and not in a good way.

Resolution is always possible. Maybe not if you mod your game but that's not the dev's fault.
The game straight up tells you how you can get the other side to stop being a pain. You can pay tribute to the local pirate boss, same for the path. PL and heg are both resolved in the same way, joining the league. Diktat is stealing their core. For tri-tach, you can raid them to death. For church you just talk to their leader and tell them to stop. And all of these (except tri-tach) are not including the major crisis solution which is combat.

a veteran of the game explaining a new player how to enjoy it is the antithesis of good game design tbh. If an individual like this, which there are many of, say the crisis system in its current form is too dominating, they are probably right. We are the ones with a bias. And we should probably try to understand their perspective more than enforcing our own.

It's not like I told him anything the game doesn't tell him. And he already knew about giving kanta a lamp sooo..

as i said earlier its poorly communicated. be honest, the first time you had to deal with the pirate crisis did you know who kanta was? where to find her? what her resolution states were? did you look it up on the web?

Well, you know there is that whole thing during the main storyline where you meet Kanta and have significant dealings with her. And it doesn't matter what her "resolutions" are. She has so many, you're extremely likely to have one, and one of them is a trivial 1 million credits and another easy one is losing a contact. IIRC during my first blind playthrough(read: I didn't know anything about the crisis events besides what was in Alex's blog on it) after the patch though, I just didn't bother and waited for the super pirate raid.

1) if kantas den decivs your screwed. i have witnessed the final fleet attack being comprised of 8-10 fully loaded fleets stuffed to the brim with capitals.
2) there appears to be no requirement in reality as to whether or not a faction actually could produce those fleets, in some of my games i have completely eliminated the faction and the fleets keep coming. its all fake.

Both of these sound like the results of mods. I've never seen kanta's den deciv in a vanilla game.
The fleets are big and numerous but they shouldn't be cap stacks. And they are pirates. Pirate capitals aren't exactly scary.
In vanilla, if you wipe out a faction (might just be military bases not sure), they stop. Well except pirates and pathers probably because zombie factions. The factions will still show up in the crisis event info but they don't actually contribute to the bar. They do still have fleets active (investigators/enforcers/etc), which I think is being fixed.

3) why is there blowback AND onetime progress reduction events? so if a person actively defends the colonys it leads to a limbo state. you can fight them forever and all your doing is drawing things out. how does this make sense? really i have seen people defend this by saying your doing it wrong. REALLY? the real way to do it is to game the system, do exactly the opposite of what person would naturally do.

Blowback is there precisely so you can't delay it forever but if you want to, you can push the event back a bit so you have more time to prepare or to reroll it.
Ideally, a person would go to the event page and read about it instead of bumbling through it and then complaining on the forum when that doesn't work out but here we are.

2) clearly communicate to the player (who may be new) whats about to happen, prior to the crisis starting. and when it does start have a npc dialogue pop up. put a face to it. give the player some agency in how in unfolds. want to say screw you this means war! lets go!, want to ease into with a more diplomatic approach thats cool too even if that means giving some ground.

You get like a month warning before it happens, possibly several depending on your per month bar progress, in which the event panel describes the upcoming event, and then another month or two, depending on how far your colony is from the enemy market, after the event actually triggers to get yourself over to your colony before those fleets arrive, or resolve it otherwise.

3) if your a person who loves exploration like me and uses just a few colonies to fund that exploration, this system is just a huge pain in the ass. please make it a toggle in the campaign setup. if that wont work at minimum please allow resolution to be handled while out in the field. do we not have phones? the way it is now requires your physical presence and creates a feeling that im trapped in my own systems. i just want to go explore.

Then do that? You only need to be there like once every few months, every half year or longer even if you don't have significant blowback. This is literally what I told you in my first reply. You can go do other things while the bar fills and your colonies will be barely affected. I've done exactly that in my last few playthroughs. Set up colonies and then mess around in deep space while waiting for the bar to fill, then go back home and deal with it, refuel and resupply, and it's right back to deep space for me.

[DownTheDrain]

im not convinced.
the concept sounds cool but every game feels the same. first its pirates, then its the path. the design poorly communicates what the player needs to do. resolution isnt always possible. and when it snowballs its WAY over the top. this single feature dominates the game and not in a good way.

Resolution is always possible. Maybe not if you mod your game but that's not the dev's fault.
The game straight up tells you how you can get the other side to stop being a pain. You can pay tribute to the local pirate boss, same for the path. PL and heg are both resolved in the same way, joining the league. Diktat is stealing their core. For tri-tach, you can raid them to death. For church you just talk to their leader and tell them to stop. And all of these (except tri-tach) are not including the major crisis solution which is combat.

a veteran of the game explaining a new player how to enjoy it is the antithesis of good game design tbh. If an individual like this, which there are many of, say the crisis system in its current form is too dominating, they are probably right. We are the ones with a bias. And we should probably try to understand their perspective more than enforcing our own.

I don't think that's an elitist thing, I'm far from a veteran and I didn't have any issues with the crisis system. So far anyway.

Most of the problems mentioned by OP seem to be largely self-inflicted.
You don't need colonies to "fund exploration", especially if you're running Nex and/or some exploration-focused mods. I'd argue that early colonies are more of a drain on resources and later on there's not much to spend that surplus on except more colony stuff. If you're focused on exploring you can just find most of the things you'd have to spend money on if you stayed home.
The various fleets roaming your system are usually only an issue if you do stay home. Otherwise pirates might put a bit of a dent on your profit margins but it doesn't stop you from progressing. As for the actual crisis attacks, they can certainly be a problem the first time you run into them but on subsequent playthroughs you know what to expect and can prepare. Or you simply delay colonies until your fleet can handle whatever is thrown at you.

That said, I agree that crisis fleets not being tied to the actual strength of each faction can feel pretty silly. I also wouldn't be opposed to an option to simply turn the whole mechanic off for players that want their colonies to stay perfectly safe and pristine at all times while they're out in the far reaches of space.