Change Log for 6.30 Discussion

[Steve Walmsley]

it certainly makes the game quicker and gives you an edge over the NPRs. You could hit endgame TL pretty quick with a fitting scientists.

It's possible an NPR could start with an anomaly on their homeworld.

Steve

[Khanti]

TEN Years ive been "Follow" Steve's Dream. . . 2003>>2013!!!! from early 1. 0 to 6. 3.

Waitn for :
TG icons on System Map (use real USA Navy icons)
Planetary map and Battle.
More easy and usefull Army system
Single ships with "Class" different map symbol, especially on System Map.  DOT r very boring now. .
Change from BLUE to DARK on System Map background.  Blue r coming from old game.
Enjoy on Italy vacation, Steve:)

Hm, quite a lot of time.  I am waiting just 4 days (started playing 01 August).   

Planetary map and Battle.
So are there any land units battles in Aurora now? Is there any usage for all those battalions other than police forces?

[Paul M]

I would like to see (as I have said before) a formation editor such as was present in Harpoon.  Or even one that just allowed you to specify a formation which did not require breaking up the entire taskforce and giving all the individual elements various oddball follow and such commands.

Unfortunately this is likely a bit complex from the programing point of view.

I would also like to see the civillian decision process improved.  Basically the use of flags could ensure that massive colonist drops didn't occur by first checking if space was available then going in order through the ships and assigning the job to a ship at a time with the amount of available space decreased by committed colonists between each ship check.  This would stop when the "available space" went to zero.  It is fairly straightforward subroutine logic I'd think and should be possible with only the addition of flags or else storage of a relatively small amount of information permanently.

I would also think that smaller firms would go after whatever profit they can, as at the moment I see goods that could be moved not being moved.  But have them look at moving the several tons of this or that from x to y rather than waiting for it to be greater than 10.

oh blast this is in the wrong thread...ah well....it should be in suggestions or requests!

[Bgreman]

One easy change I'd like to see is being able to set the Colonist source/destination/stable radio button at ANY population level, not requiring 25m on the colony before it becomes useful.  If I only want a 10k research population on a body, I should be able to do that without having to saturate my civs with contracts.

[Steve Walmsley]

One easy change I'd like to see is being able to set the Colonist source/destination/stable radio button at ANY population level, not requiring 25m on the colony before it becomes useful.  If I only want a 10k research population on a body, I should be able to do that without having to saturate my civs with contracts.

The reason for this is so you can't completely control the civilian sector. It is supposed to function with some free will, whereas if you could set every colony to stable and only one to colonise, you would have complete control over it.

Steve

[Bgreman]

The reason for this is so you can't completely control the civilian sector. It is supposed to function with some free will, whereas if you could set every colony to stable and only one to colonise, you would have complete control over it.

Steve

That's fair, I guess.  It's only really bothering me because a) I'm running 5.6 still, which doesn't have the improvements in civ logic that makes them spread colonization efforts around some, so they focus on colonies in the order they were created and b) I have a colony on Mars that is supposed to be "evacuating" but if I leave the civilians to their own devices and turn off colonist transport to the moon, they will go full blast on Mars.

Perhaps it could still be locked when under 25m, but with the option for an SM-mode override?  I've tried setting the value directly in the DB but the code must update it in the UI refresh/update since it gets switched back as soon as I try to view the tab.

[Mel Vixen]

It's possible an NPR could start with an anomaly on their homeworld.

Steve

Sure but wouldnt the NPR need a AI update to fully exploit that advantage? IIrc. the NPRs take potshots at research not going with theyr strengths or mitigating weaknesses. Also the NPR would have to choose to colonize a available Anomaly if one exists in its systems depending on pros and cons.

[Gyrfalcon]

Hm, quite a lot of time.  I am waiting just 4 days (started playing 01 August).   

Planetary map and Battle.
So are there any land units battles in Aurora now? Is there any usage for all those battalions other than police forces?

It depends how you choose to play the game. Quite a few people don't glass enemy planets, so then you need to conduct landings and conquer their worlds on the ground. However, it's also perfectly viable to slag most of the enemy army and then conquer their (somewhat) irradiated world with relative ease.

[wobbly]

The reason for this is so you can't completely control the civilian sector. It is supposed to function with some free will, whereas if you could set every colony to stable and only one to colonise, you would have complete control over it.

Steve

Would you consider changing it to something like 50 mil / colony cost. So that say Mars & Luna could be stable at 25 mil. where as somewhere like Titan could be stable at about 7 mil. I'm sure places like Titan aren't the most attractive destination for immigrants & it would allow for smaller manned outposts as well as full blown colonies.

[Whitecold]

Would you consider changing it to something like 50 mil / colony cost. So that say Mars & Luna could be stable at 25 mil. where as somewhere like Titan could be stable at about 7 mil. I'm sure places like Titan aren't the most attractive destination for immigrants & it would allow for smaller manned outposts as well as full blown colonies.

Another problem I recently found was that if you modify colonists on Earth, you can't get them to relocate until they hit 25 Mil with civilian colony ships. Also there are circumstances where you might want to evacuate a colony, leaving no one behind.
Maybe allow setting stable/immigration/emmigration for each population and introduce a number of willing colonists to go for a certain planet, if you have no more, no colonization will happen, so you can't direct it by closing down all other colonies. The number should probably be depended on colony cost of origin/destination and total populations.

[alex_brunius]

it certainly makes the game quicker and gives you an edge over the NPRs. You could hit endgame TL pretty quick with a fitting scientists.

Or it will end up the other way around...

To get the bonus you can't keep all labs easily protected in one place anymore but are forced to spread out your population and labs to a much larger degree, meaning they are alot more vulnerable to NPR attacks actually making the game more of a challenge.

[sloanjh (OP)]

Another problem I recently found was that if you modify colonists on Earth, you can't get them to relocate until they hit 25 Mil with civilian colony ships. Also there are circumstances where you might want to evacuate a colony, leaving no one behind.

Don't forget that you can use government-owned transports to move population around.  So this option is available for evacuating colonies.  (Plus, I think part of Steve's motivation here is that just because the government wants everyone to evacuate a colony doesn't mean they will....)

John

[Marski]

Has Steve said anything about game optimization? Will the upcoming patch finally make the game use more than one core?
The gradually increase of time it takes turns to flip has killed my motivation to play this game.

[Erik L]

Has Steve said anything about game optimization? Will the upcoming patch finally make the game use more than one core?
The gradually increase of time it takes turns to flip has killed my motivation to play this game.

Since it is still in VB6, I seriously doubt it uses more than one core.

[sloanjh (OP)]

Since it is still in VB6, I seriously doubt it uses more than one core.

I think "will ever use one core" is a safe statement

It could conceivably happen in Aurora II, but that seems to have fallen victim to the innovator's dilemma (it's not cost-effective to do a complete rewrite compared to incremental improvements to the existing game).

John