Questions Not Worth Their Own Thread: C# Edition

[Froggiest1982]

So, is 2.0.2 worth it? I am seeing lots of weird bugs report...

[Black]

So, is 2.0.2 worth it? I am seeing lots of weird bugs report...

For me it is. But I suppose I was lucky and was not hit by any of these bugs.

[skoormit]

So, is 2.0.2 worth it? I am seeing lots of weird bugs report...

Well, 2.0.3 was released shortly after you asked. So there you go.

[StarshipCactus]

I can't see a way to reduce the number of components of a type in a ship design...how is that done?  I added 2 small maintenance bays then could see no way to remove them.

I think you double click on them.

[Steve Walmsley]

I can't see a way to reduce the number of components of a type in a ship design...how is that done?  I added 2 small maintenance bays then could see no way to remove them.

I think you double click on them.

You can do that in Wide View - in normal view you need to click the Class Components radio button first.

[Garfunkel]

Furthermore, NPR AI cannot really function with a shared homeworld either - you will have a very short and unsatisfying game if you start on Earth with a bunch of NPRs - you would have to use the truce countdown function and as soon that is over, world war will start and the NPRs will happily nuke Earth into oblivion.

Huh, am I missing context on the line of comments, or is multi-NPR start on Earth just not viable in 2.0 anymore?
It was definitely working before anyway. I am literally in a game of it where only one faction became evil and triggered the nukes, while 3 other factions have thereafter lived with me peacefully for over 100 years, doing their own thing exploring, guarding Sol, and even sharing tech with me. I even documented that game here.

I guess it's possible that peace reigns - most games I've seen people post here or talk about had devolved into nuclear armageddon pretty quickly since the number of active sensors causes relations to plummet pretty fast.

How is upgrading ground unit formations with new tech best handled?  At the moment the only option I can see is to create the new template with the improved equipment then produce it, then swap it into the formation, then scrap the old equipment.

Or just train a new formation completely and leave the old one as reserve for the eventual NPR homeworld invasion where you need millions of warm bodies.

Should my bombardment units be set for no combat?  Should the FO be attached to the formation with the bombardment units or elsewhere?

Bombardment units should NOT have avoid combat box ticked. Only supply, HQ, xeno, construction, STO units should have it ticked. Forward Observers can be anywhere as they do not direct artillery fire - they only direct orbital bombardment from ships and strikes by ground support fighters.

What exactly does the HQ rating mean?  I have a battalion HQ with rating 1000, but the total size of the HQ with the attached 5 companies is 1154 is this a problem?  The game isn't giving me a warning or anything.

HQ rating tells how large of a formation the HQ can command and still give full bonuses from the commanding officer. Going over means your CO is not 100% effective. The number includes not only the HQ formation itself but ALL sub-formations as well, so you must plan ahead.

[Borealis4x]

How have people been fairing against the new pirate enemies so far?

[Paul M]

How have people been fairing against the new pirate enemies so far?

In the 4 games I have tried to start (conventional start) they showed up and destroyed me before I could get into space.  Elite infantry against that you can build isn't fun...neither is getting your space yard, then your ground force construction facilities destroyed...last game at the end there was 3xclass1, 3xclass2, and 2xclass3 ships in orbit over my homeworld...and 1900 elite infantry, 90 anti-armour and 2 HQ ground forces engaging mine.   I believe I killed something like 10 elite infantry in several days of combat.  I had managed to destroy 3 of their class1 ships with my STOs...but their class2 ship mounted 10xrailguns...while my STOs each had 2x15cm carronades. 

A conventional start with aether rift raiders turned on seems to be impossible or else my luck has been exceptionally bad.  The last game only lasted as long as it did due to the lessons learned in the previous attempts, also based on what the NCN was at the end of my VB6 game I would say a basic TN start race will be obliterated with only slightly more work.

[Black]

How have people been fairing against the new pirate enemies so far?

In the 4 games I have tried to start (conventional start) they showed up and destroyed me before I could get into space.  Elite infantry against that you can build isn't fun...neither is getting your space yard, then your ground force construction facilities destroyed...last game at the end there was 3xclass1, 3xclass2, and 2xclass3 ships in orbit over my homeworld...and 1900 elite infantry, 90 anti-armour and 2 HQ ground forces engaging mine.   I believe I killed something like 10 elite infantry in several days of combat.  I had managed to destroy 3 of their class1 ships with my STOs...but their class2 ship mounted 10xrailguns...while my STOs each had 2x15cm carronades. 

A conventional start with aether rift raiders turned on seems to be impossible or else my luck has been exceptionally bad.  The last game only lasted as long as it did due to the lessons learned in the previous attempts, also based on what the NCN was at the end of my VB6 game I would say a basic TN start race will be obliterated with only slightly more work.

Some people get swarmed by large fleets from the start. On the other hand, I encountered only scouts and one somewhat larger group that escorted one of their commercial ships.  :'(

But I had TN start with some military ships, so that may be a big difference as they are scared and run before you even pick them up.

[db48x]

What exactly does the HQ rating mean?  I have a battalion HQ with rating 1000, but the total size of the HQ with the attached 5 companies is 1154 is this a problem?  The game isn't giving me a warning or anything.

HQ rating tells how large of a formation the HQ can command and still give full bonuses from the commanding officer. Going over means your CO is not 100% effective. The number includes not only the HQ formation itself but ALL sub-formations as well, so you must plan ahead.

I’m not sure we know the exact formulas, but iirc it should mean that the CO is _only_ 100% effective. That is, if they give a 10% bonus for 1000 troops and you have them leading 1100 instead then the game will count them as giving a 10%*1000/1100 = 9.09% bonus. In both cases they give you the same 100 extra survey points (or damage or hp or chance to hit or whatever their bonus was), but in the latter case it is spread out over more troops.

In any case small variations shouldn’t matter much, so there’s no huge penalty for throwing a few extra elements into a led formation instead of leaving them with no HQ.

[Vandermeer]

I guess it's possible that peace reigns - most games I've seen people post here or talk about had devolved into nuclear armageddon pretty quickly since the number of active sensors causes relations to plummet pretty fast.

There are easy tricks for setting up the multi-faction start right. If done correctly you can even guide which one of them becomes evil genocidal and which don't no problem.(in my game I wanted China to flip out, Britain to be ambiguous-"can go either way", and Asean and South America to be peaceful, and that is exactly what happened. China attacked, Asean and South helped with PD + anti-orbital, Britain was neutral throughout everything)
Maybe I should create some tutorial post somewhere, since it appears this is not widely known. Not sure what I would talk about other than maybe documenting the exact stats of successful multi-faction games though, since it otherwise basically boils down to {Good guys: more diplomacy, little xenophobia}, {Bad guys: opposite}, and keeping active sensors off until actually departing.
I think you can even ignore the active sensor rule upon reaching ally status, but I generally do this in all games since DST stations far outrange any radar after the new C# formula once you reach 10-20 installations anyway.

[nuclearslurpee]

Huh, am I missing context on the line of comments, or is multi-NPR start on Earth just not viable in 2.0 anymore?
It was definitely working before anyway. I am literally in a game of it where only one faction became evil and triggered the nukes, while 3 other factions have thereafter lived with me peacefully for over 100 years, doing their own thing exploring, guarding Sol, and even sharing tech with me. I even documented that game here.

It's entirely doable, you just won't be able to customize the factions very much since you cannot create them as player races and set them as NPRs later. You also probably need to use the treaty status game option to prevent an early war before anyone expands out of Sol.

[Ultimoos]

How have people been fairing against the new pirate enemies so far?

In my first game (conventional with 25% research rate) I got raided and obliterated soon after I started to explore outside of my home system.  Had 3 10k orbital weapon platforms.  First just sole scout appeared.  It died from one salve at point blank range.  For some reason those raiders are very happy attacking civilian vessels.  Right after that his friends came, 8 ships strong with one cruiser (17k).  That was the end of that game. 

In my second game, with same starting settings I was way better prepared.  10x10k OWP with 6xquadruple 12cm laser turrets and 6 layers of armor.  Engagement started when I was refitting them to 15cm lasers.  12 corvettes (3k) and 8 frigates (5k).  This time there was no scout.  Again just after I started scouting outside of my system over 20 ships arrived with 5 cruisers.  After they lost 4 cruisers they started to run away.  I lost 5 OWP and send ships to chase after them.  I managed to take down a couple more ships losing some frigates in return.  They lost half of the fleet and i lost 3 frigates.  Because of low fuel range I had to let them go.  Just few months later those ships came back.  They split to 2 groups which gave mi opportunity for advantageous engagements.  I cleared them all losing 2 more frigates. 

The problem now is, they have scouts everywhere.  I'm constantly losing survey ships.  I can't even find proper mineral sources.  And now I need proper interstellar navy way, way earlier than normal.

[Paul M]

How have people been fairing against the new pirate enemies so far?

In the 4 games I have tried to start (conventional start) they showed up and destroyed me before I could get into space.  Elite infantry against that you can build isn't fun...neither is getting your space yard, then your ground force construction facilities destroyed...last game at the end there was 3xclass1, 3xclass2, and 2xclass3 ships in orbit over my homeworld...and 1900 elite infantry, 90 anti-armour and 2 HQ ground forces engaging mine.   I believe I killed something like 10 elite infantry in several days of combat.  I had managed to destroy 3 of their class1 ships with my STOs...but their class2 ship mounted 10xrailguns...while my STOs each had 2x15cm carronades. 

A conventional start with aether rift raiders turned on seems to be impossible or else my luck has been exceptionally bad.  The last game only lasted as long as it did due to the lessons learned in the previous attempts, also based on what the NCN was at the end of my VB6 game I would say a basic TN start race will be obliterated with only slightly more work.

Some people get swarmed by large fleets from the start. On the other hand, I encountered only scouts and one somewhat larger group that escorted one of their commercial ships.  :'(

But I had TN start with some military ships, so that may be a big difference as they are scared and run before you even pick them up.

Trying again...this time I got to TN tech without them showing up...I have a conventional Geosurvey ship doing its thing so I'm way better off.  But as is commented elsewhere the trouble is you will need to protect stuff a lot more than what I suspect was typical in the past.  I think Steve must have fixed something as I had them showing up in every game before this and suddenly this time not...or else it is just luck.  I have one of my 4 research labs constantly researching ground tech at the moment so that I have a better chance of standing off an attack...ok...so not much more of one but still.

[db48x]

An alien ship is surveying my asteroid belt!