v2.6.0 Changes Discussion Thread

[Kaiser]

I'm MEGA hyped for the 2.6 release in July, it is not true @Steve?

[nuclearslurpee]

I'm MEGA hyped for the 2.6 release in July, it is not true @Steve?

July was the earliest possible date, however thanks to your comment the earliest possible date is now March 2026.

Just kidding ... I hope ...

[Tavik Toth]

More conventional tech weapons is a great addition!

[Aloriel]

Concerning pre-industrial tech NPRs, you said they'd have ground forces. What manner of ground forces would they have? Muskets? Swords? Does it depend on where in some hidden tech tree they are?

Now that you are also planning industrial era NPRs as well, does that also imply that pre-industrial NPRs can become industrial era?

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Concerning pre-industrial tech NPRs, you said they'd have ground forces. What manner of ground forces would they have? Muskets? Swords? Does it depend on where in some hidden tech tree they are?

Now that you are also planning industrial era NPRs as well, does that also imply that pre-industrial NPRs can become industrial era?

Pre-Ind have the same ground forces they have in v2.5.1, with armour and weapon strength 1. Pre-industrial cannot advance to industrial. They are centuries apart. It's like Rome, or 16th Century Spain, advancing to WW2 Germany.

Pre-industrial and Industrial are fixed tech civilizations - more like special events than serious opponents, although the industrial NPRs could play an interesting role if they end up between two high tech empires.

[lumporr]

I solved the pre-TN problem in my own database forays by adding the installations Basic Industry and University, as well as the Industrial and Space Age techs. Basic industry is the same construction value as Conventional with nothing else, while requiring 500k taxable basic labourers (ten times the required workers of Conventional Industry). Universities cost 600 wealth and provide 0.05 research value, 0.02 academy value, and require 50k workers. Industrial Tech unlocks the Military Academy, GFCC, Financial Centre, Conventional Industry (requiring no minerals, but 1200 wealth), and the ability to convert Basic Industry to Conventional for 1100 wealth (on top of the 120 wealth cost of Basic Industry). Space Age unlocks infrastructure, DSTs, shipyards, spaceports, and cargo/refueling/ordnance stations. Forced Labour was included in a separate tech. The rest were unlocked by TN as in the base game. Costs of the techs were 1,000 and 2,000, comparable to TN at 5,000.

This would mean you'd require 20 Universities to match a Research Facility, 50 to match a Military Academy, and 10 Basic Industry requiring 5 million workers to match a Construction Factory requiring 50k.

That's how I did it, anyway!

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

The 'pre-TN problem' in coding terms is a huge amount of AI code that assumes certain capabilities on the part of a NPR. I would have to go through all that code and add exceptions for the technology and capabilities that an NPR may or may not possess when that code is accessed and then fix all the resulting bugs. I would also have to get the NPR to assess which of the missing capabilities were most important and prioritise them for construction, research, shipbuilding, etc..

It's possible to do it - it's just a HUGE amount of work.

The Industrial NPR is a way to have the presence of a conventional NPR without having to worry about the above.

[Garfunkel]

Thanks for adding the conventional -only NPR, that and the conventional weapons are totally up my alley!

[gpt3]

The 'pre-TN problem' in coding terms is a huge amount of AI code that assumes certain capabilities on the part of a NPR. I would have to go through all that code and add exceptions for the technology and capabilities that an NPR may or may not possess when that code is accessed and then fix all the resulting bugs. I would also have to get the NPR to assess which of the missing capabilities were most important and prioritise them for construction, research, shipbuilding, etc..

It's possible to do it - it's just a HUGE amount of work.

The Industrial NPR is a way to have the presence of a conventional NPR without having to worry about the above.

Will the industrial NPRs have STO ground units? They could use the new conventional beam weapons and hopefully use the same AI code as regular NPRs and Rahkas.

From a narrative perspective, one could imagine Cold War or modern-day humanity desperately repurposing anti-satellite/asteroid-defense systems to (ineffectively) combat aliens.