v2.0.0 Changes Discussion Thread

[Bremen]

I have no problem with range and beam combat between player factions as both shields and MSP can give enough benefit to a defender with numerical superiority. Against the AI I think they main problem is they can fire their weapons indefinitely, the AI should not be able to do that.

I believe it was already mentioned that was changing this patch.

[Jorgen_CAB]

I have no problem with range and beam combat between player factions as both shields and MSP can give enough benefit to a defender with numerical superiority. Against the AI I think they main problem is they can fire their weapons indefinitely, the AI should not be able to do that.

I believe it was already mentioned that was changing this patch.

Ok... if that is the case I missed that and that is a fine change... in that case I find no problem with the beam mechanics as they are as a weaker opponent can fight as long as you don't keep all ships in one place and use shields.

[TMaekler]

You have added the option to scrap installations in 1.14. Any plans to add scrap orbital space stations? 

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

You have added the option to scrap installations in 1.14. Any plans to add scrap orbital space stations? 

You can scrap them now in a shipyard.

[nuclearslurpee]

Population: Refuel And Resupply From Colony

I wonder if this might be better as "Refuel, Resupply, and Load Ordnance"? On one hand it seems like this would probably be the most common move order for missile ships, on the other hand I don't know if it is more likely that having this as a default would cause unintended confusion due to e.g. ammunition transports loading ordnance when not desired.

What do others think? I love this change by the way, if this default is left as it is I would have no objections personally.

[Vivalas]

Really loving these QOL changes for 1.14. I have a small suggestion to make 1.14 even more phenomenal for micro than it is now, one of two things:

1.A "home base" for a fleet, where it automatically tracks the range of a fleet from that base using fuel in tankers and consumption of all ships. If a destination is too far, it cancels the order to prevent being stranded, and if it's because fuel is  less than max, it goes to refuel before heading off.

2. A check to see if a fleet would trigger a refueling conditional order before it reaches its destination, with a certain margin, where it refuels before going to a destination. To prevent things like fleets traveling 90% to a destination then proceeding to fly back to refuel.

I suppose ranges can be tricky because of movement of celestial bodies but if you just calculate distance using current positions of destination planets and LPs then it should work almost all the time I think, without being too intensive.

[Droll]

Population: Refuel And Resupply From Colony

I wonder if this might be better as "Refuel, Resupply, and Load Ordnance"? On one hand it seems like this would probably be the most common move order for missile ships, on the other hand I don't know if it is more likely that having this as a default would cause unintended confusion due to e.g. ammunition transports loading ordnance when not desired.

What do others think? I love this change by the way, if this default is left as it is I would have no objections personally.

I think ammunition is something the player will think much more consciously about than lets say, MSP/fuel. Which is why I think it's better this way.

I'm left wondering what happens when a ship that cannot perform an order encounters a default move order. (No geosurvey and you click on system body or no salvager and you click on wreck)

[nuclearslurpee]

I'm left wondering what happens when a ship that cannot perform an order encounters a default move order. (No geosurvey and you click on system body or no salvager and you click on wreck)

If it is anything like how things work presently, the ship or fleet would move to the target and fire off a message about not being able to do its job, which slightly clutters the event log but functionally works just fine as the fleet has still gotten from A to B.

For me I see this mainly being an "issue" when I send troop transports to a body I haven't yet put a colony on...still, easy fix for me.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

I'm left wondering what happens when a ship that cannot perform an order encounters a default move order. (No geosurvey and you click on system body or no salvager and you click on wreck)

The default orders are just like any any other order - just activated with a double click instead. The behaviour will be the same in both cases.

I considered having more intelligent default orders that considered the fleet composition, but there are so many edge cases it probably would cause more problems than it solved (plus taking a lot more time to code and debug). I'm in the middle of moving house atm so I don't have much free time.

[Garfunkel]

It's funny how used to you become with certain things - I never even considered that raise/lower all button as necessary since doing it ship-by-ship is so routine at this point. QoL!

[serger]

Note this is not the same as turning these spoilers off. Raiders and Swarm will still gain tech in the background and Invaders will use the full time since game start to generate forces when they do eventually invade. This option is simply to delay the encounters until the player empire is larger.

(http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=12523.msg154048#msg154048)

Does that mean that up to 1.13 any dynamic spoiler will start at the same level the moment it's turned on, i.e. by turning them off temporarily you don't only delaying their appearance, but also making them relatively weaker (comparing to your level) at the moment of their appearance?

[nuclearslurpee]

Note this is not the same as turning these spoilers off. Raiders and Swarm will still gain tech in the background and Invaders will use the full time since game start to generate forces when they do eventually invade. This option is simply to delay the encounters until the player empire is larger.

(http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=12523.msg154048#msg154048)

Does that mean that up to 1.13 any dynamic spoiler will start at the same level the moment it's turned on, i.e. by turning them off temporarily you don't only delaying their appearance, but also making them relatively weaker (comparing to your level) at the moment of their appearance?

I believe that the spoiler races already do this (i.e. mark tech/time since game start), and the changelog post simply indicates that this behavior will not be changed by the minimum systems rule. Certainly for Raiders this is the case as they operate from an "off-map" base.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

When a Swarm is generated, it uses game time as a modifier for tech, so a Swarm generated in year 50 will have the same tech (broadly) regardless of when the Swarm were activated.

Raiders gain tech using the research facilities on their home world. This still happens when they are inactive. However, they gain additional labs over time while active, so late-activated Raiders will have lower tech than Raiders active from the start.

Invaders don't gain tech so time of activation doesn't affect them in this context.

[Droll]

Invaders don't gain tech so time of activation doesn't affect them in this context.

Wait what? I thought they did. Honestly given how "low" they start at they really ought to advance.

[Density]

In regards to the "minimum player systems for spoilers" ...what conditions makes a system a player system?