4/20/2017
Topic:
Voting power
Hutton
|
I just noticed that my voting power on Mercury is scaled down down with production rate.
Is that a bug, or is it working as intended? |
4/21/2017
Topic:
Combat guide needs clarification
Hutton
|
Is Power an abstract representation of overall usefulness, or does it figure into the math? Like, do you multiply the value on the chart by Power to get damage? I assumed that was how it worked, but when I went back to the guide make sure it doesn't say so explicitly. I just inferred that's how it works from the explanation of the AtkX value for special units. |
4/21/2017
Topic:
Distribution Centers
Hutton
|
A level 1 distribution center is really handy when your goal is to meet your city's needs, rather than profit off them. They are valuable just for providing a list of all the Products you have on hand with their Demand in that city. I usually subtract 75 from Demand, multiply the sum by the Volume, and put in an order to sell that much. Not counting other factors in changing Demand, that puts that product on track to a Demand of 75%. |
4/21/2017
Topic:
Combat guide needs clarification
Hutton
|
Cool. And it feels right that Mechanized should make the best raiders. I guess the same goes for Frigates and Corvettes. |
4/22/2017
Topic:
SafeHold Corporation is ruler of Sol System
Hutton
|
What precipitates systems wide elections?
Also, in the chart above Safehold holds the chair for both Mercury and Sol. I thought you could only have 1 seat at a time. Or were things different in that previous beta test? |
4/24/2017
Topic:
Attack aftermath
Hutton
|
To avoid getting spammed with Battle reports, you won't get multiple alerts from a battle that lasts several turns. If you go look in Corporate->Battles you will probably find a few consecutive reports for fighting at 15:7 that will document everything that happened. |
4/24/2017
Topic:
Previously: Science! Now it's about space stations
Hutton
|
Some ideas about making the game more sciencey. Please feel free to add your own.
Doc Dread has recently been describing an intention to introduce MegaStructures that exist in orbit around a planet. The first thing that jumped to my mind was space elevators. Space elevators are a means of cheaply transporting material out of a planets gravity well.
The more basic version of a space elevator is a satellite in geosynchronous orbit above the earth's equator attached to some point on the equator by a tether. The speed at which the satellite is moving is actually too high to stay in orbit without the thether and would fly into space if the thether was broken. (This also means the satellite has its own gravity from the Coriolanus force of rotating around the earth, in which up is towards earth and down is interplanetary space). Crawler vehicles climb up and down the tether to move cargo between the satellite and the surface. This is cheaper than launching spacecraft into orbit under their own power.
A cheaper, and weirder alternative to the traditional space elevator is to build an unattached tether in orbit around earth and then set it spinning so the ends dip into the atmosphere as they point down at the planet. The spacecraft flies up into the upper atmosphere like a conventional aircraft using aerodynamic lift, (or is carried that high by an aircraft if it is not built to use the atmosphere for lift), and grabs the end of the tether as it swings into the atmosphere. As the tether spins, it pulls the spacecraft up out of the atmosphere. The spacecraft releases the tether when pointed at the angle closest to its desired destination and is flinged off into space.
A simpler alternative is to build a railgun on the surface that shoots cargo into space like a bullet.
As the game works now these structures wouldn't serve any practical purpose, because all spacecraft have a flat maintenance fee. It costs the same to launch them into space as it does to keep them parked in orbit, so there is no gameplay benefit to a structure that moves cargo into space.
But I throw these out, Dr. Dread, in case you are planning to drop some major updates a year are so from now to mix up the gameplay and give us some new balance issues to contend with. Like making ships cheap to park, fly through interplanetary space or land on a planet; and expensive to engage in combat, fly through interseller space and launch from a planet.
edited by Hutton on 4/25/2017 |
4/24/2017
Topic:
UI rework and account management
Hutton
|
How far in advance will you let us know what day the wipe will be? There is a faction of blood cultists trying to take control of my board of directors right now. They want to change our corporate jingle to "Cleanse the unbelievers" or "Cleanse the Earth with Foam!" or something like that, so I assume that means we'll be retooling to take advantage of the sky high demand for soap on Mars once their in charge. (I think they said "Foam". I mean, that's the only thing that makes sense, right?)
I thought that maybe I'd give in and see if they can turn this company around once we only have a few days left. |
4/24/2017
Topic:
Special unit levels
Hutton
|
I find it strangely unsatasfying that you can only fill up 4 1/2 boxes of upgrades on special units. Is there a specific reason for this, or did it just happen to work out that way because there there is no mechanism to pick an upgrade when they are created. Is it possible they could start on level 0 or be apgradable to level 11 so we can fill out the stack? |
4/25/2017
Topic:
UI rework and account management
Hutton
|
Yes, that will be fine. My board members seem to be moving away from the soap industry and are leaning towards the punchier, "Blood for the Blood God!" jingle. So, medical supplies... I guess. |
4/25/2017
Topic:
Special unit levels
Hutton
|
Well, there is no menu option for a level one upgrade when you deploy an A5 Cybertronic Artifact to make an AI Hyperfighter at least. |
4/25/2017
Topic:
Previously: Science! Now it's about space stations
Hutton
|
Doctor Dread wrote:
Space elevators, I can't image what practical in game use we can make for those. Once you have anti gravity on spaceships, elevators aren't very viable anymore. I did have an idea of Military bases allowing ground units to make a "Moon Shot" and jump to a neighboring moon. Not sure if thats very useful either.
...
I was really trying to think of some kind o mechanic that makes taking territory worth something. Like you can militarily go into a city and somehow hold it for cash. Give military guys some kind of war game to play that isn't simply kill everything. I might make the Pirate factions do something like that. They walk into towns and hold them and extort some kind of tax on everyone. Perhaps make ruler elections run mainly on military power at the location. Just ideas.
Yeah, if anti-gravity is part of the canon then space elevators are already obsolete in the setting.
I'm going to participate in derailing my on stated topic for this thread now, and say that blockades are the obvious application of military force in a game primarily about commerce.
Doc, is it possible in your code to treat the next level up in the map as coordinates that can be occupied? (What is that level called, other than planetary? What do we call it in the squares that don't have planets?) Or is it possible to create another coordinate that touches all the squares on the edge of the level 2 squares? If it is, we could call that square "Orbit". And you could create a Blockade order that allows fleets to engage in one round of combat with any nits that pass within one square of them.
Blockades might be an effective way of keeping other players off overcrowded resources or extorting them to leave the resource.
If implemented, the Blockade order should have a safe list of corporations that will not be attacked.
There should maybe be a "Run Blockade?" checkbox, if technically feasible, that will stop corps from accidentally running blockades because they weren't paying attention.
If a planet has a Star Fortress, that blocks everyone but the fortress owner from blockading that planet. So, that's another potential advantage of Orbital Mega-Structures.
If technically feasible, ground defenses, like Ion Cannons, should help ships running the blockade. At a penalty if that ends up including all forces on the planet to reflect that defenses in New York and Sydney can't both be pointed in the right direction at the same time. Maybe there would be some mechanism to specify what city the blockade is being run from and only that city's defenses can participate. That's probably too complicated, though. |
4/25/2017
Topic:
Previously: Science! Now it's about space stations
Hutton
|
Vulpex wrote:
Ohhh.... warp gates....
To be honest that is probably the only way to have any kind of meaningful commerce if the galaxy really starts to open up. Even fast scouts will take significant amounts of time flying around the corners of the galaxy.
It seems about right that interstellar trade would be an outlier. I expect systems, and even planets, to be mostly self sufficient. I'm only buying and selling off Earth right now when they is a big spike or crash in demand of some product off planet. But, if at some point luxury goods that were unique to particular planets were introduced. The top social classes on Centauri would probably pay through the nose for some French wine or Cuban cigars, for example.
Also, I was inferring that it was an intended feature of the design that each system work a little like separate game instances. Players can bounce between until they find a place to stake their claim rather than set up an empire that spans multiple systems. I have a small presence on Centauri right now to take advantage of the less crowded Artifact, but I look at that as temporary opportunism. |
4/25/2017
Topic:
Previously: Science! Now it's about space stations
Hutton
|
Vulpex wrote:
Blockades... now you are onto something...
It actually can have several applications including for instance the fact that city rulers could decide that certain goods are illegal to buy and/or sell in their city and blockade anyone moving that stuff (a great way to manipulate markets that) I think the idea of a star fortress blockading a whole planet might be a bit over the top but it is something interesting overall. You could even build specialized blockade running ship if for instance your chances of running a blockade depended on your ship's speed and size or something like that (so a scout could have a reasonable chance of getting through but that Battleship? Not so much)
For development at a later date - it seems a bit silly to have spaceship combat and ground forces fighting each other as they do now... I mean really? Infantry with rifles shooting away and a monolith in orbit? Or artillery and tanks for that reason doing the same :p (I won't forget that one Dread)
What your describing is also interesting. I guess that would involve adding a menu to the Guard order to attack units carrying certain Products. Is that as simple as it sounds, Doc?
I was imagining the stategy for running a blockade to be using a large convoy, maybe of several corps at once so damage is spread to thin to hurt.
(Which speaks to another suggestion. Some people have requested ETA's for completion of units orders. Related to that, it would be nice if you could set an ETA for a string of orders, like in Hearts of Iron. So if you are trying to coordinate an attack with another player you can agree to strike on turn 3256, set the as the ETA, and the units will calculate how long their orders will take and wait an appropriate number of turns to start).
Sneaking through would have to be a different kind of movement order or an option within the movement orders, I guess. That would be cool. Are we asking for too much yet? |
4/25/2017
Topic:
Previously: Science! Now it's about space stations
Hutton
|
As far as support from ground units supporting blockade running, I was actually thinking more about the Military Structures helping out. (And maybe just to contribute firepower, not absorb damage). But Doc has mentioned that some ground units can fight in space and some can't. Like, I think he said commandos can, but infantry can't. And the description of some of the special fighter units in the game say that they can fight in space, from which I infer that regular fighters can't. So this would be an opportunity for that advantage to be put to use, because it doesn't look like it serves a purpose right now. |
4/25/2017
Topic:
Wrong Order shown
Hutton
|
I see that sometimes too. I think it is sometimes showing the previous order from the string in the Asset list. I've noticed that it corrects itself if I delete the previously completed order. |
4/25/2017
Topic:
Saving contracts
Hutton
|
Yes. I haven't been proposing contracts as much because they aren't taken very often so it's not worth the work. I would throw more out there to see what people need or wan't to sell if it was easier. |
4/25/2017
Topic:
Guild inviting
Hutton
|
Go to their company profile page at Corporate->Compainies. The invite button is to the right of their portrait. |
4/25/2017
Topic:
Description: Ion Gun
Hutton
|
The description of the Ion Gun says it is effective against large ships. But, because it attacks as Artillery, it's strong against everything but ships and fighters. I'm assuming this description is left over from an earlier concept, and thought I should bring it to your attention.
Or, maybe you meant to make it attack as a mobile Ion Cannon but accidentally put it in as Artillery? |
4/25/2017
Topic:
Special unit levels
Hutton
|
Okay, I just got a Zenith Hypercraft and it started with half a box in Hitpoints. So either you fixed it or the issue isn't effecting every special ship. |