Plans for 0.4.5

[MatGB]

Meh, details. I understood it to mean we could do cool stuff and it'd be worth learning a bit of Python for, the rest went over my head

I really hope RC4 is clear and we can have a stable release, I've got so many things I want to try and play with I've been putting off I don't know where to start. Which is fine.

[Cjkjvfnby]

May be we can implement user ai in python.
It will not play instead of user, it will do some stuff on user request. Micromanagment advices, colonization managment, tutorials. We already have python api for that, need only some user dialogs to interact with it.

[Dilvish]

Rethink the way Good and Bad population bonus is applied...
It shouldn't be more optimal to colonise a Terran world with Scylior than Humans

The question of Scylior being better for Terran than Humans really depends on what stage of the game you're planning for -- in the earlier portion of the game before you have a substantial chunk of Growth tech, Humans would give a better short/mid term result, which could at the moment be a higher priority than maximizing long term production. The fact that Scylior might be better later is a little counterintuitive, sure, but it's fairly simply to figure out and seems a bit like a fun twist to me. Do we necessarily need to reject all things that are a little counterintuitive?

Egassem are terrible in part because of the way Bad Population works

It could be that the Bad Population malus should be a smaller hit than 25%, but I'd disagree that Egassem are terrible. I played a bunch of games starting with them and it of course takes a different play style and you have to focus on augmenting with other species as soon as you can, but I didn't find them substantially harder than humans, it just seemed like a nice change of pace. In the early stages their production and supply bonuses are a big advantage, and even in the late stages they can be very handy on a tiny/small world near your perimeter, where the Supply boost can still outweight the effects of the pop malus.

[MatGB]

Bump.

6 months since 0.4.4, we've merged the SDL migration branch and done the colonisation mechanics, I think they're worth a new release on their own let alone the other stuff that's been done. Reviewing what I said I'd work on, some has been part done, I'm working on the stealth stuff now and the rest is building from them to an extent anyway.

The fact that Scylior might be better later is a little counterintuitive, sure, but it's fairly simply to figure out and seems a bit like a fun twist to me. Do we necessarily need to reject all things that are a little counterintuitive?

Necessarily? No. In this specific case? I do think yes, Good Population is a very overpowered trait, with the way the numbers currently pan out, it's by far the best individual species trait to have and I, personally, dislike that it ends up making species better on adequate worlds than a native species without it once you've got a fairly short way into the tech tree. However, it's a lower priority for me to crunch numbers on than a few other things.

I'd disagree that Egassem are terrible. I played a bunch of games starting with them and it of course takes a different play style and you have to focus on augmenting with other species as soon as you can, but I didn't find them substantially harder than humans, it just seemed like a nice change of pace. In the early stages their production and supply bonuses are a big advantage, and even in the late stages they can be very handy on a tiny/small world near your perimeter, where the Supply boost can still outweight the effects of the pop malus.

I think the keyword there is "it takes a different play style". Yes, a substantially different one. Sure, you and I can both do well and win as Egassem, even on Low/No Natives, but, for example, does the AI do well with them? Ever?

I don't think I've ever encountered an Egassem founded AI empire that was anything other than a speedbump, I'm certain I've never encountered one that was an actual threat. Yes, you can do well with an Egassem empire as a player, if you know what you're doing and think it through, but they are basically the closest we have to a "hard" setting, and I think a lot of that is the population malus and the way total population affects virtually all the bonuses. Vezzra (I think?) suggested relatively recently that Good/Bad Industry should apply after a chunk of other bonuses instead of just the starting stuff, that'd certainly make a more significant difference, but without priorities available in scripting it's not currently doing without a lot of messing around.

(sorry, sort of thread necro, but I'd always meant to reply to those points and as I wanted to bump the thread anyway...)

[Chriss]

Bump.

6 months since 0.4.4, we've merged the SDL migration branch and done the colonisation mechanics, I think they're worth a new release on their own let alone the other stuff that's been done.

I agree. The new colonization mechanics are really nice.

Also, bonus for me: a new Release would mean that Arch Linux would have a stable FO version again, as 0.4.4 does not work with current boost versions. Hopefully the next boost version does not break anything that big...