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LOL so many monsters!

Posted: Sun Jun 18, 2017 1:05 am
by Oberlus
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That's turn 6. I've got all on the same system: 1 drone factory, 1 sentinel, 1 maintenance ship, 1 sentry and 2 drones.
Gonna love it.

Re: LOL so many monsters!

Posted: Sun Jun 18, 2017 2:30 am
by MatGB
Yup, drones don't start moving until turn 10, and if 2 spawn at the same location then you get a factory, that isn't gated for other stuff like guardians or similar.

It possibly ought to be, a drone factory on its own can mess up a game quite badly, but it's never been done.

Re: LOL so many monsters!

Posted: Sun Jun 18, 2017 10:30 am
by Oberlus
Also, in the Scylla alfa system there is an Acirema planet. At turn 10 or so they will produce an Acirema guarding ship (can't remember specific name) that will kill my outpost ship going there and cut my supply group in too. That plus the lack of desert planets (I'm Etty) and the presence of a few tundras will force me go faster than I'd like for growth techs and neglect instead military techs. So I will go full throttle into basic tech militarisation (first time I do that with a non-Egassem species). Once I get Acirema guardian down I'll have to deal with a rain of snowflakes (one come from nowhere and killed another outpost going to Gilly alfa) and drones comming from the right and the four sentries and maintenance ships that are guarding each one system on the left branch of my galaxy. Summing up, at turn 80 I have less RPs and way less PPs than any AI.
That is challenging. I knew I'd love it :D

Re: LOL so many monsters!

Posted: Wed Jun 28, 2017 2:24 am
by xlightwavex
I only play single player.

Monsters i put them on minimal and there are SO many SO early that are SO strong. I have never actually played a single game with monsters on. It is ridiculous to do so in my eyes, and totally ruins the entire concept of the game for me. It makes the other empires less of a threat then the monsters in relation to time wasted. It's so far away from what was in any of the moo games to me, that i don't like it at all. Further it's yet one more thing that removes strategic and tactical feel from the game and makes it more about dice roll rng worse its right from the start.

Not to be mean because i can and do just turn them off, but how this was pushed is beyond me whoever is responsible better rethink his notions of what this game is meant to be A) "a strategy game" or B) "a casino crap game" because these monster spawns can literally force a reset before turn 10. Am i the only one who always turns them off ?

It's a decent idea that was ruined by forcing them to the extreme on any setting other then OFF.

Re: LOL so many monsters!

Posted: Wed Jun 28, 2017 5:02 am
by Vezzra
xlightwavex wrote:It's a decent idea that was ruined by forcing them to the extreme on any setting other then OFF.
Well, that means that currently the numbers/settings are unbalanced, not that the entire feature is faulty.

Re: LOL so many monsters!

Posted: Wed Jun 28, 2017 7:59 am
by MatGB
I tend to play on Low as I find Medium a bit too much and have meant to play with those numbers more than once but never did. We've introduced multiple gates to them to tone them down but the idea that their very presence turns the game into a casino randomisation given the gates introduced and the limits that are there is laughable.

Most early game monsters can be dealt with by a cruiser or robocruiser, except Guardians, which are an entirely different thing and probably need to be toned up in some ways.

Re: LOL so many monsters!

Posted: Wed Jun 28, 2017 11:57 am
by LGM-Doyle
I love the monsters. It was one of the features that attracted me early on and I think I commented on the forum.

I also play single player, usually on high/medium monster setting.

The AI has improved a lot recently in many ways, and handles the high monster setting much better.

Since players are finding the step from None to Low too large, we should adjust that balance, but please don't nerf the High setting.

Another solution is to offer monster management tips as part of the tips and hints in the sitrep panel. Perhaps they could be posted particularly at the None and Low monsters setting to help players enjoy the Kraken.

Re: LOL so many monsters!

Posted: Wed Jun 28, 2017 1:39 pm
by Oberlus
I also like monsters. Medium/high is the way to go for me. It is never a problem.
When I've find a stack of monsters in a single system as I did in the game of this thread, I now it will be and exciting game for sure.

Re: LOL so many monsters!

Posted: Mon Jul 03, 2017 12:43 am
by Dilvish
xlightwavex wrote:I have never actually played a single game with monsters on.
Sounds like you can't have much experience on which to base feedback then. I suspect that when you first tried them you just got overwhelmed by the learning curve in general, and they we just an obvious extra-large straw breaking the proverbial camel's back (i.e., yours). If you are now beating the AI on typical and above, I'd strongly recommend you try monsters again, on the Low setting, actually playing through for several games worth (and perhaps also with Specials set to Low).

Keep in mind, there are two general sets of monsters: (1) wandering ones whose frequency scales up with the Monster setting, and (2) fixed-location ones that are meant to guard systems with valuable Specials; these latter ones are simply present or not depending on whether the Monster setting is above None. But if Monsters is set at None, then some of the valuable specials become more rare (at least that's my recollection). The wandering monsters are already fairly rare under the Low Monsters setting, if you don't like how many monsters you run into with that setting then you should probably adjust Specials to Low. If we were to make any scaling back on the Low Monsters setting, wandering monsters are already so low on it that my inclination would be for it to most likely focus on simply making the various guarded specials more rare of Monsters is also set to Low.