0.4.2 Video

[ShockPuppet]

Hi.

In this video I take a look at some of the different features of the game. I also discover that in this version of the game you need to apply some kind of strategy to what you're doing (great)

It can be seen on YouTube here

And part 2 is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svXrcwNzAy4

And part 3 is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PioIiE7XWbI

Great work on the project guys.

[Geoff the Medio]

Thanks for posting. Note that the release candidate for v0.4.2 was put up yesterday, not the actual release yet...

I need to do something about the sitreps about battles with no apparent reason. I suspect there was a Floater monster in your home system that you couldn't see, and there's a bit of a bug with the code that decides "there is a battle here" and generates the sitrep, even when the non-aggressive monster you can't see doesn't actually attack anything. Researching the Active Radar (intelligence category) would let you see them.

The predicted 0 but actual 0.1 fuel regen per turn of ships is marked as to do in the code.

Dilvish might appreciate your feeling that the AIs have some purpose behind their actions.

[ShockPuppet]

Those floater guys! That explains many things...

I changed the title to rc1.

Ah ok now I saw how the fuel was going up, at first I wasn't certain because its only 0.1 per turn.

I'm continuing my game. As I mentioned in the vid, I haven't played for a while. I can feel a difference in how the ai are doing things. Hats off to Dilvish (and everyone).

[eleazar]

I'm not sure how useful it is for the general public to see somebody try to play FO cold. But it is certainly useful for us developers to see what things trip somebody new up.

[ShockPuppet]

I'm not sure how useful it is for the general public to see somebody try to play FO cold. But it is certainly useful for us developers to see what things trip somebody new up.

Well that's true. Actually I'm going to do a few smaller parts which will be split into doing things well that I had trouble with initially. Also I will be able to look back and see my learning curve increase. Which I have done & can be seen here:

http://youtu.be/svXrcwNzAy4

I look at using the pedia, space combat and stealth detection. I show how the research of Active Radar displays undetected fleets around the galaxy and in my own systems. Planet suitability for colonization is also looked at. Those were specifically the areas that I, as a new (returning) player, had particular trouble with. Things have gotten a lot better.

.

[Geoff the Medio]

On the tech screen, "100 RP and 5 turns" tells you to total cost and minimum time to research. You were only generating +5 RP (research points) per turn, so it took 20 turns to accumulate 100 RP to finish Active Radar. You could have sped that up by switching your homeworld to research focus, which generates more RP at the cost of generating less PP (production points).

Active Radar should be less expensive in the next RC build, and monsters should take ~10 turns before they can move into your home system after the start of a game.

You might find the Objects list useful to search for planets of a particular type, such as the Desert that your Trith like. The filters menu has a "planet type" option, after which you can select desert, and apply. It should then show only desert planets, which can be double-clicked to zoom to them on the map / sidepanel. The Objects list is a work in progress, but has some utility as it is.

You might also consider invading some native planets if you can't find any suitable planets for colonization.

You can also look up the Trith in the pedia, and if you scroll down on their entry, there is a list of planet types and habitabilities. Trith have relatively restrictive tolerances for planet type, which is why you're having a hard time finding suitable places to colonize; other species are more flexible.

[ShockPuppet]

On the tech screen, "100 RP and 5 turns" tells you to total cost and minimum time to research. You were only generating +5 RP (research points) per turn, so it took 20 turns to accumulate 100 RP to finish Active Radar.

Yeah I noticed that about 3 seconds later . It's because when I look at the tech, my eye see 5 turns straight away. that's it. my brain just seems to work this way

You might find the Objects list useful to search for planets of a particular type [...] You might also consider invading some native planets if you can't find any suitable planets for colonization.

You can also look up the Trith in the pedia, and if you scroll down on their entry, there is a list of planet types and habitabilities.

Great, i'll do that. Thanks heaps.

[eleazar]

Also the red "!" symbols in the upper left indicate that you are wasting a some of your resources. The industry and research you generate are not saved for the next turn. Assign more projects in the research or production screen to put it to use.

[ShockPuppet]

Also the red "!" symbols in the upper left indicate that you are wasting a some of your resources. The industry and research you generate are not saved for the next turn. Assign more projects in the research or production screen to put it to use.

Thanks. Yeah I saw those exclamation points. Why did it say there was a small amount of research not being used when I was researching a tech? Other games the research uses 100% of available per turn, are things different here? Sorry I'm just trying to understand why if I am researching a tech that there could be some resource not being used.

Also I had a support comment on the video. If that happens I'm going to refer the poster to here, as you can see in the video comments.

Ive been playing a bit more. I'm going to do 1 final vid for my play of freeorion, showing things that helped my gameplay that I have already tested out (Pretty much the things mentioned in this thread).

[Geoff the Medio]

Why did it say there was a small amount of research not being used when I was researching a tech?

The minimum research time works by limiting how much RP per turn you can spend on a tech. Total cost / minimum time is the limit each turn. If you want to use up all RP, you'd need to enqueue another tech to use up the remainder.

[eleazar]

Why did it say there was a small amount of research not being used when I was researching a tech? Other games the research uses 100% of available per turn, are things different here? Sorry I'm just trying to understand why if I am researching a tech that there could be some resource not being used.

A techs and everything you build has a minimum time.

So for instance, Fusion generation has a minimum time of 3 turns for instance. So each turn you can only at most contribute 6 RP to Fusion gen, as that is 1/3rd of it's 18 RP total.

I've tried to improve the research & production articles in game to explain. I'm not feeling the sharpest today, so it may need further work.

Code: Select all

The Research (or RP "Research Points") of all planets in the empire is combined to discover new technologies. Any Research that cannot be spent on a tech is lost each turn. Each tech has a minimum number of turns required to research it.  For example, if a tech that cost 15 RPs, and had a minimum time of 3 turns, 5 RPs is the maximum that could be put towards its completion per turn.
The tech at the top of the queue is given RPs first.  Any remaining RP are then given to the next tech in the queue, and if there is still more remaining to the next-- and so on.  You can re-prioritize the items in the queue by dragging the most important items closer to the top.

Research does not require [[encyclopedia SUPPLY_TITLE]] line connections to be used.

[ShockPuppet]

Thank you both. It makes perfect sense, its logical but was unusual/unfamiliar to my expectation because I don't recall having played a game that balances things like this. Now I understand it, thanks