My Observations - Playtester

[Geoff the Medio]

The weaponless monsters didn't enjoy any sort of immunity did they?

I think the idea was that they could sit in a system and block supply and would never attack or be attacked by the planetary defenses.

Things could be changed so that planetary defenses will attack any monster or enemy player ship in a system, and/or the supply-blocking properties of unarmed monsters and/or enemy ships restored...

[em3]

Can (hypothetically) an unarmed colony or outpost ship blockade a system? Especially a particularly stealthy colony ship?

[metallurge]

The new planetary defense is good, but right now its WAY too strong. I'm not sure how combat is resolved at this point and time, but it seems to me that two outposts with a population of 1 and a defense of 5 should NOT be able to wipe out a fleet of 4 ships with 40 HP and 40 shields.

There have been several similar reports of weird combat results, but despite repeated requests for saves that reproduce the situation, no-one has yet provided one.

I was going to formally document this one, but it seems to have been fixed immediately after I referenced it in passing in another thread. If it reappears, I will document it.

[Wulfston]

So after playing a bit more I've seen some other things, and have some questions about.

Sensors are all at 0 on the Pedia, however the part itself works just fine on the ships.

Hull Reinforcement doesn't add automaticly to max structure. The ship needs to regen or be repaired first.

Captured Monster nests don't go away or get "used up" as non-captured. Is this intended?

I think it would make more sense that captured monsters be repaired by the Orbital Incubator rather then the Drydock like other ships.

Sentienals, Wardens, and Drones/Drone factory should be immune from the "Mind Control" effect.

I've now seen that the AI DOES in fact make outpost ships and colonize non-good status planets(although rarely), so disregard my earlier statement.

I know the AI is still much in development, but I've noticed that when it changes the focus to anything like mining or industry, it changes EVERY colony or outpost it has all at once. Then it goes back and forth changing them all as needed. Didn't know if you were aware of this so thought I would mention it.

The new planetary defense is good, but right now its WAY too strong. I'm not sure how combat is resolved at this point and time, but it seems to me that two outposts with a population of 1 and a defense of 5 should NOT be able to wipe out a fleet of 4 ships with 40 HP and 40 shields.

There have been several similar reports of weird combat results, but despite repeated requests for saves that reproduce the situation, no-one has yet provided one.

I have managed to save a weird combat result. How exactly would I go about posting it so you can see it?

Thanks for your time and attention.

[eleazar]

Captured Monster nests don't go away or get "used up" as non-captured. Is this intended?

Yes that was intended. Wild nests all have a chance of being persistent, my unstated assumption is that domesticated nests are better managed, so the chance is 100%.
As they stand, free, eternal monster production probably needs to be limited somehow,but the current was the easiest way to get it in.

I have managed to save a weird combat result. How exactly would I go about posting it so you can see ?

Find the save file, zip it and post that on the forums

[Wulfston]

Ok here's this then.

I have a fleet of 3 ships heading towards the Synnax system from Deep Space.
2 of my 3 ships get killed while the Kraken is almost untouched.

Now here's the weird part.

If you cancel the move, and the wait just ONE turn, THEN move the fleet of 3 ships there, all the monsters are killed and my ships are almost untouched.

[Geoff the Medio]

Sensors are all at 0 on the Pedia, however the part itself works just fine on the ships.

Hull Reinforcement doesn't add automaticly to max structure. The ship needs to regen or be repaired first.

These are probably two variations on the same issue... Stats in the pedia, and apparently starting structure, are based on the structure written in hull definitions as "structure = ###". Any "SetMaxStrcture" effect, such as a tech or part, only acts once the ship object exists, so the game doesn't know what the actual max meter values will be before creating a new ship and running an effects/meters update estimate, and instead sets the initial structure value to what the stat in the hull says it should be.

[Bigjoe5]

Hull Reinforcement doesn't add automaticly to max structure. The ship needs to regen or be repaired first.

Reinforced Hull does automatically add to max structure. Is there a particular reason that the current structure of all ships should automatically be increased by 5 when the tech is researched?

Or did you mean that when the ship is built, it starts 5 below max structure?

[eleazar]

Sensors are all at 0 on the Pedia, however the part itself works just fine on the ships.

Hull Reinforcement doesn't add automaticly to max structure. The ship needs to regen or be repaired first.

These are probably two variations on the same issue... Stats in the pedia, and apparently starting structure, are based on the structure written in hull definitions as "structure = ###". Any "SetMaxStrcture" effect, such as a tech or part, only acts once the ship object exists, so the game doesn't know what the actual max meter values will be before creating a new ship and running an effects/meters update estimate, and instead sets the initial structure value to what the stat in the hull says it should be.

Still that's pretty confusing to a player. Hopefully we can get the GUI to better understand a ship's actual stats in the future.

[em3]

Would it be possible to perform a "dry run" of a ship's parts' effects? So that the actual values of ship meters can be calculated without doing any changes to the game world?

[Geoff the Medio]

Would it be possible to perform a "dry run" of a ship's parts' effects? So that the actual values of ship meters can be calculated without doing any changes to the game world?

If various assumptions are made, probably. In general / robustly, no.

[Bigjoe5]

I guess there are a couple of things that we could do to get rid of the incorrect stats problem, which includes the effects of detection/perhaps other types of parts not being displayed.

First of all, it might be nice to have a "Stackable" (or conversely, "Non-stackable") flag that could be included in the ship part descriptions, so parts that deviate from the norm of stackability wouldn't have to have their bonuses implemented in a separate effects group.

As for the general bonuses given to ships by techs, it might be worthwhile to discuss some sort of "Design Upgrade" system that could be used to add particular technological bonuses to a ship design. For instance, researching Reinforced Hull might unlock the "Reinforced Hull" design upgrade, which could be used on subsequent ship designs, allowing the bonus to max health to be known before the ship is built, and displayed in the design's pedia entry.

[Geoff the Medio]

Now here's the weird part.

I think the main issue was that the randomization of combat results wasn't working as intended; the same ship was being selected to attack many times in a row over successive combat rounds, which should be very unlikely. I've moved the random seeding from the start of combat, to be re-done at the start of each round, using the round number as part of the seed, to hopefully ensure less repetitive combat round actions.

[Wulfston]

I think the main issue was that the randomization of combat results wasn't working as intended; the same ship was being selected to attack many times in a row over successive combat rounds, which should be very unlikely. I've moved the random seeding from the start of combat, to be re-done at the start of each round, using the round number as part of the seed, to hopefully ensure less repetitive combat round actions.

Would there be anyway to not make it so randomized? What I mean is, can you make it so that the strongest ships/monsters will always be targeted first? Strongest would first go by damage that can be dealt, then by the strength of the structure/shields second.

Example: You fly to a system that has a Kraken, a Drone, and a Floater in it. Your ships would first fire on the Kraken since it has the most damage dealing capabilities, then the Drone, then the floater.

Example 2: You fly to a system that has a Drone and a Mark I ship from another species. Both have the same Damage, but your ships would fire on the Mark I ship first, since it has the greater structure/shields.

[Bigjoe5]

Example 2: You fly to a system that has a Drone and a Mark I ship from another species. Both have the same Damage, but your ships would fire on the Drone ship first, since it has less structure/shields.

Fixed.