Has anybody played the game lately?

Describe your experience with the latest version of FreeOrion to help us improve it.

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lea
Space Krill
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Feb 04, 2022 7:12 pm

Has anybody played the game lately?

#1 Post by lea »

Hi there!

serious question: Has anybody played the game recently and is enjoying it? I never come far, whatever I do. I use the standard options when starting the game, started with 7 KI on maniac, then changed it to typical but that did not help. I tried 3 days right now, so you can't say the game is not binding. But at turn 100 at the latest I give up cause there is no more chance to win the game logically. The enemy is ALWAYS stronger than me, building me one ship he builds two it seems. At turn 100 I was able to reach 25pp and 25rp at my best games.

I found a strategy guid from 2014 and followed it, but that did not help. Don't know how this guy reached 100pp at turn 100. Even when I was able to build robocruises at about turn 15 I immediately built 2 and rushed to the enemy's homeworld just to find a fleet with with double strenth of mine. Thank you.

Too many questions: Why do I lose ground invasions? Why can I just colonize 2 planets in a 4 planet system? Why is my human colony gone after some turns? What about gas giants and asteroids? What is the best colonization ship for them. And so on...

There is no documentation explaining some things, the beginners guide is really bad, nor a youtube video passed turn 20. I googled a lot, found very few help and don't know what to do.

Anybody else having this problem?

Lea


Game Version: 0.4.10.2

Daybreak
Vacuum Dragon
Posts: 641
Joined: Mon Aug 13, 2018 10:14 pm

Re: Has anybody played the game lately?

#2 Post by Daybreak »

Lea

I had the same problem when I first started, and it was very frustrating. Now I win about 99.9% of games I play, on Manical.

Persistence and Tech is the key. I say that but your empire building has to be very balanced as well.

When you build your tech tree, make sure there is balance between
Population Growth
Production
Research
Defence

When you look at the Tech tree, look at what each item does and the cost. Always start with lower cost items as your Research credits each turn are low and will grow over time allowig you to reseach more costly items.

The first tech I always start with is Physical Brain, which allows me to build an Automated History Analyser, which produces 5 points per turn on you home planet. A bit expensive to build first off, but the cumalative effect of those research points every turn helps. See image below for my first techs - everyone will be different, and the type of game you start with may change this.
lea wrote: Fri Feb 04, 2022 7:27 pm Why can I just colonize 2 planets in a 4 planet system? Why is my human colony gone after some turns? W
Population growth techs will allow you to populate different planets.
The reason your human colony is gone after a few turns is because you colonised a planet that is not suitable. Right CLICK on any planet and click on Suitability, to see if there is a green + number meaning it is fine to colonise. if Red and zeroed or negative - do not colonise as colonists will die out. After different Population Growht Techs are researched you will find you can colonise them.
lea wrote: Fri Feb 04, 2022 7:27 pm gas giants and asteroids? What is the best colonization ship for them. And so on...
You can not colonise gas giants (Unless you are species SLY) and asteroids can only be populated by Exobots after the Technology: Xenological Genetics and Exobots are researched.

lea wrote: Fri Feb 04, 2022 7:27 pm I use the standard options when starting the game, started with 7 KI on maniac, then changed it to typical but that did not help.
Always use the lowest setting for the AI's when beginning.
lea wrote: Fri Feb 04, 2022 7:27 pm Why do I lose ground invasions?
Probably you have not researched Troop tech - fact is if you have 20 troops and they have 10 then you will win, and obviously vica versa.

Strategy
Don't colonise too far away if it takes too long to get there or/and you just cant defend it.
Like many games be careful of the RUSH - you have to have your own ships to defend against them, and that is why balance is needed why colonising and building ships to defend.


I Hope that helps
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Daybreak
Vacuum Dragon
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Re: Has anybody played the game lately?

#3 Post by Daybreak »

Also see the guide above in this fforum- it is very good. Here is a link to it
https://www.freeorion.org/forum/viewtop ... beac911cb1

defaultuser
Juggernaut
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Re: Has anybody played the game lately?

#4 Post by defaultuser »

This is a game that is in development and has changed. A guide from 2014 is far too old. I don't think the linked one from 2016 (although I didn't go through the whole thread) is completely useful because of the change to exobots.

The main thing is that the game varies considerably based on setup. I don't recommend new players set the AIs on Maniacal or even Aggressive. I'd set to Typical or lower. I'd also say to give at least 30 systems per player.

As far as colonization, you need to learn how to use the Planet Suitability window for a planet (right click on the planet). This will tell you what the population for various species you control would be (0 or below is bad). You also need to understand Growth technology and how that affects these numbers.

A new player guide might be in order but the game is undergoing a major renovation and that would be obsolete at some point. I had thought of making some actual in-depth play videos (most on YT are not useful and are mostly intros) but hardly worth it at this point.

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LienRag
Cosmic Dragon
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Re: Has anybody played the game lately?

#5 Post by LienRag »

Actually it could be quite interesting to make a "discovery" video serie : a beginner like Lea would be ideal for the role.

Making a video explaining what s/he understood from the game, what s/he didn't, what is enjoyable, what is frustrating,...

defaultuser
Juggernaut
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Re: Has anybody played the game lately?

#6 Post by defaultuser »

It might be, but that would be quite the endeavor for a new player to commit to. Chances are, even if started, it wouldn't go anywhere.

In addition there's the problem I mentioned before of big changes in works. I don't know what the current target date for a stable release with the new stuff is, but that game will be different. I'd say that the difference will be greater than before/after the colonization change.

Any guides or videos created using 0.4.10 will be so obsolete as to be a hindrance. Just as a "for instance", right now the rule is to colonize anything you possibly can. That apparently won't be the case going forward, as far as I can tell reading some of the forum posts. I haven't tried the test versions so take any opinion I have of the changes with a big grain of salt.

Daybreak
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Re: Has anybody played the game lately?

#7 Post by Daybreak »

defaultuser wrote: Sat Feb 05, 2022 10:44 pm In addition there's the problem I mentioned before of big changes in works. I don't know what the current target date for a stable release with the new stuff is, but that game will be different. I'd say that the difference will be greater than before/after the colonization change.
Is there a list of those changes with explanations anywhere?

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Oberlus
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Re: Has anybody played the game lately?

#8 Post by Oberlus »

Daybreak wrote: Sat Feb 05, 2022 11:45 pm Is there a list of those changes with explanations anywhere?
This is probably too exhaustive, but search for "Content" and "Key changes" sumaries: https://github.com/freeorion/freeorion/ ... angeLog.md

defaultuser
Juggernaut
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Re: Has anybody played the game lately?

#9 Post by defaultuser »

I was referring to the changes planned for 0.5.0, with the Influence and Policy features.

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stpa
Space Kraken
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Re: Has anybody played the game lately?

#10 Post by stpa »

open source screen capture (or live streaming) goes with https://obsproject.com/
… and text-to-speech like this in terminal/console: say -o /target/file.format --file-format=mp4 "bla bla bla" with maybe text from good forum posts instead of the bla's.

i like the idea of fresh 'official' looking tootorials, because the few out there on utoob r made by total noobs .. no offense ment .. and every fo release is different, especially the next one. the people who live here on the forum for years will probably not need such videos but might be good candidates to produce a few (imagine my accusing gaze at those readers ..)

just an idea, dunno if i find the time to do something in that direction myself, or maybe similar clips from the developer's point of view, how do you go about fixing an error in the game or implementing a new feature for fo or adding a new scripting content …

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LienRag
Cosmic Dragon
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Re: Has anybody played the game lately?

#11 Post by LienRag »

defaultuser wrote: Sat Feb 05, 2022 10:44 pm In addition there's the problem I mentioned before of big changes in works. I don't know what the current target date for a stable release with the new stuff is, but that game will be different. I'd say that the difference will be greater than before/after the colonization change.

Any guides or videos created using 0.4.10 will be so obsolete as to be a hindrance.
Yes, and discovery of new features and the way the game changes as seen by a beginner would be very interesting too...

defaultuser
Juggernaut
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Re: Has anybody played the game lately?

#12 Post by defaultuser »

stpa wrote: Sun Feb 06, 2022 8:01 am i like the idea of fresh 'official' looking tootorials, because the few out there on utoob r made by total noobs .. no offense ment
And that's my impression. They're fine for "this game is cool, check it out", but pretty worthless as tutorials.

Alistair_Findlay
Space Krill
Posts: 6
Joined: Sat Feb 26, 2022 10:26 am

Re: Has anybody played the game lately?

#13 Post by Alistair_Findlay »

LienRag wrote: Sun Feb 06, 2022 2:03 pm
defaultuser wrote: Sat Feb 05, 2022 10:44 pm In addition there's the problem I mentioned before of big changes in works. I don't know what the current target date for a stable release with the new stuff is, but that game will be different. I'd say that the difference will be greater than before/after the colonization change.

Any guides or videos created using 0.4.10 will be so obsolete as to be a hindrance.
Yes, and discovery of new features and the way the game changes as seen by a beginner would be very interesting too...
"Discovery of new features and the way the game changes as seen by a beginner"? Lol I've got you sorted there.

Also, "Any guides or videos created using 0.4.10 will be so obsolete as to be a hindrance." I'm playing on the git build, so I'm showing all the new influence stuff. I didn't know that it was new, I thought I had just not seen it when playing the stable release build.

It's not too hard to find, it's literally the only video in the "recent" section for the FreeOrion category. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbaND7 ... Ang/recent
My video isn't very good, I spend most of my time reading text out loud and going "what is this?" lol. It's maybe not good for regular youtube viewers, but might be interesting for devs to see how a beginner reacts to what will be "0.5" probably.

Also, to the poster right up at the top, The git build is much much easier to play than the release version. I couldn't even win on turtle in release build, where turtle is a bit too easy on git build.
Last edited by Alistair_Findlay on Sat Feb 26, 2022 10:38 am, edited 1 time in total.

Daybreak
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Re: Has anybody played the game lately?

#14 Post by Daybreak »

Alistair_Findlay wrote: Sat Feb 26, 2022 10:34 am Also, to the poster right up at the top, The git build is much much easier to play than the release version. I couldn't even win on turtle in release build, where turtle is a bit too easy on git build.
Unfortunately you are not really winning in version 4.10+ (or vers 5)- the AI's don't know how to play this version. They are basically broken, so everything they do will result in bad influence and bad likes, so they basically are stumped in moving forward.

4.9 is the only version which the AI's will work ok.
4.10 Changes to the production outputs, and the AI's are again stumped. They kindof work, but they are still broken.

ThinkSome
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Re: Has anybody played the game lately?

#15 Post by ThinkSome »

Alistair_Findlay wrote: Sat Feb 26, 2022 10:34 am I couldn't even win on turtle in release build, where turtle is a bit too easy on git build.
I remember beating maniacal AIs for breakfast, so not sure what you are playing or where you got those good AIs (I want them!).

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