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Post by contributor on Apr 17, 2016 7:59:38 GMT -5
A fun way to add more variety and uniqueness to each game would be for the different factions to have synergy projects they could complete together. Moklumnue and DV could create a Quadrant-wide Trade Fair, which would give mega trade boosts for X number of turns to everybody. Cadar and Alta Mesa could team up to produce the ultimate torp boat. With 9 factions there are a lot of possibilities, but it would make faction choices more fun. I'm thinking that they would be mid-to-late game projects (maybe even mega-projects, like the Stratos Science Station) and mixed between units, buildings, fairs and maybe diplomatic events. They could be technology dependent and would have to be produced on one (or maybe simultaneously on one of each) of the participating factions planets. Maybe to add to the challenge it would require an Alliance to successfully complete.
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Post by contributor on Apr 17, 2016 7:44:03 GMT -5
Right now planetary invasion can be a real hassle, especially on my computer. I normally use big fleets so I often have to go through 8 ships in a turn to get them to invade. Which consists of 1) select ship and hit invade button (lower right on screen) 2)Select a planet (variable location) 3) chose which invade option I want to use Invade/Bombard/Scout (this is always on the top left of the scree so lots of mouse travel). Then I select the next ship and start all over. I've actually fallen asleep invading because of all the clicks.
So what I would suggest would be 1) Select ship and click invade. 2)The game selects the planet that your ship is next too and puts a crosshair on it so you know what you are invading. 3) Three floating buttons (Invade/Bombard/Scout) pop out of the ship invade button right next to it. This would reduce the invade sequence to two quick clicks right next to each other.
In the case of a ship having multiple touching planets a second click of the invade button could cycle between them. And clicking the invade button again could remove the three options in case it was hit by accident. I think this would be fairly user intuitive.
I had also thought of group invade order, where maybe shift-click (difficult on mobile) would let you select multiple ships and order them all to invade at once. I'm not sure this would be easier to implement though.
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Post by contributor on Apr 15, 2016 16:28:40 GMT -5
Oh, ho, ho, I've got so many TB irons in the fire. A Neptune squad coming up in BF, to try and get through new material, a NMI team in HOS and just started a Garden map on ST4X on insane, oh and I'm moving internationally in 2 weeks. This is the last thing I needed.
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Post by contributor on Apr 15, 2016 8:37:14 GMT -5
There are also humans with flamethrowers that go up in flames when they die?
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Post by contributor on Apr 11, 2016 6:25:31 GMT -5
I was thinking about the dynamics of 4X and comparing it to MOO2 and trying to figure out what it was about MOO that was so great. One of the big things for me was the politics and encountering other races, feeling like you were really interacting with an "other" and trying to get the right arrangements to meet your objectives and such. Obviously the interacting with other races is replaced with inter-faction politics in ST4X. And as I thought about it, there's a lot more room to bring player satisfaction through politics in ST4X and it doesn't even require changing the backend, it just needs some more bling upfront. I have no idea if there is budget, or time for this but I see it as a huge add to the game and a way bring the universe much more to life.
Needless to say the graphics on ST4x are pretty sparse. Outside of the quadrant map we basically have a lot of text based menus with slider bars and little icons. So the first thing we need is faction representatives. Seeing someone from said faction, with their unique dress and manners would help us feel like the factions are real entities with competing agendas. Perhaps there could be different sprites for varying moods, idk. These images could either be placed in a triangle with lines between each of them representing the current political states (this would probably be a much faster and "sticky" way for players to assess the current political climate. Otherwise the characters could be placed in some sort of "assembly hall" at a negotiating table with current relationships indicated some other way.
Then once they've got representatives we should be able to "hear" from them. Clicking on a portrait should bring up the factions current feelings toward the other factions and this would be an great opportunity to educate the player about what is affecting the current climate. Instead of digging through the manual (or searching on the forum, cause its not in the manual), the representative from Javat could tell us that they are irrate about the current imbalance in the number colonies or TPs or ships etc. It a good place to put flavor text as well, just to bring things to life. Anyways take this for what it's worth. Often I feel like there are really solid dynamics built into the game it just need to be more inspiring/engaging.
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Post by contributor on Apr 11, 2016 6:19:05 GMT -5
This thread is a good candidate to get stickied.
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Post by contributor on Apr 9, 2016 17:06:37 GMT -5
Hah, I respecced a further along team (COD) to try and test out the build I'm working on. I wanted to see what they were like around level 36. The first door I opened with Kincaid was an insta-death from two towers and a swarm of archers. Derp, ok I need to rethink a few things.
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Post by contributor on Apr 9, 2016 13:06:05 GMT -5
I just got my tablet back and it's still signed in to Google Games app and thus I can see the Google leaderboards. I wonder if Kanly is aware of this little challenge. He's currently at the top of the google boards at 2b. Crazy to see I'm still in 4th with 300k something. I've gotten higher scores than that now, but wasn't signed in.
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Post by contributor on Apr 9, 2016 8:28:30 GMT -5
Nice score. It looks like I'm going to have to up my game to play with the big boys. That and stop buying anything for my heroes. (Dear Death's Chosen, due to budgetary constraints we are putting a moratorium on any new purchases for the time being, at the same time we would like you to increase your kill rates and ensure your personal saftey. We have the utmost confidence in your ability to make these small adjustments, Sincerely, Management.) I was a little worried because I still had Tamilin in 8 armor. She almost never takes hits, but still it's a little freaky to know how much damage she could take quickly I just found a 28 overcoat though so that helps.
I had a crazy idea and I don't know if anybody knows the math on it, but what if instead of camping and relying on potions to keep your score down, you camped regularly and sold the excess potions you accumulated. Money influences your score so much, that it might actually be a bigger benefit than avoiding camping.
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Post by contributor on Apr 9, 2016 4:39:30 GMT -5
I'm seeing the same thing on OS X through Steam. 2475RP and my squad says level 5 and 4 but they have 3945xp. I should play a level with them and see if they jump up.
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Post by contributor on Apr 8, 2016 18:19:57 GMT -5
Ok, got my party through the Shaman. Krete are going to be rough for them, so I'll have to go slowly. I'm at 58.7 mil entering Torrent Watershed. I feel like I've been moderately efficient. Toward the end of the Ratkin levels I was camping frequently because I've botched it there too many times pushing hard. The best way to lose points is to die afterall.
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Post by contributor on Apr 8, 2016 7:40:42 GMT -5
I was wondering about the intended implementation of the HP buff percentage. First it's a great add and saves a lot of tedium. I noticed though that the percentage is not maintained when the buff wears off. I would have expected that to be the case. As it is seems like a little bit of an exploit because as the buff wears off I go back to 100% and then rebuff and gain more health.
For example: 1. Vraes, unbuffed, has 600/600HP. 2. I buff with Stone Skin 10 and Righteous Fervor bringing him up to 1022/1022HP 3. Vraes takes a beating and goes down to 700/1022HP or 68% 4. Battle ends buffs expire and the 700HP is reduced to 600/600HP or 100% 5. I rebuff and Vraes is back to 1022/1022 or 100%.
I'm not complaining. I like free HP as much as the next guy, it just feels like cheating a little.
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Post by contributor on Apr 8, 2016 2:43:32 GMT -5
They are exceedingly rare. You just have to keep shopping. I would often find mine at Xenox. There are two De Waltos planets in the far bottom right. One of them has a very good and cheap shipyard. There's also the top rightmost Thulun planet. I feel like maybe I found them occasionally on one of the bottom left Song planets too. It takes a lot of shopping.
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Post by contributor on Apr 7, 2016 17:47:48 GMT -5
Pretty awesome to see people still using this build after 2.5 years. Brother Dervin continues to live on.
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Post by contributor on Apr 7, 2016 8:38:45 GMT -5
Well, I'm not exactly following the challenge, but I did decide to try a Neptune focused squad. I decided to go for the 4th artifact in the vaults, which was right-top. There were so many xeno in there, but with the Neppies it was such a slaughter-fest. This might be my best Neptune screenshot yet. The vaults are on lock-down. All your artifact are belong to us now...
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