Feedback needed

[Iceman]

Yep, precisely my thoughts.
Also to minimize / compensate fallout from, let's say, less honorable actions like using bio attacks (on other civs) and such fun... hmm, hideous actions. For some reason, everyone and their dog hates that kind of thing...

[Iceman]

In the diplomacy screen, I was thinking of replacing the Summary button (top left corner) with the current turn number.
We can access the Summary screen (from any screen) through F7 already, and knowing the current turn number is sometimes needed, namely when checking expiration of agreements.
What do you guys think

[Iceman]

In the diplomacy screen, I was thinking of replacing the Summary button (top left corner) with the current turn number.
We can access the Summary screen (from any screen) through F7 already, and knowing the current turn number is sometimes needed, namely when checking expiration of agreements.
What do you guys think

How's this?
Or should it be placed somewhere else?

[Iceman]

I'm thinking of reducing the output of shipyards 2+ and the build costs of ships of eras 2+ (by the same ratio), so that when you unlock era 2 ships, and before you get to and upgrade to SY 2, they don't take twice as many turns to build (same for era 3 / SY3).
Something like going from output of SYs:
400/800/1600
to
400/600/800 (only 1.5x instead of 2x number of turns)
(fleetyards would be affected too).

This will affect a few things:
- the bonus to shipbuilding from idle industry will be more relevant
- the +%Shipbuilding bonus of Buildings will have less of an impact
- XP gained in battle will be lower IIRC
- repairs will be slower IIRC

Not sure if there are other impacts. This has been in my plans for years, can't recall why I haven't done it yet; maybe I'm missing some drawback that I can't recall... besides the enormous amount of work, that is

The build costs of the shipyards themselves, not sure if they should change. Probably not.

What do you guys think

[Iceman]

I kind of hate it that when going through the Encyclopaedia entries, the table of tech prereqs and the stats for tech objects keep moving up and down (the former sometimes becoming hidden by really long descriptions), so I've fiddled around with it and ended up with this.

What do you guys think

Should we keep how it is now, or change to this new disposition
(I basically inverted the order of the elements)

[Iceman]

Would it be useful to have double-clicking on the home sector of non-member minor civ in the starmap open the diplo screen with that minor civ selected, or is it better to keep as is now, only centering the map on that sector

[Danijel]

Would it be useful to have double-clicking on the home sector of non-member minor civ in the starmap open the diplo screen with that minor civ selected, or is it better to keep as is now, only centering the map on that sector

[Iceman]

I'm thinking of reducing the build cost of Production Facilities, as starting at higher tech levels with Best gets somewhat awkward, with all the unassigned pop. Might be better for the AI too.
A downside might be that purchases being cheaper, it might diminish the value of credits.
What do you guys think


Should Mercantile minor civs be inclined to accept Open Borders Pacts if relations are Neutral (instead of better than Neutral)


Currently, there's a Regard penalty when you colonize a system or build a station in a sector that is adjacent to the territory of another civ. Any civ.
Should we restrict this to that other civ being
- an empire
- an empire or an expanding minor
- an empire or an expanding minor or a warlike minor
or just keep it as it is now

[the6the]

I've been focusing on the Borg games for quite a while now, so my input here isn't very valuable, I'm afraid. I should play a few games with the other empires and see how they go before saying anything, really.
But
I must admit, the high price of the PFs is the reason why I usually choose not to play Best games, especially if I intend to set the research level to anything above developed. So there definitely is a problem there, and you are correct to address it.
In general, from what I remember, the credits were pretty balanced in all the empires in Default, and I think you might be right that tampering with the value of the PFs could cause problems. Having said that, we won't know until we try!
Would the change in PF prices be limited to Best only games? Or would Default be effected too?

It makes sense to me that mercantile minors are more inclined to accept an OB treaty at neutral regard.

-an empire or an expanding minor or warlike. This seems to be the best option. It doesn't make sense that pacifists and mercantile minors lose regard if you colonize adjacent to their border - they either shouldn't care, or be receptive to the colonization, respectively.

[Iceman]

I must admit, the high price of the PFs is the reason why I usually choose not to play Best games, especially if I intend to set the research level to anything above developed. So there definitely is a problem there, and you are correct to address it.
In general, from what I remember, the credits were pretty balanced in all the empires in Default, and I think you might be right that tampering with the value of the PFs could cause problems. Having said that, we won't know until we try!
Would the change in PF prices be limited to Best only games? Or would Default be effected too?

Default is affected too, the cost of structures is not affected by anything in the game.
I don't usually play Best either, somewhat because of this, but in a test game I'm playing I started wondering how the AI is affected by this - and it must be, because I have all my colonies on Auto (for testing) and I noticed a few inefficiencies.
Lowering the cost in a way that PFs take 4~5 turns to build instead of 7~8 will make colony development more fluid and efficient, with lower long-term unemployment (which currently looks kind of meh). The test game I'm playing with the new values seems much smoother. I'm tweaking the colony management AI with what I'm observing in the game - even if they're smallish tweaks, they might have a long term positive effect on AI development.
The other effect of lowering the build cost is that they'll have less HPs in planetary assaults - but I think it'll actually be more balanced relative to firepower increase per tech level.

It makes sense to me that mercantile minors are more inclined to accept an OB treaty at neutral regard.

-an empire or an expanding minor or warlike. This seems to be the best option. It doesn't make sense that pacifists and mercantile minors lose regard if you colonize adjacent to their border - they either shouldn't care, or be receptive to the colonization, respectively.

Yeah, that's what I thought too.
I'm also considering a compounding effect over time if an uncolonized system inside the territory gets engulfed by the colony's/station's area of influence (therefore making it a contested sector).
But I don't want to go overboard with this.
IIRC there's a limit to the Regard penalty, it won't go lower than a certain level, so as to not make it a fun killer.

[geordie]

The very first Defiant trip to the Gamma Quadrant to search for the Founders:

Screenshot 2024-01-16 160023.jpg (302.83 KiB) Viewed 487 times

Should all ships leave wormholes decloaked?

[Lakotavar]

Actually I watched this episode just two days ago and wondered why they didn't activate it earlier. Of course one could still see the wormhole opening and closing so it's not totally sneaky even when cloaked but once the course would be changed randomly you're almost undetectable.

In the episode Homefront they thought the random opening and closing was due to the entering or leaving of cloaked ships. So I guess it's not impossible then but eventually risky. Also it could have been just a contract issue with the Romulans that states the cloaking device must not be used in the alpha quadrant.

Since we don't have any indication of the wormhole opening and closing in the game yet I'd like geordies idea because it would create a similar tension if there's suddenly something going on at the wormhole

Alternatively there could be an indication in the turn summary that informs you about the use of a wormhole if the scanner strength was sufficient. I think it also tells you about entering the wormhole with your own fleet (if that was not only botf1) so why not about the use of others.

[Danijel]

Read up on this guy, few lines below,...its not rly about hardware, its a wormhole limit,...kind of...
i would agree with Timo guy

Compensating...

Ahem. Supposedly, warp fields within the wormhole are a Very Bad Idea. Furthermore, everybody seems to understand this much from the get-go.

But in "Homefront", our heroes speculate that the mysterious opening and closing of the wormhole is due to a cloaked ship going through, and nobody points out "But when we tried that with the Defiant, we blew the starboard and the port power coupling!". There doesn't appear to be anything explicit that would make the combination dangerous or otherwise undesirable, not according to our heroes.

We can speculate that the wormhole in the general case doesn't open unless it sees a ship attempting to enter, though. And what would be the point of flying through cloaked, when the sight of the wormhole opening will alert everybody to your transit anyway?

Of course, clever villains might send in one visible ship and follow with an invisible armada - but not too big an armada, because the wormhole will close after the visible ship enters, and getting caught in the closing orifice might ruin your day. But perhaps some cloaked Dominion ships got through in the wake of runabouts or the like, explaining e.g. the mysterious disappearance of Eris the Vorta (initially chalked up as a suicide, but we know the Vorta aren't that selfless!) as a beam-out into a cloaked support vessel...

Timo Saloniemi

[Lakotavar]

This would be similar to what I thought and it's always interesting to read on theories but in the end it's all just interpretations of unclear indications
The question is what makes sense for a game while not being too much against lore.. I guess.
So after reading this I would just like an information in the turn summary (I'll never get to learn the pro terms) about wormhole activity if scanner range was sufficient since this was never invisible following lore while a fleet might be.

[Iceman]

The question is what makes sense for a game while not being too much against lore.. I guess.

Exactly. Lore is important, but ultimately this is a game, so we have to make it be fun to play, keeping it as balanced and intuitive as possible.

So after reading this I would just like an information in the turn summary (I'll never get to learn the pro terms) about wormhole activity if scanner range was sufficient since this was never invisible following lore while a fleet might be.

Hehe, the Summary window displays all the SitReps (Situation Report) from the current turn.

Re getting a SitRep, I'd suggest you only get it:
- for fleets *exiting* a WH, not when entering (getting both could duplicate the information)
- for civs that are Neutral or lower (red priority if at war, orange otherwise)
- if scan strength in the sector is > 0, like suggested above