Birth of the Federation

Iceman wrote: ↑Wed May 25, 2022 5:25 pm Do you find it to be too aggressive on Normal?

Definitely a little too aggressive yes, but the Romulans seems to be Colony mad.

The AI should not camp on systems being terraformed. Are you sure they don't leave?

Sometimes they do, sometimes they sit there for 4-5 turns, move a sector or two and come back.

Hmm? Unless such system was inside another civ's territory, the game never worked like that.

Was on unclaimed sectors.

This issue is partly due to the way it is coded. I've had it in the back of my mind for a long time to add a "partial claim" to terraforming.

Its just a bit odd, you can't Colonise a system if its being terraformed even though whole planets are available, but the second that stops, its pretty much game over.

I've also noticed most if not all M Class planets are inhospitable and need to be terraformed. Surely M class should be straight up ready to colonise?

With the latest update, enemies attacking OPs cause the game to not do anything. See screenshots. The game is still responsive, can select units and scroll in the engagement window, but have to Alt+F4 or right click the game and exit to get the exit dialogue. No errors generated. Clicking Engage or Hail leads to the same thing, no battle.

TempestWales wrote: ↑Wed May 25, 2022 7:13 pm Its just a bit odd, you can't Colonise a system if its being terraformed even though whole planets are available, but the second that stops, its pretty much game over.

Hi, if a system has more than 1 colonizable planet you can send 2 colony ships and colonize it after terraforming the first one.

I've also noticed most if not all M Class planets are inhospitable and need to be terraformed. Surely M class should be straight up ready to colonise?

I disagree here. A terraforming of M-class planet is rather quick. And not all races prefer M-class ones.

Generally, I think that a number of colony ships in the system should overrate opponent's firepower.

geordie wrote: ↑Thu May 26, 2022 5:57 am

TempestWales wrote: ↑Wed May 25, 2022 7:13 pm Its just a bit odd, you can't Colonise a system if its being terraformed even though whole planets are available, but the second that stops, its pretty much game over.

Hi, if a system has more than 1 colonizable planet you can send 2 colony ships and colonize it after terraforming the first one.

I've also noticed most if not all M Class planets are inhospitable and need to be terraformed. Surely M class should be straight up ready to colonise?

I disagree here. A terraforming of M-class planet is rather quick. And not all races prefer M-class ones.

Generally, I think that a number of colony ships in the system should overrate opponent's firepower.

Yeah, Ive started to Colonise the system, if another GalPower is near, I'll wait until most planets are terraformed, colonise and then bring another one by to finish off the terraforming.

They are Minshara Class for a reason, because they are hospitable to Standard humanoids.

TempestWales wrote: ↑Wed May 25, 2022 7:13 pm

Iceman wrote: ↑Wed May 25, 2022 5:25 pm Do you find it to be too aggressive on Normal?

Definitely a little too aggressive yes, but the Romulans seems to be Colony mad.

The Romulans in general are not overly expansionistic. They might just have gotten lucky and had many systems to colonize.
You can mod this (aggressiveness) to some extent, by editing the file
\Resources\Tables\TraitTables.txt
the 3rd table, MaxColonyShipCount, sets the max # of colony ships each civ can have at any given time.

The AI should not camp on systems being terraformed. Are you sure they don't leave?

Sometimes they do, sometimes they sit there for 4-5 turns, move a sector or two and come back.

If you have a savegame for that type of situation, it might help improve it.

Its just a bit odd, you can't Colonise a system if its being terraformed even though whole planets are available, but the second that stops, its pretty much game over.

If there's at least one planet that is terraformed, and the system is not claimed by anyone else and no one is also trying to colonize it, then you can colonize it.
Like geordie said, you can send 2 colony ships, have them both terraform the system, and when the 1st planet is terraformed, assign one of them to colonize it - letting the other one continue with the terraforming.
Or you can interrupt terraforming at any time and assign it the colonization order.

I've also noticed most if not all M Class planets are inhospitable and need to be terraformed. Surely M class should be straight up ready to colonise?

All planets need terraforming. The amount of terraforming needed depends on their type. Terran planets are rather quick to terraform - their atmosphere might not be ideal, or some other factor.

With the latest update, enemies attacking OPs cause the game to not do anything. See screenshots. The game is still responsive, can select units and scroll in the engagement window, but have to Alt+F4 or right click the game and exit to get the exit dialogue. No errors generated. Clicking Engage or Hail leads to the same thing, no battle.

I need savegames for that. Might have something to do with the changes related to cloak detection in battle. Will look into it, thanks!

If you can zip some saves related to AI camping and battle hang, and attach them here, I'd appreciate it

geordie wrote: ↑Thu May 26, 2022 5:57 am Hi, if a system has more than 1 colonizable planet you can send 2 colony ships and colonize it after terraforming the first one.

BTW, even if it has only 1 planet, 2 colony ships will terraform it twice as fast.

I disagree here. A terraforming of M-class planet is rather quick. And not all races prefer M-class ones.

Exactly. Klingons and Jem'Hadar prefer Jungle planets. some minors prefer other planet types like Oceanic, Desert, Barren, etc.

Generally, I think that a number of colony ships in the system should overrate opponent's firepower.

So number of colony ships - or better yet, terraforming "power", so that 2 COL2 beat 2 COL1 ? - should be the primary check, and then firepower
Notice that a colony ship might be escorted by warships, so should 2 COL beat 1 COL + 1 CRU I'm not sure about that...

It's not easy to find a good solution for this type of situation. The partial claim thingie would probably solve all the issues.

Iceman wrote: ↑Thu May 26, 2022 7:36 am

With the latest update, enemies attacking OPs cause the game to not do anything. See screenshots. The game is still responsive, can select units and scroll in the engagement window, but have to Alt+F4 or right click the game and exit to get the exit dialogue. No errors generated. Clicking Engage or Hail leads to the same thing, no battle.

I need savegames for that. Might have something to do with the changes related to cloak detection in battle. Will look into it, thanks!

If you can zip some saves related to AI camping and battle hang, and attach them here, I'd appreciate it

Attached for the battle hang, its one turn away. Ill see what Ive got for the Colony Campers.

Thanks!
I guess I fixed it last night, as it doesn't hang for me
It was the cloak changes, yes.

I'll upload a new patch later today, with the fix.

I also added a claim to systems that are being terraformed, but it'll need to be tested.

Iceman wrote: ↑Fri May 27, 2022 6:29 am Thanks!
I guess I fixed it last night, as it doesn't hang for me
It was the cloak changes, yes.

I'll upload a new patch later today, with the fix.

I also added a claim to systems that are being terraformed, but it'll need to be tested.

Thanks, Will test that when its released.

Just to chime in, when I come across these issues with colony ships when playing the FED's. I make sure there are a few of my scouts in the area as they will in a way act as an escort to the colony ships and always allow me to win the roll of colonizing a system when going against an armed colony ship (assuming the scout is in the same tile with the colony ship).

It requires you to commit a few more ships to these contested areas but it will give you the edge in "sniping" systems from the AI. Or better yet if your neutral with them then attack and force their colony ship away for one turn and then have your colony ship finish the terraforming and claim it for your own. =)

Yep, that's what I do too

I'm going to upload a new patch now, with the fixes mentioned above.
And the Bajoran Wormhole should now be properly named in the canon map.

That battle stall is fixed! Noice!

Great!

BTW, forgot to mention, having a bunch of *unmanned* Production Facilities (in all your colonies) is costing you a bunch of credits (1 per unmanned PF).

Iceman wrote: ↑Fri May 27, 2022 5:26 pm Great!

BTW, forgot to mention, having a bunch of *unmanned* Production Facilities (in all your colonies) is costing you a bunch of credits (1 per unmanned PF).

Oh, lol. *Activates Cheat Mode*

Iceman wrote: ↑Fri May 27, 2022 5:26 pm Great!

BTW, forgot to mention, having a bunch of *unmanned* Production Facilities (in all your colonies) is costing you a bunch of credits (1 per unmanned PF).

From what I've been using - this seems a hell of a lot more stable release

Especially the map editor.

Yes, the map editor is coming along nicely. There will eventually be a few more improvements, but Misfire is concentrating on the combat engine now.

Danijel is also working on some stuff. We're trying to get autobuild to work, but we've hit a roadblock...