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Dallan Invictus posted:Whoa. Is that shortage notifier new, or has my economy always been such a well-oiled machine that I never noticed it? The shortage notifier is new, and I saw screenshots where you can designate how many of each type of troop the AI builds and loads into ships, as well as a minimum number to keep on planets.
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May 22, 2013 18:30
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Malcolm posted:It's a month late but what the hell I'll chime in with a Steam anecdote. I am one person that enjoys space sims and this is my story: Welcome to grognard games. They have to make them so expensive so people will play them even though the UIs are terrible. Because if you spend 70 bucks on a game, you drat well try and get some enjoyment out of it.
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May 22, 2013 18:54
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Malcolm posted:I would buy DW and all its content on Steam for about $50, there should be plenty of room there for everyone to get fat and happy. For what it's worth though they don't make you pay to redownload the game any more. When my hard drive crashed last year they just sent me new download links.
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May 23, 2013 01:55
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Malcolm posted:It's a month late but what the hell I'll chime in with a Steam anecdote. I am one person that enjoys space sims and this is my story: To be fair: a) If you email them your code, they will give you a copy (I use dropbox) b) They're having a massive Distant Worlds sale tomorrow, which is good since its probably the best 4x ever made.
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May 23, 2013 02:15
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And it's up. $19.99 promo price. 
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May 23, 2013 15:11
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Lorini posted:And it's up. $19.99 promo price. Boughted, I was gonna buy it at $40 anyway because I'm their target audience  Can't wait to start some piratical enterprises. I need to come up with a good name for smugglers to match Keisiari's Space IKEA.
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May 23, 2013 15:32
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Can't see it while at work, but did they put up a deal for the base game and first two expansions?
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May 23, 2013 15:40
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nessin posted:Can't see it while at work, but did they put up a deal for the base game and first two expansions? Matrix Games posted:For newcomers we have an amazing bundle offer. Get the entire Distant Worlds series and all its expansions for just $69.96! To get the bundle just add any Distant Worlds title to your cart and the bundle will be offered to you. That’s a saving of nearly 40% off the base price!
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May 23, 2013 15:44
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nessin posted:Can't see it while at work, but did they put up a deal for the base game and first two expansions? quote:For newcomers we have an amazing bundle offer. Get the entire Distant Worlds series and all its expansions for just $69.96! To get the bundle just add any Distant Worlds title to your cart and the bundle will be offered to you. That’s a saving of nearly 40% off the base price! Edit: Beaten! Arg
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May 23, 2013 15:46
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Oh yay it's finally here. This is the best 4x space game ever made. I'm even going to do the unthinkable and say it: it's better than Moo2. The piracy stuff looks really cool but I gotta admit I'm more interested in the ground combat enhancements and the revamped difficulty settings. I just hope the mod authors are quick to update, I really enjoy the extended mod with all the extra races, and I'm so used to the icon mods I'm not sure I want to try without them.
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May 23, 2013 16:01
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Already bought this Shadows expansion: I've been waited for sooooo long, I'm really interested to try these new pirate, "pre-warp" tech level and ground combat features. If you're even vaguely interested in sci-fi/space/4x games, do yourself a favour and buy Distant Worlds (with every expansion): it's really THAT good, the best on the market right now ! 
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May 23, 2013 16:15
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Oh and there's a whole new manual as well with Age of Shadows. 104 pages, mmmm reminds me of back in the day when manuals were manuals!
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May 23, 2013 16:45
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This game is surprisingly good for all it's rough edges. I just picked up the Shadows expansion myself and am eager to give it a shot later this evening. The shear scope and scale-able level of player interaction is a pleasure once you figure out what the hell you're doing (Babysteps). My complaints are pretty much the same as everyone elses: -Why is this not on a simple distribution/patch system (Steam) -Performance in some areas can tank even on newer machines -Why does the interface blow so hard I honestly hope that with this new expansion more people will discover this game and perhaps the modding community will attack the UI in favor for something more streamlined- Maybe even something that doesn't look like Windows 95.
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May 23, 2013 16:48
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70 dollars total for the base game and 3 expansions is a good deal.Rabid Pancake posted:This game is surprisingly good for all it's rough edges. I just picked up the Shadows expansion myself and am eager to give it a shot later this evening. The shear scope and scale-able level of player interaction is a pleasure once you figure out what the hell you're doing (Babysteps). Answers: 1) Grognard games 2) Shadows has updated graphics engine and graphics and won't tank anymore. 3) Grognard games
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May 23, 2013 16:49
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I just booted up Age of Shadows and the #1 new feature that immediately struck me is the wide variety of pirate flags available.
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May 23, 2013 17:16
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I just had a pirate board one of my frigates so I sent a mercenary to attack it. Still waiting to see how this mercenary will work out.
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May 23, 2013 17:36
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So someone with the pirate expansion sell me on this. What is it like playing as a space pirate? The previews are nice and all, but $70 on a game like this is a bit much to drop blind. Despite the concept being intriguing, that's a poo poo-ton of money for what's basically just one expansion that really piques my interest.
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May 24, 2013 04:21
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This looks interesting but even the amazing deal of only $70 is way too much for me to pay.
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May 24, 2013 05:22
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If $70 is stretching it, then $50 for the base game and first 2 expansions is a pretty good deal.
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May 24, 2013 05:33
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I've not played the new expansion, but am very interested in picking it up ASAP. I didn't really follow it until an email popped up in my inbox saying it was released, so I'd love to see a write up on what it is like. $50/70 may seem a little steep, but I think I paid over $100 for everything (bought it all at full price) and, even though I boot up the game rarely, it is an amazing 4X RTS. It's really an awesome game and worth $70 for everything. There was a really awesome LP that I think is in the OP, you should go read that. If it doesn't sway you then you probably won't like the game.
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May 24, 2013 06:05
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I've messed around with the normal empire in age of shadows start and it's fairly interesting. You begin with a single planet with only 3bil population and no techs, you begin by building a small spaceport and some slowboating exploration ships and find the two ruins in your system, one of them will unlock ftl research. The first is a warp bubble and it's pretty slow (speed 2000 vs 15000 for a regular ftl drive) and uses twice as much energy as a normal drive so your range is also low. This basically means you're confined to your home system and maybe one or two neighbouring systems. You won't have access to a lot of resources but the home system always has the same layout. You begin on a moon around a gas giant with 2 other moons, so you have access to fuel and steel, lead, gold for your slowboaters. Any other resource has to be imported through neutral traders and they have been massively overhauled. In age of shadows pirates start with good FTL and will monopolize resources and supply you, you can ensure a steady supply by handing out a contract where you pay extra for resources. So basically for a long time you'll be an underdog, your home system sucks, your ships suck, your weapons suck and your ftl drive sucks (tech costs are massive to break out, warp bubble is 240k research but the first level proper drive is 960k with the upgrade being 240k). Pirates will be very strong so you need to build platforms and decent fleets to stay competetive.
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May 24, 2013 08:31
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Anybody know how long the current sale will be going on? I'm tempted, but I don't want to get my hopes up if it'll be back to regular price before payday.
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May 24, 2013 08:49
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Everything is on sale and this sounds so awesome... just tell me this, do you still need to download and install a separate Matrix Games launcher program for all this? As an IT person my favorite type of application is an .exe file that you can run without logging in to anything. I realize this is a lot to ask for these days, but I am curious if you need to run Matrix's wannabe Steam just to launch DW. I have no problem paying for things, but I like to know what kind of DRM is attached which was not made clear on the store page. Thanks!
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May 24, 2013 08:54
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FredMSloniker posted:Anybody know how long the current sale will be going on? I'm tempted, but I don't want to get my hopes up if it'll be back to regular price before payday. I believe until July 5th quote:Everything is on sale and this sounds so awesome... just tell me this, do you still need to download and install a separate Matrix Games launcher program for all this? As an IT person my favorite type of application is an .exe file that you can run without logging in to anything. I realize this is a lot to ask for these days, but I am curious if you need to run Matrix's wannabe Steam just to launch DW. I have no problem paying for things, but I like to know what kind of DRM is attached which was not made clear on the store page. Thanks! No, you download installers for the game and expansions and then once installed just launch the game. To install you have to enter the serial number provided when ordered, but that is all there is to the DRM. vyshka fucked around with this message at 09:09 on May 24, 2013 |
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May 24, 2013 09:05
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Malcolm posted:Everything is on sale and this sounds so awesome... just tell me this, do you still need to download and install a separate Matrix Games launcher program for all this? As an IT person my favorite type of application is an .exe file that you can run without logging in to anything. I realize this is a lot to ask for these days, but I am curious if you need to run Matrix's wannabe Steam just to launch DW. I have no problem paying for things, but I like to know what kind of DRM is attached which was not made clear on the store page. Thanks! Not at all. They've always been their own EXE. No DRM other than those codes they send you on purchase.
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May 24, 2013 09:09
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Help, how do I not be awful at this game? I started a pre-warp game and decided that having researched a bunch of military techs and just having discovered hyperdrive I was ready to take on the pirates. I was wrong. They just used a tractor beam and destroyed all my ships in seconds each.
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May 24, 2013 13:06
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HiKaizer posted:Help, how do I not be awful at this game? I started a pre-warp game and decided that having researched a bunch of military techs and just having discovered hyperdrive I was ready to take on the pirates. I was wrong. They just used a tractor beam and destroyed all my ships in seconds each. Pirates are really strong in the early game, only take them on if you found a decently equipped destroyer or maybe a cruiser. They'll generally leave you alone too, pirates no longer blow up mining bases, they just raid them and steal your money and resources (they'll still damage them though since they need to pop the shields to board). So if you ignore the pirates you should be fine for if you can live with the odd raids. Colonizing their independent colonies really pisses them off though, I recommend you either park a supership there to protect it while you build a base or at least put up a mercenary contract to protect it. Your money flow will be really crap in the early game and your ships weak, so I can't recommend building your own until you get to midgame. Most independents also end up being poo poo, since the pirates like to raid them all the time which kills population. The best independents I've found have 400mil and the worst hover around 10-30mil.
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May 24, 2013 16:50
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Shadows-compatible Extended mod has been released. Can get it here: http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3141149 It adds 16 new races to the game. I've played a bunch of games with this mod and I've found it all to be pretty nicely balanced and it definitely makes the mid-late game power blocs more interesting if you get the right mix of races, because a lot of them have quirks that might disrupt the usual species alliances that tend to form. The only part of the mod I don't care for is the race called the Lemeresh, because they're designed to be played by the AI only and they start out strong. I prefer an even playing field for everybody. But they're easy to remove by tinkering with the mod files, which are plain text and very simple. It's worth trying to see if you like it, and easy to remove if you don't. I think the added variety will make it a keeper for most folks though.
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May 24, 2013 17:04
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quote:pirates no longer blow up mining bases Willingly. Overkill is very much a problem, given you need to drop the shields of a craft. Boarding parties can allow for oddness. Taking derelicts in secret locations without triggering their events. Stealing under-construction ships since they're uncrewed at that point(possibly stations too).
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May 24, 2013 18:58
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Frog Assassin posted:Shadows-compatible Extended mod has been released. Can get it here: http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3141149 Out of curiosity, what's the max number of empires and pirate factions this game can have in a single game with the latest expansion? I've checked around for details, and I haven't been able to find any on that point. I kind of want to play a game that has ridiculous numbers of factions duking it out, but nothing like that really exists on the market at the moment. That extended mod looks to be hilarious if you could just throw all the races into a single game for a massive galactic clusterfuck. Archonex fucked around with this message at 22:43 on May 24, 2013 |
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May 24, 2013 21:54
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Frog Assassin posted:Shadows-compatible Extended mod has been released. Can get it here: http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3141149 I jumped on the $20 deal because I make terrible choices *cautiously* these days. That being said, are the mods intended for all expansions, or can some of them run with the updated, but vanilla Distant Worlds?
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May 24, 2013 22:02
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Archonex posted:Out of curiosity, what's the max number of empires and pirate factions this game can have in a single game with the latest expansion? I've checked around for details, and I haven't been able to find any on that point. I'm not sure about pirate factions, the player doesn't get any control over them besides a vague setting of how many there are (none, few, average, etc.) at galaxy creation. I haven't actually had time to play a game of Shadows yet and a lot of stuff with pirates changed with it, but generally speaking they're like roaches. With the extended mod I can have 38 empires in play, not counting story empires (another 2 if story stuff is enabled I think? Been forever since I had story stuff turned on). There's also an option to allow independent colonies to become full-fledged empires if they reach a certain development level without being absorbed, so there's potential for even more empires, although there might be a hard cap. If I'm playing in the largest galaxy size (1400 stars) I go with anywhere from 20 to max empires depending on how quickly I want the land grab phase to end. 38 makes for a very tight game but there's still more room available than you might think. Basically, the game can definitely accommodate your galactic clusterfuck needs. Hav posted:I jumped on the $20 deal because I make terrible choices *cautiously* these days. That being said, are the mods intended for all expansions, or can some of them run with the updated, but vanilla Distant Worlds? The Extended mod has version 1.1 available in the thread I linked and I assume that's for vanilla, but only has 7 races. No idea how stable/balanced it is. The only other mods I've used are some graphical ones for the UI and for resources. I installed them before the latest expansion hit and they still work just fine, I imagine they'd be okay in vanilla too. Just take precautions so you can undo a change or at least be ready to re-install if you break something.
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May 24, 2013 22:53
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Malcolm posted:I bought Distant Worlds at launch, and remember how odd it was that the Matrix download site would only let me download one time. The game I just purchased. "Be sure to burn a copy to physical media!" the download page warned. I think it was $3 to download again in the future if I lost my backup installer. I never really got into Distant Worlds as the base game wasn't terribly meaty, something the expansions rectified I'm sure. I never found out firsthand because I didn't feel like shelling out high prices for each expansion from the same publisher. I also bought DW on release, I even bought "extended download service" for extra. Sadly, even extended service only lasts 2 years and so I am poo poo out of luck now the new expansion has caught my eye. I sent them a support ticket, so I'll see if they'll let me download it again before the sale ends.
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May 24, 2013 23:19
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If I play a classic game as an empire, I'm still getting all of the shadow changes, right? Except, obviously, for the scenario specific stuff. Is there a full change log, anyway? Not that it matters. I've honestly never played Legend and barely touched Shakturi.Darkrenown posted:I also bought DW on release, I even bought "extended download service" for extra. Sadly, even extended service only lasts 2 years and so I am poo poo out of luck now the new expansion has caught my eye. I sent them a support ticket, so I'll see if they'll let me download it again before the sale ends. I'm pretty sure I got them to send me new download links at some point so I wouldn't worry too much. If it absolutely came down to it, though, you should have the serials in your matrix account somewhere so you could always find the installer elsewhere. Awful solution, I know. Their digital distribution is really terrible and there's no excuse for it.
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May 25, 2013 00:39
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Nice response times anyway, they already replied to me with a new download link!
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May 25, 2013 00:45
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Demiurge4 posted:I've messed around with the normal empire in age of shadows start and it's fairly interesting. You begin with a single planet with only 3bil population and no techs, you begin by building a small spaceport and some slowboating exploration ships and find the two ruins in your system, one of them will unlock ftl research. The first is a warp bubble and it's pretty slow (speed 2000 vs 15000 for a regular ftl drive) and uses twice as much energy as a normal drive so your range is also low. This basically means you're confined to your home system and maybe one or two neighbouring systems. This post sold me on getting back into DW and the new expac. This is basically the start I always used to set up for myself, because I decommission everything and deleted all designs and started from scratch inasmuch as I was able to.
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May 25, 2013 02:24
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I read through the thread but can't find an answer: What's the bare minimum cash I have to drop on this to get a taste and have a good time?
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May 25, 2013 02:27
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The original, base game (currently $20) is pretty good but like all games of this sort it just gets better the more expansions you add to it. With games like this, they don't get the press and sales they'd need to support constantly updating a game so anything bigger than small bug fixes are all done in expansions. It's unfortunate, but I guess it's working for them. It's too bad they don't have some kind of time limited demo. Just release the full/most of the game with a 2 or 3 hour time limit. Edit: The AI keeps suggesting I hire pirates to attack neighbors, etc. How do I actually do this on my own or does the AI have to suggest it first? Sankis fucked around with this message at 02:42 on May 25, 2013 |
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May 25, 2013 02:32
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Demiurge4 posted:So basically for a long time you'll be an underdog, your home system sucks, your ships suck, your weapons suck and your ftl drive sucks (tech costs are massive to break out, warp bubble is 240k research but the first level proper drive is 960k with the upgrade being 240k). Pirates will be very strong so you need to build platforms and decent fleets to stay competetive. In my game right now I'm barely past the Age of Shadows and just took over my first homeworld, and I'm probably hosed. I figured the pirates would be falling off pretty hard, but what I didn't see coming at all is that having such a head start on hyperdrives means pirates get first crack at all the derelict ships and ship graveyards for miles, so right now I'm hemorrhaging cash and still trying to pay off some terrifying Genghis Khan level pirates with a couple of unkillable capitals while a bunch of lesser pirates that were being held off by the empire I took over run around raiding everything. Considering that taking over a homeworld in Legends was gg it's pretty loving cool.
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May 25, 2013 02:39
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Yeah I started a game as the Ackdarians and somehow lucked into 6 goddamn independent colonies near me, 4 of which had 1bil+ population. So I rushed those down and now I'm in a war with the Sluken and like 4 different pirates are constantly raiding my smaller colonies. My largest colonies are fairly safe, I've got a decent sized spaceport on each of them with smaller ones defending the newest ones. But the pirates don't loving care, the new gravity weapon shits all over your shields and armor so even the strongest stations can be taken down by a relatively small pirate fleet if it's left undefended. I'm not entirely sold on the pirate bases yet, they seem a bit gimicky and I have no idea how to dislodge them. I had an advisor pop up and ask for permission to start a ground war against one in my colony and that caused my militia to attack the fort. Which ended up benefiting from the armored bunker facility and since the militia is population, that pirate based wiped out 250 million ackdarians before going down  Edit: Resource shortages are also abound, I expanded too fast and I'm feeling the heat from that. Your colonies consume strategic resources to fuel their growth and I foolishly upgraded my mining base designs which caused every single mining base in my empire to decide it needed to refit itself and now my entire civilian fleet is bogged down trying to supply them and those resources can't go towards building more right now. This also spams my notices but I'll get around to filtering my messages soon. Demiurge4 fucked around with this message at 02:52 on May 25, 2013 |
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May 25, 2013 02:50
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