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Have you ever wanted to fight brutal wars of attrition against dino-riders in an airless desert using militia in hastily cobbled together envirosuits alongside ancient combat walkers? How about despairing as the (not quite for copyright purposes) War boys from Mad Max appear from nowhere to tear into your unprotected hinterlands? Or watching in horror because you pissed off your secretary too much and they raised a regiment of rebels who cut the aterial road through the alien megajungle that connects the two cities of your empire causing your finely balanced logistical system to grind to a halt. All of this happening on a hugely detailed, procedurally generated alien world that can range from an airless asteriod to a death world hellhole. If so then Shadow Empire might be the game for you! Come play MP games with goons via discord Here [Since steam release we've been promoted to the 'unoffical' Shadow Empire discord!] Shadow Empire is the latest release from one man studio VR Games. Previously known for innovative hex & counter wargames like the Decisive Campaigns series said one man band has turned out a unique take on the 4X and wargaming genre's that can only be described as a mashup of Alpha Centauri and a turn based wargame in some sort of freaky Crusader Kings/Frank Herbert's Dune crossover universe. Alternatively it has a similar feel to Dominions in MP with the same extreme diversity in potential playstyles. Confused yet? Basically like the title says the theme is Alpha Centauri and Mad Max had a baby and that baby was a really good strategy/4X game. I'll level with you, this isn't the prettiest game in existence, a lot of your time will be spent staring at a screens like these vvv and the graphics are (intentionally-ish) extremely 90's-tastic. The core gameplay loop wil be familiar to fans of Civilization/Alpha Centauri, you start with a city in a post apocalyptic wasteland and have to explore, expand and conquer your way to world domination. The twist is that it is also a proper wargame so things logistics, supplies, morale, unit experience are all modeled in high detail. There is a further layer with leader management reminiscent of parts of Crusader Kings or VR designs previous title Decisive Campaigns: Barbarossa. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8XAh8Wii4k Oh god I am sorry I pulled this video from the publisher's page and it's extremely cringe but does try give a once-over on the games main features. But if you are still here and haven't been scared off Shadow Empire is an excellent game with a lot of replayability due to the procedural nature of how all the content is generated. Everything from the planet you are contesting to the weapons, tanks, equipment, alien flora/fauna, enemies is different for every game. Planets themselves can vary from molten hellholes with rivers and lakes of lava to frozen planetoids without any free water to low-gravity alien jungles full of deadly monsters and much more. It's tough to describe everything in the game without filling pages with text but I would encourage you to look up some of the streams/LP's if you are on the fence. Reviews! Emergent Mage Explorimate Wargamer Strategy Gamer Those of us who have followed the game development over in the Grognard thread are hoping there will be an ongoing MP scene like dominions has generated. FAQ Goon Grognard games discord - Use to find MP games and a whole lot of goons thirsting to answer your obscure Shadow Empire questions. How much does it cost? - £34 or probably forty American buckaroo's. Steam? - Is the AI any good? - Yes it actually is, while no AI will ever compete with a human player tactically in a game as complex as this it will put up a very convincing fight and it's not uncommon to lose games to agressive AI. Does the AI cheat - Not for important things apart from playing with slightly different logistics rules, more detailed explanation here. Is there multiplayer? - Yes there is PBEM (play by email) multiplayer in IgoUgo format. The game really shines in MP. Where are my fortifications/ Is there an editor? - No, one may be released at a later date. Ingame/UI FAQ Wait did I just find a functional one megaton nuclear missile launcher in the desert?!? - Yes you did, enjoy! When building a vehicle you can mouseover the engine power or weight to see a tooltip of all the weight you have added to the design so far! Why are there so many AI built roads? - The AI gets to build dirt roads for free and has unlimited logistic range. It's a required crutch at the moment but the developer has indicated he wants to move away from it. Hex perk connection - No road is needed! They just need to be able to track any path to your SHQ via owned hexes. Why did weird XYZ thing happen between turns? - Probably you had decisions you did not respond to, if so your secretary or relevant cabinet member will try make them for you but it won't always be what you want! How do I refill my units? - Build replacement troops through the SHQ the units are assigned to. It’s a button in the right panel at the top maked 'replacement troops.' Why is there an option to spend political power to resign, which ejects you from the game the turn after you do it? - For multiplayer, it turns your empire over to the ai. What do the council settings at game start do? - Council unlocks various function in your government. For example, without economic council you can't discover and research economic related tech tech. Without model design council you can't create new unit model. Most councils have multiple functions though, like economic also handles finding resource deposits in your zone. I don't have any metal, help! - Get prospecting through an economics council! Alternatively you can get some by scavenging ruins hexes. How do I make more troops? - "Raise formation" button, top right hand side. What are "LIS" - Logistics points. You need 100 of them per building level to a building/asset for it to function fully. Trucks? - The level 1 truck station makes 1000 Logistics points and 100 Truck AP. The Truck AP means that out to 100 AP along a road (dirt roads are 10/hex, sealed roads are 5/hex) you get 100% of the logistical point flow, it degrades fairly quickly after that. Supply Depots add 50 truck AP to any logistical flow going through them, i.e. extending the range you get 100% LP flow with no degradation along dirt roads for an extra five hexes. My railways don't work - You need a rail station or railhead in a hex to load/unload. Useful links Goon Grognard games discord - Use to find MP games and a whole lot of goons thirsting to answer your obscure Shadow Empire questions. Come play MP games with goons via discord Here Get the game HERE Official Forums Manual in pdf format LP's and Tutorials I have a screenshot based LP running here with extensive mechanics explanations. https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3922608 [Steam release update] I am making a tutorial series with all the things that have changed from release! And another MP game which is a hybrid Video/SSLP in the same thread. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoitGFD6Z-E (Audio for the first two videos is rough as hell due to a busted mic but it gets better!) Generation Internet is running a detailed screenshot LP of his MP game which has degenerated into an eastern front style slugfest. Youtuber DasTactics has a good tutorial series so should be your first stop. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BivVweJ5-iA DasTactics Tutorial DasTactics beta MP with Tortugapower Rocky Planetoid Planet Generation preview Youtuber Tortugapower has been doing videos from the beta onwards. Dune planet game Multiplayer beta v DasTactics Earth-like world Grey Hunter, SA's very own strategy games maniac has a series of Beta previews and ongoing games. https://www.youtube.com/user/greyhunterlp 4 player MP game Outside the Cradle game Grey Hunter Screenshot LP Also for peak Shadow Empire observe the following. Saros fucked around with this message at 16:11 on Dec 8, 2020 |
# ¿ Jun 4, 2020 15:42 |
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# ¿ Apr 24, 2024 15:44 |
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All the leaders are different for every game so it can! In my LP linked above I am having endless problem with my Secretary but can never spare enough political points to dispose of them (officially or otherwise).
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# ¿ Jun 4, 2020 16:17 |
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Probably 3 months from what I have seen. Like I said in the OP when it releases on steam it likely won't be any cheaper and Matrix give you a steam key when they go to steam anyway so doesnt seem like that big a deal to me.
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# ¿ Jun 4, 2020 16:55 |
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Aren't we all. Some people however, are not! (from the official forums)
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# ¿ Jun 4, 2020 17:21 |
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HerpicleOmnicron5 posted:Just bought the game. Haven't played ATG or DC:B, and that tutorial series hasn't really gotten to the meat of the game yet. Are there any quick tips for newcomers, like important hotkeys or concepts that are slightly different from more common use? For logistics L will show you logistics points left for the turn and P the projected ones for next turn. There are also bottleneck and other views available through the right hand side of the interface. 6 will color code the map to show how far your logistics can 'offroad' to your units. Generally though it's hard to be on the attack early without greatly superior numbers and attacking from multiple directions. Early units are far superior on the defense so it's important to stack every advantage you can. Otherwise read some LP's and maybe look at some more preview vids but it's a good game to just learn by doing, you'll find yourself in tricky situations and figuring out how to get out of them is half the fun. Saros fucked around with this message at 21:42 on Jun 4, 2020 |
# ¿ Jun 4, 2020 21:36 |
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Generally you want some more sources of metal first before going for industry because industry costs an enormous amount of metal. You can usually squeeze in a BP building (office) before you find a metal mine or more ruins to get metal income up then go for an industry. Often though it can be more fun just to start on the level 4 techs so you have all the basics from the start.
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# ¿ Jun 4, 2020 22:11 |
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Yeah militia are free they don't take anything from your private economy.
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# ¿ Jun 5, 2020 07:49 |
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If they do its not accounted for anywhere, you can select the militancy button to see how many were recruited that turn and then the population and there is no corresponding decrease for people joining the militia.Gimmick Account posted:Judging from the type of spelling mistakes Vic repeatedly (but not reliably, which just underlines my point even more) makes, I'm starting to doubt more and more that him not being an English native speaker is the main cause of his troubles in grammarland. That recent interview he gave to a website showed pretty clearly that he has a good grasp of the language, at least when it comes to the spoken word. The inconsistency comes from the manual being proofread on a voluntary basis by beta testers. Why Matrix games as the publisher is unable to perform this fairly simple task is beyond me. Saros fucked around with this message at 08:50 on Jun 5, 2020 |
# ¿ Jun 5, 2020 08:13 |
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Kibbles n Shits posted:Edit: I guess the more pertinent question is not if the AI is "good" but if the AI is "fun". It's competent and fun, it's worth noting that Regimes behave differently depending on what type they are and all the major regimes are different based upon their government types. It's nothing like the ATG AI Vic has clearly come a long way as a programmer since. Vic posted:I also had to compromise on the AI design. What I tried to do is make the AI play by different rules where-ever where making the AI be able to play by the same rules would require excessive coding time with minimal gain for the player experience. What has always remained important to me is that the core rules that actually decide defeat or victory (combat & economy) the AI plays by exactly the same rules. For example: If you take its Farms the AI will have a problem feeding its Troops. If the AI does not have a Water Mine it will have to build bloody expensive Wind Traps to get Water to its Farms. If you encircle the AI its Troops will starve. Etc... The exact rules the AI plays by are in the back of the manual. It does not get anything free with the exception of unlimted logistic range along roads and free dirt road construction. pointsofdata posted:I like how there is real pressure to find a source of metals early, rather than it just being a nice to have. Not sure what the best order for councils is yet - I'm tending to get applied science, economic and model design early but that's just guessing Depends on the situation but I find applied science is safe to leave for last. Military and Economic councils are where the useful techs live and economic gives tax raises and prospecting which is key in the early game. Applied science is just incremental improvements on stuff (it's very powerful improvements but safe to leave for later). Staff is another important one as it generates leader management cards and OOB's. Finally Model is important for implementing military tech improvements. Foreign/Secret service can be slotted in when you need them depending on the situation. Saros fucked around with this message at 16:55 on Jun 5, 2020 |
# ¿ Jun 5, 2020 16:51 |
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Logistics points, you need 100 to a hex with a building for it to function at 100%
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# ¿ Jun 5, 2020 20:29 |
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William Henry Hairytaint posted:Apparently that was the only city they owned and since I took it from them the game considered them "defeated" and their entire army vanished lol. That's pretty good but clearly an edge case where something went awry, can you report it as a bug?
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# ¿ Jun 6, 2020 09:52 |
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I wouldnt hold out hope for rail costs decreasing. I've been back and forth with Vic about it and he seems quite content with anything mountainous being rail-inaccessible. I eventally gave up and started just posting pictures of Swiss railways.
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# ¿ Jun 6, 2020 14:59 |
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Yeah it's a lot of the reason why people familiar with him & the DC series are fairly chill about the admittedly shoddy text. It'll get fixed and Vic is always happy to listen to feedback and fix problems with frightening
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# ¿ Jun 6, 2020 17:03 |
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It definitely gives other techs, I got serpentinization in my LP from an earlier play of it and just now in MP it gave me automated turrets (useless lol). The reason battledress is so good early is that it counts as 80mm armor so small arms suffer a 75% penalty to their attack power plus the ridiculous HP it gives.
Saros fucked around with this message at 18:31 on Jun 6, 2020 |
# ¿ Jun 6, 2020 18:29 |
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pointsofdata posted:Building railways between cities will help relieve logistics issues on dirt roads right (seen by them being black in the choke point view)? And do I need stations in both cities or will a railhead in one city be enough? Also I nationalised the truck station in my capital and I think that helped but am not sure. Bigger truck station will alleviate bottlenecks faster, also use the P key to preview logistics and prune your network with traffic lights you might be able to fix the bottleneck just by making more of your logistics points flow along it.
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# ¿ Jun 7, 2020 09:34 |
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Yeah the normal truck station makes 1000 Logistics points and 100 Truck AP. The Truck AP means that out to 100 AP along a road (dirt roads are 10/hex, sealed roads are 5/hex) you get 100% of the logistical point flow, it degrades fairly quickly after that. Supply Depots add 50 truck AP to any logistical flow going through them, i.e. extending the range you get 100% LP flow with no degradation along dirt roads for an extra five hexes.
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# ¿ Jun 7, 2020 12:30 |
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Squiggle posted:-Added the generation of a planet generation save in your savedgames directory. Which if you like you could rename and share with others. Or use to restart a Planet you found interesting. Lol Vic. He has spent literal months deflecting this request from Beta testers but has now managed to basically bang it out in an afternoon.
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# ¿ Jun 7, 2020 17:22 |
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Beta 3 out already.quote:Changelist to v1.01a-beta3 http://www.vrdesigns.net/openbeta/Shadow_Patch_v101a-beta3.zip Kibbles n Shits posted:Speaking of figuring this out, is there any tutorial series that aren't DasTactic? I'm working through the manual and doing a lot of trial and error but having this condensed somewhat would be great. I don't have any to reccomend but there are likely some on youtube, if anyone finds a good one i'll put it in the OP. You can also read my LP linked in the OP I went through a lot of the mechanics in it (the OP there has a table of contents with mechanics explanations in). SlyFrog posted:Yeah, this is fairly inscrutable to me. A lot of things that just aren't intuitive. 1) Yeah you likely made a Operational HQ unit, when building units you select OHQ (5 counters + HQ) or independent unit (1 counter, can be attached to HQ's). Top of the raise formation screen lets you choose what type of unit to raise. 2) Hex assets probably, you can see them in anything that shows zone assets and mouseover to see their effects (bottom pane assets tab). 3) All those little symbols are government/society, you can see their effects in the left UI pane middle tab. Saros fucked around with this message at 20:07 on Jun 7, 2020 |
# ¿ Jun 7, 2020 19:14 |
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2 independent units per OHQ max.
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# ¿ Jun 7, 2020 20:29 |
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GreyjoyBastard posted:PC only It does seem to work on various Mac emulator things but I don't know the details, there's a thread on the matrix forums about it. SIGSEGV posted:Gonna have to sand those edges a bit for MP, dominions has its moments but the heavy cav / thunder god throne / blood vines / hill wizard steve start at least doesn't directly murder you. If you start on tech 4/5 and with an army you're basically immune to any of the early deaths causes so for MP we have been doing that. Saros fucked around with this message at 07:46 on Jun 8, 2020 |
# ¿ Jun 8, 2020 07:42 |
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Beta4 patch out (at 7am on a monday, what the hell)Vic posted:Changelist to v1.01a-beta4 http://www.vrdesigns.net/openbeta/Shadow_Patch_v101a-beta4.zip Lol guess the complaining about rail got to him. Saros fucked around with this message at 09:00 on Jun 8, 2020 |
# ¿ Jun 8, 2020 08:57 |
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V for Vegas posted:Something is wrong with my supply lines - I have thousands of fuel, my tanks are sitting just outside my capital, but they are only getting a a sliver of fuel each turn. Check what your SHQ settings are for what % of your logistical network can be used for shifting supplies to units, all your trucks might be busy shuffling spullies to/from zones. Also look at bottleneck mode and see if your capital is jammed. And I think the only resource that can only be gotten from the ground is radioactives.
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# ¿ Jun 8, 2020 13:56 |
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You need a model council, once you have one you call the director in charge via the cabinet screen.
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# ¿ Jun 8, 2020 15:05 |
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luxury handset posted:are there any good lets plays of this game i can use to sell my gamer crew on this impossibly dated and janky game? Theres a list in the OP which is drawn from the people who were given preview copies.
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# ¿ Jun 8, 2020 15:55 |
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Kibbles n Shits posted:Are the combat odds broken? I attacked a unit of militia rifleman with 14 readiness at 6.5:1 odds and got absolutely pasted. This was after multiple turns of bombardment, too. Perhaps I'm just overestimating my dudes abilities or missing something else, but I feel like I should have been able to overpower them. Any chance of a battle screenshot or going back to the previous autosave to mock one up? Could be a lot of stuff or just bad recon or rolls. [E] if you are on the fence about buying it there is a 20% discount using 'wargamer20' until tomorrow and I have updated a lot of the op with tutorials and videos. Saros fucked around with this message at 18:06 on Jun 8, 2020 |
# ¿ Jun 8, 2020 18:04 |
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Squiggle posted:I've noticed there's a scouting element at play, and my units have at times been disgustingly wrong about the composition of the enemies they're about to charge into, sometimes dramatically over or underestimating their strength. I haven't quite figured it out. Yeah to be 100% certain of enemy composition you need 400 recon on a hex which is a lot. Motorcycle infantry and buggies are the best at scouting followed by light tanks. I've had worlds with arachnids who are excellent at hiding combined with dense jungle where you couldn't even see them when you were right next to them so you had to scout with heavy tanks and just tank the ambush before sending another unit in to clean up.
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# ¿ Jun 8, 2020 20:33 |
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Dooooont touch the max worker slider in the zone screen unless you know what you are doing. Just set the worker salary to a few credits over the zone average income (visible by clicking the population on the zone main screen) and to "hire, do not fire" and it will recruit enough workers by itself.
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# ¿ Jun 8, 2020 21:03 |
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AtomikKrab posted:Every unit of sealed road you can afford on your route helps. Even if there is a mountain in the way sealed roads before and after will help the logistics bottleneck. Worth noting that there isn't actually a flow restriction, you can have unlimited amounts of LP flow along any road. All sealed roads do over dirt roads is halve the AP costs for LP flowing along the hex so they go further they don't actually let any more flow. Fintilgin posted:Still not clear on how the truck/ traffic signal thing works. Do I understand this right? If my empire is a single long road, with my capital in the middle, a single farm at one end and all my army and infrastructure down the other, half my trucks will be wasted driving to my farm and half will supply my army unless I set up traffic signals manually. From what I have seen from Vic it's because doing it the other way allowed people to magic armies about with formation creation and strategic move. If you have a big pool of truck points that can go anywhere with the current system it gets pretty ridiculous quick. I do agree that the traffic signal system needs some work, right now you need to adjust it too much.
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# ¿ Jun 9, 2020 13:35 |
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I wouldnt advise using battlegroups as anything more than a way to toss all your GR units into a superunit as non-GR units get a 15% combat penalty which is pretty nasty. Are you conflating Battlegroups and OHQ's? Battlegroups are just unit containers not command structures. Each OHQ can take two extra independent (non militia) units as attachments and its definitely worth attaching independent units as they get the commander's combat bonuses.
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# ¿ Jun 9, 2020 16:55 |
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luxury handset posted:what is the purpose of a battlegroup then, as compared to just moving independent units around in a group? it seems like it would make sense for me to attach independent MG and arty units to my OHQs to beef up their stats. but in my example OOB above, i should probably just keep the independent regiments around as free floating units? and a battlegroup is just a way to smush all my spare fancy laser guys and bots into some ersatz formation? Yeah the point is to create ad-hoc formations in unusual circumstances not to avoid the whole OOB system via a lot of micromanagement. If you are stacking a bunch of independent units just make it a bigger formation i.e. regiment instead of batallion. You can also upgrade the unit size or type to make it bigger. Kibbles n Shits posted:How do you rename a model? Models there are few ways, easiest is via the model management tab. Recruits are modified by cultural adaptation, basically people aren't happy with being conquered and take a while to get used to the new regime. You won't get any from a zone without it. You have to increase happiness and get loyalty over 50 before it will start to adapt.
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# ¿ Jun 9, 2020 19:40 |
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Have you got it set to give emergency food? It's possible the population is starving because the private industry is not producing enough to feed them and they don't have enough money to buy more food. Check the reports tab for the zone for details.
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# ¿ Jun 9, 2020 20:01 |
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Should probably have put this in the OP with the grog discord link but a bunch of goons and refugees from the matrix forums are running MP games Here
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# ¿ Jun 10, 2020 11:09 |
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pointsofdata posted:Is it possible to get it running in a window? Changing the resolution keeps in fullscreen, just with a lower resolution quote:Yep, there's a file you can alter. Apparently Patch 1.02 is out! quote:Version 1.02 Get it Here! Saros fucked around with this message at 14:05 on Jun 10, 2020 |
# ¿ Jun 10, 2020 14:03 |
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For a low tech start the generally accepted consensus seems to be model -> mil -> economic -> whatever. Lets you get light tanks/armored cars and maybe uparmed and armored infantry out asap.
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# ¿ Jun 10, 2020 21:09 |
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Beta 1.02b2 http://www.vrdesigns.net/openbeta/Shadow_Patch_v102-beta2.zip Existing games started with a previous version can be continued. quote:Changelist to v1.02-beta2
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# ¿ Jun 10, 2020 21:15 |
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Kibbles n Shits posted:Ah, I didn't know distance mattered because my OHQ units were getting the same bonus as my SHQ units, but the leader is lovely so maybe that's why. I just wish he had kept the feature from AT:G where you can color your chits by HQ so it's easy to tell which units belong to which HQs at a glance. Edit: Just noticed that they are highlighted but it's awfully subtle. If a unit has an OHQ it gets the SHQ and OHQ bonuses, this is a huge deal. If the HQ distance is the same as ATG and all his other games its 100% boost out to 3 hexes then -25% per hex after that. AtomikKrab posted:I'm low key sad there isn't a set up for a world that was well populated with megacities in gen. These exist, they have to be quite earthlike and generally higher gravity and rainfall but you can gen pre-apocalypse populations in the billions. I had one with 6b pop and basically 1/4 of hexes were ruins it was mental. Control Volume posted:I dont really have a tolerance for overly complex and detailed wargame stuff, so if I say I like games like Civ, Commander: Great War, and Unity of Command, but bounced off of games like TOAW3, Combat Mission, and Distant Worlds, is this the sort of game Id still enjoy playing? I havent played any of the Decisive Campaigns series so I dont have those as a reference point. It's not dissimilar to Commander the great war in many ways being a hex based wargame with an economic side. It's not distant worlds with its ridiculous economic system but definitely a step up from Commander. Terrifying Effigies posted:Isn't Economic Council necessary to prospect for resources, or will your governors do that regardless? I know there's a funding slider in EC for prospecting but not sure if there are other ways to find metal quickly early on. Eco council is needed afaik. As for militia the militia rating for your whole empire isnt what generates reinforcements for them, that is zone militancy. The only realistic way I have found to maintain militancy once you start fielding real troops is via the Militia house structure you get from cards which your factions supply. sullat posted:I've designed all sorts of crazy model troops, RPGs, motorbike troops, even tank destroyers because that is a doctrine that is flawless. But how do I add them to my armies? I've got a bunch of OOBs, but none that will allow buggies or TDs or motorcycle troops. Staff council -> research and operationalise OOB's which contain them. You can also build independent units containing them which you can attaching to OHQ's.
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# ¿ Jun 11, 2020 08:57 |
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http://www.vrdesigns.net/openbeta/Shadow_Patch_v102-beta3.zipquote:Changelist to v1.02-beta3
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# ¿ Jun 11, 2020 19:52 |
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Bold Robot posted:I took over a new zone from a minor regime. Do I need to make a new SHQ for that zone now? If not, when would I want to make a new SHQ? Definitely not, the SHQ is basically the hub of your empire and has an overhead costs for more than one so you only want them when you want to divide your empire in two production/logistically wise. It's for cases where your empire is just too big to efficiently ship all your stuff back and forth to a single SHQ or you take over a zone which you can't connect to your logistical network.
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# ¿ Jun 12, 2020 09:23 |
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You can avoid that via ticking the 'give emergency food' button in the zone orders you get when calling the governor. If a private sector hasnt got enough food production it's no.1 priority will be farms so that will tide them over till they rebuild another one.
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# ¿ Jun 12, 2020 13:02 |
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# ¿ Apr 24, 2024 15:44 |
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It's a *very* good Stratagem and yeah mines and industry get a 50% bonus from the 2500 bonus points (sqrt 2500). You can see it the next turn in the feats and bonuses tab in reports.
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# ¿ Jun 12, 2020 15:52 |