John Hamp

Beta 5 Impressions

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Beta 5 Impressions

February 8, 2003 7:00 PM from

Other than the space bar bug, this build has been pretty stable. But that is a very big BUT.

Overall:
Very compelling. The game seems to have achieved a really epic feeling to it. I really like the new invasion options . I cannot picture conquering a planet with 80 billion people with transports that can only carry 5 billion people without using mass drivers!

Bugs:
Ships on auto pilot that are supposed to target a resource or star base sometimes end up on top of them.

Scrollbar on archived tech list doesn't work.

Scrollbar on military governor list (everything doing X should now do Y, the Y list scrollbar doesn't work).

Minor races need a generic symbol on their stars and ship details thingy.

Ditto for diplomacy screen picture. Talking to an empty screen is troubling.

UP law supposed to prevent me from attacking freighters. Got a dialog about the UP law but it still let me attack.

Late game performance was pretty good. But my fleet of 5 ships moved glacially.

Strategy game of the year? I think so.

828 views 27 replies

Reply #26 February 12, 2003 3:53 AM from

Stardock Forums Top

I would agree with some total production cap. Even if you recycled nearly 100% of all material production still uses lots of energy. That in of itself is an upper limit (though maybe a high one). Also most production requires some form of manpower and generates some form of pollution (even if just an eyesore). We're not even considering the transport requirements from orbital factories to the destinations. I would definitely support some form of upper limit based on planet quality, whether it be based on resources, energy, manpower, pollution or public opinion.

Paul.

Reply #27 February 12, 2003 7:12 AM from

Stardock Forums Top

The only problem I have with high productivity is running out of social projects to build. I've had games where my top 20 planets were just building Overlords and no socials (my current game heading there). There is no cap need. Just make it economically unfeasible for 3+ 'factory' starbases to exist in sectors.

The way to fix this is to fix tribute:
1) when a race dies, do does it tribute
2) war stops tribute
3) fix minor races ability to pay massive amounts of tribute and still have huge 20,000+bc income

There is no way I can run my factories at 100% without massive amounts of tribute. Without tribute, a tax of 50% yeilds spend rate 17% (just to break even).
Current Income: Taxes 4330, trade 660, Tribute 9660.

BTW, 4 minor races still in game and 3 are rich. I still trade tech and ships for 100+bc/120 months. All my beginning stat points were allocated 1 to each catagory.

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