To Patch or Not To Patch?

That is the question...

from Sins Forums
I wanted to play and defeat 4 Hard AIs for the Achievement before I downloaded the 1.03 patch.  I played the game on Gateway (I prefer large, random but the premise of this map seemed pretty cool).  It was the most exciting game I have played to date.  After finishing it I immediately began a large, random, 8 hard AI map.  I was about an hour into it when I realized that I hadn't downloaded the patch.  D'oh!

I read forum posts a lot and have heard some glowing praise and some sharp criticism for the 1.03 patch.  I get an overall "meh" feeling after reading everyone's comments.  So my question is should I download and install the patch or should I wait for the next one?

I play exclusively single player.  And I deal with siege frigate rushes by fighting back and recolonizing.  I also use siege frigates in mid to late game in mobs to scare the AI mostly.  I'm playing my second game against hard AIs.  While I am very excited about the very effective increase in the jump prohibitor I am wary of some of the other "problems" people have noted.

I know that some of you are very vocal in supporting or shunning the new patch.  What would you do knowing what you know now?
31,833 views 14 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top
I think 1.03 is defiantly better in single player. In multi-player you would need it because even though there is a balance discussion 1.03 is what people are playing online.
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
The changes to the market are probably the biggest issue right now. After the 1.03 patch, the only attention you'll have to pay to your economy is in making sure to throw a trade port in every available logistics slot. Credits will be your main source of crystal and metal through the black market.

Beyond that, most of the other changes are either good or inconsequential in a single-player game so if you can live with a broken market for a while, I'd get it.
Star Control: Origins
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top
The AI does not abuse the blackmarket like online-players do so go ahead and patch. :)
Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top
Three For and none Against? Hmm, if I had to guess I would have thought that, after three votes one-sided votes, I would have three telling me not to download.

C'mon, 1.03 patch haters, where's your voice? :LOL: If this keeps up I'll upgrade as soon as this massive game is over.
Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top
Just upgrade. Their aiming to release 1.04 by the end of next week anyway, you might as well experience 1.03 ;).
Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top
Oh fine, I'll throw in my vote for.

The majority of the vocal folks that disapprove of the patch do so on the basis of MP balance issues and their effects on styles of play. Ultimately, this really doesn't come into play in SP as there's no "abuse" of the black market (as Xtanto pointed out) and you're not spammed with LRFs.

1.03 is well worth it on the grounds of AI improvements alone - while we've all seen posts that suggest otherwise (without offering much proof, and from what I know from personal experience some pretty unrealistic depictions), the AI is considerably improved.

It actually techs up pretty well, especially different ships types. It's a bit more agressive and doesn't run away so early all the time, and in addition to creating some pretty decent fleets, it also does a pretty decent job at clumping together its structures and defenses :)
Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top
I don't know... the AI still runs from me constantly and in several games, it's just sat there accumulating credits although, if nothing else, it doesn't seem to be hemhorraging resources on siege frigates quite so often.

Anyway, as was said, most of the complaints are either about the market and the usual balance issues. Since the AI rarely puts together an efficient fleet or bothers to use one properly, a few credits on frigate cost 'x' and a point or two to frigate regen rate 'y' aren't going to make a whole lot of difference.
Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top
I am finding more and more colonies that die from stupid spending, or "saving" for a path/priority that will take 100 years, or some other brain dead reason that I can not cipher.

I played vs 4 random tonight, easy/norm/hard/unfair, after about 2 hours with no contact, I log out and find all have basically flat line economies.

Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top
I am finding more and more colonies that die from stupid spending, or "saving" for a path/priority that will take 100 years, or some other brain dead reason that I can not cipher.I played vs 4 random tonight, easy/norm/hard/unfair, after about 2 hours with no contact, I log out and find all have basically flat line economies.
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Follow up: I turned recording back on and looked around. All 4 failed to place a single metal extractor. I am mystified at how they got enough starting funds to obtain the infrastructure and fleets I see sitting around, example 5 Military labs, 15 Cobalt, 1 colony frig, easy access to another desert, etc. I have to assume they self fragged the extractors and gave up. All were TEC, each was stranded on own star system (although I saw a co-located AI fail this morning).

1.03 has AI giving up too easy IMO. Something is broken for sure.
Reply #10 from Sins Forums Top
I get to play a couple of hours most nights after the wife and kids are in bed, so the game I just setup should take me about a week. I'll download the patch after that since 1.04 should be that much closer to release.

Thanks for the input!
Reply #11 from Sins Forums Top
Just upgrade. Their aiming to release 1.04 by the end of next week anyway, you might as well experience 1.03 .
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where did you heard that?? i thought it was next month because of the demo
Reply #12 from Sins Forums Top
I am finding more and more colonies that die from stupid spending, or "saving" for a path/priority that will take 100 years, or some other brain dead reason that I can not cipher.I played vs 4 random tonight, easy/norm/hard/unfair, after about 2 hours with no contact, I log out and find all have basically flat line economies.

Follow up: I turned recording back on and looked around. All 4 failed to place a single metal extractor. I am mystified at how they got enough starting funds to obtain the infrastructure and fleets I see sitting around, example 5 Military labs, 15 Cobalt, 1 colony frig, easy access to another desert, etc. I have to assume they self fragged the extractors and gave up. All were TEC, each was stranded on own star system (although I saw a co-located AI fail this morning).1.03 has AI giving up too easy IMO. Something is broken for sure.
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I think I have found the issue. I made Tec capitol shipyard require Novalith, to investigate restricting Cap ships to endgame. It seems as if at least a couple of the AI builds have "get cap ship" firmly implanted as their highest starting priority, to the exclusion of even setting Extractors.

Devs, if this is actually the case, please consider changing this to allow a more natural progression of shipbuilding. I REALLY want cap ships to come after Cruisers, not before flak, range or siege frigatges... Early game REALLY plays better without caps IMO.

I am hoping I can place the Cap shipyard towards the end of the crew training line, it seems the most natural place for it. Hopefully this will not always result in dead AI colonies ???
Reply #13 from Sins Forums Top
download and install it

if you don't like it (my little gaming group didn't...we went back to 1.02 quickly because of the lack of resource asteroids and no option to change it like there was in 1.02), you can simply uninstall the game and re-install with 1.02 patch.

Maybe sounds like a hassle, but all 11 of us did it and it took all of about...9 minutes maybe ;)

You won't ever be able to decide if it's a good patch or not unless you give it a shot yourself (but I do suggest playing a few games on 1.02 first so you'll be able to tell the differences in 1.03)
Reply #14 from Sins Forums Top
Oh, I've played plenty on 1.02 and don't really have many of the issues that people complained about. As I wrote in another post...

Good work. Bravo! I don't have a single complaint about the game. I see plenty of people in the forums do, but not me.

AI spams siege frigates? I spam Cobalts and hunker down. If they bomb me out so be it. It's not the AIs fault, it's mine. I should have been better prepared.

AI gangs up on me? I fall back to a spot I've previously reinforced and plan a new strategy. I'm working on a game now against 4 Hard AIs and have had many moments where a revert to a saved game would help. But why? Isn't the give and take part of the fun?

AI runs when outnumbered? I pinch him with my backdoor fleet and make a sandwich out of him. Or I let him run. His day will come. And after I bomb out and Novalith his charred worlds he'll have nowhere to run.

Diplomacy sucks? I don't have a problem with it. I make friends. I lose friends. In the end, I will conquer all. If you are going to pay me to kill ships of my enemy, you are my friend. You want crystal and I can afford to lose it? Take it. You stand in my way. Die.

Pirates caught me with my pants down? Well, I should have known they'd get me. Some modest defenses and a fleet on standby will fend them off if I ever slip up and allow them to come after me (unless I want them to...).

The fact is, I have no problem with many of the things I read about in these forums. I think of them as challenges.
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So all 11 of you switched back to 1.02? See, I like 1.02 and look forward to some of the updates in 1.03 but I'm also leery. I guess I could easily enough wipe and reinstall if I had to. But I could also just wait for 1.04, yeah? I'm pretty sure that the updates that I'm looking forward to in 1.03 will still be there in 1.04.