Incline Remnants of the Precursors - Merry Christmas, bitches

[RayF]

Yeah, I found that. Nice. I put that somewhat vaguely I think. What I meant was a description of what the techs one trade does (and preferrably what tier they are). With nothing but the names to go by its sometimes hard to gauge what a good trade is or not (unless one is already familiar with the techs).

Unrelatedly, does anyone knowof a good online resource with the MoO techs? The wikis sem useless, and with several games sharing the smae name and how generic some of the techs are it can be a pain to find out what much of anything is :/

EDIT: Think I found a visual bug; in space combat with combat speed 2 if you are placed diagonally across an asteroid the opposite diagonal square shows blue, yet you can't track through the asteroid to reach it? Am I missing something?

Not really a bug. The blue squares are simply based on distance. What square you can go to is based on pathing, which is more computationally intensive. I don't want to do all of those calculations for the dozens(s) of square you may be able to path to.

 

[Infinitum]

Hmm. A random event saw a Klackon terrorist (hum..) kill the Mrrshan diplomat, and they've yet to appoint a new one some 60 odd years later. Is this normal?

 

[RayF]

Are you the Klackon? Are you at war with the Mrrshan?

 

[Infinitum]

Well, I did just win the game so I guess I was the Klackon Mighty score of 43 due to pretty much ending turn for the map painting part of the game. Glad to see the AI still cannot counter capital ships for the life of them (at least not on hard). Did see some functional ship designs, but most of them hinged on stacked lasers and couldn't get past shields + automated repairs.

Wasn't at War with the Mrrshan at the time of the assassination, they were suck on an arm in the spiral galaxy and stayed on 2 planets until I ate them lategame. They didn't declare war or anything, the ambassador button just stayed grayed out for the rest of the game.

Spiral Galaxies might be a bit busted btw, at least on the smaller settings. The aforementioned cats never got to build another colony ship, and the Darloks spawned opposite me in another arm and ere locked in by the humans the entire game. Only stumbled across them after I burned Earth. There never was a galactic council vote or anything.

I would write down my initial impressions but it's past 0130 AM and I've got work tomorrow. Actually, that is my initial impression. Nitpicks aside, it still has got.. it. Well done!

 

[Saerain]

The centuries have not been kind, huh?

 

[RayF]

I'm so happy about the reaction that diplomat gets. It's like I've pissed the cereal of hundreds of people I've never met.

Humans in ROTP are conniving and deceitful. An old harmless Pat is the perfect face for their empire.

 

[Saerain]

Hey, I'm impressed, really. A room full of monsters and it's the human from whom I recoil. Cycling through those images, it made my day.

 

[Infinitum]

Still having fun! Playing around with the governor mod atm. Some hickups, eg when you sign trade agreements and whatnot, but really there's no contest how much better the play experience becomes. Not seeing any reason why maximizing production before researching/construction shouldn't be the ai default since its what you want your colonies to be doing 90%+ of the time, with the remainder being ship and defense production (which is better suited for manual commands anyhow, although having a governor setting to produce warships for rich worlds would be nice). Transporting off surplus population is icing on the cake, but again such a mindless little optimization that I'm happy the game does it for me.

As for current annoyances, the tech menu (and tech presentation in general) remains opaque. At the very lest one should be able to inspect the currently known techs before deciding on trades and what to research next, and not being able to change research targets even before assigning any rp is.. odd. I know the original did it that way as well, doesn't make it any less bullshit. Also the current tab seup in the menu isn't doing it for me, way too much clicking on opposite ends of the screen to find out what techs are available, what they do, and assigning sliders.

I did find out how to cycle between planets though, so that's a plus (F2 and F3). Useful, especally since a planet with multiple fleets hovering can get nigh unselectable. Would also prefer it if the functionality was present on a more reachable set of buttons (eg spacebar) since I use it so often. Don't suppose you plan for keys to be rebindable?

Speaking of controls; it'd be nice if clicking the words of the rightmost column under "allocate spending" would increment the slider in discrete values. Eg if minimal spending on a ship/base would construct it in 5 years, it cycles to the minimum choosable production that would construct it in 4, 3, 2, 1 years. Once you get to the point of producing multiples of whatever I suppose it'd just increment the slider enough to see the next quantifaible difference until resetting. Similarily it could cycle between no ecology, "clean", and then the +x cloning for the ecology slider. Would save me a few clicks, eg in finding out how much surplus rp I can have whilst still having that ship in x years etc.

 

[Lagi]

its beautiful. Total masterpiece. I love the clean UI, this sweet icons of ships. The music just eat all batteries from my headset.
I like the System tab, it provide useful information in clean (little too aggressive) way.
when I hover over Eco slider the growth +x appear, can Growth be always display, so I dont have to hover over it? Or could there be just a little digit, and the "Growth +" string will only appear if you hover mouse over, if its esthetic thing?
Scrolling through planet could be done with arrow keys.

 

[rezaf]

Finally gave this a try, I kinda missed it on eastern.

Random impressions:
JRE? Ain't had you installed in the last decade (luckily, there's a non-installer version).

Wow, amazing achievement, this project.

Economy could maybe be more prominent on the main screen and is a tad opaque overall.

Lol, pausing autobattle will sometimes leave you in control of opponent vessels, and when I say vessels, this includes planets, which can then be moved around on the battle map.

Wtf is going on with siege sniping? I often lose planets I'm in the process of bombarding to races I'm not hostile towards (though without any actual pact, including non-agression), which will somehow invade without my forces noticing. Next turn, they'll complain about my fleet being there, and once my own invasion force arrives, it just disappears without notice.

Numbers in battles fly by a bit too fast, maybe.

Had only one soft crash, when setting up a game, an exception flew up, and though I could return to the main screen and start a new game, I got stuck in an eternal loading state afterwards.

Did I mention amazing achievement?

That's all for now.

 

[RayF]

Lol, pausing autobattle will sometimes leave you in control of opponent vessels, and when I say vessels, this includes planets, which can then be moved around on the battle map.

awesome, ty for pointing that out. Someone mentioned a colony moving but didn't explain how they caused it. Now I can fix it!

Wtf is going on with siege sniping? I often lose planets I'm in the process of bombarding to races I'm not hostile towards (though without any actual pact, including non-agression), which will somehow invade without my forces noticing. Next turn, they'll complain about my fleet being there, and once my own invasion force arrives, it just disappears without notice.

Your invading troops should only "disappear" if they are attempting to land on a system controlled by an empire that you have a pact or alliance with. That's to avoid accidental declarations of war.

Numbers in battles fly by a bit too fast, maybe.

They do intentionally fly by quickly when you are auto-resolving.

Had only one soft crash, when setting up a game, an exception flew up, and though I could return to the main screen and start a new game, I got stuck in an eternal loading state afterwards.

I'm still trying to determine the cause of that bug. I could simply trap for it and handle it gracefully, but I want to understand the root cause of it first. It's a pretty low-priority bug because, as you pointed out, it only occurs when attempting to start a game.

Did I mention amazing achievement?

Thanks! A lot of work has gone into it.

 

[rezaf]

Thanks for your respone Ray.
As for your replies.

awesome, ty for pointing that out. Someone mentioned a colony moving but didn't explain how they caused it. Now I can fix it!

You're welcome.

Your invading troops should only "disappear" if they are attempting to land on a system controlled by an empire that you have a pact or alliance with. That's to avoid accidental declarations of war.

How about making them head back to where they came from or something?
And I definately had no tready beyond a trade treaty, at least it said so on the diplomacy screen. Makes it all the more aggravating that they can snipe the planet from under the nose of my siege fleet...

They do intentionally fly by quickly when you are auto-resolving.

I was refering to normal gameplay, you can hardly see what happens, only if all damage is reflected you'll spot one of the many identical messages, but numbers and stuff are far too quick - at least on my system.

I'm still trying to determine the cause of that bug. I could simply trap for it and handle it gracefully, but I want to understand the root cause of it first. It's a pretty low-priority bug because, as you pointed out, it only occurs when attempting to start a game.

I think I only messed with the difficulty settings when it was thrown, but if you already know about it, I'm sure you'll get to the bottom of it in time.

Thanks! A lot of work has gone into it.

Can't be said enough. Amazing work on finishing this. You earned your place on the elite 0.05% of remake projects, I guess.

 

[RayF]

How about making them head back to where they came from or something?
And I definately had no tready beyond a trade treaty, at least it said so on the diplomacy screen. Makes it all the more aggravating that they can snipe the planet from under the nose of my siege fleet...

In that case, is it possible that the new colony had a defending fleet in orbit that shot down your transports as invaders?

 

[rezaf]

In that case, is it possible that the new colony had a defending fleet in orbit that shot down your transports as invaders?

Are you saying that we both share a treaty (which we don't), and it allows THEM to fly their invasion transports straight through my blockading fleet, waving happily, invading the planet from right under my nose, THEN fly in their own fleet (they haven't done that) which, still under that same nonexisting treaty, is ignoring (as in not attacking) my blockading fleet, but is allowed to and will shoot down my transports which were enroute to invade the planet? Is that really what's supposed to happen?

The Mrrshans still have three or four planets left, maybe you can replicate the scenario if I send you the savegame or something?
Cause this happening repeatedly kinda soured me on the game for a moment (I'll continue on next weekend, most likely).

But I DO hope you'll recognize this as a bug and fix it eventually.
IMO, in a non-pact situation, my blockading fleet should shoot down their transports. And if I foolishly move my fleet out of the way, my en-route transports should head back to where they came from. Or, at the VERY least, do a text prompt. I dunno, like "[x] million voices cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced."
Edit: Or you could just ask whether or not to invade. I mean, you can bombard the planet, so ...

Also, I'm not sure how it was in MOO, but it would be kinda neat to see the fleet approaching at least one turn early, so you could still reroute your own invasion transports, given hyperspace com. And finally, not sure if this is a Klackon thing or whatnot, but their planet was immediately at full capacity, even after fighting an invasion action. But given the benefit of doubt, the invasion ships with the forces waving at my blockade fleet could have been enough for that to happen.

 

[RayF]

Yeah, send me the save game. That's really the only way I'm going to be able to identify the problem and fix it. My email is rayfowler@fastmail.com

 

[RayF]

But I DO hope you'll recognize this as a bug and fix it eventually.

Welcome to eventually. This should be fixed in the 1.10 patch available now.

What was happening was that invading transports had to run the gauntlet against any fleets allied with the system they were invading. Which makes perfect sense. But in reality they need to run the gauntlet against any hostile orbiting fleet.

 

[rezaf]

Welcome to eventually. This should be fixed in the 1.10 patch available now.

What was happening was that invading transports had to run the gauntlet against any fleets allied with the system they were invading. Which makes perfect sense. But in reality they need to run the gauntlet against any hostile orbiting fleet.

Wow, talk about rapid development. Fantastic job, thanks a lot.

 

[passerby]

I'm so happy about the reaction that diplomat gets. It's like I've pissed the cereal of hundreds of people I've never met.

Humans in ROTP are conniving and deceitful. An old harmless Pat is the perfect face for their empire.

It may be a fitting character, but all the other races looks cute, I'd feel uncomfortable playing as her, probably would feel forced to replace the portrait.

Why do you hate Humans so much ? Make her at least a symphathetic chubby old lady, instead of a repulsive one. Just fix the face, her figure and general concept are cool.

 

[RayF]

It may be a fitting character, but all the other races looks cute, I'd feel uncomfortable playing as her, probably would feel forced to replace the portrait.

You're not playing her. She is the human diplomat. You are one of the three Triumvirates. You can see the other two Triumvirates, first-person, during the Galactic Council voting screen. They're not ugly, and you've got the best view in the house.

And what do you mean the other races are cute? Are you attracted to them? Do you imagine stroking those sexy sexy antennae on the Klackon?

Why do you hate Humans so much ?

Thanks for that. I'm going to post that on my refrigerator.

 

[RayF]

Wow, talk about rapid development. Fantastic job, thanks a lot.

Actually, thank you for reporting that bug.

 

[rezaf]

Ray, I'm afraid I'm still not sure this works 100% as intended.
New game with the most recent version. Still fairly low-tech.
Bulrathi planet under siege from one of my fleets.
Incoming reinforcements from the Bulrathi are enroute (despite being low-tech, I actually saw them being en route).
No Bulrathi warships around.
The Bulrathi planet has 1 remaining defender.
My invasion fleet is 20 troops strong.
The invasion commences.
The defending force is suddenly 10, I can only imagine the Bulrathi reinforcements landed without my siege fleet doing jack shit.

Of course, it COULD be that the Bulrathi have combat transports and that they sent a considerably larger force to begin with and 10 troops is what got through the blockade, but shouldn't there be some sort of player feedback about this happening, if it happened at all?
As it stands, could be legit, could be a bug, who can tell?

Edit: Yeah, I think somthing's definately still amiss. Just had a planet invaded despite a huge covering fleet. My fleet was attacked by a tiny attack force, firing missiles for a round or two before retreating.
Meanwhile, a 50 strength invasion fleet would just sail by and invade the planet...^

Edit2: Wait, at least the previous edit seems legit after all. The AI just sands batshit crazy amounts of invasion forces, and when only some of them get shot down, appearently you don't always get the alert next turn?
In any event, I just shot down 300 invading forces on another planet.

 

[rezaf]

As for the missing and too quick numbers on battles, I see that a lot of the numbers appear "behind" the actual graphics. Especially when attacking planets you can easily see it, as they are anchored at the very border of the map and you see notifications appear on the frame of the screen "out of bounds" the normal battlemap.
This makes them even easier to miss, but they are fast and fleeting to begin with, just having them floating there for half a second longer would do wonders.

When the AI offers trades, it would be neat if you could show the RP worth of your OWN commodity, not only that the AI is offering in exchange.

Very minor feature request: Wouldn't it be neat to have random options for stuff like galaxy shape when starting a game?

----------

Finally, a question to people still more versed in MoO than I am. I'd guess this is a problem inherited from the original game, but I've run into the same situation in several games now, the AI develops planetary shields I cannot penetrate. At first I thought bombs get through, but I've seen planets with a couple of missile bases shrug off the entire payload of at least 200 "units" of bombs (fusion bombs at the time) without a single care in the world. What's the right tool for this job?

 

[RayF]

Ray, I'm afraid I'm still not sure this works 100% as intended.
New game with the most recent version. Still fairly low-tech.
Bulrathi planet under siege from one of my fleets.
Incoming reinforcements from the Bulrathi are enroute (despite being low-tech, I actually saw them being en route).
No Bulrathi warships around.

Currently friendly transports don't run the gauntlet. This was altered a couple of patches ago to prevent the situation where friendly and enemy transports arrive at the same time.. the enemy transports capture the planet, and then the friendly transports recapture the planet in the same turn. The "fix" to this had the unfortunate and unintended effect of having the friendly transports avoid the gauntlet.

It was brought to my attention a few days ago and will be fixed in 1.11

 

[rezaf]

I'm afraid I ran into another bug.



Obviously a minor nuisance, but still...

 

[RayF]

I'm afraid I ran into another bug.



Obviously a minor nuisance, but still...

Did you capture that system from another empire?