I dunno... I've played a bit with the humies, it's kinda meh. Should I persevere? Will it get better?
Try different races, it's surprising how much of a difference it makes.
I was trying all different races and having only a slightly above-average time, then I started playing as Tarka of all things (who are supposed to be the average, middle-of-the-road species) and had a blast.
I dunno... I've played a bit with the humies, it's kinda meh. Should I persevere? Will it get better?
Try different races, it's surprising how much of a difference it makes.
I was trying all different races and having only a slightly above-average time, then I started playing as Tarka of all things (who are supposed to be the average, middle-of-the-road species) and had a blast.
I've only played as humans. It can be frustrating at times, but I like the spatial feeling that jump nodes provide - it gives it a feeling of strategy akin to Wing Commander or traditional 2-dimensional games. I might try a game w/only humans to see how it plays.
What I want is an Alpha Strike command section. Has a lot of medium mounts that can only be used on missiles/dumbfire racks, and causes the first salvo of missiles the ship fires from each weapon mount to do more damage and be unable to be shot down by point defense.
Might not be great in protracted fights, but I'd just love to see some ships cruise in and unleash 500 missiles and blow up multiple enemy ships in a fiery rain of glorious destruction.
So. Bought'd off Impulse. For only $8 I can't say no, those magnificent bastards.
My only question is does anyone know if the Impulse version plays nice with the steam overlay? Being able to use steam in-game would definitely be nice, but it's not worth twenty-two bucks.
I am starting to believe that mass drivers are really bad weapons, which is a problem since they seem to be the only weapons hivers have really good odds of getting.
The problem is accuracy, killing power and momentum. A cruiser fully kitted out with mass drivers usually misses half of its shots even with a fire control module, and worse, a fleet of cruisers will knock an enemy cruiser (and usually destroyers a well) out of range before they can manage to kill it. That coupled with their terrible point defence makes them rather inferior ships compared to their cost.
Last game I tried switching over to full phasers, and the effective firepower of my ships went through the roof. Suddenly being able to hit stuff made all the difference.
So, I picked this up over the weekend (at nine-ish dollars, why in the world not?) and am having a good time. I would be having a better time playing with some PA peoples. Hint hint. I figure games are probably best organized on the steam group, like we did with Sins of a Solar Empire.
This thread prompted me to reinstall... again, and I'm totally up for a multiplayer game. I tend to prefer normal settings, randoms and 13-17 stars per player.
kaorti on
0
AxenMy avatar is Excalibur.Yes, the sword.Registered Userregular
edited June 2009
So I see it is $30 on Steam for the game and both expansions. The game sounds interesting, but I hear it can be a bit hit and miss with people. However, Space Empires V is only $15. I am in the mood for a good 4x game.
I am having a hard time deciding between the two. I love MoO2, GalCiv 2, Sins, Civ IV, basically 4x games in general.
Man, I never ever thought the day would come that I would actually have to choose between two different 4x games.
Axen on
A Capellan's favorite sheath for any blade is your back.
Oh, prices are back up. You just missed awesome price.
In any case, best 4x game I've played since MoO2, with by far the best multiplayer and combat. Management options tend to focus on the larger picture, so they're not as detailed as other 4x games, but I like it that way.
God damn I am so glad I bought this for eight bucks. It's my first 4x game so it's a little intimidating, but I've been playing against the AI all weekend and it's been very engrossing.
New patch dropped, added some more functionality to the reports at least. Patch notes aren't out, apparently the lead developer's daughter is graduating so they're delayed. :P
God damn I am so glad I bought this for eight bucks. It's my first 4x game so it's a little intimidating, but I've been playing against the AI all weekend and it's been very engrossing.
Welcome to the wonderful world of interstellar conquest!
Man, I'm currently playing through a game with a friend of mine, and it's been easily the most brutal game ever. There are five empires struggling for dominance, one of each race except humans. My invincible Hiver empire had finally grown to be the strongest by far. I controlled most of the galaxy, except for some scraps along the edge that the other empires were all forced to fight over. When we attacked a planet, we could send swarms of cruisers, where everyone else relied on small groups of destroyers. Victory was assured.
I was mopping up the last of the aliens when word arrived of a strange ship approaching from the edge of the galaxy. "Whatever it is, it made a mistake coming towards my territory," I thought. Most of my fleets were away, subjugating the last resistance of the other races, but I was able to gather up a gigantic fleet to face the threat. Whatever it was, it couldn't hope to match the power of the Hiver empire.
A turn later, as the slaughtered dregs of my fleet limped away from the hole in space that used to be a planet, I revised my optimism. The System Killer effortlessly crushed any resistance, and proceeded to vaporize nearly every colony I had, including my homeworld.
In the power vacuum that followed the sudden annihilation of my empire, everyone stopped trying to take colonies from each other. If a planet was left defenseless, it was burned until it could no longer support life. The peaceful hegemony of the enlightened Hiver empire is no more. These are the twilight wars, and they will only end once every being in the galaxy is dead.
The berserkers in this game are fucking terrifying when they show up.
"Ha! I killed the little mothership, I can take out this big green thing!... Wait, it's shooting tons of discs at me. With EMP. Ah well I'll take them out, no doubt it has some kind of disintigrator beeOH MY GOD WHAT THE HELL IS IT DOING NOW"
The Cosmic Threats are actually damn fun. Though they can really SCREW YOU OVER, they add something akin to a story to a standard 4x game. In fact, most games can easily become an epic story. The story of the Fall of the Hivers above is a good example.
New expansion soon.
Oh, I'm trying the Progression War scenario. Read that one if you haven't. Basically, you start in a small galaxy and then after a set number of turns, your people LEAVE and go to a new galaxy and restart. You get to keep some of the techs you've researched. It sounds kinda cool. It's kind of a timelimited game, almost. I'm actually very interested in how it will play out.
Diplomacy is frustrating in this game. Whenever I make an NAP or Alliance with another AI player, they always end up hating me and turning on me for some reason even though I usually give them aid. To solve this I've basically decided to just be a race of Space Dicks and kill everyone I come into contact with.
This thread prompted me to reinstall... again, and I'm totally up for a multiplayer game. I tend to prefer normal settings, randoms and 13-17 stars per player.
So, I picked this up over the weekend (at nine-ish dollars, why in the world not?) and am having a good time. I would be having a better time playing with some PA peoples. Hint hint. I figure games are probably best organized on the steam group, like we did with Sins of a Solar Empire.
There has been significant interest in this so I shall be making the call. Saturday at 8pm GMT. That's 3pm EST. We will meet up in the steam group's chat. Hopefully we'll be able to gauge whether there's enough interest to make this a regular thing or not.
We probably won't be able to finish any game we start in a single sitting, so be prepared to continue the game on Sunday around the same time.
Noted! I fear that I will get shafted against human opponents as Hivers, but I am prepared to give it a shot. I will be there and ready to play!
If there are less than 20 stars per player, every gate you send out will need escorts. 4 armor, 1 gate, 1 tanker should do it early. Otherwise you will get first wave gates intercepted if you have a quick neighbor.
Darkchampion3d on
Our country is now taking so steady a course as to show by what road it will pass to destruction, to wit: by consolidation of power first, and then corruption, its necessary consequence --Thomas Jefferson
Noted! I fear that I will get shafted against human opponents as Hivers, but I am prepared to give it a shot. I will be there and ready to play!
Hivers have their strengths that you really have to play to in order to remain competitive. You can really shaft a human player if you take one of their vital node paths for example and camp it. Hivers are the absolute best defenders but humans are the best attackers early on. It can make for some interesting early skirmishes.
You should be fine and have enough warning even against humans though, as their starting speed is 4 and even the closest of two worlds are usually 5ish.
Yeah, but what I am worried about is that in every battle the opponent will try to bypass my fleet and take out the gate first thing. I guess it is a problem that can be worked around by having like 3+ backup gates in any fleet and around any colony that might see action though.
Yeah, but what I am worried about is that in every battle the opponent will try to bypass my fleet and take out the gate first thing. I guess it is a problem that can be worked around by having like 3+ backup gates in any fleet and around any colony that might see action though.
Standard practice on hiver border worlds in a MP game. You will want to get jammers and adv. sensors (especially jammers. they are cheap research) earlier than you would against the AI as well. Jammers give them less time to react to your fleets and should also be stationed at every gate so they can't see how your defenses are deployed. Force them to guess.
And if you are playing against an intercept happy Liir/Tarka/Morrigi player with adv. sensors stifling your growth, shotgun jammers with or without fleets mixed in.
T1, launch jammers in all different directions from the closest planet(s) to your target(s), along with any fleets you are using.
T2, retarget all of your jammers/fleets onto the destination worlds to create a big blob of crap that will tie up interceptors for a dozen turns. Each fleet has a unique position, and will have to be intercepted one at a time, effectively forcing them to engage you at planets or invest in a bunch of interceptor fleets. Very easy and cheap to do. I've done this before and gotten many people to concede uninhabited planets. They can't spend all their resources on containing you if they have other neighbors, and as long as you aren't too aggressive towards actual colonized worlds that they possess, many players make the mistake of not making a big enough effort to keep you caged. An uncontained hiver left too long = farcasters = game over.
Darkchampion3d on
Our country is now taking so steady a course as to show by what road it will pass to destruction, to wit: by consolidation of power first, and then corruption, its necessary consequence --Thomas Jefferson
Also: Playing as morrigi in Progression wars? Research FTL economics ASAP on the first map and mega-freighters at the first possible opprotunity. Whenever you're prepping your colony fleet for the next map, it should be about 1/3rd colonizers/biome colonizers, 1/3rd a group your freighters from the current map, and the rest a mix of scoutships. You can move freighters out of trade sectors by going to the trade view, clicking on the trade sector, then scrolling down.
If you're quick to explore and colonize 2-3 worlds fairly close together, the freighters will be enough to jumpstart your economy. In fact, I'd say this is probably essential, as early on your population won't grow very quickly and the morrigi have shitty tax income, so if you don't bring freighters you'll be able to do virtually nothing early on.
On gates: What you can do is keep some backup gates in the system, then when the enemy shows up have them slowboat out to a nearby world, which gets them safely out of harm's way. When the fight's over, have them turn around.
Also, everyone make sure you're patched up to the latest if you're wanting to play on Saturday. Used to get delays of 30 mins to an hour with Sins of a Solar Empire because people forgot to patch.
I remember one guy forgot to install the damn thing. That was a 1 hour wait for him to download it.
Edit: What, the new expansion is out this week? Damn, that complicates things. I planned to get it, but should we do this weekend with or without the expansion? Opinions guys? (just the opinions of the ones who intend to play, please)
I don't even play bugs on anything but huge MP games anymore I'm more of a Zuul player myself. Nothing like throwing out homeworld killing fleets by like turn 30.
Darkchampion3d on
Our country is now taking so steady a course as to show by what road it will pass to destruction, to wit: by consolidation of power first, and then corruption, its necessary consequence --Thomas Jefferson
You can get it directly from the publisher through GamersGate, I think. At least, I think that's the publisher's online presence.
Stupid question time: I have the impulse version. Would I be able to play this with people who have it on Steam or other sources? I assume so...but wanted to ask if anyone knew.
Yes, there's no reason why you wouldn't. The connection works through their own service, not one belonging to the distributor - you're not playing through steam or w/e, you're playing through Kerberos' service.
Also, everyone make sure you're patched up to the latest if you're wanting to play on Saturday. Used to get delays of 30 mins to an hour with Sins of a Solar Empire because people forgot to patch.
I remember one guy forgot to install the damn thing. That was a 1 hour wait for him to download it.
Edit: What, the new expansion is out this week? Damn, that complicates things. I planned to get it, but should we do this weekend with or without the expansion? Opinions guys? (just the opinions of the ones who intend to play, please)
I'm in for the game, noon PST right? I'm fine either with or without the new expansion, but I'd like to know which way we'll go since I'll have to delay installing ANY if we play without.
Posts
Try different races, it's surprising how much of a difference it makes.
I was trying all different races and having only a slightly above-average time, then I started playing as Tarka of all things (who are supposed to be the average, middle-of-the-road species) and had a blast.
I've only played as humans. It can be frustrating at times, but I like the spatial feeling that jump nodes provide - it gives it a feeling of strategy akin to Wing Commander or traditional 2-dimensional games. I might try a game w/only humans to see how it plays.
What I want is an Alpha Strike command section. Has a lot of medium mounts that can only be used on missiles/dumbfire racks, and causes the first salvo of missiles the ship fires from each weapon mount to do more damage and be unable to be shot down by point defense.
Might not be great in protracted fights, but I'd just love to see some ships cruise in and unleash 500 missiles and blow up multiple enemy ships in a fiery rain of glorious destruction.
I can't find a reason to not rebuy this game.
So I didn't try.
Bought (from Impulse).
And preordered the upcoming expansion too. All for less than 17.00.
My only question is does anyone know if the Impulse version plays nice with the steam overlay? Being able to use steam in-game would definitely be nice, but it's not worth twenty-two bucks.
The problem is accuracy, killing power and momentum. A cruiser fully kitted out with mass drivers usually misses half of its shots even with a fire control module, and worse, a fleet of cruisers will knock an enemy cruiser (and usually destroyers a well) out of range before they can manage to kill it. That coupled with their terrible point defence makes them rather inferior ships compared to their cost.
Last game I tried switching over to full phasers, and the effective firepower of my ships went through the roof. Suddenly being able to hit stuff made all the difference.
I prefer the big fuck off beam weapons when it comes to cruiser on cruiser action though. So pretty!
I am having a hard time deciding between the two. I love MoO2, GalCiv 2, Sins, Civ IV, basically 4x games in general.
Man, I never ever thought the day would come that I would actually have to choose between two different 4x games.
Just the base game.
In any case, best 4x game I've played since MoO2, with by far the best multiplayer and combat. Management options tend to focus on the larger picture, so they're not as detailed as other 4x games, but I like it that way.
Welcome to the wonderful world of interstellar conquest!
I was mopping up the last of the aliens when word arrived of a strange ship approaching from the edge of the galaxy. "Whatever it is, it made a mistake coming towards my territory," I thought. Most of my fleets were away, subjugating the last resistance of the other races, but I was able to gather up a gigantic fleet to face the threat. Whatever it was, it couldn't hope to match the power of the Hiver empire.
A turn later, as the slaughtered dregs of my fleet limped away from the hole in space that used to be a planet, I revised my optimism. The System Killer effortlessly crushed any resistance, and proceeded to vaporize nearly every colony I had, including my homeworld.
In the power vacuum that followed the sudden annihilation of my empire, everyone stopped trying to take colonies from each other. If a planet was left defenseless, it was burned until it could no longer support life. The peaceful hegemony of the enlightened Hiver empire is no more. These are the twilight wars, and they will only end once every being in the galaxy is dead.
Maybe I should check this out.
The berserkers in this game are fucking terrifying when they show up.
"Ha! I killed the little mothership, I can take out this big green thing!... Wait, it's shooting tons of discs at me. With EMP. Ah well I'll take them out, no doubt it has some kind of disintigrator beeOH MY GOD WHAT THE HELL IS IT DOING NOW"
30 seconds later: Colony is wiped out.
New expansion soon.
Oh, I'm trying the Progression War scenario. Read that one if you haven't. Basically, you start in a small galaxy and then after a set number of turns, your people LEAVE and go to a new galaxy and restart. You get to keep some of the techs you've researched. It sounds kinda cool. It's kind of a timelimited game, almost. I'm actually very interested in how it will play out.
There has been significant interest in this so I shall be making the call. Saturday at 8pm GMT. That's 3pm EST. We will meet up in the steam group's chat. Hopefully we'll be able to gauge whether there's enough interest to make this a regular thing or not.
We probably won't be able to finish any game we start in a single sitting, so be prepared to continue the game on Sunday around the same time.
If there are less than 20 stars per player, every gate you send out will need escorts. 4 armor, 1 gate, 1 tanker should do it early. Otherwise you will get first wave gates intercepted if you have a quick neighbor.
Hivers have their strengths that you really have to play to in order to remain competitive. You can really shaft a human player if you take one of their vital node paths for example and camp it. Hivers are the absolute best defenders but humans are the best attackers early on. It can make for some interesting early skirmishes.
You should be fine and have enough warning even against humans though, as their starting speed is 4 and even the closest of two worlds are usually 5ish.
Standard practice on hiver border worlds in a MP game. You will want to get jammers and adv. sensors (especially jammers. they are cheap research) earlier than you would against the AI as well. Jammers give them less time to react to your fleets and should also be stationed at every gate so they can't see how your defenses are deployed. Force them to guess.
And if you are playing against an intercept happy Liir/Tarka/Morrigi player with adv. sensors stifling your growth, shotgun jammers with or without fleets mixed in.
T1, launch jammers in all different directions from the closest planet(s) to your target(s), along with any fleets you are using.
T2, retarget all of your jammers/fleets onto the destination worlds to create a big blob of crap that will tie up interceptors for a dozen turns. Each fleet has a unique position, and will have to be intercepted one at a time, effectively forcing them to engage you at planets or invest in a bunch of interceptor fleets. Very easy and cheap to do. I've done this before and gotten many people to concede uninhabited planets. They can't spend all their resources on containing you if they have other neighbors, and as long as you aren't too aggressive towards actual colonized worlds that they possess, many players make the mistake of not making a big enough effort to keep you caged. An uncontained hiver left too long = farcasters = game over.
Also: Playing as morrigi in Progression wars? Research FTL economics ASAP on the first map and mega-freighters at the first possible opprotunity. Whenever you're prepping your colony fleet for the next map, it should be about 1/3rd colonizers/biome colonizers, 1/3rd a group your freighters from the current map, and the rest a mix of scoutships. You can move freighters out of trade sectors by going to the trade view, clicking on the trade sector, then scrolling down.
If you're quick to explore and colonize 2-3 worlds fairly close together, the freighters will be enough to jumpstart your economy. In fact, I'd say this is probably essential, as early on your population won't grow very quickly and the morrigi have shitty tax income, so if you don't bring freighters you'll be able to do virtually nothing early on.
On gates: What you can do is keep some backup gates in the system, then when the enemy shows up have them slowboat out to a nearby world, which gets them safely out of harm's way. When the fight's over, have them turn around.
I remember one guy forgot to install the damn thing. That was a 1 hour wait for him to download it.
Edit: What, the new expansion is out this week? Damn, that complicates things. I planned to get it, but should we do this weekend with or without the expansion? Opinions guys? (just the opinions of the ones who intend to play, please)
It's coming out tomorrow.
And yet no boxed copies for sale in the UK.
I don't even know if I can install the steam version over my non-steam copy of AMoC.
ed: Also I'm not sure they're putting out boxes for this game, period. It may just be online only.
You can get it directly from the publisher through GamersGate, I think. At least, I think that's the publisher's online presence.
Stupid question time: I have the impulse version. Would I be able to play this with people who have it on Steam or other sources? I assume so...but wanted to ask if anyone knew.
I'm in for the game, noon PST right? I'm fine either with or without the new expansion, but I'd like to know which way we'll go since I'll have to delay installing ANY if we play without.