It would be insane for captured planets to be able to teleport enemy troops into orbital installations.

As for shields, it would make more sense for them to be part of the planet instead of installations out in orbit. Look at your ships, they have shields but don't have shield generator satellites orbiting around them.

Make shields an expensive research upgrade, as well as an expensive Planetary Upgrade that is only available to Level 3 planets. Game balance will be maintained because only the rare level 3 planets will have access to shields. Also, a big fleet in orbit will still sneak in enough hits to take down such a shielded planet.

Yep. The shields should be on the planet for the class three planets. I dont mind however seeing orbital shield generators for the lessor class planets. However I cant reconcile the justification for it.

Regarding orbital structures, once a planet is taken then should also have to be destroyed. This game is currently a genocidal game. So lets not loose site of that minor inconvenience.

The reason for class 3 planets having shield generators, and not lesser planets, could be tied to their advanced planetary infrastructure. Only the super developed worlds (lvl 3)can support the industry, infrastructure and power requirements of shielding an entire planet.

I have played for a while now and conqured my entire solar system. During the final elimination of one of the aliens, he offered a peace treaty which I ignored and then when he was wiped off the map, his hand was still outstretched and nothing would remove it. I also suffered a CTD when in the second planet capture in a second solar system. Played large map. I have run out of things to research. Hope there will be more in the next beta.

@1Spartan

You've hit the nail on the head. The genocidal factor is kind of what’s bothering me from a tactical perspective. Why destroy the entire (human, or otherwise) population, the orbital assets, and bomb the surface back to the stone age, when you can just invade and take over?

I can see the total destruction tactics between the TEC and Advent, based on the lore's explanation of complete cultural disgust between them and the likelyhood, therefore, of anything being left behind being boobytrapped to a fare-thee-well.

The Vasari, with their history of using other populations, would probably not have started out that way, but if they got the benefit of the TEC/Advent attitude towards each other, I think they would have learned quickly to respond in kind.

great counter-example: death star v 2.0

if I had it my way, every shield would only cover part of the planet, seeing as how its a huge area that it would make sense that a shield would need a different vantage in order to provide sufficient coverage.

then genocide with your SHIPS, dont make the game do it for you.

I find combat much more fufilling when being able to bomb the shit out of the planet doesnt make an instant victory over orbital assets.

incompatability of the various techs of the various races. thats my first guess.
also if I blow up DC, will all of the cities over all of the US blow up? i didnt think so.
satelite instalations dont just go up in flames because their command post is blown up, although it might make sense to have certain orbital thingymabobers have decreased capacity (loss of tracking systems etc.)

but if you want to blow up things on your own, thats your option. my orbital structures shouldnt blow up if I want them to keep on fighting.

they kicked the advent out with little reason, I dont see why they wouldn't kill them if they attacked.

@Schem - umm.. We [me, Marrx, SrG and Para] are on the same side as you on this issue brother.

yes... and...?

Your last post reads like you think we are against the position.

Oh, here is a suggestion that is so obvious, but that I don't actually recall anybody having mentioned it yet.

For skirmish and multiplayer, we should be able to use custom maps.

*If Ironclad doesn't do the phase lanes between stars and free movement within star systems, I want to be able to make my own free movement maps.

Also, there are some of us who are thinking about making maps that would contain a single super sized gravity well. Inside this single gravity well, we could make many separate star systems complete with planets and asteroids. This would be another way to make free movement mods without having to mess with phase lanes.

But for this to work, there are a 2 effects that need to be modable in the core game.

1. We need to be able to mod ships to be able to jump into Phase Space within gravity wells.

2. We need to be able to mod Phase Space Inhibitors so they have a adjustable spherical range instead of having a gravity well wide effect.


*Not critical, but being able to mod in sensor ranges would be a nice touch.

I posted in the technical feedback forum, but no response so far, so I thought I would ask here. I finished the game, I think. I conquered all the planets and all the aliens. But, the game just keeps on playing, no ending, no nothing. Nothing more to do. I this normal for the Beta? Or is something not right?

I got a victory screen with an option to continue when I won my first game if I remember correctly.

Thanks, 1Spartan. Must be something wrong with my game. I did not get a victory screen.

Well, it looks like the Phase Lane concept is here to stay. Nor does it look like it will be possible for modders to mod the Phase Lanes out of existence and form fully open connection maps.

I had wondered if it would instead be possible to make a single Huge gravity well that contains all the stars/planets/asteroids needed to make several entire star systems. This would be another way to get by the Phase Lane constraints. The problem here would be that ships would need to be able to use Phase Space travel within a single gravity well without Phase Lanes being present. Also, Phase Space Inhibitors would need to have a limited spherical effect instead of a gravity well wide effect.

Unfortunately, Yarlen has indicated that the above is not likely to be possible. Frankly, I am not surprised.

That really leaves one method left for those of us who want to play open connection (or semi open connection) maps. It might still be possible to make custom maps where all gravity wells are connected to all other gravity wells. I do hope we can make the phase lanes invisible though, or these maps will likely resemble spider webs to some extent.

Please Ironclad, do not remove this last open connection map option for us modders. Many of us want to make mods that use open connection or semi open connection maps.

Hmmm, here is some good news. Yarlen has pointed out that making Phase Lanes invisible is no problem at all. I should have paid more attention in the game options.

So, for making open connection or semi-open connection maps, there remains only one hurdle. We need to be able to make and use customized maps on which we can manually interconnect the gravity wells with phase lanes as we see fit. There is no way that Ironclad isn't already planning on allowing this. Gamers of this genre ALWAYS want to try out customized maps.

So, I guess herein ends the whole Phase Lanes versus Open Connection debate. The core game will be a slightly tweaked phase lane system, but modders will have a work around by using customized maps. Everybody wins!

Good Job Ironclad.

I wish they would just open up a download with the open system, at least for us to see.

Yeah me too! Come on guys give us some gravy!!!

I agree, would be nice to try out.

Sorry gang, but we're not backtracking the source code to do this. As we've stated several times before, the open system sucked. I really can't be any more plain than that.    I know you guys might have thought I was being funny when I equated it to "whack-a-mole," but I really wasn't kidding.

Bummer some people like the "whack-a-mole" effect in strategy games because it really tests your metal.

Seriously are you saying that providing us with a "modded" open map, since we cant do it ourselves yet, to test thing out on would require reengineering the game code? If that is so I'm shocked and amazed as that would likely mean modding would be highly crippled to say the least.

 One of the restrictions that the phase lane maps as currently implemented present is the inability to flank/bypass a strongpoint. Part of this is the way the maps are laid out at present - this IS Beta 1, after all. I would hope that some of the automated map design parameters (such as number &/or location [relative to starting position] of absolute chokepoints) would be adjusted as the difficulty levels grew higher. This could be a selection parameter [easy/hard/harder/Grand Central Station ] in addition to the map size. While I like (as much as the next guy) to have relatively safe rear areas, I see the need to be able to avoid 'static defense/frontal assualt' situations as a steady diet.

The concept of a totally open system means (to me) having to fortify nearly EVERYTHING of value in order to adequately protect my economic engine. It also means (to me) my upkeep % will always be at very high levels (or max - I assume that later on &/or in higher difficulty levels the max will go away). This would slow the game down significantly, or reduce it to "build a huge fleet and go marauding".

Since apparently, from Yarlen's comments, the bi-level (interstellar phase/interplanetary free) concept is also toast, how about the suggestion mentioned above?

As long as we can make custom maps with any phase lane connections we want in the final game release, I can wait.

Custom Phase Lane connections are 99% guaranteed in a future build. We already use this functionality on a regular basis for various purposes. Beta 1 just doesn't have all the content you would need to be able to mod it.