Too much effort to please.

Stardock has always been excellent at fixing bugs that break the game and far too willing to "balance" the game to the whims of a faction that will never be satisfied.

IMHO every edition of GC has been okay as far as balance goes on the first day of release. Most of the balance tweaking has made the game at best no better and often worse than the original.

The tech bug is a case in point. The too powerful, toggle off, toggle on faction says slow tech is not slow enough so they tilt the game trying to please.

Give me a break, SD makes a game that an amoeba can win at the easisest level and only the top 5% can win at the hardest level but that's not good enough for the nut fringe. BTW, the nuts will always be the first to start a flame like this thread has been.

You're leaving out the unfortunate fact that game developers roll their eyes and giggle uncontrollably when you say things like "utilizing industry Agile dev principles", "weekly development velocity", and "agile-blend techniques", leaving them unable to maintain physical efficiency.

Dilbert strips float through their heads when they hear terms like "TDD", "CI", and "Scrum", blocking out all productive thoughts.

I know this because I am one, and I'm afraid my eyes rolled and I giggled quite a bit while reading the last bit of this thread.

I even had a vision of Dogbert in a funny hat.

Sure, it makes it hard to properly potentially evaluate our weekly development velocity, ... giggle... but that's a burden everyone just has to live with.

... Yeah. I know that post wasn't actually witty enough to be repeated twice.

Where the heck is the EDIT button when you need it?

Woo, all my qualms about how much this patch will actually do have been satisfied.

The only problem left with the game is coming up with some compromise code for the tech inflation. Definitely better without it at the moment though.

Not to worry. Tweaking the pomposity of that poster deserves repeating. BTW, I had no idea what that guy was talking about, what in heaven's name his stated profession is, or what any of his many acronyms stand for. Nevertheless, I still know self-aggrandizing BS when I smell it.

You know , from reading these posts you see a reflection on society . Most are grateful for the hard work and attention to detail that Stardock has given over the years . A few are polite but slightly impatient and to me this just show their love of the game. Then theres the one or two that if you gave them immortality and invunerability today , tomorrow they would scream about how bored they are and that YOU need to do something about this because its YOUR job to keep me happy. Grow up and learn to appreaciate an honest effort made by fellow human beings who do not need to listen to an ungrateful child.

p.s. Thank you Stardock for an excellent game.

Hey, I may actually buy TA now

Ok call me a computer neophite but what exactly is zoom to cursor ?

We can already scroll in and out using the mouse wheel is this different somehow?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Oooh, Zoom to Cursor and a tech bug fix?

If you guys were chicks I'd have to make love to you for this patch.

...come to think of it, where's Cari?

Going the other way, a protector (from Niven's Known Space - if you don't know what this is, ask KP when you see him) was effectively immune to boredom.

"I could sit here with my hands folded for the rest of eternity, if I had a reason." - Jack Brennan, AKA the BrennanMonster

@ Willy

I wiki'd Known Space and am curious. Would you recommend any of the many published in particular? I am looking for some space-set fiction atm.

@ ID

Regards meaning... aye it did... I just love the worm and you reminded me of him.

BoogieBac, I reckon you should at least leave the Mind Control Centre patch fix off the agenda for a couple more years yet. Gotta give the punters SOMETHING to gripe about!

Good to hear about the patch. Any ideas if this will affect current save games, or they should work okay? Takes me ages to get through a tiny map as it is! Life somehow manages to keep tapping me on the back with a million other things to do ... like knocking all the bricks off the house. Don't ask.

Actually, I for one DO like it... I have no problem with the way research works at the moment.

If the cost progression were removed again, I would propose raising the cost of high end weapons and defensive systems.

On the matter of high end weapons: IMHO the progression to the ultimate weapon type is too steep, meaning the improvement that Doom Ray, Black Hole Gun and Nightmare Torpedo are over their direct predecessors is a bit much. I'd like it better if they did less damage (and cost less too), so the weapon progression would be more natural.

One last thing: It would be kind of nice to have something to research even after the technology tree is all complete in a game without tech victory. That should be something like an infinite continuation of some tech branches, most notably miniaturization. Each step in the chain should give a constant further benefit over the last tech in the tree right now, but at an exponential cost increase (and it should be immune to creativity, untrade/-stealable). I hope this a realistic wish. BTW, the text in the miniaturization tech line is simply awesome. "In related news, stock in Hygerion fell by 25 points today" "Sometimes smaller is better. At least, that's what I keep getting told".