Messages

1

A Valley Without Wind 1 & 2 / Re: AVWW2 - Early impressions/feedback (now with more feedback and less derail!)

« on: January 02, 2013, 05:36:33 PM »

I completely disagree about the exploration without a map. I can't think of anything I've ever been more frustrated with in a game than trying to find my way around not not succeeding. When I get lost in a game, I just stop playing. I don't spend a lot of time trying to find my way out. I just move on to another game.

Demon/Dark Souls is not for you then, but that game was based around being Nintendo style hard and death-experimentation.  It also was level crafted for landmarking.

A similar mechanic in, say, Assassin's Creed wouldn't work without some serious level design reconsiderations.

EDIT: I should mention I have purposely NOT gone near the Beta yet, waiting to get a 'first feel' off a more streamlined product.  This disclaimer is added because I have absolutely no idea if no map is a good or a bad plan for this game in particular.

2

AI War / Re: Gravity Effects and Highvelocity targets?

« on: December 18, 2012, 12:06:49 AM »

I don't think any AI ships are affected by the grav well.

Now that I think about it, you're right, otherwise Counterstrikes would take a few years to actually get to the command stations.

3

AI War / Re: Gravity Effects and Highvelocity targets?

« on: December 17, 2012, 07:07:13 PM »

Blades being 'ammo', they are unaffected by the grav well (and are also not under player control).  They are affected by gravity affects (Grav Turrets, Guardians, MK III Riots) but not the grav well itself.

4

AI War / Re: Do resources/energy get more scarce at higher difficulty levels?

« on: December 14, 2012, 12:50:52 PM »

Add to that the SF/Strategic Reserve will increase in cap and when your main fleet assaults an SF defended point you're dealing with larger numbers, and you end up with another soft reduction in your M+C by Diff.

I'm not sure an SF intervention is survivable even on diff 7, usually the SF is more of a soft time limit.

I guess it depends on AIP but I've stuffed the SF on Diff 9 repeatedly recently.  The trick is to never let 'em get THAT large, and hit 'em often.

5

A Valley Without Wind 1 & 2 / Re: Valley 2 Enters Private Alpha -- First Alpha Screens And Video!

« on: December 14, 2012, 05:43:11 AM »

I keep green-screening the Youtube from Chris.  Anyone know offhand what codec I'm missing?

6

AI War / Re: Do resources/energy get more scarce at higher difficulty levels?

« on: December 14, 2012, 05:30:51 AM »

Short answer: No.  Longer Answer: Yes.

The problem comes in two forms (CPA + Wave), but similar in issue... Attacks on your defenses.  The higher the diff the more turretry/defensive units you need to expect to lose on a constant basis.  The hard values don't change, but the soft values due to expectation of losses definately reduce your expected per second M+C.  Energy is a different beast, it's an AIP balance point.

Add to that the SF/Strategic Reserve will increase in cap and when your main fleet assaults an SF defended point you're dealing with larger numbers, and you end up with another soft reduction in your M+C by Diff.

So, no, the numbers don't actually change.  What you can reasonably expect to do with said values is a different story.

7

AI War / Re: Is there a way to win this game?

« on: December 14, 2012, 05:26:29 AM »

I don't think core forcefields require supply.

They're usually FFIII's, which require supply, unless my memory has gone horribly wrong and a scout can make sure of that (or a savescum) just in case.

8

A Valley Without Wind 1 & 2 / Re: Interested in being a part of a private alpha for Valley 2? Read here.

« on: December 14, 2012, 05:25:00 AM »

We are just now sending out the alpha invites to the first group -- if you're not in the first group (I don't know who's in which group, honestly), please don't be offended.  We're trying to capture people's first impressions as the alpha matures, and we can't do that if we put everyone in on day one, as I noted above.

Chris, I wouldn't worry about that TOO much.  Some of us are waiting to be the first in the Beta.  At least one of us.

Most of us get it and most of us want to try to support you fellers as much as possible.  i know there's always that one dude, but, really, it's cool... At least I like to think I know most of the regulars to believe that...

9

AI War / Re: Is there a way to win this game?

« on: December 13, 2012, 07:37:11 PM »

Nuke the  homeworld to remove supply from the fortress and the  forcefields. Then faceplant the raid engine.   Survive that and you should be able to grind your way out.

10

AI War / Re: About the AI retreating on the attack

« on: December 12, 2012, 08:59:36 PM »

-As already reported elsewhere, sometimes the AI retreats way too early, as little as 2 seconds in some cases

Save submitted already.

-Some shiptypes take "worse odds" to trigger a retreat than other types. In particular, starships, bombers, and carriers are more likely to hang around even when everything else on the planet is trying to get out of there

True, but fleetships seem to be pretty consistent.  I wonder if it's just the starship level of ships.  The only truely 'overly flighty' ones I noticed were FF immune ones, but that may be due to setup.

-The retreat logic isn't consistent even within a ship type. Sometimes, some of the, say, fighters will try to retreat, while others will continue to seek out stuff to attack.

I'm 90% sure that's due to decision tree lag.

-Although the AI seems more likely to retreat to an allied (AI owned) planet, they will sometimes "retreat" to another hostile (human owned) planet. (IIRC, this one is intentional though)

I believe that's intentional in the 'retreat' logic, retreat in a few hundred ways in case one bottlenecks.

11

Off Topic / Re: GOG Sale

« on: December 12, 2012, 08:56:42 PM »

Bah, the populous: Beginnings seems to wipe out my desktop icons for no reason.  Really wierd.  That's okay, I really just wanted DK2, the others looked amusing.

12

After Action Reports / Re: Hello

« on: December 12, 2012, 02:16:41 PM »

Well, if you're a human, welcome to the forums   If you're an AI, I figure you'll fit in too.

Does not compute.

13

After Action Reports / Re: My latest attempt...

« on: December 12, 2012, 02:15:59 PM »

Now the bad news...
I only have 3000 K at the moment, with all my planets farmed. Having said that I have NO mk 2 ships except the ones provided by the ARS's. This is going to present a problem for the end game, when I face mk 5 ships. My adv. Factory is largely useless right now because I don't have anything mk 3 (except scouts).

So, what should I do? I could take more planets, but I would need like 4 or 5, which would add another 100 AIP, and probably aggravate the AI's badly. Knowledge raid? I could hit the neutered planets for that, but what side effects would I experience? How many planets should I raid for K?

What all do you have unlocked so far?  From what I saw, it was mostly turretry... which as you're seeing defends you well but is useless later.  Also, you need to take a planet on the way to the last AI HW anyway for another 3k because otherwise you're deepstriking.  Another 3-6k could be gained by Knowledge Hacking.

14

AI War Strategy Discussion / Re: Newb with some strategy issues...

« on: December 11, 2012, 06:22:23 PM »

A brief discussion of lingo and what can kill you:

SF: Special Forces.  Independent fleet that will defend CSGs and other 'important' items under the AI's control.  Can get pretty massive.

CPA: Cross Planet Attack.  I just rewrote the wiki page for these but basically a massive wave that's sent at you from existing forces + homeworld defense reserves.  wiki page here: http://www.arcengames.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=AI_War_-_Cross_Planet_Attacks

CBA/Border Aggression: This is from a planet overpopulating due to reinforcements.  Short version: A planet will max off at ~500 ships if you leave only the cmd center + wormhole guardposts, and at that level will never border aggression you.  This is called neutering.

Waves: Waves are spawned via warp gates on neighboring planets (initially) or far-off gates if there are no warp gates adjacent to your territory.  If you use a single whipping boy (removing all warp gates but one against your territory) then the AI will use larger waves by waiting longer to build the wave.  If you have multiple ingress points you have a *chance* at lower timed wave buildups.

Reserve Forces: Come out and smack you upside the head when you get near the AI HW.

Threatfleet: A fleet that is built from roaming threat after said threat has been idle for 30 minutes camping on your doorstep.  This threatfleet will hang around 3-4 planets out and will constantly assess if they can find a hole in your defenses, and then work their way to you.  Side note: Apparently multiple threat fleets are possible, if you cut them off in different clusters.

... think that covers the main ones.

[Edited for typo]

15

Off Topic / Re: Plague Inc - Mobile game

« on: December 11, 2012, 05:54:49 PM »

Qft, I've noticed Greenland being annoyingly resistant to getting ill.

It's too cold there.

Well, in some ways it's kinda right.  There's 54,000 ppl in all of that real estate (or so), and it's not like you're gettin' some nekkid petting in with random folks at negative 40 degrees, Cel OR Far. 

"So, whatta ya think of that chick?" "Eh, too much Michilin Man designerwear..."

Gotta say the game is an addictive little toy though.  I SUCK at it, but it's addictive.