Extremely frustrated player feedback after playing 4.5

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spaceshep
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Extremely frustrated player feedback after playing 4.5

#1 Post by spaceshep »

I really love this game and feel that it could be so much more fun than it is. I find many things about it just rage inducing and basically I feel that the game is unplayable right now.

I understand that other try hards who are natural born expert geniuses want the maniacal AI to be even more difficult (or are just trolling) and don't seem to have any issues with the game, so don't worry, I know not everyone agrees with me.

I'm currently playing the latest version which I believe is 4.5 right now.

I made a similar thread in General discussion basically about begging for cheat codes or learning how to save edit.

I'm going to explain all the problems I have as a new player.

beginner baby poopypants AI completely whoops my butt and then laughs at me going "na na na na you can't play the game at all na na na have fun never enjoying this cool game" and I'm just steaming with hot steamy rage steaming out of my steamy hot ears and I'm just :x :oops: :( rage crying at how smug the cheating evil AI is. butthurt rating: Severe. I have been trolled. :(

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every single turn one or more random colony is destroyed for no reason. It just says "colony destroyed (this planet)". I'm constantly re-adding robot or meatbag colonies to the build list every single turn. the hilariously anger problem causing issue with this is that I can't build ships seperately from buildings and I'm never able to build enough ships because I'm always rebuilding colonies over and over again even late into this one game where the AI didn't consider me a big enough threat and kind of just left me alone for a while. (rare exception) and then came after me and killed me and I couldn't do a single thing about it.

I'm also experiencing extreme lag in a game with 8 beginner AI and 200 planets. just 100 turns in that game I'm dying of lag because every "turn" takes 10 minutes to complete, and then I'm unable to save because "some AI is still doing something and taking their turn" even though its in the middle of MY TURN.

I really like that science is seperate from building, but I'm absolutely shocked that I can't build ships seperately from buildings, as I'm never able to get any sort of solid position or advantage that allows me to defend myself.

I can't build enough ships to defend myself because they all take way too long to make.

I honestly couldn't see myself surviving very far into the game if I never have a free build list since my colonies mysteriously become destroyed with no explanation at all and everything I try to build just clogs up the build list for many turns, and many turns later the build list is even more clogged because everything broke again. It just doesn't stop and It makes me steam with frustration.
all the AI seem to magically just produce huge amounts of powerful and highly upgraded ships and advance their empire and spread to many many planets and fight wars with each other like it's no big deal while they attack me to death as if they don't even mind that another AI is whooping their butts, they can still rush me as I defend and they just wipe out all my ships.

as of right now I rage-deleted the game because I'm so upset.

this is basically my feedback.

p.s. I was so mad that I made a thread in general discussion begging for cheat codes or to help me learn how to edit my save files. I copy pasted some of this thread so I wouldn't have to retype and reexplain.
if you think you know reality, you are wrong. Look up the Mandela effect.

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The Silent One
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Re: Extremely frustrated player feedback after playing 4.5

#2 Post by The Silent One »

Thanks for your feedback, spaceshep. FreeOrion has a steep learning curve, but I'm sure you'll figure it out soon! If you need playing advice, just ask here. I understand the game is currently frustrating for you, but I think with that you also made the AI team a very nice compliment :wink:
every single turn one or more random colony is destroyed for no reason.
It could be that your enemies are using stealth technology. Try researching active radar, neutron scanner, sensors, or omni-scanner.
If I provided any images, code, scripts or other content here, it's released under GPL 2.0 and CC-BY-SA 3.0.

AndrewW
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Re: Extremely frustrated player feedback after playing 4.5

#3 Post by AndrewW »

Take a look at this thread for some ideas:

viewtopic.php?f=28&t=9954


It might be your colonies are dying off due to the race you are putting on them not being suitable for that planet type. If you right click on a planet you can pull up a list of of species that are suitable (or not suitable) for that type of environment, you can increase this with some technologies.

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MatGB
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Re: Extremely frustrated player feedback after playing 4.5

#4 Post by MatGB »

What Andrew said. Colonies shouldn't die for no reason, there must always be a reason. You may have found a bug, in which case it needs proper investigation, but if so it's a weird one.

So, we/you need to work out why your colonies are dying, once you've done that the rest should be easier.
Mat Bowles

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EricF
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Re: Extremely frustrated player feedback after playing 4.5

#5 Post by EricF »

I second CmdrKeen's "My personal strategy guide" given in the link above by AndrewW

I was up and whooping on the AI after only a couple of games.
I now consider this game to be too easy, but that's another story.
I've only lost games because of what I felt was just a bad starting location.
A bad starting location is easy to get depending on many factors so can't help you there.

As far as lag is concerned you might want to try the latest test build.
you'll have to go here https://sourceforge.net/projects/freeor ... FreeOrion/
where you got the game but you need to go into the 'Test' folder.
That will give you downloads to the latest test builds.
I've experienced the same kind of lag as you on a single core 3GHz machine, but the latest test builds have some significant improvements. You don't tell us the specs of your box so can only guess.
I also lowered the number of AI's to 5 and kept the number of stars at 150. That should also help a lot.

I also have never seen colonies 'just die'.
Can you tell us exactly what messages the game is giving when this happens?

And production is production. It is all in one pool to be used by everything. Build ships and it takes production points out for buildings and vice versa. There seems to be a maximum production limit that you can apply to any one thing being built tho.
I've found it advantageous sometimes to move buildings to the top of the queue and it doesn't seem to slow my production of ships, but I'm not sure of the actual game mechanic behind that.

Just my 2p from another relative newbie.

LGM-Doyle
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Re: Extremely frustrated player feedback after playing 4.5

#6 Post by LGM-Doyle »

spaceshep, thanks for the feedback.

Beginner experiences are valuable information.

freeorion needs to be better at managing the level of difficulty. Everyone starts as a beginner. Ideally, freeorion would ease players into all aspects of the 4X experience at the lower/lowest difficulty settings.

However, that is the possible future.

For now the forum is a friendly place. People here will offer help with any freeorion related questions.

So start a new game, post screen shots as you go along and ask questions.

Also, if you can play one of the weekly builds or from github. Many things have improved from a year ago.

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The Silent One
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Re: Extremely frustrated player feedback after playing 4.5

#7 Post by The Silent One »

Relatedly, it'd be awesome if we had some tutorial, I'd love to do one if there were the means.
If I provided any images, code, scripts or other content here, it's released under GPL 2.0 and CC-BY-SA 3.0.

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EricF
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Re: Extremely frustrated player feedback after playing 4.5

#8 Post by EricF »

every single turn one or more random colony is destroyed for no reason. It just says "colony destroyed (this planet)"
The more I think about this I'm pretty sure you must be colonizing planets that are not habitable.
Every species has different levels of habitability for each planet type called suitability.
If you right click on a planet in the right side panel a pop-up menu will open saying suitability.
If you click on that it will tell you how suitable this planet is for colonization for each species.
If the number is red then it is not habitable and the population will die off each turn till it reaches zero.
At which point I believe you will see the message you have reported, 'colony destroyed (this planet)'.
The number in green is the maximum population of that species.
These numbers can be increased with biological techs like subterranean habitation and others.

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Bromstarzan
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Re: Extremely frustrated player feedback after playing 4.5

#9 Post by Bromstarzan »

I can understand your frustration, the game is quite un-forgiving if you play around without a clear strategy. In order to deploy a successful strategy, one needs to understand the game mechanics very well. Hence, read the Pedia, ask questions here. Plenty of very helpful devs/players around the forum.

I suggest this:
1) follow the link above (good guide)
2) look for and read additional forum guides/experiences how you set up the first 15-20 research/build steps 3) Keep a close eye on the development graphs
4) Play first 2-3 games using no more than 100 systems and 1 AI at beginner level (this=no lag, more time to play)
5) check out my learning curve here: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=9972

Eventually you'll beat the AI and also understand why. It is a genuine feeling of satisfaction :mrgreen:
Good luck and hope to see you playing again.

[EDIT] I saw you just joined the forum; does that mean you've also just (yesterday) started playing?
One important note: It is essential that you spend your initial (~100) turns building up your infrastructure and research. Use scouts to decide what systems you really need and can claim (later) at lowest cost. Armed forces has to come later. Just keep a limited fleet to fend off intruders at key nodes. Depending on what type of galaxy type you're playing, it could be decisive in what nodes you control. [/EDIT]
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spaceshep
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Re: Extremely frustrated player feedback after playing 4.5

#10 Post by spaceshep »

It's true, it just says "colony destroyed" "system name" "planet name" and a little icon showing some danger or destruction cartoon.

it happens over and over every single turn and I'm constantly rebuilding and it never ends!

both exobot and "mushy people" colonies build in good zones would just suddenly die randomly all over the place.

I appreciate the guide but I really feel butthurt... I'm just extremely burnt out from my experience with the game and I'm just ready for fun. no more frustration. I made a thread asking about help finding ways to cheat or mod the save files.
if you think you know reality, you are wrong. Look up the Mandela effect.

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Bromstarzan
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Re: Extremely frustrated player feedback after playing 4.5

#11 Post by Bromstarzan »

Sounds like you don't have the tech to detect what's happening at your colonies.
Be sure to build up intelligence (scanning tech) and supply lanes so you don't leave colonies hanging in unknown "empty space" (has been said before).

I also experienced some "wierd" events in my first games, but it all became clear and logical as I learned the mechanics with the help of the forum.

My advice is, be patient, and read the forums, read som more, study the Pedia and read some more. :mrgreen:
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MatGB
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Re: Extremely frustrated player feedback after playing 4.5

#12 Post by MatGB »

There is the chance that it's way past turn 200, the Experimentors are loose and the colonies are getting eaten, but I'm fairly sure the Sitreps I added to tell players this was happening and give hints about how to stop it were in 0.4.5

But unless we know what is happening to the colonies we can't stop if or help you stop it, post a screenshot of the sitreps, a shot of the colonies before they die, anything that might help us help you.
Mat Bowles

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EricF
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Re: Extremely frustrated player feedback after playing 4.5

#13 Post by EricF »

Sounds like you don't have the tech to detect what's happening at your colonies.
Yup, you need at least Neutron Scanner to see a Black Kraken.
If you're sure the planets are suitable and they are still being destroyed I'd have to agree with Bromstarzan.
Probably Experimenter Monsters that you can't see.
Is there a way to turn Experimenters off?

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Vezzra
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Re: Extremely frustrated player feedback after playing 4.5

#14 Post by Vezzra »

The Silent One wrote:Relatedly, it'd be awesome if we had some tutorial, I'd love to do one if there were the means.
By that you mean proper interfaces built into the engine I assume? To a certain degree these means already exist, the Python turn events should go a long way to make tutorials possible. If it's just some functions missing from the interface (e.g. don't know if sitrep generation is possible via Python yet), they can probably easily added.

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Vezzra
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Re: Extremely frustrated player feedback after playing 4.5

#15 Post by Vezzra »

EricF wrote:Is there a way to turn Experimenters off?
IIRC they can only appear if you set monster frequency to medium or high. So setting this to low or none should prevent them from appearing. A monster frequency of medium or high is probably not advisable for beginners anyway.

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