New version has the same old problems
Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2017 3:15 am
So about a year ago I posted up some comments and we had a lot of talk about it. There was some congenial sharing and some disagreements but I definitely thought I saw some interest to get some things done.
Here's the thread: http://www.freeorion.org/forum/viewtopi ... 28&t=10095
So when the new version came out I was curious about the changes.
Here's what I've taken away from the game after a half dozen full games and an assortment of short starts.
1) Far less ruins than before. In fact I've only heard about the opposition getting them, because I never have, unless you count those mostly useless scrying things. Personally, I avoid those because for all I know they work both directions. Waste of a perfectly good planet.
2) a bunch of new bombardment weapons I'll never use.
Yup, that's all I see as far as notable on game play. I'm sure there were lots of other changes but I see no real effect on gameplay.
Of course there are still the same complaints to be found.
1) AI has only one goal and that is to spam ships and mob you once it feels secure enough to overcome you, based on aggression level. And it's always those same asteroid ships.
2) Every silly useless special in the game gets given a guardian. Ruins I could definitely see deserving of a guardian, not that I've managed to actually find a useful ruin yet in this new version. Basically it has become more about road blocks to expansion than tangling with monsters.
3) Way to many empty systems, regardless of the settings you pick. Empty systems should be hyper rare when you pick high number of planets option. That so many of these empty systems are at critical junctions is only increases the irritation factor.
4) All those hulls I'll never bother with because it's always the same problem. The resistance to add more octagonal and circle slots to hulls. Good grief, you would think adding more internal slots to hulls cause developers some kind of physical pain. If one wanted to make a small scout that was fast, long range, stealthy, and with strong sensors then it won't be a small scout. It will have enough size and external armor/weapon slots to be a front line ship. And in addition to the dearth of internal slots, all these designs do little when the AI is just spamming rock ships with the most potent armor and weapon in their inventory. There is no opportunity for nuance in ships. The AI is playing Command and Conquer with you. There is no real opportunity to see if a single ship can be notably decisive on its own. It's all about ship stacks and who has the biggest stack. Who cares what some zombie organic super ship can potentially do? I need 30 robotic ships guarding that critical system right now or the AI is going to roll up the flank. Both robotic models and the titanic hull make up 90% of the ships I will build. Anything else is an early ship or I'm just piddling with oddities at the end of the game. Anything unique in one ship is just going to be stomped by a dozen or two rock ships.
4) The lag that ruins endgame every damn time. Again the AI spamming ships and giving each one a decision tree simply cannot be helping this problem.
5) Having to keep rerolling the game start. Just give it up already. One of the setup options should be "Rich Home System" with a yes or no. Give it an extra small planet that is of the same type as the species wants, a few other more difficult planets, a gas giant, and an asteroid belt. This is what we reroll constantly to get, so standing on some kind of principle is a waste of time. The switch in the setup screen means purists can take their chances.
6) The AI just colonizes without any regard to suitability. Once they get exobots then not even asteroid belts are safe. In effect they just spam for planets the same way they spam for ships. All the nuance of a brick.
Last time I was open for a good long chat about these problems.
This time I see the game take a couple steps in irrelevant directions and the core issues exactly the same. Sure, maybe a year is not long enough to address much but I've seen nothing of value gained for the time, some backsliding, and some useless fluff. Some things I brought up before would obviously be hard, but other would be too easy. How hard would adding internal ship slots be? Easy, unless there was a culture of resistance to the idea. The reroll problem shouldn't be especially difficult either. Reducing the number of empty systems wouldn't be hard. Neither would restricting asteroid ship technology from some AI races.
So this time, instead of a talk and listening to reasons, I'll just underline my criticism by suggesting you try harder to bust up this game monotony.
At some point someone has to be willing to tackle the CnC mentality of the AI. There's no use to putting if off because that and the game lag are at the core of the repetitiveness. Even CnC managed to get several AI personalities going, and that was 2 decades ago. The number of AI decisions per turn need to be vastly reduced too. For all those endless decisions they are extremely predictable. If they are almost always going to decide in a predictable way then just start skipping some of those decisions.
Here's the thread: http://www.freeorion.org/forum/viewtopi ... 28&t=10095
So when the new version came out I was curious about the changes.
Here's what I've taken away from the game after a half dozen full games and an assortment of short starts.
1) Far less ruins than before. In fact I've only heard about the opposition getting them, because I never have, unless you count those mostly useless scrying things. Personally, I avoid those because for all I know they work both directions. Waste of a perfectly good planet.
2) a bunch of new bombardment weapons I'll never use.
Yup, that's all I see as far as notable on game play. I'm sure there were lots of other changes but I see no real effect on gameplay.
Of course there are still the same complaints to be found.
1) AI has only one goal and that is to spam ships and mob you once it feels secure enough to overcome you, based on aggression level. And it's always those same asteroid ships.
2) Every silly useless special in the game gets given a guardian. Ruins I could definitely see deserving of a guardian, not that I've managed to actually find a useful ruin yet in this new version. Basically it has become more about road blocks to expansion than tangling with monsters.
3) Way to many empty systems, regardless of the settings you pick. Empty systems should be hyper rare when you pick high number of planets option. That so many of these empty systems are at critical junctions is only increases the irritation factor.
4) All those hulls I'll never bother with because it's always the same problem. The resistance to add more octagonal and circle slots to hulls. Good grief, you would think adding more internal slots to hulls cause developers some kind of physical pain. If one wanted to make a small scout that was fast, long range, stealthy, and with strong sensors then it won't be a small scout. It will have enough size and external armor/weapon slots to be a front line ship. And in addition to the dearth of internal slots, all these designs do little when the AI is just spamming rock ships with the most potent armor and weapon in their inventory. There is no opportunity for nuance in ships. The AI is playing Command and Conquer with you. There is no real opportunity to see if a single ship can be notably decisive on its own. It's all about ship stacks and who has the biggest stack. Who cares what some zombie organic super ship can potentially do? I need 30 robotic ships guarding that critical system right now or the AI is going to roll up the flank. Both robotic models and the titanic hull make up 90% of the ships I will build. Anything else is an early ship or I'm just piddling with oddities at the end of the game. Anything unique in one ship is just going to be stomped by a dozen or two rock ships.
4) The lag that ruins endgame every damn time. Again the AI spamming ships and giving each one a decision tree simply cannot be helping this problem.
5) Having to keep rerolling the game start. Just give it up already. One of the setup options should be "Rich Home System" with a yes or no. Give it an extra small planet that is of the same type as the species wants, a few other more difficult planets, a gas giant, and an asteroid belt. This is what we reroll constantly to get, so standing on some kind of principle is a waste of time. The switch in the setup screen means purists can take their chances.
6) The AI just colonizes without any regard to suitability. Once they get exobots then not even asteroid belts are safe. In effect they just spam for planets the same way they spam for ships. All the nuance of a brick.
Last time I was open for a good long chat about these problems.
This time I see the game take a couple steps in irrelevant directions and the core issues exactly the same. Sure, maybe a year is not long enough to address much but I've seen nothing of value gained for the time, some backsliding, and some useless fluff. Some things I brought up before would obviously be hard, but other would be too easy. How hard would adding internal ship slots be? Easy, unless there was a culture of resistance to the idea. The reroll problem shouldn't be especially difficult either. Reducing the number of empty systems wouldn't be hard. Neither would restricting asteroid ship technology from some AI races.
So this time, instead of a talk and listening to reasons, I'll just underline my criticism by suggesting you try harder to bust up this game monotony.
At some point someone has to be willing to tackle the CnC mentality of the AI. There's no use to putting if off because that and the game lag are at the core of the repetitiveness. Even CnC managed to get several AI personalities going, and that was 2 decades ago. The number of AI decisions per turn need to be vastly reduced too. For all those endless decisions they are extremely predictable. If they are almost always going to decide in a predictable way then just start skipping some of those decisions.