recent combat

[Dilvish]

or some troops regen is attributed to garrison techs just like planet shields have.

That is already the case, as of 2 or 3 weeks ago; consult your Pedia. Garrison 4 provides (cumulative with that from Garr 2-3) regen of 6 troops per turn, plus the one standard makes 7 per turn. So very high levels can indeed be achieved.

[Vezzra]

Megalith + 10 to all colonies (not outposts) within 500 uu (new effect)

I'd prefer a number of jumps conditon here instead of linear distance. Maybe 3 jumps?

[Sloth]

Megalith + 10 to all colonies (not outposts) within 500 uu (new effect)

I'd prefer a number of jumps conditon here instead of linear distance. Maybe 3 jumps?

I'd be fine with a jump distance. 3 jumps sounds good (but i would also be ok with less).

[Vezzra]

3 jumps sounds good (but i would also be ok with less).

If you prefer, you can also go with 2, but I wouldn't go lower than that.

[Sloth]

The PR (https://github.com/freeorion/freeorion/pull/155) has been updated with the values discussed. The Megalith will grant +10 troops to all populated planets within two starlane jumps, but the supply bonus was reduced to +1 (from +2).

[Sloth]

Mat has brought to my attention, that Setinon and Exobots didn't receive any ground troops. These two cases aren't really related.

1. Exobots have Bad Ground Troops in their description, but didn't have a troop species trait in species.txt. Clearly a bug, easily fixed.

2. Setinon are currently the only species with No Ground Troops. I'm not sure whether they received any troops before my update (do you know Mat?), but regardless they shouldn't have less troops than outposts imho. I think they should be treated like the other species and receive the boni that are not affected by the other species traits (i.e. Planetary Garrison I + 3 and Megalith) meaning they can normaly reach 26 troops (and 36 with Megalith).

I've created a PR that fixes these two issues.

[Dilvish]

2. Setinon are currently the only species with No Ground Troops. I'm not sure whether they received any troops before my update

Setinon have never had any troops; they rely on their stealth to stay hidden (and apparently object to the whole idea of troops being stationed on their planet). I think they're fine as is, and prefer them that way, as an interesting change of pace.

[Sloth]

Setinon have never had any troops; they rely on their stealth to stay hidden (and apparently object to the whole idea of troops being stationed on their planet). I think they're fine as is, and prefer them that way, as an interesting change of pace.

Ok. No objection.

Closed my PR.

[MatGB]

2. Setinon are currently the only species with No Ground Troops. I'm not sure whether they received any troops before my update

Setinon have never had any troops; they rely on their stealth to stay hidden (and apparently object to the whole idea of troops being stationed on their planet). I think they're fine as is, and prefer them that way, as an interesting change of pace.

They never had troops as natives but used to get all the troop bonuses from techs. To be honest, I always viewed that as a minor bug and wanted to fix it as I basically agree, they're different and interesting as a result.

I would've been happy for them to get the 'fortification' bonuses but not the 'population' bonuses, but am equally happy for them to have none at all.

(at some point I want to look into giving them the equivalent of good/great pilots for Organic ships only as that'd fit their description, but it's a longer term thing)

[Dilvish]

I would've been happy for them to get the 'fortification' bonuses but not the 'population' bonuses, but am equally happy for them to have none at all.

Yeah, I guess I'm fine with it either of those ways also, though I think I do still have a slight preference for none at all. Sloth, I guess that means we're leaving it up to you to decide if you want to give them the fortification bonuses.

[Sloth]

I would've been happy for them to get the 'fortification' bonuses but not the 'population' bonuses, but am equally happy for them to have none at all.

Yeah, I guess I'm fine with it either of those ways also, though I think I do still have a slight preference for none at all. Sloth, I guess that means we're leaving it up to you to decide if you want to give them the fortification bonuses.

I leave it up to the next person who has a preference and wants to post here.

[Vezzra]

I would've been happy for them to get the 'fortification' bonuses but not the 'population' bonuses, but am equally happy for them to have none at all.

Yeah, I guess I'm fine with it either of those ways also, though I think I do still have a slight preference for none at all. Sloth, I guess that means we're leaving it up to you to decide if you want to give them the fortification bonuses.

I leave it up to the next person who has a preference and wants to post here.

Well, fine. Then I am going to decide

I'm basically fine with both options too, but my slight preference would be to give them the "fortification" boni.

[MatGB]

Some more feedback.

With 4 Garrison techs being so cheap and easy to research, you end up with massive troop numbers fairly early then it tails off.

I think if we're sticking at 4, then they should be made more expensive and/or take longer. Alternatively split up the two that give population based bonuses and the two that give fortification bonuses and add a few for the late game.

But definitely think it's too easy to get the early to mid game techs, and while this has the desired result of slowing things down they need to be balanced more with other tech gains.

[Vezzra]

Alternatively split up the two that give population based bonuses and the two that give fortification bonuses and add a few for the late game.

This. Definitely.

[Sloth]

The Garrison techs can also have some other prerequisites when we add some appropriate flavor:

The Garrison techs with flat boni can be called something like Autonomous Combat Devices and be dependent on Robotic or Computer techs.

The Garrison techs with population dependend boni can be something like hand guns or ground vessels which can depend on anything that sounds like physics or engineering (or even Psionics).