Hostile Planet Takeover

[Gray Area]

Regarding stability: On game startup I'd consider going into the balance tab on the side and switching baseline planet stability to +5. This will make for a more forgiving game. The default of 0 is not necessarily best, as this area of the game is still being worked on. 0 gives a fairly unforgiving balance (but manageable). +5 leads to a reasonably freer game. To some degree its just a matter of preference.

Wobbly,

So far, I've made very minimal changes to the default settings of the game. I will, however, consider changing more of those default settings, once I think I have a basic understanding of what those settings actually do.

Thanks for your advice.

Gray Area

[wobbly]

The game I'm currently playing has been surprisingly free of monsters so far. And, that is totally atypical in my limited experience.

Is this the build that came out a couple of days ago? If so, something was changed and less monsters (at least close in) is to be expected.

[LienRag]

Whenever I want to start a new game, I simply add one (1) to whatever was the total number of systems in the previous game. With the latest version of FreeOrion, I'm only up to 151 Systems.

I personally play with monsters at low since the Monsters probability has been significantly raised up, but that's up to you (and as Wobbly said, he improved the universe generation to have less boxed-in starts, which has the result of having less monsters in the vicinity of the starting position).

You may want to try with Natives and Specials set to low to see if the game is more to your liking (I tried at "high" and didn't like it, it makes them much less special), but obviously that's also up to you.

The rest of the settings look fine to me (I tried different ones and they didn't really improve the game).

Augmenting the numbers of AI is not really useful as they mostly fight between themselves so they just make the endgame longer but not more challenging.

Also, I would advise to increment the number of systems by steps of 10, you won't see a difference with steps of 1 (and even with steps of 10, it will take numerous games to make a difference).

And wobbly's advice to use 5 baseline Stability is probably to heed, at least for a few games.

[Gray Area]

The game I'm currently playing has been surprisingly free of monsters so far. And, that is totally atypical in my limited experience.

Is this the build that came out a couple of days ago? If so, something was changed and less monsters (at least close in) is to be expected.

wobbly,

Yes, I'm playing with build 2022-07-26.9439c8d. And, I agree, I'm running into substantially fewer monsters throughout the game.

Gray Area

[Gray Area]

When starting a game, you can set the cost factors of technologies, buildings, ship hulls and ship parts. If you lower the default values, e.g. from 2.0 to 1.0 for techs, and from 1.0 to 0.5 on the other three, you'll get a faster game.

Oberlus,

I've changed very few default settings as of this posting. At this point in time I'm just trying to learn how to successfully play the game, and I'm not really worried about how many turns a game takes, or how fast it plays.

I'll, no doubt, start changing default settings sometime down the road, but I'm nowhere near ready to do that yet.

Thanks for the advice.

Gray Area

[Gray Area]

Fellow Players,

Thank you for all of the good advice I've received from you.

As of this posting, I have successfully used some of the following features:

1. Influence - I've figured out how to keep my total Influence positive.

2. Government Policy - Exobot Productivity - This is a policy I definitely like.

3. Government Policy - Propaganda Broadcasts - This seems to have a small, but positive effect.

I am, however, running into some problems with build 2022-07-26.9439c8d, as follows:

1. Some planets with "Special" items can not be taken. This is not universal, it appears to be "Special" item specific.

2. Some planets with foreign species can not be taken at all. They can be blockaded, but not invaded. The "choice box for invading" (I'll use that term, because I do not know the correct nomenclature for that type of control.) never appears, even though I had placed ample Troop Ships in the system.

3. Some planets with foreign species can be "temporarily" taken, but not held. After a few turns, the foreign species again takes over the planet, and locks me out of the Focus control. After this happen for the third time on one planet, I decided to bomb the species out of existence. However, to my complete surprise, I could not bomb them with Bio-Terminators. In this case, with more than ample Bombers and Troop Ships in the system, the "choice box for bombing," never appeared, even though the "choice box for invading" did.

4. On one planet that I had successfully taken, the foreign species simply slowly died off, even though I had done nothing specific to cause that to happen. All I had done was taken the planet, and changed the Focus from Research to Industry. I did not try to build anything on the planet. I merely left a couple of Attack Ships in orbit for my own convenience to manage my fleet.

I assume the problems I've been having are simply bugs that have not been worked out yet in a very complex game.

Again, thanks for all the help I have been give.

Gray Area

[Gray Area]

Whenever I want to start a new game, I simply add one (1) to whatever was the total number of systems in the previous game. With the latest version of FreeOrion, I'm only up to 151 Systems.

I personally play with monsters at low since the Monsters probability has been significantly raised up, but that's up to you (and as Wobbly said, he improved the universe generation to have less boxed-in starts, which has the result of having less monsters in the vicinity of the starting position).

You may want to try with Natives and Specials set to low to see if the game is more to your liking (I tried at "high" and didn't like it, it makes them much less special), but obviously that's also up to you.

The rest of the settings look fine to me (I tried different ones and they didn't really improve the game).

Augmenting the numbers of AI is not really useful as they mostly fight between themselves so they just make the endgame longer but not more challenging.

Also, I would advise to increment the number of systems by steps of 10, you won't see a difference with steps of 1 (and even with steps of 10, it will take numerous games to make a difference).

And wobbly's advice to use 5 baseline Stability is probably to heed, at least for a few games.

LienRag,

Thanks for the comments and advice.

Gray Area

[Daybreak]

The game I'm currently playing has been surprisingly free of monsters so far. And, that is totally atypical in my limited experience.

Is this the build that came out a couple of days ago? If so, something was changed and less monsters (at least close in) is to be expected.

wobbly,

Yes, I'm playing with build 2022-07-26.9439c8d. And, I agree, I'm running into substantially fewer monsters throughout the game.

Gray Area

Everyone - this does raise the question of whether the appearance of monsters close to any capital should also be tied in to the level of monsters chosen.

[Daybreak]

I am, however, running into some problems with build 2022-07-26.9439c8d, as follows:

1. Some planets with "Special" items can not be taken. This is not universal, it appears to be "Special" item specific.

You have to be more specfic -
Are you placing an outpost there, or trying to capture an empty planet with troops.
What is the special?
Some specials require Xenoarchaeology to be researched, and an Xenoresurrection Lab to be built
Is the planet kind of blurred, whch means you cant quite detect it - check the specials at the top of a planet to see what they mean - maybe one is a cloud and you cant see the planet to take it

2. Some planets with foreign species can not be taken at all. They can be blockaded, but not invaded. The "choice box for invading" (I'll use that term, because I do not know the correct nomenclature for that type of control.) never appears, even though I had placed ample Troop Ships in the system.

Again Please be specific - what is the species name
again Is the planet kind of blurred, whch means you cant quite detect it - check the specials at the top of a planet to see what they mean - maybe one is a cloud and you cant see the planet to take it, OR the species has a high level of stealth. Check the species attributes.

3. Some planets with foreign species can be "temporarily" taken, but not held. After a few turns, the foreign species again takes over the planet, and locks me out of the Focus control. After this happen for the third time on one planet, I decided to bomb the species out of existence. However, to my complete surprise, I could not bomb them with Bio-Terminators. In this case, with more than ample Bombers and Troop Ships in the system, the "choice box for bombing," never appeared, even though the "choice box for invading" did.

You have a Happiness/Stability problem - after taking a native species, try testing the focus by changing the focus, and then hovering over the happiness to see the different outcomes
If happiness goes negative then rebel troops will appear and if for too long you will lose control of the planet.

4. On one planet that I had successfully taken, the foreign species simply slowly died off, even though I had done nothing specific to cause that to happen. All I had done was taken the planet, and changed the Focus from Research to Industry. I did not try to build anything on the planet. I merely left a couple of Attack Ships in orbit for my own convenience to manage my fleet.

Please be more specific - what species

I assume the problems I've been having are simply bugs that have not been worked out yet in a very complex game.

Not in this case - most bugs are now rare, and hard to find.

[Oberlus]

1. Some planets with "Special" items can not be taken. This is not universal, it appears to be "Special" item specific.

2. Some planets with foreign species can not be taken at all. They can be blockaded, but not invaded. The "choice box for invading" (I'll use that term, because I do not know the correct nomenclature for that type of control.) never appears, even though I had placed ample Troop Ships in the system.

3. Some planets with foreign species can be "temporarily" taken, but not held. After a few turns, the foreign species again takes over the planet, and locks me out of the Focus control. After this happen for the third time on one planet, I decided to bomb the species out of existence. However, to my complete surprise, I could not bomb them with Bio-Terminators. In this case, with more than ample Bombers and Troop Ships in the system, the "choice box for bombing," never appeared, even though the "choice box for invading" did.

4. On one planet that I had successfully taken, the foreign species simply slowly died off, even though I had done nothing specific to cause that to happen. All I had done was taken the planet, and changed the Focus from Research to Industry. I did not try to build anything on the planet. I merely left a couple of Attack Ships in orbit for my own convenience to manage my fleet.

I assume the problems I've been having are simply bugs that have not been worked out yet in a very complex game.

Probably not bugs but lack of experience with the UI.

1. What special items? Could you tell us what it says when you hover over the special icon?

2. Planets with too high stealth maybe? What says when you hover over the planet?

3. Did you see the stability values of those planets? Did you get sitreps telling you there was ground battles in those planets?

4. That is weird. A save file and/or screenshots would be necessary.

[wobbly]

So a couple of guesses at some of these, though without a screenshot it is hard to tell.

You can't invade through a shield, did the planet have a shield value when you tried?
The most likely cause of a planet turning hostile is rebellion which can happen at negative stability
Population dying sounds like a species on a bad environment. Was it an AI's planet? Did the AI perhaps have better population techs then you? If you mouse over the population on a planet it will tell you the modifiers.

Anyway, just some guesses. Its easier to see if you provide a screenshot

[Gray Area]

Daybreak, Oberlus, and wobbly,

I did not save the games where I ran into some problems with build 2022-07-26.9439c8d, but I am in the process of recreating one of those games right now. This is going to take some time, so I ask all of you to be patient with me.

It is my intent to address each problem separately, starting with my Item # 2, as reposted below:

2. Some planets with foreign species can not be taken at all. They can be blockaded, but not invaded. The "choice box for invading" (I'll use that term, because I do not know the correct nomenclature for that type of control.) never appears, even though I had placed ample Troop Ships in the system.

Upon recreating this first part of the game, I found that I was easily able to invade the Derthrean on the planet Uruz I. This planet had no shields, or planetary defenses of any kind from the start, and I had no need to send any Attack Ships there to deal with them. The screenshot follows:

I apologize for calling this out as a possible game problem. I do not know why I, personally, had problems with this invasion earlier, as by now I know what needs to be done to successfully invade and take a planet. (I'm totally mystified about what I could have possibly done wrong on this one.)

In any case, I'm on to recreating another one of my "problems."

Gray Area

[Oberlus]

Hi Gray Area,
I'm glad you are solving some of your issues.
No need to attach screenshots when there is nothing to ask about them. But since we are here, let's go over some concepts that you probably already own:

That planet (owned by you) has some shields (the 42 next to bluish sphere), some anti-ship defenses (the 18 next to the red indescribable icon), some troops (9.24), etc.
Each of those icons will show extra information if you hover the mouse pointer over they, including the name of the meter.

When a planet is not visible, it is showed as somewhat grayed out, and it's not invadable until you can actually see it (again). It is necesary to increase Empire's Detection Strength (there are techs and a policy for that) or to reduce the stealth of the objects in that system (there is a building for that).

When a planet has shields, it is not invadable. You need warships with anti-planet weapons to remove shields (along with planetary defenses, the red icon).

[Gray Area]

Hi Gray Area,
I'm glad you are solving some of your issues.
No need to attach screenshots when there is nothing to ask about them. But since we are here, let's go over some concepts that you probably already own:

That planet (owned by you) has some shields (the 42 next to bluish sphere), some anti-ship defenses (the 18 next to the red indescribable icon), some troops (9.24), etc.
Each of those icons will show extra information if you hover the mouse pointer over they, including the name of the meter.

When a planet is not visible, it is showed as somewhat grayed out, and it's not invadable until you can actually see it (again). It is necesary to increase Empire's Detection Strength (there are techs and a policy for that) or to reduce the stealth of the objects in that system (there is a building for that).

When a planet has shields, it is not invadable. You need warships with anti-planet weapons to remove shields (along with planetary defenses, the red icon).

Oberlus,

Thanks for the advice.

Gray Area

[Gray Area]

Daybreak, Oberlus, and wobbly,

Moving on to my Item # 1, as reposted below:

1. Some planets with "Special" items can not be taken. This is not universal, it appears to be "Special" item specific.

I must apologize for calling this item out as a possible game problem too. I mistook High Cloud Cover for a "Special," as I haven't been utilizing Planetary Cloud Cover in most of my games.

After adding Active Radar to my Research Queue, I was able to colonize the planet.

I believe my basic problem is that I'm trying to play each game too fast. That is, I didn't take the time to go through the Pedia, etc. to properly investigate my situation before simply assuming it was a bug. My bad.

But, never fear, I'm pretty sure (Knowing that I've already been wrong twice.) that I've found an actual, genuine "bug." I'll explain, with screenshots, in a separate, new post.

Gray Area