First Time Play-Through! (6281)

[likk9922]

Well, I downloaded this game a few days ago (Version 0.4.3, 6281) and it's been eating away at my free time! I have to say that even though it's definitely got some gaps, it feels like a game with a lot of character and is incredibly engaging.

I only had a couple of funky things happen in my latest playthrough, which had no opponents, natives set to high and about thirty stars. Obviously I was playing this to get a feel for how production works, what the tech tree is like, colonization and the other basics.

The first thing I felt is that I wish there were a little more planetary development early in the game. There are only a couple of early game, low cost buildings you can construct (like the starport/spaceyard thing). I'm sure as more facets of the game are implemented there will be more to build in the beginning, but I'd still like to feel like I'm really developing planets!

I like the tech tree quite a bit. It reminds me of GalCiv in a lot of ways. I'm not positive about this, but while research costs seem balanced early in the game, the later techs may become too cheap in general.

Is there a way to quickly construct the same building on multiple planets? I didn't see one, but that was one of my favorite features from Space Empires and would be incredibly useful.

I adore the way that natives work in this game. It's original, it's sleek and it makes a lot of sense. I like that it rewards pluralistic society and genuinely felt bad every time I evacuated a native planet to put a more useful species there...

Oddly, my game has entirely stopped generating specials and monsters. Dunno why and I'll reinstall, it just happened in between games. It's the strangest thing.

By the way, I see that you have put out a request for species and 'Pedia entries for extant species. I write for a living and would love to help out with that (or any higher-priority writing). I don't know code but I hope I can still be useful!

And thanks for releasing this. It's incredible that free stuff like this exists, and your time and effort really show. Cheers!

[pheonixstorm]

In FO the natives reminded me more of Master of Orion 3, which to some extent is what FO reminds me of anyway. I'm just hoping for *some* complexity later in the development cycle. For all its problems I really enjoyed MoO3 (when patched and modded) and hope FO does find use for a few nifty features such as migration (w/o evacuating planets then scrapping the building).

[em3]

The first thing I felt is that I wish there were a little more planetary development early in the game. There are only a couple of early game, low cost buildings you can construct (like the starport/spaceyard thing). I'm sure as more facets of the game are implemented there will be more to build in the beginning, but I'd still like to feel like I'm really developing planets!

One of the design choices mad for FreeOrion is that regular planet development is handled automatically, for example by increasing stats of planets after a technology is researched. Any buildings left are supposed to be rare and expensive facilities that can be used to specialize a planet - not "build everywhere" boosts. So if you're looking for a game that focuses on detailed development of colonies - you're looking at a wrong game.

[likk9922]

The first thing I felt is that I wish there were a little more planetary development early in the game. There are only a couple of early game, low cost buildings you can construct (like the starport/spaceyard thing). I'm sure as more facets of the game are implemented there will be more to build in the beginning, but I'd still like to feel like I'm really developing planets!

One of the design choices mad for FreeOrion is that regular planet development is handled automatically, for example by increasing stats of planets after a technology is researched. Any buildings left are supposed to be rare and expensive facilities that can be used to specialize a planet - not "build everywhere" boosts. So if you're looking for a game that focuses on detailed development of colonies - you're looking at a wrong game.

I understand that if I want to be min-maxing every colony I should pop out Endless Space or something. I don't expect that, and I like that a lot of planets retain their basic shape and systems retain their character. But I guess I wanted the specialization process to start a little earlier, so I wasn't just pumping out the various ships and expanding as fast as humanly possible.

I suppose when happiness and trade are implemented my wish will probably be granted by virtue of a need for at least a few new buildings anyways. Thanks for responding!

[eleazar]

I'm not positive about this, but while research costs seem balanced early in the game, the later techs may become too cheap in general.

It is possible. The front end of the game is much easier to balance because a) you need to play through it every time to test anything, and b) endgame varies from endgame much more than beginnings do. On the other hand you weren't at war with any empires, so you had the leisure to put a lot more effort into science than you might otherwise have had.

[phyvo]

Heyo, I just finished my first complete playthrough too after DLing it last week. I've had a little bit of 4X space experience but by far my favorite in the genre I ever played was Starbound 2 (a moddable late 90s game that in addition to what you'd expect had 2d space battles, ground combat, aerial bombardment, customizable ships, and a planet map with building placement that fit together simply but nicely).

This game is definitely rough in some areas. Stuff like planetary defense and troops seem like a formality compared to the ease of building fleets to overpower them, the only difficulty being the defensive decoy advantage. Ground troops only cost 3.12 PP anyway, what's the point? The combat, while incomplete, behaves really oddly and often feels like whoever wins receives no casualties whatsoever, though hopefully that will be fixed whenever you guys finish the 2.5d space combat. Until then most of the balance issues are pretty irrelevant.

The turn-based PP limits on ships are entirely moot since you can produce them all in parallel from anywhere you have the shipyards required, it's only the buildings themselves that hold you back. The one exception is colony ships because extra colony ships aren't useful and the limit severely dampens your ability to expand. Militarily though it makes almost no difference.

Overall it's a pretty interesting game but honestly it's hard to judge without your planned combat engine. In it's current form it feels just a little shallow. IDK, this is my 2 cents on 0.4.3 (can't find the four extra version numbers or w/e those are).

[AndrewW]

Overall it's a pretty interesting game but honestly it's hard to judge without your planned combat engine. In it's current form it feels just a little shallow. IDK, this is my 2 cents on 0.4.3 (can't find the four extra version numbers or w/e those are).

Should be in the lower right corner [SVN ????].

[phyvo]

Ah, it was 6281.