Shadow Empire

[FarAway Sooner]

I thought I had downloaded that mod and was playing with them, but apparently not, after looking at the "before and after" pictures.  Ah well, I played one more scenario, lucked into a bunch of talented characters at the start, and started out adjacent to 3 different minors (all of whom I've now occupied).  I have such a huge lead that, while I could go ahead and goatstomp the rest of the world, I'm not sure I really need to.

Best choice I ever made was spending my first Fate point getting an AI Sentinel Walker who proved instrumental in bashing my way into an adjacent minor's capital sometime around Turn 12.  The two other GR infantry I found in the first 20 turns of the game also helped...   

[jamus34]

Has no one picked up the DLC and have any comments yet?

[W8taminute]

Has no one picked up the DLC and have any comments yet?

I'm also curious to see what this DLC brings to the table. 

[-budd-]

Picked it up on release, but haven't put a lot of time into it yet. Vic's been sending out beta patches the last few days so I have been restarting generating new planets with the DLC. The 2 main highlights are the new planet types and the Maritime Trade Houses (MTH). No on map navel units for now.

7 new planet types. Various water type worlds.


MTH Concept



Turn 4 of my current start

[solops]

Been playing around with the game. Note that the DLC only works with the new world's that come with it, not with any of the old worlds from the base game.

[W8taminute]

Been playing around with the game. Note that the DLC only works with the new world's that come with it, not with any of the old worlds from the base game.

Interesting. 

[Sparhawk]

Initial thoughts on Major Update-v1.25

This came out yesterday and I've got a few hours into it by now. I always start with normal difficulty, early tech, one province, militia, and no extra directors. That being said, there are instances where I get rolled over right out the gate. I had a better start than that. This time I had a scene where I was surrounded on all sides and was battling for dear life. If I've got enough breathing room to do that I can usually claw my way into a spot where I develop my little nation for a bit. I ran into some trouble.

There are more techs. In fact all I can really comment on is how not having more tech researched right off the bat is a real challenge. You have to research ammunition factories now and you consume radically more ammo. I'm at turn 50 and spent most of my industrial points on making ammunition the old fashioned way through the workshop. I've finally got an ammunition factory built. By the time I had ammunition factory discovered and researched I was spending all my industrial points on ammo. In the mean time I only had one level of bureaucrat, truck station, solar, scavenger, industry, and a couple metal mines. An ammunition factory pumps out ammo rather fast fortunately. After a couple turns I had over 3,000 ammo. I've finally got the hordes at bay, got some ammo coming in, and can focus on developing my city and expanding.

So, with that knowledge, I would definitely prioritize discovering and researching ammunition factory over other previous outset priorities. Energy seems to be more choked now as well. You can build a couple different beginner power plants depending on if a forest or ruins are near the city. They will potentially help with beginning power needs. Now on to discovering more challenges.

[Tripoli]

Initial thoughts on Major Update-v1.25

...

There are more techs. In fact all I can really comment on is how not having more tech researched right off the bat is a real challenge. You have to research ammunition factories now and you consume radically more ammo. I'm at turn 50 and spent most of my industrial points on making ammunition the old fashioned way through the workshop. I've finally got an ammunition factory built. By the time I had ammunition factory discovered and researched I was spending all my industrial points on ammo. In the mean time I only had one level of bureaucrat, truck station, solar, scavenger, industry, and a couple metal mines. An ammunition factory pumps out ammo rather fast fortunately. After a couple turns I had over 3,000 ammo. I've finally got the hordes at bay, got some ammo coming in, and can focus on developing my city and expanding.

So, with that knowledge, I would definitely prioritize discovering and researching ammunition factory over other previous outset priorities. Energy seems to be more choked now as well. You can build a couple different beginner power plants depending on if a forest or ruins are near the city. They will potentially help with beginning power needs. Now on to discovering more challenges.

Shades of the current conflict in the Ukraine?  Interesting how some of the lessons learned from this conflict may be starting to be applied in gaming (and real world planning). 

[88mmkwk]

Just went and took a peek at the detailed update document at https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WBBPZEg_vEy9bvknOq4GDlWC-iXGWvl2hsAKU-LawxM/edit?pli=1

TWENTY TWO pages of updates!  Detail such as updated water salinity calculation adjusted by amount of mountainous terrain.  Wow.  I have always had great respect for Vic's update to his games, but to get 22 pages of updates without requiring purchase of a DLC is amazing (you hearin' me Stellaris??!!).  Props to VR Designs for an amazing game and support model...

[Geezer]

Another game I need to get back to. 

[bobarossa]

Ok, saw a game mechanic that I've never encountered before.  I had started the game as democratic but circumstances (lack of boosters for dem) caused my Mind value to get over 40 points higher than Dem.  Now I have a faction (that favors Mind) requesting that the vote be removed from the various classes of voters (workers, population, soldiers).  Mind prefers that only leaders have voting rights.  If I agree to remove voting rights, that class takes a major hit to its happiness (40 points!).  If I veto the suggestion the offended faction (and its leaders) takes a huge hit in relations (up to 45 points!).

I turned down one attempt and they made another attempt on a different class of voter.  I can't take multiple hits to leaders relationship of that size.  I also hate to think about the major hits to productivity, morale, etc.  I'm afraid a revolution may be in the making and my country will be the loser.

Have any of you players (I'm looking at you solops) encountered this before?

[joram]

I'm working through that right now myself though in my case, accepting the offer doesn't seem to have detractors.  I just have been choosing to decline and managing happiness through cabinet retreats and war games. I don't actually know if I accept it if I will be in a better or worse situation.

[solops]

Ok, saw a game mechanic that I've never encountered before.  I had started the game as democratic but circumstances (lack of boosters for dem) caused my Mind value to get over 40 points higher than Dem.  Now I have a faction (that favors Mind) requesting that the vote be removed from the various classes of voters (workers, population, soldiers).  Mind prefers that only leaders have voting rights.  If I agree to remove voting rights, that class takes a major hit to its happiness (40 points!).  If I veto the suggestion the offended faction (and its leaders) takes a huge hit in relations (up to 45 points!).

I turned down one attempt and they made another attempt on a different class of voter.  I can't take multiple hits to leaders relationship of that size.  I also hate to think about the major hits to productivity, morale, etc.  I'm afraid a revolution may be in the making and my country will be the loser.

Have any of you players (I'm looking at you solops) encountered this before?

Yes! I see this often. I go with what seems to do the least damage to my leaders' loyalty and then deal with populace unrest using troops in the streets as the cost of doing business. Even my democracies are pretty iron fisted. It is not always optimal, but I muddle through.

[solops]

Have never had a revolution, but some cities have had really BIG productivity hits that took a looong time to recover from.

I do not tolerate opposition to my iron-fisted but compassionate and loving rule. I often find it necessary to forcibly retire Inconvenient minions. Sad. Very sad.Their families often get a fruit basket.

[Sparhawk]

I typically favor Mind, Enforcement, and Democracy so see the request to change voting based on class every playthrough. I've found they continue to request this if you refuse so just accept. With my priority focuses I don't seem to take any negative hits by accepting.