Explanation of the new pollution and gravity system with v51.2

[Bertiux]

In this post, we would like to explain the reasoning behind the pollution and gravity mechanics and rules that have been implemented with v51.2.

The main goal of these enhancements is to add depth to the game: they increase the relevance of the choices in the tech tree, they make the colonies management more interesting and last but not least, it increases the peculiarity of the races, making them more unique.

The food output of the planet’s soil is now affected proportionally by the level of pollution. Pollution is now also generated by population so the bigger the colony more pollution cleaning structures are necessary. The biome degradation is now an event that is triggered once pollution reaches 100%, this provides better feedback for the player.

If the user wants to rush production he will have to cope with food penalties. The only way to deal with pollution now is to slow down productivity (focusing on food or research) in your colony as we removed the ability to cleanup. In terms of gravity it depends a lot on the race the player chooses.

Gravity on the other hand is now closer to the original design in MOO2. Each race is adapted to the gravity of their home planet and have penalties on any other gravity. Low Gravity home planet is now a malus perk as they can only inhabit low gravity planets in the early game. This decision further differentiates races and opens up new types of custom races.
To compensate for this malus, we have improved the creative perk for the Psilons (they now boost 50% faster research). Also, in order to populate the galaxy with more varied planets for all races we added tiny planets to the galaxy generation.

The new gravity rules are more drastic, so players using LOW-G or HIGH-G races will have to look for planets that they can adapt to during the early stages of the game or rush the technology for controlling the gravity of their planets.

Feel free to leave your feedback about this, and any other modifications in the feedback section

[Revenger]

in the original MoO2 only the low gravity perk was a malus..
if u had choose high gravity perk it includes 2 not have malus on normal and low gravity worlds..

this even make sense because the body easier adjust 2 lower gravity than on higher, its a known fact, just watch the Astronauts comming back from Space missions

[Eupolemos]

That sounds like some pretty radical changes, looking forward to it. The added % to the creative perk research sounds brutal combined with having all techs, I'm curious to see how that plays out.

Thank you!

[sOme bOzo]

I was wondering why the Psylons seem to be fine on normal gravity worlds. Also it WAS to easy to clean up and then build, clean up then build. The original games were very balanced and challenging. I am also enjoying this version very much.

[Tuikkupankki.net]

It dsnt make any sense to choose the high gravity tolerance when you get negatives for normal and low gravity. If you are infact from a heavy gravity world you would infact be very strong and powerfull in normal grafity and superman in a low gravity world.

THIS is how it was in moo2, if you choose the heavy gravity you got no production minuses in low or normal.

[Doombringer]

New pollution seems fine.

I think low-grav may a bigger penalty than you (the devs) think it is...
(-3 --> might need to give more race points than this)

And since high grav gives a penatly on most planets now, why pay 4 points for it?

Also can you PLEASE fix trade goods.
In MoO2 they gave 50% of production, but 1 BC bought 1/2 to 1/4 production.
(new builds 1/4, if already 50%+ complete 1/2)
In this trade goods also gives 50% of production, but 1 BC --> 1/8 production! 2-4x worse! why?
And it has been like this for >6 months...

[Hollow Man]

So in my current game I have a couple of worlds, including my homeworld, that are now showing as max pollution, plus starvation, and biome degredation. I'm only at turn 113. Before the patch I recall everything being fine. Is this supposed to happen? Or is it some weirdness that happened because the saves aren't quite compatible, and I should start a new game?

[Doombringer]

New patch, new game usually :/
Finish old games before patching.

[Lord Bubba]

Well, all these improvements look good. However I would gladly "pay" for any new content right about now. :)

[The Konrad]

Originally posted by Doombringer:

New patch, new game usually :/
Finish old games before patching.

Steam is not very friendly to patch resistant players.

Anyway I actually enjoyed how the polution was handled before the patch.

Oh well, the closer it gets to the Original MoO2 the better.
I would love a game mode that is identically to its "spiritual" grandfather.
I still miss my feudal telepathic Elerians...

[jcarlosgonzalez]

It is very interesting,and logical while more challenging than the game include a penalty for excess production in terms of pollution, but it would be reasonable also that could "clean up not all the pollution," but if at least part of the pollution in the phases of initial game, even if more expensive (employ more workers to clean it, or paying money for clean.A greeting

[Hollow Man]

Originally posted by Konrad:

Originally posted by Doombringer:

New patch, new game usually :/
Finish old games before patching.

Steam is not very friendly to patch resistant players.

Yeah, I concur that not patching isn't usually a great idea with Steam.

I just thought I read somewhere that the new patch would work with old saves, it's just that some planets would have changes. Well yeah, I just didn't expect my pollution to go through the roof and the situation be unsalvageable. Right now it's at full pollution, I've got half a dozen turns before the planet type changes, and it says people are starving (even if I max out the people on food duty, it doesn't help). If the AI races' planets are as messed up as this, it might just be time to restart.

[tinig]

R U jokin' ? If you are creating this pollution rules you should at least add more buildings to deal with pollution and factories that produces less pollution ! Of course after this patch all my saves became unplayable cause even at turn 160 almost all of my planets degradated! Of course I still couldn't customise my own race because some perks missing ( even with lack of 2 points when customising). It seems I still playing Beta - you bring in new mechanics that TOTALLY changes mechanics of the game, btw intoducing it like some small patch. And the mechanics itself unbalanced. And when you have created Low-G and High-G depending races did you balanced planet generation? Tried to play 5 generated games for psilon and I couldn't find any appropriate colonisable planets ! Most planets with normal G and I still didn't see any big or huge planet near by with low-g and Ocean\Terran\Gaia type. And how do you want me to play?!

[KaiNoon]

This patch made all my savegames unplayable. MOO is a completely different game now. It is very easy to add such new mechanic as an advanced difficulty setting. This is not early access! I invested quite some time into my savegame and expect it to work when I load it the next day!

[tinig]

Originally posted by KaiNoon:

This patch made all my savegames unplayable. MOO is a completely different game now. It is very easy to add such new mechanic as an advanced difficulty setting. This is not early access! I invested quite some time into my savegame and expect it to work when I load it the next day!

Year, got the same bad feelings when saw pollution on allmost all my planets. Furthermore I played for psilon and planets suffered from normal G penalty

[Omnicron]

This is not an MMO. It's supposed to be a finished, released 4x strategy game. It should not need to be patched or have updates except for modding or DLC (meaning we have a choice whether to patch/mod it). Next time maybe make it so the patch doesn't affect saved games so people don't have to start all over again. If you do it too much (like, ever again, with something this extreme) people will stop playing it and they will not BUY dlc for it cause they will assume you're going to break their game in the future. Why invest all that time if you're just going to come back the next day and you have to dumpster your current game and start anew?