pre-warp era

[redwitch]

I'd like to understand the basic concepts of the game. The pre-warp era you have to play at start, is this some kind of tutorial you have to play each game to learn how to manage a newly colonized planet? I suppose there are no AI opponents in this phase of the game? I wonder what's the point of this phase is in later games, as it should play more or less always the same, or do I miss anything? Thanks

Btw

is there a way to zoom out resp to change your view from the home planet to the system one?

[ToG]

Pre-Warp era just means you start on the planet without the ability to colonise other worlds. The AI start at the same time. You need to research to unlock warp technology so you can colonise other worlds and you need industry to grow your planet (and research)

[ttavoc]

The Devs meant that, in a later version, it would be possible to skip the pre-warp era. In that case your civilization is played by the AI in a fast forward mode until you can go to space. But I am not sure if I want this. When my planets lay under siege I want that they work at maximum efficiency. And I am quite sure that my unterstanding of "Maximum Efficiency" is different to that of the AI.

Finally: Your enemies start in Pre-Warp too. And to reach space at first is for sure not a disadvantage.

[Nyphur]

Hey redwitch,

As you guessed, the pre-warp era is partly a tutorial for how to build your new planets from scratch once you start colonising the galaxy. You're given an ideal homeworld and can experiment with setting it up efficiently. The AI are elsewhere in the galaxy and working on rebuilding their own civilisations, and they break the warp barrier at roughly the same time you do.

We're adding a new option to galaxy generation now called Empire Age that lets you skip to the start of the Space Colonisation or First Contact stages. As ttavoc explained, this would put the AI in control of your empire and fast-forward until that stage is reached, much like Master of Orion II does with its Advanced start option.

I'm sure many people will opt to skip the pre-warp era in subsequent playthroughs and get straight to the Space Colonisation gameplay, but many will prefer to micromanage their homeworld from the start to have full control. The AI can build up a well-rounded homeworld very competently, but players may be able to make a more efficient empire or might want to specialise their homeworld for manufacturing or science. As a micro-manager who is obsessed with efficiency, I'll probably opt to play through the pre-warp era most of the times I play.

Cheers,
-- Brendan, Lead Developer

[redwitch]

Hey Brendan, ToG and ttavoc

thank you very much for the clarification. I don't mind playing the pre-warp era as I like to micromanage too, I just wondered if this initial phase has any AI opponents at all. I thought that tha AI players might not come into play until you leave the pre-warp era.

[avnar]

Something is wrong. Renegades not starts in Pre Warp era or maybe even other AI races. After aproximetly 30-50 turns they have contacted me and when I have checked diplomacy, they already have technologies from next era. Roughly they were 10000 - 15000 research points above me (counting technologies which they could trade). My research in that moment was 50 points per round. So it was not possible for them to be so far ahead.

[avnar]

I have tried one more time. This time I took Renegades, Easy, Pre warp. Again in less than 100 turns Sauros find me. They have technology 18850 research points more than I had. I doesn't look right and easy.

[avnar]

Anybody has a problem like me or not? Is it planned? Any answer?

[Nyphur]

avnar eredeti hozzászólása:

Anybody has a problem like me or not? Is it planned? Any answer?

Hey Avnar,

Apologies for the delay in getting back to you. The other races are supposed to wait for you to reach the Space Exploration era before they launch into space, but there could be a bug causing them to sometimes ignore this. I'll take a look into this, and if there's a bug here it'll be fixed in the V1.0 update! In the mean time, starting the game using the Space Exploration era option definitely works as expected.

Just for reference, we have future plans to update the Pre-Warp era to give those who like to control their entire empire from the very start a little bit of extra control. Our current idea is to add a few challenges that the player can respond to in one of several ways, and each challenge unlocks a small bonus or unique technology for the rest of the game. This is on the feature list for the beta iteration phase after V1.0 release, which is almost ready.

Cheers,
-- Brendan, Lead Developer

[avnar]

Thanks for answer Nyphur. Update V1,0 is here now so i will try again. I have read it what you improve and I am realy impressed. Good luck