Dumb disasters killing the game early on

[Muzolf]

Okay, i have to ask at this point, is there some pre-set disaster setup for the homeworld? Since the last patch, every single game, some dumb disaster happens that essentially makes the game end. I am playing the Mrrshan, with the Arid homeworld, they allready have a handicap for early expansion, but its okay, part of the flavor for them.

Unfortunetly, neary every game i play, early on the homeworld gets some disaster. Earthqake kills half the population (Wow that is some earthqake) and destroys buildings. Industrial accident making sure i wont be producing anything for a while, plague, or my favorite, downgrading mineral classification.

And this is usually right after i build the first colony ship. Meaning, now i have two undeveloped colonies, and a homeworld that needs to be rebuilt. Most of the time the other races are allready ahead of me in terms of colonies, so there is no hope of ever catching up.


I know i could disable events, but i don't want to. Its part of the experiece. What should not be a part of the experience, is having to restart again, because i just wasted my time exploring, and getting into the game, because a "random" event set me back in the critical early stage enough to make sure a defeat is all but assured.

[Infinite Probability]

You live and you die, the first three games I played, I got a plague, earthquake, and earthquake to hit my homework. The earthquakes hurt BAD, in any stage. Effectively destroying that planets ability to produce anything.

The current game on huge galaxy, I got a good benefit of increasing my mineral output to rich, which was nice. Then shortly after I got a plague. Plagues are not that bad though, just put all your pop into food and research.

[seabo_76]

Just wait until your entire population goes stupid and Research is cut by 50%.
Now that's a game changer....

[frdnwsm]

It's just pure bad luck with your RNG. I have occasionally had a disaster, but it's pretty rare in my experience. In the last 20 games or so, I have had one earthquake, one plague, and one threatened supernova. I stopped the plague and the supernova by dumping everything into research. The quake wiped out half a planet, and was probably the worst in terms of long term effects, but I recouped all the losses in about 20 turns.

[FourteenFour]

do earthquakes still destroy starbases? however the rotten one is where the pollution goes to max. ohmy

[Muzolf]

Well, last time i got lucky, the event i got was plague, wich can be fixed in a few turns.

But seriously, its really just me being unlucky? So far, out of 6 games, i got an early disaster for the homewrold. Every.. single... time.

[Doombringer]

I turn events off every time ;)

[frdnwsm]

Originally posted by Muzolf:

Well, last time i got lucky, the event i got was plague, wich can be fixed in a few turns.

But seriously, its really just me being unlucky? So far, out of 6 games, i got an early disaster for the homewrold. Every.. single... time.

Oh! You bought the cursed version of the game. Well, that explains it. It's a Special Edition for those who want an extra bit of challenge.

[Davor]

I get them sometime like earthquakes or what not, but never in the begining of the game. I guess I am lucky I get them mid game. I get some good random events in the begining of the game.

I wonder if it is all seed and or map size related.

[Mituna]

Looking at the files, it seems that random events follow a more-or-less predictable schedule, with a 66% of the event being good every time it is rolled. The problem is that some of the really bad events can happen early on if the roll goes the other way, especially if you're starting from pre-warp and only have your homeworld and (maybe) one other planet by the time events start happening.

Also, the seed for the RNG that rolls events is determined at game start and doesn't seem to be affected by anything, so even if you save every turn and try to do things differently you usually can't do much about the event. I don't particularly like that system (especially since it seems most events only happen to players), so I have made 2 mods to disable bad events if they are ruining your game:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=795189425
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=795190759

The first one just stops bad events from happening (meaning nothing happens when a bad event would have otherwise happened), while the second forces them to be good events instead (can't change the RNG, but can change what it rolls against - 100% chance of good events instead of 66%).

Both of these mods can be inserted into an existing game with no consequences - just ignore the error message and load anyway (but still backup your saves just in case). I hope this helps!

[frdnwsm]

Bad events do happen to the AI. I have seen two games where a race failed to stop a supernove, and the entire system was destroyed. I think I also recall an instamce of plague striking one.

There may be more random events that affect them. Hard to tell, since the only ones I would know about would be those announced over the GNN.

[Muzolf]

Hmm, me starting from pre-warp and the game not geared for that seems to explain a lot. Actually, it explains why pirates seem so overpowered, that i felt the need to explore only with frigates at least.

[Zhivago]

I shut off the events as earthquakes always seemed to be centered on my capital. Really, the one I hated the most was when the resource richness of my homeworld was downgraded. Just shut them off.

[frdnwsm]

Originally posted by Muzolf:

Hmm, me starting from pre-warp and the game not geared for that seems to explain a lot. Actually, it explains why pirates seem so overpowered, that i felt the need to explore only with frigates at least.

Starting from pre-warp is a seriously bad idea. It takes forever just to get the tech needed to start actually doing things. Boooooring!

It was even a bad idea in MOO2 as well, for the same reason.

[seabo_76]

Originally posted by frdnwsm:

Originally posted by Muzolf:

Hmm, me starting from pre-warp and the game not geared for that seems to explain a lot. Actually, it explains why pirates seem so overpowered, that i felt the need to explore only with frigates at least.

Starting from pre-warp is a seriously bad idea. It takes forever just to get the tech needed to start actually doing things. Boooooring!

It was even a bad idea in MOO2 as well, for the same reason.

And one pirate ship could really ruin your day....

[Doombringer]

I like how when no one has figured out how to build space ships there are already pirates ;)
(In pre-warp starts)