Thoughts on Galactic Empire mode?

[machinecode]

sup dogz,
What has been the response from the super nerds to the Galactic Empires thing?
I have some mixed feelings, mostly positive:

The good: A lot of replay value. Some new objectives/ways to play. Incentives for actually finishing games. Access to off-spec mods makes some race/tech combos more viable. Looks like a fairly extensive progression system that will take a LONG time to complete.

The bad or not-sures: I've finished 5 games since tuesday and it's been a grind. Small maps/low player count games are favourable for xp (no bonus xp for more players/bigger maps (?). Rushing games favours combat and elimination victory over other victory conditions (except for map specific conditions).

I've kept the same commander for everything so far, and they have a lot of xp and bunus tech researched when entering a new map. I could see multi-class type empires being very strong eventually though, but playing a new commander/faction/tech every map wouldn't be as good because the early rewards aren't great.

Any thoughts?

[machinecode]

Also, I keep getting the "join the cause" empire quest to absorb a colony every game. Not sure if this is a bug or what. Seems weird.

[Midas]

Only cleared one game so far, mainly because it was a huge map 10-player game. I think whether you go fast or slow depends on what you want out of it. To me it's just a reason to chain games together. I don't see much point in deliberately focusing on clearing the maps as quickly as possible.

And yeah, I'm having 'join the empire' problems too. Aside from it seeming to be the only mission I get over and over, it also is either bugged or very unclear on what it's asking, because at different times I've captured neutral settlements, created new settlements, and captured enemy settlements, without it actually satisfying the quest requirements.

[machinecode]

I have successfully completed the "join the cause" quest but it will just repeat again. I think it's to capture a settlement and then click "absorb" option.
I think it's supposed to be a random faction/tech specific quest but it's bugged to only provide Oathbound right now. Probably not hard to fix.

So, personally I never had to attention span to play large/huge maps without cheesing via the doomsday weapon. It's a bit weird that map size/play count doesn't affect xp, considering how much harder/longer it makes the games.

[Midas]

Big Idiot の投稿を引用：

I have successfully completed the "join the cause" quest but it will just repeat again. I think it's to capture a settlement and then click "absorb" option.
I think it's supposed to be a random faction/tech specific quest but it's bugged to only provide Oathbound right now. Probably not hard to fix.

So, personally I never had to attention span to play large/huge maps without cheesing via the doomsday weapon. It's a bit weird that map size/play count doesn't affect xp, considering how much harder/longer it makes the games.

That's true. Map size and opponent count should totally be a modifier for the game exp.

Also, I don't know if this is a new feature, or something specific to empire mode, but I made a second hero for the second map, and my first recruitable hero was my previous hero, which is pretty cool.

[machinecode]

Oh yeah, I heard about that. That is cool.

I'm sure there will be bug fixes in the next couple weeks. I'm trying to play through quickly to see what it has to offer, but I like having incentives to finish games because I often abandon mine.

It feels like a solid system though.

[Shockwave]

unfortunately the mode is so limiting that I don't find it very playable. I abhor certain victory conditions, like doomsday weapons. Never ever play with them I've never played a single game with that victory condition.

But you can't edit vicotry conditions.

I never play with empire quests.

Can't stop empire quests.

Etc etc etc. Why did they take out all the options? Those things don't seem to be required for the planets. I could see requiring it for one planet here or there but every planet has to have all vitory conditions and empire quests on?

[machinecode]

I did beat a map with doomsday because I picked a large map by accident. The AI isn't great with doomsday either, 10 turns isn't enough time to attack.

I use different map settings too, I like low starting resources/armies, no teleporters. A lot of people use different map settings.

So far I don't mind too much though. it's a bit like campaign where you don't control that stuff. btw one of my maps was an island map basically a clone of the synthesis planet campaign map.

I think they could've done more with the map settings, like maybe I would like even more restrictions where you can't choose planet size/opponents and it's just locked to the planet. Otherwise it's weird that you can change some stuff and not others.

[sandman25dcsss]

Shockwave の投稿を引用：

unfortunately the mode is so limiting that I don't find it very playable. I abhor certain victory conditions, like doomsday weapons. Never ever play with them I've never played a single game with that victory condition.

But you can't edit vicotry conditions.

I never play with empire quests.

Can't stop empire quests.

Etc etc etc. Why did they take out all the options? Those things don't seem to be required for the planets. I could see requiring it for one planet here or there but every planet has to have all vitory conditions and empire quests on?

+1
Also difficulty level is not scaled properly for XP. If I set AI to normal, I get 230%. If I set AIs to the weakest, I get 210%. If I set AIs to extreme, I get 250%. It should be a real multiplier like 0.5×230%, 0.75×230% etc., not plain +10 for every difficulty level.

[machinecode]

So here is some info about map size selection:
If you get the "kill two NPC dwellings" quest for a planet, there won't be enough dwellings in a small map to finish the quest.
(there will be two dwellings total but you need two of the same faction ie psi-fish, not two different kinds)

[The Renderer]

Yeah, the removal of all the advanced options/map settings is pretty bad and means I probably won't really play the new mode. Shame.

[Major Moolah]

I like it. Its not something I'll grind and grind to unlock everything, but a 1-3 games a week is fun. Its like a procedurally generated campaign. I wish Triumph would add more customization options but the basic idea is good

[The Renderer]

Oh, yes, the basic idea is great, it fixes quite a few problems I usually have with 4X and motivation to play. But still, needs all the options it has for standard play.