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Posted by: gerfand

« on: August 31, 2016, 01:49:25 PM »

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Quote from: kucsidave on August 31, 2016, 03:28:42 AM

Interesting... Usally of I have an AT-AT I don't loose a thing in battle
Try composing your forces differently and not using your AT-ATs as you do, since if you use them correctly they will almost never go down. The air units are the only ones that could mean trouble, but then keep a squad of AT-PT with them which are also killing infantry like hell and you're done...
Also having a specialist like I said before and that AT-AT will never go down.

Well, I despite EaW, as it is a very unfinished game, so I don't get it to serious... but, now that I remember, I lost the AT-AT for my own bombardment

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Also KDY does not affect the build time of any ground units. It is a spaceship producing company which gives you price reduction on KDY ships.(ISDs, SSDs, etc.)
And if you catch what you say

It does, as you can see on the manual, or the main page, as they are produced by KDY
http://thrawnsrevenge.com/features/other-changes

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limiting the factories won't even solve this problem:

EDIT- it would solve my problem if you have fasters factories. and after playing a little bit more, I think some planets don't need to get less slots, but still there should be a minimum of 3 for every planet

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Also you said that this is not about the tactics. This is ALL about them.

And tactics include force composition, preparation(meaning you don't have to assault a planet with your starting forces right away), planning out how your attacks would matter the most and finally execution. this is true on both GCs, Space and Land battles. Especially on land, because petrogllyph messed it up, but this is a different story. But some people already feel like ground combat is too easy at the moment.(myself included)

yeah, I know, Tactics is how you fight a war, but, because of the idiotic AI, you can spam( thx) a certain type of unit and you will still win, even if its a t-2b... instead of the combine arms that you would see in other games, or at least a situation where you don't have a cheap, do everything unit. returning to the t-2b, it can destroy everything the empire has, w/ the exception of air units, and probably plex, w/ only micro, as the 2 units that are supposed to counter that are weak, w/ the "Stronger" being weaker than the first one

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And though you say you would always change tactics to a good XR-2 "spawn" which I think want to be spam, then maybe you're right, but I never used them. If you think a unit is too OP in a player hand then don't use it and problem solved. I never use hailfires, XR-2s, V-wings and Air Seekers for this very reason. so the game remains a challenge.

Well I am doing this because of how tedious, and broken Land battles are in EaW, especially when you get attacked every 5 minutes by the AI
And F* if the unit is OP I am going to use this, until it is fixed, and I would be happy to see something fixed.

Posted by: kucsidave

« on: August 31, 2016, 03:28:42 AM »

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Quote from: gerfand on August 30, 2016, 09:12:49 PM

While the AI is idiotic as Hell, using their Vehicles to guard their base, instead of fighting you, you don't necessarily have one armed force like this... and you need to use what you have, may this be AT-STs, or a XR-2 Battle Droid
In the early game, a T-2B spawn planet can prove very difficult to take, and It costed me at least 2 AT-ATs(and a plent of other vehicles, especially Imp Drop.), as even w/ a fleet in orbit,

Interesting... Usally of I have an AT-AT I don't loose a thing in battle
Try composing your forces differently and not using your AT-ATs as you do, since if you use them correctly they will almost never go down. The air units are the only ones that could mean trouble, but then keep a squad of AT-PT with them which are also killing infantry like hell and you're done...
Also having a specialist like I said before and that AT-AT will never go down.
Also

Quote from: gerfand on August 30, 2016, 09:12:49 PM

But the point is not the use of tactics, which, is useless because of how the game works... But is how this affect gameplay... for example, as NR you can defend every single planet, if you have at least a Barrack and a Light vehicle factory, and the problem is not the 8 slots planets, but the respawn ability of the vehicles and troops of that planet.
Now I suggested the less slots per planet because of how factories works(of Course This is what I did not wrote $:-\$ \), as they build everything very slowly, which make the production of some planets w/ only one type of factory, so you can mass produce anything, and I tested it, takes 8/10 of a week to build a AT-ST, in Kuat w/ KDY.
So a better build time would mitigate this, and while some people would still do that, it would not be required, to mass produce vehicles.

KDY does not affect the build time of any ground units. It is a spaceship producing company which gives you price reduction on KDY ships.(ISDs, SSDs, etc.)
And if you catch what you say, limiting the factories won't even solve this problem:

Quote from: gerfand on August 30, 2016, 09:12:49 PM

for example, as NR you can defend every single planet,

Also you said that this is not about the tactics. This is ALL about them.
And tactics include force composition, preparation(meaning you don't have to assault a planet with your starting forces right away), planning out how your attacks would matter the most and finally execution. this is true on both GCs, Space and Land battles. Especially on land, because petrogllyph messed it up, but this is a different story. But some people already feel like ground combat is too easy at the moment.(myself included)
And though you say you would always change tactics to a good XR-2 "spawn" which I think want to be spam, then maybe you're right, but I never used them. If you think a unit is too OP in a player hand then don't use it and problem solved. I never use hailfires, XR-2s, V-wings and Air Seekers for this very reason. so the game remains a challenge.

Posted by: Pali

« on: August 31, 2016, 12:14:02 AM »

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Fairly certain that having the KDY facility up means nothing so far as ATST production speed goes. Having more light factories will speed it up, which gives an incentive to specialize non-front line planets.

Also, anywhere with a level 3 shipyard and 5 Golan spots is somewhere you defend in space, not on the ground. Give Kuat a pair of HVGs and it will tear up fleets.

Posted by: mynameisyou

« on: August 30, 2016, 10:23:10 PM »

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Quote from: Mat8876 on August 30, 2016, 07:28:58 PM

best way to deal with hailfires is to use aircraft they cannot hit aircraft at all.

Its not that there difficult to deal with its just that they are stronger then they should be and its somewhat annoying. They really should not by able to tank a shot from a turbolaser tower.

Posted by: gerfand

« on: August 30, 2016, 09:12:49 PM »

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Quote from: kucsidave on August 30, 2016, 04:22:24 PM

or, instead of brute-forcing your way trough a planet, use tactics, scouts and have a fleet over and you'll be fine with minimal losses.
like as PA use those storm commandos and as NR the infiltrators because they are GOOD!!!
Keep 1 or two specialist squads with your forces at all times too and it will also save your forces countless times.

While the AI is idiotic as Hell, using their Vehicles to guard their base, instead of fighting you, you don't necessarily have one armed force like this... and you need to use what you have, may this be AT-STs, or a XR-2 Battle Droid
In the early game, a T-2B spawn planet can prove very difficult to take, and It costed me at least 2 AT-ATs(and a plent of other vehicles, especially Imp Drop.), as even w/ a fleet in orbit, as I was unable to track down the location of the factory to make the exploit of retreating to face less enemies... and I was on Era 1 Empire, w/ probably 2 AT-ATs on my entire Empire.
And while I do use tact, I am willing to abandon this for an good XR-2 Spawn, as they can rip and tear trough everything , but MegaMasers tanks, w/ 1.2 damage multiplayer

But the point is not the use of tactics, which, is useless because of how the game works... But is how this affect gameplay... for example, as NR you can defend every single planet, if you have at least a Barrack and a Light vehicle factory, and the problem is not the 8 slots planets, but the respawn ability of the vehicles and troops of that planet.
Now I suggested the less slots per planet because of how factories works(of Course This is what I did not wrote $:-\$ \), as they build everything very slowly, which make the production of some planets w/ only one type of factory, so you can mass produce anything, and I tested it, takes 8/10 of a week to build a AT-ST, in Kuat w/ KDY.
So a better build time would mitigate this, and while some people would still do that, it would not be required, to mass produce vehicles.

Posted by: Mat8876

« on: August 30, 2016, 07:28:58 PM »

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best way to deal with hailfires is to use aircraft they cannot hit aircraft at all.

Posted by: mynameisyou

« on: August 30, 2016, 07:11:42 PM »

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The Hailfire droid is far too strong. In massed groups they are able tear through fully defending maps with turbolaser towers, without taking a single loss. I would suggest lowering their durability, slightly reducing their rate of fire and perhaps removing one of the units from the landing groups.

Posted by: Pali

« on: August 30, 2016, 04:29:15 PM »

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Have to agree with kucs, it's pretty easy as is to deal with even large AI garrisons. There's no need to make it easier.

Posted by: kucsidave

« on: August 30, 2016, 04:22:24 PM »

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or, instead of brute-forcing your way trough a planet, use tactics, scouts and have a fleet over and you'll be fine with minimal losses.
like as PA use those storm commandos and as NR the infiltrators because they are GOOD!!!
Keep 1 or two specialist squads with your forces at all times too and it will also save your forces countless times.

Posted by: gerfand

« on: August 30, 2016, 11:33:16 AM »

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Quote from: Lord Xizer on August 29, 2016, 02:55:23 PM

Well this wouldn't really represent the worth of a planet. Six structures may take longer but it's the same logic as space stations with multiple Golans. Some worlds are better defended or more industrialized.

Well My thinking about this is:

First, planets w/ 2 structures only sucks, I mean take Borosk for example, its suposed to be a heavy fortifed planet, but you can only put 2 structures there, 3 would give much more defensive option

for planets w/ a lot of structures, like coruscant, you get 8 slots... and because of the way the game works, its too much...

A game that we can use to compare is Rome Total War, in Rome 1 you need to put a garrison, and no building create more units during the tactical combat, but, this would not work in EaW, as it is not turn based, and the unit selection is very bad for GC, which leads to Rome 2 way of doing thing, in which you make a structure that give you garrison, and while its a necessary building, its give the garrison once.
EaW in other hand give you a garrison that respawn, and can be very powerful depending on what is on the planet, so if you go against the Empire, if you attack a planet w/ a lot of ADV Factories, you need to fight a lot of AT-ATs, and while its not impossible to defeat the AI in this case, against another player, it could get impossible, but againts the AI it can be very annoying, like if you go against a T-2b Spawn, which is that is free and respawn every second...
So would be better if you can deny the ability from the AI, or Player to get 4 AT-ATs for free, which you will need to fight w/ paid units.
This is why I also gave the suggetion of the Garrison building, as you would need to decide between a factory and a Building which give you free units, if the planet get attacked

Posted by: Lord Xizer

« on: August 29, 2016, 02:55:23 PM »

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Quote from: gerfand on August 29, 2016, 01:42:59 PM

I did not read everything on the other posts, so this may be already suggested...

One thing that could be done is decrease the number of ground structures to a minimum of 3, and a max of 5 or 6, w/ some smalls exceptions being planets that have a great number of population, like Coruscant, which could get up to 6, 7 buildings

This would make battles easier as you don't need to kill AT-ATs after AT-ATs, every time you go into a planet w/ 6 ADV. Vehicle factories

Also for counter balance that, decrease the build time for many of the vehicles, making a single factory be able to build something in less than a week, so you can plan better you defense.

One more thing, if possible(this is not that small), remove the garrison from factories and barracks, and make one, or two specific building that give a certain amount of garrison (like in Rome 2, and yes I know that is a bit against what you are making w/ ground buildings)... or at least reduce the garrison, for what spawn, w/ exception of the barracks, and light vehicle factories.

Well this wouldn't really represent the worth of a planet. Six structures may take longer but it's the same logic as space stations with multiple Golans. Some worlds are better defended or more industrialized.

Posted by: gerfand

« on: August 29, 2016, 01:42:59 PM »

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I did not read everything on the other posts, so this may be already suggested...

One thing that could be done is decrease the number of ground structures to a minimum of 3, and a max of 5 or 6, w/ some smalls exceptions being planets that have a great number of population, like Coruscant, which could get up to 6, 7 buildings

This would make battles easier as you don't need to kill AT-ATs after AT-ATs, every time you go into a planet w/ 6 ADV. Vehicle factories

Also for counter balance that, decrease the build time for many of the vehicles, making a single factory be able to build something in less than a week, so you can plan better you defense.

One more thing, if possible(this is not that small), remove the garrison from factories and barracks, and make one, or two specific building that give a certain amount of garrison (like in Rome 2, and yes I know that is a bit against what you are making w/ ground buildings)... or at least reduce the garrison, for what spawn, w/ exception of the barracks, and light vehicle factories.

Posted by: Pali

« on: August 28, 2016, 05:09:01 PM »

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Quote from: c7x8z4 on August 27, 2016, 10:10:30 PM

On a related note, I noticed that even with the 2.15 patch (Which re-enables the minor faction AI's), those minor factions never attacked anybody.

I promise you that they do. Play as the PA and give them some time, you'll get attacked at Anx Minor by a warlord fleet. I suspect that whatever calculations the AI uses to determine whether an attack is worth launching usually just decide it isn't, but I've definitely been attacked by warlords in 2.15.

Posted by: Corey

« on: August 28, 2016, 01:50:06 AM »

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Rather than address each AI point directly, I'll just say that the game's AI does not like to be modified; there's very little about it that can be changed, even if you hard-install the changes to the game's data folder. We're trying to fix the stuff we can with it, but that's an unfortunately limited amount of things.

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Another problem is the pathing of units in the galactic map. Fleets will not always take the most optimal path from one planet to another, and they must be manually adjusted. From some of the previous forum postings, Corey (?) mentioned that the issue seems to be hard coded. Is this a problem that could potentially be solved for 2.2?

This, too, is hardcoded. We can't change that behaviour.

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Also, would it be possible to increase the ground garrison size from 10 units to 12 units? (I really like to leave large garrisons behind to ensure a strong planetary defense force)

Not in a very functional way. You can increase the limit, however you can't increase the amount of actually visible slots (that part of the UI seems to be hardcoded as well), which means you functionally can't work with garrisons of more than 10 units, and it causes significant GUI and gameplay bugs if you up the limit to higher than ten without having the GUI space to support it.

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A suggestion that I have is to re-introduce ground and space commanders (From the original game) I really like the idea of commanders leading my forces (and granting the bonuses to the corresponding army/fleet).

These were removed because of a bug where the AI would build hundreds of them to the exclusion of anything else. Even if you locked them out, increased the tech level required to 99 and did a whole bunch of things to stop them from getting them, so we had to completely erase them.

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Speaking of the diplomacy system, from what I understand, each planet is assigned to a sector. Would it be possible to visually show on the galactic map which planets belong to which sector? I saw a forum post by Corey showing the new galactic map background. I would simply like some sort of visual representation of which planet belongs to which sector. (Instead of having to refer to a list of planets)

There will be an indication.

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these civilian space stations would open up more options for the game (more income?). And there's no need for golan space stations in a secure sector. Some alternative space structures that I would like to see return include the sensor tower, and the gravity well generator station.

There are a few options we're exploring for non-military stations, however the non-military side of EaW is also pretty limited beyond the cash farms that planets already become with mining facilities and tax centers.

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Lastly, I know that the team is working on new GC scenarios. In the past, I would always pick the GC with the highest number of planets, because I would like the feel of an epic game. To that end, I basically began to combine all the planets from all GC's onto one map. (I edited the files to add all planets together onto one map). However, it was difficult to decide which introduced planet to give to which faction and to work out the hyperspace lanes. Would it be possible for the team to generate a epic map with all the planets and factions onto one GC? This would help those who want to have a epic and long game.

These are always scary because of the selection freeze bug. The more planets and factions you have on the map, the sooner it becomes an issue, and makes the game almost unplayable (without people knowing how to use the Defreezer utility, it's completely unplayable). With a map significantly bigger than Art of War or Imperial Civil War, the freeze would start happening again around week 20-30. Evry 5-10 minutes on the galactic map you'd probably end up having to quit out and reload after defreezing. If the modifications we're trying to make to mitigate it work, we may be able to push the boundaries a bit more, but there's a ton of factors at play there, and like so many other things, the selection freeze issue is an engine issue which is completely hardcoded, so beyond the defreezer there's nothing we can do to rectify it.

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Another minor issue is during battle, some units will not respond to a stop movement order. This especially happens in space battles, where a ship is positioned perfectly, and I try to get it to stop, but it just keeps on going forward. It is extremely frustrating that they don't stop immediately when ordered.

A related minor issue is the radius of the super-class ships. The game does not allow players to jump in ships on the same layer next to super class ships (e.g. jumping in a ISD-II next to a executor, sovereign, etc) It allow reinforcement to jump in either directly in front or behind. It would be great if the ship radius was decreased so that it would be possible to jump in ships on the same layer next to super class ships. Also, irritatingly, when you order a super class ship to move to a new destination, and they turn, the turning speed is much faster than if you ordered a direct turning order. (e.g. you order a executor to go past a asteroid cluster, the ship turns quite fast, but if you right click on the ship until the green arrow appears, and issue a turn order, the turning velocity is much slower compared to the movement order).

These are pathfinding and collision detection issues. Also, you guessed it, 100% hardcoded. The game starts struggling to deal with collisions and pathing pretty much for anything bigger than a VSD.

Posted by: c7x8z4

« on: August 27, 2016, 10:10:30 PM »

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Before I begin, I just wanted to say that I immensely enjoyed this mod, and I appreciate all the hard work that Corey and the team has devoted to building this mod! With that being said, I have a few ideas, suggestions and recommendations for 2.2 version of ICW.

Before I start, I just want to mention that I always play multi-era GC's, and I always play on the hardest difficulty (Admiral difficulty)

Galactic Map Suggestions:

One of the issues that I noticed in 2.15 is the slow pace of AI attack on the galactic map. Even when they do attack, they always consistently target a few planets.
Typically, after a while, I can figure which planet the AI will attack, even if they have multiple options to attack other planets that I hold. Basically, they're not really optimizing their options of attack, and I will end up leaving a large defense fleet at one planet, while leaving other planets on the frontline somewhat exposed. The AI never seems to go after those exposed planets. On a related note, I noticed that even with the 2.15 patch (Which re-enables the minor faction AI's), those minor factions never attacked anybody.

Another problem I noticed is that the AI does not tend to build up it's forces. I regularly check the "economy" tab, and I always have the lowest curve for my faction. My understanding of the economy chart is that it shows the number of credits available in the treasury of each faction. Typically, other displayed factions have 5x-6x the amount of credits and economy ratings. On the military tab, they have low ratings, significantly lower than mine. My understanding of the military chart is that the game simply compiles the unit count and shows that on the chart. As such, why doesn't the AI build up it's forces significantly? All of my planets are fortress world with full (10 unit) garrisons. I notice that the AI will fortify frontier worlds, but once you "break out", the worlds behind the borders are thinly defended. Why not spend some of their huge credit reserves to bolster defenses on their inner worlds? Basically, I would like to see the AI spend the credits that they're hoarding on building much more military units and significantly upgrading their ground defenses on their worlds (Like having full garrisons, instead of 1 unit defending a planet).

Another problem is the pathing of units in the galactic map. Fleets will not always take the most optimal path from one planet to another, and they must be manually adjusted. From some of the previous forum postings, Corey (?) mentioned that the issue seems to be hard coded. Is this a problem that could potentially be solved for 2.2?

Also, would it be possible to increase the ground garrison size from 10 units to 12 units? (I really like to leave large garrisons behind to ensure a strong planetary defense force)

A suggestion that I have is to re-introduce ground and space commanders (From the original game) I really like the idea of commanders leading my forces (and granting the bonuses to the corresponding army/fleet). Furthermore, with the introduction of the diplomacy system and the possibility of hiring bounty hunters to neutralize diplomats, these commanders give the bounty hunters additional targets to hunt for (Instead of just diplomats)

Speaking of the diplomacy system, from what I understand, each planet is assigned to a sector. Would it be possible to visually show on the galactic map which planets belong to which sector? I saw a forum post by Corey showing the new galactic map background. I would simply like some sort of visual representation of which planet belongs to which sector. (Instead of having to refer to a list of planets)

I would really like to see the introduction of non-military space stations back to the game. As this forum topic mentions, these civilian space stations would open up more options for the game (more income?). And there's no need for golan space stations in a secure sector. Some alternative space structures that I would like to see return include the sensor tower, and the gravity well generator station. It would also be really cool to have the ability to build Cardan class space stations (From the original game). My suggestion is to have the ability to level up the station (From 1 to level 5). The bonus that these stations provide is decreased build time per level of station on the galactic map, and provide garrisons on the space battle map.
http://thrawnsrevenge.com/forums/index.php?topic=5826.0

Lastly, I know that the team is working on new GC scenarios. In the past, I would always pick the GC with the highest number of planets, because I would like the feel of an epic game. To that end, I basically began to combine all the planets from all GC's onto one map. (I edited the files to add all planets together onto one map). However, it was difficult to decide which introduced planet to give to which faction and to work out the hyperspace lanes. Would it be possible for the team to generate a epic map with all the planets and factions onto one GC? This would help those who want to have a epic and long game.

On the space/ground battle map:

One small issue that I noticed is that some factions tend to avoid building certain units. Despite playing this game for hundreds of hours, I have yet to see a Lucrehulk-class battleship. The AI just doesn't seem to build them, and they have never appeared in a raid fleet. It would be awesome if the AI had a more diverse military composition that took advantage of the full range of military units available to them.

Another minor issue is during battle, some units will not respond to a stop movement order. This especially happens in space battles, where a ship is positioned perfectly, and I try to get it to stop, but it just keeps on going forward. It is extremely frustrating that they don't stop immediately when ordered.

A related minor issue is the radius of the super-class ships. The game does not allow players to jump in ships on the same layer next to super class ships (e.g. jumping in a ISD-II next to a executor, sovereign, etc) It allow reinforcement to jump in either directly in front or behind. It would be great if the ship radius was decreased so that it would be possible to jump in ships on the same layer next to super class ships. Also, irritatingly, when you order a super class ship to move to a new destination, and they turn, the turning speed is much faster than if you ordered a direct turning order. (e.g. you order a executor to go past a asteroid cluster, the ship turns quite fast, but if you right click on the ship until the green arrow appears, and issue a turn order, the turning velocity is much slower compared to the movement order).