TA First Impressions

Well, it is ultimately an expansion, not a new game. Which means that, despite the new tech trees, the game can't introduce fundamentally new concepts to the game. So you're still talking about needing research, production, money, etc. It's merely a matter of changing and focusing how you get these things.

There are techs that cannot be sold/stolen. The starting buildings that the Iconians and Thalans have for example come from a tech that cannot pass hands.

You can also turn off tech trading/tech stealing as an option to really keep the races isolated technologically.

Having complete isolation from getting another's tech makes a huge difference upon planetary conquering now since any improvement that you don't have the tech for and is destructible will go away.

There are still too many "unique" techs that haven't been flagged as un-tradeable/un-stealable (IMO), but it's fairly easy to go into the tech tree files and add more restrictions on individual techs if you want. That way, you can still play with tech trading on, which is a big help in getting started out with the "slower" race economies, while avoiding that homogenizing effect in the late game. Or just turn off trading completely, which will really emphasize the differences and make the game more challenging, due to the self-destruct of improvements you can't use after invasion (like Loupdinour mentioned).

On the topic of how different the TA expansion is compared to previous versions... I've noticed that ramping up the difficulty setting really exposes the differences in the racial tech trees. Especially since many of the major changes are in economy-related areas, either directly or indirectly (like population growth rate). Some races like Terran or Drengin are pretty easy, others like the Drath are harder to get rolling, and I've had to drop down a notch or two in my normal difficulty setting until I figure out their strategy.

That's the whole point of TA, I think... forcing you to discard old strategy templates, and figure out what works best with a specific race's tech tree. Having too many alien techs flowing through the trade channels does mess with that. However, since I do like being able to sell off non-critical tech in the early game to help the colonization phase, I leave trading on, and I use a "house rule" where I avoid buying alien tech that would fill a hole in my tech tree. I learn to use what I've got, for the most part.

Gah, ignore above post. Misclicked.

Is it just me or does TA have more problems with asymmetric ship components than DA? I know it's entirely aesthetic, but it really sets off my OCD when I can't get my ships looking just right.

I'm well into an immense, suicidal map and the difference in the races is pretty noticeable. The diplomacy is getting better, I think, although the AI still doesn't seem to regard planets as very important (seriously, they won't trade a single good tech in exchange for less than half the galaxy).

Still, even with the few quibbles I have, the game feels pretty complete and as long as the few remaining bugs are sorted, I'd say this is another Stardock triumph.

There is a horrid way to exploit the planet trading however. Selling them a low PQ/pop planet deep w/in your influence for techs, then letting it flip back to you. Because of that, I think that is why planets are very low in the way of cost.

Ahh Loupdinour knows my secert of winning!

It would be nice if it could calculate the IP of the planet after sale to determine if it should buy it or not. That way, selling them an entire system of planets would be a good deal and then would be worth much more in trade.

Then you'd just declare war on them after cleaning out their techs and get those planets back w/ the troop ships right outside of orbit. ~coughs~

I'm just hoping for some more parts. Only a handful of new parts..I crave more.

I turned off tech trading for this reason, but the end result is just as painful in the other direction - no tech trading removes a pretty vital part of the game.

My preferred fix is that if you do not have the tech on your tech tree, you should not be able to trade for it. This will eliminate unique tech acquisition, as well as all instances of imbalanced tech design (ie: Torians getting Discovery Spheres, making their research ability go from the worst, to the ridiculously over-the-top best).

At any rate, after TOTA goes 'live', I might make a tech tree mod that increases the costs of things exponentially. Through the course of the game, I've noticed that with a few exceptions, the length of time it takes to get new techs never really goes up at all. In fact, according to the techtree.xml, most weapon techs, like phasors, sometimes get CHEAPER (meaning faster to research) the more advanced they are. This makes no sense to me, and I tire of games where the enemy is constantly 'leapfrogging' technology as a result. I like 'very slow' tech because I like to *USE* it before it's instantly obsolete.

As for trading itself, I tire of the one-sided AI favoritism. I'd like to be able to play as an arms dealer, pitting sides against each other and selling them ships, but the AI simply refuses to pay anything more than 25% wholesale price for your ships, while for YOU to buy a crappy little scout, will cost trillions of credits.

Why would you expect this to work?

In general, the biggest problem with this is the basic nature of the game: in a fairly even war, both sides can produce enough war material just fine.

What you're trying to do requires that the AI be able to comprehend it. The AI simply can't understand that you're asking them to rely upon your production for a portion of their fleet.

The best way to do this is to be able to offer/ask for a contract, with specific terms. Like, "Provide me with 5 ships of this type and I'll give you X money." This would provide the AI with the information that it should expect to get that many ships (if they trust you).

I'll take anything i can get But i do love the expansion!