Beta 2 discussion

The beam pact description is missing a keyword. It says "Two factions share beam weapon technlogy, mutually damage dealt by all beam type weapons for both peoples' ships and structures." I am assuming it increases damage dealt. Also technology is spelled wrong.

They can't spell at Iron Clad.

'Armnament'

No, it's not a typo.

These typos should be quick fixes for them at least. I'm sure they have higher priorities at the moment, but I hope they get it fixed eventually.

if its REALLY bothersome you can fix it your self you know

the op does have a point. advent don't really use missile tech, vasari have no beam weapons that I can think of etc. so weapons are a bit tricky in this respect. but generally pretty good stuff.

Been trying it out and all very good, I like the ideas that have been brought in but... AI players are still forming cease fires with one another despite a mutual 0-20% approval rating. Within 5 minutes of starting the game.

Also, although offering missions still needs to be researched (which is fine by me) the AI doesn't seem to need to. Sure, in order to make it so they do offer missions and you can increase your standing with them, I see the logic. But they do it within the opening moments of the game! I.e. whilst I'm still trying to claim neutral planets and don't have the time to go haring off across the map after an enemy which will probably turn out not to even have any tactical structures to destroy etc. Maybe some kind of delay is needed? I can reject the offers, of course, for a lower (almost nil) disapproval rating, but I have to keep doing that, and more than once I've rejected an offer only to have them make another within seconds. Again, a delay/'cooldown' may be needed.#

I like the fact that envoys need to stay in a gravity well for a while for the approval bonus to increase but with the diplomatic immunity ability so short, you need to have a cease-fire. I found that was difficult to get since (and this goes back to my first point) the 3 AIs I was facing all signed cease-fires with one another, making me the only target (even though I was hovering around 2nd/3rd place in the fleet ranking). As they kept attacking me I kept incurring penalties due to military action, and their starbases stopped envoys from being a viable counter-measure. Besides which, at this point, they'd have needed to make up about half of my fleet to have a decent enough effect.

I like the ideas and the direction, it's just with a hard-level AI and the weird cease-fire utility I was without allies and fending off attacks of three fronts, against opponents who wouldn't get distracted by one-another. There was little diplomacy, mostly fly-swatting at enemy fleets.

Oh really? How do you do that?

Yeah, at some point we'll have to comb through stuff and fix these types of typos. Also the mission spamming thing is a bug, which we're looking into. As to the too early thing if you reject a mission before you've had a chance to do any missions at all then the penalty is zero. Once we stop them from spamming it shouldn't but much of a problem anymore.

Good so far. Still finding it hard to make freinds though, especialy since the cooldown is too long on Diplomatic Imunity...

I like the direction but I think its still lacking as a whoole.They need to introduce more for this expansion.Entrench was a profound impact on play of game.This seems more like working to get some bonuses.For me its getting close to 75%.If they could add more tecs in other areas and improvements to the game in general would really make this worth it... or something.I have only played 1 game so far which consisted of all my envoy cruisers dying and not being able to get a cease fire.So I havent got to try out any of the new stuff really.After awhile it seems hopeless cause they attack you nonstop and eventually you have a huge - factor.I think this needs to go back down after awhile or something.Some way to make amends even tho you killed hundreds of ships.Ai seems smarter at killing sb too which is nice(at least in neutrals).

I think I actually like the new beta less. Needing the player to park envoys at every other players planet is a real pain in the ass when there is no auto function, which would be in the same vein as auto explore. The pacts seem gimmicky, and this new 100/200% relation thing just doesn't seem right. I would rather just have a higher possible relation; actually I would rather have a much higher possible relation that goes far above what is needed for pacts so that I can really see how we are getting along and as a sort of padding so one wrong move doesn't ruin everything. It should be really high so that the player almost never reaches it so the player has something to strive for; there could even be an achievement for reaching it. I also think missions and practically everything should affect your relation less; right now it feels like a roller-coaster. You finish a mission and they absolutely love you then you fail one and they hate you again. Finally you should be able to reach negative relations so grudges actually last and you can't win over the love of a mortal enemy buy giving them a few credits.

Overall the diplomacy feels like a gimmick to help the players shoot each other a little more effectively; i want to see real relationships forming, and a living environment. I want to see players and the AI liking each other and wanting to help each other even if it is for the sake of the betterment of their empire. I don't want to see players and AI forming alliances with each other so they can do 10% more damage with missiles without caring the least bit about each other; after all they still get that bonus if the other is in a loosing war and down to their last planet. Empires that are in an alliance should act as one: they should help each other in times of need, they should trade resources when one empire is lacking, and they should defend each others borders in order to preserve the relationship.

A few small notes: your mortal enemies should not be giving you missions, and nobody should give you missions to attack your ally unless they are offering a very substantial reward; even then they shouldn't be angry with you if you don't kill your best friend.

Sorry for the rant, but I just really want to see this work out; the reason I bought this game is because I heard you guys were coming out with an expansion that improved diplomacy. Currently I am worried because it doesn't seem like much has been done so far to improve the diplomatic aspect of the game, and although I am aware you still have 2 months to go before release I'm not sure if its enough time to make diplomacy a large aspect of the game.