Era 4 Alpha

[george moromisato]

I've started a new Era 4 Alpha game. It's got a few changes:

1. The first pass on the new nebula code is done. Nebulae are implemented as a hex grid. This will prevent problems such as gaps when crossing nebula types. I've also fixed the bug with nav paths outside the map.

2. I will continue to work on trying to make the nebula better and more organic (I tried a Voronoi grid originally, but couldn't get the performance good enough). I'll try to add some fractals to the hex edges and see if that helps.

3. I've pulled all of WTVd0's changes, including a timer for getting a new jump-beacon. The list of changes is here: https://github.com/kronosaur/Anacreon-C ... ary/pull/5

I'm working on the following list of changes for Era 4: https://ministry.kronosaur.com/program. ... ive&tag=10

NOTE: The new changes to jumpbeacons, the new nebula grid, and any future changes will not necessarily be reflected in old games. Only new games will get some of these new features and changes.

[Watch TV, Do Nothing]

This happened about 5 minutes after starting an empire. It was previously open space, not sure if it is now a bright nebula or if it's just a weird display bug:

[--Imperator--]

Nice. I'm testing on the Alpha now as Commonwealth of Man, capital name Unity - and the galactic map indicates I'm somewhere to the far west.

WTV that looks horrendous. Did you spawn in a nebula? Must be due to the new nebula changes, either that or that beige color is the new light nebula color? Try respawning out of one and see if it persists. FWIW I'm not getting that weird display glitch, and I'm in open space.

[Watch TV, Do Nothing]

I did not spawn in a nebula, but the visual effect appeared on the watch after I found a bright nebula nearby.

[george moromisato]

This happened about 5 minutes after starting an empire. It was previously open space, not sure if it is now a bright nebula or if it's just a weird display bug:

It's a glitch with the exploration region display (intersecting the exploration region with the nebula region leads to some round-off error).

I think I'm going to have the exploration region grid match the nebula grid. That will avoid this problem plus the extra resolution will help in dark nebulas.

[Finnian]

the most ancient bug is still there: if you zoom max on a fleet in movement the game block itself

[--Imperator--]

Should we push the suggested unit stats changes to the Core Library?

There are few players on the Alpha test, AdmiralZo is a bit north of my position (New Aelion) and some other unknown player with a pretty well-established cluster to the east (Thuhomur Wuchaiju).

[Watch TV, Do Nothing]

Did we ever reach any kind of consensus on what should be done to units?

I wouldn't be concerned about there not being many people in the alpha; it's not particularly playable because of the background color overlay issues. I've confirmed that some of the pushed changes are working as expected (jumpbeacon build times, defenses destroying to lower-TL equivalents, some changes to deposti oders) and at least one is not (starports do not destroy to spaceports as expected).

[george moromisato]

FYI: Just updated the server to fix the problem with exploration regions.

Exploration region now matches the nebula hex grid, so it is higher resolution and should be both more accurate and more reliable.

[george moromisato]

Did we ever reach any kind of consensus on what should be done to units?

I wouldn't be concerned about there not being many people in the alpha; it's not particularly playable because of the background color overlay issues. I've confirmed that some of the pushed changes are working as expected (jumpbeacon build times, defenses destroying to lower-TL equivalents, some changes to deposti oders) and at least one is not (starports do not destroy to spaceports as expected).

I don't think there's consensus, but I think we need a warp-speed transport (buildable by starship yards) and a ramship transport.

[--Imperator--]

I think most regulars agreed in page 2 of this thread that starships should have lightly increased speeds to 1 LY/min. That should also "solve" the bug of very slow fleets (i.e. starships at 0.1 LY/min) being able to be attacked without retaliation if they are a few watches away from arriving at a world.

A warp-transport and ramjet-transport would both be excellent new units. They should probably have larger capacity (3x?) than jumptransports to compensate for reduced speed and "terrain" restriction (for ramjets).

Reducing the exploration region resolution seems like a good change visually, although it can now be harder to distinguish between unexplored space and dark nebulae seeing as they have the same grid shape and (almost) exactly the same color. Perhaps the dark nebulae colors could be lightened a bit to #660066 maybe? A dark purplish color which contrasts nicely with the light pink nebula and doesn't blend in with the black unexplored space color.

Capture.PNG (1.18 MiB) Viewed 27710 times

[Watch TV, Do Nothing]

I still worry that 1ly/w is too fast for capships as long as citadels remain baitable (and all capiial ships retain missile protection), but it's worth trying it at least. Capships should ideally be a threat that you can see coming.

What do people think about my scheme to either a) strengthen low-tl ship's armor and attack, so that high and low TL classes are primarily distinguished by the power of their secondary abilities like speed, pointDef and AoE, or b) make high and low TL classes have comparable secondary abilities and be primarily distinguished by armor and Attack strength?

[Watch TV, Do Nothing]

Reducing the exploration region resolution seems like a good change visually, although it can now be harder to distinguish between unexplored space and dark nebulae seeing as they have the same grid shape and (almost) exactly the same color. Perhaps the dark nebulae colors could be lightened a bit to #660066 maybe? A dark purplish color which contrasts nicely with the light pink nebula and doesn't blend in with the black unexplored space color.

I agree wholeheartedly, a purple color or opalescent color is a good way to go. Alternately/supplementally unexplored space could have a boundary line around it, since unexplored tiles can blend in with the background on some zoom levels.

[Watch TV, Do Nothing]

the maze wasn't meant for you

[--Imperator--]

Made a quick survey here to confirm if users wanted an increase to starship speeds, and if so, by how much.


Were there other stat changes to units that were being suggested? We can make a poll for each of them also, easy to see what the majority of other users think as they can quickly click a button, not just the few forums regulars who write about stuff.