[Dev Team] 2.6.3 Beta Patch Released [checksum ae56]

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This makes no sense. Why would synth ascension make your Roboticists worse at making synths? It might be reasonable to change robot factories to employ 2 pops each making 1 growth instead of 1 pop making 2 growth (since Roboticist is an overpowered job), but in that case, change it for everyone, not just synth-ascended empires.

Well, synths are more complex than normal robots, so it would be harder to build them
 
The building existed in the code the entire time, but there was a typo in that the code block that gave the conditions allowing you build it was flipped with the block of conditions that would cause it to be destroyed (like when gestalts capture planets and some non-gestalt buildings they can't use go away.)
Then they just commented out the line allowing you to upgrade t2 Admin parks to it.

Strangely, with the new patch, they fixed the code typos (so if you uncomment a couple lines, it'll work as normal) but then added a comment that it's been intentionally removed. The only clear thing suggesting it was never "supposed" to be in the game is that it didn't have a unique building icon. Although I'm pretty sure they announced there would be an 8 job bureaucrat building, so I'm curious what internally pushed them to decide they just shouldn't exist vs the very fast fix for them which they already implemented as part of 2.6.3 beta.
We removed it during Federations playtesting, which is why there wasn't an icon requested for it. (It uses the same icon as the tier 2.)

I fixed the errors in the disabled version because their existence bothered me. More importantly, if we decide to re-add it in the future, I didn't want a broken version sitting around that someone might assume was fine. (And I expect more tweaking of empire sprawl and admin cap in the future.)
 
# Balance

(Thinking to myself) Oh boy, could this finally be the patch to nerf Synth Ascension?

* Added extra crisis strength x10 and x25.

Now that is a great change! Many people agreed the crisis was too easy. The more content gets added, the more eventual power-creep gets added aswell. I am very happy about this option and I can't wait to try it out!

Cybrex War Forge now increases empire alloy production by 5% and allows building Cybrex Warform armies at your capital. Its active ability now converts 10000 minerals into 5000 alloys on a shorter than normal relic cooldown.

Finally the dreaded pop growth machine has been nerfed! I am very happy about this. Now this relic remains strong, but its no longer useless for Empires without Robots. The alloy production makes sense given its name and the added bonus of being able to build a special army type is a cool side effect. Thank you so much for listening to the community and change this relic into something nice.

The Flesh is Weak assembly bonus reduced from 33% to 10%.

Another great change! Cyborgs and Synth Ascension has been the go-to for every non-Gestalt empire since around 2.2.6 and the big buffs to Synth Ascension. While it might dissapoint players that their favourite playstyle is now nerfed (its my favourite Ascension aswell), this was an important change that needed to happen. Flesh is Weak is still incredibly powerful thanks to the habitability bonus and preventing AI rebellion. Bringing the power of Biological, Psionic and Synth Ascension closer together is a much needed change and one that enhances the variety and fun in the game for everyone. It was really no fun playing multiplayer and 90% of players choosing Materialists and turning into Robots eventually.

I am still of the opinion that biological pop growth should be nerfed for empires which completed Synthethic Evolution, similar to how it works for Machine empires like Driven Assimilator. But I haven't seen the pop growth numbers with the new changes yet. Atleast 16.6 Synth pop growth is no longer possible with the old Warforge + adding Lithoid or Biological popgrowth ontop of it.

Roboticists now have 2 alloy upkeep instead of minerals.

Another great change many players talked about. Now you will have to make a decision about filling your early colonies with Robot Factories since it is a heavy alloy investment during a time in which you are limited by building slots for alloy output. Building the Robot factory at 5 pops is no longer a no-brainer.

I am very happy that balance is finally much better than in the previous patches. You have adressed Hivemind problems, most of Machine Empires overpowered stats and now finally you have adressed balance problems with the Synth Ascension path. I know there are still people who don't care about balance at all (which I can never understand since balance affects everyone in a good or bad way). To those players we can simply repeat what we always say: Balance is possible without making everything have the same stats. Balance is needed because without it, the game will become boring as one strategy or in this case Ascension path or Empire Pick will always come out on top. As it has been from 2.3 till 2.5 when Machine Empire dominated every game until Synth Empires hit the playing field.

I hope this has been a littlebit of a lesson to you as developers aswell. Please don't forget these changes you just did and don't add something like a Cybrex Warforge immediately again with the next DLC. There can be interesting content without slapping a 50% pop assembly bonus ontop of it, you have just proven it with the new Cybrex Warforge.
 
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most of Machine Empires overpowered stats
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It didn't feel like that. In my actual Multiplayer round ( 5 player, 20 AI (Grandmaster), 1000 Stars, 2.6.3 enabled) we have a machine player and he easily outclasses even a well played Ringworld start from midgame on. We made this test intentionally and we came to the conclusion, that machine hives play quite different compared to earlyer versions, but as soon you lerned the differences they are as overpowered as ever :(
 
This update had initially fixed the huge OOS issues my friends and I had been experiencing in a game we had running for a long time now for about the first 2 hours of gameplay. The OOS issues did, however, return in their entirety after roughly two hours of gameplay. I can't attach the image since I'm new on the forums but we constantly had OOS issues with PLANETS_MODIFIERS and CONSTRUCTION until I finally OOSed in just about every way possible
Please, if you have a save that consistently desyncs after loading, post it in the bug forum. I would LOVE to get my hands on it and fix it for you.
 
Has anyone else experienced freezing since the new update? I have this new problem which started tonight, the game freezes exactly on the date 2282.02.09. It happens every time I try to load the game.

If this is an issue with the new patch, is there a way to revert to 2.6.2? I don’t see the option in the steam beta interface.

My save game from 2.6.2 freezes after a few days when I try and play on the beta. Starting a new game works fine. The beta is opt in, so you can just go back to the current version (2.6.2) on steam in the same way as you opted into the beta.

Has this fixed the issues with CBs while in federations or the ghost ships in the ship builder? I read the patch notes but I'm not sure i understood it.

Haven't had a chance to see if the CBs are working in federations (I've heard they are not), but I can confirm the ghost ship bug in the fleet manager is not fixed.

We removed it during Federations playtesting, which is why there wasn't an icon requested for it. (It uses the same icon as the tier 2.)

I fixed the errors in the disabled version because their existence bothered me. More importantly, if we decide to re-add it in the future, I didn't want a broken version sitting around that someone might assume was fine. (And I expect more tweaking of empire sprawl and admin cap in the future.)

The text description for organic robot assembly buildings needs updating, it currently still says that roboticists turn minerals into alloys. Is this worth making a bug report for?
 
I'm seeing an issue where I can't replace the shipyard on my home station with a trade hub. It lets me attempt the replacement:

uKrlHvk.png


Then when the build of the trade hub has completed, the shipyard is still there, the starbase doesn't collect any extra trade, and I can't attempt the replacement again:

Ld2YOfy.png


You can work around it by dismantling the module you want to replace first, then building the new one afterwards, but replacing modules appears to be broken.
 
Please, if you have a save that consistently desyncs after loading, post it in the bug forum. I would LOVE to get my hands on it and fix it for you.
Do you want only a "after loading" desync savegame or any savegame with desyncs with 2.6.3 enabled?
 
Please fix the anchorages listing in Naval Capacity. Towards the end of the game there are so many and I can't see the bottom of the list where it says max number of titans etc.
 
Guys... it doesn't work.

https://imgur.com/a/V7zf5kE
V7zf5kE


Ethics attraction still doesn't work. I've only stopped suppressing the Spiritualists and promoting the Materialist twice in the entire 90-something year run. For like a couple of months to rush influence for building habitats or elections.

Other ethics are fixed, like I don't have an expected 4% of Pacifists for whatever reason, but I cannot make my pops abandon the Spiritualist faction and switch to either of the other three. My materialists, in the meantime, are expected to be 63%, whereas only 35% of my pops embrace that ethic.

Seriously. It's freaking insane. Not to mention, why do I even get Spiritualist factions as a Fanatic Materialist at the start? If you give me the tools to design my nation as a player, how does it make sense for the game to just walk over my choice by popping up an opposite faction right at the start, with no way to reduce its numbers? And even if there was such a way, again, why does it make sense?

If I want a spiritualist faction, I'll go Psionic theory, I'll avoid getting robots, but I should just get spiritualists out of nowhere at the game start, when I chose to play the materialists. It's like you start playing a mage and then the game tells you, "hey, you'll have to be a warrior I guess".
 
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can anyone confirm that multyiplayer OOS is significantly fixed and improved? I won't be able to try it out for another couple days. Thanks

I can confirm that a game we had running (including mods) which was desyncing like mad, stopped desyncing all together and it runs fine now. The occasional hick-ups from late-game are still there, but atleast that's only a 2second lag, instead of having to rehost.
So yes, it appears a lot better now and actually fixed.
 
Seems like good changes for the most part, but can you please fix crisis fleet behavior, especially the Great Khan and Unbidden? Both of those have reported issues which make games a lot less fun.

Also, I'm somewhat amused by both the ridiculousness of x10 and x25 crisis strengths and the fact that we can probably beat them with the default endgame dates. Instead of just beefing up the crisis strength options, could you maybe increase the rate at which tech costs scale with tier to make it harder to be neck deep in repeatable by the time the crisis rolls in?
 
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It didn't feel like that. In my actual Multiplayer round ( 5 player, 20 AI (Grandmaster), 1000 Stars, 2.6.3 enabled) we have a machine player and he easily outclasses even a well played Ringworld start from midgame on. We made this test intentionally and we came to the conclusion, that machine hives play quite different compared to earlyer versions, but as soon you lerned the differences they are as overpowered as ever :(

I have not played enough Machine empires to comment on that. It might be true, especially given the fact that Machines now use Energy for research, and not a lot at that. But of course we still got atleast 2 big threads talking about how Machine empires are now "unplayable" which is of course ridicolous.

I do think Machines are snowballing less than they used to though. They do no longer start with 4.0 pop growth before modifiers, now 3.0. Managing admin cap might have added some difficulty, which is not a bad thing considering many players wanted more challenges when playing Gestalt (of course that challenge is also added for non-Gestalts). But Machine empires have the best job for Admin cap, so I presume as soon as you unlock higher level buildings, its not a problem?

Atleast Hiveminds are now an empire that can be played by the AI and players without having to minmax every single maintenance, enforcer and synapse Drone and Roboticist are nerfed (but they are still the best pop growth job).
 
Then what's the point of the tech? You are paying 8k tech for a 4% reduction in tech cost.

You need to research technologies worth 200,000 science to turn the tech into a net positive.

A different way to think of it:

At 1k sprawl it is identical to one level 2 building. Those same five pops as researchers could be pushing 400 research a month instead, so you could recoup the cost in about twenty months, in theory.

In theory. In practice this doesn't happen because you need to maintain a buffer at high sprawl levels, because your sprawl grows every month. Anyone who gets meaningful benefit from the tech without the building is playing a horrific micro game.