[Dev Team] 3.0.3 Beta Patch Released (checksum 927c)

[Cymsdale]

I liked pirates spawning in unclaimed systems, but I'd say it was better mainly because it gave time and a bit of mystery to them. The current appearing out of thin air in a system to immediately start killing stations is so stupid.
I don't like how pirates have never been a serious threat. I don't know what you're doing that makes them more than "Oh, fleet go here for a second and come back".

Pirates are just too easy to deal with. Break off a few corvettes, set to patrol, be forever annoyed at the fleet order in your outliner.

 

[impspy]

Piracy strikes me as something that, as it's currently implemented, doesn't really belong in the game anymore. It's a boring mechanic that the AI struggles to deal with but no player does, it makes trade of far-flung planets useless without an extensive system of bases or gateways, etc.

Leave piracy as an abstraction that is more readily countered with star bases and weapon modules but remove the spawning of tiny pirate fleets that act as nothing but an annoyance.

 

[Markusw7]

I repeat. By 2450 when we are in the late late game... Even a simple 50k~120k unique fleet that will not be reinforced is not a nuisance or anything to you if you well managed your empire.

The only case scenario where this will change something a bit is during a balanced war to do something in the middle. Otherwise it will just take you 10s of your gaming time to send 25% of one of yours fleets to wipe them out and there it is. Done.

For the basic time passed to make this event happen this is a joke. It is not against the devs' it is a fact, the espionage system doesn't change anything in real gameplay at the moment. (intel does a bit but not espionage actions)

For a human player yes, for most A.I. empires a 120k fleet will wipe them and 50k would probably do serious damage. Privateers should never be this especially for the meagre energy cost you're paying.

 

[Obidobi]

Hey all, we're updating the open beta with some new AI fixes and Balance fixes! We're missing some translations in this mini-update, but we're aiming to have it added to the open beta as soon as we get it from the translators!

New checksum: bfcc

Here are the new entries to the patch notes:

Spoiler: 3.0.3 update

#################################################################
######################### VERSION 3.0.3 ###########################
#################################################################

###################
# Balance
###################

* Reduced the number of Clerk jobs provided by buildings and districts by 40%.
* Clerk trade value has been increased to 4.
* Crime Lord Deal now also adds criminal jobs.
* Manufacturing focus buildings (factories and foundries) are no longer exclusive from one another, and no longer add jobs to Industrial Districts. They instead increase the base production of alloy or consumer goods producing jobs by 1 or 2, with a corresponding increase in upkeep.
* Buildings that increased basic resource production and added jobs to basic resource producing buildings or districts (Energy Grids, Mineral Purification Plants, etc.) now increase the base production of the relevant jobs by 1 or 2 based on tier instead of their previous modifiers. Machine empires still gain the extra resource district slots as before. Yes, things like "livestock" counts as a "relevant job".
* Reduced base automatic resettlement chance to 5% per month (46% chance per planet to resettle per year).
* Reduced logistic growth ceiling from 2.0 to 1.5.
* Sliders have been added in Galaxy Generation for the planetary Logistic Growth cap and Empire-wide Growth Required scaling values. Please note that adjusting these can have significant effects on game balance and performance.

###################
# AI
###################

* AI now cares more about energy & alloys. Added a building limit define.
* AI now waits 10 years to fully take over players.
* Improved AI human takeover behavior
Code:
** bWasHumanRecently added to weighting stuff in CalcBuildingWeight
** "HandlePlanets" now checks for AI_FREE_JOBS_BUILDING_BUILD_CAP in order to build misc buildings
** Removed the Upkeep check for approximation because of locking itself out of building certain stuff in deficit
** AI stops building armies after takeover
** AI stops building starbases & starbase modules after takeover
** AI stops buying & selling pops after takeover
** Added some comments to pop.h and pop.cpp

Script
** Reduced amount of jobs allowed to build new stuff
** Increased scores for deficit, focus & amnetie building weights
** Reduced weight for pop buildings
** Increased AI takeover timer to 10 years
** Updated economic plans to not change as much through the game time
** Economic plans now favor less research and more stability and economic balance
** Added a job weight for low income for artisan jobs
** Increased job weight for technicians for low income situations
** Reduced low income threshold for miner jobs
* Economic plan fix for hive & gestalt

###################
# Modding
###################

* LOGISTIC_POP_GROWTH_CEILING, REQUIRED_POP_GROWTH_SCALE, and REQUIRED_POP_ASSEMBLY_SCALE defines have been removed as they have been replaced by sliders in galaxy generation.

###################
# Bugfixes
###################

* Updated numbers in espionage operation roll tooltip to show correct information
* Fixed a too-long string cutting off invader power values in ground combat view in French
* Fixed an issue where destroying the Contingency's final world with a Star-Eater would not not properly end the Contingency Crisis
* Further fixes to the end of the Cybrex precursor chain
* The tooltip when you can't reinforce a fleet shouldn't duplicate the cause.
* Fleets can be reinforced even if one ship type in the fleet can't be built.
* Fixed a crash upon mousing over a system with planets in as an observer
* Fixed a couple of Edicts having wrong deactivation cost
* Thought Enforcement tech is now researchable with Utopia.
* Fixed an issue where Nomads would keep asking for a Planet over and over, before establishing communications
* You can no longer invite someone you are at war against to join your side in a new war

I'll updated the main post changelog with all the changes combined. But if you want to see only what's new, there you have it!

Hope you guys enjoy the open beta !

 

[Critical Ethics]

* Reduced base automatic resettlement chance to 5% per month (46% chance per planet to resettle per year).

Aww man what

How come I don't get a slider <>

 

[sillyrobot]

* LOGISTIC_POP_GROWTH_CEILING, REQUIRED_POP_GROWTH_SCALE, and REQUIRED_POP_ASSEMBLY_SCALE defines have been removed as they have been replaced by sliders in galaxy generation.

Anyone know if there is still a way to mod these effects or are we now restricted to the slider scale?

 

[Pornek]

* Crime Lord Deal now also adds criminal jobs.

Well. Didnt expect to see this.

 

[sillyrobot]

Aww man what

How come I don't get a slider <>

Time to put my resettlement engine back in, I guess.

 

[Cronos988]

Anyone know if there is still a way to mod these effects or are we now restricted to the slider scale?

There should be new defines for the default slider positions, which ought to have the same effect for ongoing games.

Aww man what

How come I don't get a slider <>

I had already modded it to 25%, guess that stays in.

 

[Keith_C]

Huh. Crash on game start when using UI Overhaul Dynamic. No crash when using zero mods, so I fully appreciate this is a mod problem...but thought I'd share in case this meant something

 

[sillyrobot]

There should be new defines for the default slider positions, which ought to have the same effect for ongoing games.




I had already modded it to 25%, guess that stays in.

Right, but I was looking at experimenting with weird settings, like -0.05 for the empire-wide malus (large empires grow faster rather than smaller) and such. moving the logistic growth to a true logistic curve (really high ceiling), and other strangeness as the mood struck me.

 

[Ryika]

Anyone know if there is still a way to mod these effects or are we now restricted to the slider scale?

They use new defines instead:

LOGISTIC_CEILING_DEFAULT = 1.5
LOGISTIC_CEILING_MIN = 1.0
LOGISTIC_CEILING_MAX = 2.0
LOGISTIC_CEILING_SLIDER_INTERVAL = 0.05

GROWTH_SCALE_DEFAULT = 0.25
GROWTH_SCALE_MIN = 0.00
GROWTH_SCALE_MAX = 1.00
GROWTH_SCALE_SLIDER_INTERVAL = 0.05

 

[Critical Ethics]

Well. Didnt expect to see this.

Yeah that's a good one

 

[Ferrus Animus]

###################
# Balance
###################

* Reduced base automatic resettlement chance to 5% per month (46% chance per planet to resettle per year).

Not seeing democracy getting buffed, so that's an indirect nerf too.
Maybe change democracy to a flat 5% increase then?

Also automatic resettlement is not a balance thing but a QoL thing, please consider that,

 

[Eladrin]

Right, but I was looking at experimenting with weird settings, like -0.05 for the empire-wide malus (large empires grow faster rather than smaller) and such. moving the logistic growth to a true logistic curve (really high ceiling), and other strangeness as the mood struck me.

The limits on the sliders are in defines if you want to make additional adjustments. For a true logistic curve, you'll want to edit some of the other defines as well, like the logistic growth floor, lower threshold, and min pops.

 

[Pornek]

If I leave growth sliders on default they are at the same values as the previous betabranch ?

 

[Hemothep]

5% base resettlement means 14 months on average until half the planets with one unemployed pop resettle.
Are you sure you want to do this?
This isn't something that helps balance and it actually hurts performance (the triggers need to make more calculations if there are more planets with unemployed pops).
It also reduces the usefullness of this QoL Feature.
I really don't see any upside to this.

 

[L.Y.HJ]

What is FE LOGISTIC CELING?

 

[Mealya]

* Crime Lord Deal now also adds criminal jobs.

 

[Alfray Stryke]

You say "welcome", it shocked some folks in our internal MP when they activated the Crime Lord deal without checking the tooltip. They did not welcome the change.