First, kudos to the devs - the Beta patch solved my lag issues that were crippling the game ~2350.
District and building system: took a while to get used to but I like it. Give me options, but it does massively increase the complexity of planet development and management.
I am so glad the sectors are gone – it was a VERY annoying system, requiring so much micromanagement and cost to fiddle with sectors all the time. The new system makes me prioritize and not colonize every planet, which to some degree solves the micromanagement problem. The new built-in planet groupings are a little irritating, but now I just understand that I’ll only have a few planet groups that get a governor.
Playing Driven Assimilators I like that I can't just absorb another empire with a quick wave of invasions. My energy production takes a hit while the new pops are being converted into productive citizens so I have to pace myself vs my war exhaustion. But I do wonder why Driven Assimilators have a Federation option under the Versatility Tradition– I’m not likely to form a Federation since everyone hates me, I’m not inclined to “Federate” with anyone since they are only raw material, and in my galaxy there are no other machine empires anyway. Also, quite a few AI worlds are crime-ridden pest holes – which I handily fix through assimilation. I also don’t have to worry about trade.
The AI has a hard time getting a fleet that can take down perimeter star bases, so AI wars never seem to go anywhere. Wars are more come-as-you-are affairs since with alloys replacing ships is a challenge if your lead fleet gets trashed. This is in stark contrast to the minerals system, where fleets were easily replaceable.
Due to alloys fleets are much smaller overall. Even with hyped alloy production keeping a modest updated fleet is a challenge. Making Mega Structures take alloys also makes them much rarer, which is good.
The Empire Sprawl modifier is a great idea. I can still succeed as a huge empire, but I have to balance resources, research, etc – which is as it should be. I like that my leaders are energy based and MUCH more expensive as my empire grows. Fortunately my machine leaders are close to immortal.
So overall 2.2 is a great rework of one of my favorite games.
District and building system: took a while to get used to but I like it. Give me options, but it does massively increase the complexity of planet development and management.
I am so glad the sectors are gone – it was a VERY annoying system, requiring so much micromanagement and cost to fiddle with sectors all the time. The new system makes me prioritize and not colonize every planet, which to some degree solves the micromanagement problem. The new built-in planet groupings are a little irritating, but now I just understand that I’ll only have a few planet groups that get a governor.
Playing Driven Assimilators I like that I can't just absorb another empire with a quick wave of invasions. My energy production takes a hit while the new pops are being converted into productive citizens so I have to pace myself vs my war exhaustion. But I do wonder why Driven Assimilators have a Federation option under the Versatility Tradition– I’m not likely to form a Federation since everyone hates me, I’m not inclined to “Federate” with anyone since they are only raw material, and in my galaxy there are no other machine empires anyway. Also, quite a few AI worlds are crime-ridden pest holes – which I handily fix through assimilation. I also don’t have to worry about trade.
The AI has a hard time getting a fleet that can take down perimeter star bases, so AI wars never seem to go anywhere. Wars are more come-as-you-are affairs since with alloys replacing ships is a challenge if your lead fleet gets trashed. This is in stark contrast to the minerals system, where fleets were easily replaceable.
Due to alloys fleets are much smaller overall. Even with hyped alloy production keeping a modest updated fleet is a challenge. Making Mega Structures take alloys also makes them much rarer, which is good.
The Empire Sprawl modifier is a great idea. I can still succeed as a huge empire, but I have to balance resources, research, etc – which is as it should be. I like that my leaders are energy based and MUCH more expensive as my empire grows. Fortunately my machine leaders are close to immortal.
So overall 2.2 is a great rework of one of my favorite games.