Horizon Signal - Bug, or Laziness and Paradox Fail?

[Melabranche]

So...
I created new race (to this time take something from it), and start hunt to get this event. Everything works more or less fine. I survive and wait to get my reward - and I got sweet system with five 20+ planets. It take me more than 20 years to build them up, and make them center of my very small empire.
Those planets got events - structures / bunkers / Ethic change to pacifist - but I was thinking, that all of this is "worm gifts" for me. Until... I got message from Spiritualist FA - "abandon all Tomb Worlds" - They declare war on me, because I disturb peace of the dead. My 12k fleet vs 4x50k from FA... GG. 10/10.

Really Paradox? You was so lazy to not check this possibility? All my work for nothing?
You could make special planet that only spawn in this event!

 

[Oscot]

This sounds like Working As Designed to me.
"Fallen Empires are impolite and don't care about the special snowflake circumstances of your little species" you say?
Next in the news, Space Pope denies accusations of Catholicism.

Mind your language please .
/Tiny

 

[Me_]

Frankly, Spiritualist FE complaining about Tomb Worlds is ridiculous. If you colonize Tomb Worlds, they get mad but if you terraform them, they don't cake.

As for OP. Oversight. Plus Horizon was not made by Paradox but by a freelance outside Dev as guest writer.

 

[CurseUppl]

TBH that sounds like a bug. If anything terraforming should be an instant declaration of war and a possible trigger for them awakening because their ancestors literally rolled in their graves.

 

[mudcrabmerchant]

Going through with a long quest, getting a cool reward, and then getting screwed over by something that's literally outside of your control to prevent or fight, is definitely not good game design.

I don't really find this kind of interaction with FE's to be interesting - it isn't a difficult choice, it's just "check your fleet cap; if above 200k, you're fine, if below 200k, go to hell".

 

[Melabranche]

This is your "Working As Designed" version...
My capitol was relocated to Core Vormu, and after was purged... Every planet was transfer to not existing sector!
I don't have any planet, fleet, civ ship ... anything! I can only make research! Now, I can only wait to someone attack me, or somehow to get 700 influence, to destroy this ghost sector - And no, I cannot take away any single planet from it - but it say, that "this thing" can be destroy by 700 influence.
You can "Respectfully Disagree" with my opinion on this event and / or final reward from it, but whot you see, is effect of paradox lack of testing.

Edit

I wait to get this 700 influece and ... ghost sector is destroyed! But... I have 0 planet under my control, huge income lost (got my fleet back), and lack of strength to try another run with this "Working As Designed" game. I'am done for now.

 

[Ramiel]

In my humble opinion
- Spiritualist FE demanding you abandon your awesome tomb-world system, even if it is a reward from a long questline? That sucks, but working as designed, and I don't have many issues with it.
- One of those worlds they want you to abandon is your Capital? Not cool, probably should be able to refuse with greatly reduced penalties.
- Being forced to abandon your Capital causes the game to freak out and makes it impossible to do anything? Definitely a major game-breaking bug, bring it to the devs ASAP.
Hope you posted about this in the bug report forum, this sounds like a pretty critical one they'll want to fix immediately.

 

[Melabranche]

I will do this asap, but... with no saves - I was to mad for every bug in my last few plays, so I uninstal stelaris after this one.

 

[conco]

While I agree doing a long quest chain to get the reward taken away is irritating, I don't think it should be changed just for that tbh. I think it's more of an issue with xenophobe and spiritualist FEs being very, very boring to interact with compared to their counterpart. They effectively function as roadblocks on the edges of the map that stop you from doing certain game functions until you hit a certain fleet power. The other two atleast have interesting interactions in the sense that you can actually please them, and the things that piss them off are very clear and something you get a build up towards rather than immediate war.

 

[Oscot]

Going through with a long quest, getting a cool reward, and then getting screwed over by something that's literally outside of your control to prevent or fight, is definitely not good game.

Have you ever tried playing EUIV as a one-province minor before?

Getting screwed over by things outside of your control is absolutely par the course for a grand strategy game.

Try playing as Ulm and crying about how all the bigger countries are mean to you, see how far that gets ya.

 

[Ashantai]

I would suggest you log it as a bug if you feel it is.

I could go either way on whether it's a bug or WAD.

 

[LughC]

This sounds like exactly the kind of thing that people want out of this game.... this is a win not a fail

 

[Ezumiyr]

Have you ever tried playing EUIV as a one-province minor before?

Getting screwed over by things outside of your control is absolutely par the course for a grand strategy game.

Try playing as Ulm and crying about how all the bigger countries are mean to you, see how far that gets ya.

How is that comparable to the present situation? The OP didn't try a challenging start, he was just playing without asking anything, and suddenly he gets Mongol-invasioned by a FE.
If I want to play a Ulm in EU4 I can, but I can also play as a medium empire, or as England. And EU4 is not Stellaris anyway.

FE are meant to be huge, unbeatable empires until late game. But it doesn't mean that they should be able to make your empire unplayable just because you're unlucky. The thing about the ghost sector is definitely a bug. If it was only the FE putting you away from your tomb world it would be manageable, but if the game can't handle the different situations, then there's indeed a problem. Just read what the OP posted before showing such despise...

 

[LughC]

How is that comparable to the present situation? The OP didn't try a challenging start, he was just playing without asking anything, and suddenly he gets Mongol-invasioned by a FE.
If I want to play a Ulm in EU4 I can, but I can also play as a medium empire, or as England. And EU4 is not Stellaris anyway.

FE are meant to be huge, unbeatable empires until late game. But it doesn't mean that they should be able to make your empire unplayable just because you're unlucky./QUOTE]

He chose to start the game with FE and they didn't make the empire unplayable. The OP could have abandoned those planets until he had enough to take on the FE.

 

[Melabranche]

One. I chose to start game with FE. That is true. But...

He chose to start the game with FE and they didn't make the empire unplayable. The OP could have abandoned those planets until he had enough to take on the FE.

This is your "Working As Designed" version...
My capitol was relocated to Core Vormu, and after was purged... Every planet was transfer to not existing sector!
I don't have any planet, fleet, civ ship ... anything! I can only make research! Now, I can only wait to someone attack me, or somehow to get 700 influence, to destroy this ghost sector - And no, I cannot take away any single planet from it - but it say, that "this thing" can be destroy by 700 influence.
You can "Respectfully Disagree" with my opinion on this event and / or final reward from it, but whot you see, is effect of paradox lack of testing.

Edit

I wait to get this 700 influece and ... ghost sector is destroyed! But... I have 0 planet under my control, huge income lost (got my fleet back), and lack of strength to try another run with this "Working As Designed" game. I'am done for now.

How playable is this? Or, I'am lack of knowleage to play as fleet-only empire?

Two. After I "cool off", I start another game. After event fire, I delay it to point when I know if there is a Spirit FE in game. I found two FE (observers and keepers), but third was uknown. In that time, observers awoke, and I take my chance, and end event chain ... Spiritualist say "hello" to me. Pause. Sign up as signatorie. Un-pause. Spiritualist say "purge your capitol", and I say "No". In next 100+ years I was protected by AE from the threat of Spiritual FE and buged Unbidden.

Now chose one:
- "Working As Designed" version where, as Ezumyir said, "just playing without asking anything, and suddenly he gets Mongol-invasioned by a FE".
or
- As a young race know everything about everything and everyone, in the same time praying to RNG.

For me, both are bad. First, because this is insane, to sacrafice time / research / influence / etc to end this quest chain, and be screwed by someone much below god-Worm. Second, because there is no fun in discovery, when you do it to prevent something, that know will happen.
If this quest end up with destruction of local systems / cut hyperline nearby / set new crisis / etc, I still be doing it. Why? Because it's one of more interesting aspect of game! Unknow. "Spice" added to race. Something, that make playable race special.
That is my point.

 

[LughC]

it was working as desinged this is not the only thing that can cause FE to awaken early that is why you can turn them off if you don't want them,


what you could have done is once the FE said they were going to start attacking you is build a colony ship on your furthest and hold them off till it was built once built surrender to the war and then take another planet. I had to do this when i settled a holy world as my third planet without realizing

 

[CiderMuffin]

Frankly, Spiritualist FE complaining about Tomb Worlds is ridiculous. If you colonize Tomb Worlds, they get mad but if you terraform them, they don't cake.

As for OP. Oversight. Plus Horizon was not made by Paradox but by a freelance outside Dev as guest writer.

TBF Horizon was written by a freelance writer, it was scripted and edited by Maximilian Olbers, a Paradox content designer. But yea, it's working as intended

 

[TheBeautifulVoid2]

This sounds pretty awesome to me. There was evidently something in those five planets which the younger races weren't meant to find.

 

[The Founder]

- Being forced to abandon your Capital causes the game to freak out and makes it impossible to do anything? Definitely a major game-breaking bug, bring it to the devs ASAP.
Hope you posted about this in the bug report forum, this sounds like a pretty critical one they'll want to fix immediately.

FE are meant to be huge, unbeatable empires until late game. But it doesn't mean that they should be able to make your empire unplayable just because you're unlucky. The thing about the ghost sector is definitely a bug. If it was only the FE putting you away from your tomb world it would be manageable, but if the game can't handle the different situations, then there's indeed a problem. Just read what the OP posted before showing such despise...

Now that has nothing to do with the Horizon Signal Questchain. Calling this the "fault" of the Questchain, would be like blaming the guy that invited you to a party that your cars brakes broke down halfway there.

I never actually lost my capitol. But everytime the AI does it, it just names a new one.
The OP migth be the only one to have ever even considered adding all systems to a sector - rather then just the excess ones.

Bug? Yes.
Likely or gamebreaking? Nope. You really have to work to get it. Even I do not trust the sector AI that much. I might go -1 or -2 towarsd the cap, but only if I plan to colonise/conquer later.
Fault of the Questchain? Heck no.

Frankly, Spiritualist FE complaining about Tomb Worlds is ridiculous. If you colonize Tomb Worlds, they get mad but if you terraform them, they don't cake.

TBH that sounds like a bug. If anything terraforming should be an instant declaration of war and a possible trigger for them awakening because their ancestors literally rolled in their graves.

They definitely need to work on the "Spiritualsit hate colonising tomb worlds" mechanic. I thought about stuff like "Flagging" planets via a Flag. Rather then go by basic type.

 

[Nyrael]

I can't for life of me understand why the spiritualist FE even cares about Tomb Worlds, especially seeing as you "disturb the dead" in many other ways too. Couldn't they be pissy about genetic engineering or terraforming, aka meddling with the natural order?