New Economy and Balance

[Zealote]

So!

Is anyone having issues with balance between current economy and the crisis power?

I mean, it was pretty balanced before imo, but it seems that right now economy is balanced to keep power down compared to previous patch but the crisis (including Marauders and Fallen Empires awakenening) has remained the same, which resulted in my Ironman game getting absolutely wrecked by Marauders around 2300 as they were flying around with multiple 30k fleets and other empires had around 10k and at 2400 a Fallen Empire woke up with 5 fleets of 100k while I have two 50k fleets (not at fleet capacity but economy starved). Every other empire is pathetic towards me and have around 20k fleets. I mean, its not even a fight.

I can't tell this is me not min/maxing properly (I don't think thats the purpose of the game) or a general lack of balance given the new economy. :/

 

[Delthor]

I haven't had issues facing down the crises, but the AI has been struggling a ton to keep up. The new patch that hit live improved things when I was playing it on the test branch so hopefully that helps. I'd recommend working on fine tuning your economy more. Also, if you're incapable of holding off the Khan, you should consider surrendering to become a satrapy and fighting free later when you can build things up and the Successor's fleets should be brought into line with other AI empires. Same thing with the awakened empires.

 

[B3ndolf]

In my last game I had 6 100k fleets by 2400 on a 400 star galaxy so no I don't think it's the economy being unbalanced.

It's more complicated and takes more thought to get it working well but once you work it out it is still possible to get massive fleets.

P.s. this was with the beta which does in grease alloy output a bit.

P.p.s ecumenopoli are op.

 

[SpectralShade]

the AI seems unable to deal with these things.

I had the khan spawn and he took about a quarter of the galaxy (he didn't spawn near me) before one of his concubines killed him. He was litterally moonwalking over all the other empires and managed to outright destroy 2 AI empires in that time (as in, you get the message that the empire no longer exists).

the single war I've been in against the AI where my goal was to take over control of some systems that prevented me from connecting 2 parts of my empire, I also moonwalked over the AI.
The "fleet" from the hive AI had strength 450 or something like that, while I was fielding one fleet of around 12k, one Gray warshipform, and had my 2 reminder fleets of 12k just chilling at my bases, eating donuts and watching reruns of battlestar galactiga. My adopted amoeba alone handled the "impressive" fleet from the Hive and the fleets I was bothering to move around in their territory just flew from planet to planet bombing them to 100% devastation before moving on.

 

[Zealote]

Oh don't get me wrong, its my first test play of the patch and I'm loving it. But the Khan spawned across the galaxy and just wrecked everyone without any hint of difficulty. Died of old age. If thats how it should work, thats fine, but I don't remember being that hard for the AI, specially under a federation.

And I'm pretty sure I can handle the Fallen Empire because I have fleet capacity and resources to pull it off, but it seems unbalanced in the sense that its way beyond what the AI would produce, so way above what you need at the moment it arrives, unlike before. Its misleading. I can deal with anyone or even 3-4 empires at once but 1 crisis and the galaxy is wrecked because its more powerful than anyone combined at that given moment. That seems like a lack of balance to me.

Im not saying Im not capable of dealing with it and mix/maxing my economy for that, but that wasn't necessary before. Thats what I'm saying I guess. If you have to power build to deal with one crisis while the combined federation AI gets wrecked, something is not working right. :/

And as SpectralShade said, my ameba alone could conquer an empire when it reached old age. Im pretty sure thats not how its supposed to go lel

 

[Snoipah]

AI is too stupid to handle the new economy system. I never see them making the buildings that create crystals/gas/whatever so all their buildings are stuck at level 1.

The only way awaken empires/crisis are a threat is because the crisis doesn't rely on a economy system and the awaken empires start off with amazing buildings on their worlds.

Game is not unplayable but it is unable to be taken seriously.

 

[AlanC9]

The endgame doesn't seem very different to me. Fleet cap is the same as it ever was. Well, unless you're using up a lot of your starbases on trade protection, which I'm starting to think is a trap option.

 

[B3ndolf]

The ai is a bit better on the beta but not much. I play on grand admiral which makes them build significantly bigger fleets but even then they seem to plateau at a certain point.

The Khan still takes them out but much slower and they would stand no chance against a crisis.

About all the ai is good for even on ga is providing a feeling of pressure in the early game as they will attack with some decent fleets if you neglect your military too much.

Hopefully the next couple of patches will improve the ai.