Why did it have to be snakes? (Or is cohesion too generous?)

[3Dent]

I'd have, what, 40% piracy with the old system?


Now there's literally no meaningful penalty for snaking, unless, I guess, you play with very high lane densities... Or am I missing something?

 

[Mastikator]

You're not as snaky as you think you are.

 

[Razzlie]

Looks to me like you're using chokepoints well and actually aren't snaking very much. There's relatively few outbound hyperlane connections.

 

[3Dent]

You're not as snaky as you think you are.

I guess, but that's about as snaky as you can get in a 400-star game, without actively trying to get negative cohesion, and the old system was less forgiving.

 

[SpectralShade]

not to mention, that under the old system, if pirates spawned far away from your fleet, they could do some decent damage before you were able to supress them.

 

[Magil]

It's probably better to be more forgiving, given the empire sprawl you get for simply building an outpost. I've never really liked the "we're going to punish you if you snake, but if you fill in the gaps you also take a penalty" thing.

 

[Mastikator]

I guess, but that's about as snaky as you can get in a 400-star game, without actively trying to get negative cohesion, and the old system was less forgiving.

Here are some places you filled where you could've been more snaky by not filling. Those plus going down a corridor where snaking is not even possible more than covers up for your vulnerable tendrils.

 

[Foefaller]

It's probably better to be more forgiving, given the empire sprawl you get for simply building an outpost. I've never really liked the "we're going to punish you if you snake, but if you fill in the gaps you also take a penalty" thing.

Actually, the penalty from sprawl for an outpost is slightly *lower* than the straight penalty you used to get in 2.1 (.6% tech cost vs. 1%, unity cost the same) it just looks worse because planets have become way more efficient in terms of increased costs vs. Output, especially since you are not actually paying the full penalty the planet gives moment the colony ship touches down like before.

 

[3Dent]

Here are some places you filled where you could've been more snaky by not filling. Those plus going down a corridor where snaking is not even possible more than covers up for your vulnerable tendrils.

Good point, even if half of those were gates, wormholes and SR-rich systems, basically the places I snaked to in the first place... But, I guess I ended up with a less snaky empire in the end than I expected.

 

[Pyoro]

What really tanks cohesion is skipping systems. I think that's primarily what the system is supposed to prevent and maybe that's OK. I don't know. It certainly gives the player an advantage since the AI in my experience doesn't have a clue on "how to snake", but compared to the various other problems the AI has maybe this is an acceptable player advantage ^^;

 

[3Dent]

What really tanks cohesion is skipping systems. I think that's primarily what the system is supposed to prevent and maybe that's OK. I don't know. It certainly gives the player an advantage since the AI in my experience doesn't have a clue on "how to snake", but compared to the various other problems the AI has maybe this is an acceptable player advantage ^^;

AI can sometimes wait and take just that last chokepoint, making your investment in the snake pointless if you get too ambitious, so it at least it can do some counter-snaking...

Then again, it's a good strategy even if it's really not a snake.

 

[TehJumpingJawa]

I'm not sure when it happened, but the changes to the galaxy generation algorithm (heavily emphasising clusters/constellations of stars) is largely responsible for the snakeyness of current gameplay.
Increasing the hyper lane density doesn't seem to help much either, increasing the number of connections between stars within each constellation, but having little effect upon the number of links between constellations.

 

[Sayakus]

I have hit like 60% once. Not much for a snake but I did hardcore resource/planet grab. It should be reduced as base but with like 10 adm cap buff.

 

[Cymsdale]

I think it's supposed to be generous because the system is really only supposed to kick in if you're doing something super gross, like building an archipelago.