Spent today getting the update for RE/RG ready by rushing around rapidly updating POIs with new lootable content, weapons, troops, shields, etc... Removing some exploit POIs that should've been removed from the game years ago (glares at Eleon and their stupid BAO_PF2, a goddamn TEST POI! Why was it ever put in the game? It doesn't even work!) Some new variants to replace old ones for vanilla... once I re-remove the reforged stuff I put in them. Tomorrow... i'll try and tackle an easier economy. But that's gonna be so boring. It's just lots and lots of math.
Messing around with crazy **** from the weapons research dept with the gloves off (limits off and an advanced core)... The BFG-01 test bed: Thats 50 blinkered inside mounted plasma turrets firing all with line of sight on target. Turns out that more than enough to take down a base's shield in one hit... And gouge out a massive hole in the test target on the next salvo If anyone remembers that massive alien C-shaped Bentusi vessel from Homeworld, then think this thing mounted inside something like that... Meanwhile the 'Quatropus' CPU and limits compliant dreadnought killer is nearing production ready... Its really space only due to its shape, so for landing on a planet - it needs a special landing frame and repair bay: With elevator up to the access ramp which is on the lower 'tentacle' as the end balls are solid combat steel to soak damage. For space station docking there are access doors on the outside of each of the side tentacles.
Most impressive, especially your near spherical constructs. I'm going to have to give it another try myself now that I see it can be done.
Today I built a little hydroponics base on an large arid planet. Weather is good, few threats. And most importantly... the teleporter in this little building will bridge me to a distant solar system with a Polaris Trading Station. It's the only place that sells filters so far. So I'm all for strategic logistics now. Inside the new base with my destroyer stealing the morning view.
BAO_PF2 makes me a little sad. Last year I took the time to replace every pre-alpha block, revamping the station but trying to stay true to the original (mostly). I then uploaded the updated POI and gave the devs permission to use it. They never did, I still keep it in my workshop if anyone wants to use it. Luark Station
The problem with BAO_PF2 is that it's made of illegal, pre-alpha blocks. Blocks that are used in no other BP, even other old BPs. Those antique block IDs were repurposed in Reforged (like they should be in vanilla) so the POI spawns made of Quantum CPU Extenders. Which has broken a couple of Reforged Eden servers where someone's found BAO_PF2 and then looted around 700 ultimate CPU extenders. Which would be if a POI was made of advanced cores. It's not good.
I know about the pre-alpha blocks, in my blueprint I replaced them. The spawners were removed. The square ones were pretty easy, I was able to use the replaceblocks command to take care of them. Hull, interiorkitchen, interiorliving, interiorliving02, and interiorbath can all be replaced with hullfulllarge. The non-square blocks were replaced manually, since the rotation for pre-alpha blocks does not match the rotation for the current ones and bad things happen when you try to use the replaceblocks command on them. If you have DI turned on it will tell you the block name. I believe I replaced all the legacy blocks in my rebuild, I spent a long time going around the BA with DI turned on while I double-checked that. Of course one of the more amusing things about the original was that it spawned with the turrets and gravity generator turned off, making it a easy kill.
Well, nearly time for me to get to work tonight, that thing that pays the bills. However, earlier today I think I finished redoing my Turkey CV so it now complies with CPU and mass-volume. Ended up downgrading the hull to plastic mostly for the mass savings, although it saves a little CPU too. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2274929049 If there are hangar doors on both sides of the CV, can you call it a drive thru hangar?
Heh - to think the last few CVs I have been making have gone the complete opposite and have at least a few bits with 11-15 layers of combat steel to soak up rocket swarms after someone thought spawning dreadnoughts all over the place was a good idea...
Thats Ok, your response is an answer unto itself. This is the original, I have been unhappy with it from a "what happens when the power is off" standpoint. I know the game does not care, but I am heavily into the realism behind a build. I also wanted to add an animated element, so I put the circular scientific display in the middle. So, still experimenting with a solid connector, but trying a different layout.
I think someone thought the best way to make the game more exciting is to make the early to mid-game harder. Ironic that people complain about lack of end game content and challenge after hard challenges are packed into the early or mid-game? I think of the hot spring pools that I went to with my wife this weekend. The first pool we went to was the second to hottest of the customer pools. It was difficult initially for me to enter. But after that pool, going to the hottest pool available to us there was actually fairly easy. And then when we went to the cooler pools, even though they were still hot water pools, they actually felt cool in comparison to the pools we had already been in. So we complain about lack of end game content when we start with hard challenges to satisfy the experienced players. Some of us would rather build up bit by bit in challenges through our game instead of starting off with the hard challenges. As for my trip with my wife, I chose the 2nd hottest pool not because I like it that hot but because my wife does. And it was hard for me, but even for someone like myself, it still did make the hottest pool easy to move up to, and the pools that normally would have been more to my comfort ended up feeling on the cooler side. And while I skipped to the more challenging hot water pool for my wife, that doesn't mean I always seek that in my gaming. Why can't I have an experience that slowly builds up to? For example, starting outside Zirax territory and rarely seeing a dreadnought, if ever, to eventually getting adventurous and plunging into Zirax territory where then you might change everything I thought I knew about the Zirax patrols. But that is the way I think it should be. Not the way the game is or will be. Which is why when I discovered this new insanity, I changed the way I played. I went for neutral with the Zirax. Think about it. Both of us changed the way we play. You now build dreadnought survivable warships and I went for neutral. Our games changed. Now my "mid-game" is a lot easier than it used to be. And if I had gone the other route to build tougher vessels, well, wouldn't that mean that every encounter that was not an actual dreadnought would be easier too in comparison?
People keep saying the dreadnought is too hard, and here I am turning it into a corrupted ultra++ difficulty boss encounter.
Well often I too go neutral with Zirax once I have an SV with a couple of mini guns on it (could do it with HV, but prefer SVs for shooting things). Then it doesnt take long to get neutral shooting wildlife, tree and plants around the edge of their territory. But then the game gets really really boring... Utter snooze fest. No base attacks at all (TBH I hardly see them anyway despite always having base attack and drone presence maxed). Those few that do show up are easily defended with a little fighter SV and/or some remote turrets. This hasnt made the game more exiting, it has actually made it dull (for those who choose the neutral path) and/or frustrating judging by some irate posts I have seen for those who remain hostile. TBH, it was kind of funny the first few times of having an SV insta-gibbed, but that gets old quick. All so that I can mine in space without a PV suddenly appearing on top of me while mining asteroids despite pinging as much as I reasonably can. But I am not the type who can play a neutral game for long. Its far too boring and seems quite pointless. I dont really do missions either - because quite honestly I hate interacting with that horrible mission UI. Shame - some people have obviously put alot of good effort into them. Just a shame the devs never saw fit to do the same with the UI.
To be honest, I thought last night was going to break me from being a fan of the game. I have noticed some odd bugs in the past, the worst being getting a COQ error in warp, and then coming out of warp without my ship, and having to figure out how to get back to it. But last night, I was tooling along, a nice big fat cargo hold worth of hours of mining, and decided to descend down to a planet to see how the planet surface looked. During the transition, the game froze. Then closed. When I restarted, I fell from a great height, but didnt die...magically my jetpack worked as if I were in space. But I could access my tool bar. When I neared the planet surface, enemy troops could shoot me, but I couldnt shoot back. So, I put it in god mode. I thought "Maybe my ship got stuck in space like the last time I warped and it was left behind." But no, when I went to space, it showed in my assets folder in the PDA as on teh planet. So I went back down...only to find myself halfway around the world from where it was showing my ship to be. When I got right on top of where the map showed my ship, it still said I was 2.1km away...so I flew straight up into space...nothing. Went way down underground...then it started getting further away. I was in the process of looking up how to respawn the ship through the command console when somehow it worked itself out. I decided "maybe Ill just kill myself, then spawn in my clone chamber!". But when I took off god mode, the screen blinked from me being way underground to me galling about 10 meters onto the surface. I then heard the sound of my ship shooting something, and when I got out of a little hole I was in, there she was, about 100 meters in the sky shooting zirax troops. I had to use god mode again to get up to her, and found that my onboard mining vessel had sunk slightly into the floor of the hangar. So I got in it and took off just to make sure it would. From then on, things seemed fine (other than having to load a bunch of stuff into the factory because buggy planet was a 4G+. I was frustrated at the game for this kind of error, but I also assume it may have to do with my system running out of resources. But it was still obnoxious.
When I first started my game I quickly became friends with everyone except the pirates. Because there was a mission to destroy one of their mining facilities and popularity among everyone else rose faster. This helped me grow. But you know I never got bored even with the lack of enemies except wildlife in early game. Then, as I wanted some action, loot fiesta, clean solar systems from the empire and become the next Muad'Dib, I've intentionally made Zirax the enemy again.
After updating and tinkering with old BPs, I decided to build something new. A station BA for a change. I then started playing a survival game, this was the very first planet I jumped to in my starting system. Some nice views! Nice work Eleon.
Started making a new medium size light destroyer / exploration CV - still needs alot of work, but has had its first flight and combat tests and chalked up its first dreadnought kill (just, but took several attempts). 'Light' basically means mostly single layer combat steel and plastic interior except for a couple of damage soaks at the front and the anti-missile screens allowing it to remain quite agile. So it is intended to only really fight with shields up, but can tank a missile swarm or two from the front without shields. T4/L25, Weapons - 6 pulse, 4 rocket, Offense Turrets: 10 plasma, 10 rocket, 8 cannon, 2 artillery, Defence: 5 sentry (for ground), 4 mini guns. 4 x 320 storage as ammo, ore and 2 x cargo. 4 adv constructors, 4 small constructors, 72 grow plots, two level hangar. All turrets and weapons have line of sight to a target in front, so a couple of salvos can punch through 11+ layers of combat steel (11 is the size of my test target). All cannons have line of sight to a target below, though it is more intended for space rather than ground. If you are lucky and quick, you can kill a Zirax dreadnought with this, but I wouldnt recommend trying except as desperation or curiosity. It just isnt really tough enough at the front, not enough tanking ability. However I did manage to kill it with this (and quickly), but several attempts took too much damage and had to back off while I still could.
Today I put out a new version of my scenario! Reforged Eden to follow soon (probably early next week). https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2276751921