10.5.01: new screenshots

[Don K Hotay]

Originally posted by Stormhound
Planet classification...if you could tell me a little more of what you mean (is it with regard to terraforming, or grouping worlds for giving orders, or what?) then I'll be happy to tackle the question for you.

I wanted to know what parts of the game would it be of use...so I guess it will help in figuring out effects of terraforming and so forth? I'm refering to this screen shot: Planet info screen

We'll be able to classify planets in two ways...how else will this come into play

[Stormhound]

Ahhh, okay, now I follow you. (And thanks for that link, it made it very easy to answer the question. You get a gold star for being helpful, or at least you would if there was one in the icon list (g).)

The use of classification is for giving orders to groups of planets: "All Industrial planets should add a Neutron Factory to their build queue" or "All New Colonies should build a Mark I Missile Defense Battery". Each world can be put into two classifications, to allow for more flexibility. I don't have the current list handy; last time I saw it there were at least a couple of dozen possible groups. I believe that all "do this/build this" type orders for planets can be given to such groups, and I believe that terraforming orders fall into this category as well.

Basically, it's a way of letting you macromanage instead of having to go in and adjust 200 different colonies individually every time you come up with some new tech toy.

BTW, this is also a great time to point out that not everything in the game gets built at the planet level. Some things are built at the regional level, or system/sector/empire levels.

[pchang]

Speaking of B5, the Klackons now look a lot like the Shadows

[Don K Hotay]

Originally posted by Stormhound

Basically, it's a way of letting you macromanage instead of having to go in and adjust 200 different colonies individually every time you come up with some new tech toy.

awesome. Seniore Stormhound, you should make sure a feature like this does not get cut! In fact, you should lobby other civ/turn based games to implement this feature. MOO2 had three classifications, but it was really of no use to players.

Also, what are some things that can be built at the other three levels aside from the planet level (there are four levels of the game, right?) Somethings that comes to mind from MOO3 is the Artemis Net and the Jump gate, which seem like good candidates for building at a system level.

When building at the system level, are other races allowed to be in that system, or do they have to be cleared out in order to build.

[Stormhound]

To give you a smattering of detail...

There are unrest-reducing "buildings" (I use the term loosely) which can be built at each level, just for example. Those built at a more local level have more effect, but only affect the region they're in. Those built way up at the empire level affect every region on every planet, but they don't have as much effect.

Work on Jump lanes is a System-level activity. Building ship production facilities is (I believe) a planet-level activity. Developing your ability to refit and reorganize ships is a sector-level activity.

There are five levels: Empire, Sector, System, Planet, Region.

Macromanagement is not even in the same galaxy with the cut list, I assure you. It's a requirement of having IFP; without it you'd never be able to get anything done.

A system does not have to be wholly yours for you to have a system government there, or for you to do system-level things. However, certain things (like development of jump lanes) can be opposed by someone who also has a system government there (or, for that matter, they could even assist you...)

[Don K Hotay]

Wow, its hard to believe that the empires in their entirety will be made up of all the regions, of the all the planets, in all the systems, in every sector. So, what will this region level be like then?, that is, what role will, perhaps up to a thousand individual regions, play in the grand scheme of the empire?

will governors/eadership be assigned to regions? how about to planets?, systems:yes, Sectors?

How many regions are there on a planet? Up to nine planets (with each up to four moons) in a system.....how many systems in a sector?

[pchang]

There is a ton of stuff going on here. Are you sure this game can still be played on a mere PC?

[Stormhound]

Well, let's see...if one takes "normal" numbers for the biggest galaxy, you get about 256*5*3*5 or 19,200 regions, give or take. Regions are where you build DEAs, which are what determine the output of the planet; you can make a planet into just about anything by building different DEAs there. Any given planet can have 1-12 regions, based on the size of the planet (or other body).

Planets will have viceroys; regions won't have anything. Each higher level has someone in charge.

And yes, we're sure. PCs can handle math pretty quickly, and that's what most of this is.

[Bleyn]

Two questions.

1. What does DEA stand for in MOO3? Maybe its just me, but I've never seen this acronym used in a MOO3 context before.

2. Your statements about MacroManagement and IFPs almost imply to me that orders given to a broad category ie. "all industrial planets" might cost less in terms of IFPs than going to every single industrial planet and giving the same orders individually. Is this the case?

[Stormhound]

Oops...sorry. DEA is Dominant Economic Activity (such as Mining, Industry, Government, etc.). Each region can have two.

An order given to a broad category would not cost you more than 1 IFP. Were you to go around and issue that order to each planet individually, it would cost you 1 IFP per planet. Yes, there's something of a savings there.

[Don K Hotay]

You have probably answered this many times, but how are IFP's generated again? Will certain governement types or races allow for more or less?

Are those the only three DEA's? What about research

And if you don't mind me sidestepping again, I'd like to ask about how spying will work. I wasn't a big fan of it in MOO2, because it never ever worked in my favor, as it did for the AI races, no matter how many spies I had and what techs I researched.

[Stormhound]

IFP: There's a base number, and government type and one race pick will adjust that. There are also possible in-game effects that could change how many you get.

DEAs: Well, I did put an "etc." on the list...I was just giving examples. There are 6-7 different ones, if memory serves, but I don't think we've released the whole list.

Spying: Way too big and hairy a beast for me to get into here. You'd be better off going to the main site and reading the data dump. Short-short version: you recruit spies, train them in different skills, and send them off on specific missions. There are lots of different choices.

[TresXF]

Short-short version: you recruit spies, train them in different skills, and send them off on specific missions. There are lots of different choices.

like in Imperium Galactica II? i hope so coz this spy-engine is much more "spyish" than the old moo2 pile-ups

[Master Marcus]

The spy engine is quite ambitious and far more advanced than anything on the market now. I won't be surprised if some cuts are to be made within. For those not familiar with, there is an old article here , describing MoO3's spying pretty well and not really updated yet unless you have a LOT of time to spend trying to find a few recent QSI posts (good luck).

The main MoO3's datadump page is here , but forget the Religion/Ethos since it has been cut.

Does the Passive spying be sufficient to play peacemaker/hybrid at the highest difficulty levels, or do we have to play mostly the Active spying in order to succeed ???( Hope the AI will not be too swift and out of a whim - it is in MoO2 - when asking something or performing a single sabotage ).

[Stormhound]

(g) You're good at asking questions for which there are no simple answers. The balance of spying is just one of those things we'll have to keep an eye on in playtesting; as with most things in the game, the goal is to make it so that you can run it any way you want to and still be reasonably successful...it's the combination of all your actions in opposition to your those of your enemies that determines the overall result.