Stars in Shadow

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nweismuller
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Re: Stars in Shadow

Post by nweismuller »

ShadowDragon8685 wrote:Are Garden-type worlds categorically superior to Island type worlds? They have all the biome types that Islands have, plus that all-precious Forest type that's so beloved by so many races.

I just think Islands are nicer, is all.
Islands have larger biome zones for Reef, Ocean, and Vents. Under absolutely ideal conditions (access to shallow water dwellers, vents dwellers, and air-breathers for Gardens; only shallow water dwellers and vents dwellers are needed for Islands) their population cap works out to be the same. With shallow water dwellers alone (such as the Phidi), Island worlds support a higher base population cap than airbreathers alone on a Garden world, and Islands are unambigiously the best worlds for Phidi colonisation. Basically, what worlds are 'best' to colonise depend on who you're playing and what other species you have amalgamated into your empire.

Humans, Teros, and Haduir all prefer Gardens; Humans are marginally better on Glaciers than most other species, while Teros and Haduir handle Arid worlds well.

Yoral also prefer Gardens, but can cheerily get a lot more out of otherwise nearly uninhabitable worlds, and can pack a surprisingly high population on Glaciers, while dealing with Arid worlds as well as the Ashdar.

Phidi prefer Islands, while still being able to take equal advantage of Gardens as most airbreathers. In exchange, they're less able to take advantage of Arid worlds, and can't even do so until environment domes are researched. They also love Coral worlds just as much as Paradise worlds, if not more- I'm not in a position to check if they get a slight advantage in population on Corals compared to Paradise worlds.

Orthin actually do best on Iceball worlds that are of marginal value to anybody else, followed by Islands and then Gardens, which are less valuable to them than to any other playable race. Orthin are unusual in that they're the only race that doesn't get more population on its own out of Paradise worlds than they do out of simple Iceballs and Islands.

Gremak are unusual in that they actually get slightly more habitability on their own out of Gardens than most other races, and the most habitability of any single race out of Paradise worlds, but they synergise less well with other races to get the most out of Gardens or Paradises. (That is to say- an airbreather or shallow-water species alone on a Garden or Paradise world will support a lower population than Gremak alone; pairing Gremak with either an airbreather or shallow-water species on such a world will have a lower population cap than airbreathers and shallow-water species together, and airbreathers and shallow-water species together get no benefit from adding Gremak.) Islands are marginally worse than Gardens for Gremak, but they handle Islands and Corals better than any other airbreathers. They also, unfortunately, are less tolerant of Arid worlds than other airbreathers, who can generally get at least basic use out of Arids.

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Arioch
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Re: Stars in Shadow

Post by Arioch »

ShadowDragon8685 wrote:Are Garden-type worlds categorically superior to Island type worlds? They have all the biome types that Islands have, plus that all-precious Forest type that's so beloved by so many races.

I just think Islands are nicer, is all.
For a terrestrial species, yes. Islands are pleasant, but don't have much living space.

For an aquatic species, Islands will be superior.

ShadowDragon8685
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Re: Stars in Shadow

Post by ShadowDragon8685 »

Found a nasty bug, Arioch. It's new, introduced by the patch that was just pushed, because I've done this before and it was fine.

It happened when I used the "Move Colonists" button on the planet's image at the bottom of the screen, and moused over a unit of armor - Mechs, specifically - to transfer them to another planet. The screen goes completely black, and this error code is thrown.

Code: Select all

Lua state\@Technology\RACES.lua:180: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value)
Lua state\@Technology\RACES.lua:180:tanks:
 Lua state\@Technology\RACES.lua:70:fun:
  Lua state\@@util\@memoize.lua:75:race_string_Singular:
   Lua state\@Technology\RACES.lua:88:fun:
    Lua state\@@util\@memoize.lua:75:race_string_Plural
The screen stays black whilst the cursor is over the 'mechs, but it does not break the game. I was able to click on the mechs, move the cursor off of them, and things went back to normal, then I moved them to the world I wanted to move them to normally.

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Arioch
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Re: Stars in Shadow

Post by Arioch »

I'll repost this in the SIS forums so that Sven (the programmer) can see it. Just so you know, I don't fix bugs. Bug reports would be most helpful if posted in the SIS forums or the Steam forums where Sven can see them.

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Re: Stars in Shadow

Post by ShadowDragon8685 »

Arioch wrote:I'll repost this in the SIS forums so that Sven (the programmer) can see it. Just so you know, I don't fix bugs. Bug reports would be most helpful if posted in the SIS forums or the Steam forums where Sven can see them.

Yeah, I figured, but I didn't know if there was some kind of bug-reporter specifically, or if it was just forums, and I figured that you'd know what to do.



Also, you can't transport Pell? I mean, it wouldn't be easy, necessarily, but if they were willing to go - you know, so as not to be subject to extermination by rogue asteroid/death star - it shouldn't be more than a minor horticultural engineering challenge.

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Arioch
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Re: Stars in Shadow

Post by Arioch »

ShadowDragon8685 wrote:
Arioch wrote:I'll repost this in the SIS forums so that Sven (the programmer) can see it. Just so you know, I don't fix bugs. Bug reports would be most helpful if posted in the SIS forums or the Steam forums where Sven can see them.
Yeah, I figured, but I didn't know if there was some kind of bug-reporter specifically, or if it was just forums, and I figured that you'd know what to do.
Sven thanks you for the bug report. He's posting a hotfix as we speak.
ShadowDragon8685 wrote:Also, you can't transport Pell? I mean, it wouldn't be easy, necessarily, but if they were willing to go - you know, so as not to be subject to extermination by rogue asteroid/death star - it shouldn't be more than a minor horticultural engineering challenge.
The idea is that they're not willing. We may change it if we think it doesn't play well.

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dragoongfa
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Re: Stars in Shadow

Post by dragoongfa »

After several more hours of gameplay some battle suggestions:

1) Fighters and Missiles/Torpedoes are under-powered. A combination of increased speed and a nerf of the range of PD weapons will do for missile/torpedoes. A small ECM tech tree for fighters (increased chances in avoiding dmg) will work wonders in making fighters truly viable. In addition to this the anti-missile missiles should get a bonus against fighters.

2)Human Battleships are horribly outmatched by their Gremak and Yoral equivalents while on the other hand human Heavy Cruisers are overmatching a lot of their opposition in heavy firepower but lack flexibility in armament.

3)Destroyer and Light cruiser class upgrades. They are becoming horribly obsolete in mid to let game. They need some form of buffing for that stage. In the early stage and up to the early/mid heavy cruiser era they are godly in dancing around and killing stuff quickly.

EDIT: Yorals in general are overpowered in combat ships while everyone else are extremely underpowered in comparison. Might be because the various race traits haven't been implemented yet but I find it hard to imagine a scenario where a Yoral player wont roflstomp everything in sight.

fredgiblet
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Re: Stars in Shadow

Post by fredgiblet »

SiS is on sale on Steam right now.

zircher
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Re: Stars in Shadow

Post by zircher »

And gladly bought. :-)

Tamri
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Re: Stars in Shadow

Post by Tamri »

I liked the game. Bugs is met only two, everything else was exactly. The most notable drawback for me is the research screen. It would either alter or add functionality, even if the mechanisms sorting of technologies, because as a general list it terribly inconvenient.

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dragoongfa
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Re: Stars in Shadow

Post by dragoongfa »

Finally got around to finishing a game as the Yoral, I still stand by that they are overpowered despite the subtle nerfs they get. Anyway, you guys need to put in some 'victory' splash screens. Also an A.I. surrender option if horribly outmatched would be awesome in order to expedite victory in an already decided war.

ShadowDragon8685
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Re: Stars in Shadow

Post by ShadowDragon8685 »

Hey, do you have to move a species which is primarily garden-dwelling to a planet before you see the option to Garden terraform it?

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Arioch
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Re: Stars in Shadow

Post by Arioch »

ShadowDragon8685 wrote:Hey, do you have to move a species which is primarily garden-dwelling to a planet before you see the option to Garden terraform it?
I don't think so, but I do think that the terraforming options don't show up if there's a race on the planet that would be negatively affected by it.

Terraforming options are due for an overhaul.

Southern Cross
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Re: Stars in Shadow

Post by Southern Cross »

So you can't replicate what happens in Man of Steel in the game, then? :lol: :mrgreen: :P :D

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Arioch
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Re: Stars in Shadow

Post by Arioch »

Nope, the game doesn't support making bad DC franchise movies.

ShadowDragon8685
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Re: Stars in Shadow

Post by ShadowDragon8685 »

Arioch wrote:
ShadowDragon8685 wrote:Hey, do you have to move a species which is primarily garden-dwelling to a planet before you see the option to Garden terraform it?
I don't think so, but I do think that the terraforming options don't show up if there's a race on the planet that would be negatively affected by it.

Terraforming options are due for an overhaul.
What do you mean by "Negatively effected?" Like, put over their pop limit?
Because it's always offering to let me turn airless moons populated by max-capped Wrem into Arid/Glaciers, when I know they're gonna throw a hissy the moment I do.

[e]Another question: Are there any plans for anything to slow down and make more interesting the early-game discovery phase?
Things like, say....
Monsters; they float around star systems and attack on sight; or at least around a planet and won't tolerate you trying to land there.
Self-Sufficient Colonies/Minor System Powers: They've lost the Hyperdrive, but haven't lost their spacefaring tech. They're not interested in being part of your empire, even if your empire is the same race as they are. Otherwise, they trade, tech-up, etc, just like other empires. You can take them over, pay for refueling services, trade with them, or just leave them the hell alone. If you maintain good relations with them for long enough, they may even join your faction voluntarily.

[e2]
What about a feature to, from a planet's info-screen, "pull" pops of a specific race, and then be given a menu of like, the five nearest planets having that race, and the five planets with the largest populations of that race?

[e3]
Another small suggestion: A technology, "Food Replicators," that lets you replicate food on a planet at a cash cost. This would make blockades virtually impossible, and might or might not be cheaper than using ships to transport food - if it is, then it would let you dedicate all the transport fleet to cash transports. It would take place automatically, and let you use City Planning freely/recklessly.

[e4]
Oh, and a minor bug report: When you're alt-tabbed, the game stays visible behind some windows, and when you mouse over where in-game buttons are, even with the cursor over another window, the button-highlight-sound plays.

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Arioch
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Re: Stars in Shadow

Post by Arioch »

ShadowDragon8685 wrote:What do you mean by "Negatively effected?" Like, put over their pop limit?
Because it's always offering to let me turn airless moons populated by max-capped Wrem into Arid/Glaciers, when I know they're gonna throw a hissy the moment I do.
Wrem are no worse off on a Garden than a Barren. But an aquatic species living on an Iceball that likes deep ocean vents might consider an Earthlike "garden" world to be a downgrade, rather than an upgrade, since it would have less habitable space for them. For the most part, the game won't let you decrease a planet's habitability.

I don't like the current terraforming options in the game (I had very little to do with their implementation), and if I have my way they'll be substantially changed before release. In think terraforming should be concentrated on the marginal improvements you can make in the early game instead of turning every planet into a Gaia in the late game.
ShadowDragon8685 wrote:Another question: Are there any plans for anything to slow down and make more interesting the early-game discovery phase?
We plan to add a greater variety of 'third party' threats, including but not limited to space monsters, more minor factions, and more interesting pirates and marauders.
ShadowDragon8685 wrote:What about a feature to, from a planet's info-screen, "pull" pops of a specific race, and then be given a menu of like, the five nearest planets having that race, and the five planets with the largest populations of that race?
If you mean an option to help segregate races, then no.
ShadowDragon8685 wrote:Another small suggestion: A technology, "Food Replicators," that lets you replicate food on a planet at a cash cost. This would make blockades virtually impossible, and might or might not be cheaper than using ships to transport food - if it is, then it would let you dedicate all the transport fleet to cash transports. It would take place automatically, and let you use City Planning freely/recklessly.
Production options for extra food and metals are being considered. But they wouldn't make blockades impossible, nor should they.
ShadowDragon8685 wrote:Oh, and a minor bug report: When you're alt-tabbed, the game stays visible behind some windows, and when you mouse over where in-game buttons are, even with the cursor over another window, the button-highlight-sound plays.
Not sure if that's a bug, but me no fix display bugs.

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Re: Stars in Shadow

Post by ShadowDragon8685 »

Arioch wrote:Wrem are no worse off on a Garden than a Barren. But an aquatic species living on an Iceball that likes deep ocean vents might consider an Earthlike "garden" world to be a downgrade, rather than an upgrade, since it would have less habitable space for them. For the most part, the game won't let you decrease a planet's habitability.
Really? I could swear I've turned barren worlds into glaciers before and the Wrem have suddenly found themselves overcrowded and unhappy.
Arioch wrote:We plan to add a greater variety of 'third party' threats, including but not limited to space monsters, more minor factions, and more interesting pirates and marauders.
Oh, goodie.
Arioch wrote:If you mean an option to help segregate races, then no.
I'm not sure why you don't like that idea, but that's not what I meant, either.

Say I have a newly-terraformed Garden world and the only races on it are Yoral - sure, they can use it, but not to the best extent. I'd like to put some humans there to fill the forest, some Phidi to swim in the seas and on the reefs, some Othin to occupy the deep ocean vents, a pop or two of Lummocks to run the farms, maybe a pop of Tinkers for the shits and giggles.

As it stands, if I wanted to do this, what I'd be best-off doing would be intentionally segregating species so that each race has one "population reactor" planet that's only their race and always running City Planning, so I always know where to draw my resettlement colonists from, so I don't have to rummage through my entire empire to find a free population to move. What I'd instead like is a "Pull" window, where you press a button on the planet window, and it brings up a list of races found in your empire. You click on a race, and it then displays a menu of where you can get those races from: I suggested the five nearest planets that have a whole, movable pop, regardless of total racial pop on that planet, and the five most populous, regardless of distance.

Then you click on the source in the pull window, maybe a few times to tell it how many of that pop you want, and the populations are dispatched to the planet you were reviewing - transport pool vessels are pulled to grab them, or they're sent through the stargate network if it's available.
Arioch wrote:Production options for extra food and metals are being considered. But they wouldn't make blockades impossible, nor should they.
I don't see why; if you have industrial replicators that let you make a mockery of the rush-buy costs, crashing them down to one credit for one work point, then surely paying like ten credits for one unit of food shouldn't be that outrageous.
Arioch wrote:Not sure if that's a bug, but me no fix display bugs.
It's more audio, but yeah. Where should I report it? I didn't see a bug report forum on the SiS forums when I registered.

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Re: Stars in Shadow

Post by Arioch »

ShadowDragon8685 wrote:
Arioch wrote:Production options for extra food and metals are being considered. But they wouldn't make blockades impossible, nor should they.
I don't see why; if you have industrial replicators that let you make a mockery of the rush-buy costs, crashing them down to one credit for one work point, then surely paying like ten credits for one unit of food shouldn't be that outrageous.
It's a gameplay rather than a realism issue; Star Trek style replicator technology would essentially make the Food resource irrelevant (and would probably make Metal and even production irrelevant as well -- poof, there's your ship). I think it's generally not a good idea to introduce technologies that break core game mechanisms, whether realistic or not.
ShadowDragon8685 wrote:It's more audio, but yeah. Where should I report it? I didn't see a bug report forum on the SiS forums when I registered.
http://stars-in-shadow.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=27
http://steamcommunity.com/app/464880/di ... 997488944/

ShadowDragon8685
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Re: Stars in Shadow

Post by ShadowDragon8685 »

Arioch wrote:It's a gameplay rather than a realism issue; Star Trek style replicator technology would essentially make the Food resource irrelevant (and would probably make Metal and even production irrelevant as well -- poof, there's your ship). I think it's generally not a good idea to introduce technologies that break core game mechanisms, whether realistic or not.
Well, you could just make it hideously expensive to use replicators to replace grown food or metal. Using them to replace work cheaply seems reasonable, but conjuring materials from nothing could certainly stand to be far more expensive.

Hell, at this point, I'm pulling down so much cash I would WELCOME some way to spend assloads of it to get stuff I actually want, rather than "Oh, look, there's another huge pile of money I'm making faster than I can possibly spend it" turn after turn.
Arioch wrote:
ShadowDragon8685 wrote:It's more audio, but yeah. Where should I report it? I didn't see a bug report forum on the SiS forums when I registered.
http://stars-in-shadow.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=27
Oh, I thought that forum was depricated with the Steam Early Access release. Thanks!

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