Pfft, thats easy. Space strategy. Who the heck needs wine glasses when you have perfectly good bottles to drink out of.
Pfft, thats easy. Space strategy. Who the heck needs wine glasses when you have perfectly good bottles to drink out of.
Tho' I've belted you an' flayed you,
By the livin' Gawd that made you,
You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din!Originally Posted by North Korea
The nvidia bug is pretty rare, which is why we haven't been able to reproduce it and fix it. The vast majority of customers are running it just fine on their Nvidia cards, and even if you do encounter it, you still play if you turn the shadows off.
I got it. The decider was a review which mentioned that each of the races gets victory points for different things, meaning that there's varied ways to win. There's not enough of that in space strategy, too much reliance on the old 'conquer until everyone else is dead' gig.
The tutorial battle workedfine with everything set to max so it seems I'm safe from the nvidea bug.
The tutorial is all I played yesterday; so far so good. The galaxy map is very nice, visually and in terms of layout. I like the music too; it doesn't fall prey to the overbearing epic tones that space games often use.
Is there a manual anywhere? There's no shortcut to one in my start menu or in Impulse. I do like to browse strategy game manuals.
Frogbeastegg's Guide to Total War: Shogun II. Please note that the guide is not up-to-date for the latest patch.
No manual? That's odd. There's no documentation folder? (That's where my manual is located.)
Hmm. Wish I knew how to post and/or host it somewhere....
"MTW is not a game, it's a way of life." -- drone
Found it. I wasn't expecting it to be buried in a folder in my install, not without some kind of link to it.
Frogbeastegg's Guide to Total War: Shogun II. Please note that the guide is not up-to-date for the latest patch.
Disregard post.
Last edited by Beskar; 02-03-2010 at 08:48.
Days since the Apocalypse began
"We are living in space-age times but there's too many of us thinking with stone-age minds" | How to spot a Humanist
"Men of Quality do not fear Equality." | "Belief doesn't change facts. Facts, if you are reasonable, should change your beliefs."
"MTW is not a game, it's a way of life." -- drone
As I'm playing it at the same time as Mass Effect 2 and Baldur's Gate, and while trying to read a stack of library books in a hurry, and while trying to choose carpet colours, and while writing the next post for my story thread, and while trying to settle a few hundred less important things for my house, amongst other things, it's fair to say I haven't done much. Amphibian overload!
I've played enough of the tutorial to get out of the scripted part and into the free play section where you need to conquer a given species. That's all. Still need to read most of the manual, too.
Just need to get most of the library books done, finish Mass Effect 2, and post a new part for the readers, and then I'll have more chance to play Armada. Should only take a couple of days of dedicated work to get through that if I have nothing else to do :optimism:
Frogbeastegg's Guide to Total War: Shogun II. Please note that the guide is not up-to-date for the latest patch.
I played for a bit tonight, puttering around as the jelly fish people on easy mode in the 12 races scenario. Nothing serious, just toying with the basics and getting familiar with the interface.
Nice game; the presentation is rather ... soothing. Gazing at that attractive galaxy map with quiet music playing and an interface which is kept out of your way; this might be the first space strategy game I've found that's relaxing to play. It definitely feels like a change of pace to all of the strident noise-explosions-busy-intense colour-6,000 buttons-choose stuff right now-here's some stats- scream, wooo! space games. That's not to say I find the pace slow, the gameplay systems simplistic, or the action lacking. Whether through my ignorance or the game's design, turns were passing far faster than in comparable games and there was plenty happening, and the information given felt more straightforwardly intelligible.
There's some concepts that I consider to have promise. In particular it looks like several of those concepts will combine to add a carefully judged balance to rapid expansion. I haven’t experienced most of those measures yet, the range limit is the only one I can talk about much. It’s there, it works, it’s clear and simple. Better so far than GalCiv2’s similar mechanic in that it’s meaningful without needing to play on a huge map.
Does the tech tree grow as research is completed? When I open it up in the tech browser I'm only seeing 6 or so techs before the end of a chain and that seems very short.
Shame there's no freeplay mode for the space battles. It'd be nice to get some practice before my first one in the campaign.
So ... any tips or advice?
And for specific questions: Should I aim for more colonies or quality colonies? One arc ship per colony or multiple? Any must have techs? How much of an army am I likely to need early on; i.e. is the AI going to stomp me into the ground the instant it thinks I'm vulnerable? Any space battle tips?
Frogbeastegg's Guide to Total War: Shogun II. Please note that the guide is not up-to-date for the latest patch.
Glad to hear you're generally enjoying the game so far! After reading your above post, I was actually inspired to play a bit last night for the first time in a while. (Massive RL stress; haven't been much in the mood for gaming lately.) Am continuing with my Jullution campaign; I've mostly halted my expansion for the time being to focus on developing my current colonies.
As I stated earlier, the tech tree is admittedly on the small side. I believe there's already a mod or two that expand it by a significant degree, but I've not tried them out yet.
Ntronium (Longjohn) posted this over at the Matrix forums:
I already tried this myself, and it works like a charm.Start up the game, and at the main menu press F4 to open the command consile
Type the following (without quotes) "Setting ShowSpaceBattleButton true" and press enter
Quit the game
Restart and you will have a new menu item named Space Battle.![]()
Some random advice (in no particular order)....
Avoid the Klurgu if you can; destroy them if you can't. Enlist your friends to help you out if necessary; odds are they'll be happy to do so (the AI empires usually have a good appreciation for what's at stake).
Be wary of allowing other empires to establish trade missions on your worlds. The income gained from them can be significant, but remember that trade missions also give an empire the ability to see virtually everything going on in a colony where one is established. Personally I tend to only do so if I really like/trust them, and/or I'm in dire need of cash.
Try and build at least a modest fleet ASAP (although you don't need to empty your treasury to do it); don't wait until you've met your first empire if you can help it. Having an at least somewhat-respectable navy from the get-go can make diplomatic dealings a lot easier.
Try to avoid low-growth (and especially no-growth) colony worlds in your initial expansion phase. Once you have more money and advanced technology later in the game, they can be worth colonizing; but until then, they tend to be more trouble than they're worth (especially in terms of being a drain on your income).
Heh. Well that is the $64,000 question, and is in fact one of the things I like about this game -- both strategies are pretty viable.
Having just a few heavily-developed worlds has some real advantages, but you're also taking a risk by putting everything in the same proverbial basket. Having a lot of colonies greatly reduces that risk, of course, but then you can find yourself at a disadvantage due to being so spread out.
Personally, I tend to split the difference and aim for a modest number of modestly well-developed colonies. (That's just me, though; I'm usually a middle-of-the-road kind of guy.) It's a strategy that's worked fairly well for me so far, but it's very possible I've also just gotten lucky up to this point.
I only use one arc ship per colony. However, I usually have double or triple the number of transports moving population to low- and no-growth worlds as I do to modest- and high-growth worlds.
Early on, I tend to focus on techs that improve (in approximate order of importance) economy, colony improvements/habitability, and ship range. I generally ignore astrographical and more military-oriented techs until I've run into at least a couple other empires (unless one of them is the Klurgu, in which case I start researching weapons and new ships like it's going out of style!).
That really depends on any number of factors: Which empires are your closest neighbors, how said empires feel about you, whether or not you have active treaties with them, do you have any major colonies close to your borders, how big your navy is at the time, etc. There's really quite a few variables that factor in here.
Generally speaking, you can just use your common sense: Check out which of your neighbors are more peaceful and which ones are more warlike (and thus likely to respect more the size of your fleet/army than your diplomatic prowess).
All that being said, I've found I usually don't need to start producing marines right away. Even if you're weaker than another empire, they aren't necessarily going to immediately start bullying you just because they can. Some will, yes, but again it really depends on the empire. Also, as I've said before, the AI is more into long-term strategic planning than short-term tactical thinking; if you're forced to leave your colony on Proxima Centauri lightly defended for a short while, the AI isn't going to suddenly attack the system unless it was already planning on going to war with you in the near future anyway.
Nothing that isn't already obvious: Try and use formations most appropriate to the situation (as they do help somewhat), don't land your Marines too soon (if you're the invader), employing combined arms is generally best, etc. Again, most of it is pretty common sense stuff.![]()
Last edited by Martok; 02-15-2010 at 08:50. Reason: clarifying
"MTW is not a game, it's a way of life." -- drone
Thanks. All very helpful and good to read. I shall be trying out the space battle button next time I play.
Hoping to get an afternoon with this at the weekend, seems like the perfect lazy Sunday game for armchair strategists.
And that changes a lot! I thought the idea was to research one of each category all of the time :feels stupid: Hence why I thought ~6 techs per branch of the tree was a bit alarming; 6 'rounds' of research and it would all be done. Goes to show that if you give a frog chance to research shiny new tech she'll grab everything she can with both handsIf you're meant to specialise a bit more then the tech tree should be plenty long; I'm not a fan of having laser techs I-XII just to fill up space. Fewer, more meaningful techs is my preference.
Speaking of research, I love the idea of the skunkworks. I don't recall seeing anything like that in other games. For those who don't have the game, the skunkworks is a special type of research facility. It works at a faster rate than a standard lab and on a secret topic. You don't know what you're getting until it's done. Could be the best tech for your situation, or the worst, or one that your other labs have been researching via the standard methods. Russian roulette research!
Frogbeastegg's Guide to Total War: Shogun II. Please note that the guide is not up-to-date for the latest patch.
Happy to be of service.![]()
Yes, I find Armada has a nice easy pace as well. (I liked your point in an earlier post where said the music & atmosphere make for a "soothing" experience; that's as good an adjective to describe it as any.) It manages to avoid feeling frantic but without being slow or plodding.
Ha, I better understand your wondering about the tech tree now....![]()
Yes, I definitely recommend focusing on just 1 or 2 (maybe 3) techs at a time instead of slowly working your way through every branch simultaneously. I've found it's far more efficient (or at least more effective) to do so, especially in the early game when you don't have that many research facilities, plus it's more crucial as to which techs you acquire first. Researching toys that improve your economy and/or colonies are definitely a priority in the beginning. Techs which improve ship range may be less of a concern (depending on how much expansion/colonization you plan on doing initially), although I find it's still useful to have at least 1-2 advancements in this field early on.
Same here. Massive tech trees can still be fun, but they do tend to get repetitive.
Hee! Yeah, skunkworks are definitely one of the more interesting features in Armada. I've had everything from useless stuff like Xeno-Plague (which I don't use since I'm generally not a genocidal maniac) to Super Arks (very handy if you have a lot of nearby dead/icy worlds with rich mineral resources). And sometimes the results are just a little odd....![]()
Oh, and another random tip: Your colonies don't always need to be building/producing something. There are times when their build queues will be idle (either because of lack of funds for construction and/or there's nothing left for them to build), and that's perfectly normal.
Last edited by Martok; 02-18-2010 at 06:27.
"MTW is not a game, it's a way of life." -- drone
Incidentally, the beta for the new patch/update is available for those who want to try it out (see the announcement here). For those preferring to wait, the "release" version of this update should be out in roughly a week.
"MTW is not a game, it's a way of life." -- drone
Gah. Forgot to let everyone know that the release version of the 1.2 patch/update is now available. Those who purchased the game via DD sites like Impulse and GamersGate will need to obtain it through the site they bought it from; otherwise you can get the patch over at Matrix's main site.
Also: Longjohn/Ntronium has already begun work on the next major update, which should be out sometime in April. As he's going to be focusing his efforts on the combat system, he'd like to hear your critiques/gripes/wishes regarding battles.
For best results, I advise posting in this thread, as he generally checks his "home" forum the most frequently. Otherwise, he's also pretty active over on Matrix Games' Armada 2526 forum; you can post your thoughts/complaints there as well.
"MTW is not a game, it's a way of life." -- drone
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