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[Anvilfolk]

This is about to be on sale on GoG.com for a couple of hours. If you're interested it could be a nice time to pick it up

[Micro102]

So, has the game been improved? Have the fixed combat at all (no more having to kite and pot-shot everything yet not steamrolling everything, basically make the unique combat system they made important, also fixing the warlord fights, which were way to simple and easy) or all the exploitative methods (again, the easy warlord battles, the overwhelming amount of starting favor with the Peltians(?), etc.), the imbalances (like how some jobs are 100% better then others), or the poor AI combat system?

If not, then this is just an unfinished game with a cool but poorly executed concept, and I would not recommend buying it.

[Maldevious]

Just got this from a friend... any tips on strategy? Seems like they just updated it.

[Draco18s]

Rise my minion, rise for your master, and let your evil shine!

Original: https://arcengames.com/coming-soon-the-last-federation-the-lost-technologies-expansion-2/



What's this now? A new expansion, you say?

Indeed! The Lost Technologies. We've been working with Draco18s, a long-time community member here, to bring this one to life. This is quite an exciting expansion for us, because we hadn't even thought we'd be able to do something like this this year (what with Stars Beyond Reach and now Starward Rogue and all that).

This expansion brings to life a number of things that are centered around technology in one way or another. The races all have their own unique racial techs now, for instance -- giving them more character than ever before. Techs now have cool new "side effects" that can benefit you or other races in regular combat.

There's even a new Tech Race game mode where it's a cutthroat race through the tech tree -- with the catch that you have to work with you enemies to win, because you're unlikely to win on your own. Make allies, ditch em, make new ones, and coast across the finish line (hopefully) on your own.



This also will coincide with the release of TLF 3.0, a free update to all the owners of the base game. This update includes several pieces of new content including 3 new alliance types, four new events, and a few other goodies. And naturally the expansion has more stuff, too -- a gorgeous but fragile new planet type, new turret types, a new type of mission for gathering your own unique Hydral techs, new ability types, and so on.

Oh -- and "champion" enemies, too. Can't believe I almost forgot that one! Champions add a new element to combat where you may need to avoid a specific enemy ship that is doing... something strange and unexpected. You can easily tell the champion ships by their purple glow, and they have a way of exerting a bit of gravity -- so to speak -- on their part of the battlefield.

Release Date!

We look to be on schedule for a November 11th release. All the features are complete and in testing with a small group of players who blindly volunteered without knowing what they were signing up for. That's faith! ;)The expansion itself has been in work since mid-September, so that's about average for an expansion from us. What's not average is us managing to keep it a secret for this long, heh.



Already An Advanced Player?

If you're already an advanced player of TLF, you might be interested in some of the notable things addressed by various additions:

* The Kessler Syndrome event (new free content in v3.0) makes space junk buildup around planets matter a lot more.

* The Deorbited Ship event (also free v3.0 content) fills a hole where the Skylaxians are too honorable to bomb anybody (although the event will happen to any race invading any other); essentially a large, hostile fleet in orbit that is otherwise doing little to invade can get "hit" by the event and cause... fun times.

* The Welding Drones tech side effect now repair Large (and larger) ship hulls by a small amount every combat turn, provided that it did not take any damage. Maintaining shield integrity and avoiding disruptor shots can slowly make up for a tactical mistake and keep the player alive for longer

* The new Beam Rifles tech has a side effect that increases the range of all laser-based weaponry by 10%.

* The Nuclear Fusion tech has a side effect that increases shield recharge rate by 5%

And the last post is a year old, but it went unanswered.  I'm already performing thread necromancy.

Anyone got any tips whatsoever? Because I am absolutely stumped.

Your goal is to form the Federation.  Once you've got two races that like each other (friendly acts -> improve relations with race) and like you you can go into the planetary government screen (each race's one is named different) and bring up the topic for consideration.  Once you do that you've got to convince the other races to join as well, or kill them.

Or if you want to be evil, go get Betrayed Hope and play Betrayal Mode where your goal is murder everyone.

[Rolan7]

A shame this game gets so little attention ):  I picked it up last night and only got 2 hours of sleep.  There's a crapton of overwhelming detail, which put me off AI war, but I decided to just ignore it and see what happened.  Went better than expected.

Of course in retrospect and after reading some other player accounts (all from 2014...) I got really lucky.  I'll try to be brief...

Started at the Acutian world (evil capitalist robots).  Recognizing them as the ones that shattered my planet, I fought them instead of playing at all nice.  Then I think the Andros (pacifist utopic robots) uplifted themselves, and gave me the cold shoulder.  I was pretty worried at this point, so I uplifted the Peltians (fuzzy commie suicide owls) and... the Skylaxians (honorable reticulan diplomat-scientists).

The Skylaxians, as I've since heard, are kinda crazy late-game due to their decent combat and massive technology rate.  Short term, I was just glad these two races were being nice to me!  So I was nice to them back, and pretty soon realized I could form the Federation with them.

(The owls did absolutely jack shit all game.  The Skylaxians...)

I could have included the pacifist-robots for a starting trifecta, but I kinda flubbed the controls and they didn't like me anyway.  I was getting antsy, wondering what sort of time pressure there was, particular since another race was about to uplift itself...  The Burlust (Klingons.  Except demonic-looking and honorless). 

Getting savvy, I uplifted them shortly before they would have done it anyway   I got slightly detected, but at this stage the other races were just a little annoyed (for the last couple races the penalties are humongous).  The not-Klingons were suitably grateful, and I was interested in their rather unique "government".  Every race has its own idiosyncracies of course, but these guys especially.  So I welcomed them to space by duelling their leader to the death. 

They *loved* me for that, plus I had significant "leverage" on the successor.  But, not nearly enough to make them join the Federation.  I spent some time catching up on research with the Skylaxians, thinking about what to do next...

Okay long story needs to get shorter.  The bad robots murdered the good robots all of a sudden, so I sicked the klingons on them.  This worked amazingly, and suddenly the bad robots were actually willing to join my Federation so I would save them from these evil Klingons who I had no official tie to (they won't join if the Federation attacks, but they will seek protection from a """third party""").  I laughed as they died...  Stupid moon-slinging planet (and pacifist) murderers.

That worked well for a while, then the Boars (sorry, "BoarINE") arrived.  Let me just quote their blurb...

Solitary, beastly loners. Good in a fight, but their solitary nature leads to rather thin populations. Usually not one of the major players in the solar system, but if you can convince them of the virtues of a federation, they can be a good way to backdoor in other races.

We got along pretty well, but there's a screwy thing about these guys.  Their matriarchs have "moods" which completely shut down certain lines of diplomacy.  To discuss joining the Federation, you practically have to guide her into a specific solar-unification mood first...  And I didn't know how to do that.  (Apparently it mostly involves solving her world's problems so she focuses on higher pursuits).

It's all good though.  Skylaxians, in addition to being the best researchers, can also convince races to join the Federation without a specific reason.  It just takes an extraordinarily high rapport between the Skylaxians and that race (even works if the race hates your guts, which is nice).  The pacifist robots can do this too, which I think makes more sense... but anyway, I had a plan.

So then the Darloks Evuck (sneaky hooded... tentacle kangaroos?) arrive.  Apparently they killed five nines of my race with a high-tech virus, the high-v moon just... nearly finished the job |:

Oh whatever.  So they killed my race, at least they didn't blow up the freaking planet.  And we were a race of evil despotic dragons.  Let's let bygones be bygones.  Particularly since they're don't have a bunch of weird conditions for joining like the Klingons do.  *here have a ton of technology and a smile* *sure we'll join* (:

That's when things got messy.

The isolationist boars (who love me) and the bloodthirsty klingons (who love me) notice that the Federation (led by that guy they love) has half the planets in the system.  "OH SHIT" they say.  "WE'RE UNCOMFORTABLE WITH THIS".  Okay okay that's fair enough, I'd be worried too.  "HEY CUDCHEWERS" say the Klingons.  "YES, MURDEROUS MORONS?" "WE SHOULD MAKE OUR OWN CLUB" "WE HATE YOU AND EVERYTHING YOU STAND FOR, OKAY!"

I'm exaggerating a bit, it really did make sense   Though they were at -60 with each other and had nothing in common besides being intimidated by my peaceful alliance of fat owls and friendly scientists (and... sociopathic plaguemakers in cowls who steal everything...)

I do think it's funny that when the Rachni Aliens Genestealers Klackons no fuck it the Klackons arrived, the "Union of Independent Worlds" or whatever wanted nothing to do with them

So the endgame was basically glassing the Klingon and Klackon planets while waiting for the Skylaxians to send enough troops.  The not-Klackons get *insane* melee bonuses such that it took a while, even with constant orbital bombardment and a huge tech lead.  Almost made me wish I'd kept the evil robots around, with their clever tactic of tying engines to moons (a secret they somehow developed before inventing interplanetary vessels...  uh)

The best part though?  The boars didn't give a fuck about their Klingon allies.  Didn't even technically declare war.  They were by far the most powerful single race, too, with 3/8 planets.  They just didn't care.  Once the Klingons were all dead (Actually!  Many survivors lived on as pirates in the asteroid belt, or in my hold as shock troops) the UIP dissolved.  "Sooo... want to join our alliance now?"  "Nah I'm focusing on my people right now." 

*jump cut about an in-game year of me convincing the Skylaxians and Boarians that they're 300pt soulmates instead of being mildly antagonistic*
"Hey Skylaxians, recruit them."  "Yeah sure"

A WINNER IS ME
Casualties:
wow all the evil races, funny how that works.
Not counting the Evuck, but they're technically neutral and...  I mean, I bombed a lot of civilians in this game...
ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL

Spoiler: Bonus Credits (click to show/hide)

Bulrathi as the Burlust
Mentar as the Skylaxian (Though there's a lot of Human too...)
Klackon as the Thoraxians (I wonder if there's any Thoraxian/Skylaxian connection?)
Human as the Andor (A stunning performance... No invading ever!)
Darlok as the Evuck
And the Alpha Centauran as the Last Hydral (it's like MoO3 backwards and not crap!)

Some interesting teamwork in:
Gnolams and Meklars as the Acutian

And finally:
Boarine and Peltian as themselves!  Quite original.

[sambojin]

I've really got to check this game out, for the concept alone.

[Parsely]

There's a crapton of overwhelming detail, which put me off AI war, but I decided to just ignore it and see what happened.

If you own AI War, and want to give it another chance, I could help you learn to play (if I'm interpreting this right and you were bored by the tutorial or were lost for choice in a single player campaign). I just picked it up and me, GiglameshDespair, and adwarf have been playing it together recently and I'm loving it.

[Draco18s]

By the way, I do highly recommend Starward Rogue, which takes place (a million billion years) after TLF and is a twin-stick shooter with roguelike elements.

It hasn't gotten a whole lot of attention despite being really good.  There are some balance concerns being worked on by freaking volunteers (Chris's official term), but it's still hella fun to play (if anything, the player is too strong right now, even if I'm terribad and can't win on Normal).

[Rolan7]

I just found a brief fanfic, I kinda enjoyed it: https://www.arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,18575.0.html

Though maybe it's because the Burlusts are... vexing me.  I don't know if this Evuck prototype is just fragile, or if the Burlust's are absurdly strong.  The latter is at least true- they had more fleet strength than the entire rest of the system, immediately on reaching orbit.
(And I don't mean that silly bugged news post everyone gets.  I checked the charts.)

And despite having basically no techs, the longship one-shot me through full shields.  Kinda BS, I think.  1-3 fighters also once killed me instantly once my shields were down, and I swear it looked like a single shot.

Yet, this run is going very well.  All the races are alive, and only the Burlust and Thoraxians have yet to join.  The Burlusts even wasted their entire fleet against the Evucks (I helped, a bit) so they're amenable to joining the Federation... 

Except that they're still at war with the Federation.  And that's a problem, because the Evucks were my first race, and they're at ~-250 with me.  And the Burlusts are still recovering from the dead Warlord (the reason they attacked the Evucks) and refuse to consider a peace treaty for another ~30 months.  Madness.

I guess I might as well try to sideload the Thoraxians through the Skylaxians.  The Thoraxian queen is okay with me, but I have no idea how one is supposed to reach 500 relations ever.  Much easier to just "improve relations" between her and the Skylaxians to 300.

I used "laud race" to good effect this session, but the Thoraxians pretty strongly hate everybody.  And requesting lauds has severely drained my relationship with the Federation races (especially the Andors, who let me go past -50).

As usual, it's tempting to just have the Federation wipe out the problematic evil races.  I really should go for a STRONK Federation next time.

[sprinkled chariot]

Its a pity, that you cant just forget about that hydral stuff and play as acutians.

[Rolan7]

Well, funny you should say that...  I just tried Invasion mode.  (Betrayal mode was great fun too).

Those poor Obscura...  They never had a chance.
So they wiped out the Peltians in the intro, which barely worried anybody, because... it's the Peltians.  It was probably an accident.
Every race immediately sends an attack fleet...  Which is doing okay until I try to assist.  Funny thing about the Obscura, they absolutely devastate in tactical battles.  They can be just about to lose, when you move to assist, and they effortlessly destroy all your allies even as you effortlessly destroy them.

Anyway, they defend themselves and then... sit there.  Ooooh big scary grand master planet eaters.
After a couple of months the last hydral (me) randomly assassinates the Burlust warchief.  This causes the Burlusts to go absolutely apeshit and almost instantly genocide the Slylaxians, then start on the Evucks. 

At first this worries me, but then I realize...  The Burlusts are basically already as strong as the Obscura on their own.  I actually don't see how I could lose this.  Particularly since the Thoraxians are quickly replicating across a freakin GAS GIANT.

The Obscura aren't any threat at all.  It's really just a race between the Burlusts and Thoraxians.  Since the Skylaxians are already dead, I decide to help each (and improve their relations with each other).  I do this for a couple of years...  High-medical Thoraxians on a gas giant, focusing on egglaying, and boosted with Andor magicks, are truly something.  I've never even seen 1T ground force.

However, even with boosted fleet production, the Burlusts mysteriously get stymied by the Evuck homeworld.  Somewhat bored, I check on the Acutians.  (The Obscura are still doing jack shit 3.5 years in.)  Ooh, planet crackers... but the Finance director is charging so much ):

So I spend the cash I made from Thoraxian sky-cities (expand usable area, so lucrative) to rush-build a training center and spy satellite, buildings which do nothing except help the Defense industry rise to the forefront.  The supposedly masterful robot CEOs have an absolutely chaotic -250 economy, which is kinda ironic, but no matter.  I bribe the Defense administrator a bit, then realize...  He's only charging me like a hundred credits to planet-crack the Obscura!  It's supposed to be 70,000 but everyone hates the Obscura.  Okay!  But how do I get the 90 relation necessary?

I pay the Acutians a pittance to drop their septic tanks on the Obscura world.  This does literally nothing except shock the civilized races (even the Evucks, the hypocrites)... and impress the Burlusts and Acutians.  They literally love me because I've abandoned pitiful "morality"...  By dropping poo on some intergalactic marauding nanites.  The environmental rating didn't even change.  Not that it matters, because now I have 90 relations...

WELCOME TO THE FEDERATION, XENOS!  *planet shatters*

Truly they were not even close to prepared for the boundless savagery of this system.  Seriously, these aliens are fucked up.  I could probably have pulled that off in year 2, 1 if I was lucky.  Simply convince the Acutians that you're evil by flinging poo, so they'll agree to fling a moon.  If that fails, just watch the Thoraxians and Burlusts massacre everything.