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[Majestic7]

So I started a new game with airforces beta and it is really promising, but I haven't researched power plants. Despite being several steps ahead in tech tree, power plants or solar plants just never got discovered. This is very annoying and I don't think there is any way to get them otherwise. Maybe there should be some basic power plant available at basic tech. Now the lack of power limits the growth of my entire empire, since I can't build anything that uses power in cities. The few special power hexes I've captured help, but... they aren't really enough. Annoying.

[Journier]

so how you avoid this is you dont progress down the tech tree until you have power plants. If you progress your making the chances of getting the tech worse.

Slow and steady till you get power plants, then do whatever.

[Majestic7]

Well, you can't really avoid progressing down the tech tree if the dice choose so. I've now put research in economic tech to zero and all to discovery, but still keep getting discoveries in just other stuff than power.

[E. Albright]

Power plants are so weak in this game. Or rather, solar is so OP. Solar output really needs curbed according to e.g. rainfall and/or atmosphere type. It's sad that the special power plant techs like the volcanic one is straight-up trash compared to solar...

[Death Dragon]

Well, you can't really avoid progressing down the tech tree if the dice choose so. I've now put research in economic tech to zero and all to discovery, but still keep getting discoveries in just other stuff than power.

You definitely can avoid progressing down the tech tree. New tech tree sections get unlocked when you research 3  (I think that's the number) techs in the previous section, not when you discover them. So an early focus on discovery will make sure you get the power plants in a timely fashion.

If you want to start with the ability to build power plants, you can actually do that, too. Just increase the starting tech level when you start a new game.

[Journier]

yup.

my first few games of this game was without power plant tech for what seemed like over 100 turns. it was insane. then got this tip.

[Death Dragon]

The airforce update has moved out of beta by the way. You can update with the "check for updates" button in the launcher now.

I'm sure there still are a lot of bugs anyway though.
This game is just so hard to properly bugtest with how complex everything is.

There apparently just was a little devlog post thing about the new alien fauna from the airforce update:
https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=4918751

[E. Albright]

Matrix is also having their holiday sale, so Shadow Empire is 20% off through 10 Jan.

[E. Albright]

If you haven't seen the new fauna, BTW, they REALLY can end up being a lot more, um, "interesting" than the older, simpler ones. A single stack of less than 1000 of these has kept ~8000 of my low-tech-except-for-a-few-GR-lasers troops (and a handful of artillery, rovers, ultralight planes, and 20 Sentinels) tied up for going on 20 turns. I've probably killed 600-800 keeping them contained but they replace their losses so fast that I've not been able to press any advantage gained by entrenched defenders killing a couple hundred:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

My best hope lies with the Model Design Council which is hard at work trying to put together a prototype tactical bomber...

[Vivalas]

That soft defense is, uh, incredibly high.

I wanna try air forces beta but I actually really hate the early game and I don't think you can convert existing ones

[E. Albright]

Beyond the soft defense, the fauna feats added that they count as having polymer armor & get +40%HP/lvl, ignore hits that don't inflict damage higher than their HP, reproduce faster than normal, and are aggressive. I'm really luck there was only one stack.

I eventually savescummed it to death rather than waiting for bombers (the sentinels to the north and aggressive imperium to the east made that no longer feasible), but it took A LOT of reloading. This was the fight that actually killed them. And by them, I mean one of them:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Death Dragon]

I wanna try air forces beta but I actually really hate the early game and I don't think you can convert existing ones

You can start with higher tech level, additional zones, and starting military, if you don't know. You can pretty much skip the whole early game.

[Urist McScoopbeard]

So coming back to this after a while, does anyone have any reccs on settings for a slower, logistics focused game instead of a lot of combat?

[E. Albright]

Depending on how far you want to go down the low combat rabbit hole, I''d say a mix of: large planet; don't pick Unclassified, Siwa, or Medusa for class; Haven of Calm, Robinson Crusoe, Outpost Colony history; re-roll if you happen to get hostile alien life or larger starting pop sizes. Probably start with low/slow tech, no starting councils, fog of war, 1 zone, no easy logistics as well, though if you hate the early game you could ditch most of those.

[Knave]

Shadow Empires has now released on the all-mighty steam platform for those of you who enjoy having all games on Steam.
Those who purchased on Matrix previously can access their Steam key in their Matrix Acct.

20% off currently!
Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1154840/Shadow_Empire/
Matrix:https://www.matrixgames.com/game/shadow-empire


And here's a {NEW!} link to SET-UP series by Dastactic w/ new aircraft. Very good for learning the game and a lot of the under-the-hood mechanics:
(HERE)