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[Lord Snow]

I bit the bullet and bought Universe (with full discount from owning all the prior releases), mainly just so that I could get the Steam integration (together with the various other polished-up improvements).  Time to start being beaten up by pirates again!   

what. how did you get steam integration from buying from matrix games?
My key doesn't register with steam.

The full instructions can be found here, but basically, you go to Slitherene here, create an account (if you don't have one already), register your serial, and generate your Steam key.

Thanks, appreciate it!


On an entirely different topic:
last game i found 2 derelict ship sites, one with a planet destroyer.
I sent in my construction ships to repair stuff, and was left alone for some time.
The sites were eventually discovered by other races, and i suddenly had a permanent strikeforce hovering around the derelict ships.
However, the AI never sent in their own construction ships.

So... is the AI just dumb, or does superior military presence decide who gets a newly repaired wreck?

[Culise]

Planet killers have been in since... Shadows? Before?

In the Universes prequel mode (set during the first coming of the Shakturi), you can apparently build them from scratch, along with Giant Kaltor and the Ancient Guardians.  I haven't actually tried a prequel game yet, though. 

I would definitely love to see orbitals and ringworlds.  Star destroyers (as in actual destroyers of stars, not that minor blip on the radar from Star Wars ) could also be interesting, but I'm not sure that nebula would spread across a significant area of space in the game timeframe.  It'd probably be easier, both from a realism and gameplay standpoint, to effectively "convert" the system to a gas cloud (destroying everything in it in the process, naturally).  I'm not sure how much a Dyson sphere would actually do in game-play terms; the popular conception of the solid sphere is impractical for obvious reasons, while the game doesn't track energy of the sort that the original conception of the sphere would gather.  Maybe a bonus to the planetary development of any planets in-system would work. 

[puke]

I've often seen the AI race me to repair fleets.  Maybe they didnt have construction ships available, in range, or with enough fuel?  I don't think they're clever enough to build construction ships for the purpose, and if the ones they have are already occupied, they might not get to it in time.

As far as who gets it, is definitely goes to whomever finishes the repair.

[puke]

the popular conception of the solid sphere is impractical for obvious reasons, while the game doesn't track energy of the sort that the original conception of the sphere would gather.  Maybe a bonus to the planetary development of any planets in-system would work.

I'd like to see something like this: 

Space based resource extractors, construction bases, and research facilities could get a bonus from the amount of crew (population) available.  Supporting large populations would require organic resources, and generate demand for luxury goods.  Thus, you could get massive bonuses for having a large population in space, but it would be costly to maintain unless you also created large hydroponic bases.  You might end up with something akin to High Frontier style O'Neil cylinders, or whatever.

Combine this idea with STELLAR resource extractors, and the a benefit from stacking multiple bases around an object, and you would have an incentive to begin building your own ring of bases all extracting resources from the star.  It's not just energy, the thing is blowing off vast quantities of material as the output of its ongoing fusion and fission processes.  Different types of stars will be wafting out different elements.

This would change gameplay a bit, such that turtleing is more viable and that the expansion-rush is less important, but I think it would be fun.

[jhxmt]

...the game doesn't track energy of the sort that the original conception of the sphere would gather.  Maybe a bonus to the planetary development of any planets in-system would work.

Interestingly, each of the stars in a game does have a number of properties related to the energy it puts out (amount of X-rays, gamma rays etc), but I'm unsure as to whether that data is used for anything other than flavour text.  I wonder if mods could make use of it in some manner (Dyson sphere/ringworld-type constructions being one example).

[puke]

I think the only current impact it has on the game, is how much of a research bonus is available, or how much of a scenic tourism bonus is available.  Everything else is just fluff.

But I do hope that they are settings that modders can do something with...

[Retropunch]

Now that universe has been out for a while, has anyone noticed any other noticeable changes than modding support and the new story? sorry to keep asking, I'm just a bit on the fence about it as I don't care about either of those aspects, but if there were other noticeable changes I'd go for it.

[Jacob/Lee]

2204.12.27: the Shakturi have been stomped into the ground by the Ancient Guardians a. I should've seen this coming with the massive firepower advantage the Guardians had, but it still surprised me how quickly they reacted. There were frequent months-long space battles going on over the Shakturi homeworld, ending with the space port being crushed and almost the entire fleet destroyed. They've managed to rebuild some of their military, but they're below twenty-fifth place on the military strength list. It's kind of sad and funny at the same time: The monstrously evil bringers of death are the only friends of the Gizurean Collective.

The Collective has yet to enter a war that wasn't started by us, although a few empires are starting to open fire on my ships when they refuse to leave their systems. The second war with the Mortalu Council has just ended after bombing their homeworld with nukes and invading both it and their last colony. Curiously, that last planet had only three billion people but seven different races. All of them are the same in the eyes of the slavers, though. The planet also provides a nice forward operating base for any operations that may be launched in the center of the galaxy, such as permanently acquiring the spice mine.

Speaking of spice: the price of it is now down to 147.4. The Shakturi and my own empire are the only ones with access, so the significant value loss is expected.

I'm 43% of the way to victory, 80% being the threshold. I'm slowly seizing the GDP and population universal conditions and I'm working on the "highest number of military ships constructed" racial condition, although ~2200 is a hard number to top, even with the oversized civilian fleet that could be escorted. My game is also starting to lag a good bit when I zoom in on certain systems.

My empire is the golden one at the top-middle.

Now that universe has been out for a while, has anyone noticed any other noticeable changes than modding support and the new story? sorry to keep asking, I'm just a bit on the fence about it as I don't care about either of those aspects, but if there were other noticeable changes I'd go for it.

Not as far as I can tell, although being able to link it with Steam is nice. Only $10 if you have all the other parts, too.

[Knave]

Looks like they've released a new Beta update to deal with a lot of the bugs and the tax exploits. Looks like it also helps the AI keep up militarily, as well with research, looking forward to giving it a shot!

Code: [Select]

RASH FIXES
- fixed crash when drawing space monsters ("CheckFixNotInSystem")
- fixed rare crash when drawing ships
- fixed rare crash when drawing Empire Navigation Tool

BUG FIXES
- added *possible* fix for issue where view sometimes moves to top-left
- fixed issue where Steam Achievements were often being set prematurely
- fixed AI empires starting and then quickly ending Trade Sanctions - now always honor minimum time period
- fixed RepairBot components being downgraded to Damage Control by AI ship design
- fixed problems when loading and displaying research information when Windows set to some non-English languages (e.g. Turkish)
- ensured that pirate factions are generated at start of a new game when using an existing galaxy map
- slightly increased size of Tutorial screen to account for larger text

GENERAL GAME BALANCE
- adjusted default ship design templates for each race: Large Spaceports have more docking bays and construction yards, Mining Stations have more docking bays, shields and weapons
- low colony tax rates do not increase population growth rates as much as previously, but now make colony more attractive migration destination
- civilian ships now ensure they have enough reactors to power hyperdrives at full speed (same as state ships already did)
- Fighters now weighted higher when evaluating strength of potential attack targets
- AI now willing to build more military ships when at war, especially when have large cash reserves and powerful enemies
- AI now more willing to build more research stations at home colony at game start
- AI takes more care to avoid overspending on troops

EXPLORATION
- Exploration ships now scan for resources more quickly, moving on to next exploration target immediately once resources and ruins investigated
- increased amount of automated Exploration ships that are assigned to simply scout systems for colonization targets and ruins instead of performing full resource scan of system and all resources

FLEETS
- AI fleets are now better at coordinating multi-fleet attacks within own empire against single enemy target (beyond just coordinated fleet attacks with allies)
- increased ratio of AI-created large fleets versus small strike forces (i.e. more large fleets)

OTHER
- now force immediate update of stardate and cash display when open a new screen, e.g. Empire Summary screen
- possession of an operational planet destroyer negatively affects diplomatic relations with other empires ("We are envious of your huge strength and power")

[Zangi]

I've often seen the AI race me to repair fleets.  Maybe they didnt have construction ships available, in range, or with enough fuel?  I don't think they're clever enough to build construction ships for the purpose, and if the ones they have are already occupied, they might not get to it in time.

As far as who gets it, is definitely goes to whomever finishes the repair.

The AI will eventually send a constructor to repair a world destroyer.  Typically, they do not attack other people's constructors, unless they are hostile, so it is a first come first serve thing.

[Retropunch]

SO glad that the trade sanction minimum time thing is fixed, I'm almost tempted to get Universe just for this. In my last game I had two races changing it at least once a minute each and it drove me absolutely mad - I didn't want to turn off other diplomacy notifications, but these two races just kept switching them on and off constantly. I eventually just went into a really costly war with one of them just to stop it, as nothing else seemed to bring me away from the threshold I must have been at.

Although I know they've tried to limit spam, I feel they could have done a bit better - splitting notifications into separate scrolling boxes would be nice, or giving more granularity, or giving you the ability to turn off non-major notifications from certain races.

[BFEL]

HOLY BALLS GUYS, HOLY BALLS.

So I started a new game because the other one was WAAAAY too easy (no pirates, only 4 empires, etc) and I'm around a young/middling(?) empire (not entirely sure) but anyway, look what I just found:

Spoiler: Motherfucking Jackpot (click to show/hide)

All of those ships are abandoned. I just found them there in a big cluster like that.
There's like 5 Capital ships, a carrier or two, and a bunch of cruisers and destroyers.

Even better: I found this by being alerted to a planet in that system with Zentabian Fluid.

Is this a normal thing? Or did I just break the game with the sheer force of my luck?

[Knave]

There's usually a couple spaceship graveyards kicking around with varying degrees of ships/power levels. Definitely great to land on early on if you grab a construction ship and liberate the choicest of the bunch!

[Sinistar]

Now that universe has been out for a while, has anyone noticed any other noticeable changes than modding support and the new story? sorry to keep asking, I'm just a bit on the fence about it as I don't care about either of those aspects, but if there were other noticeable changes I'd go for it.

Don't know if it's been mentioned here, but apparently there's been some pretty interesting upgrades to AI. I've read on official forums your allies will now actually coordinate the attack on mutual enemies with you, as in sending their attack fleets after the same target or sectors or just enemies in general when you order your own fleets to do so. Didn't tried it myself though, still have to get around to actually installing DW:U.

BFEL: I'm guessing you are playing with Shaktur storyline enabled?

You can't repair all those ships at this early stage of the game so be prepared to eventually get your ass handed to you.

[puke]

yeah, that is not uncommon.  There will be a few things like that littering the galaxy.

It's a pretty great boon, but just keep in mind: someone else could easily find something similar.  The AI might just as easily stumble upon a planet destroyer, or a lost colony.  Or accidentally unleash some silver mist right next to you, and you'll have to spend that entire fleet to stop it.