Civilization IN SPACE!

[Imperator Knoedel]

Alrighty then.

 

[Manco Capac]

Awww...some people have easy time to find new players. 11 pages and no one ever proposed to join in past my original ones. Not that it's a real matter, but for some reason, everywhere else than S&Tips, SGOTM and HoF, I work hard to get attention...on mah stuff.

About my nation. Well, I want it a mystery. I want a challenge and I tend to spot exploits/strong assets fast. Choose for me. The surprise is best.

 

[Eclipse4449]

I have no in depth knowledge of the mod, I take one turn at a time

 

[Eclipse4449]

Awww...some people have easy time to find new players. 11 pages and no one ever proposed to join in past my original ones. Not that it's a real matter, but for some reason, everywhere else than S&Tips, SGOTM and HoF, I work hard to get attention...on mah stuff.

About my nation. Well, I want it a mystery. I want a challenge and I tend to spot exploits/strong assets fast. Choose for me. The surprise is best.

We are a circle of PBEM player that are already playing other games with.

I too want a random Civ/Leader

 

[Tigranes]

Not that it's a real matter, but for some reason, everywhere else than S&Tips, SGOTM and HoF, I work hard to get attention...on mah stuff.

Who needs attention from bunch of guys with hairy legs, eww As long as you get some attention from real life ladies -- consider yourself victorious.

 

[kiwitt]

I have no in depth knowledge of the mod, I take one turn at a time

Key thing to remember is that instead of tiles to develop you have planets on one tile and you need to use the system (city) screen to change from one to another and control building queue for each planet.

 

[Manco Capac]

Last thing I recall from the original vanilla mod of Final Frontier made by the demon itself was the unfairness. No early whipping, no chop alternative, short tech tree, lack of resources or simply health/happy alternatives, etc.

But I have heard of TC-01 Final Frontier Plus project and I will see now if he overhauled the whole to the...errr...plus.

 

[God-Emperor]

Last thing I recall from the original vanilla mod of Final Frontier made by the demon itself was the unfairness. No early whipping, no chop alternative, short tech tree, lack of resources or simply health/happy alternatives, etc.

I don't see how any of that is unfair as it applies to everyone.

In FFP...

There is still no early whipping.

There is still no chop alternative.

The tech tree is less short via 5 additional techs and they scale up in cost a bit more.

There are 6 additional resources which can be found on planets in some star systems, 3 which give +1 happy and 3 which give +1 health, although the existing resources were reduced from +3 to +2 health or happy (since there were 2 of each of these, it is a net gain of 1 more health and happy if you have them all). Each planetary resource has an additional yield benefit (+1 food per population working the planet for heath resources, +1 commerce per population working the planet for happy resources) and allows the production of a new building, different for each resource, on the planet where it is located to get even more benefits - in general the heath resource related buildings give +1 to the population limit and a little more stuff and the happy resource related buildings give an extra trade route and a little more stuff (which includes, in one case, a second extra trade route). A few of the civics also give a little extra happiness too.

And for some "etc" each civ has a set of UUs and a UB too, there are some wonders, and a shrine for each religion. There are some additional buildings, including one late in the game that gives heath and happiness (the Nanotech Hospital) so once you get that far the happiness, and health, issue becomes much less of a concern. Also, FFP now remembers how much production you already put into buildings on each planet if you switch which planet is building something. And probably some other stuff: play it and find out.

But I have heard of TC-01 Final Frontier Plus project and I will see now if he overhauled the whole to the...errr...plus.

I feel a distinct lack of attention.

 

[kiwitt]

I feel a distinct lack of attention.

But you did spot this thread

 

[Imperator Knoedel]

Indeed, now that you are here, would you care to join us maybe?

 

[Imperator Knoedel]

Alright everyone, Version 1.83 is out! This is the version we are going to use, and we will start the instant two more players have joined us (or one more if gpcii comes around).

The current list of players is as follows:

Imp. Knoedel
Tigranes
Eclipse4449
Tachywaxon
Hercules90
kiwitt
(gpcii)

Only Tigranes has named his preferences for a faction (Red Syndicate) and map settings (default), so unless someone else speaks up we will go with the following:

Map: Wormholes
Size: Huge or Large
Era: Isolation (duh)
Speed: Normal or Epic
Star System Quantity: Normal or Dense
Feature Density: Normal
Hostile Features: Normal or Sparse
Label Wormholes: Labelling On
Order of Wormholes: Random

Permanent Alliances
Require Complete Kills
No Pirate Experience Cap
Calculate Trade Route Paths
Troop Transports
Multiple Production
Productive Pirate Systems
Reduced Pirates

All victories except maybe Time on

 

[gpcii]

I'm in. I'll be new earth or you can just surprise me. I do not really know the pros and cons of the civs.

 

[kiwitt]

1.83 Successfully loaded.

Preference: "The Brotherhood"

 

[Imperator Knoedel]

I'm in. I'll be new earth or you can just surprise me. I do not really know the pros and cons of the civs.

Excellent, welcome back! Once I've manipulated persuaded Nighthawk into joining too we are good to go.

A short description of the civs not yet taken:

New Earth: The king of the early game and REXing, the combination of every newly colonized (but not conquered, mind you!) system starting with two pop and lower Health and Happy limit just screams for spamming colony and construction ships until every habitable planet is filled with humans. Once every system is settled half your trait becomes useless though, but you are still stuck with -1 and . It isn't as bad as it seems though, provided you settled some systems with resources, and there's still half-priced Factories and Manufactures. Your UB and UU are both okayish. All in all a solid faction, but its potential is directly proportional to the map size and the number of systems you can settle.

The Forge: Hammers, hammers everywhere. Your start can be kinda slow and you have to watch out which systems to settle because that -1 Food can really hurt with the wrong planets in the first ring. The strength of this faction lies obviously in building Mining Facilities and its UB, a nanoextraction upgrade with extra commerce as often as possible. Food is hard to come by and Commerce is also meh, but if you want high raw Production look no further! The UU is an improved City Attack ship, which you will probably need to catch up with your rivals that aren't penalized in the growing department and thus able to colonize prime locations earlier than you. An okay civ if you play to its strengths

The Avowers: This faction is geared for research and exploration. In the first dozen turns or so it will most times be in third place after New Earth and Paradise due to the former's extra population and the latter's planets all starting with a free Mag-Lev, but once you get some decent commerce going and run the research slider as high as possible you will in more cases than not be the tech-leader by far. Your UU, an improved Scouting ship, will ensure that your star charts are always up-to-date. The UB is a laboratory with a happy face, which isn't really that much, but better than nothing. A decent civ with no real flaws

AstroTech Corporation: A one-trick faction similar to Japan in BtS, if you aren't conquering something you have chosen the wrong civ. The only non-military perk is the double production speed of a building whose name I forgot, which increases the pop cap of its planet by one. The rest is half-priced Capital shipyard and Fighter factory, both buildings that can only be built once per system, and a Free Combat I equivalent for pretty much every unit over or under the sun, even Missiles receive it! You also start with two techs instead of just one, your UU is a weaker but cheaper and in other aspects enhanced Destroyer with the ability to carry missiles, and your UB is a University that provides +1 Hammer. In the view of many the worst faction, I half expected Tigranes to choose it and rush half the galaxy.

Paradise: Extra Influence (Culture) and Commerce but the worst happy cap of all, you will similar to New Earth be among the first to colonize other systems. Think Creative and Financial. REXing is a no-brainer, you have to get happiness resources from somewhere after all, and thanks to that 2 free Influence you won't even need to bother with building Interplanetary Beacons. What The Forge is for Hammers, Paradise is for Commerce. All things even you are the Avowers' only serious competitor for technical supremacy, but you can more easily focus your attention on Gold, Espionage or Influence. UU and UB are so-so. Great faction if you can overcome your happiness limitations and like to rush-buy things.

Halis: Think Spiritual and Organized, you get to change civics without anarchy, which is nothing to spit at, considering that the only way to get a Golden Age is via building the National Epic or the Founders' Monument. You also receive +2 happiness, your UU is a Planetary Defense Ship with extra strength and your UB a manufacture with extra hammers (I think...). The only drawback is a hard -50% Influence penalty which means a cultural victory is right out. If you want flexibility and security at the same time, this is the faction for you. Your System Defense Boats will make every potential aggressor think twice before attacking you, and if someone is stupid enough to still try it there is nothing stopping you from switching to Slave State and Police State/Democracy and whip/draft/rush-buy an army out of nothing. No really, no anarchy, civic maintenance costs are halved and you even get some free happiness on top to deal with the sudden drafting/whipping anger. Awesome faction if you want to be left alone and don't care none for some fancy-shmancy culture victory.

Preference: "The Brotherhood"

Watch out, we've got a warmonger over here.

 

[gpcii]

Food can really hurt with the wrong planets in the first ring.

So when looking at Star Systems, is there something that tells you what the planets are good for?

 

[Hercules90]

Ok I got 1.83 installed and working.

I'll take the Halis faction.

 

[God-Emperor]

So when looking at Star Systems, is there something that tells you what the planets are good for?

Before a star system is settled you can double-click on it to get a pop-up that lists the planets. This tells you what their base population capacity and yields are and also indicates which planet has a resource (if one does).

After it is settled you can click on a planet in the lower right of the city screen and the display above that will show the details that planet - but you can only do it for planets you can work at the time based on your influence level. The hover help pop-up also tells you the yield, indicates if there is a resource, tells you which influence zone the planet is in, and also works for planets outside your current influence.

All planets of the same color have the same base yields and there are only 7 types. The presence of a resource will modify either the food by +1 or the commerce by +1.
Base yields:
Green = 3, 1, 2 (these look a lot like the Earth, has atmosphere effect, only type with the cloud effect)
Blue = 0, 2, 5
Gray = 0, 3, 3
Orange = 2, 2, 1 (more of a slightly orangish yellow, easily confused with yellow but has the atmosphere effect)
Red = 1, 2, 3 (more of an reddish orange, but not easily confused with anything else)
Yellow = 1, 1, 6
White = 2, 0, 3 (has atmosphere effect)

The green planets are the best (due to the most food output) when first settling a star system, especially for the Forge, therefore star systems with them in the first ring have extra value. Orange and white are also good for food, although the 0 production for white can be a problem. Gray planets are for production, with blue, orange, and red also pretty good for this. Yellow planets are for commerce, with blue a close second.

There are only 3 planet sizes, directly related to the base population limit (of 1, 2, or 3) so those can also be determined visually (although some planet types have an atmospheric effect applied that makes them look slightly larger which makes it require a bit more attention to tell).

Some planets have a moon. There is a building, the moon base, that can only be built on planets with a moon.

Some planets have rings. There is a world wonder, The Great Rings Park, that can only be built on a planet with rings.

A bit of trivia: there are never any size 3 "green" planets.

And that is a lot of info about planets.

 

[Hercules90]

Thanks for that very useful guide to the systems and planets.

 

[gpcii]

Thanks for that very useful guide to the systems and planets.

Is there then a special logic or reasoning, to which "ring" a planet is orbiting? Twice you mentioned about a green planet in the first ring.

 

[God-Emperor]

I actually meant "first rings" rather than "first ring", the ones you can use when you first settle the star system, rather than the actual innermost ring (or orbit - they are called "rings" in the Python code so I tend to call them that).

The planets are in 3 zones. Initially you can only put population on planets in the innermost zone. This is why they are the most important ones when you first settle a star system, especially the food output of the highest food producing planet (and even more so when you are the Forge). Once your influence (FF's name for culture) has caused your borders to expand the first time you can use the planets in the second zone. And then again after you get the 2nd border pop you can use the planets in the 3rd zone. There are 3 orbits in the inner and outer zones and two in the middle zone. The way the influence (or culture, if you prefer the standard BtS term) works is deliberately set up so that the first border pop takes a little long to get to than in regular BtS and the second one takes quite a bit longer.

You can get any planet type in any orbit - there is no "habitable zone" or anything like that. You can have a green planet in the outermost orbit or the innermost or one in each.

Although there are 8 orbits there are no star systems with more than 7 planets. Also none with fewer than 3. Your home star system will always have 6. There are some criteria used when generating the systems to insure they meet certain minimum criteria, but it allows some pretty bad star systems. The minimum criteria for the home star systems is higher than for the others, on top of always having 6 planets. It is possible that there will be some 7 planet star system out there that is better than anybody's home system.

And the star color has no effect on anything.