Blog post: Update 1.1.2589 adds shuttle pads and more

[Tynan]

Official discussion thread for this blog post.

Cheers!

[Canute]

Hi,
don't forget to reset the Sendowl limits. Or the email support angel will get many email soon ! :-)

Edit: The version check of the DRM-free version still show 2575

[Prologue]

"When shuttles land at the colony, they will land here if they can. In addition, Imperial guests (including the High Stellarch) now land using the shuttle."

Who can use a shuttle to land at your colony? Only Imperial guests or also other guests, traders and perhaps enemies?

[khun_poo]

The corp yield in merciless isn't seem to get the penalty? Mining got it 50% less now though.
(From the look in the colonist info panel)

[Tynan]

Adjusted build is going up!

[LakeWobegon]

I wish stuff that really matters like tripling the health of the defoliator ship was not consistently left out of patch notes. Or the massive nerf that was given to charge lances, turrets and so many other things that are incredibly important from a gameplay perspective that the player has to learn about them the hard way.

[carbon]

– Increase health of mech problem causers.

Defoliator ship is a mech problem causer. So that at least was definitely mentioned.

[LakeWobegon]

For all I know they could have increased the health of the mortars as those have the same denomination. It would have been nice to know exactly what was done wrt the example I gave. Instead  I learned the hard way after spending 50 shells trying to kill the thing only to give up since the mortars are so incredibly accurate (that is why shells needed their blast radius reduced so that we only hit a target if we are incredibly lucky) . Its absolutely ridiculous that I may have to spend 2500k steel and 1.5k chemfuel to destroy a problem causer. 
Do you want ppl to use moratairs and turrets or do you want to turn them into false choices? False choices are not very good for strategy games that want to be/remain good.

[Prologue]

Instead  I learned the hard way after spending 50 shells trying to kill the thing only to give up since the mortars are so incredibly accurate (that is why shells needed their blast radius reduced so that we only hit a target if we are incredibly lucky) . Its absolutely ridiculous that I may have to spend 2500k steel and 1.5k chemfuel to destroy a problem causer.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2034585850&searchtext=mortar

This mod will help balancing mortars.

[RicRider]

-- We no longer show mood thought bubbles for unimportant pawn (e.g. spamming them on raiders during battles).

This change here I don't like. It always made me laugh when they chat while attacking and would encourage me to check and see what they're chatting about. Brought a whole other dimension to the raiders instead of being 'unimportant' as you've described in the change.

[Tynan]

I wish stuff that really matters like tripling the health of the defoliator ship was not consistently left out of patch notes. Or the massive nerf that was given to charge lances, turrets and so many other things that are incredibly important from a gameplay perspective that the player has to learn about them the hard way.

Charge lances weren't changed, the turret nerf and defoliator changes were mentioned.

Its absolutely ridiculous that I may have to spend 2500k steel and 1.5k chemfuel to destroy a problem causer. 
Do you want ppl to use moratairs and turrets or do you want to turn them into false choices? False choices are not very good for strategy games that want to be/remain good.

The normal way to defeat that is to go out and fight it directly using any of a wide variety of tactics that are available. If you want to stay home and do it from the base, the mortars provide that option; it's an option with huge upsides (zero risk, zero skill required) which are matched by its downsides (large economic cost).

Basically this was a strategy that was very OP before, thus wiping away the rest of the game's strategic depth by providing the same dull solution to problems over and over. Now it's not as OP (I hope), which means those other strategies are optimal in many cases. We're still in that transitional phase where people are doing the same old strategy as before and being shocked that the results aren't the same, but as people adjust to the new situation I hope we'll see richer metagame of different strategies appear besides "mortar it to death every time".

If the game is too difficult overall, a good option is simply to lower the difficulty level to whatever level you enjoy, which may not the the level that is specifically and explicitly designed to be unfairly difficult and brutal.

-- We no longer show mood thought bubbles for unimportant pawn (e.g. spamming them on raiders during battles).

This change here I don't like. It always made me laugh when they chat while attacking and would encourage me to check and see what they're chatting about. Brought a whole other dimension to the raiders instead of being 'unimportant' as you've described in the change.

Chat bubbles and mood bubbles aren't the same thing.

[RicRider]

Chat bubbles and mood bubbles aren't the same thing.

I'm glad that I mixed those up and I'm glad chat bubbles are left alone for raiders but I don't like mood bubbles being removed either even though I'm less annoyed by that than I would have been if you removed chat bubbles from raiders.

Do you get my point though? My point was that if you think something is 'spam', put an option for the 'spam conscious' player instead of changing it. Some people like the immersion!

[Tynan]

Well they still get the same moods as before; it was just really spammy to see duplicated red mood bubbles on all of them over and over whenever any one died. It's just a little visual change, I hope stories won't be affected.

[RicRider]

You're right, this is a pretty cosmetic change. I don't care about it as much as I'm making out.

[LakeWobegon]

Charge lances weren't changed, the turret nerf and defoliator changes were mentioned.

Unless I am missing something charge lances range went from 37 to 30 and its long range accuracy dropped by 5%. Generally speaking all turrets damage/penetration were decreased by up 50% and the cost to rearm them was also increased by at least 50% and I saw nothing mentioning this when 1.1 was available. The only thin I saw wrt turrets was "placing turrets now show their min and max range" and a range change for the mini turret a few patches later.

The normal way to defeat that is to go out and fight it directly using any of a wide variety of tactics that are available. If you want to stay home and do it from the base, the mortars provide that option; it's an option with huge upsides (zero risk, zero skill required) which are matched by its downsides (large economic cost).

No that is the way you want us to play, you are railroading the game into one way of playing either players like it or not. You brought the mortars one step closer to being a false choice, if you persist in that path you will eradicate the only non-tedious way to deal with problem causers. Its like the traps and most turrets they are so bloody devastating from an economic POV that no one in their right mind will use them.
For example already in 1.0 you could remove the uranium slug turret from the game (at merciless difficulty ) that no one competent at the game would bitch about it because they could not use them anyway. With the huge turret nerf the only one that can still be used at merciless is the mini-turret, I am looking forward to the next change that will effectively remove them from the game.
Merciless should be about stronger and smarter raids instead of effectively removing parts of the game and making it as tedious and annoying as possible.

Basically this was a strategy that was very OP before, thus wiping away the rest of the game's strategic depth by providing the same dull solution to problems over and over. Now it's not as OP (I hope), which means those other strategies are optimal in many cases.

I never used mortars to destroy ships before, I only started using them when 1.1 came out due to ships health reduction that made mortars an economically viable option. I used a brutally effective method (that still works today) but it is also brutally tedious to put in practice.  I loved low health ships because mortars became an option therefore making the game less tedious for me.

We're still in that transitional phase where people are doing the same old strategy as before and being shocked that the results aren't the same, but as people adjust to the new situation I hope we'll see richer metagame of different strategies appear besides "mortar it to death every time".

Like I said before I never used mortars against ships before so that really does not apply to me.

If the game is too difficult overall, a good option is simply to lower the difficulty level to whatever level you enjoy, which may not the level that is specifically and explicitly designed to be unfairly difficult and brutal.

My comments are not related with difficulty, they are made from a strategy POV. Put yourself in the shoes of someone who figured out how to survive naked brutality on a map that can reach -76 Celsius. I want extreme challenge but not at the expense of strategic depth that on top of it also makes it more tedious.