/civ4xg/ - Strategy/4X General

>mfw all my tropicans are just walking
I must be playing really wrong.

>I must be playing really wrong.
yes

The fuck is that.

Fine, I'll just play Banished, fuck your roads!

So many garages.
I have like 2 garages on my entire island.

Feels like forever until that update is released.

I just want meaningful politics.

Gist of it is to only have T interersections, have one big road loop around your island from which smaller residential loops attach to and minimize the number of intersections you have on your roads.

Intersections are bad?

>attacked by superior Soviet forces, including tanks
>only have two infantry platoons on this section of front, one of which is depleted and nearly out of ammo, as well as a single half-track with a 7.5cm gun
>the little half-track who could, killed all of the tanks except one, which got a lucky shot, killing the entire crew bar one
>the infantry had to clean up the last tank, and even then, the half-track immobilized him before going down
I wish I could personally give the crew of this half-track posthumous Iron Crosses. The single hero who held back an entire tank offensive.

youtube.com/watch?v=Wu4oy1IRTh8

I wish so much that they didn't have to die like that.

There are strategies games taking ammo into consideration? I know Europa Universalis has a logistic and support system, but ammo specifically?

Yeah. Game is graviteam tactics operation star. The units have ammo which is persistent and requiring resupply. Your infantry units might say run out of machine-gun ammo during a fight, and then on the next turn if you've not resupplied, they're still without. Same for tank shells etc. Run out of AP, then you're stuck with HE until resupply. It makes it that often you need to withdraw units from the front, can't "always be pushing" etc. Supplies are quite rare depending on the scenario, so caution with ammo expenditure, as well as prioritising who gets it, is very important if you want to maintain initiative, or hold back superior numbers.

It encourages rotating units to keep the pressure on the enemy. I kinda like it, but I honestly wouldn't stand that mechanism in a game I play.
That's too much micromanagement for me.

>Supplies are quite rare
Aw hell no nigga.

The micro isn't honestly that bad. You can save a lot of ammo just based on positioning your units well. Unluckily for me, the scenario I was playing had a fairly huge forested area I had to push through, which meant I was chewing through ammo and couldn't use my mechanised forces to full effect in support.

When you say scenario, I imagine fan-made content. And I immediately think of Kaizo Mario and I panic because there are people who take pleasure in making hard maps.

So, just like the Asian game some user showed earlier, your game sounds like a fun game to spectate, but I'd rather read a book than attempt to play it.

Yes. It's pretty much the same for any recent city builder, + intersections slow down traffic because one direction always has to wait for the other, while a T intersection will allow traffic to pass except for left turns. It's why roundabouts are a big thing in city planning.

In a Sim City/Skylines game you'd be able to set a road to one way or use different road widths or setup traffic signals to handle more traffic, but Tropico only has 2 lane roads and stop signs so traffic becomes a problem very quickly.

I already couldn't stand traffic in Caesar 3 and its "sisters" games, it sounds like it's becoming even more of a problem in recent city builder.

>It's 2495 in Stellaris
>I don't have 500 science for any of the disciplines

How JUST is this run senpaitachi

shutup fag

>we're never gonna get a Caesar V

What if this wasn't the best timeline?

Dunno, but my father keeps playing Caesar III. Even after I gifted him Cleopatra, Lethis and even Caesar IV, he keeps playing the same old game.

Answer the question then

>remember when I played Simcity 3000 as a kid
>manual said about airport that travel may change in different millenium
>pushed to year 3000 just to see
>nothing
Fuck you.

brap

>page 10
NOOOOO

so how can we make wars not shit in stellaris?

Add more variety and tactic to it. It doesn't even have to be real tactical stuff, just passive stuff that you activate that will either change the AI or give bonuses.
Dunno, stuff like "hold them" to get a shield bonus, or "stay far" to make your fleet avoid close combat and foxus on missiles and railguns.

>require FTL from the correct side of the system like in sins
>remove blobs

sim city is basically a traffic simulator

in fact, """"fixing"""" the pathfinding was a mistake, it's almost too easy now

nah, my problem isn't the battles.
Its the fact that the AI, in its current form cant offer any resistance. It has 1 fleet which he will spend over 1 of your planets and waits for the transport to arrive (which most likely wont, or at least not a strength that would be enough) or if you have a bigger fleet, it just sits on its capital waiting for its death. Being in federation/alliance changes nothing in this behavior: they merge their fleet to form 1 useless blob, or all sit on their separate capitals (even if the combined fleet would win).

We need shit like capping how many of each class of ships can be in a fleet, or flat out capping fleetstrength, combine 2-4 fleets into squadrons, and only 1 squadron (per empire) can be in a system at the same time (or at least 1 can be "battle ready", so the other cant engage while the the designated is there or 2 months after its departure/defeat). planetcount/research/diplomacy strength determines how many squadrons one can have/how many fleet per squadron.

Also a different warscore system built upon a few other changes:
-seperation of military and civilian spaceports, you can only have 1 kind port over a planet
-only 1 in 6 military spaceports can be lvl6, 1 in 5 can be lvl5, and so on...
-the main "war seriousness" meter is how many military-spaceport points you plan to destroy (a lvl6 worth 6, a lvl5 worth 5...)
So you declare war: "im gona wreck 30 of your portpoints". Thats calculated to worth say 10 planets. Then you go and and destroy the required ammount of ports to fill up the bar, and protect your shit because losing half of your declaration and you must give up (maybe you lose some territory, or have to pay reparaitons and unhappiness).
Also, only the enemys max lvl of port -2 worth anything (so if they have a lvl6 port, destroying anything less than 4 is worthless). This of course counted into the eligable port points, and their worth in planets.

>set 4 empires
>4 FES
>turn off clustered start
>everything clusterd at me while lirteraly half the galaxy is empty

Yeah, fuck this.
This shit is why i observe every new game first

>next try

Are you fucking serious?

So is it a bug that every planet other than gas giants is colonization for me or are the Horatio supposed to be like that?

Fixing the combat will be easier than fixing the AI.

Has there been any mention about the price of the Utopia expansion for Stellaris?

It's like 2 weeks away and still no price listed on the store.

$20

I thought it was a patch, not a DLC.

It's both. Banks is the patch, Utopia the DLC.

[distant autistic ancap screeching noises]

I posted this last thread but seriously I need help

The unbidden just spawned on the polar opposite side of the galaxy from where I am.

In addition to that I am woefully underprepared to fight them considering the fact that I have only a 35k fleet using primarily missile and plasma tech.

I do not have lances or arc emitters, or lasers, and only tier 1 mass drivers.

It's my first game so I wasn't really aware that you needed to research different weapon types

My plan is turtle and wait for them to come to me while I can tech up and deal with them.

what do

Sounds hazardous.
If you let the Unbidden get momentum, they'll crush everything.

okay so how do I stop it

I can't get over there because I don't have open borders

Then get it, or cross your fingers the AI can deal with them.

That's the new default ecologist law. And yes, Horatio are ecologists now.

Get open borders, then just rush the portal. 30k fleet is usually enough to destroy it, but you'll lose the fleet. You can also use a decoy fleet on the other end of the system to draw their attention.

What is an Ideal ship layout for fighting them?

This sector is flush with resources and yet they won't build anything.

You don't need to destroy their fleets, just the portal. You need something long range or fast moving, so that you can attack the portal before they can get reinforcements from other systems.

>new default ecologist law is being able to colonize everything

Wait wait, what? How is that not overpowered as fuck?

Also what were the Horatio before ecologists? The galaxy seems a bit stacked with ecologists considering aren't the Riftborn ecologists and the Unfallen will be too?

But user
What if you suddenly want to build something big and there are not enough resources
So gotta pile up those resources, smaller buildings can wait

I can't even take the resources from the sectors though can I? They're contributing 75% of their income and still have between 500-1000 of energy and minerals stocked up.

>Also what were the Horatio before ecologists? The galaxy seems a bit stacked with ecologists considering aren't the Riftborn ecologists and the Unfallen will be too?
They were Religious, considering all of them working for the First. Riftborn are supposedly Industrialists. Despite the Unfallen being literal trees, they will most likely be Pacifists since they're the diplomatic faction akin to EL's Drakken.

They are reluctant to build even when they are at the cap, if you want to optimise, queue up buildings yourself, then put then planet into a sector and forbid redevelopment, they'll still upgrade buildings. And no, you can take the resources.

and this is why No Cluttered Starts mod is mandatory

Can't*, sorry

How do I get good at civ 5? and strategy games in general?

I find it helps if you don't give the sector a ton of planets or space to develop either. I've found that if I give a sector 1 or 2 systems, some time, and an ass load of minerals, they'll semi-competently develop those planets. I think the AI gets tripped up when it's trying to develop a bunch of shit at once, so it just stockpiles resources.

Depends a lot from the game.
In Civ 5, you usually make a lot of archers and position them on hills.

True, I have like 7 planets in that sector.

Keep it for your yourself, don't leave it to the AI.

Rise of Nations pisses me off. The economic aspect is fun, I like the caravans system, but damn, the combat is stupid and way too shallow.

play empire earth instead

The AI in that one cheats so much you're supposed to be uber maxed skilled to stand a chance.
I just wished they released Rise of Legends on Steam. Or at least make it playable on Seven. It fixes many shitty things from Rise of Nations, like the squad system that's stupidly broken in RoN.

You mean getting down the basics on Normal Prince (or slightly higher) difficulty where the AI doesn't cheat to hell yet? Play Tall civs (few but highly developed cities) and go Tradition because they require much less micro-management, it doesn't piss off the AI and the game heavily penalizes Wide and warmonger civs to the point you'll ask yourself what is the fucking point of playing them unless going for a cheese strategy like Sacred Sites tourism victory.

>tourism
>in Civ5
Wait, what?

play on an easier difficulty then? this isn't mlg

alternatively git gud

No, even in easy mode, the AI in Empire Earth always cover the map in walls, towers, and barracks while you're still building farms.

And don't think of playing any post-WWII era, the AI just spams nuclear bombers. Constantly.

Thanks, that's a reasonable price.

>incoming "paying for parajew content" shitstorm

The shape reminds me of my economics class.

>ES2, after latest update
>try United Empire
>lots of changes for the better
>settling colonies is not simply crash-landing a colony ship on it
>you have to keep supplying the new planetary outpost with a steady stream of colonists from your core worlds
>this diversion of population growth has effects on homeworld
>enemies can blockade your outpost, starving it from growth, you gotta keep unobstructed routes
>having Hissho population on your UE homeworld since the start
>perfect combo of UE industrial-militarists and Hissho ultra-militarists that boost your manpower and tip every election to your desire by fucking up the greens and religious freaks
Very neat.

>having your home world 3 planets away from the Craver homeworld
>mfw

Is ES2 finally out of early access?
Is it good for someone who doesn't like turn based games?

>Is ES2 finally out of early access?
No. Apparently. it received the last "major" update. Next one will be the full release launch update. It will add one more faction.
>Is it good for someone who doesn't like turn based games?
I don't think so. ES2 is now doing a lot things right but some remain a total mess
>research screen is such a clusterfuck (visually) that devs made a search function to find techs
>obscure tooltips that cause more confusion than they answer

Guess I'll pass, then.
I like turn-based games on paper, but when I try playing them, I always get bored quickly.

this is getting really out of hand
I was able to destroy one of their anchors but they rebuilt it.

my 50k fleet was forced to make an emergency jump when it got locked into combat with their 100k fleet

my fleet is scattered and back on the other side of the galaxy.

is this it /4xg/?

build up, there should be other unbidden factions spawning soon who will fight eachother, maybe you can exploit the chaos.

Also, FEs might become guardians and hep deal with that shit.

And dont worry, they cap at 1mil combined fleetpower

>And dont worry, they cap at 1mil combined fleetpower

that actually doesn't sound that bad
especially if there are AEs tying them up

>ammos are relevant
>and down to a single bullet

The senate system really is coming together this update. IA seems way less braindead as well, leaving defensive fleets, attempting multi-pronged attacks and even going through warp to go behind the lines.
Vodyani early game is way harder now, but overall I'll call it an imrpovement.

>IA

kys

>IA
Are you French?

For infantry, it usually isn't as critical an issue - they're still capable of killing with rifles which seldom run dry on rounds, even if the squad MG is out - but for armor and heavy weapons (AP rounds on vehicles, and mortars/artillery in particular - both on map and off map, but I won't go into that), rationing out ammo is important.

I just had a battle recently where I was being attacked by superior numbers of Germans and I was crutching on 4 mortar batteries I had set up. I was overzealous with their usage as I wanted to prezerve my men - once they ran dry, the AI sent up the bulk of its forces that I foolishly hadn't reconnoitered as I was busy hiding in my trenches. Saw an absolute killing field that I wasn't in a place to take advantage of. The following battles, my mortars will be essentially useless, unless I get a supply truck to them.

I like the depth the supply gives. You count individual rounds on tanks and such, while infantry I tend to look at more as a percentage (though with MG's and things like AT grenades, I pay more specific attention).

That sounds really fun!
Are mortars deadly?

J'ai la crève et je vous emmerde, raclures de fond de bidet.

Amplitude is French as well, what are you gonna do about it? Burn a baguette?

Port in some mechanics from HoI 3

>Fleets should have some kind of soft command cap that if exceeded slowly makes your fleet less efficient in combat

>Fleets should have a flanking bonus when attacking an enemy fleet that's been engaged long enough

>make the cooldown after retreating slightly less or tie it to amount of time engaged so probing/skirnishing is viable without destroying your fleets.

...

If they're well zeroed in - yes. That means either platoon leader (basically a small 3-4 man unit which influences morale and the speed at which your orders can be sent through, a guy you don't want to get killed) has sight on the position and can correct, or the mortar itself does, which is kind of risky.

It can be fun if you knock the tracks off a tank, to just get the spotter to lay down coords right on top.

Even if you don't kill the guys with the mortar, it suppresses them, which impacts their combat stats and can start panic if you get enough of it. It's also really useful for digging out entrenched positions.

Like if I'm attacking a village, I might call in a rolling barrage of off map artillery (less immediate, but stronger than mortars) to just roll along a street clearing out the houses. The way that the supply works though, is that you can't always do this, it makes those moments a toss up of "is it worth spending the ammo on this, or risking an ambush from the treeline / village, etc"

It all meshes together really nicely imo

>tfw the new ES2 AI makes starting as the horatio suck even though they got a massive buff with the political change.

Either horatio ships are even more shit than I initially thoight or the AI is a a cheating bitch or both

Cheating AI is practically a core feature of the ES franchise at this point.

Still better than when Horatio were the biggest gluttons in the galaxy.

Hang on that one doesn't do it justice.

Ah, back when the Horatio were more consuming than the Cravers and Vodyani put together and then eating those two.