Some ranty thoughts after playing since October of 2022
Posted: Tue Mar 12, 2024 4:01 am
Hello, I have been playing on and off since October of 2022. Here's some scattered thoughts. FYI I love this game, or at least what it aspires to be. It's not pretending to be finished and I'm not pretending it is.
1. The customization options are great. I always play with 100% unlock chance for example.
2. The alien space AI isn't just dumb but it really detracts from the game. In my current game the year is 2037. 64 fusion battleships--half 1st gen z pinches with 1.0g and half 2nd gen flow stabilized z pinch with 2.8s have dug in to the inner systems. Resistance Space Command breathes a sigh of relief until it looks out with it's long range scanners. 243 enemy ships are out there. Most are little ships but there are 10s of battleships, dreadnoughts, and motherships. Pencil pushers estimate Resistance Combat Power at 10k while Alien combat power is at 40k. Mission Control cannot support a further fleet expansion even if resources allowed it. Everyone braces for a major attack...that never comes. Seriously they send just little 1k task forces over and over. It's beyond frustrating. I build a big ass fleet I want to fight a big ass battle. Instead I waste hours of my life clicking through settling Jupiter while the AI dicks around.
3. If the alien space AI wasn't beyond stupid, then the game balance would be off. I don't mean they're full of hubris or something. Any incompetent massed attack on Earth would overwhelm me. Multiple competent attacks on Mercury would've stopped me in my tracks. If the alien AI was even incompetent, you would need 500 MC or so and endgame ships to stop a massed attacked. Instead I had an attack with 4 corvettes, 1 battleship, and 1 destroyer escorting their 4 assault carriers.
4. Alien councilors are frustrating. They can build an alien facility and then respawn on Earth immediately. No matter how much I crush the Alien Nation and the Servants, they just won't die. It seriously takes the fun out of the late game. Controlling Earth's orbit doesn't feel impactful.
5. Killing alien councilors late game is very frustrating. I have all these advanced alien techs but none help me detain or assassinate. My regions are swarming with defense drones, community scanners, pherocyte detectors while orbit is full of stations scanning for aliens and ships ready to put a coilgun round right on them. Except none of it is useful.
6. Protect target NEEDS to work against enthrall. Currently early game you MUST kill every alien in your territory asap before they RNG their way to the capital and steal all the points. Anti enthrall techs slow them down but do not stop them. That's fine but we need more tools than just throwing assassinate at them. Intuitively based on the descriptions, protect target would seem to work against it. I thought so at first.
7. I don't fear the assault carriers as long as I grab USA. I can just park 6 armies under them as they spend a whole month unloading only to pop out at 4.1. And it generates 0 alien hate. However, were this not the case, similar to point 3 the game balance would be off. To make matters worse, there's a slight RNG that the whole strategy won't work because they'll land in the amazon jungle and it takes my armies 32 days not 30 to reach them.
1. The customization options are great. I always play with 100% unlock chance for example.
2. The alien space AI isn't just dumb but it really detracts from the game. In my current game the year is 2037. 64 fusion battleships--half 1st gen z pinches with 1.0g and half 2nd gen flow stabilized z pinch with 2.8s have dug in to the inner systems. Resistance Space Command breathes a sigh of relief until it looks out with it's long range scanners. 243 enemy ships are out there. Most are little ships but there are 10s of battleships, dreadnoughts, and motherships. Pencil pushers estimate Resistance Combat Power at 10k while Alien combat power is at 40k. Mission Control cannot support a further fleet expansion even if resources allowed it. Everyone braces for a major attack...that never comes. Seriously they send just little 1k task forces over and over. It's beyond frustrating. I build a big ass fleet I want to fight a big ass battle. Instead I waste hours of my life clicking through settling Jupiter while the AI dicks around.
3. If the alien space AI wasn't beyond stupid, then the game balance would be off. I don't mean they're full of hubris or something. Any incompetent massed attack on Earth would overwhelm me. Multiple competent attacks on Mercury would've stopped me in my tracks. If the alien AI was even incompetent, you would need 500 MC or so and endgame ships to stop a massed attacked. Instead I had an attack with 4 corvettes, 1 battleship, and 1 destroyer escorting their 4 assault carriers.
4. Alien councilors are frustrating. They can build an alien facility and then respawn on Earth immediately. No matter how much I crush the Alien Nation and the Servants, they just won't die. It seriously takes the fun out of the late game. Controlling Earth's orbit doesn't feel impactful.
5. Killing alien councilors late game is very frustrating. I have all these advanced alien techs but none help me detain or assassinate. My regions are swarming with defense drones, community scanners, pherocyte detectors while orbit is full of stations scanning for aliens and ships ready to put a coilgun round right on them. Except none of it is useful.
6. Protect target NEEDS to work against enthrall. Currently early game you MUST kill every alien in your territory asap before they RNG their way to the capital and steal all the points. Anti enthrall techs slow them down but do not stop them. That's fine but we need more tools than just throwing assassinate at them. Intuitively based on the descriptions, protect target would seem to work against it. I thought so at first.
7. I don't fear the assault carriers as long as I grab USA. I can just park 6 armies under them as they spend a whole month unloading only to pop out at 4.1. And it generates 0 alien hate. However, were this not the case, similar to point 3 the game balance would be off. To make matters worse, there's a slight RNG that the whole strategy won't work because they'll land in the amazon jungle and it takes my armies 32 days not 30 to reach them.