General questions

[Ufnv]

Hi!

I am the game author, and will be answering all the game-related questions here, so feel free to ask

[zakblood]

no comment

[Ufnv]

what made you chose RT instead of TB?

viewtopic.php?f=404&t=68396

real time can be too much info overload and too fast for some, while Turn based can be slower and easier to play imo.

You know, I do not play RT games by myself, actually, always prefer TB. The thing that annoys me in TB is that moves are not concurrent and also you need to constantly press "End Turn" for it to progress. That's why I decided to fight these two problems in my game. So it is RT in the sense that all factions move simultaneously, but it never overloads you with the info like it is quite often can be found in classical RT games, and here you always have enough time to think and react.
This is done by introducing of more than 50 "events" like "fleet reached its destination", "construction completed", "enemy spotted", "new technology invented", "resources are running low", etc., and each event by default triggers the game stays on pause. So you can react, decide what to do and the press "end turn" and continue.
Actually, if you track how TB games are progressing, they are also moving to the similar system, allowing to skip a number of turns until something important happens.

So, for me the game "feel" is totally TB, not a classical RT, that I cannot play...

I've answered in more details here:
viewtopic.php?f=404&t=68396#p577565

have signed up for the Beta, not knowing what system you used after doing some looking at the older game online, which this is kind of based on? just with a name change, seems you've been working on it for long long time.

Yes, it was a Galaxia: Remember Tomorrow before. But the new version got a completely new graphics and some very important conceptual changes, so the old versions are not that relevant anymore.

do you fight in combat of just see the fleets go into action?

Yes, you do fight. You can leave everything on AI and even run Auto-resolve, but if you want to defeat a significantly stronger fleet using the tactics, then it's better to rule the fight yourself.

i see it says 900 planets, is there a limit to the ships in the game? regarding fleet size?

900 stars is an artificial limit, like number of races x 100. Can be much more. But I've found out that the most convenient size is about 300 stars. However I saw people playing fine with 900+, so it's more about a personal taste.
As to the limit - the limit is set by your economical powers. The bigger fleet you build, the more resources you need to support it, otherwise you ships would degrade and can be completely destroyed. Also, different ships have deferent support costs, depending on their design. But as a rule of thumb, defence forces are cheaper than attack forces.

Technically, grand battles are possible (I have tested max of 10,000 ships battle), but are rare in real game. Typical big battle is about 10-20 capital ships plus 200-1000 small ships per side.

what game engine are you using?

Allegro engine for low-level graphics, all other is custom.

and as i understand it, your Russian? so hopefully you can understand my quirky typing and abbreviations

Hope I did

[zakblood]

no comment

[hadberz]

I may have missed it, but is there ground combat?

[Ufnv]

I may have missed it, but is there ground combat?

There is, but a simplified one.

You can build ground units of different types, load them to a descent ship and drop them on the enemy planet. Then, depending on what ground forces enemy has, the game calculates who will prevail and how much time is required for the victory. Then you see the progress, your and enemy losses, etc.
I assume that taking control over the whole planet can be a long process, so depending on balance of attacking and depending forces, it can take up to 50 game-years, that is really long. To speed up the planet invasion, you need to bring more ground units there, the more your force advantage is, the quicker the process is. The shortest period is one game month. So to invade a planet quickly, you need either to land a lot of invasion forces initially, or bring reinforcements later. You can also at any moment take you ground forces back if you see you can lose the system before the invasion is completed.
Also, the longer the invasion takes, the more damaged planet infrastructure you get in the end, so one reason to invade quickly is to keep the planet infrastructure intact.

Also there are buildings that intercept descent, so it is more difficult to start invasion, and there is a possibility to bombard the planet - this may kill defenders, but also damages infrastructure and can have negative effect on your relations with neighbours.

Another possibility is to automate the invasion. If you do not want to bother with transporting troops, descanting, tracking progress, etc, you can press the "plan invasion" button and the AI will do the rest - build troop transports if necessary, collect or build ground units, perform invasion and then report when completed. So you can concentrate on more important things.

[hadberz]

Sounds good to me. I'm looking forward to it.

[TheGrayMouser]

Hello couple of questions

Ground Combat
I like how its described but... What incentives are there to invade w ground forces vs 'glassing the planet" The problem w 4x games in the past ( including MOO) was it was easier to glass, then spend money to rebuild and , tadah, planet as good (or better) than before...
Now if a plant hit w continent busters was a total right off, and planetary invasion/ military force was very expensive, that would be good incentive, war need to pay for itself , hehe.. OR if their is a "united nations" type theme, morality checks and balances that generally deter such genocide...

Navies: Do space naval classes "matter" ie in the wet navies destroyers, cruisers etc had unique and distinct roles. In most 4 x games, ship classes are just bigger hull sizes crammed with more stuff. I tried to role play MOO2 back in the day and build specialty ships ie Anti-missle ships, planetary bombardment ships, but the combat system utterly discouraged that.

4x generalities
hmm, how do I put this.. I like sandbox games but what I always dislike about 4x games is, why oh why do I have to start on one planet w NO real tech. I don't want to waste 100 of years developing scout , then frigate then laser cannon etc. as I expand. I'd love to see a game where multiple well established kingdoms/empires federations or whatever already exist and perhaps the expansion is in the border areas. I would love a game where a fleet of specific ships is usefull and viable for many many turns instead of becoming obsolete every few turns because a new tech is discovered.

Cheers!

[Ufnv]

Hello couple of questions
I like how its described but... What incentives are there to invade w ground forces vs 'glassing the planet" The problem w 4x games in the past ( including MOO) was it was easier to glass, then spend money to rebuild and , tadah, planet as good (or better) than before...
Now if a plant hit w continent busters was a total right off, and planetary invasion/ military force was very expensive, that would be good incentive, war need to pay for itself , hehe.. OR if their is a "united nations" type theme, morality checks and balances that generally deter such genocide...

Actually, there are two advantages of invading over 'glassing'.
1. If you invade quickly, you get a good fully built planet, and building it from the scratch can be a very long process, especially if this was a terran or oceanic type planet with a lot of population and highly developed research or farming. If talking about not-that-important-resorce-planet, then it is probably more efficient to glass it. So, there is a choice.
2. Also depends on how do you want you to be viewed in a galaxy. If you start bombing planets, you first can find your planets bombed as well, and often you can forget about alliances with certain races that do not like the whole idea. But if you play as 'evil' race, that makes no problem for you

So, the choice is yours. I usually bomb not important planets, when I do not expect any revenge, but make sure nobody can see this

Navies: Do space naval classes "matter" ie in the wet navies destroyers, cruisers etc had unique and distinct roles. In most 4 x games, ship classes are just bigger hull sizes crammed with more stuff. I tried to role play MOO2 back in the day and build specialty ships ie Anti-missle ships, planetary bombardment ships, but the combat system utterly discouraged that.

Yes, they do. Basically, in the beginning you do not have a big choice as you only have one medium ship hull (corvette), one small ship hull (fighter), one satellite and one freighter hull. So roles are quite obvious and the only variation is in medium ships - to make them a heavy armoured and armed strike corvette, a carrier for small ships or a support ship targeted to combat small ships.

But later on when you discover more hulls, the distinction is more clear and new roles and tactical combat doctrines appear with the development of science.
Basically, I can see these clear roles (but can be mixed):
- Capital ships (Battleship, cruiser)
a. Strike ship - the ship with the most powerful defence and attack capabilities, targeted to combat enemy strike ships and defence platforms/satellites. Slow, very expensive, usually built on "All Big Guns" principle. It's weak side is it is vulnerable to the attacks of small ships and weak but fast and very long-ranged medium ships. If you try to design a strike ship that can effectively resist these threats as well, it will lose a lot in his main role, so it will be vulnerable to enemy pure strike ships.
b. Super carrier - rarely used because very expensive, but possible to build - a weakly armed capital ship carrying something like 300 small ships.

- Medium ships (Destroyer, frigate, corvette)
a. Until Capital ships are invented, the biggest hull serves as a strike ship obviously
b. Support ship - usually a smaller hull, like Corvette or Frigate, fast and equipped mostly with anti-fighter weapon, usually cheap enough so you can afford losing them
c. Long-range ship - usually the smallest and the fastest hull, very lightly armoured for the speed, but equipped with weak but ultra-long-range weapon. Can just fly around bigger and slower enemy ships and slowly destroy them staying at the safe distance.
d. Torpedo ships - quite unique, often one-time ships, small and cheap, but heavily loaded with long-range torpedoes, to be able to destroy an unprotected Strike Capital
e. Carrier - usually biggest hull, but much cheaper than the Capital, able to carry up to 100 small ships.
f. Stealth - ships equipped with the cloaking device, used to infiltrate into the enemy territory and make destruction of the infrastructure.

- Small ships
a. Fighter - to combat other fighters
b. Anti-capital - to combat medium and capital ships
d. Allround

Also freighters of a number of different roles and platforms/satellites for defence.

hmm, how do I put this.. I like sandbox games but what I always dislike about 4x games is, why oh why do I have to start on one planet w NO real tech. I don't want to waste 100 of years developing scout , then frigate then laser cannon etc. as I expand. I'd love to see a game where multiple well established kingdoms/empires federations or whatever already exist and perhaps the expansion is in the border areas. I would love a game where a fleet of specific ships is usefull and viable for many many turns instead of becoming obsolete every few turns because a new tech is discovered.

Well, in Polaris right now you develop from one system, but a scenario with a well-developed galaxy also can be easily added.
As to science - right now while the game progresses, fleet composition changes, as from time to time you get the technology that changes the whole tactical doctrine. Like at one time carriers loaded with torpedo fighters are the most effective weapon, but then you research missile traps, phasers and ballistic computers, and torpedo effectiveness drops like in 90%, so other concepts start to rule. But I tried to make the science progress "staged", like you get a pack of new technologies approximately in on time, and then have quite a long period of time for the next doctrine-changing brake-through.

[TheGrayMouser]

Thanks for the answers.

Sounds good, even if it aint turn based

When you say scenario can be "add in ", does that mean a scenario editor is available? ( most games like this there is a random generator, but no true editors

Cheers!

[Ufnv]

When you say scenario can be "add in ", does that mean a scenario editor is available? ( most games like this there is a random generator, but no true editors

No, there is no scenario editor and maps are random generated, but the scenario format is plan text and the game saves are in the same format, so they can be used as a ready scenarios, or can be easily edited in the notepad.

[vitaly18]

where is my serial?

[zakblood]

where is my serial?

email, try spam box or contact Surtur and ask by PM

[vitaly18]

where is my serial?

email, try spam box or contact Surtur and ask by PM

he is not answer me =(

[zakblood]

he will do, just give him time, and if not Monday pm him again

[mllange]

This looks very promising and one of my favorite types of game. I wish you the very best and success. If you require additional beta testers, I would be very pleased to offer my assistance. (Application submitted)

[Ufnv]

This looks very promising and one of my favorite types of game. I wish you the very best and success. If you require additional beta testers, I would be very pleased to offer my assistance. (Application submitted)

Thanks! There will be a second round soon.

[BlauGruen]

I like very much that your game shows up with a broader set of resources at least the screen shots seem to indicate so. Can they be traded with other players?

[Surtur]

Yes, the player will be able to set up either continues trade treaties with other nations, or one time only trades.

[Ufnv]

Yes, the player will be able to set up either continues trade treaties with other nations, or one time only trades.

Also you can take loans and order ship construction.