Post 1.84 beta history

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Changed Population Transport minister so that it takes population
to lowest populated planet regardless of distance and also taking
into account if a pop transport is already heading to the planet.

personally, i'd rather have it transport to the planet with the lowest pop and the highest maximum pop.

[Fyron]

Beta testers had to sign NDAs. But, they were (partially?) released from them at some point.

[Slick]

It would be great if the population minister (PM) also considered the atmosphere of the planet and population when moving races around. If the PM started to do this, I would definitely use him. As it is now, the PM will eventually move wrong-breathing population to planets and thus make them domed. I think adding right-breathing population and removing wrong-breathing population is much more important than building up population numbers. Bonuses for undoming a planet effectively make it 5 times bigger for facilities and cargo. With a couple of other-breathing races in your empire, you can significantly increase your effective empire size without colonizing any additional planets.

The Colonization Minister (CM) should use this idea too. The CM should pick a target planet for colonization, then pick up right-breathing population from a convenient place (not necessarily the planet that constructed the colonizer) then colonize the planet. If the CM did this, I would definitely use him too. Keep in mind that if this method was used by the ministers, it would also improve the AI which is always a good thing.

Lastly, the PM should recognize the "magic numbers" for population as defined in settings.txt. He should try to the max extent to maintain populations of 100, 500, 1000, 2000, 3000, etc. on each planet so as to maximize population bonuses. He should know that a planet population of 1900 is no more beneficial than 1000, but those extra 900 people could better be used to raise other planets to a level of 100 or 500. Aside from undoming planets, this is the whole reason to move population around. Also a planet at max population level can't generate more population and it should be used as an available source of population.

As it stands I use no ministers because of their inherent flaws. IMHO, the PM and the CM would do the most to cut down on some of the micromanagement required in this game and recognizing planet atmosphere types is crucial to improving them. Though I wouldn't turn on the CM until mid-late game because choice of the right planets to colonize in the early-mid timeframe is too important.

Slick.

[ December 03, 2003, 14:50: Message edited by: Slick ]

[se5a]

good point slick...

[Fyron]

Lastly, the PM should recognize the "magic numbers" for population as defined in settings.txt. He should try to the max extent to maintain populations of 100, 500, 1000, 2000, 3000, etc. on each planet so as to maximize population bonuses.

You can ameliorate this by adding in 1% bonus levels as opposed to just the 10% that are there now. I made a "Smoothed Pop Settings" minimod that did this quite some time ago and emailed it to MM, but I guess he didn't like it.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

or maybe MM is going for a sort of minimum approach to the files to minimize confusion for new players. if people want something more complicated, they can mod it in.

or at least, that's my guess.

[Fyron]

Bah.

[Rollo]

*bump
and some news:

Version 1.86:
1. Added - "AI Tag ##" abilities for use in getting AIs to use specific components.
2. Fixed - Improved Empire placement using the "Evenly distributed through the quadrant" option.
3. Fixed - AI would purchase ships even if it had no resources available.
4. Fixed - Cloaked unit Groups would not show a dotted circle around them.
5. Added - Empire style directory label to the Empire setup window.
6. Fixed - AI would still try to launch units when its maximum units in space had been reached.
7. Fixed - The name of the current item under construction should show how many as well.
8. Fixed - Drones were not inflicting special damage types.
9. Fixed - Decreased seeker damage factor required to move to next target.
10. Fixed - You could build designs which had mounts of higher technology than your empire.
11. Fixed - AI would build all of the same colonizer type in a given turn.
12. Added - Mousewheel support to lists.

[Instar]

mousey wheels
wheeeeeeee
oh ya, us betas get this info. Usually richard goes ahead and does it. So I guess its ok

[Fyron]

1. Added - "AI Tag ##" abilities for use in getting AIs to use specific components.

*drools*

5. Added - Empire style directory label to the Empire setup window.

Yay! My suggestion made it in! Mac will like this one.

Now we just need the vehicle size and target type fields to accept comma separated lists, and Adamant will be ready to rock and roll!

[ December 04, 2003, 04:13: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]