Hej there,

i had a little time and was playing a longterm with the Dominion. And i know there will be an important update soon, but i wanna report my obersavations either. Maybe everythin i mention is already done maybe not, so i could give you some input.

First of all, is it right that the Vulcans are living in the System 40 Eridani A ?? Thought their System would be Vulcan.

Then i encountered the Ba´Ku and they had no planets and Zero population.

And then i saw two introductions. One of the Bajorans and one of the coridan which were not neutral. The Bajorans are a benefit to the federation and the coridan system is of strategical importance.

And i was missing the Image of the Zalkonians. I know there are a lot of Images still missing but the ones of the minors are complete i guess so maybe i got lost.

I know you guys have a lot to do and maybe all this will be done in a few days when the Update will be released but maybe you must have a closer look to some of this things.

One more thing. Maybe our random freez bug will be history with the update but if not maybe my obervation could help.
I have noticed, that i have no freez bug, as long as i do not use the diplomatic options or make one of the minors a member. First when i have a minor as member i encountered the freez bug. Maybe its in there.

Okay .. i cant wait until the update. Hope to play it soon.

40 Eridani-A is the correct name for their system; 40 Eridani-A is a real star, and was actually named as the Vulcan home system by Gene Roddenberry himself. However, this has never been established as a canon piece of information (IE. no one has ever explicitly said "40 Eridani-A is also known as Vulcan" in any of the shows or the films), which is why there is confusion over the name. It is also known that Vulcan is 16 light years from Sol - and 40 Eridani-A just happens to be 16.45 light years away. Memory Alpha have more info on the subject.

The Ba'Ku problem is due to a known bug that can affect several of the minor races because of a problem with the Galaxy generation code, plus a few mistakes in the game database. I've personally fixed the database-caused problems, but the files haven't been released yet; they *may* be in the Easter update, but Mike first needs to write a program that can convert my updates into something that will be compatible with the Easter update. The buggy code-caused problems have been identified by Mike and will be fixed in the Easter update.

I'm not sure what you mean about the races not being neutral. The game currently lacks an AI - so by default every minor race will join you if you ask them to do so without a problem. I'm not sure what problems you're referring to with the introductions either, but I've made changes to some of the minor race introduction texts, so the problem may already be fixed. The Coridan system is known to be strategically important in canon, which is why it says this in the game. This obviously might not be necessarily true with a randomly-generated map, but I thought people would appreciate canon information like that, so myself and Dafedz (The database writer) put it in as part of their text.

The Zalkonian image IS present - it's just named wrong so the game can't find it. I've already fixed that, but again the files haven't been released yet.

We're 99.9% sure that the random freeze bug will be squashed by the update. Mike has now sent me three early versions of the Easter update, and I haven't found any problems - especially not the random freeze bug -with any of those versions. I'm not the only person that has tested them either. The diplomacy system is still very much a work-in-progress, and there are known bugs there that *should* be fixed with the easter update. It is entirely possible that the bug is related to the diplomacy like you surmise, but it's also possible that it's just a coincidence that the bug hasn't occured for you during the games where you avoided it.

Please remember that we're all working as hard as we can already - but we're all also volunteers. We're not being paid to work on the game and can only work on it in our spare time. People come and go from the project as they have time to help. This will inevitably mean that things may get overlooked, which is why things may appear sloppy at times. But we're doing our best, and we rely on playtesters and feedback from people like you to point out the problems. If you didn't help, the game would take a lot longer to produce, would like lack features that we now (And will in the future) take for granted, and would likely be buggy. We really are doing the best we can, so please keep reporting any issues you find, but please also remember that we're doing our best.

Fingers crossed on the update being released soon, although I know that Mike is currently preparing for a big conference thing for his work.

excellent. I know you guys are working realy hard. I can wait.
There i have to watch Star Trek for 18 years to learn that Vulcan is Eridani I don´t believe it.

But one more point i noticed is:
I couldn´t upgrade the Rations Dispenser after level 2. My research is already level 6 and i have the tec but there is no upgrade availabile.
I am sure this will be fixed in or after the easter update which by the way from now on should be called After easter update or AEU

And i love to playtest cause that´s the only thing i could help you with. Would love to write anything but as you surely noticed i am not an english native and i have neither knowledge of any programing or moddeling nor any graphic stuff.
But i will play play play when ever i have time.

by the way do you have a file and do the copy/paste thing everytime you are repeating or are you doing your input every time again. In this case you are doing a realy good job. The observer of the forums.

V

Yes, i've already fixed the Rations Dispenser problem. It's caused because the Type 2 Dispenser is set to upgrade to the Type 1. I actually fixed it about three months ago.

The "Easter Update" was obviously intended to be released over Easter, but Mike has had to go on a week-long works conference thing and he wasn't expecting me to send him the update files when I did. That's put his schedule off so as you said, it's an After Easter update now. He never actually promised it would be an Easter update though, he just said he would aim to release it by then, so he hasn't actually broken his word.

And no, I don't copy and paste my posts (Other than to save uberposts in case I get a badly-timed "page cannot be displayed" error when I click the post button). Every post is manually rewritten. My poor achy fingers!

it´s me again,

i can´t stop playtesting and i have red a lot in here but i can´t remember if this one somebody already mentioned.

Are there differences between same planet types, when they are located in different distances from the sun. Because in my System Quadra Sigma Quadra Sigma III is a giant jungle type with ideal conditions and 180 pop. But Ullia I also a giant jungle just has 30 pop because of hostile conditions. But it´s the same type of planet. Is that maybe a bug?

ohh or maybe there is a problem with the Ullia System itself, because i has a giant desert planet too and the conditions there are maginal too.
All other Dert Types have comfortable conditions.

ohh ohh i just noticed it´s with some planets in minor races systems. Is that because some systemes are predefined?
Because 40 erdidani A it´s two first planets the second one vulcan itselft are volcanic types with ideal conditions. Vulcan would be okay if it´s preset but the first one too? For example T´Rogera T a giant volcanic type is hostile the two planets my Hirogea System have are both just comfortable volcanics.
I think these are some contradictions to all the other systems.
I agree that some planets like Vulcan or the Breen world or Bajor, which includes an ideal arctic large one should be preset because its canon but for example the Hirogea system is fiction.

No, this isn't a bug. The planetary "conditions" are based on the inhabiting race. In this case, you've got the Ullians inhabiting the system, instead of your own native population (Humans etc). The Ullians obviously have different planetary preferences to your own race, ie they don't like Jungles, so you've got a lower maximum population for the planet type.

If the Ullians were wiped out and you colonised the system, you would then have a higher maximum population (180 instead of 30 in this case) because your own native race has now become the inhabiting race.

ohh interesting. Are there differences between the major races?
So Vulcans would have a bigger pop in systems with lots aof volcanic systems and breen in system with lots of arctic systems.
Wow i didn´t know that you could programm some kind of taste for the cultures. Great.

Is there a file were i could see which races likes which type of planet? Just for curiousity.

Yes, the Empires have differences.

The Federation (Humans) prefer Terran planets.
The Klingon Empire (Klingons) prefer Jungle planets.
The Romulan Star Empire (Romulans) prefer Terran planets.
The Cardassian Union (Cardassians) prefer Desert planets.
The Dominion (Jem'Hadar) prefer Jungle planets.

And you were correctregarding the minor races; the Vulcans prefer Volcanic planets and the Breen prefer Arctic planets. EVERY race in the gam has a particular preference for a specific planet type.

Also, when a race terraforms a planet, they will physically cause it to change class based on their personal preference. The Federation will therefore terraform a planet towards a Terran class, whilst the Cardasians would terraform towards a Desert. Terraforming would be done in steps though - you won't be able to make an inhospitable planet into an ideal planet in a single terraforming step, you would need to terraform it several times, improving it each time. The number of steps you can perform will be based on your tech level - the higher your tech level, the more steps you can perform. Obviously terraforming hasn't been implemented yet though, so these details ar still subject to change.

If you want to see the preferred planet types of a race, the easiest way to do this is to check out the races pages of Dafedz's Database. The races pages are links on the left-hand side of that link. Each of the minor races are decribed in those four pages, and it also states the Home planet type of that race. The home planet has been used as the basis for the planetary preferences of the races.



Alternatively, you can use the editor to check the preferences of an individual race. Just click on the file called SupremacyEditor2.exe in your Supremacy folder to load up the editor, then click on the Factions button at the top and double-click on any race you want on the left. The Homeworld type box describes the planetary preference of the race you are looking at. This box is located just after the Race Description near the bottom of the screen. HOWEVER, I have made a number of updates, including changes to the planet preferences of some of the minor races, so if you dsee any planet types that don't seem correct, please check again after the After-Easter update...whenever that is lol.

ohohoh that´s even greater. This is an absolutly different system from what is was in botf.
Now or better when it will be implemented you will have the possibility to terraform every system. That means at the end the klingon empire will have only jungle type planets. Thats a whole new aspect of the game to me.
I can´t say if i like it or not, coz at one point there will be only a few planettypes left. I ilke the diversity BUT at the other hand this would make even smaller systems more attractive to colonize. At the moment and in my botf times i didn´t colonize systems which are not big enough, can´t produce enough pop to be a usefull system.
But for now it sounds very interesting and i can´t wait to playtest that stuff when ever it would occur.

Great Great Great.

Sounds a lot like MoO2 (which most of BotF is based on gameplay wise). Will gravity be a consideration on a particular inhabiting race on planets?

Yes, viceadmiralv, the races would obviously try to terraform all planets towards their preferred type, but there are downsides to doing so; different planet types have a chance of producing certain bonuses - food and energy. Terraforming a planet *may* result in the loss of these bonuses. Any buildings that require partiocular planet types will also become obsolete and stop producing whatever bonus/resource they were built for. For instance, systems with Aquatic, Jungle, or Terran planets can build an Aquatic Deuterium Plant to produce Deuterium fuel to support your fleets. But if the planet is terraformed towards a Desert, the requirement will no longer be met - so you would lose the Deuterium bonus, thereby imposing stricter limits on the size of the fleet that your Empire can support.

We additionally may even decide to impose other restrictions on the system to prevent games where Galaxies only have one type of planet - such as only allowing a maximum of three terraforming events per planet or something. As I said previously though, the system has not been implemented so changes are still possible and open to discussion. But Mike has the final say since he programs it.

...

No Stegrex, Gravity is not being taken into consideration in the game. Whilst we are striving for realism, we will always sacrifice realism for the sake of gameplay if it is necessary to do so. In this instance, the addition of Gravity considerations would be another layer of complexity that could frighten people off, so It's not going to be put in. I can't even imagine how Mike *could* factor such considerations into the game anyways based on how the game is currently set up. It would likely need some large changes to the Galaxy generation code, as well as how the races are set up, and I know that Mike has already spent a lot of time refining the Galaxy generation code - he might not want to have to go through all that again. I'm therefore not sure whether he would find this a useful way to spend his time.

...You never know though...

ive been following this project for a year now and i had to drop in just to say AMAZING.

this game is everything it should be and more. you guys are doing a better job than the "professionals" (i use the term loosely).

get this thing done so i can devote all my time to playing it already!

Hehe thanks for the feedback Christopher! We're doing the best we can with the game. The more help and feedback we get though the better the game will eventually be, so keep posting if you like or want features changed. This is a game by the gamers for the gamers, so we aim to keep the gamers happy.

By the way, welcome to the forums.

I have a question if something is going right.
If you start colonizing your systems you start with 3 food productions 6 factorys and 2 facilities each of the others. But when you developed some technologies you only start with 2 food productions but the otheres are the same. Is this right or maybe a programming misstake?

The facilities that a colony starts out with are dynamic, not fixed. They are based on the starting size of the colony and your tech level - the larger the initial size of the colony or the higher your tech level, the more structures that will be built by the colony ship. It's odd that only Food buildings would be built though, so I imagine it was a particularly small and useless system that you colonised. If not, then i'm not really sure why it happened, so that could then possibly be a glitch of some kind.

Doesn't really make sense that it depends on tech level too, since tech level is already factored in (in the level of the colony ship). So a colony ship II/III actually affects # of structures twice, both instances based on tech (WorkForce - colony ship tech level; and tech area level).
[If in fact it depend on tech level too, which I never really checked]

It's a pretty simple system. You start out with enough food facilities to sustain your population (plus a buffer based on your growth rate to make sure people don't starve before you can build more). I think the rest goes into industry.

okay that´s odd beause i saw this phenomen att all my colonies. And i don´t colonize systems which aren´t worthy. at the moment there is no need to take what ever you can get. So i only take systems with more then 250 pop. i mostly prefer 300. But i will check that again next time i play.

well...I'm playing Supremacy after a break of 2 or 3 year ...some topics I want to mentioned:

- there's no ingame help, not even at Menue ("CONTINUE") ....there might be useful a topic as HELP with Hotkeys and a link to Supremacy.pdf
- is there a hotkey for ending turn? (was it "T" at BotF?) (F1-F5 are working)

I'm sorry: my very short visit to Supremacy won't be for a long time but it did good to me to see it again -> it's still looking very well. I hope developing will progress though Mike doesn't have time anymore

Thanks

When I am looking over Supremacy code I will keep it in mind.

I doubt it, I don't know who would be able to continue his development. If you get someone it would take a long time just to understand what was done so far...

I would like to try it, but I lack the time, and it will take me at least additional 4 years to finish college.