So my point is next:

1. Decreased colony cap is extremly bad for game;

2. 300% increased tier 1 resource cost for tier 2 colony development is also very bad for game. 

3. Two of above mentioned changes turn game into city building simulator where wars are pointless (at least on huge maps, but even on smaller you'll hit the system cap extremly fast).

4. Also AI's aren't targetting me on Endless difficulty at all becouse they're all at system cap...

Changes i mentioned make no sence at all. Imo the best way to increase average game length is reworking victory conditions for economic/science/wonder victories, since they're too easy to achieve compared to one that require serious warfare.  

1. It's not. Plan your colonisation better and research better, and it's quite simple to go over the cap.
2. It's not, it makes resources, and resource diversity more valuable. Your choices over which resources to use and whether you sell them are now more meaningful. There are plenty of ways to increase your luxury input (Slug and Sludge, buying on the market, hero abilities, political laws, option settings)
3. How many games on Endless have you won without going to war? I can think of one in my experience, and that was a couple of patches ago (and I lucked out with the local AI's). War = more systems = more FIDSI, and FIDSI is how you win the game.
4. Lumeris, UE, and Cravers will all put pressure on you, and declare war on you early in the game, even if it means topping their system cap, if your military is weaker than theirs. The AI on Endless already gets a pretty huge approval bonus which equates to getting extra systems, and it's fairly easy to go over your system cap with the right buildings, luxuries, and careful colonisation. I'm assuming no one wants a game where it's decided in the first 30 turns by who gets to colonise the most systems. The cap is good.

I'll agree that the economic victory condition needs a tweak (too easy to reach). But all of these changes are good, as they present meaningful obstacles that need to be overcome if you want to be successful. This is a 4X empire management game, not just a war game, after all. Your criticisms were hyperbolic.

Two undocumented features:

Unfallen vines now take 20 turns to complete (instead of 10). This feels really quite harsh! Even if it's balanced, it's not much fun. If you don't have a colonizable world next to your home system, it will be 40 turns until you have your first colony up!

Population luxury boosts now double their FIDSI bonuses.  This is pretty cool; I'm happy to secure small amounts of all resources for their use on populations, even if I'm not using the for system developments.

Just played a game where I used the transvine luxury resource to boost my happiness and I'm fairly certain it did not work. I was at 39%, (8 pop), and after I had upgraded my system with the transvine I was still at 39%.
Oh and also the event bumper crop, (Not sure of the name, but the one that gives +2 on strategic resources), says it will buff the religious even though it buffs the industrial opinion.

Otherwise I'm absolutely loving the changes to happiness. It used to be that I almost didn't have to pay any attention to it what so ever, but now it's more of a (fun) puzzle to make my people happy!

K9kki wrote:

Just played a game where I used the transvine luxury resource to boost my happiness and I'm fairly certain it did not work. I was at 39%, (8 pop), and after I had upgraded my system with the transvine I was still at 39%

Can you isolate and post a save game showing this? Please do postit on the bug forum, so the devs can fix it.

Dragar wrote:

K9kki wrote:

Just played a game where I used the transvine luxury resource to boost my happiness and I'm fairly certain it did not work. I was at 39%, (8 pop), and after I had upgraded my system with the transvine I was still at 39%

Can you isolate and post a save game showing this? Please do postit on the bug forum, so the devs can fix it.

If you can explain what you mean by isolate I'm sure I can!

Overall game slowed quite a bit and it's not bad, but few things are turning game into "end-turn" simulator for dozens of turns:

1) You've reduced colonization threshhold too much (9 systems with techs on huge map) and there's zero initiative to take systems from neighbours;

2) 120 luxury / tier 2 upgrade is simply brutal, would be nice to hear reazoning behind it. 

2) 120 luxury / tier 2 upgrade is simply brutal, would be nice to hear reazoning behind it. 

It's much less than that with a tier 2 luxury resource. 

The AI may need some tweaking in terms of fleet building. In my current game, the Vodyani has a CP cap of 6 (mine is 7 but I'm Horatio so they technically have the advantage). They declared war on me but I've mostly been on the defensive. 

That's what they sent to a hostile system that they've clashed with my fleet in before. Two small ships and a hero in separate fleets. I'm thinking that should not be happening.

My save is included.

Horatio War Vodyani.sav

Slashman wrote:

The AI may need some tweaking in terms of fleet building. In my current game, the Vodyani has a CP cap of 6 (mine is 7 but I'm Horatio so they technically have the advantage). They declared war on me but I've mostly been on the defensive. 

That's what they sent to a hostile system that they've clashed with my fleet in before. Two small ships and a hero in separate fleets. I'm thinking that should not be happening.

My save is included.

Horatio War Vodyani.sav

That's weird. In my game, the UE "hulksmashed" my empire into pieces.

Nasarog wrote:

That's weird. In my game, the UE "hulksmashed" my empire into pieces.

Well that's why I included the save. There may be a good reason for this that I can't see. They currently have at least 3 systems from what I can tell. In past games they have been pretty consistent in fielding fleets. 

I'll play a bit more and see what happens and check in tomorrow.

I welcome all the overcolonization cap changes and colony upgrade requirements. Makes careful expansion planning more important, reduces amount of wars early, you can't go wide early on with any race now.

Well the Vodyani are still sending single ship "fleets" to assault my worlds. They switched to medium hulls but sent one support ship and then an attacker ship separately. 

WeLoveYou wrote:

No need! Found it! Screen resolution is 1680x1050, but I play at 1280x800 (for reasons).

...

Edit: I fixed it by switching to my native resolution. 

Ah.  I have see this too.  My screen is at 1920x1080.  As you found, the game settings must not be matching my native screen resolution.  Will check later.

K9kki wrote:

If you can explain what you mean by isolate I'm sure I can!

I have seen the bug in the right section. We will take it from here, thanks!

WeLoveYou wrote:

So my point is next:

1. Decreased colony cap is extremly bad for game;

2. 300% increased tier 1 resource cost for tier 2 colony development is also very bad for game. 

3. Two of above mentioned changes turn game into city building simulator where wars are pointless (at least on huge maps, but even on smaller you'll hit the system cap extremly fast).

4. Also AI's aren't targetting me on Endless difficulty at all becouse they're all at system cap...

Changes i mentioned make no sence at all. Imo the best way to increase average game length is reworking victory conditions for economic/science/wonder victories, since they're too easy to achieve compared to one that require serious warfare.  

1. It's not. Plan your colonisation better and research better, and it's quite simple to go over the cap.
2. It's not, it makes resources, and resource diversity more valuable. Your choices over which resources to use and whether you sell them are now more meaningful. There are plenty of ways to increase your luxury input (Slug and Sludge, buying on the market, hero abilities, political laws, option settings)
3. How many games on Endless have you won without going to war? I can think of one in my experience, and that was a couple of patches ago (and I lucked out with the local AI's). War = more systems = more FIDSI, and FIDSI is how you win the game.
4. Lumeris, UE, and Cravers will all put pressure on you, and declare war on you early in the game, even if it means topping their system cap, if your military is weaker than theirs. The AI on Endless already gets a pretty huge approval bonus which equates to getting extra systems, and it's fairly easy to go over your system cap with the right buildings, luxuries, and careful colonisation. I'm assuming no one wants a game where it's decided in the first 30 turns by who gets to colonise the most systems. The cap is good.

I'll agree that the economic victory condition needs a tweak (too easy to reach). But all of these changes are good, as they present meaningful obstacles that need to be overcome if you want to be successful. This is a 4X empire management game, not just a war game, after all. Your criticisms were hyperbolic.

1. I'm well informed at how to go over the colony cap - most games i've ended with 20+ colonies (when cap was 14 systems), but to go over colony cap you need + approval laws, buildings etc.  And generating extra approval to support 5-6 colonies over the cap is way past midgame. 

2. There're no choices - i've either found tier 2 resources in my colony space or not. If i didn't i have to either use for tier 2 systems improvement same resources i've used for tier 1 system improvement or buy stuff on the market. At the rate of 120 resources / upgrade it's nearly improssible to use marketplace for system development. Also AI's are nearly never selling tier 2 resources (probably becouse tech needed for it is low on their priority list).  I'll even say more - changes reduced the number of choices you have since marketplace can't reliably support system development anymore.

3. I've won quite a few games on Endless difficulty without ever going to war. For a matter of a fact it's extremly easy to do so since you can bribe any AI (exept cravers) to peace, then spam end-turn till scientific victory...

4. I'm pretty positive that most colonies Ai ever had (again Endless difficuly) was only 4 above cap (prior to patch), in my current game (test patch) nearby lumeris colonized 10 systems and is sticking with them even though  there're few free systems around. Also the same lumeris isn't even looking at me becouse... they can't support more colonies (i also can't support their colonies in case of war so we have no choice exept for being good neighbours). 

My point is next: developers introduced new feature that removes system from your cap maximum and that theoreticly always you to conquer wholle universe (that's a great change!), but it comes extremly late (i'd say that by the time it'll affect your game most likely you'll be only a dozen of turns away from victory). Meanwhille for majority of game you're stack with extremly small system cap (and even that require 4th era tech). So going to war now is counteproductive becouse you'll always have 9 systems to colonize (if not you'll generally wage a war over mere couple systems to hit a cap or slightly above). Worth to mention again - i'm talking about huge map size.

Prior to patch my gameplan was always the same (exept cases when i tried something else for RP reasons) - clear nearby AI to be able to hit colony cap. Now i'm hitting it without war and pressing end turn wholle game. By the time i'll be able to support colonies over the cap my infuence buble will reach sophons and i'll take their colonies for free. 

If we're playing 4X game then what's the point of changes that almost cut 2X (expand and exterminate) from the game?