In the quest "Locust of Lies" (Vodyani quest 2 part 2) it claims that "The Tabernacle is near" in spite of this it almost always spawns on the opposite side of the galaxy. Aside from the misleading text the major problem is that it can easily take 15-20 turn to get there and in additon to that you have to go with either a here or an Ark, both being a signifigant investment for such an early quest. 

As a result of this you have to either invest heavily into engine tech and sacrifice a hero or ark for 30-40 turn total(round trip) or abandon your main quest. Due to the hugh investment for miminal rewards( manpower generation is your problem as the Vodyani, not your total limit) it is almost always better to ignore it.

 The Vodyani would easily be my favourite faction if their quest was better, but as it is now their faction quest is both the hardest and least rewarding. In order to make it better I would suggest either making the objectives easier to accomplish. For example, making the tabernacle spawn in your home constellation or in a isolated node near your capital so that is is actually near. That or making the rewards much greater, ie a more effeicent essence to manpower action, or a passive manpower increase. 

Also while I am only talking about "Locust of Lies" in particular this problem exist in most other vodyani quest; ie their first one only gives 50 of a tier 1 strategic where as the UE can get a free outpost, 40% outpost growth or 10% damage. As for their later quest I honestly can't  even remember what they are as I only ever bothered doing it once because of the problems with Locust of lies. 

Tl:DR Please fix spawn for the tabernacle and make the rewards for the vodyani quest better.

The_Quasar wrote:

The very early pirate spawn tends to just get delayed until I have the appropriate ships, although I take it, you're supposed to do it with an ark.  At that stage, it's almost always better to build up your home system with your ark.

That's true on both counts. I believe this 'issue' we have (if you can call it that, more of a niggle really) is the result of the 'rebalancing' that was done to tone down arks. Unfortunately, they nerfed them into the ground without adjusting this quest appropriately, which means that you will most probably get boxed in by pirates, which severely hampers the all-important early-game expansion, or that you'll need to expend an inordinate amount of effort into building up a fleet, which severely hampers the all-important early-game expansion. It's not undoable, of course, but not really fun either.

You should definitely try the all-propulsion technique though, I use it all the time now as it significantly speeds up the game for the Vodyani, as long as you have sufficient dust, that should help with the last bit you mentioned.

terodil wrote:

The_Quasar wrote:

The very early pirate spawn tends to just get delayed until I have the appropriate ships, although I take it, you're supposed to do it with an ark.  At that stage, it's almost always better to build up your home system with your ark.

That's true on both counts. I believe this 'issue' we have (if you can call it that, more of a niggle really) is the result of the 'rebalancing' that was done to tone down arks. Unfortunately, they nerfed them into the ground without adjusting this quest appropriately, which means that you will most probably get boxed in by pirates, which severely hampers the all-important early-game expansion, or that you'll need to expend an inordinate amount of effort into building up a fleet, which severely hampers the all-important early-game expansion. It's not undoable, of course, but not really fun either.

You should definitely try the all-propulsion technique though, I use it all the time now as it significantly speeds up the game for the Vodyani, as long as you have sufficient dust, that should help with the last bit you mentioned.

Honestly I find the pirates to be the least annoying part of the quest, your starting hero and 2 scouts should be more than enough to deal with them, It is just that the reward is so bad it isn't worth building another scout to deal with it.

Tip how to do "Locus of Lies" and get at least some profit off of it:

It is very easy when you have all of the following:
- Baryonic Shielding
- Picked Sainted Speed as the previous quest reward
- have enough essence to make an Ark

Fill your Ark with Sainted Speed modules, those give movement and vision range, with enough of them you can see alot. Take advantage of that and the movement it gives and scout the galaxy on your way to the Tabernacle system. When you get there, if you chose "Take over" simple anchor your Ark and deanchor. If you chose the other option, do the same but this time create a fleet with one of your heroes in that system and that should do it. It doesn't mean you have to stop once you are done with it as you can continue your exploration from there and practically find good spots for colonization/unique planets/untaken minor civs.