Groo, the content you're quoting is present at the start of this very same thread here as well, both are mirrors of one another. ^^

@Groo

I believe, ColHathi suggests to unlock hacking later a bit, like trading companies or behemots (for all except UC, sure thing). Could make sense until oversimplifies initial expansion of UC

Everything sounds pretty pretty nice. Im kinda noob but I felt the hacking experience a bit weird. Many times the biggest problems come by minor factions or pirates. I missunderstood some features of the hacking until Ive been forced by the game to hack through many nodes and thats when I figured out that is what I had to do to not to be traced back. 

My recomendations:

1. Back doors should make easier to pass through a node (that obviously has a backdoor installed) without being detected. There should be tools to detect back doors and destroy it in addition to prevent it to be installed (witch it is actually included in the game by one tech).

2. Some tool to improve node to nood travel by hacking. If I didnt missunderstood hacking speed increase only the speed when you reach a node but not the time it takes to reach that node. 

it is great to see you care about it.

and yes, I as well did't thougth of the newcomer and casual players when i help test the beta...
the endless games was always so sophisticated but in a good way, and that what make me fall in love with them.
it felt like a 4X for big boys to me xD.

next time, i will try to give you a more "noob"y opinion, as well as my professional one. if i will get the chance to help :)

Groo wrote:

So even more late then latest Penumbra Improvements preview 1_4_3 beta does offer? Sure? The fat marked quoted text in quote does ask for exactly the same whatis offered in preview beta, not?

I haven't try newest beta. Accodring to list of improvements, hacking is delayed for minors and pirates. I'm telling about major factions - what if they have to research a tech,to be able to hack at all, as they have to unlock trading companies.

This approach should rise game difficulty in more gradual way; also it could be weird to see a faction that starts hacking of entire star systems before exploring very basic techs. On the other side, if Ampliteam implement this, majors could be too vulnerable against UC.

Ah, ok. You did refer to major factions AI, only. Didn't get it when reading your posts. No offense and thanks for clarifictaion.

I guess we should test the latest offered beta patch to find out what - and if - something should be polished when it comes to hacking and balance decisions. From my experience this takes some time from our side. At least I did have more fun testing this stuff, yet. I have to admit I learned/understood some of the more deceisive hacking mechanics within the last 20 to 30 hours about. Anyway, at the moment it feels more balanced from my impression. I have endless difficulty for major AI and minor AI factions. I did set Pirates on normal difficulty for the moment.

I agree with DoubleY on his recommendations. I don't know what that would mean for the game balance, but backdoors do seem a bit weird and lackluster.

Which reminds me, it's a bit strange that you have to hack systems that you have existing sanctuaries on, just to expand the number of sanctuaries you control on that system.

Before even changing how it works, it'd be nice if it was a little more understandable what's happening on nodes... 

As it is recommanded to hack from distant points in order to slow the trace back, it happened that some nodes are used in multiple hacks at the same time, then  traced back and while all of this happens, another faction is hacking one of these nodes (which of course begins a trace back)...

The worst, i think, is that the big notification where i can choose the outcome doesn't allow me to see the actual hack it is talking about. Telling me that the trace on Virgo is successful is not, at least for me, very clear. 1) because I don't know by heart the name's systems : i need to see the map too, and 2) because i have multiple hack running and i don't know which one is complete, even with the origin system name and the destination system name... because 1) I need the map !

Another thing : won't it be possible to convert a pop (if possible), and abduct it at the same time, using the same poping menu that for changing the political party in charge or choosing the planet i wanna put a sanctuary on ?

I like the change to pirates and minor factions, it was pretty annoying to set up at the start only to have some pirates pop up in between and start tracing back.

russian localization still not good.

Just fired up 1.4.3 and it looks like custom UC still lose access to their Population Collection.  Is that fix also planned for this patch?

I'll be really happy without the Hacking notification who pop again and again, and need a double click on "end turn" to be closed. I use hacking when necessary, but don't need to be reminded of it's existence all the four turns :/

Zacatl wrote:

I'll be really happy without the Hacking notification who pop again and again, and need a double click on "end turn" to be closed. I use hacking when necessary, but don't need to be reminded of it's existence all the four turns :/

I didn't know if I should say it, but then you said, lol. I agree. Heroes too. An option to turn those off would be great.

When will the hotfix go live? Im kinda waiting for the last bugs to be ironed out (like the trade compnay bug)