Hi you can call me ThatStupidGeek or really anything you want. I've played allot of games in my time, in fact its safe to say I've probably played more than you have. Why? Well lets just say I live in an area where going out and doing things leads to very little excitement. Now now, I'm not here to say video games are all I do, however that is all you most likely care about.



And I thought it may be amusing for me to post my experiences and thoughts about this game as I play! That and it may help the devs out or...may help you all laugh at my failures as I handle this game as well as I handle dwarf fortress.



Spoilers, Everyone is probably gonna die. 'Sept for me...we have contingencies in place to protect The Illustrious Potentate after all.



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THOUGHTS SO FAR!



Wonderful Screen music. Seriously, I've been listening to it as I type this post. It's a brilliant mix of hope and melancholy that fits a 4x space game perfectly. About the dream of an ever living ever expanding ever learning civilization vs the risks that come from space exploration and colonization. Excellent work on the chorus as well, I'm curious to see how many people were involved with this track and what instruments were used. Will there be a reoccurring melody throughout this title? If so they picked a lovely one.



-Should note, after a few rotations the music cuts out entirely to the sound of wind. The music then cuts back in when leaving the option menu, will investigate further as a dedicated alpha tester. I mean, its not like the intro music is god awful or anything <3



Graphic options. Guys, thanks for including a windowed mode. Really. Seriously. Thank you. Most games without a dedicated working one end up getting shelved because like every kid born in the nineties I have the attention span of a gnat. I'lll be alt tabbing out of this like I'm trying to hide red light district material from the folks; lets see if it lives up to my expectations.



And thanks for explaining what all of the levels of visual fidelity do because I hate when a game offers 'Minimal, basic, standard, good, great, fantastic.' As options without any explanation. Though as a PC gaming elitist pretentious hack I would like in the future an option to customize the game even further. Why? Because I'm too thick to do that with my car and I like to pretend I'm smart.



-I know its sort of silly, but why would you put the master mute in the middle of the music screen? Personally I'd have that on the top or bottom so its easier to find if your a hardcore multitasker.



-Another audio suggestion would be for voice overs for units. After sinking a few hundred hours into the total war games I'm...really sick of ridiculous accents. Maybe a toggle switch for unit banter in the future? (DOES THIS GAME EVEN HAVE UNIT BANTER?! I DO NOT KNOW!)



Whelp, time to start a new game. Wish me luck Internets.

Good luck Internets person!

Whats the worst that can happen?



Oh my. Options. I like options. I like allot of them. Already I'm impressed by the level of options presented to me so I may design my own death by unrelenting AI and bureaucratic red tape. Each civilization has its own series of traits that hopefully will effect the course of the game but wont be so drastic that it pigeon holes everyone. I mean, I'm one of those players that enjoys role playing something ridiculous now and again...like peace loving Klingons. However the lore posted for all the races when selecting one is a fun read and I'd love for more to be posted in game one day. Perhaps an encyclopedia one day full of lore, history, tutorials, and explanations?



However Color me excited. And orange. And...peace loving isolationists which wont be crushed by the various evil military powers in the universe. (BTW, can we have more colors in the future? Please?)





FEAR ME! And my need to build pretty monuments that wont help me at all in combat! Well...it works in Civ...sometimes...not really...shut up.



Meanwhile, on Spica I...

"Err...Illustrious Potentate...are you sure it was a good idea to colonize this planet?"

"OF COURSE IT WAS! Why, there's enough sandstone and lime to make those hooligans over at Irlandini monuments look the work of a blind fingerpainting child! And if anyone questions my greatness we can just exile them to the barren wasteland that surrounds us! ITS PERFECT!"

"Ah. Yes. Hail the Illustrious Potentate and his supreme foresight for designating city planning in the middle of a godless inhospitable backwater planet in the back end of the universe."

"Indeed. My greatness shall be etched on every rock here...tell the colonists to get etching in the name of my glory!"



Its rather hard to tell where the barren wasteland ends and our glorious empire begins mind you.



Its like the game knows me. It knows I love situations that are simply bound to fail...that and its like someone took galactic civilization and combined it with sins of a solar empire which is a winning combination in my book. So far I'm very very very impressed by the slick UI, countless options, and aesthetic direction of it all. Currently were going to focus on building up our industry so we can get everything else on line faster and get to building the massive monuments I demand from my loving populace. And by industry I mean rock carving and by loving populace I mean people who are only part of my empire because I hold all the food. I like how the game started out my approval rating at 45% as well.



Oh...and the choices...



Look at the size of that tech tree! I mean...LOOK at it! I'm sure all of you playing know about it already but...my gods!



And that's just one of the myriad screens of options! Fleet design, hero recruitment, empire management and so much more!



Right...I'm going to be messing this thing up soon, aren't i?

So I hit turn fifteen and met my first diplomatic contact! And then I learned I was about three hundred points behind him...err...a silly play through may have to wait till I've got a decent handle on this game. I feel as though I have regressed mentally from the droves of hold your hand strategy games out there and to come across something so vast and vibrant will require some getting used to.



However? After playing it for a short spell I will say I am very very very excited.

ThatStupidGeek wrote:
So I hit turn fifteen and met my first diplomatic contact! And then I learned I was about three hundred points behind him...err...a silly play through may have to wait till I've got a decent handle on this game. I feel as though I have regressed mentally from the droves of hold your hand strategy games out there and to come across something so vast and vibrant will require some getting used to.



However? After playing it for a short spell I will say I am very very very excited.

You may find the AI to be very aggressive/powerful on normal- think of normal as Hard and Newbie as Normal. My first 2 games i got creamed until i finally accepted i was not the amazing gamer i thought i was and turned the difficulty down.

Yeah, I realized. Part of it is that there is just so many options available and so many choices but the AI for this is really really good.

Whelp lost my first battle...if you can call it a battle. My small scout ship scouted some pirates who more or less brought up memories of eve online. Retribution incoming as soon as I get a fleet built! That pirate scum will fear me as though I am the FBI!

Scopeh wrote:
You may find the AI to be very aggressive/powerful on normal- think of normal as Hard and Newbie as Normal. My first 2 games i got creamed until i finally accepted i was not the amazing gamer i thought i was and turned the difficulty down.

I had the same experience, but I got better. At the bottom of my known bugs thread there is a collection of posts which you can read, to get better. My game is measurably 2x better (by population count) after this practice. The 30-turn challenge is especially useful (IMHO)

The score is influenced also quite a lot by the ships you own. If I learned something by playing in hard recently, it's AI really really... really doesn't like you . So starting building ships in the first 20 turns is never a bad idea I think.

Right now I'm in hard in war against United Empire, Horatio and Cravers... It's kinda funny



And Davea gaves you a key. He talks about his improvement with the population count. It is maybe the most important thing to developp at the beginning : your population.



Maybe it doesn't sound like this but I'm also a newbie in this game, I very liked the first "turn 30 challenge" of Davea to learn.

davea wrote:
I had the same experience, but I got better. At the bottom of my known bugs thread there is a collection of posts which you can read, to get better. My game is measurably 2x better (by population count) after this practice. The 30-turn challenge is especially useful (IMHO)

thanks Davea, I've got much better since then, once i figured out what needed to be researched first etc, im now playing the AI on Hard, ive turned pirates off though as they just seem un-balanced to me at the moment

Woooo! Combat! AND A VICTORY! I'm not sure how I feel about combat just yet seeing as how I've only participated in two battles. I think the system in place could evolve to be something special but compared to everything else in the game I've experienced thus far it feels underdeveloped.



Then again... REVENGE!





Our boys are closing in on the degenerate xeno pirates. Ready whatever weapons we have available and set them to murdernate.





Victory! SWEET SWEET VICTORY! Take that barely armed people waving the white flag! Habeas Corpus was abolished epochs ago, dontcha know? Your maritime law holds NO sway here.



Ahhhh... blood-lust. Sated. And yes I switched over to the empire after I realized the initial race of genetically engineered fashion models were a mite too hard for a newbie.