The Last Federation:Post-2.0 Release Notes

Version 2.003

(This isn't done yet, we're still working on it.)

Version 2.002

(Released November 13th, 2014)

Beating Back The Betrayal Bumrushers, Round 2

• As luck (hmm) would have it, we have had a couple of players who have figured out a way to absolutely dominate Betrayal mode if they are able to get their foes in just a few months. If the war lasts longer than that, then things are off to a great extended campaign like they are supposed to be (and like myself and other players were experiencing). But these clever folks figured out a way around that, and so some last-minute balancing is something we are cooking up with their help in order to respond to that newly-surfaced tactic. The timing could have been better (on the day before release -- really!?), but we love when players figure out such clever things, and it's always a pleasure to work with them to make the game more balanced to deal with their ideas.
  • So that's what is going on with 2.001 and 2.002, and may continue for another few versions, we'll see.

• When starting a new game in betrayal mode, there are now 3x as many pirate bases as usual at the start.
  • Pirates all now are friendly to all races except the player, as well. A solar system devoid of life is not good for the pirates any more than it is for anyone else.
  • This creates another source of distraction for the player in the very early game in particular, keeping them from bumrushing the enemy. BUT it also creates a great way for the player to gain some income and some trust from other races when they go take out those bases, so there is a silver lining there.
  • Thanks to chemical_art for suggesting this change.

• Games in betrayal mode now start in the year 3010, rather than the year 3000, to represent the time it has taken the Hydral to take over their first planet.
  • Thanks to chemical_art for suggesting this change.

• When starting a new game in betrayal mode, all of the other races now have 3x as many starting technologies as usual.
  • And on the flip side, the player now starts with NO techs at the start of betrayal mode, since they instead spent their energies subjugating an enemy race.
  • This gives you a more consistent start as the player, and also gives the AI a head start in terms of what techs they have. You can catch up much easier than the AI can, because you have many more tools for gaining techs than they do.
  • Thanks to chemical_art for inspiring this change.

• The Mire no longer seeds for anyone in betrayal mode.
  • This was just basically a death sentence for one race at random, and not needed in this mode.
  • Thanks to chemical_art for inspiring this change.

• In betrayal mode, the population of planets other than the hydral is now 10-30 times higher than normal.
  • This represents the time that has passed, as well as making these planets harder targets for early bombing.
  • You are pretty much going to be forced to get some of the other races to attack one another to take out that much population... surely...
  • Thanks to chemical_art for inspiring this change.

• In betrayal mode, there are now three races that are spacefaring from the start, and the time until spacefaring for the other races is all slid down even further.
  • This is again in keeping with the "10 years into the future" theme, and it also creates a more adversarial starting scenario.
  • Thanks to chemical_art and Eternaly_Lost for inspiring these changes.

Tactical Combat Relationship To Strategic Situation Balance

• This stuff applies to all game modes, but was particularly inspired by the need for some better balance on this stuff in Betrayal mode. In Invasion and Standard modes these numbers weren't really an issue per se, although looking at them now the numbers were a bit on the wimpy side and this will be more thematically appropriate.
  • But for betrayal mode, these are key balance changes that make is so that you can't Evil-Batman your way through an entire race's armadas in a few seconds of solar map time. That was just nuts in that game mode.

• Auto-resolving combat in general now takes about 2x as many turns as before. It was being optimistically quick about things before, leading to turn counts that were artificially low and thus solar map elapsed times that were also artificially low.
  • Thanks to chemical_art for inspiring this discovery.

• The amount of solar map time that passes for each turn taken in combat (auto-resolve or otherwise) is now 6x higher than it was before. Before it was really quite excessively low, and thus your flagship could be used as a time-pausing bludgeon of sorts.
  • We actually introduced the entire concept of time passing on the solar map while you were in combat a while back to combat just this sort of thing. But the actual amounts of time taken have turned out to be too tame.
  • Thanks to chemical_art for inspiring this discovery.

• The ratio of flagships to armada power level is now 4 to 1 rather than 10 to 1. With the Obscura, it was already 2 to 1.
  • This makes the fights between a player and a bunch of armadas at a planet a much more, ahem, lively affair. You can't just kill 4 ships and have it wipe out a mid-power armada, that was just bonkers.
  • Thanks to chemical_art for inspiring this change.

• The maximum flagships seeded per side in a fight has changed from 18 to 24.
  • This keeps the player from having to do too many repeat fights if they are attacking a lot of armadas at once; that was a problem we had long ago, and expanding this prevents it from resurfacing.
  • Thanks to chemical_art for inspiring this change.

Version 2.001

(Released November 13th, 2014)

• Updated the "What's New" link to point to this page rather than to the prior release notes page.

Betrayal Mode Balance (Responding To The Bumrush Tactic)

• In betrayal mode, every time you capture a planet that is not your original planet, a variety of consequences now kick in:
  • You lose 25 influence with all other surviving races (that number shifts up or down some by difficulty level).
  • All planets belonging to other surviving races start working extra hard for 80 months, tripling the speed at which they produce armadas.
  • All non-spacefaring races drop their time-to-spacefaring to 2/3 of what it previously was. But not lower than 4 months remaining. Again, out of fear.
  • All surviving races gain a substantial combat bonus to their space forces based on the maximum number of planets you have ever simultaneously held. It shows up as fear of the growing hydral empire.
    • They also gain a much smaller (1/8th as much) bonus to their ground forces based off that same fear.
  • All other surviving races get a fear-based boost to their science production for 80 months after the player captures a planet. The boost amount varies by difficulty level.
  • A message pops up explaining these things the first time you take a planet in betrayal mode.
  • Thanks to chemical_art for inspiring these changes.

• In betrayal mode, once you hold 4+ planets, you start losing some influence each month with the other races, similarly to what happens in the main game with races who gain a fear empire (which you now basically have).
  • Thanks to chemical_art for inspiring these changes.

• The races now use their "fear of federation" buildings properly in betrayal and invasion modes, based on the number of planets controlled by the aggressors in those modes.

• The resource costs of creating and upgrading armadas have been reduced substantially (the credit costs remain the same except for upgrades, however).
  • The idea here is that now the player armadas are vastly more viable, particularly if the player puts time into upgrading them.
  • Thanks to chemical_art and Eternaly_Lost for inspiring these changes.

• The player now has a starting cap of armadas of 5, rather than 3, although they still start with 3. The XI and XII armada cap tech upgrades have been removed from the game. They were so ludicrously so far out that they were unlikely to show up in most games, anyhow.
  • With the ability to have more armadas, players are now able to project force to more locations early in the game.
  • Thanks to chemical_art and Eternaly_Lost for inspiring these changes.

• In betrayal mode, the player now starts out with a substantial amount of credit, depending on the difficulty level chosen.
  • This gives you a lot of flexible options right from the start, ranging from more armadas to better armadas to other things.
  • Thanks to chemical_art and Eternaly_Lost for inspiring these changes.

• In betrayal mode, player armada construction and upgrades now happens 10x as fast as before.
  • This makes them significantly more viable for defense and offense, without making it so that you can insta-create them at will.
  • Thanks to chemical_art and Eternaly_Lost for inspiring these changes.

Previous Release Notes

The Last Federation Post-1.0 Release Notes