Greetings Lords of Rigel,
This week we’ve incorporated more bug fixes and QOL adjustments based on feedback.
This upcoming patch:• Rebellion behavior adjustments- initial rebel message and fixes for rebelling fleets
• Diplomacy demand behavior fixes
• QOL- Duplicate key bindings check
We’re making more progress on the auto ship design generator and build queues, again fixing reported bugs has been our priority.
Another upcoming QOL improvement suggested is adding a skip cutscenes option to game settings. Currently any keypress will skip cutscenes in the game but this would auto-skip scenes when enabled.
Additionally, we’ve been doing some slow but steady AI improvements. Again AI and tactical will be the main focus of EA2 as we unlock the Tulocks, Synth, and features including the Galactic Council and diplomacy victory.
As for this week’s deep dive:
Ground Combat!Early on we wanted ground combat to keep the same core as Master of Orion 2 where it’d be determined by species traits (combat bonuses, gravity tolerance), technologies, and troop composition. Some species such as the Ornithon have major disadvantages to ground combat while the Katraxi have major advantages. Invasions occur when planetary defenses are down and you have either Troop Transport ships or ships with Troop Pods. Troop Pods let you have combat ships that can do ground invasions.
Species with the telepathic trait can instead opt to use mind control to take over a planet, which is determined by the number of ships they have and the telepathic abilities of the other faction and their population size.
Ground combat is automated but you can see the units move on the landscape and units taking damage. Under the hood combat is split into rounds with different units using their combat rolls for firing and taking damage, with it resolved once a side has been destroyed. The amount of “hits” each unit can take depends on species traits, technologies, and the types of ground units deployed. By default marines generally take one hit while defending heavy armor can take two. Ground units have particle effects for kicking up dust and their thruster glows, and the weapon effects use the same materials based approach as the weapons in tactical.
Once combat is over, if the player the one who’s successfully invaded a planet you’ll see your military advisor give some options for capturing a planet. This will depend in your government type and species traits. Democracies can’t exterminate a population and place one settler of their species there. The Tharrn will consume captured population. Generally though “enculturate” means you capture a planet and the population gets slowly accustomed to the new government that has taken over.
In coming weeks we’ll do more deep dives on species models, other weapon types, and some of the various gameplay mechanics in Lord of Rigel!
Image 1. Invading a planet.
Image 2. Closeup of Ground Combat
Image 3. Closeup of a Human heavy hovertank.
Image 4. Fusion cannon material
Image 5. Capturing a Planet
Image 6. Earth Falls to the Yalkai
Let us know what further changes you would like to see or if you have encountered any technical issues. Please post on the forums, reach out to us via Discord or send an email:
[email protected] Saved games and clear steps to reproduce the bug are critical. It helps us more quickly track down the bug and get it fixed. Additional information on bug reporting tips can be found here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/437440/discussions/.
As always, we appreciate the feedback, conversations, and support from all of you!
Image 1. Human ships firing a combo of direct and indirect fire torpedoes
Image 2. Phased cloaked Xantus ships firing plasma torpedoes
Image 3. Proton Torpedo Material