Lord of Rigel News

Greetings Lords of Rigel!

This patch works on AI improvements and adjustments along with some quality of life improvements and more bug fixes from reported issues.

The big update are new ground unit models, light APCs for the standard militia units on a planet (Images 1, 2). As always your save files are helpful for AI balancing and tuning at this stage. Over September our focus will be shifting over to opening up the Elder Species and Doomsday Clock mechanics, and implementing some of the space terrain features from community feedback in tactical.

QOL/Balance:
• APC models for militia in ground combat.
• Railgun weapon cooldown adjustments
• Event ticker pan to system button
• Ship strength added to ship design data tooltip

AI Adjustments:
• Expansion optimizations
• AI aggression tuning for warfare
• Updated rebellion behavior
• Planetary special spawn rate adjustments

Bugfixes:
• Linear upgrade items have reduced cost for new items on construction
• Gravity penalty fixes
• Population calculation and population tooltip display fixes
• Wormhole retreat fixes
• Ship designer saving downgraded ship systems in main game

EA2 coming features:
• Elder Races
• Doomsday Clock

EA3 features will include:
• Custom Species
• Research Victory
• Grand Menaces
• Legendary Galaxies (1024 stars)

Image 1. Human APC (Militia) along with LSAV (Marines/Light Hovertanks) and HSAV (Heavy Hovertanks).
Image 2. Selach Ground Units with a larger APC to support larger Selach troops.

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 to 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!

Greetings Lords of Rigel!

We appreciate the feedback on the initial EA2 release. This patch works in feedback including an AI order system for when ships are under auto combat in tactical.

Selected groups can be set to Chase (head to target), Circle (try to orbit target), Strafe (pass by attack), or Evade (keep distance while engaging). For finer control and positioning we still suggest using pause and manual orders.

Based on your feedback we’ve also added in the system sidebar to colony view (Image 2). A breakdown in the fleet engagement UI with attacker and defender ships has also been added based on comments (Image 3). And, we’ll be working more on auto-explore and expansion AI. Your save games (Image 4) have been incredibly helpful in narrowing down issues and being able to test different late game scenarios. So, a huge thank you for that!

QOL/Balance:
• Tactical autocombat AI orders (Chase, Circle, Strafe, Evade)
• System sidebar in colony view
• Fleet ship breakdown in fleet engagement UI
• Tuning AI diplomacy asks rates
• Build queue moving items up/down queue

Bugfixes:
• Purchasing production fills current production of item in UI
• Subspace conduit filtered in build menu when building a stargate
• Fixed instances of build queue clearing based on fleet orders
• Gifts and stolen technologies do not lock out research from field if not researched yet
• Warp core breach AOE fixes
• Spy scrapping displays BCs returned on same turn
• Partially scrapping a fleet updates maintenance costs on same turn

Upcoming adjustments:
• AI auto-explore optimizations
• AI expansion optimizations

EA2 coming features:
• Elder Races
• Doomsday Clock
• New militia ground units

EA3 features will include:
• Custom Species
• Research Victory
• Grand Menaces
• Legendary Galaxies (1024 stars)

Instead of a deep dive this week, a question for the community: What do people want to see in tactical as “space terrain” in addition to the existing nebulas and planet rings?

Image 1. Autocombat Options in Tactical- Chase, Circle, Harry, Evade (AI debug shown)

Image 2. System sidebar in colony view.

Image 3. Adjustments to engage forces UI.

Image 4. One of your saves!

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/.


And again, please let us know What you want to see in tactical as “space terrain” in addition to the existing nebulas and planet rings?

As always, we appreciate the feedback, conversations, and support from all of you!

Ticket #1591 QOL – Persistent Custom Skirmish Designs
Ticket #1593 Tactical Engagement options fixes
Ticket #1594 Fleet strength and maintenance cost update when partially scrapping a fleet fix
Ticket #1595 Scrapping spies updating treasury on same turn fix
Ticket #1598 Build queue filter for stargates and subspace conduits
Ticket #1599 QOL – System view sidebar in colony view
Ticket #1601 Purchasing production cost fraction fixes
Ticket #1602 QOL – Show attacking and defending ship in Engage Forces menu
Ticket #1603 Selecting multiple ships in tactical fix

Greetings Lords of Rigel!

We appreciate the feedback on the initial EA2 release. This patch includes a number of fixes to issues reported by you and some minor quality of life and balance changes.

Bugfixes:
• Tax slider update on scene change
• Planets menu wormhole explored system fix
• Adjusted galactic council vote display
• Reduced subsistence tech fix for lithovores and mechanoids
• Balance of power and feudal cost fixes for custom ship designs

QOL/Balance:
• Target damage number display in tactical
• Scrapping at outposts and scrapping larger ships if a starbase is absent
• Adjusted galactic council vote display
• Reduced cost for direct upgrade buildings if a lower tier version is present
• Smarter population focus use for Lithovores and Mechanoids
• Faster torpedo refire rate

EA2 upcoming quality of life improvements:
• Tactical autocombat AI orders (Chase, Strafe, Circle, Evade)
• Tactical formation rotation hotkey. (currently only right mouse button)

EA2 coming features:
• Elder Races
• Doomsday Clock
• New militia ground units

EA3 features will include:
• Custom Species
• Research Victory
• Grand Menaces
• Legendary Galaxies (1024 stars)

For our deep dive, we’ll look into LoR’s AI structure.

One ongoing joke is that in “4x games one of the Xs is for Xtremely bad AI.” In the end AI in games is an illusion for a player. The AI is intended to give the illusion of a player and one that provides feedback so that players can understand what its goals are. We didn’t want to make the AI solely designed to “win” as an AI focused on optimal outcomes can seem erratic as goals change and a more human like neural net AI is challenging to troubleshoot.

At the highest level we have species AI archetypes that get determined (Balanced, Diplomat, Honorable Warrior, Balanced Warrior, Cold Warrior, Isolationist, Spy). For example, diplomats try to be friendly and make treaties. Honorable Warriors stick to treaties and fight when slighted. Cold Warriors focus on using spies and aim for “tit for tat.” Each species is weighted towards certain archetypes. The species tooltip in diplomacy shows the leader personality and a breakdown of their high level AI behaviors.
Below the high level archetypes are personality templates that determine how the AI engages each part of the game. There’s a high level goal (Coalition, Domination, Elimination) and different approaches to Economy, Expansion, Diplomacy, Military, and Espionage. Coalition AIs try to make large alliances to win the game. Domination AIs are focused on maximizing their economies as much as possible, and Elimination AIs are focused on removing other species from the game. These are then fed to empire and colony level AIs.

The lower level AIs use what are called utility scores. They assess known data (planets explored, fleet strengths) and weigh that data with their goal type and personality. Some randomness is also added in some utility scores to help break ties. Overall, this means that decisions about picking planets to expand to might be similar (looking at minerals and what climates are best for a species) but how much to expand or where to expand (further out or closer in) will vary based on personality type.
Player automation systems (auto ship designer, autoexplore, autobuild, colony focus) all tap into lower level AI modules. So the AI uses the same tools as the player for higher level decisions.



Image 1. Basic Hierarchy for Strategic AI in Lord of Rigel



Image 2. A militaristic Human AI has the Yalkai and Selach on the ropes.

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!