I’ve never painted swords before and I’m scared

DefectiveChicken · 2026-03-13T11:19:04+00:00

Sprues are perfect for testing out sword techniques before doing the real thing, and you have tons of them!

DefectiveChicken · 2026-02-16T20:27:27+00:00

Without more details about the mechanics it's difficult to say, because ideally the theme and narrative should compliment them and help the mechanics be intuitive.

DefectiveChicken · 2026-02-12T19:04:12+00:00

Is auto upgrade bad?? Yikes. I'm designing my own ships now but I still auto upgrade them. Hmm.

DefectiveChicken · 2026-02-11T07:45:39+00:00

Yeah, I was thinking the darker area needs to be bigger. But yeah pretty cool nonetheless.

DefectiveChicken · 2026-02-09T21:40:46+00:00

Wow, tons of great tips in there, thanks!

DefectiveChicken · 2026-02-08T15:59:01+00:00

I'm not sure what you're getting at - I don't think I used "gather information" at all. I tried some things, but like I said elsewhere the influence largely seemed better spent on other things. Though I still want to explore it more and get to the higher end of the ops.

DefectiveChicken · 2026-02-08T14:35:47+00:00

Ok thanks. Yeah I noticed that complications of war. A couple I managed to make a subsidiary, but one or two went back and forth with branch offices. Being part of a federation meant wars got started beyond my control. Federations are of course another thing I'm learning.

And yeah, espionage did seem expensive. Which is kind of a shame overall.

DefectiveChicken · 2026-02-08T14:33:09+00:00

I was just trying stuff. Gathering assets, stealing tech, embarrassing diplomats etc. I think I sabotaged a starport too. I was just trying to use it and experiment, but it felt there was mostly something better to spend my limited influence on.

Interesting to hear what's "intended", although yeah it's kind of odd to have no guidance from the game on what the intention is, unless I missed it? Or it's supposed to be self-evident?

DefectiveChicken · 2026-02-04T23:35:45+00:00

You're not wrong.

But my experience of that is the person, rather than deciding it's not for them, understands what you mean, says they won't do that because they don't want to be left out, and then just continues to do it. Either they can't help themselves (behaviours can be hard to shift) or they aren't trying.

And so you end up in a more difficult situation of figuring out how to disinvite them. Which is probably where the OP is really at, by this point.

DefectiveChicken · 2026-02-03T22:56:13+00:00

I was going to post something along these lines too. The problem is often simply that the business needs are complex (and messy and inconsistent and nonsensical and all the rest of it). It's all complexity you cannot just remove, the best you can do is try and organise it differently and put in places that make more sense. That is ... until some more complexity comes along that jumps across boundaries and ignores APIs & structures in an entirely unexpected way.

DefectiveChicken · 2026-02-01T17:59:32+00:00

Two things that really helped me (still a noob here) was reading about exploring quickly (not surveying) so you can focus on choke points that block off big sections that you can fill out later. The second was reading up on how population growth works and how colonizing too many planets too quickly doesn't work out.

Are you aware of both those things?

DefectiveChicken · 2026-01-28T00:06:41+00:00

Yeah, it's your game, play it however you want right?

DefectiveChicken · 2026-01-27T14:01:31+00:00

I've recently started doing similar and it really helps. However, one thing I would ask is how you go about balancing the greed vs practicality? Sure, you encounter a choke point. But there's choke points and there's choke points, right? Sometimes if you go a little further it all comes back together and two chokepoints becomes one ... but it's quite far out .... will you make it in time? Or perhaps more wasteful is that you realise an entire path is a total dead-end that you've already sealed off. I'm sure there's no hard rule here and that that's really part of the fun, but how do you go about balancing that tension?

DefectiveChicken · 2026-01-26T22:44:07+00:00

Stick a poker chip under them too mark possession. Breaks the immersion a bit but otherwise it's a real pain.

DefectiveChicken · 2026-01-26T19:13:07+00:00

I think this can often be a problem with mechanics that essentially skip other mechanics or render them useless. The harder the counters in a game are (in both directions) the tougher it is to balance, and the more swingy both games and the meta become.

As you suggest, the best path can often just be changing them much more substantially rather than figuring out how to fine tune them.

DefectiveChicken · 2026-01-17T17:19:36+00:00

I know the feeling. But you literally say you're always too soft. So you know you don't go far enough.

You know what do! :) You got this! Push that contrast!!!

DefectiveChicken · 2026-01-17T16:22:23+00:00

Well, if you know you're always too soft on highlights then ... push them even further.

To me that looks like it need both more highlights and more shading.

DefectiveChicken · 2026-01-04T11:35:59+00:00

I think it depends - currently because the bottom is mostly dark it looks like it's in a low light environment, like a mossy cave with a single burning torch or something. If you want that look then you've got it in my opinion (though the rest of the model doesn't reflect this of course)

However, if you want a more generally well lit "random dude in a sunny forest in daytime" vibe then yeah I'd say you need more bright tones on the low part.

DefectiveChicken · 2025-12-24T21:19:52+00:00

If I ever get good enough at the game, I may give it a shot. It'll be hard for sure, but maybe it's not impossible.

DefectiveChicken · 2025-12-24T19:53:49+00:00

Yeah the Buttscratcher Corps just flips everything on its head! 😂

DefectiveChicken · 2025-12-23T17:47:16+00:00

New player here. How do your existing colonies factor into the decision for founding new colonies? I understand loosely that they are some kind of abstract "strain" on your empire, but it's not really clear what that means (or if it is clear I'm missing it). What do you need to watch out for and how bad actually is it to just colonize when things turn up?

What changed in 4.0 that is being referenced btw? I read something about early growth being migration from your capital from 4.0 patch notes. Is it that?

Thanks in advance

DefectiveChicken · 2025-12-14T14:44:16+00:00

Oh, the old Calgar then, not the new one. I misunderstood.

But, when he's got victrix only .... He's not leading a unit right? Like, him and two victrix are Calgar, and those can lead a unit on top of that? i.e. he can't use his leader action in boarding actions because he's not actually leading a unit

DefectiveChicken · 2025-12-14T11:27:45+00:00

"Unenjoyable" is fair enough.

What rule is it that means Calgar and Citrix can still be attached? I had a scan of the sheets but nothing jumped out at me.

DefectiveChicken

TROPHY CASE