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[E. Albright]

Hmm, starting up a game to look at the changes, I can't help but notice how much room they've made in the tech tree for new techs by the resizing that they did. Some of that may be to benefit modding, but there's a lot of room for new tech to be added.

[Il Palazzo]

An update came out recently, with - among other, arguably more substantial, things - new mugshots. No longer does the game look like it borrowed assets from the old Elite games. It's kinda uncanny how pretty everyone is now.

Anyway. Just bought Oceania, and am trying to get used to the new realities. For example, is there any way to prevent AI majors from making beachheads everywhere on my island - other than garrisoning every single hexagonal inch of the coastline?
Or at least a way to merge zones without first assigning a governor and spending upwards of 70pp? Since every AI landfall inevitably results in a new zone, with a port and an airbase set up next turn, that then litter my everything and are prohibitively expensive to merge back.

Some way of dealing with aquatic fauna would be nice too, as without being able to destroy them in encirclement they remain an unfun pain the neck.

[Dostoevsky]

Huh, those are some chiseled faces. I dunno, as iffy as the other ones were these ones are indeed too pretty. Though the bit of patch note saying that portraits are "more moddable" is encouraging.

As to Oceania, as much as I like the game I have pretty mixed feelings about the DLC based on what I've read about it. Never picked it up.

[Il Palazzo]

It's fun. Plays very different, and I'm not sure how well it'd fit in multiplayer, but it certainly spices things up.
Also, feels much harder - but that might have more to do with the supposed AI improvements and other mechanics changes since last time I played. I dunno.

[EuchreJack]

I think the Best^TM way to prevent AI majors from landing on your beaches is to own the Merchant Trade Houses that control the seas surrounding your island. You know, like England Venice every major maritime/coastal/island nation ever has done._{Who owns whom is not up for debate}

[Il Palazzo]

The manual says you can't own them - they won't sell shares beyond 50%. You can influence them to dislike particular regimes, I think. But from what I understand it only increases transportation prices. So it'd mean you can at best slow down the zone spam a tiny bit (for a lot of investment).

In any case - started another game and the D-Day bonanza is nowhere to be seen. I don't know why everyone loved my island so the previous time.

[E. Albright]

It's been a while since I played Oceania (being in the beta kinda burnt me out on it), plus going back to school at my age has rotted my brain, but I'll try to remember how I dealt with that stuff.

First, re: majors, play on bigger maps. Small maps give you oceans with too many connected landmasses and too few MTHs. But even on a bigger map, if you roll a planet where a tiny number of MTHs dominate the seas, you'll still have the problem of distant powers being able to jump down your throat constantly.

One expensive solution to this is to force an MTH split on a particular ocean zone you're trying to exclude landings in - that can sometimes stop invasions cold b/c the distant power(s) will no longer have contact with an MTH controlling your neighborhood waters. Ofc, if the MTH you're splitting is a strong naval power, it might just eat the offshoot, so that is something to consider.

Buying up all the MTH's available shipping also puts a damper on other majors' ability to invade constantly.

Re: critters, aircraft and artillery hitting them at sea helps slow them down and kill them off, but mostly you just need to keep a shore patrol. That helps for the invasion stuff too - forcing proper assaults instead of unopposed landings makes things significantly rougher on would-be invaders.

I will confess that on a few long playtests where there were particularly ugly sea critters, I may have nuked some of them. If you do it when they're far enough away from the shore, you don't have to deal with any environmental damage even if you're hitting them with ICBMs.

[Il Palazzo]

Jesus, what's with Victor's idea for naming the planetary ratings? Is Nightmarish Death worse or better than Unfathomable Death or Instant Death? I mean, I'd probably prefer the instant variety, but mechanically?
Same story with the rest of them. I really don't want to have to be repeatedly looking it up in the manual to make sense of this shit.

[E. Albright]

...a numerical rating in parentheses after the florid, gruesome description would be nice, yeah...