Help me git gud, question thread

[legionof1]

Flamers and other incendiaries are also effective.

[desert]

Thanks for the suggestions.

I'm also having trouble with the scoring mechanics. In the early game before I can shoot down or catch (most) shipping, the trend is for my score to increase every month, but alternate months pos/neg. In other words, in one month I could get 1000 score, the next I could have much the same activity, yet get -1500 score, then the month after that toward 2000...

One thing I can definitely note is that the core shown in the charts has no correlation to scores of individual battles and missions. In the months where my score was high, it did not seem as though battle score accumulation could account for it, nor vice versa when the score was low (negative).

In fact, by now I am checking the score every day, and it seems to be decreasing by 100 each day. I observed this starting at the beginning of the month, over a period in which there was no combat activity.

What's going on here? The only interpretation I can take is that I incure negative score for my existence, and that this negative score rate increases no matter what as time passes.

[desert]

And 2 days later with no activity, it jumps up by 200. The only thing that occurred in those two days was the completion of 2 research topics.

[legionof1]

I don't know everything about scoring, but mission scores are straight score as well as some score for research(varied values). About half of possible faction missions incur a penalties if they succeed. Enemy bases also incur a flat monthly penalty.

If you dont have full detection coverage of the globe a fair amount negative score can occur without your knowledge.   

[desert]

(If research does boost score, then it's insane to think this is my position when I complete one-to-two dozen topics per month.)

Another week passed. I performed a monastery raid, got approximately the exact score increase suggested in the debriefing, and the score didn't budge after that for some time. Then, it dipped marginally, but within hours recovered and more, bringing me back to 0 or positive score  for the first time since the beginning of the month. One day later, it was at below -300.

Here's my approximate score history for the rest of the month, from midnight each day:

D11: -500
D12: -750
D13: -750
D14: -500
D15: -600
D16: -650
D17: -750
D18: -750
D19: -800
D20: -750
D21: -800
D22: -800
D23: -900, and I am about to step in to stop a pogrom - the only activity of the month other than the monastery raid at the beginning. After the pogrom mission, 315 points correctly places me around -550.
D24: -550
D25: -550
D26: -700
D27: -750
D28: -1000
D29: -1050
D30: -1150, and there has been no further opportunity to carry out a mission since the pogrom a week ago and the temple raid at the beginning of the month.

It is now the end of the month. I end with 200 more points somehow, but this is still only -912 and I lose the game.

On the defeat screen, my "average monthly rating" is listed as 1287. So, I'm going to need a way to cheat the score on the geoscape, because this is silly.

[legionof1]

Looks like a enemy base is active at the very least. Though the multiple shifts 250+/- don't match up with my limited understanding.

Though if you could post a save preferable as early in the month as possible we could perhaps learn more.

[desert]

I checked in debug, and there doesn't seem to be any alien base. Looking in the save file, I think I at least see how the final calculation is derived: My shipping activity (i.e. mission scores) plus research scores, minus cumulative activity of all shipping other than mine.

(Across 9 months, I managed ~12,500 score from research and ~3,550 from missions, while alien shipping cost ~15,800, meaning I overall hardly score more than 0). Months with huge enemy activity give me few missions, and the contrapositive, which conspires to create a losing position. Much of the problem may be caused by foot traffic around my starting base, which I cannot engage from either Airbus nor Expedition.

This does not seem like an appropriate formula to apply to the Piratez gameplay, but whatever - changing regions' shipping activity in the save file is the cheat I'm looking for.

[desert]

FWIW here is a save file from near the end of the month. Note that it contains the cheat modification to the month's alien shipping for Australasia, my home region, by an order of magnitude.

[legionof1]

If there is sufficient "foot" traffic to cancel out the majority of players early score, it would make getting car thieves tech for an armed craft a major priority. Like sufficient to warrant an bootypedia warning entry. 

edit:Yeah im gona put the blame on tech tree issue. You ignored "call a meeting" which is the basis of all buying of items and basically locks you out of any portion of the tech tree that isn't directly linked to loot. Intentional error or not i would advise starting over. You will be forced to cheat alot to make up for 9 months of being crippled. Frankly i'm impressed you lasted 9 months.

[desert]

How is the "Use Drill" project done in Manufacturing? It allows me to allocate the task when the workshop is unoccupied, but not any workers.

[greattuna]

The task itself takes 30 workshop space. And yeah, I got dumb and fell for it too, so I have 32 days without extractor\still doing anything.

[desert]

So it's meant to be left alone without any workers?

[legionof1]

no you do need workers on the project. The 30 base space forces the player into expanding there intial workshop space to complete it.

[desert]

I believe you start with 30 workshop space - so it's required to build a new workshop structure for the Drill project?

As it is, I have the space and can start the project, but the add workers button does not add workers.

[legionof1]

I believe you start with 30 workshop space - so it's required to build a new workshop structure for the Drill project?

As it is, I have the space and can start the project, but the add workers button does not add workers.

Correct you need at least one more building providing workshop slots.

Don't know why adding runts wouldn't work.