I have also had the crashing to desktop issue. I entered a support ticket and included my save game file.

Game crashes when starting a game with 82 AI factions in game plus all minor factions.  Game starts fine playing with 80 AI factions.  If it's a limit of player issue there should be a hard cap preventing one from crossing the max number....  I created a ticket with the attached debug file, unfortunately no saved game as the game never started.

It is two (fairly minor) issues regarding the blueprint ship designs.  The first is that the huge carrier never appears because it is asking for a component type that no longer exists and that the augmented subtype-P ships (Frigate-P, Battleship-P etc) for some reason are never available.

Had a bit of a memory fail here.  I was disappointed because the campaign is only 1 mission due to remembering that we were told that it would have 6-8 missions.  However, in going back to look for the post on that I noticed we were already told this had been dropped and replaced by more or less a "new feature tutorial" mission.  I obviously read that as I posted my disappointed over this change in that thread. I'm still disappointed not to get a new, bigger, better campaign, but when I posted above it was mostly based on the incorrect expectation that we had been told there was going to be more.

I did notice that they Precursor planet spawn has been halved, which is good.  My preference would have been to set the number to a percentage of the habitable planets rather than a hard number as it can still unbalance the game on low planet maps, but games with 50%+ Precursor worlds should be less frequent on smaller/lower habitable planets maps now.

Finished the campaign about an hour ago or so.  Would have liked it to be two or three missions, since it is an expansion and not "just" a DLC, but oh well.  Not going to complain too hard.

As for the campaign, I liked it because it was a bit different than the other ones.  Mainly that one needs to hire mercenaries to really have a chance at winning.  Unless one is an uber-talented player, I suppose.  Or if one wants to grind out a non-merc victory "just because".  So for showing off the new mechanic of mercs, it's aces.  And it kinda felt good not to be the all powerful death fleet of the first campaigns (at least not at the beginning), nor the ever growing zombie tide of the Snathi one.

Also liked the little surprises I got in it.  No spoilers, but I'll just say that enjoyed the scenario triggers where I wasn't expecting them to appear.

The mercs themselves are interesting.  Liked the fact that there can be multiple bases on a map.  DO NOT like the fact that mercs spawn at the capital of a faction.  If only because I know it will be a PITA on larger maps.

I know, I know.  Vast majority of the player pool play on small sized maps, thus the mechanic will work just fine there.  Still am going to grumble a bit tho for those of us who play on larger maps.  ;)  If the spawn point for mercs could be modded one day and/or be a user setting (appear at homeworld/merc base/rally point), that'd be fantastic.  But I'm guessing that day won't come soon.

Finally, I liked that the mercs actually made me want to collect/stash money in the early and mid game.  My personal play style is to immediately pour all of my money I get into upgrades, trades and improvement rushes, when needed, and not bother trying to get large amounts of cash until I am into the late stages of the Age of War.  I know that many people are just tripping over money in the way they play the game, but for me it actually makes me want to store up a bit.  Perhaps even change my play style a bit so I have more money on hand during the mid-game.

So job well done on that score.

Overall, despite what minor grumbles I might have, I think it is a very good expansion.  Haven't even sunk my teeth into it by going into sandbox mode and letting it rip with both the Acreans and the Torians.  Should be fun. 

Torians are great. But ... i got free mercs that are transport, and invaded Thala succesfully, within less than 20 turns, that was too easy.

Perhaps Mercenary transport ships should be locked until you research Planetary Invasion.

Yeah that sounds like a balance issue.

Well, one of the major points about mercenaries is that you CAN buy things before you can research them.  

If possible, just make it so the initial random merc ship isn't the transport one. Problem solved. If not?  Eh, it shouldn't come up enough times for it to matter that much in the grand scheme of things.

The three tiers correspond to the three ages. So it makes sense to move the transport ship to the second tier where you can research Planetary invasion. Even if you haven't researched it (you could) you can still buy the ship. Then it's a more fair compromise. Otherwise what's stopping me from rushing to a bazaar buying a transport with my nice pile of cash I start with (and a few resources that you could easily get with the free pragmatic ideology constructors) and then invading any other race very early on...

I absolutely don't think Mercenaries should be something you unlock when you reach a certain level. It's like telling a univarsity student he can't get the fake diploma from that internet univarsity thingy until he's graduated from real life univarsity.

Maybe SD create a situation where while there might be plentiful bazaars, each bazaar caters to a different speciality? That would make Achronuous' 20 turn victory more a a matter of luck rather than "Oh, look a bazaar! Oh, look, a transport! All at the first bazaar I saw! COOOOLLL!"

They are already locked by Age, it would need just moving transports to the next tier.

I would never rush in a manner like that, I'm a peaceful one ;p (Perhaps I would make an exception for the Snathi though )

OK. but how is this any different from unlocking a colony ship that can terraform Tier One Extreme Worlds? It isn't, as far as I am concerned.  Yet what's the point of hiring a merc when one DOES have Planetary Invasion or Extreme World Colonization.  Or can reserch it in a matter of turns (since both are early in the Age of War tech trees).

No, that's what makes those mercs special in my eyes.  'sides, there's only the one of each type (as far as I know).  I don't think one transport or one tier one extreme colony ship is THAT OP. 

I definitely see your point. My only problem is that you can completely wipe out an enemy with a transport, but not with a colony ship.

Done. Ticket number #SQN-149-50630.

I'm having a hard time telling apart unexplored stars from the background under the fog of war when playing as the Torians. Change their color do a less darker shade of green would help.

It'd be nice to have the video for the Korx available in Custom Civ creation where the rest of the leader videos are.

Seconding this.  On my setup it was almost impossible for me to see the unexplored stars unless I was looking directly at them.  And even then it was hard to make out.

OK, how's this as a balance fix.  Up the resource requirement so it isn't easily obtainable in the very very early game, even if one does find the merc base very early.

Make it a spread of resources, perhaps, so people who get the free three constructors don't rush out to grab them.  Or make it four resources of mixed types. Make it so it is achievable in the early game but enough of a PITA that you can't discover Merc Base on turn three and rush a transport over there to wipe out an opponent.

Though, now that I think about it, how many opponents would only have one colony in any stage past turn 10, I couldn't really say.

Come to think of it, this does provide a bit of an incentive for those races that have so-called inferior planets in their home system.  For a long time the Power Gamer way was to ignore the low quality planet in your home system while hunting for a better one.

Well, now one would have to worry about someone sneak attacking you early in the game.  In a way, this calculation is something of a balance fix for those of us (and I'm very much one of them) who go hunting for great planets in the early game.  

Don't want to get potentially knocked out of the game on Turn Five?  Then colonize your backup world and suck it up.

A question here.

Many of these Merc ships seem to require resources. Can you hire and use them without the resource? I assume not, but have to ask.

Hah! And watch it culture flip the next turn

I think balance of resources seems to be the way forward.

1 Thulium

1 Antimatter

1 (or 2) Durantium

1 Elerium

do make a nice merc transport   

Sing it in any tune you like  

[Neilkaz, Yes you need the resources to hire them]

Quoting Achronous, reply 93

Hah! And watch it culture flip the next turn

In the extreme early game before one settles a second or third colony (which is the point of contention here), I don't think that would really be a consideration.

Still, if we do think this is really a problem then this (or something like it): 

I think balance of resources seems to be the way forward.

1 Thulium

1 Antimatter

1 (or 2) Durantium

1 Elerium

do make a nice merc transport   

Sing it in any tune you like

is the way to go IMO.  Even three different resources might be enough. 

====

Back to the debate about a single transport.  EVERY SINGLE MAJOR FACTION starts off with a colony ship.  How many cases will there really be where somone can knock off the colony ship before it settles somewhere and find the merc base and have the requirements to hire the transport and then knockout a homeworld?

That's a lot of ands. Not impossible, no.  But I don't think it is as easy as is being made out.  Yes, upping the resource requirement is a good idea on its own, IMO.  But I don't think this is a terrible exploit waiting to happen in most games.

Actually, now that I think about it, how IS the resource requirement for mercenaries handled?  Looking over the XMLs, I don't see an obvious definition there.

Credit cost?  Yes.  Resource requirement?  Not as much.

Which makes sense, I suppose, given that resources are tied to map settings.

Still, this might not be as obvious fix as I thought.  Unless the resource requirement is hardcoded somewhere and/or I'm just missing an obvious entry somewhere.

EDIT::::

Nebber mind. :p It's tied to the merecenary component that is part of the ship design, and not the ship design itself.  Was just looking in the wrong place.

So, yeah.  Can be changed.

I know I'm droning on and on about this, but the more I think about it, the less I am worried about it.

Currently, the cost for the single available mercenary transport is:

1200 credits

1 durantium

1 antimatter.

Finding the merc base.

Now antimatter is the rarest of all the resources, I believe.  I just don't think there will be all that many cases where someone will get knocked out before Turn 10 or 15 because of this.  Clearly, it can happen, as showed by someone mentioning it happened in their game.  But antimatter is already a strong limiting factor, IMO.  

No, it wouldn't hurt to also up it to Elerium and maybe one more Durantium, no.  Still, I'm not so sure this is as big of a problem as we might think it is.

Yes, it's on the ship component that's on the mercenary ship. You can see it in game when you examine the merc's ship components.

Well, I could if I was on my PC side of my Mac. ;p

But as I do all my XML editing on the Mac side of my computer (just far far easier for me), I couldn't easily check without booting into Windows and starting up a game. 

Thanks for the confirmation though.

Not all of them require resources.  You can't hire the other ones without the resources.

Thanks.  Found and fixed the problem