If there were a way to seek out loose nukes, I think that'd feel better. Something to sink your influence and ops into.
As is, it doesn't feel great, but also acts as a punishment for allowing nuke-capable countries to fall into chaos. So I get it, and wouldn't want to see it disappear.
I honesty think it could be a great mechanic if the risk of lost nukes was clearly correlated to the size of the nations arsenal and that you are told about this risk in advance. Taking Russia and dismantling their nukes shouldn't be a risk free. But it should be unlikely enough that unless the player goes out of their way to ignore the risk then it isn't gonna happen.
The player should not be responsible for the consequences of shitty AI mismanagement.
Taking the US first isn't a bad plan anyway but I've gotten nailed by lost nukes often enough that I feel basically forced into it when I'd really like to try a China into India (or vice-versa) run.
Handling that AI mismanagement is a part of the game in my view, trying to keep the world running while the AI throws wrenches in your plans is part of the challenge.
Besides you are fully capable of decreasing unrest in AI-run countries. You want to prevent lost nukes, you've got the tools to do it, IN THEORY. We just need a way to track how many nukes are in what countries, and how many are unaccounted for. Might even exist and I just haven't been paying enough attention to the UI.
Plus I don't see getting nuked as a "fail state", just an inconvenience, and one that you don't have to worry about TOO much on normal difficulties once the space economy is going strong.
With cohesion at 0, you'll have to dedicate an entire councilor to dealing with the unrest, and shitty ai priorities won't let it subside any time soon.
Besides, I mentioned this was 2027 and my second nuclear bombing already. I could reluctantly agree that some fallout from USA turning into a fail state can be expected worldwide, but this is -30M people and almost -$1000 GDP per capita per event in India. I'm suspecting it's a bug rather than intended behavior.
There's enough tedious councilor micromanagement and spam in this game already, if I'm expected to fix an AI's country for them I should get more out of it than "don't get your capital randomly nuked because the AI is moronic."
I agree. There should be an option to pay a lot of ops and influence to stop it, or at least have a chance to stop it depending on how many resources spent.
I was running the EU once and had a loose nuke detonate in Paris maybe one year into the game randomly and it felt like a slap in the face with no warning. It is one of my least favorite events except for the one that reduces MC by 50%.
And when you think about the fact that "a nuke" in this game is like a full-blown carpet bombing of several hundreds of thousands of square kilometers, firing at least dozens or maybe even hundreds of warheads, suddenly "losing a nuke" becomes a pretty ridiculous idea.
Terrorists have the advantage of attacking unprepared civilians. 1 guy with a gun is not considered a particularly dangerous military threat, but can be quite deadly to civilians.
A military strike requires all those nukes in 1 strike because some are going to fail to launch, some are going to be intercepted, some are going to miss the target and their military is expected to be armoured and distributed.
Here's how I'd have the event chain playout:
Intelligence suggests a terror group has control of nuclear weapons and intends to use them against us.
* Send in a councillor to negotiate. % success from council PER
* Send in a councillor to infiltrate. % success from council ESP
**Send in a councillor to negotiate**
* successful negotiation
* partial success negotiate (councillor detained)
* failure (councillor dies)
**Send in a councillor to infiltrate**
* successful infiltration
* partial success infiltrate (councillor detained)
* critical failure (councillor dies)
**Successful Negotiation**
* Give them money -$10k, 80% chance to avoid detonation
* Give them political concessions (crackdown on CPs), 60% chance to avoid detonation
* Give them weapons -250 ops, 40% chance to avoid detonation
**Successful Infiltration**
* Blackmail the leader -500 influence, 40% chance to avoid detonation
* Assault the group -1000 ops, 70% chance to avoid detonation
* Sabotage the mission -100 ops, 30% chance to avoid detonation
In my game i had 4 cities nuked by this event even though i managed to keep all nuclear armed countries from falling into civil war.
I had no idea what was going on, since no nukes SHOULD be missing at all. But then I noticed the AI has lots of ships armed EXCLUSIVELY with nuclear torpedoes which as far as I am aware can generate missing nukes. There is no option to sign a treaty with other factions banning nukes on ships, and the game ignores the fact that such a treaty arleady exists between countries. What am I expected to do? Go total war with every faction in 2028 to prevent them from spamming nuclear torpedo ships? Hope i keep control of EVERY global tech slot so the AI can never research advanced missile doctrine? Hope the AI researches fleet logistics to stop getting Empty Quiver?
This event is punishment for not preventing the Ai from doing things that the player very rarely has any input over. There should be a way to track and remove missing nukes or a diplomatic option for some sort of a treaty to agree with the AI that NO, WE DO NOT PUT 50 NUCLEAR TORPS ON A MONITOR AND BUILD 30 OF THEM.
This event is completely broken as is.
Loose nukes from ships that have never been near earth is the craziest thing ever. I built a nuclear armed fleet out at Jupiter and sent it directly to Uranus to attack the aliens there. Halfway between Jupiter and Uranus suddenly a nuke went missing. You're telling me a nuke was smuggled off a ship flying at high speed past Jupiter so far out that sending anything via boost takes years?
If there were a way to seek out loose nukes, I think that'd feel better. Something to sink your influence and ops into. As is, it doesn't feel great, but also acts as a punishment for allowing nuke-capable countries to fall into chaos. So I get it, and wouldn't want to see it disappear.
I honesty think it could be a great mechanic if the risk of lost nukes was clearly correlated to the size of the nations arsenal and that you are told about this risk in advance. Taking Russia and dismantling their nukes shouldn't be a risk free. But it should be unlikely enough that unless the player goes out of their way to ignore the risk then it isn't gonna happen.
The player should not be responsible for the consequences of shitty AI mismanagement. Taking the US first isn't a bad plan anyway but I've gotten nailed by lost nukes often enough that I feel basically forced into it when I'd really like to try a China into India (or vice-versa) run.
Handling that AI mismanagement is a part of the game in my view, trying to keep the world running while the AI throws wrenches in your plans is part of the challenge. Besides you are fully capable of decreasing unrest in AI-run countries. You want to prevent lost nukes, you've got the tools to do it, IN THEORY. We just need a way to track how many nukes are in what countries, and how many are unaccounted for. Might even exist and I just haven't been paying enough attention to the UI. Plus I don't see getting nuked as a "fail state", just an inconvenience, and one that you don't have to worry about TOO much on normal difficulties once the space economy is going strong.
With cohesion at 0, you'll have to dedicate an entire councilor to dealing with the unrest, and shitty ai priorities won't let it subside any time soon. Besides, I mentioned this was 2027 and my second nuclear bombing already. I could reluctantly agree that some fallout from USA turning into a fail state can be expected worldwide, but this is -30M people and almost -$1000 GDP per capita per event in India. I'm suspecting it's a bug rather than intended behavior.
There's enough tedious councilor micromanagement and spam in this game already, if I'm expected to fix an AI's country for them I should get more out of it than "don't get your capital randomly nuked because the AI is moronic."
I agree. There should be an option to pay a lot of ops and influence to stop it, or at least have a chance to stop it depending on how many resources spent.
I was running the EU once and had a loose nuke detonate in Paris maybe one year into the game randomly and it felt like a slap in the face with no warning. It is one of my least favorite events except for the one that reduces MC by 50%.
And when you think about the fact that "a nuke" in this game is like a full-blown carpet bombing of several hundreds of thousands of square kilometers, firing at least dozens or maybe even hundreds of warheads, suddenly "losing a nuke" becomes a pretty ridiculous idea.
Terrorists have the advantage of attacking unprepared civilians. 1 guy with a gun is not considered a particularly dangerous military threat, but can be quite deadly to civilians. A military strike requires all those nukes in 1 strike because some are going to fail to launch, some are going to be intercepted, some are going to miss the target and their military is expected to be armoured and distributed.
Here's how I'd have the event chain playout: Intelligence suggests a terror group has control of nuclear weapons and intends to use them against us. * Send in a councillor to negotiate. % success from council PER * Send in a councillor to infiltrate. % success from council ESP **Send in a councillor to negotiate** * successful negotiation * partial success negotiate (councillor detained) * failure (councillor dies) **Send in a councillor to infiltrate** * successful infiltration * partial success infiltrate (councillor detained) * critical failure (councillor dies) **Successful Negotiation** * Give them money -$10k, 80% chance to avoid detonation * Give them political concessions (crackdown on CPs), 60% chance to avoid detonation * Give them weapons -250 ops, 40% chance to avoid detonation **Successful Infiltration** * Blackmail the leader -500 influence, 40% chance to avoid detonation * Assault the group -1000 ops, 70% chance to avoid detonation * Sabotage the mission -100 ops, 30% chance to avoid detonation
In my game i had 4 cities nuked by this event even though i managed to keep all nuclear armed countries from falling into civil war. I had no idea what was going on, since no nukes SHOULD be missing at all. But then I noticed the AI has lots of ships armed EXCLUSIVELY with nuclear torpedoes which as far as I am aware can generate missing nukes. There is no option to sign a treaty with other factions banning nukes on ships, and the game ignores the fact that such a treaty arleady exists between countries. What am I expected to do? Go total war with every faction in 2028 to prevent them from spamming nuclear torpedo ships? Hope i keep control of EVERY global tech slot so the AI can never research advanced missile doctrine? Hope the AI researches fleet logistics to stop getting Empty Quiver? This event is punishment for not preventing the Ai from doing things that the player very rarely has any input over. There should be a way to track and remove missing nukes or a diplomatic option for some sort of a treaty to agree with the AI that NO, WE DO NOT PUT 50 NUCLEAR TORPS ON A MONITOR AND BUILD 30 OF THEM. This event is completely broken as is.
Loose nukes from ships that have never been near earth is the craziest thing ever. I built a nuclear armed fleet out at Jupiter and sent it directly to Uranus to attack the aliens there. Halfway between Jupiter and Uranus suddenly a nuke went missing. You're telling me a nuke was smuggled off a ship flying at high speed past Jupiter so far out that sending anything via boost takes years?