Slitherine

I know v 0.22.3 changed a few things but here are a few comments on v 0.22.2

Artillery:
Much less powerfull, OK if you have a faction trait that give you a power bonus, otherwise it is weak and very weak if your faction has a power penalty.
This put back artillery in a support role, and their is more incentive to reserach the blue and gold artillery, to have a stronger support.

V 0.22.3 change seem better

AI:
The AI seems slighly better during combat. I noticed that the AI did use 'orbital bombardment', I think it is the first tile since I play the game that it happened.
However I'm not sure if the AI use the same rules as the player, In one case I was not sure how the AI could see my units. And in another case, I only realized I was bombarded aferward, because I didn't see any mention of the attack, and no faction was at war with me, either before or after the attack. When the player use 'orbital bombardement' he needs to be able to spot the enemy unit (possible with a 'scanning' operation, beforehe makes his attack, and you must be at war, and usually there is an enemy pop up, telling how evil you are to use WMD.

Diplomacy:
The AI don't offer to share map as easily, and as often, as before. It seems that the AI now ask for money before making pacts more often as before
However, there are still issues with the AI diplomacy. You can still make all agreement (reserach/trade/non-agression/map) immediately the first time you meet the faction. Sometime the AI will refuse any agreement, but even if the faction is friendly it should not make all agreements at once, because afterward the diplomacy with this faction is almost finished, and dull. It woul be bette rif agreemnts were made more progressively.

The pacts should be more binding, both for the player and the AI. In particular you should need one turn to move from 'Alliance' to 'Non-Agression', and another turn to move from 'Non- Agression' to 'War'. And maybe one turn for the other pacts as well.

It is very easy to demand a small tribute, and then declare a war.

Terra Salvum, and the Economic Consortium, offes to many gifts even if you don't ask for them.

Still, the way the AI opinions and adiplomatic actions feels a bit too random. For example if a AI declares war on you, if you reload the previous turn, the AI might not declare war anymore neither in the few next turns. In the end I'm not sure why a specific faction would attack, or why it would offer gifts. Overall it doesn't gives a feeling of rising or decreasing tension between the factions.

v 0.22.3
I noticed that you increased the penalty for the Divine Ascension, it's a good idea, as it was probably the single strongest faction.

Feedback for 0.22.3

* No enemy retaliation attribute now scales the damage by the opponent's health when attacking -- now including snipers.

At tbis way a sniper never can kill any unit. I think the same count for Artillery.
I think at last for sniper that is stupid.

At moment you allways get flanking bonus even when it isn't a unit from your or an allied fraction. I think you only should get the bonus when there is a unit from you or an allied fraction.

It's a silly thought for artillery not "killing" something, just a game mechanic that is nudged for balance.

I think artillery make more sense now, actually it does a lot of damage on enemy stacks, yet less damage in 1 vs 1 combat.
It is really usefull, and necessary, to weaken enemy units before attacking with your other troops, hence preserving your tanks and mechs from extra damages.

Artillery really needed to be tweaked, as in previous versions even a single low tech artillery, could wipe out 20 defenders at once, making all other combat units useless. Even your strongest tank or mech could only destroy one unit per turn.

Now there is a stronger incentive to research the 2nd level and 3rd level artillery tech, and to train your artillery as you do with other units. Those were useless before.
Artillery was such a game breaker previously especially with faction having an attack bonus.
However reducing its power by -75%, in 0.22.2, was probably too much, now at -50% it feels right.

I agree it is more balanced now. I was only commenting on how realism is distorted to balance game mechanics. Snipers DO kill in real life... Artillery DOES kill in real life. Snipers would have NO effect on a tank, "defensive walls" would provide no protection against well placed artillery.

All of that has to be set aside or be a secondary consideration in a sim game for the sake of balance.