Where is the "story"????

By the way, I couldnt form any alliances until I had gotten every single tech in the game. Is this a bug or did I just miss something hehe



As a side note... Im a civ1, 2, 3 and MoO2 vet yet this game took me so long to understand and get a feel for. I didnt feel like playing at all but I forced myself to keep playing until I understood it. I dont regret it at all now, its awesome :P)

Sub-normal provides no real challenge. Try a few levels up. I wouldn't randomize the alignments either, since 'the story' comes in seeing how civ of varying alliances work together to dominate the galaxy.

For example, 3 Evils going against 3 Good (you being one of the good or evil) would spark some very interesting back-and-forths. That's where the story is, so consider playing your next game with a similar alignment setup.

Trust me, the AI really does 'fight for its colors' so to speak!

You can only offer an alliance if you A) have the tech they have the tech and C) if you are in "Close" relationship to each other.

Not showing the alliance option until the relationship is 'Close' is, in my opinion, poor design as I, too, thought the alliance tech was buggy until I asked here what the deal was...

Thanks

The Torians were close in the end and I thought it was because they were mad, I thought "close" was meant to be worth less than "friendly" which they were through all the game. DOnt ask why I didnt get it

I used subnormal since I didnt understand the game well, ill try a harder level next time

Theres also lots of good story bits with the random events. I just had a cool one that kept me from winning the game. Some crazy cultists went off seeking an ancient artifact. I kept getting a string of notices that they were getting closer to finding it...when they did they unleased an ancient evil...The Dread Lords with their 38 Attack 300 HP ships then proceeded to pretty much kill everything they encountered.

I restarted to try and figure out how I could have stopped this, and apparently in this case the key was to up my Espionage efforts (couldn't tell if it was race specific Espionage, or just against anyone). Then the notices changed to me pursueing and capturing the cultists in time to stop them.

Pretty Cool stuff, although I wish there was a hint in the text (maybe there was and I missed it) as to what possible responses could be.

Very interesting Valamir.

I believe there is a lot of back story floating around in Brads head and notes spread about his work areas. But every time he had a good idea he found it better to implement them into an event etc. Still I feel a deeper back story for the human race should be provided. Perhaps covering the many evil vs good influences of Earth leading up to the Hyperdirve development. Hints of things to come like surviver individual traders, mercs, explorers that end up stranded on Earth after scraps with Space worms or what have you. Curiosities of the munan people pondering what should be made of these other species travelers. Fear, research, religeous theories. A fleshed out back story was promiced as a one of the reasons for not persueing multi-player. I don't really see it true back story either. It would add to the emotional involvement in winning. All in all, I think Stardock has done a bang up job. But if they could just sqweese out one clone of Brad, they should lock him in a room so he could unify his thoughts into said back story.

~SDC~

So the whole story that we're restricted to playing one race for is just random events and watching normal alliances? Surely this isn't right. If you're going to restrict people with the goal of creating a better story why do it just with random events? From what I gather only a few affect you on a wide level, otherwise they're as noteworthy as building X ship at Y planet. But they said the game is going to be improved, maybe playing other races can be part of it?

I thought the reason for restricting us to human only was for the story line, but I have to admit I have noticed the lack of story myself. All the random events I have seen would be the same regardless of whether I played human or another species.

I think the Alliance tech works as it should. The problem is there is no in-game explanation of why the Alliance option is not available. It would be better to have the Alliance option show up in diplomacy as soon as it's researched. But when you try to offer it to a civ that doesn't have it or is not close to you, a message would explain the problem.

I think you should try playing a few games. It'll become more clear I suspect.

~SDC~

Given that:
1) all civs have access to the same set of modifiers...to my knowledge anyway there are no abilities that are unique to Drengin for instance.
2) you can customize the modifiers for Terra to whatever combination you want...including being exactly like the Drengin.
3) you can rename your empire (and emperor) to anything you want (including calling yourself Klingons if you feel like it)
4) you can rename you planets and space ships to anything you want.

What exactly is the purpose of playing another race?

This isn't MoO where playing the Darloks gives a vastly different game than playing the Psions. In this game you can customize the "humans" to be Darlok-like, or Psilon-like or however you choose.

What's missing? A silly little alien picture of yourself that you'd hardly ever see anyway?

Do both sides really need the Alliance tech? Because there have been times in my games when the Altarians and Torians have been allied according to the Treaties screen, but I could still sell the Alliance tech to one of them...

J

Ive seen this too, like right off teh bat the torians and the altarians are buddy-buddy, alliance style. I know for sure they didnt have alliance tech yet. Whats that all about?

~SDC~