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Yet more henchmen abuse in Fallen Enchantress Elemental Forums

I've just managed to play a whole game without building any other units, any research buildings or any gildar generating buildings (and avoided having to research the associated techs). Just mass produce henchmen and level them up as governors and the unrest bonuses, 3 gildar and 3 research is enough to keep your army of henchmen going. I quite liked having scholars who leveled up lore, and administrators who leveled admin and merchants who brought in more coin, but

Reply to an imperfect solution to two problems. in Fallen Enchantress Elemental Forums

I like it. It would be difficult not to be exploitable, but in my view that is not necessarily a bad thing. In GalCiv II you could create fragile units which carried great stuff early in the game. One hit and they were dust, but on occasion they were a fun solution to face some problems.

Reply to Should Lightning Hammers be changed? I think so. in Fallen Enchantress Elemental Forums

Any item which is available so early and makes everything that comes after obsolete is bad design. If this was at the top of the magic tree it would still be worth punting for but so early in the game it just makes all other weapons + magic weapon techs irrelevant. It either needs moving, nerfing or having later weapons that are even better. [e digicons]8C[/e]

Reply to [1.12] AI still very broke in Fallen Enchantress Elemental Forums

It might be interesting to build a list of "thoughts" we are having as players so that whoever is looking into the AI can check off whether the AI considers this.As a second step building lists of actions which achieve objectives would flesh out the AI's behaviors. Without having an outline of what the AI looks like I can't begin to see whether it has a poor model of how to win the game, is just not considering things, whether it is poorly prioritizing options or poorly implem

Reply to [1.12] AI still very broke in Fallen Enchantress Elemental Forums

I agree with everything you say Kongdej. I keep bumping up the difficulty in the hope that something interesting might happen but all that does is that the AI gets better at churning out troops which should overwhelm you with their quality and numbers. However, it then implements attacks so poorly that you have half a chance of keeping going long enough to actually win. Having ridiculous bonuses does not equate to good AI. Given that chess is a game where the compu

Reply to So much potential........ feedback thread in Fallen Enchantress Elemental Forums

dihir I agree, there are other viable strategies, I just rattled off some ideas and by no means did I mean to make it an exhaustive list. It would be nice if some factions had alternate plans, but a single plan would be a huge step forward. It would be nice if it was apparent how each faction was playing to win. (Economic long game, rush military, spell of making, quest, accumulated military might, overwhelming magic). Right now it appears that they are playing a game without an

Reply to So much potential........ feedback thread in Fallen Enchantress Elemental Forums

Firstly I'd just like to say that the gaming experience is much better than E:WoM. It is actually a pleasure to play. There are various ways to progress to win and that always makes a game enjoyable & replayable. However it is currently hamstrung by the AI. The AI problems/concepts are not that dissimilar to GalCiv so it really has had a long time to evolve, but yet hasn't. The factions should be more tuned to their strengths rather than all appearing q

Reply to Flavoring a Civ with critical choices in Ideas Stardock Forums

Surely the USA is a good example of an evil democracy Choice of 2 equally evil parties. Both bent on the destruction of the environment and domination of the rest of the planet.

Reply to Alexians? Kwilasians? in Game Talk Stardock Forums

play gigantic, everything abundent with one other opponent and you generally get a full complement of minors.

Reply to Fall from grace . in AARs Stardock Forums

It was the last game I played... I posted the full story in game talk forum cos no one ever seems to post on here.

Reply to Delete in Trade Stardock Forums

Trade is not worth the effort IMHO... I've tried, I really have, to make more than 10,000 per turn. I've had 100M planet in one corner maxed out distance to the opposite corner of the map, used all my bonuses etc on trade enhancers and routes, built starports boosting trade everywhere. It takes too long, uses too many resources, is too fragile in times of war etc... I can build a galaxy that has 40,000 bc income without any trade so why would I go anywhere near it. Those early

Reply to Re-Balance Mod available in Modding Stardock Forums

Certainly it is a task that needs doing. I would prefer Stardock to be the ones doing it though... Why they fix the complex bugs but not the simple xml is a mystery to me.

Reply to Reducing Luck in Ship Combat in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

@Infoceptor There have been lots of discussions on this, but you've sort of come to the same conclusion as those threads did. Pre 1.2 first strike was everything, and defence was inferior because everything was geared to killing the enemy before they got a shot off. Then they changed the combat to always return fire. People said Defence would benefit, actually logistics was the thing to benefit... I could type the math but I'm not sure how many people would read,

Reply to Five gameplay balance tweaks I'd like to see added in expansion... in Game Talk Stardock Forums

As a regular evil-doer its always beams first and the rest a long way behind... You can play most games with just psi beams... it certainly frees your research up for a long while. Which together with the mind control centre is just way to powerful to turn down. But I agree with the OP esp about planetarty def... so much dev effort has gone into something so useless. Id also liek to see something to boost the hp of starbases... Right now they just can't stand up to a bashing.

Reply to My very own Game Play Example in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

Has this thread really lain dormant for 3 months? Good read... I don't create colony ships about one game in 3. It is fun not having to colony rush. Gives you time to attack while others go through the motions.

Reply to screen shots of 2 moons in the game! in Bug Reports Stardock Forums

Master U I was wondering how you kept all those people happy on your MV games... But planets with 1000% moral will work... Just come clean now, you're not being honest are you?

Reply to The starting placement of civilizations is very anoying in Game Talk Stardock Forums

@uglycow... Ever thought of researching planetary invasion really early and taking the homeworlds of those around you. If you can take a homeworld the AI has usually so few tax payers on their other colonized planets that they cannot recover. Then it is just a matter of building transports rather than colony ships and all the best planets can be yours (together with a few enhancements prebuilt). Seriously in a corner is my fav starting position, but my strategy is war,

Reply to Showld I give up techs to ally? in Game Talk Stardock Forums

As an aside - I always give away planetary improvements especially soil enhancement etc. to anyone I'm going to invade soon. Has two effects 1) stops them building useful stuff and 2) I get a higher PQ planet to take over.

Reply to Showld I give up techs to ally? in Game Talk Stardock Forums

If you are winning it doesn't matter... If you are losing against a common foe then then give them away. That way as a group you'll research much quicker. At present your allies are prob researching something you have. If they have the same techs as you then they will research something you haven't got. At least it works that way in the campaign... I personally only use alliances to "take people out of the equation" while I kill someone else <img src="http://images.stardock.com/sd_com/smiles/

Reply to game settings for ai to play well in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

The ai is ok, but could be better. The campaign seems to have really strange AI and is either v difficult or v simple, depending on the version, a bit of luck and what day it is. The difficulty setting don't really work on the campaign at all. What version are you running? The later versions have much better AI. For a typical (winable) game try crippling, medium sized galaxy, everything abundent with no tech trading, 4-5 opponents (include the drengin, yor and torians as the

Reply to Fall from grace (Full Story) in Game Talk Stardock Forums

I know AAR’s are about the story, but I thought some maybe interested in my analysis of this particular game. I’d chose the Altarian’s because generally they are hopeless and I’d been meaning to give trade another go (something which I find equally useless). I was going to try to colonise, trade, ally with the other non-evil races, get a stable Universe and then push for gaining planets by flipping them with influence. This pre-game plan went out the window as soon as I saw the star

Reply to Fall from grace (Full Story) in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

ta everyone

Fall from grace (Full Story) in Game Talk Stardock Forums

Fall from grace a gameplay example (Originally posted in parts on the AAR forum - posted here for wider reading) (Large Map – everything abundant - Masochistic – no Ctl +N – no tech trading). This is the story of how the Altarians conquered the galaxy but lost their soul. Part 1 – The Crossroads of Fate. The election had been a landslide, our Popularist policies of free love and understanding (which we knew would boost our population and morale beyond

Reply to What's up with Ship Hitpoints? in Game Talk Stardock Forums

@V1m... something I've never looked at is whether anything other than HPs go up with experience. Do you know?

Reply to Fall from grace . in AARs Stardock Forums

Part 5 – An unexpected turn I’ve never met a Terran, and since they are all dead now I guess I never will. I’d like to think we were similar to us so that some of their sacrifice would be carried forward. However their role was pivotal to our history. The Drengin were not really pressed by our feeble attempts at resistance. So much so that they declared war on the Terrans just as our Empire lay helpless before them. The transports stopped coming. We can only guess they w