SleekDD

Reply to Newbie thoughts on Galciv (long) in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

Planetary invasions: I can understand why they wipe out everyone. It's not because you trash the standing army that you hold the planet. A substantial part of the population might go into a resistance, making planetary invasions a very tedious undertaking. Starting over with a clean slate (except for those peeps you bribed into joining you) by slaying everyone is an option, especially since the troops you used are turned into taxpayers again. Essentially, if they succeed, they get wha

Reply to I think I've played my last game... in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

We shouldn't lose track of what an AI is. It is, in essence, little more than a function (or group of functions) which the program tries to optimize. If something is not coded in the function, the AI can't take it into account. It can only see what it is told to look out for, it can only act in the way it is allowed to act and more often than not, it is not capable of learning. I believe it is this lack of learning capacity that will bring down any fair AI to its knees sooner or later

Reply to Bankruptcy in early game - Need a hand in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

I play with heavy economy bonusses so the problem isn't nearly as pronounced as it can be but here's what I try to do: - Build a few factories on your homeworld, try to get around 4 of them. These will build a Colony Ship in a few turns which is a lot cheaper than buying the ships themselves. This will save you a lot of money already. - Build a few economy buildings. The population on your homeworld is substantial. A decent presence of economy buildings will make a huge dif

Reply to Sometimes evil wins.. in GalCiv Journals Stardock Forums

I don't think the Altarians are up for chops just yet. They still have that odd familiarity with the Terrans to be revealed (unless it was revealed in GalCiv I). The Arceans, however, don't seem to be all that 'colourful'. They're an old, neutral empire that's been beaten and they don't strike me as flexible enough to rebuild their empire. My second guess would be the Korx mainly because their affinity to defection and love for cash seem to

Reply to Sometimes evil wins.. in GalCiv Journals GalCiv2 Forums

Looks promising. I believe that Blizzard's StarCraft, and to an extent WarCraft III has proven that gamers can easily handle games without a 'happy ending'. In fact, in the Frozen Throne expansion, you're actually striving to see (one of the) bad guys win in the end. I guess it all depends on the wrapping in which the game and story in presented. I, for one, am curious has the Terran will have evolved in that pocket universe and on Earth. I could imagine them gradually turning darker

Reply to Anyone notice the Arceans have poor social skills? in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

In this game, size matters. In this case, it is the size of your military. Regardless of your alignment, races will introduce themselves friendly, submissive or aggressive depending on your clout. I also have the impression your military strength is in many cases the deciding factor on whether they'll go to war except for a few cases such as good guys charging off at you because you're 'too evil'. (I wouldn't have been evil if I just got that pony I always wanted, but noo-oo.) <b

Reply to Why don't planets defect any more? in Bug Reports GalCiv2 Forums

I've suffered the same issues both with and without a Mind Control Center. As a matter of fact, I have never flipped a planet once I built the Mind Control Center. I've thought morale had something to do with it but even planets under 50% morale refused to turn. Sometimes, pushing the score higher than 4 helps but certainly not always. Ironically, the few times my planets are under threat of flipping, they never last a month in the danger zone. Not fair! (sniff) The drop in influence

Reply to Ideas for an Diplomatic expansion pack, or Gal Civ 3 in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

I'm not familiar with Earthbound so I don't know what they used as borders. Also, keep in mind that Birth of the Federation works with far fewer squares, leaving far less to worry about in terms of surface. StarTrek uses systems as units while GalCiv uses planets. This difference is bound to have effects on the game mechanics and options. The idea of being able to garrisson uninhabited planets sounds good but it might also provoke a scout-rush instead of a colony-rush. Instead of chur

Reply to The little things mean a lot in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

Incidentally, the best 4X game to date for me is Alpha Centauri and it had nothing to do with graphics. The only quarrel I have with that game is the painstaking micromanagement that goes into building a military and building your cities. This is what appeals to me in GalCiv: you only build the 'improvement' and they upgrade themselves and your military draw from the general treasury instead of th

Reply to Ideas for an Diplomatic expansion pack, or Gal Civ 3 in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

Quite a few suggestions. Although I'd favour seeing depth added to the game, I fear that most ideas will soon become a drag, rather than a help. Political borders: They're not really needed. We do need an option to 'warn' other empires when don't appreciate their presence near our planets since they can do the same with us, perhaps an option for an ultimatum could be added as well. Anyway, if a rival empire snatches a planet smack in the middle of your empire, it'll ha

Reply to Are defenses simply to expensive? in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

Imagine I want to invade your empire and gather all my military power to attack one of your cities. Against my 1.000.000 men you can gather just one 1000 from that city. We fight and I win but only 2000 soldiers on my side survive. Did I really win? My military is smashed and all I have to show for it is one city. In fact, it is likely you could retaliate and win the war in the end. A Pyrus victory is a victory that cost you so much to achieve that it could lose you the war in the end

Reply to Any chance for tactical combat? in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

Ironically, my main quarrel with space combat is the tame appearance of the whole. I was quite disturbed when I saw the mass driver ammo slither its way over to the target. I had expected tracers, flashy bits, streams of bullets and lots of noise. Nope, just one green blob. I don't feel comfortable giving players more options during battle. Sure, players might get tempted to test themselves

Reply to Any chance for tactical combat? in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

A real-time tactical combat system done right would be a game in its own right. Games such as Homeworld or Warcraft are all about that. Besides, I'm not sure adding this kind of add-on would suit the game. The moment you play games on larger maps, a single turn could suddenly start taking so much time you're disoriented or just plain bored. Adding certain tactical options is a more plausible extra but I'm not sure it would add that much to the game. StarTrek: Birth of the Federation u

Reply to Are defenses simply to expensive? in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

One cannot state that if one had won a game by using or not using defences this means that strategy is clearly superior. One can say the strategy is sufficient or, in the worst case, not too detrimental to your cause. I have used both balanced ships as all-out offence and both have suited me well. Will they both work with the new combat system? I'll have a boatload of digital crews ready to find out the hard way. What is certain is that battles will become far bloodier. Some believe t

Reply to Yet Another Combat Suggestion: Balancing Attack and Defence in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

I've been toying with the idea of giving each type of defence a certain effect, instead of using the mix-match style that's in use now. Shield would absord a percentage of the incoming damage. The damage it absord recovers slowly over time and when a generator falls down to zero points, it shuts down for the battle. Armour would increase the HP of the vessel at the expense of slot-space. Instead of mounting a powergrid for that cool laser, it gets layers with some extra titanium.

Reply to Seems Diplomacy and Influence are all you need in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

I found that in the earlier versions, influence and diplomacy worked well together and it was my preferred style of play. With the patches, the racial advantages in those areas (as well as some others) have been tempered a bit and now I find it next to impossible to put my focus there and come out on top. The main obstacle I find is that influence is considered a threat by the other empires and influence starbases spark irritation just like military starbases do. Most of the time, I'

Reply to Yet Another Combat Suggestion: Balancing Attack and Defence in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

I think the reliability of defense is a separate issue from simultaneous combat. True enough. This thread was more intended to advocate a different random variable to reduce the variability of battles. After all, many battles are settled in a few rounds, leaving the mean a nice statistical but ultimately hypothetical method of thinking. <

Reply to Yet Another Combat Suggestion: Balancing Attack and Defence in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

It is true that vessels with less room for equipment could begin to suffer when variance becomes limited. After all, the lucky shot they're depending on is removed for the most part. Large ships will become more predictable by stacking on more and more, leaving the little guys unable to scratch them. This is taking reliability to the extreme and will be just as 'game-breaking'. Balancing the system would require some thought and probably a lot of testing. Increasing the HP works but d

Reply to Exploring effects of simultaneous combat in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

I can access the forum again! Yay me! And woe to those who have to read my posts. The second experiment as well as your last one seem to back up my doubts about the use of defences: as HP decreases compared to the potence of the equipment, fluke rolls become more important and attack profits from this. There also seems to be some kind of critical cut-off point where a ship becomes virtually

Reply to Exploring effects of simultaneous combat in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

Sorry-sorry-sorry! You posted the results I was asking for before I even pressed the submit-button. Damn, you're fast! I'm not able to edit my post so I have to double-post sadly. But it seems to show that offensive systems have a certain edge over balanced ships which was what I feared although I would've drawn it to more of an extreme, your setup already depicts this.

Reply to Exploring effects of simultaneous combat in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

A very informative post and with some interesting conclusions to boot. I was a little surprised to see that defence actually gets better with simultaneous firing (after all, if you're guaranteed a shot, survival is less important). It would also mean I was dead wrong on my assumption then. Oh well, it's not the first time that happened to me (and I still believe a normal distribution would

Reply to Yet Another Combat Suggestion: Balancing Attack and Defence in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

The basic idea of a parting shot is to allow ships that have been destroyed to return fire one time before being destroyed. Now, I agree this will reduce the effect of the first strike but it will worsen the balance on off/def. The reason I believe this will happen is based on the MAD-principle. MAD stands for Mutually Assured Destruction. So, what happens with the new combat is that you are essentially guaranteed a return shot, whether your defences worked or not. This means the

Reply to Influence Questions in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

1) No idea. I think the planet can fall but I read on the forum that the defection rate is also dependent on the morale score of your target. Others say that trading with your target also helps a great deal to flip the planet. Remember that some races are loyal by nature and are harder to convert (although a 40-1 ratio is pretty stiff). Perhaps there's a Secret Police Centre or whatever it is called that prevents a planet to be conquered culturally. 2) Influence Starbases only affect

Yet Another Combat Suggestion: Balancing Attack and Defence in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

Hey guys, This is my first post, be nice. I've read quite a few suggestions to tweak combat, adding options or changing the rules and I decided I'd spam the forum with my own little idea. The objective of the post would be to suggest a change in the balance to improve the use of defence. So, what wrong with the balance? Well, as I played the game and read posts on the forum, there seems to be