See, no such thing as bad press! Any gamer worth his or her salt will look at the review and conclude: "So, this reviewer got his butt kicked and wants to make up excuses for it. Cool! I gotta play this game!" That, at least, was one posted reaction I saw...
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Oh, and the report from your agent chould be all on one window so you can answer to all civs at once: CivA Offer X --click yes/no- or offer Y -- click yes/no Civ B.. Civ C.. Civ D.. Civ E.. Otherwise, cycling through and answering for each civ independently would itself become tedious. Oh, and a default of 'automatically accept lump paymet / installment offers' with then a simply summary report of what you got would even further stre
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Hmm, the tech auction is a neat idea. I also find shopping around the same tech tedious, though each civ does value techs differently. Perhaps you could have an agent (perhaps unlocked after the discovery of a certain tech?) that would go and 'negotiate' with each civ for you? I only suggest this because clearly the amount that the civs will accept is already set ... it's not as if your actually running the negotiations changes anything. So: Turn A -- clic
Ahh, I that it said 'colony ships'. Scratch that. Instead: Show me a comp. that puts out 6 contructors in 20 turns. If it has a good econ., it's doing it through maxiumum use of sliders and trades.
"Put out 6 contsturctors within the first 20 turns of the game and tell me you have any viable economy" I do it in most every game I play on a small map. Learn to play the game, guy, then come back and talk trash.
I would still like the option through research to add more modules, but the tech to add more modules should operate on the same pacing as the tech to add trade routes -- doable if it's your concerted strategy but not something you simply walk into. :)
Prove the cheats and then start laughing. ;)
ith: That's a nice compromise. You could go ahead and have duplicate builds just in case you lose a starbase in battle, etc. If we really want to have starbases add up their influence, another way to look at it might be ith's idea plus tech upgrades that allow you to have more modules count. Similar to tech that allow you to add more trades routes. ;) At least then you'd have to prioritize your research...
"Building SBs along trade routes and loading them with trade mods is a good way to make a buck. But playing in large or huge galaxies, very often the trade routes span across empty sectors - no systems, no resources = worthless sector. Being able to send an SB to an empty sector keeps that sector from being useless." On this point --which is a good one-- I'd rather see the bonus be some calcuation based on the distance traveled and the starbase multipliers at the *starting* and *ending*
TLA-Russian: Great! Well maybe we can keep this issue alive in a positive way until Brad has given the final word? I like your ideas, though I guess I'm less optimistic about how much more Brad can squeeze out of the AI. So... "a) AI was taught how to use SB effectively." Yep, and that should be a goal for Brad over the coming months. But by limiting the starbase creation to only certain points in space, I think his job would be easier. "b) AI unde
3 Suggestions here, easiest to hardest: 1) Change the Colony ship graphic and name to Colony Fleet. This way no more arguments that one colony ship couldn't possible hold all those people. :) 2) Allow us to know, say 2 years ahead of time, what the UP vote issue will be. This way we can prioritize getting influence for trades instead of money. The AI should do the same if it's an important issue. 3) Starbases: Avoiding the no-brainer 'Infinite Constructor Sleaze
I think the concept would have more strategy to it if you new, say 2 years in advance, what the next UP vote would entail! That way, if it's a super important issue, you could eschew money for more influence (the AI would do the same, I hope). As it stands now, since you don't know what the issue will be in time enough to do anything about it, there's not much rhyme or reason to getting influence before money.
Infinite Constructor Syndrom = ICS. Nice! "Crawler avalanche of SMAC" Ah, yes, a much more similar problem. There is always the argument: "Well, just don't play the game that way." I understand this to a degree, but that is the same argument used against tech whoring. Thankfully the tech loopholes have been given a good look at. I hope that the starbase issue will as well. Starbases are a GREAT addition to the game! But as with ICS in Civ or the crawler avalanche in
So I guess most people are happy with starbases as they are? Reminds me of ICS (Infinite City Slease) in Civ., but perhaps that's just me. :)
Excellent! Between Battlestar Galactica and a new morale choice, we've put the fun back in the game! ;)
I always just imagine the pop. is completely dessicated and on the other side a little robot dunks the little dust specks in water. Poof! Instant colonies! Honestly, the suspension of disbelief is sometimes called for. Don't imagine it's one ship, for instance. Imagine it's a huge whole convoy plodding through space...
My guess here is that the AI wouldn't be able to handle these stacks. If this were in MP, I'd push for changes. Personally, I want the AI to have a good chance of beating me, and stacks probably would just roll over the AI to easily.
On the topic of suicide mission to weaken enemy ships: Isn't that what the anti-matter missile was made for! ;)
I think one of the issues, though, as posted in other threads is that the enemy AI isn't targetting key starbases tucked away in your sector. This way they'd be almost certain to attack them (I think). I'm not sure if Brad could program the AI otherwise, unless it's rather easy to program it to explicitly go on starbase hunts? Still, I find the ability to over-produce these things in any old space on the map not so strategic. Limiting them this way would, I hope, give you mor
Brad: Once this gets working, this will really make life much easier. You've had more than my voice weigh in on this, but your fix is something I whined about from very early on. You, sir, are awesome. :CONGRAT:
Right, or even an outpost sattelite. A cheap, cheap unit that comes from the start of the game and only serves to extend your range.
Perhaps, then, a special unit planted for the express purpose of extending your range?
[Sorry if this has been suggested already, but there is no search function on this forum.] With the exception of resources, allow for the creation of starbases *ONLY* in the orbit of a colonized system. BENEFITS: 1) Capturing resources would have much greater strategic value; 2) You'd be limited in the number of starbases you could build, which would help limit the 'effects of scale' currently somewhat easily done by building bases ad-naseum; 3) The A
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I don't think it was '8 turns' but 8 game years. Anyway, people who are worth their salt in the strategy game buying public will look at his review for what it is: Complete tripe. Brad: The fans are doing the talking for you now, trust me: I've already turned have a dozen people off the fence to buy this game! Please don't waste another breath on a useless review(er).
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Brad: As I wrote over there, all it takes is a few minutes of reflection to ask: "Now, if the AI isn't cheating, how can it possibly get so many colony ships so fast?" Duh!!! Leases. Etc. Your AI is astouding. Let this pathetic review fall to the wayside. As they say in advertising: There's no such thing as bad press. The fact is, you made them admit they were wrong. Their double talk after the fact is egg on their faces alone. P.S. Looking fo