Unusual Event

Binksy

Join Date 05/2007

Unusual Event

Ultimate Pirate Attack

Unfortunately I don't have a savegame of this but I was recently playing a game, Small galaxy, me and the two other races. We were all plodding along, the AIs were at war and I was very near having 75% influence (I actually got it at one point, but before the victory condition timer thingy could start one of my stations was destroyed). I left Events on because I usually enjoy them, one of my favorite is (coincidentally) pirate attacks, because I keep my military at a level where I can't sustain a full blown war for long but can hold off any attackers.

In this case each of my planets had 3 ships with 2 attack and 1 defense apiece (mass drivers and armor). All of my stations had the barracks and 7 attack laser upgrades, so they were at 8 attack, no defense. The most powerful AI fleet I ever saw (and I was between the two fighters, so I saw most of them) had 8 attack and 2 defense.

All of the sudden an event happens, Pirates all over the galaxy, I just go on with the game, expecting them to be the standard weak pirates and for my defenses to hold. One fleet of 3 pirate ships attacks one of my stations...and destroys it, surviving. This left me a little unhappy, especially since the enemy destroyed a station I had stationed units at without attacking the units, so I went to take a look at their stats. 55 attack, and 6 defense. There were about 10-15 pirate fleets with between 30 and 60 attack running around a galaxy where the strongest non-pirate ship had <10 attack. The game was pretty much over at that point, while the pirates couldn't conquer planets they did destroy all of my stations (knocking me down from 75% influence to 51%) and then proceed to camp all the planets, stopping any and all ships (there were less than 15 planets in the entire game, I like small games). It became a simple game of who could research their way to victory or to being able to beat the pirates, and that wasn't the game I wanted to play (I wanted a Terror Star and influence victory, research victories are too boring for my tastes).

Is this expected behavior? I would imagine that pirate attacks should be scaled to the current state of the galaxy. Considering my fleet was 30-50 ships with 2 attack, and I had the best military rating (200 points), having even one fleet with >50 attack spawn would seem to be an event in and of itself, 10 of them is just absurd. Besides that strange, and extremely annoying occurrence, however, the game was quite enjoyable. I'm just worried that the next time I see pirates attacking I'll have to quit the game because it'll be over.

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Thanks for clearing up luck for me. That makes it a lot more worthwhile. A few of the really vague bonus descriptions could use some rewriting.

Also, when you refer to hidden stats, are you saying that if I have, for example, a 10 attack ship, with a 30% bonus, I will see 13, but the AI will only see 10, and vice versa?

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kryo

Join Date 05/2003

+458

This was luck. (the ability) Luck increases the chance that an opponent will roll a 0 on their attack, and give no damage at all. A 50% boost there could easily be responsible for that result. You evidently didn't choose that ability, so your opponent will almost always do at least 1 damage.

Where did you hear that?

Luck's primary function is to increase the minimum attack rolls of the person with the luck. That is, the minimum roll on all of your attacks (on a per-weapon basis) will be your luck percentage * the weapon's attack power. If you have no luck, your weapons will roll 0-max. Luck does not have any effect on enemy rolls or defenses.

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The Dread Lords are pushovers as long as the Korath are somewhere in the galaxy. Purchase (for whatever cost) a spore ship from them and send that puppy to the planet once it's undefended. No amount of soldering helps vs a spore module.

As for the mega-pirate event, I actually enjoy that every time it happens. The mega-pirates really makes you switch gears in the thought of galactic warfare. When their uber-ships are flying about, you just need to be able to out fly them or put up a costly defense to cleanse your area of them (not my favorite choice).

Jagged Knife is about the only one I curse (and sometimes the "max speed is 5" mega event). I've reloaded the last save game just to undo the damage they cause. Yes, it's cheap...

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Without exception, I always reload on the max speed is five event. now THAT is an event that serves no useful purpose except to frustrate people.

Jagged Knife can actually be useful; personally, I think the Jagged Knife should be a Major race, not a Minor race, which would mix things up a lot more. But as is, it often becomes a chance to grab enemy planets without much diplomatic penalty.

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I had the Jagged Knife happen last night when I was on the brink of victory. They had more planets then all of the other races (excluding myself) combined! I quickly decided to go for an alliance victory since they took what had just taken me two hours to get.

As for Mega Events in general, whenever people start complaining about them (especially when they call them game kiling or complain of the pirates) I think back with fondness on this thread: WWW Link

Mega events work exactly as planned, which is exactly what the fans requested. I love them personally, and wish that they would happen more often.

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Mega events work exactly as planned, which is exactly what the fans requested. I love them personally, and wish that they would happen more often.

Actually, one of the very first responses in your thread way back then had a pretty good idea - modifiable difficulty setting for 'em. You know- so YOU, the player, get to decide whether you'd like your pirates to be a decent challenge or godlike. Or even better, some way of modifying the events (like you can mod the races) - which would make both modders and folks who can't hack the really massively powerful events (I'm one of those. Damn you Dread Lords!) either disable or knock them down a peg or two, leaving you free to ... well, commit suicide if you challenge one of those ships.

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The argument against having a variable level is this: What's the point of having a feature designed to unbalance the game if it isn't strong enough to unbalance the game? The initial post by Brad suggested pirates who can wipe out the defenses of the races, not merely inconvenience them.

I would like to see, however, a slider or setting that determines how often they occur (rare, common, abundant, etc.).

Or even better, some way of modifying the events (like you can mod the races) - which would make both modders and folks who can't hack the really massively powerful events (I'm one of those. Damn you Dread Lords!) either disable or knock them down a peg or two, leaving you free to ... well, commit suicide if you challenge one of those ships.

I wouldn't mind it if they made them modable, since GalCiv is a single player only game I have no qualms with making it more modable. As for making it possible to disable the events, you can. Just uncheck the Mega Events box on the initial game setup (I think it's on the same screen as where you select galaxy size).

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Just as a note I was all ready to post about how you need to get over this event, and generally just deal because its not a big deal. Then I got punked by it in my most recent game. Small Galaxy, rare planets/stars. I've got the lead with 5 planets and 7 out of the 8 galactic resources (I haven't attacked anyone yet). I just finished researching psychic lasers and barriers, am ready to start the open war, and then.... Pirates, who proceed to trample my fleets and destroy my fully upgraded resource starbases (which were all but invincible to everyone elses ships). All I can say is Damn.

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WIllythemailboy

Join Date 03/2006

+70

That's a free win, really. Run up the engine techs (assuming you haven't already), design some 30+ speed transports, then start ripping people. They can't build ships to defend themselves, so they can't stop you. Assuming you have a decent economy, you should be taking planets as fast as you can build transports.

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