They're pretty much all bad.

Plague and Disease are possible exceptions to this rule, as far as the player is concerned, as AFAIR the AI still does not prioritize either of the cure techs. In a no tech trading game, this is disastrous to them; and it's still pretty bad if you choose just to never sell it to them.

IIRC, you can also get a mega event where all planets in x system or all planets within 1-3 sectors (I think it's 1, I'm positive it's never more than 3) are increased by a # of classes. It may be uncolonized planets only; I don't remember. This isn't strictly bad, but if it happens to an AI/an AI's system, as it generally does, it's more bad than good if they manage to snatch them up and use them (except for the fact that they tend to have forgotten how to colonize by that stage of the game).

As I've stated before, though, the only event I can't stand is the 5pc/week limit one.

Just my 2bc.

The concept of mega events came into being sometime before the DA expansion (I think), and became a new feature of the expansion. Back then, players were asking for more tougher games, with myself included. The basic idea of mega events were to disrupt the game and force you to adapt.

If you have a hard time winning at any difficulty less than tough, mega events are probally not for you. If you can beat tough or harder, you might wish to consider mega events. If you complain that some mega events are not hard enough, you might be a very skilled player.

________________

Actually, now that I think about it, has some mega events disappeared? I remember in the DA betas that there was one that gave a 10x influence bonus to a major race. I don't think I recall seeing it since the betas.

I hope it hasn't disappeared. I recall one game become one of my most difficult I've played because the Drath practically gained influence over 75% of the map (that and all the surrenders and culture flips to them).

After hours - usually days - sometimes a couple of weeks of playing an Immense map, last thing I need is an artificial unrelated event suddenly popup and wreck it all. If it was a related event to the current game scenario, fine, war is hell as they say. SHoneT happens, deal with it. However, artificially imposed events deliberately designed to wreck days of game play does not do it for me. In the last statement I include the good events as well as the bad ones.

Flipside is some people love them, they view it as different, like the buzz of sorting it out, and get a kick out of it. Great stuff ..... enjoy. I'll stay with them turned off.

I will still vote to keep them in the game as an option. No game can be "one size fits all", impossible, different people look for different things from a game. So insofar as its possible within the conceptual boundaries of a game, the provision of different options and activities is a good thing, it makes it more appealing to a wider audience.

Its a game, there to give enjoyment, its not a substitute vehicle for some deep dark urge to demonstrate the qualities to be the Nation's new Rambo, or whatever You like them, turn them on and enjoy. You dont like them, turn them off and enjoy.

Win Win.

Regards
Zy

Thanks to all for an interesting discussion with different points of view. I'm glad I posted the question.

Your likelihood of experiencing a particular mega event also seems to depend on your style of play. If you play a defensive strategy - pursuing a non-conquest victory, you'll see the Jagged Knife or the mega-spy event quite often. Aggressive players pursuing a conquest victory seem more likely to encounter pirates or peacekeepers. If you are working hard for the win at your current difficulty level, by all means turn the mega events off - the game is, after all, supposed to be fun. If you are coasting to a win most of the time and want some extra challenge either move to the next difficulty level or turn mega events back on.

Mega events are good in theory, but there are too many Mega events that just stop the game from being enjoyable.

The one that comes to mind immediately is the "limit all speed to 5 forever". It isn't just that I tend towards using high warp speeds as an advantage. But it just makes the game incredibly boring to play, even on smaller maps. Constructors take longer to get to starbases, transports take longer to get to their targets, etc. I'd be willing to put up with it if there was some kind of tech to restore speeds, even if it was the last one in the speed tree.

I'm not particularly fond of the Jagged Knife either. I don't mind things like Peacekeepers and such, but snatching away planets without some way to prevent it is wrong.

I would prefer the ability to selectively turn off certain Mega events.

Personally, I think Mega events are best when they give things, not take them away. For example, if the game sees you exploiting your speed advantage, rather than stripping speed down for everyone, increase the base speed of all units to 10 (this increase should not stack with engine speed, so engine-based speed boosts up until 10 are meaningless). That way, civs with lower speeds will be improved to match yours. It'll take some research down the speed tree to restore your advantage. And even when you do, you'll probably only have maybe 2:1 speed vs. theirs at best, rather than the 3:1 you might have enjoyed previously. And their ships don't use lots of engine bits to do it, so they have much more room for weapons.

Also, Mega events should be innately counterable. There should be something that can be done to either stop (or mitigate) the event before it happens or allow you to stop the effect after it happens. Mega events that create ships are innately counterable, since you can blow those ships up. But there should be some way to stop the effect of the event if you focus on it. The Disease/Plague events are perfect this way.

One time i used a cheat code and i got the pirate and peackeepers events, it was funny watching their ships blow the crap out of eachother  

How would you turn the 5pc/wk galactic speed limit (enforced by the game, not by the UP) to your advantage? The AI rarely if ever builds ships faster than ~10pc/wk with all of the engine tech bonuses applied, so the idea of it crippling your opponent as well just doesn't apply.

And no, abusing the movement bug is not a valid answer.

(If you want to know what I'm talking about, look under Beta Reports, but it applies to all versions.)

I used to build super fast ships but not since SD nerfed the amount of engines I can slap on by increasing the size.

Granted, I've never had the (dis)pleasure of experiencing the "ripping spacetime" speed limit mega event. And since I play Huge galaxies it would most definitely slow my game. But it would also allow me to slap more guns and defenses on. Possibly even more life support to my reach is extended at the cost of my speed.

Here are a few examples of how I spin a galactic mega event:

Pirates - Time to focus on infrastructure. Your ships are going to get smashed and so are your opponents. But run up a branch of the offensive weapons and create a pirate killing ship. Time your building of them so you get a fleet at once. Clean out a small sector of space (pirates tend to camp out in a certain area). Repeat until you have some room to work. Build super fast transports. Invade defenseless enemy worlds.

Jagged Knife - Love this! Build transports, en masse. Take your planets back and then some. Get free techs. And you never have to go to war with any major races.

Peacekeepers - See Pirates above. Do I have Tech Victory on?

Sure, when these things happen I roll my eyes and mutter "aye carumba!" But I always try and turn these into my advantage.

Valid points, maudlin, although not quite the answer I was looking for. (For the record, I'm not positive the answer I'm looking for exists.)

Maybe I'll have a reason to play the Arceans now.