Boogly

Join Date 10/2007

How do you rate current races/AI?

Apparently all races have their own code. With every patch, it seems the races rise and fall, which is cool because you never know what a new game will bring. At the onset of TA, the Korath were huge, particularly in regards to research and climbing up their tech tree rapidly, and the Torians were a force to be reckoned with, with huge amounts of low quality ships. With the latest patch, Iconians, Drengin, and Drath(!) are coming on, although the Drath are bugged and producing WAY too many space miners (WTF is up with that?). The Arceans can put up a moderate fight, but seem hamstrung by SLOW research and willingness to get REAMED in tech trading. The Yor likewise do well with just a fight, but can be bossed around with diplomacy. I even got into a pretty good scrap with some Krynn. Altarians, unfortunately remain week, as well as the Thalans (my personal opinion is it will take a genius to write AI for them to succeed with their tech tree), the Korx also suck, but I hope they are done well and can set up and protect econ star bases eventually. Humans suck, and are TOTALLY unreasonable in diplomacy, wanting the world for not much. They seem to be having difficulty even developing space weapons. In fact, I think their the only race that lost something with the patch. It seems now that luck on the starting posistion has a lot more to do with who will succeed. What do you think about the AI's performance of the various races? As it stands now, here is how I read them.

1) Torians

2) Iconians

3) Drengin

4) Korath

5) Yor

6) Drath

7) Krynn

8,9, 10 and 11 Thalans, Korx, Altarians, and Humans- all pretty bad.

As for minor races, I gave the Carinionids some technology and they rampaged pretty good recently.

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No one wants to weigh in on this topic?

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Mumblefratz

Join Date 07/2006

+139

I could comment on DL but haven't yet played DA so I couldn't hazard an opinion.

Perhaps all the DA players are shy, although I don't recall them being as such. Perhaps this comment will give them the goose they need to respond.

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DivineWrath

Join Date 05/2006

+135

At this time, I would place the Yor at the very bottom of the list, in terms of playability. The Yor don't have the ability to place very many economic structures without tech trading. I don't see them having a very good economy. The charging stalks are a different approach that gives the Yor flavour, but it doesn't do enough to replace the loss of economic structures. I can't fill up my high quality worlds with charging stalks like I could with stock exchange centers, its too expensive with too little return. I wouldn't be surprised if some players left some tiles empty to save money.

To add more problems, some of the Yor's structures are really expensive when compared to other civs. The manufaturing vertex costs 8 bc to maintian, and only provides +15% to industry. The Quantum power plant (avialable to research by most civs) costs 3 bc to maintain and provides a +30% bonus. The Iconian molecular fabricator also costs 8 bc to maintain, but it provides a +50% bonus to industry. To add insult to injury, the Yor also gets a structure that produces that amount of industrial output as the molecular fabricator, but the "Distributed Energy Matrix" has a maintiance cost of 20, and the Yor can only build one.

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Whatever problems the other civs might have, it doesn't compare to poor economy that the Yor currently have.

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Hmmm...I was more talking about AI, DW, but your talking about Yor viability as a player race. I had difficulty with the Yor in TA starting out and posted about the problems I was having with them. Some other players said I was missing out and swore they could have a healthy economy. Against my best judgement, I tried again, and discovered that the Yor can have a very healthy economy with charging stocks boosting morale and population. You have to research charging stock upgrades earlier than is comfortable, but now that I have the hang of them (Yor), I dont even research the final efficiency center upgrade until fairly late in the game. Dont give up on the Yor, as IMO, they are THE most powerful race when going for a conquest strat, rivaled only by the Korath. Just keep playing with them and develop your sense of what to build and when, and you will be fine. Trust me.

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Well I will weigh in on the different races played by the AI. From a standpoint of how the AI plays them as my opponents I would almost disagree with you 100 percent from top to bottom. This is from a DA standpoint.

The TOUGHEST races to play against (to me) would be the Altarians, Humans, and the Krynn. They at least work toward a technological advanced fleet of ships, and if left alone for too long will start to cause major headaches.

Whereas your top 3 (Torians, Iconians, and Drengin) seem to be the biggest pushovers. I have NEVER seen the Torians be any kind of threat. They breed and the population grows and they do nothing military-wise or tech wise. The Iconians are no better, they suck period, and the Drengin simply piss me off because when I do go to war with them I have all those annoying ships to destroy that they stick in the planet's orbits.

The Korx are only slightly better than those three. They seem to be more aggressive with asking for money to stay at peace ( which is supposed to be the Drengin with Super Dominator ) and they will actually build a fleet of ships and attack people. But they start out building so many freighters that I am normally ahead of the game VS them anyhow.

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DivineWrath

Join Date 05/2006

+135

I guess I misread your question. I thought you were ranking civs or something. The title did say "How do you rate current races/AI?" suggesting that ranking civs instead of AIs would be a valid responce.

As for the Yor, I do know how to play them. I can conquor the galaxy using them. I just don't believe I can have nearly as good of economy using charging stalks instead of markets. It pains me to have to consider a recuiting center as valuable economic building (a must have). Ofcourse, I'm stubborn enough to not be selecting economic, and morale bonuses to give a big boost to my economy.

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As for the AI rankings, I have in the past got different results than other players, and TA has shown itself to be no exception. I have played many games where the Thalans, and Terrans were major players while other more hostile civs were pushed aside. Then again, I tend to be picked on by the hostile civs, and they always never make much progress against me, leaving the other civs to build up...

The Krynn, and the Korx tend to suck though.

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Speaking strictly of DA:

I find playing against the Alterians and Krynn the toughest. In the last few times I've played against them the Alterians were way ahead in tech and the most powerful race in the game. My current game has the Krynn taking that role. It could be luch with their finding resources but the Krynn are always declring war on me.

The humans to me are always in the middle, not good or bad, but usually easy enough to conquor once i get to them.

Torians and Iconians are a bit below the humans.

I agree that the Drengin are just a pain. Maybe they decalre war too early in the game and can easily be fought off with a few good tech advances. But you need engines on you ships just for the number of turns it takes to clear a planet.

Arceans?? hmmmm well for some reason I never see them having all that much territory and they are more easily befriended. So I get to them later and find them not too hard.

I have no real opinion on the Korath or Drath.

I will say aboutthis game that i find it interesting just how different people's experiences are. Almost as if the game were made slightly different for everyone. Its not just with the AI race ratings, but with many other aspects as well.

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I have one question? Did you feel the Arceans were so bad that they didnt deserve to even be ranked 12th?

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Hmmm...id say the Arceans are cruising at about mid-pack atm.

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Ok just checking. They are my favorite race which is why I probably noticed their presence missing.

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MisterAedan

Join Date 11/2007

Agree that the AIs have changed completely from DA to TA - used to hate Torians as belligerant but feeble, now they're one of the most formidable early-game opponents, while Terrans have gone the other way and are now hopeless space miner addicts who consider space weapons an optional research path. I've always found the Drath AI quite a tough opponent because they're one of the races who use their super ability to best effect - that said, they're always a pushover once I get into a straight-up fight with them. Really think the Arcean AI needs a poke, "honour" and "believing in neutrality" seem to mean "really can't be arsed" in my games of both DA and TA. Haven't noticed the decline in the Krynn others mention, would be a shame as they were always the brightest DA race in my games.

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okay ill keep it brief

To play against:

Altarians, useless in games ive played, always lesser civ or bottom

Humans, pretty good the longer there around the better they get until they get be in top 2 or 3

Drath, pretty poor never worthy of attention

Archean, same as drath

Korath, usually toughest player, research powerful weapons very quickly spread fast

Krynn, nearly always do well, although ive now played two games where they've built no military at all until well into the mid-game and after their worlds start to be invaded (probably not a bug but certainly strange ai behaviour).
I dont generally build any military ships until i get med sized hulls and both times the krynn have had no ships at all at this point.

Drengin, usually do pretty poorly, okay against other civs but usually pound them into dust pretty easily, they often get very small starting empires.

Thalaians, do well when they dont just build embassies which they did yesterday with the latest build.

Torians, usually do well and then fold pretty easily around the mid game but interestingly they seem to have the habit of using of using different types of weaponry on their ships, ie laser, missile and mass driver weapons, in games ive played

Yor, are very often the strongest ai civ, 2nd or third certainly

Well theres my opinion

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