Luck or Cheat?

from GalCiv2 Forums
I was playing in a tiny map for a quick game. (v 1.0x)
I was human, there was also Drengin and Altarians. Game difficulty was cakewalk and AI intelligence was very low.
After the start, I immedietly sended my flag ship to Altarian planet (they was so close to me) to see what they are doing. I sended my colony ship to one of the star systems. But I saw that Altarians already builded up three colony ships and sended to two different star systems. I changed my colony ship's direction to go to that star system, and I followed that two ships (I leaved the other one) to see where they are going. Altarians colonized two planet in a star system wich have five planets in total. So there was no room for me. Than I sended my flagship to other system. This was also a five planet containing system one of them is colonized by Altarians and rest was useless... The other star systems was also useless.

Their ships never changed their direction. There was no ship sended away before the colony ships. So Altarians must not know the exact locations of the galaxy's only habitable planets. But it was a point shot, they sended ships right to that planets like they already have info about them.

How can it be? They were lucky? AI cheeting? Or I was cursed by galactic gods?
4,024 views 13 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
They had probably already scouted the star systems before sending the colony ships.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Everyone but the Terrans (who I assume you are playing) starts with the tech Stellar Cartography. It allows a race to see the planets as well as the stars on the mini map.
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Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
LordFu: No they didn't. I tracked it.
SuperGeek: Yes they can see planets on the minimap but they cannot see wich planets are suitable for colonization. Or is there a way that I don't know to let you see PQs on the minimap?
All other planets were zero PQ except those 3 wich colonized by Altarians.
And it really smells like cheat to me.

Whatever... Great game
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
There was a bug in 1.0X in that a certain variable could have junk in it thus causing the AI to think that it knew about a planet before it had actually scouted it causing the behavior you describe. This has been posted by Draginol and fixed in v1.1.
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Does it show the PQ as well?

No. In GalCiv I (the human always played Terran) and the AI knew where all the best planets where but this is not the case in GalCiv II. The non-Terran races start with Stellar Cartography which only shows the planets but not their value (you can't even tell if it is PQ 0 or > 0) and it doesn't matter if the race is human or AI controlled. So the AI controlled Altarians knew how many planets each system had and where they were but not which ones were habitable.
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
There was a bug in 1.0X ... has been posted by Draginol and fixed in v1.1.


Mmm... I didn't noticed it... Thanks for reply.

Patching...
Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
The AI must get a head start if their minless.When I played the game I went to the Drengin planet and there were 1flagship(of course)5 Colony ships,2 scouts,and 1 small combat vessel.Well of course that's way too easy because I hack with cheats,and they're all just target practice for my custom Delta Battleship,Armed with 3 doom ray cannons.
Reply #9 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
The AI must get a head start


Nope. Nope. Nope. At the risk of feeding a dead horse thread, the AI's only get economic bonuses on difficulties above Tough. Below Tough they are actually hamstrung to varying degrees.

As others have mentioned, all AI players (except the Terrans) start with stellar cartography, so they already know where the stars and planets are. As far as seeing they've got several colony ships early game, it's because the AI players will streamline every aspect of their economy to accomplish the immediate goal...and at the beginning of the game that is buying colony ships and scouts.
Reply #10 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Huh? I thought stellar cartography only shows the stars, not the planets.
Reply #11 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Huh? I thought stellar cartography only shows the stars, not the planets.


In every game I've played, once I researched stellar cartography, the mini-map showed the location of all stars and planets. I still have to go to a system to find out if the planets are habitable (the AI does as well).
Reply #12 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
so it was just mere luck for the altarians to send to exact amount of colony ships needed to take all habitable planets into each system? hmmm...
Reply #13 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
so it was just mere luck for the altarians to send to exact amount of colony ships needed to take all habitable planets into each system? hmmm...


Luck? No. Just good planning on their part. I do the exact same thing. Helps if you've got more the one world building colony ships .