What is the deal with military ranking?!

A recent game of mine seems to suggest that only the number of ships matter!

from GalCiv2 Forums
In my current game I am militarily ranked as 5th out of the 7 remaining races; however, this ranking doesn't seem to be justified. While my military forces consist of a few fleets, they are technologically superior to almost all the opposing races. I am using phasors while most of the galaxy is using plasma.

The Korx, thinking I was militarily weak thanks to my ranking attacked. I was able to defeat every fleet they threw at me and then move into their territory, taking one of their planets. By the end of the conflict I had reduced Korx's military ranking (once 2nd) to 6th out of 7, but I still was rated as 5th! Doesn't the computer take into account that my ships, while lacking in numbers, have significantly more attack power than the majority of the other races out there? I soundly defeated a race with a great many more ships and a much greater military ranking, but the rest of the galaxy is still viewing me as militarily weak. I am not sure how the rankings are determined, but I think the strength of ones ships should be given greater consideration than they are now. If history has taught us anything about war it is that the quality of one’s army is much more important than the number of solders fighting in it.
16,379 views 10 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I have had that problem. I went total Military a few days ago. there must have been a glitch or something in that game, because i ended up with ships armed to the teeth with black hole eruptors, shields galor, some good armor, amazing speed (some of my ships could go half-way across the map in one turn, but those didnt have any weapons...), and other, very nice, stuffs to go with them (aka: military starbases all throughout my territory, some in enemy). but i only had two fleets of the beasty ships and several stragglers which didnt fit in, and werent large enough in number to create a proper fleet. yet i was rated either fourth or seventh, i cant remember exactly. but still, technology should be taken into account with military ranking, especialy since you can win with it.
Elemental: Reforged
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
It doesn't just mean "your better in the technology race" because having significantly more powerful ships means that you can easily defeat the masses of crappy enemy ships. It should impact the military ranking at least somewhat.
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
alright look a lot of weak ships against a couple of powurfull ships and eventualy the weak ships will win after all look at the dread lord wars
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
hmmm the forum doesn't seem to register the replies....
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
It counts total attack plus defence. You had some powerful ships but their combined attack and defence was not as high as the other races. But when you go to war with them you are not taking thier entire military in one battle, so your few powerful ships are able to best thier few crappy ships. since thier entire navy cannot be in one space battle. See it makes since.
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Thanks Galacticus, that makes sense. Still, shouldn't they put up a patch that can take the few more powerful ships into account; would it even be possible to take something like this into account?
Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
sort of, it should take into account the maximum fleet size the other races have. Because if you can only make a fleet of 3 very powerfull ships (say attack 40 on each) and they can have a fleet of 12 with only avarage attack (say 25) they could kick your ass and should have a higher military rating. I don't know if it does take this into account or not.
Reply #9 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
It should take a lot more into detail. As shortbusboy said logistics should be in there. Soldiering should also probably be in there. The reality is, that a decent fleet equiped correctly can wipe out scores of inferior enemy fleets. (especially if you have reserves and can rotate out the damaged ships)

Maybe there needs to be a squaring done on the individual ship values to represent this ? Also the AI should consider what weapons everyone is using vs what their defenses are.

There could also be a fleet modifier, that is when your ships are fleeted, they should count more. This would improve the AI in spotting paper tigers as well. (like 1 or 2 decent ships on all planets, which doesn't work at all against fleets of decent attackers, but right now can keep the AI off your back)
Reply #10 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Hi!
What really matters in battle is "relative strenght" of fleets of ships, not the absolute, that is used in military stats calculation. By relative strenght I mean combination of weapons and defenses on ships.

So if my ships have beam attack and armor, and his ships use mass drivers and armor, I could do significantly more damage to him that he to me, but to another race that is using missiles and shields it would be just the opposite.

The mil strenght should take this to acount for each race against each race. The result would be a matrix, not a single number. However to check his position each player would use only one row from it, and that would allow AIs to avoid such suicidal wars we all have seen in games.

BR, Iztok