Celestialnaut

Join Date 10/2006

Questions regarding the Drath

A suggestion, and three questions:

1. I see that the Drath's character model was drastically changed between Altarian Prophecy and Dread Lords. Couldn't you incorporate that into the storyline? Maybe the beefy-looking Drath guy from AP could have been from a warrior caste/clan/position. Or to show the deviousness of the Drath, he was just a fake image to depict their race as seemingly slow and dim-witted all brawn and no brain lizards, to throw off the humans in first contact.

2. Were any of the other races' avatars drastically changed between games? I don't think so, other than the Arcaens look more mysterious and glowy in a bit of a Warcraft III style.

3. Storywise, why are the Drath good even though they are so devious and underhanded?

4. Why are the Altarians good even though they kicked out the Drath? Was the dispute between them ever resolved in Dread Lords?

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I think the Drath and the Altarians have made some sort of truce in Dark Avatar, so I guess that means their dispute has been resolved.

Also, whenever I play the game as the Drath, I am always nutral. They should be good, from what I am told, but they are not.

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Mumblefratz

Join Date 07/2006

+139

Also, whenever I play the game as the Drath, I am always nutral. They should be good, from what I am told, but they are not.

The Drath start out good but not overly so (75 out of 100). It really only takes one or two evil colonization choices to get you to neutral. The Altarians start out as good as you can get at 99, even so it may only be four evil colonization choices before you're neutral.

I often like to play neutral and it's nice to pick races that have a natural bias towards good so that you can take the evil colonization choices and end up neutral without having to pay anything.

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I often like to play neutral and it's nice to pick races that have a natural bias towards good so that you can take the evil colonization choices and end up neutral without having to pay anything.

Hmm, something I've always wondered: do the AI get these random Ethical events too? How are their decisions made, if so? Just curious, because I do remember having a Drath opponent be leaning neutral, traded him Xeno Ethics and he became Good alignment...

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The last several games I've played, the neutrals are always Terran, Thalan, and Arcean. The goods are always Drath, Altarian, Torian, Iconian. Don't know if game situation has any bearing on that, but it's what I've seen.

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Mumblefratz

Join Date 07/2006

+139

I used to mostly play the Drath before I decided on the Torians as a better selection because of their free 25% morale bonus. The Altarians invariably ended up good. Early on, I usually played good as well, but it really didn't matter, the Altarians were on me like white on rice. I would have thought that it would be the Drath that held a grudge.

do the AI get these random Ethical events too

Do you mean the colonization events? I've never had an ethical choice outside of a colonization, do such things occur?

On occasion I've captured a planet greater than PQ32. AFAIK PQ32 is the max you can get unless there is a PQ increase due to a colonization event. This implies that the AI do get these choices.

I do remember having a Drath opponent be leaning neutral

This is further evidence that the AI get the ethical choices as well because the Drath start out leaning good. Again AFAIK the only way for him to be leaning neutral would be to make some evil or neutral ethical choices.

the neutrals are always Terran, Thalan, and Arcean. The goods are always Drath, Altarian, Torian, Iconian.

I've never seen *any* race end up different than their "natural" alignment. I would guess they end up that way because it part of their design.

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I've never had an ethical choice outside of a colonization, do such things occur?

They do, all though for some reason they almost always involve your home planet.

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They do, all though for some reason they almost always involve your home planet.

Actually, I'm fairly sure they're empire-wide situations. They merely list your homeplanet because, well, it's your homeplanet where the event is brought before the governing body and policies are decided upon.

And I've always seen the Drath listed as 'leaning Neutral'. I was actually quite confused when I saw one definitively set itself to Good. Maybe I just haven't played against them enough.

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Mumblefratz

Join Date 07/2006

+139

They do, all though for some reason they almost always involve your home planet.

Never seen one in over ten games. I only play gigantic abundant all galaxies though, not quite sure how this may impact. Perhaps in smaller galaxies there's not enough colonization going on.

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They got toned down a while back, which I thought took a bit of fun out. I quite liked having evil zombie armies.

Yes, the AI DO get the events. Note how the torians go neutral or evil if left alone for a while.

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I remember one such event that involved something similar to Pokémon taking hold in your civilization, and the matter of how ethical it is to capture creatures and have them do battle to the death.

I believe that one only changed your morale. If you were evil, you actually got better morale, because the game was very widespread at the time of it being brought to your attention and thus more people would be happy to see it still around. I like the Neutral response, which I think still boosted morale.

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I've never seen *any* race end up different than their "natural" alignment. I would guess they end up that way because it part of their design.

Yea, I think so. As soon as they get Xeno Ethics, they always pick the same alignment regardless of anything else. I stated this in another thread and someone disagreed with me so I figured I better not say for sure without knowing for sure, hate making incorrect statements.

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They got toned down a while back, which I thought took a bit of fun out. I quite liked having evil zombie armies.

Not to mention that the ethical events stop appearing after you research Xeno Ethics...

Yes, the AI DO get the events. Note how the torians go neutral or evil if left alone for a while.

Yeah, I kinda figured they would, but I suppose no one really knows how the AI chooses its reponses, aye? I would hope they wouldn't automatically go for the evil or neutral choices... I mean, I've only ever noticed differences in alignment leanings in Good or Neutral races (all going towards evil), now that I think about it...

I've never seen *any* race end up different than their "natural" alignment. I would guess they end up that way because it part of their design.

This, along with the above, kinda disturbs me, actually. It's fine they choose responses to the events that aren't matching their alignment... but if they automatically go for their natural alignment once Xeno Ethics comes... that could be a big hit on their economy, expecially if say, the Torians or such got all the way down to leaning evil... then choose to be Good... ick.

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Mumblefratz

Join Date 07/2006

+139

someone disagreed with me so I figured I better not say for sure without knowing for sure

Good example of discretion being the better part of valor. Kudos.

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Maybe it's because I play medium galaxies alot and don't get many choices. When I was playing as the Torians once, I chose every evil decision and still had to pay 2500bc to be neutral. I was still over halfway to the good. So maybe they need a bigger effect if you don't get as many events.

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