Unusual Event

Ultimate Pirate Attack

from GalCiv2 Forums
Unfortunately I don't have a savegame of this but I was recently playing a game, Small galaxy, me and the two other races. We were all plodding along, the AIs were at war and I was very near having 75% influence (I actually got it at one point, but before the victory condition timer thingy could start one of my stations was destroyed). I left Events on because I usually enjoy them, one of my favorite is (coincidentally) pirate attacks, because I keep my military at a level where I can't sustain a full blown war for long but can hold off any attackers.

In this case each of my planets had 3 ships with 2 attack and 1 defense apiece (mass drivers and armor). All of my stations had the barracks and 7 attack laser upgrades, so they were at 8 attack, no defense. The most powerful AI fleet I ever saw (and I was between the two fighters, so I saw most of them) had 8 attack and 2 defense.

All of the sudden an event happens, Pirates all over the galaxy, I just go on with the game, expecting them to be the standard weak pirates and for my defenses to hold. One fleet of 3 pirate ships attacks one of my stations...and destroys it, surviving. This left me a little unhappy, especially since the enemy destroyed a station I had stationed units at without attacking the units, so I went to take a look at their stats. 55 attack, and 6 defense. There were about 10-15 pirate fleets with between 30 and 60 attack running around a galaxy where the strongest non-pirate ship had <10 attack. The game was pretty much over at that point, while the pirates couldn't conquer planets they did destroy all of my stations (knocking me down from 75% influence to 51%) and then proceed to camp all the planets, stopping any and all ships (there were less than 15 planets in the entire game, I like small games). It became a simple game of who could research their way to victory or to being able to beat the pirates, and that wasn't the game I wanted to play (I wanted a Terror Star and influence victory, research victories are too boring for my tastes).

Is this expected behavior? I would imagine that pirate attacks should be scaled to the current state of the galaxy. Considering my fleet was 30-50 ships with 2 attack, and I had the best military rating (200 points), having even one fleet with >50 attack spawn would seem to be an event in and of itself, 10 of them is just absurd. Besides that strange, and extremely annoying occurrence, however, the game was quite enjoyable. I'm just worried that the next time I see pirates attacking I'll have to quit the game because it'll be over.
9,708 views 34 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
That's the pirate mega event, which always floods the galaxy with pirates that are well beyond anyone else. It is indeed pretty absurd.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Stupidly absurd, even; I'm surprised your pirate fleets had stats that low.

I'm used to seeing pirates with 100+ attack in one weapon and +100 defense in EVERY defense... They usually show up around the time I have ships with 10-15 attack, given my luck.
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Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I had this happen also, hadn't been involved in a war for the entire game and little standing military to speak of, but was the most advanced race and had the strongest economy. I was pursuing a influence victory. I checked their stats and equipped a ship design heavy on shields and mass drivers. Made a small fleet of these (still ungodly expensive) and had a few victories but I couldn't stand up to the onslaught of having all my (fully modded) space stations and trade bonuses annihilated within a few turns while replacing expensive ships being destroyed. I managed a diplomatic victory, but this event was worse than having the Dread Lords pop up.
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
There's lots of threads on this. Use them to your advantage (fast transports). If they weren't so powerful, it wouldn't be a mega event.
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Weird. I've had Pirate Mega-Events in other games before while playing Dread Lords, but never with that much firepower. Oh well, maybe it's just due to playing such a weak military game...thanks for the responses.
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
While playing Dread Lords? There are no Mega-Events in Dread Lords. Events aren't so good/bad compared to Megas.

Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Ahh...the difference between Mega and regular was lost on me it seems. Thanks for the explanation, I guess I'm used to the Pirate uprising event, not Mega Event...
Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
The pirates WILL tear everything up. They're at least [your ability x2] in general. However, they don't just tear your stuff up - They tear EVERYTHING up. Build a super-fast transport and use their crushing power to invade.
Reply #9 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
That's nothing. I got the "Dread Lords" mega event - the Dread Lords vessels had TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY attack. One shot anything they went for. It's pretty much "Menu > Retire" at that point, once you've got that event you've lost.

Reply #10 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I thought the Dread Lords get a planet, like any other race. Conquer that and they won't be able to build any new ships.
Reply #11 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I thought the Dread Lords get a planet, like any other race. Conquer that and they won't be able to build any new ships.
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Yep, that's what I do. Find the planet, hit it with everything you got and be done with them.

They're at least [your ability x2] in general.
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Which is why it really sucks when it happens late in the game. I agree that the pirates are scarier than the Dread Lords.
Reply #12 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
That's nothing. I got the "Dread Lords" mega event - the Dread Lords vessels had TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY attack. One shot anything they went for. It's pretty much "Menu > Retire" at that point, once you've got that event you've lost.

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Super Warrior works awesome in this case. They never get a shot back due to lack of defense  
Reply #13 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
This is bs, im turning megaevents off! I dont agree with a random event making a game you couldve been playing for 12+ hours completely unplayable...absurd indeed.
Reply #14 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Really? Try playing Space Empires 4... Some of the MINOR random events in that game basically equate to "Game Over, Try Again"... >.<
Reply #15 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

This is bs, im turning megaevents off! I dont agree with a random event making a game you couldve been playing for 12+ hours completely unplayable...absurd indeed.
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Thats why theres a option to turn them off. Some people like the random events, even if some are difficult.

Reply #16 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Thats why theres a option to turn them off. Some people like the random events, even if some are difficult.
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Yeah i dont mean to say otherwise, but if theres no chance of overcoming it then it isnt just difficult its unplayable. I actually do play with mega-events on kuz i havnt had the chance to run into much ofem at all. I didnt think they were game breakers though just sumthin to really mix everything up.
Reply #17 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I play with Mega Events on, too, despite hating both the Pirate and Jagged Knife events.

They are rare enough that it doesn't bother me very often, and sometimes you can find a way to take advantage of them.
Reply #18 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
That's nothing. I got the "Dread Lords" mega event - the Dread Lords vessels had TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY attack. One shot anything they went for. It's pretty much "Menu > Retire" at that point, once you've got that event you've lost.



Super Warrior works awesome in this case. They never get a shot back due to lack of defense  
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Not when I have no planets left thanks to their something like 1400 advantage on the ground. They show up with 15 soldiers, and I lose the planet. 1 soldier, and I lose 4000 soldiers. They sure aren't "your strength x 2", they're "your strength x 2000". And it's ridiculous that turning off the "Game Over" event turns off other neat ones like "haha, noone likes you any more (lose lots of influence)" and "tax revenue climbed for no reason at all (gain lots of economy)" - and even the pirates, who are a challenge but infinitely less scary than the Dread Lords Game Over Event.

Reply #19 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I've survived the Dread Lords. Hell, I've even beaten the Dread Lords. I managed to avoid being at direct war with them until the other races had beaten them down as much as they could, and then I rushed their homeworld with a transport fleet. They had 20 soldiers, I had 2000, and I lost half my force, but I won.

Their soldiering bonus really is insane...
Reply #20 from GalCiv2 Forums Top


at that point, once you've got that event you've lost.
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I dont agree with a random event making a game you couldve been playing for 12+ hours completely unplayable.
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the next time I see pirates attacking I'll have to quit the game because it'll be over.
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Have a little faith in yourselves, guys. There is no mega-event that you can't beat, if you have a little patience, a little knowledge, and have played well up to that point. Let's take the Dread Lords event as an example. The DL have ungodly powers, but when they spawn they only have the single undeveloped planet, and no ships. Send a small fleet of transports to that planet just as soon as you get the event, and you will take them out every time. You don't have transports ready, you say? No problem. Use the fat bank account you have built up to buy transports. No mucho dinero? Ramp up your industry and build them. You have a short time before they build up, so you still can beat them. No industry? RIP.

Can you see where I'm going with this? These events are going to happen. You just have to be ready for them. It doesn't have to be the DL. If you don't take care of business, then something as common as the Drengin taking a dislike to you will certainly be fatal.

Look at these events as a challenge, not a death sentence. Believe it or not, these things can actually work to your advantage. I have been in more than one game where I was sure that all was lost, when a mega popped up, shook up the galaxy, and I ended up winning a very entertaining game. Good luck.
Reply #21 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I agree, most of the time when I get a mega event, it was just when the game started to become boring. For example my current game. I've allied with three races, annihilated a fourth and am working on the final race. I've got a huge treasury and several industrial planets.

Basically, it's just a matter of time until I win - or so I thought. Just then the Jagged Knife decides to turn up. Four of ten planets gone. Annoying? Yes. Gamebreaking? Hardly. I still have the funds to buy transports, their planets don't have defense yet. But it IS a perfect way to make the game interesting again. The time it takes me to recapture the planets may be just the time the AI needs to catch up to me in military, economical and technological rankings.

Actually events like this probably hurt the AI (on lower levels) more than they hurt the human player. If you think the make the game unwinnable, you've either not tried yet or you're playing a difficulty level too high. The game definitely is still winnable, it just requires a bit more work.
Reply #22 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
The pirates are beatable, it just takes some serious planning and patience. I was about to give up on my game when they appeared. They were everywhere and they were way more powerful then anyone else. I decided though to save the galaxy by designing fast, well defended ships, using their speed to fleet them together, and making the pirates pay for their mistake of messing with my galaxy.

After I took care of the pirates, I proceeded to convince the rest of the galaxy that the Altarian way was the best way.
Reply #23 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
There are only two Mega Events that I refuse to touch, and therefore I've always shut them off.


Spy Invasion of DOOM - Where every single planet gets about fifteen spies, for every planet in your control. Lategame when you've already been using and upgrading spies, and these guys are now sitting on your economics, you're seriously totally screwed, or you spend the next two years nullifying them. Not fun.

Pirate Fleets - The problem isn't that there is suddenly a new, brutal military force, I can deal with that. Dread Lords are a pretty fun event for me. It's that there are so many, and they set my entire civilization back by about a year's worth of work on starbases, having to research new tech, etc.

In both the cases, the problem isn't the galaxy shake up - I love that. Jagged Knife can be very fun to me. It's the fact that undoing the damage is tedious at best.
Reply #24 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Pirates is a good example. I was playing DA on the biggest map, and they spawned an immense amount of ships. Huge fleets were everywhere. At first I wanted to do a little 'illegal time-travel' (revert to save), but I thought I'd sit through it. Of course, all my highly developed starbases went down under a tidal wave of pirates. But, since I tend to seriously neglect my military, I had no ships to lose, and the two races that had just attacked me lost their entire invasion fleets, and all their planetary defenses. I used this lull to enjoy some cat-and-mouse action with colony ships, scoring all the remaining planets in my immediate area, and then expanding into other races' space.
My one complaint was that the Pirates had abilities far beyond what their stats indicated. I built frigates geared toward their stats, and even with 12 offense against their 0 defense, and 8 defense against their 16 offense, plus about 10 more hit points, my ships could not go toe to toe with theirs. I nearly always lost one on one battles, and quite often did 0 damage 5 or 6 turns in a row, while they got anywhere from 1-7.
Reply #25 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
the Pirates had abilities far beyond what their stats indicated
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The Pirates spawn with hidden stats, just as your racial abilities are hidden from them.
quite often did 0 damage 5 or 6 turns in a row, while they got anywhere from 1-7
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This was luck. (the ability) Luck increases the chance that an opponent will roll a 0 on their attack, and give no damage at all. A 50% boost there could easily be responsible for that result. You evidently didn't choose that ability, so your opponent will almost always do at least 1 damage.