cheating AI and Torians

magically and instantly discovering your undefended planets

Playing as the Drath, for my second game in TA, on beginners difficulty, thanks to a lucky Ranger, I was turned around a war I was doomed to loose.

(I had began stomping the defenseless Torians until they put their industry and economic starbases in overdrive and came out swinging like Rocky Balboa - totally putting me on the defense until I got those Rangers).

Yet, after I captured about three planets of theirs (large map), they would furiously flank with inferior forces transport ships to reclaim planets. Even though I had a better military, I had a hard time committing to attacking fleets because they pin-pointed my weak points. They were quite formidable.

It was all well and good with me until I got them down to two isolated planets and I still felt I was on the defense, I still felt I had to keep a ship or two on each planet to stop transports - if I moved a ship off my home planet on the other side of the map, three Torian transports come out of nowhere.

The AI must be cheating - it must be omnipresent. Unless I get the maximum sensor bonuses, I have trouble getting planets early game before the AI snaps them up.

:-/

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I was playing as the Korath - sorry I get them confused.

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The AI must be cheating - it must be omnipresent.

I think you mean omniscient (which it isn't), were they omnipresent you would have lost already.

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Galactic Civilisation AI doesn't knowingly cheat, ever. If they do, it's usually a tiny design oversight. They compete with humans on equal terms unless you're playing at a difficulty level HIGHER than tough.

As for the Torians, keep in mind their strengths:
*They breed fast enough to put a rabbit to shame
*They have cheaper technology, allowing them to build ships faster

There's potential that a bug in the tech tree is allowing them to get advanced warp drives, too, which would give their transports an incredible advantage.

However, I've noticed that they've become pretty savvy tacticians, using their cheap fleets with remarkable ability. It's entirely possible that they're just competently running a hit-and-run style of warfare and catching you off guard because you aren't watching your back.

If you need a quick counter to this, use cargo hulls loaded with sensors. They're cheap, don't need to be maintained (they have no combat modules) and they give you a crucial improvement to your intelligence gathering abilities.

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However, I've noticed that they've become pretty savvy tacticians, using their cheap fleets with remarkable ability. It's entirely possible that they're just competently running a hit-and-run style of warfare and catching you off guard because you aren't watching your back.

Actually, with the Korath, with what I'm doing now, I have no way to combat this - (the Torians) they're FAR too efficient. I can't pay the upkeep on a navy decent enough to defend and attack at the same time.

Funny thing, the Terrans declared war on me earlier by way of a random event; and, by way of a treaty, the Iconians followed - even though my military was literally calculated to be ten times stronger than the rest.

Funny thing, they actually started kicking my butt real good. The relentless AI keep coming with vastly inferior ships, slowly but surely ruining my extra-planetary infrastructure and taking a few planets along the way - I tried moving a few of my capital ships out to intercept them before they got more economic starbases.

I could not keep my economy in the green and pull off prudent offensive maneuvers at the same time so I tried to negotiate peace. Amazingly, they were begging for peace! They would sign the agreement, no strings attached. Hmm. I found, in exchange for peace, I could bring in over 10,000 bc from each of them and a planet apiece. I hadn't seen this kind of cash since I played the Iconians and gathered up half the galaxy! - an easy thing to do with their tolerance to harsh conditions!

I just gave away the entire navy to the Terrans and they're the new "Dread Lords", cruising around the galaxy, with almost no economic hit whatsoever.

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Hi!

magically and instantly discovering your undefended planets

That's not cheating. When you discover a planet, you can see it through a fog of war until the end of the game, and so can the AI, at least in DL and DA it works that way.

Playing as the Drath, for my second game in TA, on beginners difficulty

(the Torians) they're FAR too efficient.
...
Funny thing, they actually started kicking my butt real good.

...I found, in exchange for peace, I could bring in over 10,000 bc from each of them and a planet apiece

Err, on BEGINNER? I remember giving Terrans in one of my beginner testbeds some quite developed planets. They promply went broke by mere upkeep of those planets. Belive me, by what you've written, you're NOT playing a "beginner" game. Must be some beta quirk.

BR, Iztok

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