First Report New Combat System Rocks AI Fights Back

I like it.

from GalCiv2 Forums
Playing a Obscene difficulty Game with 9 players in a large galaxy. Kinda in the center , picked out my first victim in a corner who really had a nice bunch of colonies in the initial rush.

I 1.10.029 I would have rolled right over them with my initial fleet of medium hull Missile 9 cruisers.

I took them out, but the AI put up much more of a fight.

First off, the new combat system with damage, makes the game much more exciting IMHO. Several times I had to rejigger my fleets because of damage and left wounded ships behind on odd missions. I even lost some to combat even though I had overwhelming force, because I was forced to place wounded ships in combat.

I was fighting the Drath, I I was shocked. On several occasions, enemy fighters sorted out of planets, where in 1.11 they would have waited to be killed to attack my wounded ships.

On one occasion, I swear a fighter went off to the left away from my main battle fleets to intercept my unescorted transports rushing in.

I even saw the Drath upgrade! a scout ship that I had ignored in my rear into aa fighter to attack my line of trade freighters. Amazing.

And it seemed to actually pull out of a world and retreat to join another fleet. It may have been just flying out to intercept one of my ships, but I swear, it was regrouping.

And best of all, even though I was only taking 10 turns or so to do the entire conquest , I swear it designed two diffferent ships to counter mine.

And the largest planets I captured were filled with factories!!! not morale improvements or a gagillion embassies. The AI even beat me to several trade goods that I had to tech whore for.

I am playing on the obscene level. The AI I attacked was the Drath.

As it stood, they killed a couple of my ships and of the rest of my fleet has suffered damage. Where in 1.11 I would have been sweeping in with little damage, there 1 or 2 ships fought valiently and wore me down though attrition. I had to send my whole fleet to complete the capture and I am now vunerable to the other AI players. Wow.

Whatever you guys did, I sure like it.
12,522 views 18 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
And also it seemed that the graphics seemed to greatly improved in the combat viewer. I used the example mode and it seemed that there was more variety in the tactical layouts.

Plus I am not used to the enemy ships shooting back and watching explosions occur on the decks of my ships, let alone watching them explode.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I found the best combat viewing experience was at 1/s speed with cinematic, free cam adn orbiting and center out views.

Keep me up all night.

Thought you guys might just want to know.
Offworld Trading Company
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
good to know... I will wait until 1.2 gets official.. I do not like betas... but dayoom.. this sounds exciting...
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
IMHO game is completely different. Much better.

If you are worried about the beata, give the beta a day or so for them to kill the nasty bugs then you gotta try it.

If not scared of the beta, go for it now.

I am jazzed, it was really fun. THEY SHOT BACK and went out of there way to TRY AND KILL ME!!!!!!!

Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Wow, stayed up all night myself.. saw my roommate off to work and a little while later actually felt tired enough to sleep... so many improvements, and yes I noticed the AI too!

Great job, thank you!!

*goes back to plotting in his Evil Lair(tm)*
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Oh yes... if you're holding back on the beta because you're worried about bugs, it's definitely without question a huge improvement over 1.11, just d/l it and you won't regret it.. you just might end up excited like the rest of us here
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Like MOIISKA I am a little cautious about the possible bugs so What happens if I upgrade to 1.2 beta and then want to get the official patch later.

Can I uninstal the beta?
or
will the official recognise the beta and upgrade?
or
do I need to back up the game folder and docs & setts folder in order to roll back to prior 1.2 beta?

If I need to backup then do I need to backup anything else.

MD

Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Well.... my PC isn't connected to the net.. so I can wait. I am having fun in 1.11 because I finallt found all the stuff I need for my own custom race, and I am perfecting the process of building race specific ships...

so it's kool.. I hope I can transfer my ships from 1.11 to 1.2, because these ships are very intensive...


and I do not know if I want this addictive a game right now.... the wifey might object..




Reply #10 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

And also it seemed that the graphics seemed to greatly improved in the combat viewer. I used the example mode and it seemed that there was more variety in the tactical layouts.


The example mod does include 10 new fleet formations.
Reply #11 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
thats it i dont care if its a beta i need that right now!
Reply #12 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I found the best combat viewing experience was at 1/s speed with cinematic, free cam adn orbiting and center out views.


I meant the 1/2 Speed.
Reply #13 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Like MOIISKA I am a little cautious about the possible bugs so What happens if I upgrade to 1.2 beta and then want to get the official patch later.

Can I uninstal the beta?
or
will the official recognise the beta and upgrade?
or
do I need to back up the game folder and docs & setts folder in order to roll back to prior 1.2 beta?

If I need to backup then do I need to backup anything else.

MD


If you have the CD and a high speed connection you can always back up your game saves and mod files and reinstall the game from CD and the do the upgrade from SDC. And paste your save games back to the game folder.

When you download from SDC you can always check, Do not show the pre-release versions, That would get you back to 1.10.029. Plus there is an option for auto-archieving on SDC too for rollbacks.
Reply #14 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Code Critter:

The tactical formations looked nice. Against the bright nebula backgrounds they really gave me the shivers as I saw my ships blowing up in the different camera views in slow motion (half speed). It was great.
Reply #15 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Correct me if I'm wrong, but mods can't be used in metaverse, right?

Does this include eye-candy mods such as the new fleet formations? If so, is there any possibility of having the new formations fitted as standard in the full update?
Reply #16 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Beat me to it

CodeCritter are there plans to release the new formations into the standard MV games too? I only play MV games now as i don't get a lot of time these days and would like to benefit from the improvements too!
Reply #17 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I enabled the example mods folder and I was able to both continue and old and create a new metaverse game. Don't know yet if I can post it.
Reply #18 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
As a update I just wanted to say for the 2nd night in a roll I am impressed.

The new combat system as a whole greatly improves the game. The attrition of your attacking force has now become a real issue and the AI is no longer grossly handicaped by lack of strategic initiative.

The whole feeling of battle to be had become much more exciting and realistic, as a real grognard that is important to me.

The battles seem much more like real fleet engagements with real task force decisions to make such as how many escorts to provide with your capital ships.

Do I make a fleet of only capital ships, where maybe all will survive with some damage?

Or do I create a mixed fleet of tiny or small escorts with the larger ships, knowing I am condeming some of my space navy to death on the small ships each turn?

Or do I create a medium hulled fast fleet that maybe can have some ships survive with battle damage and be replaced by folloiw on ships?

What happens when I run out of non-damaged ships?

Can a couple wounded ships clean up the remnants of the enemy fleet and risk an engagment because I have run out of undamaged ships?

What happens when I run out of the cannon fodder escorts. Do I still risk my big capital ships>

In my currenty game, the Altarian AI had better tech and heavier ships, but fewer than mine. His outnumbered heavier ships did die every time but the continous accumulated damage took a toll on my ships.

By the time I went through one end of his empire to another I had lost many medium ships, lots of escorts and a lot of my fleet was damaged and battle weary. Under 1.1 Most of my fleet would have been pristine.

The new combat system just seems much more realistic and creates a whole lot of tactical land strategic choices.

Well done