Stephen Rahmann

More anomalies keeps coming up, I thought I might quickly toss in an explanation as to why that is, though I suppose the Devs have already figured this out. Anomalies can roughly be equated to the 'goody hut' from Civilisation, after all they contain techs, money, experience ect. The key difference here however is that while any Civ unit can pop a goody hut only the flagship can survey anomalies. Sure you can get survey modules by doing additional research but that tech takes quite a

Special events that disable certain victory types may seem like an exciting way to shake up the game but I can't help thinking that if the player had wanted it to be impossible to win in that manner they would have disabled it at the point of game creation. There are probably subtler ways to force a change in racial strategy. Summit of the righteous was a neat suggestion, especially because the sudden provision of Xeno Ethics allows races to pick which side they want to be on in the co

I think any mega event where a races ethics come into play is interesting. Someone mentioned earlier a super nova/space death ribbon effect. Giving players the option of leaving people to die but nabbing extra research or evacuating their people (or trying to have their cake and eat it too for neutral players) seems like an interesting event. Rather than just 'check the box' make the player actually BUILD ships and move population. Of course as someone pointed out, it might be necessary to m

Shamer12, good points on both counts. Also I suppose I neglected to mention that there is one other penalty for evil races, from what I've read evil races have a harder time making and staying friends, however from what I've seen this is not particularly demonstratable. I have not yet played the beta however and if I recall the log said they were sharpening this difference (they're coming at it sideways though, making good and neutral races

This is one of those issues that comes up with every game, balance vs realism. Why is it compulsory to be in the UP? Because evil races get a huge advantage in most respects, an advantage that is (theoretically at least) toned down by the penalties they incur in the UP. If there were no penalties for not being in the UP, then there would be no penalties for being evil and as we've all seen there's certainly penalties to be had for the othe

Just mentioning it because I haven't seen written here: Lets not forget that influence is also derived from population. A stock exchange may (or may not) be the best way to get money and an embassy the best way to get culture but if you want bonuses to both the farm is your middle road. Also, though I have no hard statistics just recollections of games past, it seems a planet with good population plus an embassy or two is FAR mor

The Yor's military might is going off the chart, only a brave alliance of all the remaining races can stop them at this point. Little do the Yor realise that the Terran's, always the alliance builders, have gone to work making just such an alliance. 'No they're way to powerful' The Altarin's said 'They're just to powerful now' the Drath put forward. 'I think I left the oven on' The Torian's added. This situation is of c

I don't think the number or nature of bills is to much of an issue as future patches and mods will no doubt add new and cool options. What I find more concerning has already been mentioned though perhaps not exactly: essentially the system is at odds with itself. On one hand we buy influence to get us more votes to win an important bill. These votes are expensive (the AI seems to want around 1bc for 1 IP which considering IP ran

I think for me the most frustrating thing is planetary defense ships, once stationed at a planet, do not provide any sensor range. If you have a sensor ship you're better off parking it next to the planet than on it. As you say though, it would still be nice to see planets increase their sight distance with research though.

Interesting, almost immediately after making this post I did in fact see the Torian's go good. Interesting that I've played so many games and only just seen that happen. Thankyou all for your input , I see now that I simply hadn't collected enough data. Also RE the good ethics techs (since it came up). Having used them personally they are handy

I saw it mentioned in ) another thread that good aligned races are getting the shaft and I want to add to that but its in such a different way that it didn't seem proper to simply add it to the other thread. Firstly I'm curious to see the response as it may invalidate my entire point: Other than yourselves and the Altarains has anyone ever seen another race select good