Zippyriver

The ground invasion in Pirates is fantastic. If GC2 had that it would hush a lot of ppl. But yeah, the rest does get repetitive fairly quick.

Wartime expences can be devastating, no doubt about that. There are things you can do to counter each of your concerns. 1>* maintenance on ships getting high as my fleet gets big 2>* loss of taxes as population gets put on invasion transports 3>* sudden added cost of colony maintenance when I conquer planets 1> Watch

I place hyperion buildings on small planets (although I do build a factory first). It is not a big issue with the time to build as it is not something you have to worry about being beaten to. No sense wasting a tile on those on your "wonder planet". Granted, I would not place one on a planet that was in danger of flipping. I have read that the AI will buy things if it has the BC to do so.

A 2 engine limit might be harder to code than you might think. The AI builds ships with more than 2 engines all the time, and speed 16 AI ships is not uncommon. The problem with fast ships is the AI can't determine potential threats from ships that move faster than 8 or so. So if you hard code a two engine limit, the AI will have to be worked on to deal with those limits (since it exceeds 2 engines itself). And that still won't help the "8 move limitations" as just 2 advanced engines will pa

Perhaps what needs to be worked on, is how they sue for peace. "Oops, we over estimated our forces. Here is (insert tech/bc) if you just forget the whole thing". Would be better than an inappropriate surrender.

Beer weapons. Of course you have to roll down the window before...launching the attack, but your bladder will be gladder. Only available if you have neglected the diplomacy tech branch. cow cannon? rofl. MOOve out of my way. (just be careful igniting the methane)

But it makes more sense to knock out 2 3/4 at once, than it does to chip away at 1/10 of 10 ships each time - if you get my drift. I don't disagree, from a game play perspective. And I was not talking about halving and spreading damage every round. Only the last one, to simulate the odd shots of fleet to fleet combat. I seriously doubt that i

I like it the way it is. The majority of the time, you certainly want your ships in a fleet. But it's nice to know fleets have a bit of an Achilles heel against that "Last Star Fighter" . After a fleet combat when you pull the damaged ship out, is a good time to go 1V1 hunting on the way to a planet for repairs. Maybe once per game I will lose a ship that way because of a lucky AI defense roll, but the

As far as I know, that bonus increases ship production.

The game was designed around the assumption that ships would top out at speeds of around 6 to 8 moves per turn. That means the AI was designed looking for ships that might be getting tops in that area. <img src="http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/3281/uhhuhmm5.th.jpg" b

Sounds a little like the Stars! model. You only have so much fuel. Traveling at base speed has little or no effect. Traveling at lower speeds increases fuel supply (ram scoops), over base line uses fuel expotentially. Although, most ppl won't care if their transports get there with no gas left over. It would probably require a major code change tho, and nerfing is easier. edit: how

you have 10 supreme dreadnaughts in a fleet and attack one lone 90% dead crappy frigate, FYI: Don't use fleets in that situation. When ships are one on one, and both ships would end up destroyed, the attacker will survive. One VS one is how I deal with those 187 attack merchant ships (and any other similar single battle situations). All I hav

I have not tried it with factories yet, as I am trying to fix holes in my game instead of using work-arounds. But, I know for a fact you can have two levels of buildings with labs. If you skip Xeno Research (leaving it un-researched) and obtain the next level (research centers) from the AI in trade, you will have the option of building either one (basic lab, or RC). I believe this works with all improvements, and at all building levels but I have not tested each one. Of course you have to wa

Do starbases themselves gain experience when they win battles? Yes. But it is not enough of a gain to worry about from what I have seen (Took 3 wins to get to level 1), and damage repair is oh so slow. The time y

If the two of you have such a problem, take it to email or drop it. I'm not going to tolerate it here. See. If the game had multiplayer they could slug it out to their heart's content.

I trade techs, but I am typically stingy and don't do very much of that. It's hard to give a good tech up. Thats why when you do trade techs, cut it loose to all the AIs. That way you get the maximum return for your tech and the AI can't trade it away as (most)everyone has it. And techs you get back in trade, do the same thing. And don't for

Did you check the Save Ships to Hard Drive box in the Options menu? That does not fix the problem. I run into that on occasion (like when the game crashes right after designing a ship). It's a big pita imo. I would really like to see an option in the ship builder to "restore obsolete ships" that would include non-listed new designs.

OK, first off, don't just seek out high-quality planets. Colonise everything you come across. That is very map dependent. I play large galaxies with occasional habital planets (9 AI), and often I am lucky to reach 4 planets before they are all gone. Cherry-picking planets is not an option. <TABLE cellpadding=8 width="95%" align=center

I try to not rely on trade routes for income. At best, they are only a means to an end, as you eventually will lose ALL your trade routes. Instead, I focus on tax income and morale, and have no problem having idle planets. If your facing a large expence, shut down those constructor pumps for a number of turns. I know for your current game it's like closing the barn door after the horses got out, but I try to plan my wars a little bit, in that I not only want to design and build/upgra

Since I'm apparently on a biblical platitude kick, I always liked "remember Lot's wife". (you can keep your terror stars, ty. salt anyone?) You, I and everyone else on this forum knows who they are. </t

I usually am the one doing the attacking so those single run-ins are not that common. I do like to move my ships in two fleets. One has the fodder, the other has the majors. Then, before engaging an enemy fleet/planet I combine what is necessary. Sometimes I have to pull a big ship out of the fleet because of the minor attacks, but not often.

I post to the Metaverse, but not for any paticular reason. I realy don't care about scores, and milking a game for points, is unbearable imo. I like the building and expanding part of the game, not the built already and now to mop it up. I played ONE massive galaxy and it nearly ruined the game for me. After a point, the map does get tedious so I found the setting that I extract the most fun out of (large/occ/com/com 9 random). I don't care about the empire part either. I use my ow

I use a combo late game. I try to put enough tiny/small (weapons only) ships to absorb 2-3 rounds to help protect my large ones. Usually the smaller ships take each other out and then it's head to head. With appropriate defensives and weapons, the AI uber ships can be taken out.

Drat. And I was hoping for some insight on game economics. (Golden Rule: The one that has the gold, makes the rules)

I pick some off the wall name that tends fit the bling, tho not always. Some names are standards, like: New Horizons: colony ship Skyball: sensor array Merchanteer: trade ship Constructor: obvious Thief: anomaly nabber And names like Python, Hunter, Predator, Big Spender, Walnut, Pancake, ect.. for the warships/defenders. I am thinking about a new design that has a one engine limit and calling it the "frogboy" (wink. j/k) I follow the name