Wyndstar

Many of the races can really struggle early, especially when you have to worry about a colony rush. The Stellar Forge is priceless mid to late game because of its boost to ship stats. Are the Arceans really any worse off than say the Korx or Iconians or Thalans early game? The Arceans are turtle masters with the "few but powerful" concept down to a tee. If anything the problem is a lack of early game money - but if you want that changed it should be changed for everyone.

The 1 HP rule is the all offense side of the tie rule. Basically, if both sides in a combat destroy each other in the exact same round, the side with the higher total attack value survives with 1 HP. This is regardless of how many HPs that ship started with (often, only 1 HP, so they are invincible). If your side has multiple ships that are mutually destroyed, only the single strongest ship survives, the rest are destroyed. This has the effect of making Huge size hulls much more powerful whe

Agreed. All the 1hp rule does is skew endgame combat and put the AI at a disadvantage when it doesn't use an OFM. ~ Wyndstar

Here is part of one of my replies quoted from another discussion: As for dealing with super-high attack fleets, there is a pretty simple strategy for minimizing your losses by choosing which matchups you fight tactically. Against a FLEET with a large attack value, you want to send in a single kamikaze all-attack huge hull. You only lose one ship, and you will knock out the majority of the fleet. If you are facing a single all-attack huge hull, you want to send a FLEET of mostly defense

Aww, well I kind of like the that you can finally make your cargo hulls into real fighters with the +hp module. Although I absolutely agree they now dominate early game. Still, it is not as cost effective to add bunches of those modules vs. just researching the better hull types. But under the current implementation there is a new kind of game you can play (and I like to just for fun): The all cargo ship empire. Never use anything but cargo hulls all game! This has got to me my fav

The AI is often very predictable in the ships it builds to fight against you. Generally very few engines, and mostly all attack, with the possibility of a little defense thrown on if it thinks its figured out which gun you like to use most. This single minded sort of approach is very easy to overcome with just a little bit of practice at fighting ships like this. Now, no design is going to be perfect, as there is a constant arms race going on in a given game state and both sides are t

[quote]Putting it another way, do you think taking out these support items weakens the AI significantly, by cutting down income, influence or production?[/quote] This is the better way to look at it. First, remember its a game. If it is more fun for you to go romping around destroying soft targets... have at it. But weakens the AI significantly? Only military resources are worth the effort. No other resource contributes enough to how the AI runs its empires to have any mean

I find myself often... almost exclusively using cargo hulls for early game now. Every race has at least one +hp module that is small but expensive... and some have as many as three (Terran Huge hulls with +800 hp, and that only takes up 1/3 of your slots. Oooooh yeah! Who cares that it costs you an extra 8k bc per ship??) Given that you can have +HP modules, I sometimes never get around to researching medium fighters. Somewhere between +20 and +25 hp to your cargo hull is just fine.

[quote]Assuming that you don't have a very good fix on what offensive types the alien ships are going to have[/quote] Well, it is best to tailor your force to your foe, rather than having a generic design. But marching on with this as a premise... [quote]which would you rather build? Can you explain in terms of what happens in combat why you would select one over the other?[/quote] Whether I had super warrior ability (only Arceans and Custom Races) and my logistics size would p

I like the idea, although I'm not sure on your numbers. Seems to me I already build capital ships that easily come in at 4-5k bc. I can't remember the base cost of the hull... but you are suggesting pushing the cost of those super ships to what? 8k? Maybe. I really liked the DA addition of making the larger hull sizes a "big deal" to quote Frogboy by making them bigger in just about every way. Fewer capital ships... but still HAVING capital ships would be a great feel. Currently t

[quote]4) In case of a draw (both ships/fleets get destroyed), the side with the most starting hp wins.[/quote] Actually, the side with the higher attack wins. This is how you can build those unkillable huge hulls that spend the whole game at 1 HP toasting fleet after fleet. This is also true of the reverse tie - where both fleets survive after 50 rounds. In this case, the side with the lower attack is just deleted... even if it never took damage! [quote]One possible way to

[quote]There's one major problem with the Iconians: They're nearly impossible to play with the "No Tech Trading" option.[/quote] I disagree. And the same can be said of the Thalans. I actually think, on balance, the Thalans (no basic production buildings of either kind, no farms ever, only start out able to build embassies) "need" tech trading more than any other race. In any case, if the difficulty is low enough, you can win with any race without tech trading (I can win with all TA

And to add to Iztok's great summary of the situation... Things get a little more complicated in TA, for several reasons. Initial farms only offer 2 food, giving you a wider range of possibilities. Some races have buildings that offer 1 food. This gives you the ability, at least in theory, to more easily craft worlds with very specific population points. Global Morale Ability (MA as Iztok abbreviates it) is still the ultimate variable you want to take into consideration. But

Personally I like the Jagged Knife. Its fun to be kept on your toes. If you don't want your game thrown out of whack randomly, you can always turn mega events off. ~ Wyndstar

[quote]Yet, three of the AI's were awarded military scores between 3,300 and 3,800 and my score was something like 2,400. The crusher was given a lower score than the crushees.[/quote] [quote]Reply# 160: When did you do what?[/quote] Get a higher mil score early, crushed or not, you get a higher score. ~ Wyndstar

Well, I stand corrected. My apologies. I just got done testing it, and of course the others are right, scc stacks, as do military effects on ships in orbit. In my defense, if there can be one, :) , I haven't tested this since DA 1.5 when I was giving the new combat system a complete test. I swear there was a build in DA where the two didn't mesh, but given the evidence against me I could be remembering that wrong as well. Of course, that gives me something new to try now...<

[quote]Do you ever try to contruct it so your SCC planet falls into at least part of the array?[/quote] Ships in orbit don't benefit from the boosts of a military starbase, so you can't stack a military starbase array with the SCC. The only thing mumble didn't mention as far as I can tell is that the way to get the most out of the famed "military SB array of huge score" is that you should use tiny hulls with only 1 attack and 1 defense. Keep your upkeep as small as possible so

[quote]Explanation, anyone? Thanks. [/quote] When did you do what? Researching 60 techs in year 1 is worth a lot more than having researched 60 by year 4. The AI is generally great out of the gate, then mismanages its money and crashes... but great out of the gate will lead to a decent score in whatever area they focused on. - Wyndstar

[quote]my Dionysus character best. god. ever.[/quote] I'll fight you there. I worship Ishtar. There is no god ever better than Ishtar. Female goddess of love, fertility AND war? Sacred prostitution rituals? Do I need to go on? ~ Wyndstar Edit: [link="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishtar"]Wiki on Ishtar[/link]

Log log log log.... What rolls down stairs alone or in pairs, and over your neighbor's dog? What's great for a snack, And fits on your back? It's log, log, log It's log, it's log, It's big, it's heavy, it's wood. It's log, it's log, it's better than bad, it's good." Everyone wants a log You're gonna love it, log Come on and get your log Everyone needs a log log log log.... Great to hear about the update tomorrow

Ren and Stimpy? Really? ~ Wyndstar

OvermindPrime - I agree I think. In reply #1 in this thread I said: [quote]Some of the new tech trees have some interesting choices (Terrans can't get Starbase projection I until [I]after[/I] starbase fortification III.[/quote] And actually, NO ONE can get the starbase projection techs until after starbase fort III. I don't really like this change as it removes simple weapon boosting early game. Also, once you decide to research starbase tech the first thing you learn h

[quote]Either situation is not optimal[/quote] I agree, which is why I support randomly setting it per round. Lots of opinions... Glad I'm not the one who has to make the final call ;) ~ Wyndstar

Yeah, I also give influence starbases when score grinding... and I also give every influence tech I research to the last AI. And I also usually make sure the last planet I give them has the restaurant of eternity on it. Its still a constant problem... too much influence that is. I know you won't get it soon, but in TA many of the Drengin buildings come with a - influence effect, which as you would imagine helps a lot in score grinding situations. I consider myself taunted. I

Yeah, some fair points brought up here. Some of my criticisms of the Thalans bring in broader AI holes which you can exploit with anyone. My point here is that these long extant AI holes really hurt the current Thalans. At least when the Drengin don't rebuild over tiles they are already filled with slave pits so they are useful. The Thalans are the only AI stuck with worlds filled with Embassies. @ Starstricker - good points. I can use the Thalans fine up to Masochistic. But at su