Mac2411

[quote]I've stopped using the Thalens as AI enemies on my games, it's not fun when you can predict the entire galaxy culture-flipping to the Thalens -every single time-. [/quote] Seriously, I have yet to see this happen-even playing painful level and above. The Thalans have yet to cutlture flip a single planet in any game I've played. They do, however, regularly build one of the most formidable war machines in the game. Perhaps this is because I'm playing large or huge galaxies with

I too have noticed that the Thalans build a lot of embassies. However, I've yet to see them culture flip a single planet. Further, they are regularly one of the more powerful AI races in my games and I think that giving them factories early on would really unbalance things too far in their favor.

In my experience the Peacekeepers attack everyone and everything in their paths regardless of location on the map. I know that doesn't quite fit the description given, but that is what they do. I believe the Devs have stated they are working exactly as intended.

[quote]I haven't seen the Thalans do anything but build embassies, and their colonies never even get close to a billion pop. If they've built a single warship since they arrived in TA I haven't seen it.[/quote] This is not reflective of my experience with them. In every game I've played, the Thalan have had one of the most powerful militaries in the game.

[quote]I think full maintenance for ALL ships is an excellent idea. Minifreighters are already exempted (unless it's displayed wrongly in the leases/maintenance tab), and it prevents the player from hoarding transports or constructors like there's no tomorrow. Something like half maintenance for ships in planetary orbit that didn't move in the previous turn should be considered, but I really don't see why you should be able to operate a ship a a freebie simply because it has no weapons built on

Quite honestly, I don't think I've ever even built a military starbase in any game I've played. Even if starbases were strengthened, I probably wouldn't build many if any. Fleets are where it's at and I recognize that-I think I've repeatedly stated that the starbase would ultimately still require fleet support to survive long term but that the one ship, one shot destruction of a leviathan starbase just really should not (in my subjective opinion) be possible. With a starship versus starship,

We clearly disagree. So much of this is subjective, I don't think we're ever going to come to middle ground. Rather than addressing all of the points you raise, which is more time than I have available, I will address a few of them. [quote]The starship costs for maintaining a fleet are already massive. Using Constructors instead will be cheaper. [/quote] True, but if you already have a juggernaut of a starfleet ready to attack the enemy as soon as your constructors finish building

[quote]Just thought of one other really, really needed item -> right now when you direct more ships to a planet than it's starport can support they seem to just disappear. no warning, no nothing. [/quote] Wow, I never noticed that before. I rarely fill up starports though. I would agree that implementation of your idea would be a good thing.

Roxlimn, Like I said, reasonable minds can differ. Still, I think you should carefully reread my post because I don't think it states quite what you think it does. [quote]That line of thought goes to "reasonability." Many of the points of discussion here focus on "defense." That a Starbase ought to be able to "defend" itself. The problem is that allowing even "just" a Military Starbase to "defend" itself essentially turns it into an instant attacking juggernaut.[/quote]

This doesn't add much, but I like the new economic system. More challenging is a good thing. Quite frankly, ships were far too cheap before and economies probably should not be able to run at 100% all of the time.

[quote]- Edit. I'd still fly right past them every time. [/quote] As well you should, if you can. Let me preface that this post is not intended to be solely directed at the poster whom I quote here (he or she has made good points as have others) but is a commentary on the debate taking place as a whole in this thread. I am about to restate what I see as the obvious here, so everyone please bear with me. I agree with some that have posted in this thread that military starbas

[quote]Just to make a point, but a starbase is a sitting duck for any ship that can lug a large enough and dense enough object up to a decent fraction of light speed, or for that matter a single battleship or dreadnought class ship with high end railguns. It sits still, it does not matter how many offensive or defensive weapons it has. It sits still, you throw a big enough fast enough rock at it, its dead. [/quote] This viewpoint pretty well undermines nearly all of the imaginary princi

[quote]Abundant/Abundant/Abundant for habitable worlds, planets, and stars. I was playing the Korath, and I'd put three points in +Research. I was also running at 50/0/50 until I was done colonizing, and switched to 0/50/50 and 100% spending. Research speed currently scales according to number of worlds - so you're going for rare, and seeing fast research and I'm going for abundant and seeing slow research. What's needed isn't a general "slow everything down" change, but a cha

[quote]A few of my observations. Not too original, but they haven't been fixed. 3. Arcean continue to struggle against other races. 4. Creativity out of control. 5. Tech reseach is too fast. [/quote] I agree with 3-these guys need some additional help. Perhaps the Stellar Forge could be further enhanced. I disagree with 4-I like it just the way it is but also admit that it would not kill me if it went back to the way it was before or was nerfed back to a

[quote]Last night, I started a game on Very Slow, and it was incredibly slow. I mean, 77 turns to research planetary invasion slow. I think it varies from game to game. I don't think this was "too fast" or that the research needed to be "significantly slowed down." [/quote] That's just amazing to me-just incredible. What race are you playing and what are your picks? At what level was your economy running? I ask these questiosn because I've NEVER seen it take that long for AN

I agree. In fact, while I recognize that some folks out there may differ, in my opinion the research rate is way too fast on any galaxy size, even with rare habitable planets and tech set at "very slow." My observation is that this rate for research is something new for Beta 4 and 4a. Beta 3 through 3d seemed much better in overall speed, i.e., they were slower. It would be nice if either the overall rate was slowed down, or, even better, new slower research rate settings were allo

[quote]It will always hang if you accidentally 'blind' navigate your ship into a star. Happens a lot when I'm using ships to explore. The 'Find' button will not work in these circumstances. [/quote] Yep. I can usually find the ship causing the problem in a few seconds by just scanning the map. That exercise was not necessary in prior non-Beta versions of GalCiv II-it was automatic that a ship stood down when you ordered it into a square into which it could not move. I've no

[quote]I haven't had any economical problems but i think the 20000bc limit is back in the game. [/quote] The 20k limit, if there, is not absolute in my experience. I've gone into six digits playing the Terrans in Beta 4 and 4a. That being said, I have noticed in some games that right around 20k bc, income becomes restricted or even goes into negative growth so there could be some kind of "limit" there.

It's all a question of taste. Personally, I like the way Creativity works now better than before. Not that the old way didn't work just fine in my mind as well.

[quote]The Thalans can only build two starbase mining modules (for a total of +14%) out of their own tech tree, is that intentional?[/quote] I believe this is intentional.

This bug was supposed to have been resolved with Beta 4A. I had it in the previous version of TA, but have not had it since upgrading to Beta 4A. Fallows, have you upgraded?

I have now started to see other races with invisible ships. In fact, the longer the game went on, the more "invisible" ships "appeared." When I attacked those fleets or ships, the game crashed. I've already submitted the appropriate files to Stardock. I was unable to complete that game because of the crashes. In something that might be related, I've also noticed the reappearance of the blank ship component thumbnails. So far, no crashes from those. I'm also noticing that the game ca

I've had the chance to get well into a game with Beta 4A and can say that from my perspective it is a VAST improvement over Beta 4 in terms of playability, i.e., the ability to play without the game crashing or freezing up to any degree. The invasion bug and the "unresponsive game" bugs do indeed appear to be fixed. I've not experienced either. That being said, I am still "seeing" the invisible Drengin Super Dominator Corvettes. It's minor and does not affect game play to any great degree bu

[quote]The Terrans have a huge economic bonus however. Trading for economic bonuses usually helps me, however IMO the game should be perfectly playable for each race without needing to trade for other race's unique bonuses. That said, this is beta. I'm patiently waiting to see what comes up through further testing. The races all need a little or a lot of rebalancing and I'm pretty sure SD knows this. [/quote] True. You'll get no disagreement from me on these points.

[quote]I love the fully built out starbases in the early to mid game. Just leave a maxed starbase of any sort on the border with your enemy, and watch it eat their entire fleet. The AI is obsessed with them, and will continue sending little fleets of small ships to give you free experience. Later on, yes, they are pathetically fragile. [/quote] Precisely. Often I won't even bother building expensive fleets to any great extent (especially now) until later in the game because a well outf