ACS_Solver

Notice that most changes are superficial, and triggered by other additions. I don't agree. Espionage or super-abilities aren't "triggered by other additions", as far as I understand. Superficial? Yes, some of the additions are somewhat superficial. The espionage additions aren't terribly in-depth, the diplomatic treaties are definitely a superficial addition. But nonetheless, for me, all those things work well together. In my experience with DA, the smal

Iceman, From where I'm standing, even your post shows that DL is a great expansion. For most expansions, you don't get to list nearly as many things that they change. My favorite TBS game is Civ4. The first expansion, Warlords, is pretty average IMO. Without going into relatively small details such as changes in unit statistics, the list of additions would be a much shorter one. DA's scope is great. I do agree with some of your points, such as the treaties. In 1.5 at least, the

Yeah. I've played some of it after writing my review, and remain at my opinion. It surely has its flaws, many of which I have discussed, and I have my doubts about some of the balance issues (such as ship defense), but it's amazingly good for an expansion. I don't pretend, though, to have as much experience with the game as many of the people here - most of my playtime is spent on upcoming Civ4 versions.

Crappy double post.

Yes, but that slider is exactly my problem - and Phillip's, I believe. How precisely can you drag the slider? Unless you do it excruciatingly slow, you'll only see how much gold the AI will give you *approximately*. And if you want to have the exact maximum amount they would give, you still need to jump through some hoops - in other words, it simply takes too many clicks, where it should be one.

I originally posted it on Apolyton on the 18th of February - IIRC, that's around a week after Dark Avatar was released. Thanks Brad for putting it up, I haven't checked out 1.6 yet, but two months later I remain firm in my opinion that Dark Avatar is absolutely one of the best expansion packs in the industry.

Mega events are not only unbalanced, I think they're also not meant to appeal to all players. Just turn them off if you find yourself frustrated by them. You'll still get the non-mega random events, which can be a sudden challenge, but I don't think you can really call any of the non-mega events game-enders.

The larger question is what are we here for?Are we here for pleasure?Or is there a greater purpose for being here?In a society where basic needs are met when you can play on the computer ,go to a movie, have access to copious amounts of food and such it is possible to spend a greater portion of your time investing in such activities. A person's basic needs are served by having food and shelter. The real basic needs are the needs to eat, drink, sleep and

my personal belief is that it's not an addictive personality so much as a repulsive society. the world out there is crazy, full of inhumanity and despair, and the people in it can be vindictive, petty, judgmental and small. a lot of time it's simply easier and less painful to stay in and keep to yourself, but that doesn't mean i think it's a good idea to do so. The world may be crazy, but don't you agree that there are people who are - naturally - i

My personal belief is that there are people with addictive personalities and without. The former have a high probability of getting addicted to something - not games necessarily, anything. Can be TV. Can be games. Can be clubbing. Something. People without an addictive personality, however, are very unlikely to get really addicted to anything, except for things which cause addiction on a physiological level, such as most drugs. Video games, in my opinion, get a bad rap simply because th

That event takes one random unhabitable planet and gives it to the Dread Lords. They get no ships initially, so in all likelihood, a nearby AI civ sent a couple of Transports to the planet, taking it over. The event can be quite weak if someone has the capacity to invade the planet in short-term.

The average player can just look at the attack/defense/HP values when comparing 2 fleets and decide based on that. Most of the time, that should give a fair indication of how the fleets compare even without going in-depth with dice rolls, ships hitting multiple targets, etc.

Creativity is certainly poorly worded. Sounds like a chance to suddenly discover a tech you don't know (and aren't researching), but it's not.

Yep, the Torian theme isn't similar to Civ3. Well, it has a very slight similarity to the (Indian?) Civ3 theme, but it's a very superficial similarity.

He originally reported this over at Apolyton , and with the Randomize Intelligence option being off, the intelligence would have to be appropriate... of course, double-checking would be in order.

Thanks Brad, worked like a charm! Of course, just as I need to go to bed . The new game setup screen is awesome, though - only I can't figure out why Netro Mancer has been replaced by his girlfriend .

This is why I really should have been an archeologist instead of getting into this computer stuff. Computers are NOT our friends. No. They're our masters. /hides

Ditto. New account, GC2 Gold -> GC2 activates, DA doesn't. Should everyone affected email support, or can we expect them to fix it on Stardock's end? This does seem to be a problem of the Gold key not working for DA...

Pretty awesome. Downloading through SC as I type this - if only you had an EU download server, I'd be all sorts of thrilled, as the download speeds I'm getting are atrocious. Anyway, I'm looking forward to trying DA, and will, in all likelihood, be posting my review at Apolyton. EDIT: Here's a thought, maybe you Stardock guys could also make a torrent out of this, available to purchasers. Immediately after release, with many people downloading, that would ensure good speeds.

Congratulations to Brad and co!

I'm not very competitive in games by nature - that is, I enjoy some competition, but I never have scores or such get in the way of fun. I really can't see myself going for crazy population growth just for the sake of inflating my score through population. But I'll enjoy the metaverse I'm quite sure. No empire for me, by the way .

Well, I can only thank you for this amazingly insightful opinion

Today, I had the AI attack me with very defense-oriented ships. Drath had frigates with like 4 beam attack and 12 shield defense, or somesuch. And guess what, fleets of similar ships quickly dealt with my fleets of all weapons no defense ships. So I decided to counter by building my own ships with lots of defense, and they were effective. It's funny when you have two fleets fighting, one like 16 attack 40 defense, vs. another with 20 attack 54 defense, or similar numbers. Battles of suc

Acrecians are Arceans that have been taken over by Netro Mancer . I just tried to see what happens if you set up all trade routes with the same civ - it's a pretty good way to ally with them, even now. A pretty massive relations boost. So it's something to keep in mind for when you really want an alliance.

You get more money from traderoutes with minors, and they can sell you tech that no one else can or will. Isn't that enough of a reason to keep them around, in some cases at least?