I had the fracking Drengin do this to me while we were supposedly conquering the galaxy together... Frigates and Vengeances and Super Dominator Corvettes (oh my) didn't leave my not-so-well defended starbases with much of a chance, although I had decent high-defence ships by this point so I could laugh off everything but the newest frigates.
If anyone knows, I'd be interested to hear how much Super Manipulator saves on buying wars. It's a lot more useful in TA with the new Drath tech tree & war profit, but I've not been able to figure out how much value for money I get (it "feels" like it works, since everyone's too busy to attack me and I'm loaded...) Also, if anyone knows how the number of Super Dominator Corvettes per war is determined I'd be interested, I've played a couple of games where Drengin have started several wars in qui
[quote]...it makes me very said when it triggers when I have 1 turn left till I aquire the technology[/quote] I don't mind this - not if I get the next one for free! [I]Very[/I] useful, if a bit cheap.
You know, I was wondering why none of the minor races had been extincted so far in my beta 5 game (gigantic map, still haven't found half the blighters yet), this might just explain it. Will investigate further...
[quote]I have made it a habit to sell the basic military techs to all the races. This includes everything up to all weapon and defense theory techs. If you gave everyone this, it seems to deal with the early surrender syndrome that you are encountering. (It also gives me a early economic boost to boot, but that is just a nice side effect.)Scincerely,[email protected][/quote] Interesting, will try that next time I play with tech trading on. My last couple of games have been blighted by unn
Definitely keep the improvements coming - smart opponents are so much more satisfying to screw over! First attempt (as a custom race using the Iconian tech tree) met with swift defeat at the hands of the Drengin. In my current game I'm in my "comfort zone" - big map, 9 painful opponents, playing as Drath, avoiding conflict - so I've avoided too many nasty experiences so far (apart from Ascension crystals hiding in stars...). The Torians, Yor, Korath, Drengin and Krynn seem to be behavin
Custom Races - fantastic, and good timing as I think I've had a go with every standard race now. Now, let's see what this thing can do...
I had a game with the Krynn where this happened, about half of the techs I researched in the game got creativity boosts. First game with TOA and it helped me fight off some unusually aggressive Terrans (they conquered the Drengin early, but maybe it rubbed off on them...). Since then, however, it hasn't appeared nearly as often even when I research or trade the creativity boosting techs. I don't know if luck interacts with it: +50% luck from bonuses and parties hasn't helped my Arceans
This event happens to me quite a lot - not as often as the Jagged Knife, who I seem to get every other game and now just take as a given, but more often than Mega-Pirates, Plague etc. Consequently I always start building CECs early. I've learned to love them despite their expense as even in uneventful games they keep me from wasting too many spies on countering, not to mention the handy morale boost (on less populous world's I rarely need a separate morale building. Anyway, they obviously pay fo
[quote]Really, cool I'll have to check when I get home. I normally only check on a Thursday evening since they normal release between 10 and 11.30 pm on a Thursday (UK Time). P.S. In that case I can't help.[/quote] Meh, try living in Dubai - I have to wait until [I]Friday[/I] to see anything, if the internet is even working (which is not as often as you'd think for a (hyper)modern city). Still, Fridays are local day off, so always have time to check out the latest. I'm crossing
[quote] The last beta, beta 4C, was the first one to provide updated AI to the minor races. We haven't seen too many reports on any differences in their behavior. We'll be making a lot more tweaks to them. Basically, minor races will behave the same as major races in the final version except that they won't colonize new planets. But they'll invade, research, and just generally behave smarter than they have in the past. [/quote] Actually just started a game on 4C, against
[quote]I LIKE when the minors take resources, its like they're being nice and holding them for me until i can get around to gobbling them up. [/quote] Particularly endearing is their habit of going to great effort to fortify their starbases while not building a single defender on their world, just so that no race with a military doctrine that favours attacking starbases over ground invasions can swoop in while my transports chug halfway across the galaxy... If I was a Lentzland
Agreed - Knife/I-League/Fundies should definitely act as majors. If an insurgency or alliance can become that powerful they should use major AI, exert influence and apply to be UP members (that would be cool to vote on too - to recognise them, or leave them as outlaws?), as well as being much smarter about tech and ships. Jagged Knife have only ever been a speedbump at worst to me - I've never permenantly lost a planet to them. A genuine I-Leage would be fantastic for shaking up the ga
I played as humans in my last game (Immense, common planets, painful, and admittedly I did take maximum economic bonus as I wasn't sure what I'd be up against in first game on painful and 4b). I managed to get a few decent colonies and culture-flip Mars from the Dregin, almost all of which I left for a while with a few basic buildings or even just a recruiting centre. I also built the restaurant of eternity and an econ capital on Earth, along with lots of trade and influence-boosting buildings.
In my current game, the Thalan built the Hyperion Matrix on a 100% food bonus tile, giving Thala a max population of 32 billion! I found the Thalan very useful in this game (Immense, uncommon planets), as my Terrans abused massive diplomacy and economy bonuses to stalk the Thalan around the galaxy, buying their better-quality worlds and encircling their influence-heavy core until they realised their mission was futile and they unexpectedly surrendered to me without a shot fired. With my empi
[quote] I've found that since I started playing the beta I'm using the ship designer less, simply because I'm so much more into enjoying the personality of each race. Oddly, I use it more because of that. I'm designing a unique style for each race. [/quote] I imagine in time I'll do this - I'd certainly like to get better at making ships, but I'm just getting too much of a kick out of messing around with the new tech trees and tend to skip sh
[quote] I went right after the techs to colonize the best uninhabitable planets, some of them Class 12 and 10, and got maybe 8 of them. Well, it may be strange to heard, but did you know that some very nice uninhabitable planets are class 1 or 2 initially. Terraforming can be very incredible on those planets .... [/quote] I haven't seen so many of these since I started playing TA - there seem to be fewer extreme worlds on most
I've found that since I started playing the beta I'm using the ship designer less, simply because I'm so much more into enjoying the personality of each race. I expect that when the custom races are back I'll get right back into it though, as I like to roleplay my custom races and feel that they deserve fitting ships that look different from whichever style I'm based on. It helps me develop their personality, which in turn affects my strategies. With the standard races, I'm happy to use template
[quote] I find it interesting to note that the first, most easily obtainable regular planetary improvement available to the Thalans is the simple Embassy. heh. Yep, that would be why all the AI Thalan planets are filled with them. [/quote] Having played and won a game as the Thalans (with econ and creativity bonuses to ease the pain), I decided to play against them only to find entire planets covered in cultural exchange centres. With the
[quote]Finally got it to update. Go to the Stardock Icon and click run as an Administrator and it will update. [/quote] Cheers, that was causing me some consternation...
Sorry for double post, just thought it might be interesting to offer some unique techs to offset this event, but with the twist being that they're affected by ethics - so neutral could get "hyperspace navigation" techs for a small speed boost and/or extra income from ships travelling through your territory (i.e. being "guided" by navigation-enhanced ships); good could get some sort of morale, planet quality or research bonus from the collective effort to save the universe, or perhaps improved se
[quote] Jagged Knife: What I do: Go to full military spending, change all production to transports, and conquer the Knife guys before they build ships to defend my worlds. What the computer does: Nothing. Immediately after the event is the most convenient time to crush the Knife, which the AI just doesn't. [/quote] The only time I've encountered the Knife since starting TA(and not saved/reloaded because of the irritating auto-ascendency), I was second to some very aggressive Ter
[quote]i have been wondering who made me declare war at times. when i didn't do no such thing. the message is usually like "you have just declared war on _________________" [/quote] This happened to me in a (Drath-free) game of DA once. I was allied to the Iconians, with treaties and trade with them. They had reasonable relations (friendly or warm I think) with the Yor, with whom I was at war, and mid-rampage through the Yor fleet I was notfied that I had declared war
[quote]The only question I'm still pondering (as I haven't gotten much gameplay in since the holidays) is if the War Tax affects War Profiteering or not. If WP is bringing in a % of the races final income, then perhaps I won't want to have a War Tax, as that'll be less money for me... [/quote] Hmm, interesting, it hasn't come up at the UP yet but if it does I'll see if it has an effect...
The Knife are both great fun and a total pain, and you can usually count on them to walk off with at least one of your really good worlds/trade goods/wonders at the worst possible time. They tend to take my less vital worlds though so I don't get as hobbled as you seem to have been, although on a gigantic map they did once take away all but one of my distant worlds, leading to a rather epic reconquest (spore ships helped). Conversely, they're handy if you're lagging - same game was utterly domin
