ansury

[quote]I don't want to get rid of agents, but I don't like how multiple civs ganging up on one civ ramps up that one civ's espionage costs.And I think that taking the lead militarily within the first three years should be a viable strategy, not get you dropped into the espionage economic death spiral.Also, Willy's correct, she is the proper pronoun.[/quote] Hehe, sorry about that one, blame it on all those midevil girly-man looking types with long hair, and very high desktop resolutions

Oh, wait till the first time you get 'spy spammed', or check out all the great enhancements to diplomacy after TWO expansions. (LOL, none at all!) Or... pay attention to all the new United Planets features. (LOL, nope, nothing there either!) But at least we get map editors, right? Not really, the editor sucks. It's buggy as hell and barely comes close to reflecting what you actually see in game. I mean crap, I got notepad, I could have used that as an XML editor when I was in 2nd grade

[quote]Hi, I do not have the ToA expansion but had a brief chance to play it last weekend and I must say I see most of the changes as a move backwards. I'm sure I've missed some changes, and maybe did not have enough time to appreciate those that I did notice, so I'd be very interesting in hearing what exactly in your opinion makes it a better game over GalCiv gold.Things I did notice:- New tech trees - they seem to limit the number of techs each Civ has, e.g. Terrans can only use beam weapons,

Can't get intel if you're too busy defending yourself from lame spy spam. Unless you use lame AI-metagaming tactics to avoid the spy spam, that is. So yeah, just stay a weakling (that's why it works on levels where the AI cheats I guess?), and remember that the AI won't mess with you at all if you aren't rated so high in certain areas. Then you can spy all you want, to find out just HOW much more powerful than you they are. lol

[quote]Getting rid of agents entirely is indeed forcing others to play the way you want. A toggle to switch between the systems just isn't going to happen, so stop dreaming. From what I understand of it, too much of it is hard coded into the game, otherwise you'd be seeing mods involving espionage changes. Putting two entirely separate systems in doesn't seem like it's worth the time, but maybe one of the devs will correct me on that.Just my opinion and all, but your description of what you want

[quote]I think we should toggles for everything!We already have them for victory conditions, mega events, minor races, Max CPU algorithms (whatever the hell that does), anomolies, asteroids, super abilities, etc.Why not add a toggle for espionage? And...and...spaceships? What the hell! Why am I FORCED to play this game with spaceships? I want to turn those off. I build some early on, and they aren't too expensive, but then the AI throws more and more spaceships at me, and the ones I'm force

Best guess deciphering your coded message: You have to set your game resolution ridiculously high, until everything is sized kinda goofy looking, and then you can read it? Who cares, once you know what it says you can ignore it.

Only, it's probably impossible to do this for all races, because the price you pay for agents goes up and up at a ludicrous rate. Oh well?

Forced to play what my idea of the game is? Don't be a dummy. I'm asking for a TOGGLE so people aren't forced into anything. There's plenty of other people around here that liked the old espionage better. Like I've said before, using the sliders, intel should decay with time and there should be a counter-intel slider to make enemy intel decay faster (or even prevent them from getting it in the first place). Working upgrade for the old system, and you can 'defend' against it. As for an a

[quote]First, I'm fairly sure you meant she, and second, YES. That's what I've been telling you from day one. You don't have to stay that way forever, but the first three years or so are suicide if you're foolish enough to be in first. During that time the AIs will spend their first couple dozen agents fighting each other instead of you, so when you do come out and start kicking asses, you can't get dogpiled as easily. I assume you don't declare war on everyone as soon as you meet them, why woul

[quote]1.- I would like to see a way to stop the starbase spamming (limit to their number from start, total module limit, etc)2.- Ship building queues.3.- Bring back my espionage slider for each race please. (and maintain the spies as an offensive/defensive tool)[/quote] Good ones. Starbases in stupid places (or too many of them) do suck. I think I'd also like to see a rule where they can't be placed within X number of tiles too, maybe 5 or 10 tiles, so it matters. But let people turn t

It's probably map size related or something. I know I'd suck on a large map. Also I play the level where the AI is maxed, but doesn't get 'cheat' bonuses, so it's easier. I don't even use agents. By building CE and never using them, the system doesn't exist for me. (It bores me.) Why is why I'd rather have the old sliders back, so I still get to HAVE intel on enemies without having to micromanage and retrain agents that die off in a round of being placed. And why do we have to place the

Cool cool, I found this free bik converter thingy that is also able to play the animations, so I think I'm good to go. Gonna try getting some Star Control II races ingame...hehe.

Hmm.. generate a custom map (stars and planets only). Not perfect since the map editor sucks, I know, but it's worth a try.

Yes!!! That's what I'm talking about. And that stuff wouldn't take a major overhaul either, just some additional ai flags, events, logic in the current system. An "I'll get back to you" or "I'll do it in X turns" option would be great. What kind of idiot would do something like go to war without preparing anyway? Only a Drengin - and they'd have to be dumber than average!

[quote]Then I guess my problem is that I see that expense as part of the upkeep on your fleet. If the physical defenses of your empire are costing you the ability to defend yourself against spies, you've overbuilt your fleet compared to your economy.An additional bonus of letting some other poor sucker be in first is that they absorb everyone else's cheap spies. When you take the lead later in the game, the AI spy expense is closer to your own.[/quote] Did you even read what he wrote? O

Willythelittleboy: The only good point you have was pointing out that it was the highest military rating, not economic--I was incorrectly associating the two since I see it happen often. I never said anything close to meaning the AI should only be able to use "ineffective ways" to attack. Do not try putting words into my mouth. What I said was simply that when the AI mass assaults you like this it is TOO POWERFUL of an effect and recovering from it is too difficult. This is not

Title says it all. Would be cool to be able to add a custom Ur-Quan race for example. Pics are added easily enough but there doesn't seem to be reference to animations anywhere.

Agent system works correctly? Always knocking down the top guy using this STUPID AI spam tactic sounds almost like economic socialism (since it effects the richest race's economy so much). Also sounds like an artificial crutch for the AI to use when it can't beat you with a method that you can actually defend against. CE buildings DO NOT COUNT as a defense strategy, more like a defense cheat. They effectively disable the entire espionage system for your enemies, and not all races have t

Diplomatic penalties for evil civs makes sense, but I still don't think that makes it balanced. That will only hurt you if you aren't one of the strongest races...which is easier to become because you get random help along the way. And what if the other strongest races are also evil? Or what if you're a constant warmonger anyway? It's not the biggest deal, but the ethics system should have an overhaul. The problem is, it sounds like ALOT of work to update all those events, and

[quote]* Waypoints (ability to set a route for a ship or fleet to, for example, skirt Yor territory so it can maintain speed).* Ability to spend BC on intelligence gathering without harming the target civ.[/quote] Even better to me than setting waypoints would be if pathfinding just calculated correctly. Pathfinding should take into account ASTEROID fields or other areas (like Yor) where your movement is slowed down, and look for the fastest route to the destination. There's generic pat

Yeah I know. I'd like that to stop. And getting it to stop is just a matter of giving the AI to "remember" how and why things have changed in the last (whatever#) turns and adjusting it's attitude accordingly. The AI just says STUPID things so often, it's really annoying. They can threaten us all the time, but we can't even send the most basic threat or even a rude comment. I'd like to be able to tell them where they can shove that uncalled for attitude, and what I will do to them if th

You can already do alot of the stuff in 2) by modding xml config files, if you play a custom race. Other than fixing the broken agent system, I'd wish for a much more interesting and interactive United Planets, and more diplomacy options, but I doubt they'll be happening. Why can't we threaten other races? Dammit! They can threaten us! I just had the Drengin tell me to stop building up on their borders (actually IN their borders, but whatever), and they basically told me where I could p

I've noticed this too and it seems a little lopsided towards being easier to go evil than good, even with the magnitude factored in. It's also a little weird that the good choices are always bad, the evil always beneficial. And as far as I can tell, the only real downside to being evil is that UP vote where your max number of trade routes may be limited. Which rarely happens anyway. Maybe there's others but I can't remember any.

[quote]How do I fix this? Or am I basically boned?[/quote] lol Thanks for the laugh.