Just a question - If I am going to attack a planet with planetary fleet defenses or ground defenses (I can't remember their names), why wouldn't I just drop a spy on them and then attack? Since the effect is immediate and the defender has no time to counteract the spying, doesn't this strategy render all defensive buildings useless? Dano
Hi There, I was having a great time putting the boots to the Korath with their own weapon (see my post on Spore Bugs). Anyway they only had three colonies left and I clicked Next Turn. Well the button didn't come back. The game didn't crash - I could still move around and even managed (I think) to save the game. So I have the save game available, and since that was my last turn I have the Debug.err as well. Sorry, I didn't have SmartException - I will install that next time
Wow do I love the super abilities. Anyway, I was a super diplomat making the galaxy dance to my tune. I started Sacking Korath colonies and was surprised when I managed to snag the Spore Technology. So I started cranking out Spore ships and sure enough they worked! 1) Not sure if this is a bug, but it does seem overpowered that I can steal acquire another race's super ability. 2) I saw the Korath cranking out lots of spore ships, but no transports. Spore ships are kind of
I recently had the event occur in my Mid-late game stage. It was very cool, and forced me to change my game strategy (I was an arms dealer). The ships came in, wrecked havoc for the first two turns (For some reason this included one factory starbase in a sector that I owned - they ignored the other factory starbases that were right beside it). The strange thing was, after the first one or two turns, the ships seemed to go to sleep. They didn't do anything. I don't know if this is be
I know that in DA we have agents that we use to wreck havoc on other races, however - how do we do generic Espionage. You know, gathering info on other races worlds, star bases, preventing random events from starting wars - that stuff. The espionage slider no longer exists under the races profile in the foreign policy tab. Also - Is it just me, or does the counter espionage building wipe out the usefulness of agents? One tile is a small price to pay for making your planet immune to sp
Anyone else have any thoughts on this? Dano
I agree with Jeff Graw ... giving racial penalties as well as abilities would really help in making unique racial flavours. I talk about this as well as other issues in my post: https://forums.galciv2.com/?forumid=357&aid=136564#1058588 Dano
When you customize an opponent you can select "No Super abilities". That is cool, since otherwise the super abilities would get kind of tired, but the race should get something for not having any super abilities. For example, more Racial abilities over and above the standard 10. Dano
Sounds like this should be an online poll. I thought it was kind of neat ... but honestly? I have more fun making epic stories (i.e. playing the game) rather than reading about them. I don't need a story to tell me how the game went, after all, I was there. I probably would have used the feature once or twice and then forgot about it. Just my 2 BC Dano
Here are my thoughts on the Espionage System so far. The Espionage System is okay (The little spy icon though with the fedora is VERY cool. Kudos to whoever designed it), but its nothing really revolutionary. I know this is just a beta, and this is why I am posting my thoughts here. These are suggestions, not complaints. Of course - in all fairness, when was the last time that you played a game with a REVOLUTIONARY espionage system? They all boil down to the same thing. I
Here are my thoughts on the Custom Opponents. The general template that you pick "Generic, Human, Iconian etc" is good, but I think there should be a little blurb on what exactly these mean. For example what is the difference between the Dregin and the Yor template? When picking the racial abilities of a race there should be the option of applying racial penalties as well. This would allow people to make very specific flavours of races. For example one that is excellent in diplomacy
Ah ... so you mean the "Cheat" bonuses that were previously only available at the highest of difficulty levels? Now I understand. Dano
Nope ... Natural Abilities. When you customize an opponent, go to the personality tab and there is a slider for the natural abilities of that race. The descriptions says something like "The higher the slider the more abilities the AI will have at its disposal". The only thing I can think of as that the game means "algorithms", so the higher the slider the more intelligent it will play. And if you increase the CPU usage then the race will also use more expensive algorithms as well. O
When you are customizing your opponents, I know what a Super ability is, but what exactly is a natural ability? Dano
Never mind ... I figured it out. If you go to tools->register products, and scroll to Dark Avatar it shows the serial number. Then I just clicked register, and now instead of the purchase button I have an install button. Hope this helps someone else. Dano
Hi All, So I pre-ordered Dark Avatar on the 15th to make sure that I got in on the beta. I have an order number to confirm that I purchased this (thank the gods I wrote it down). Anyway ... now what do I do? I have received no email, and when I fire up stardock, although I see dark avatar there, all I see is a Purchase button beside it. When I click the purchase button it doesn't recognize that I already purchased it. What should I do? Thanks Dan
If capital ships are much more expensive to create (as they should be - losing one should HURT), and capital ships are not as good against a group of fighters (since there is so much wastage in shots), then I confess - why build capital ships? Dano
Deus Ex was a sci-fi RPG (which makes it kinds rare to start with). It was kind of FPS, but the twitch factor was very minimal, kind of like the way the original System Shock was (I know I am dating myself here). The thing that captivated me with the game was the story - great stuff. The sequel wasn't a BAD game, but it was heavily 'consolized', and the skills development system bastardized. The story was only mediocre, compared to that of the original.
I have a boss who is a big Banks fan. Apparently he heard an interview where he can somehow crank out these books in 6 weeks (an almost supernatural feat considering how imaginative and captivating they are). Then he spends the rest of the year partying and regenerating his creative juices - Anyway, that is what I heard. Not sure if its true. Dano PS - One of my favourite fleet/empire books is the strangely titled "In Death Ground", (Its a Sun Tzu quote) by Dav
The problem with applying Diplomacy penalties is that it also applies to how easily you can be cheated by trades. So making a race hated by applying a diplomacy penalty ALSO makes them easily cheated, which is an unintended effect. Dano
I have been thinking about easily created super abilities, but I can't think it would be easy to do, since the AI would have to know how to handle these new user created abilities. What about this idea - In order to prevent user created opponents to be Super Ability Race 1, Super Ability Race 2 etc, what if there was an option to FORGO a super ability? Doing this would give you a truck load of extra points for ability points and/or starting tech. Because you would get so many points,
Mmmmmmmmm ... sounds REALLY juicy! So if I understand this correctly, you can set a Super Ability for a race as WELL as the normal choice perks (Research +10, Diplomacy +10 etc). Is this correct? Not that I am not grateful for this super-awesome ability, but how difficult would it be to mod NEW super abilities? The only reason I ask is because it would make custom races Really, REALLY unique rather than "Similar to the Drath, but with economic bonuses", since the new super ab
I have been on the SOTS forums a lot. I didn't find the Devs to be mean and nasty at all. Basically you got what you gave. I have seen TONS of posts that constructively criticized the game and the Devs answered with either a) Why they did what they did, or b) Said it was an interesting idea. On the other hand if you went on and ranted about how the game was crap, and how the devs didn't know what they were doing etc, etc - then yeah - you got it with both barrels from the devs - an
Can we had penalties as well as bonuses? For example ... make a race excellent at building, but crap at research? Or give a race lots of advanced tech, but make them universally reviled? Dano
I would be more than happy with an open beta and a longer time period for development. I thought you guys were being Masochistic in doing all those high quality patches AND an expansion before xmas. I think the quality of the patches and games so far is a combination of two factors 1) Your commitment to qualtiy 2) Your receptiveness to user ideas. Since this approach has served you so well, why not stick with it and go with another open beta? I really can't think of any mo
