Ken Kofman

Hi, I usually play on Large/Masochistic with 7 other races. YMMV elsewhere. During the early game, I do everything I can to support a massive colony rush: The first colony ship returns to the homeworld to grab a full load of colonists. I send that ship away from the home system, to find a good world somewhere else. My homeworld will have factories on every square that is not a spaceport or that does not have a research bonus; I build a lab there. (I can bui

n0v4k4n3, I find you impolite to the point of barbarity. I have no problem with disagreement, even boisterous and vehement. You went beyond that, using vitriol and insult to "make your point." I would like to believe that no one from Stardock has been reading this thread, because I have seen no indication that you have been warned to behave civilly or face banishment from these forums. Anyway, Ken

So, I notice that one poster said that my proposed system is flawed because defense would obviously run away with the game, and another that swarms of all-attack escorts are the way to go. *grin* This sort of "consenus" suggests that my system might have something to it. On to some specific issues. 1) Complexity: What I proposed really isn't very complex at all. However, I described *all of it* in sufficient detail for a programmer to just code it, as though from

Hi, So, here's how I'd do it. 0) When creating or modifying a fleet, each ship may be freely designated as one of three types: Escort, Warship and Non-combat. (Currently, all ships are grouped together.) A lone ship of any type is always considered a fleet containing a single Escort. 1) Each individual weapon is resolved separately: a) An opposing Escort is targeted at random. If the enemy has no Escorts, a Warship is targeted at random. If the enemy ha

Hi, Another possible way to handle starbases is to consider them so vast as to be effectively indestructible, sort of the way DS9 sometimes gets damaged, but changes hands instead of being obliterated. Once a starbase is built, it persists, providing benefits to its owner, as long as no one else sends a fleet to take possession of the starbase and its benefits. Naturally, the owner might wish to park a fleet in the starbase's square to defend it. A starbase might then add its militar

Hi, I think it's great that we're getting a 1.4. I also like the way calling a patch a "bonus pack" seems to be going out of style. The one feature that I'd second-most want to see--the first always being a more vicious AI--is on the trading/diplomacy screen. I'd like a button that says something like Balance Trade. Hitting the button will add money to one side or the other, to balance trade optimally. I hate having to twiddle and twiddle in order to figure out the maximum

Hi, I like the military production bonus of 50% for 4 starting points. It does three things for me: 1) Half of the bonus production is an economic bonus. Since I build lots of ships throughout the game, the economic gain is almost as good as an economic pick. 2) Increases planetary production capacity. Being able to cram as much military production as possible into a single planet is profoundly useful, whether I'm spamming colony ships and constructors on

Hi, I love speed, but its overall value depends. In a recent game, for example, I was evil (mmm, evil) and had my Psyonic Beams, medium hull and warp engines. I could have filled my ship with an overwhelming number of PBs, but saw that a single, expensive ship wouldn't serve me as well as fleets of less expensive, less offensive ships. IIRC, my level of miniaturization allowed me to fit 5 PBs and one engine on a ship. For nearly the same cost, I could build *two* ships, each

Hi, I find the Orbital Transformers useful. Because the AI is not as aggressive as it might be, I often have time to beeline to Terraforming, after building the Diplomatic Translators, the Restaurant of Eternity and Xinathium Plating. This path gives me Aphrodisiacs, which will turbocharge my growth, and then the Transformers. I refrain from upgrading any squares, pumping the unused social production into more colony ships and constructors. Aphrodisiacs are awesome when

ManOWar2, Or maybe I played quite a bit of both games, and others besides. Maybe if you had read what I wrote you'd have noticed that I said that I don't love c4. Typing in all capital letters went out of style with FORTRAN; I exclude trolls as an exceptional case. I expect sentences in all caps from them. BTW, only exceptionable spellings of "exceptional" have more than one "n." The same is true of "personal." Personally, I find a lot of exceptio

Hi, I have also noticed that the AI sometimes does not expand, even when it has cash for it. Sometimes it leaves wonderful planets open for a long time. (Intelligent AI, which presumably has full strategic capability.) The planets are well within range of their colony ships. I don't know why this is. I also notice that the AIs let their economy tank in the early game; their industrial production takes a year to recover. I suspect there is a correlation, as though the

Hi, Strange that I haven't quite found the same in civ4, regarding repetitive game play. Do you go for early rapid expansion, or do you forgo that for an early tech grab via Oracle? Early warmonger versus builder? Cottage spam versus great people? Steal AI workers for early net advantage or maintain good relations? Each of these and other choices results in different games, I believe; different civs demand different strategies. I have some problems with C4, most nota

Hi, I'm the guy who wrote the original post. Yes, I realize that the sliders work in percentages. Yes, I can read the numbers. Yes, I am aware that the sliders work in relation to each other. I *do* mind that I can slide a slider or click the corresponding arrow that ought to increase spending in a category, only to have spending decrease for that category. Or decrease spending, only to find spending increase. There's really no excuse for this. I *

Hi, System Requirements: GC2 wins big. I bought my laptop in 2003 and cannot play C4 on it. There's no reason for this, other than bloat. Graphics: C4 wins big. When playing GC2, I have to zoom out so that I don't get the wonderful graphics, because I find it hard to tell anything apart. The crummy icons are much easier to disambiguate at a glace than the glitzy graphics. I find it hard to tell ships apart, even one race from the next. Planets too. C4's graphics ar

Hi, A precursor mine on a home planet is nothing short of fantastic. The game is won virtually from the beginning. One factory there, plus economy buildings on every other square solve the problem of production and how to pay for it for a long time. While building the econ buildings, toss off many colony ships quickly, without needing to rush them with cash. Later in the game, upgrade the econ buildings one by one to wonders and trade goods. Later still, build

Hi, Imagine yourself having installed the latest, greatest word processor, or perhaps Adobe Acrobat reader. You open a document. You scroll down to the middle. Then, you want to scroll around the document. You start scrolling up, only to find that the programs scrolls you down! You try to scroll up, and you scroll down! Perhaps, instead, or on another occasion, the program simply won't let you scroll 23% through the document. You can reach pages 3-7 and 14-28, but are not permi

Hi! So, after reading this thread and the one I started, I don't know what Lucky and Creative do. Anecdote: Luck gives free ships as random event. The multiple techs for creative seems to be ordinary research overflow. *slow grin* Unless some gave developer decides to grant us a clue, I think I'll put my racial build points elsewhere... and create my own luck. Anyway, Ken

Hmm. I suppose that if I really want to know, I can change the luck bonus from 25 to something ridiculous, like 500.

Probably controls the chance of you getting good tiles on planets, events which boost you up or other things of the ilk, along with possibly modifying the chances of getting higher scores on attack and defence rolls during ship combat. (Or maybe it reduces the chance of a game crash? )

*lol* I'm not ruling out anecdotes altogether, so feel free! But... I'd love to know if anyone knows what it really does. Anyway, Ken

Hi, So, does anyone know what the Luck racial pick really does? I'm less interested in anecdotes than data. Thanks! Anyway, Ken