Pirates Took Over the Galaxy! Please Help!

from GalCiv2 Forums
Hi everyone! I have quite a situation on my hands that I cannot seem to find a solution to so I'm posting here, hoping that some of you could help me out.

I've been playing a nice Intelligent-level game as the Terrans for some time now with 5 other civilizations on the large map. Last night, as I was building up my fleets in preparation for war with the Drengin Empire who have also been building a sizable fleet (possibly in preparation for a war with me as well). The entire galaxy was more or less at peace, with many trade routes all over the map, and the one remaining minor race actually started sending trade ships of their own to various planets. I didn't want to fight the Drengin, but my relations with them soured immensely when I wiped out the Snathi (I think I spelled this wrong), which was very close to their home planet.

All was going well - for everyone - when all of a sudden the Pirates just came out of nowhere (a megaevent), with crazy-powerful ships a few parsecs from not just my planets but everyone else's! Their ships were 12 offense (missile) and 12 defense (mass driver), but most of them were in fleets that essentially made attacking them with my fleets suicidal. This game hasn't been going long, so the most powerful ships I had were SMALL hulled and had 2 offense (laser) and 2 defense (2 mass driver, due to the Drengin's love for mass driver weapons) although I could've made them more powerful if I sacrificed defense. Note that among all the civilizations, the Drengin and Tor probably had the most powerful ships (I've seen 4 offense (mass driver) on the Drengin side and this is what they've been making).

Well, the rest has been history so far: the Pirates wiped out all of my fleets, planetary defenses, space stations, and trade ships. The same story can be heard throughout the galaxy as the Drengin and company moved their attack and defenseless ships towards their planets in defense -- all their ships got wiped out too.

With Pirate ship fleets sitting in everyone's space relatively close to our respective planets, it's almost impossible to build ships without the Pirates seeing it, flying to that planet, and destroying it.

I figured that if I rushed to get larger ships then maybe I'd be able to kill the Pirate ships one by one. I got Medium Hulls and quickly built a ship that could defend against their missiles and at the same time kill off the Pirates. The Medium Ship, although it put up a fight, was destroyed. I've halted ship construction on all my planets until I can figure out what to do...


Is there anything that I can do in order to wipe out these Pirate ships??? There are about 15 of them throughout my space and I cannot yet kill them. (These don't count the ones that are in the rest of the galaxy not under my control...) Please help if you can.

Note that these Pirates haven't attacked any mined asteroids, which surprised me... and they didn't attack any space stations that minor races constructed, nor have they attacked any ships built by minor races for that matter... which means that when this is all over I'll be declaring war on them so I can take back all those space resources they're swiping up from everyone.

(On a side note, the galaxy was hit with a wave of xenophobia (another megaevent - and this is the SECOND TIME this happened), so I really hope nobody tries to embargo anyone from tourism revenue.)

Much Thanks,
~SilentMage
22,408 views 33 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Hm, this is happening a lot, the pirates of DA can get way too overpowered, I hope it gets fixed in a patch at some point.

I've always found the best strategy is kill them until dead, it works trust me. War against these guys can feel like wading through syrup at times, but they can't produce any more ships so keep at it.

If you have any allies, get them to help out by giving you ships, if you don't have allies, get some.

I was lucky, I had battleships at the time, and although losses were heavy, they were nothing compared to my overall fleet.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Well depending on the distance and how fast your ships can go try this...it worked for me in a similar event...use your closest planet to the pirates and take a medium hull and cram as much speed as you can on it. When it is ready launch it towards the most unoccupied area of space or the drengin empire. you should be able to lure them away from your main area by staying just a couple of moves ahead of them. this will allow you time to build a fleet that is capable of slugging it out with the pirates on more or less equal terms.
Galactic Civilizations IV
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Well depending on the distance and how fast your ships can go try this...it worked for me in a similar event...use your closest planet to the pirates and take a medium hull and cram as much speed as you can on it. When it is ready launch it towards the most unoccupied area of space or the drengin empire. you should be able to lure them away from your main area by staying just a couple of moves ahead of them. this will allow you time to build a fleet that is capable of slugging it out with the pirates on more or less equal terms.


That might work, but it's a risky one. That event REALLY sucks when you are a unstoppable superrace with about 500 attack and unlimited defences. The pirates have ships with slightly less attacks, but with "..." defences. Since there are hordes of pirates, My seemingly invincible race's military was crushed.   
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
spdtristam: I do have Warp Drives, and I haven't actually thought about luring them away from my space.

I will give that a shot today! I figure a small-hull with two warp drives on it should do the trick. I also think that giving this special ship sensors so it can see Pirates from a long way off will pay off too.

Thanks!
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
This is why I shut off mega events. Its a broken option. Unless of course thats the kind of thing you like.

There is a less offensive Pirate event that is not a mega one. But even those ships can be very scary, but not as much.
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I must say that this event really changed the history of my game... I mean it's like having cybernetic soldiers and tanks made of silksteel (or something equally strong) teleport into Europe before WWI begins and attack everything everything in sight, completely wiping out all European (and eventually Asian and American) armies and navies.

The xenophobia event was OK in my book, but this Pirate megaevent almost made me want to restart my game, particularly when I realized that there was a pirate fleet for every planet I controlled. I'm sure that I'll be able to take them down ultimately (or have them lured into unoccupied space and then abandon my ship) but this was quite painful for me.

I'm sure others that have experienced this event early in the game like myself felt the same way.
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I am thinking before such events, the game looks at the relative defenses and offenses of all races, but possibly primarily of the player. It comes in as strong or stronger. Why? Because if weak scrawny pirates came in it'd be a joke. On the good side, apart from the minor races, your opponents got attacked as well.

Since the pirates will just sit there I would keep researching until you can get something that can put up a decent fight. Fleets work best against anything so you likely need a decoy if they are too close to all of your ship yards.
Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I used this event to my advantage once, as it happened fairly early in a game, I too had been preparing for war with the Drengin. The event happened, and all hell broke loose. Trade went down the toilet, economies crashed as vital resourse mining operations and economic stations were destroyed.

I freaked out, "ZOMG! How am I suppose to win now?!" Then I realized...hey, no one has an army anymore...and on top of that, even if someone did attack me, they'd find their ships destroyed by the pirates.

I stopped all military production, and left myself completely unguarded. I then threw all my money into research. I got my infrastructure in place, and then developed a ship that jumped about 20 generations in technological advancement. As the pirates numbers thinned, and war was once again possible, my ships were much larger then anyone elses, and had the defensive and offensive capability of an entire fleet in one ship. I also had incredibly fast troop transports that I used to rush past pirates and take worlds whos defenders they'd destroyed.

I went from potentially losing (Drengin and the Yor were far more powerful then I) to literally having nothing that could stand in my way by using the pirates as my unlikely defense force.
Reply #9 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I really like the random Mega events, they can really change the dynamic of the game which keeps it fresh.

Anyway as for your pirate problem at least it's a galaxy wide problem, meaning that all the other races are having the same problem, the best thing I found is to build up your techs untill you can compete against the pirates, (tech trading with the minor races is a good idea - I've found that the minor races will give a lot of techs for the advanced colonisation techs, which is odd as they can't actually use them). Make sure you concentrate on one offensive and one defensive tech to counteract their weapons/defenses.

Good luck!  
Reply #10 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Cuddlelump has the right idea here. Pirates are an opportunity, not a problem.

Pirates will indiscriminately attack any and every race.

Let them decimate your fleet. While they're busy doing this, and the same to others, move the research and social slider bars to the right. The AI for the other races is, in my experience, too stupid to do the same, so you'll end up on top in several cycles.
Reply #11 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
There are some other threads on the same subject. Pirates aren't a problem, they take out everything except the Minors.
When it happens you can either research (sliders maximized) weapons and defences to outgun them, or make faster transporters to take all those "defenceless" planets.
You win either way.
Reply #12 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Why not just make ultra-fast transports and take every planet in the galaxy? No one will have any way to stop you and since you are just putting a troop module on the ship you can put a TON of engins on and win the game fairly quickly. When I'm losing(not often) I often hope for the pirates mega-event.
Reply #13 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
When the Axis of the Nazis and Imperial Japan took over much of the world the Allied nations continued to struggle until they were triumphant!
Reply #14 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
At least the Pirates don't have Transports. Kinda wish they did though
Reply #15 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
tech trading with the minor races is a good idea - I've found that the minor races will give a lot of techs for the advanced colonisation techs, which is odd as they can't actually use them).



Well, the minors could use the colonization techs to trade to our opponents or allies. Consider all implications of trading technology.
Reply #16 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
True. But usually I trade the colonization techs later in the game when the galaxy is totally claimed.
Reply #17 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Wouldn't be better if Pirates gets zillion of units which are not so overpowered.Also for flavour it is unexplainable to see these uberships coming from nowhere!
Reply #18 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Well... I followed some of you guy's advice and built a transport ship that could move 6 parsecs/turn and has one survey module for the beefed sensor range. I declared war on the Drengin and easily conquered their home planet in one shot.

However, after that win, the Antarians and Torians both declared war on me for "proving too big of a threat!" So, to level the playing field I gave both the Yor and Arceans a single tech to declare war on the Antarians (they are the 3rd biggest civ, next to the Yor, and the Torians only have their solar system in their name). Now the entire galaxy is at war! This'll be interesting...

Yes, I'm building more Transport ships to send to the rest of the Drengin worlds.
Reply #19 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I stopped all military production, and left myself completely unguarded. I then threw all my money into research. I got my infrastructure in place, and then developed a ship that jumped about 20 generations in technological advancement. As the pirates numbers thinned, and war was once again possible, my ships were much larger then anyone elses, and had the defensive and offensive capability of an entire fleet in one ship. I also had incredibly fast troop transports that I used to rush past pirates and take worlds whos defenders they'd destroyed.


Exactly!

I am thinking before such events, the game looks at the relative defenses and offenses of all races, but possibly primarily of the player. It comes in as strong or stronger. Why? Because if weak scrawny pirates came in it'd be a joke. On the good side, apart from the minor races, your opponents got attacked as well.


I've noticed this too. This event really sucks late game when all the max techs have been researched. Think those pirates are bad? Try pirates that are loaded down with tech better than a Huge hull with Supreme Mini+Hyperion Shrinker loaded down with super weapons (blackhole gun, blackhole eruptor, doom ray), and all the best defensive techs. My unstoppable navy was utterly destroyed in just a few turns.

That might work, but it's a risky one. That event REALLY sucks when you are a unstoppable superrace with about 500 attack and unlimited defences. The pirates have ships with slightly less attacks, but with "..." defences. Since there are hordes of pirates, My seemingly invincible race's military was crushed.


Yep...that's what I'm talkin about. When this happened the pirates still had "..." defenses (something over 1000 in 2 of the defense categories) and in the missile attack category they had a strength of 1024. That was after I took a few of thier ships down with my naval assets.

There is a single way I've found to prevent the pirates from appearing: make sure there is some kind of galactic conflict going on. If you ever get an 'all is well' message from your advisor, pirates are close behind. The 'all is well' message means it's time for someone to start a war, usually me, directly or by paying someone else to start one. That was my experiment for the day-long game I played today and it did work. I didn't see the pirates once, and I also never saw an 'all is well' message from my advisor.

What I would like to see as a patch for the pirates is that the event can happen regardless of the state of the galaxy just to really throw some mayhem into the game. However if the pirates spawn during a time of conflict I think they should be a bit closer to contemporary weapons and defenses. Maybe a bit stronger but not as superpowered as they are now.

The worst thing about the pirates event is that it is predictable and therefore preventable.
Reply #20 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Hi everyone! I have quite a situation on my hands that I cannot seem to find a solution to so I'm posting here, hoping that some of you could help me out.

I've been playing a nice Intelligent-level game as the Terrans for some time now with 5 other civilizations on the large map. Last night, as I was building up my fleets in preparation for war with the Drengin Empire who have also been building a sizable fleet (possibly in preparation for a war with me as well). The entire galaxy was more or less at peace, with many trade routes all over the map, and the one remaining minor race actually started sending trade ships of their own to various planets. I didn't want to fight the Drengin, but my relations with them soured immensely when I wiped out the Snathi (I think I spelled this wrong), which was very close to their home planet.

All was going well - for everyone - when all of a sudden the Pirates just came out of nowhere (a megaevent), with crazy-powerful ships a few parsecs from not just my planets but everyone else's! Their ships were 12 offense (missile) and 12 defense (mass driver), but most of them were in fleets that essentially made attacking them with my fleets suicidal. This game hasn't been going long, so the most powerful ships I had were SMALL hulled and had 2 offense (laser) and 2 defense (2 mass driver, due to the Drengin's love for mass driver weapons) although I could've made them more powerful if I sacrificed defense. Note that among all the civilizations, the Drengin and Tor probably had the most powerful ships (I've seen 4 offense (mass driver) on the Drengin side and this is what they've been making).

Well, the rest has been history so far: the Pirates wiped out all of my fleets, planetary defenses, space stations, and trade ships. The same story can be heard throughout the galaxy as the Drengin and company moved their attack and defenseless ships towards their planets in defense -- all their ships got wiped out too.

With Pirate ship fleets sitting in everyone's space relatively close to our respective planets, it's almost impossible to build ships without the Pirates seeing it, flying to that planet, and destroying it.

I figured that if I rushed to get larger ships then maybe I'd be able to kill the Pirate ships one by one. I got Medium Hulls and quickly built a ship that could defend against their missiles and at the same time kill off the Pirates. The Medium Ship, although it put up a fight, was destroyed. I've halted ship construction on all my planets until I can figure out what to do...


Is there anything that I can do in order to wipe out these Pirate ships??? There are about 15 of them throughout my space and I cannot yet kill them. (These don't count the ones that are in the rest of the galaxy not under my control...) Please help if you can.

Note that these Pirates haven't attacked any mined asteroids, which surprised me... and they didn't attack any space stations that minor races constructed, nor have they attacked any ships built by minor races for that matter... which means that when this is all over I'll be declaring war on them so I can take back all those space resources they're swiping up from everyone.

(On a side note, the galaxy was hit with a wave of xenophobia (another megaevent - and this is the SECOND TIME this happened), so I really hope nobody tries to embargo anyone from tourism revenue.)

Much Thanks,

~SilentMage

Yes I get as much miniturzation as i can so i can put more weapons defense as possible. I look for a weakness say they have 4 mass 2 shields then i got for what they are weak against like missles if they have no armor defense . I noticed that pirates pretty much go after trade routes first then come after the smaller ships frieghters fighters and such. I wait till i can get some techs in then start counteracting the little buggers. I managed to drive them from my galaxy after alot of debt and pain




Reply #21 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
An update: I near-maxxed out my research, using the funds to aim for the second-largest hull size in the game. Once I got that, I focused to get Phasor technology, then to max out PD Combo. After that, I constructed the battleships that ultimately stood up to the Pirate fleets (with my fleets of 3). These three battleships (they have 18 laser, 16 PD Combo) wiped out every pirate in my space... and since I had a little bloodlust, I conquered the remaining minor races that were also in my space.

I'm now busy rebuilding my space infrastructure, upgrading my asteroid mines, rebuilding my space stations, and grabbing every space resource I can get a constructor to. Of course, my battleships are still cleaning up the immediate space near my borders -- I don't want a stray pirate destroying a newly-built space station. During the Pirate rebuff, I built the Eyes of the Universe, making the search for pirates much easier. In addition, I can finally begin moving some people from my overpopulated planets w/ transports, temporarily easing the pain on some planets until I can get better entertainment tech. Eventually, I'll get my trade routes up and running again -- AFTER I build the Galactic Privateer.

Thanks everyone for your input! I now know what to do in the future when I encounter Pirates again.

~SilentMage
Reply #22 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I dont have a problem with the pirate mega event , what I do have a problem with is the AI's inability to deal with it. Pirate mega event = Win for player basically at the moment
Reply #23 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
In all fairness, the AI has problems dealing with ALL the MegaEvents, not just Pirates.
Reply #24 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
yea the AI still needs tweaking in places, although the pirates mega event should be toned down now.
Reply #25 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Is there a random seed to mega-events? Can you go back to the last auto-save and avoid the event if you don't want to play through it?