Dear Brad: Please Stop Working

How is that good? I've heard that described as "throwing monkey feces at zoo goers". That is classic.

IE. Why build 800 ships when you could build 100 ships that are 20x stronger. I think it can be proven that if you're building that many ships, you are doing something wrong.

Painful feels like Maso... It's like the whole scale is up 1. I swear normal and tough aren't like they used to be either.

my guess is that rls is 1) exagerrating the number of ships for effect and 2) the ai is using better planet builds which would allow it to product both more and better ships.

I was at war with the Terrans; if they weren't so dead set on taking out my starbases they could have rolled right over me. I had two starbases between their territory and mine, fortified nicely, and each one was absorbing about 20-30 ships per turn. I got just enough constructors through to them, usually sacrificing the escorts each time, to replenish them with repair modules until I could build up enough of a fleet to start counterattacking. The starbases were up to 190+ hp by the time I turned the tide.

yea I agree, they shouldn't be to focused on them if they know they can't destroy it they should at least give up

That game was pretty frustrating. A survey ship found an unclaimed class 26 planet on the other side of the gigantic map, right on the edge of the Drengin expansion. I was playing Arcaen; I pretty much bankrupted myself rush building first a starport on my closest colony and then the fastest colony ship I could make. It crawled across the map and arrived just ahead of the competition -- in your face, Drengin scum!

Then about 10 turns later the Jagged Knife comes along and takes only 2 of my planets. Guess what was one of them

Quick! Silience him!

Brad, if you are reading this, don't listen to him! He doesn't know what he's talking about.

You're one of them, aren't you?

troll

What Divine Wrath said, keep improving that AI til my sorry ass is forced to play on Normal or below.

Indeed!

Hey Ris669 you`re out voted

The better the AI, the better the game. GalCiv has enough difficulty settings that everyone will still be able to find one that fits.

Improved AI is good news. It moves the game ever forward to what Strategy Games are all about - thinking. I have definitely dropped a couple of levels to survive whilst my battered brain works out whats going on. Anyone tripping out on excess macho requirements should go find a FPS to vent on, they are designed to appeal to the macho urges we all get from time to time.

Post Beta 5, I just put a pin in the wooden AI doll on my desk as the fleet from hell leaps all over me

More power to Brads elbow, I might be getting through a lot of AI wooden dolls just lately - but it's fun doing it

Regards
Zy

This is good news. I hope Brad continues to refine the AI.

No. Someone who actually wants a better game as apposed to a shinier one.

Anyone saying the AI is perfect is just a fanboy. It is good, but it can always be better. (especially when it comes to ship design, and ship quality.)

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 behaving themselves and playing smarter than before, the Altarians and Korx surrendered rather early (possibly due to my machinations), but the Terrans... I don't get it. They're not playing smart at all, several years into a game they don't seem to have researched any weapons techs and are letting themselves get conquered by the Torians. Meanwhile, I'm trading easily replaceable ships for planets whenever I get the opportunity, and they don't seem to be working it out... Has anyone else run into this? It kind of hurts the game when everyone else is playing their best but one side sits in the corner building space miners and saying "shan't". They've done the same in previous games using the last two betas (at least) - they play sensibly otherwise except for the total lack of a military.

Anyway, apart from this gripe things are going well, my Torian nemeses in particular have got to grips with the idea of building wonders and trade goods with some enthusiasm and I'm having to use all my reptilian trickery to avoid being invaded, so it looks like all else is going swimmingly.

you're not a troll because you're wrong, you're a troll because you're a jerk about it.

Just whatever you don't call it Skynet.

There, fixed it for you.

So the Jagged Knife showed up on the colony rush? That sucks, never had that happen.

I hate Jagged knife. The last time they showed up, they took half of my empire. Specifically, the developed half. I'd just conquered 2-3 other empires and hadn't had time to actually build their planets into something useable. Between that and my huge technological advantage, I actually had to reload and get a different event -- I could not rebuild my lost fleet, so Jagged Knife had what amounted to an undefeatable advantage, given that the fleet it stole from me was designed to hold off the rest of the galaxy. (I kept waiting for the "bad guys" to team up and take me on as a group, it was their only chance).

The more aggressive, more productive AI really puts the screws to the Thalans with their slow start and low pop. I played 3 games as Thalans yesterday; the first 2 I got wiped out about the end of the colony rush. The third game I survived but it was a near thing. I was at war with the Korath, at one point their combined economic and military rating was 640 and mine was 48

I only had a chance because they were at war with everyone else as well. As it was they were sending groups of 50+ spore ships at me. I built a few spore hunters (cargo hulls with 1 laser and all the engine that would fit) that were fast enough to pick off the spores without getting caught by their fleets and basically turtled and put everything into research until I had tech parity with them. Meanwhile I sometimes was able to get a transport through to an undefended Korath world, of which there were many since every single civ that surrendered, surrendered to them. Some of those planets changed hands half a dozen times.

Once again the AI obsession with starbases saved me. I had a couple resources near my core worlds; put a constructor on one and EVERY SINGLE ENEMY SHIP would have that as its destination, even if it was on the other side of the map. I could keep the bulk of their fleet shuttling between the two resources by building sacrificial starbases. If they'd brought a few spore ships and simply stopped along the way to engage the defenders on my planets they could have wiped me out in a few turns.