If memory serves, at least as of DA, they can't be found for the first 5 game years, so if you finish your game before then, no one will have any.
Other than that, there's no way that I know of.
Really? That's bad. It's a single ship that can destroy an entire fleet.
In DL/DA, it's a 24 attack/15 defense huge hull, if memory serves. This version is hardly a threat, in all seriousness.
In TA, there's another variant, with somewhere between 80 and a hundred attack in each category as well as some defense in each category as well, but you don't specify that's what you're playing and seeing.
In either case, it would seem that you'd have enough time to prepare for them.
I'm playing TA, and these ships are monsters.
I see.
Since you had posted in GalCiv II rather than in the Twilight subsection, I assumed you were playing DL.
How far into the game are you at the moment and what's your difficulty, tech level, and map settings? (Running slow/very slow tech on tiny/small can easily screw you over with these.)
You also say "these ships". An AI has multiples of them?
A few hundered turns in. (not sure exactly, haven't been paying that close attention). Difficulty is 'easy', small galaxy. The Ai has two of the precursor rangers, and they smash up everything they come in conatct with.
The Timeline screen in the Civilization manager will keep a count of exactly how many turns have passed. Each turn is one week, so the math is fairly simple. It does sound like you're far enough in to start finding Rangers, and it also sounds like nobody's been researching very well. Treat those rangers like Dread Lords, and don't try to outfight them- just outrun them until you can get some decent weapons researched. Better yet, bribe the AIs with the rangers to go to war with everyone, and just follow along in their wake with a horde of transports.
LOL. I came across one of the Ranger class (large map/normal AI) and it was a behemoth, something like 120/120/120 attack, 40/40/40 defense and a few hundred hit points.
Since I was just about to win a conquest victory anyway I just dumped it on a planet.
Just glad that the opposition didn't find it.
OK, so there's no way to prevent them from turning up? can't turn off random events?
Why were they put in the game anyway? I's very unbalancing...
those rangers can really turn the tides in TA, in a recent game the drath got a ranger with 180/120/120 attack and 120/80/80 defense, i was just about to conquer their last planets with my ships having 15/0/0 attack 35/0/0 defense, no point in continuing here, just reload the game from the last save point...
The problem is the missing balancing. Playing without tech trade and normal research makes these beasts nearly unbeatable until late game. Although there is an option to disable the "real" mega events, fighting an enemy with one of those precursor ships is no fun at all, no matter which side owns it and so in fact it is another mega event that you just cannot disable.
I agree that these are severely unbalancing.
In one of my games the drengin found one and as it was still pretty early in the game there was no real possibility to beat it.
I guess you could try to buy it, if you have the money, diplomacy skills and are on somewhat friendly terms with them.
Otherwise reloading is probably the best solution if it happens early...
While a mega-event should be challenging it shouldn't be game-breaking.
Has anyone brought this up with the game developers? It seems to me that these ships should be part of the random events that can be turned off. Because it really can be game-breaking.
How do you come by one of these? Is it a random event or an anomy that your surveyor finds? I play DA and have never come across one of these. Until this thread I didn't know how powerful they were. The ones decribed for DA don't look too bad, unless they pop up in year one or so. But even then, they aren't strong enough to warrent panicking. Unlike some megaevents with super enemies, this doesn't mean you'll have to fight this ship if you can stay friendlyish with that civ.
The TA ships looks quite strong, but then by year 5 on normal tech speed in a large galaxy you can have at least one weapon branch finished and maybe all of the defence techs researched; depending on the need in the game. A huge hull with 120 attach in each category is big but not THAT big. If there were fleets it would be a different story, but only one or even 2, no big deal. I'm playing a game now and the Korath have huge hulled ships with over 600 attack. Its been a long war...
I came across them a couple of times, both in DA and TA. They never occured to me as particularly unbalancing. It's a single ship, unlike pirates or peacekeepers. Also, unlike Dreadlords, the other races won't be building more of them anytime soon.
And by the time one finally DOES pop up you can usually deal with it. Even if you don't destroy it, you can damage it enough that the AI will withdraw it from the frontline.
In DA is there a specific time that they can be found as in TA (yr 5 minimum)?
I don't think so, they can appear quite early. But the DA precursors ARE weaker than their TA counterparts. (Maybe because they can be found earlier?)
There's a changelog somewhere (don't know where exactly, my apologies) that either states that it changed Rangers so they don't show up in the first 3 years or the first 5 years. I believe it's the first 5 years. Obviously, game versions prior to that are immune to that "rule", but my perhaps flawed understanding was that all DA versions (and regardless of whether this is the case all TA versions) were affected by that limitation.
If I run across it I'll link it.
in DL they changed when you can find "Lucky Rangers" until after Year 5. I've never come across a Precursor ship either in my own control or the AIs in Twilight as of yet, but I never heard/read that the 5yr limitation was in place.
That being said, I do not find them to be "game-breaking", though that could be from me being used to playing on higher difficulties where the AI is building ships with attacks in the 100s by the end of the first year due to their research and miniaturization bonuses. I could see how someone on let's say "Challenging" could have a hard time of it, but its not really the end of the world. It is just ONE ship. Of course...just four Ori motherships caused a lot of trouble for SG-1, so go figure .
just trade for them then do wha ya want with it
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