The luck ability

from Stardock Forums
Ok this post has to do with the luck ability, and what exactly it does for you. Now, I know that having the luck ability can find you a lot of Rangers during game play.

But is that all that luck does? Find you some rangers? I've noticed a lot that races "Stumbled over Precursor technology" and it increased their planet quality to 35. I've also seen some where it will not only increase the one planets quality, but all planets for 2 sectors around it ( or some amount of sectors im not sure )

Can luck have this happen to you the player? Where you get planet quality increases? I've never had this happen, and I was wondering if the luck ability did this as well, or if there was some other ability (creativity maybe? I have no idea what that does) that cause even greater things to happen than just rangers to be discovered?
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773 views 21 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
I would love to be able to answer your question, but i'm afraid i don't know.

But i noticed this thread on the strategies board
http://www.galciv.com/forum.asp?BID=GS&id=116619#130199
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
All the games I played Aliens are always have much more luck than you.

I pick the luck bonus get Rangers but never one of those increase planet quality invents.
Galactic Civilizations IV
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
I have gotten those PQ events, but I don't think it was the Luck attribute that caused. I think I'd call it real luck. :)
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
Damn thats too bad :( Always wanted one of those :(

And thanks for the thread, pretty interesting. Now we need some way to find out for sure what else luck does, and creativity :)
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
Every rock I've ever landed on had a ship in it, and I never used the Luck ability. So I don't think that's it.

~SDC~
Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top
Please note these comments apply to Version 1.13 - if it's all wrong for later versions - tough.

Every rock I've ever landed on had a ship in it, and I never used the Luck ability. So I don't think that's it.
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You're right there, every lump of rock does contain a ship, but the best you'll get is a battle axe.

As far as I can tell the only place that luck has any real effect is in planetary invasion, and then NOT for conventional tactics but only on the more exotic styles.

I've never had the "Improve all uninhabited planets for 2 sectors by x PQ", but I have had it happen on the edge of my empire so that I was able to claim the affected stars first. Getting an extra 10 or so high quality planets on a map where planets are rare (I started with 5 planets and was doing well) can tilt the game just a bit!
Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top
I always (almost) pick universalists + luck. I usually get some rangers. And in 2 of my games there were +PQ events. One in a nearby sector, the other (in my current game) directly for Sol, giving a +13PQ for every planet. But that's the only times these events helped me, so I guess it is "real" luck: several other times I saw there was such an event but to far away from me for me to benefit from it.
Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top
OK, I decided to try the Universalists with the Luck upgrade for my latest game. Now I am in the late stages of wiping everyone out. We are up to Dreadnought tech and I have not gotten even a Corvette, let alone any Rangers yet. There haven't been any +PQ events yet either... not for me or anyone else. I think I may have gotten the best starting position (Rare habitable planets, but I had some 18's and a 20 nearby, and with a starbase in place was able to get to a star system with two 26's. I've never seen that before.) But I am not convinced yet that the luck ability does anything. I guess I will need to try it again to see if it helps in any way next time.
Reply #10 from Stardock Forums Top

I finally got a PQ event all the planets in one of my systems jumped by 12 classes, but for most games luck means I find 3 or 4 Rangers.
Reply #11 from Stardock Forums Top
I almost always employ Luck +25%, whether through The Universalists or by spending the point if I'm playing another Party.
I've found that very often Rangers or large numbers of Corvettes come when I am at war and things seem hopeless. Could just be the way I remember things, a Ranger when your behind in ship techs means a lot more than when you're flush! LOL
Reply #12 from Stardock Forums Top
But I am not convinced yet that the luck ability does anything.
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The luck ability definately does something. You may not always get any "Lucky Ranger" when you pick luck, but you will NEVER get any "Lucky Ranger" without luck. I am not sure if you can get some "Precursor Corvettes" without luck. I had this event only once and I don't remember if I had a luck pick or not.

I don't think luck has any effect on the starting location. In my most recent game, a gigantic map with rare habitability, I had no picks in luck but my home sector had 3 yellow stars, one with two pq19, one with two pq16 and a lonely pq18. I have seen some very good starts without luck more than a few times. I have also seen some very bad starts with luck more than a few times.

All this was true before version 1.20. I have never played with luck in the latest version thus I can't say if it is still true.

~SDC~
Reply #13 from Stardock Forums Top
you will NEVER get any "Lucky Ranger" without luck
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I never bother with the Luck ability but I get the occasional free Ranger, PQ events and all sorts of good things.
I've looked in a few of the configuration files and as stated before, the only place I found that the luck ability mentioned is in the Invasion tactic files (This applies to 1.13, I really should get the latest one!)
Reply #14 from Stardock Forums Top
I never bother with the Luck ability but I get the occasional free Ranger, PQ events and all sorts of good things.
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Then you are getting "precursor ranger", same ship but generated by a different event.

~SDC~
Reply #16 from Stardock Forums Top
mitch88, you presence as been requested...first stop by this thread http://www.galciv.com/forum.asp?BID=GF&id=149372#150761 ,then hit this thread http://www.galciv.com/forum.asp?BID=GE&id=130292#150854 for more information.
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Reply #20 from Stardock Forums Top
I think the only thing luck does is give you good ships and perhaps bad things from happening when you have a prsion colony or monster zoo. When I had luck I never had one of those things go bad on me.

I think all the really nice things are limited to the AI, such as the PQ improvements.
Reply #21 from Stardock Forums Top
I've had the single system & single planet pq boosts before - I've never had the two-sector pq boost centered on one of my systems though. I got lucky once when the arceans got the two sector boost, they were too weak to colonize and it just so happened that I had about 15 systems including Sol within two sectors of the triggering planet :-)
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