KleinBottle23

Reply to Why does the AI always surrender.... to another AI? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

It depends on alignment and your relations. I've had more-or-less friendly civs give their planets to me when we're both up against a stronger enemy. (Needless to say, I wasn't too thrilled, because these planets are almost always closer to our mutual enemy than me. I typically let them get what they originally had coming or trade them to the enemy as a peace offering.) On the whole, though, it does seem to be more common for another AI to get the lucky offering.

Reply to carriers in Warfare GalCiv2 Forums

I never have only a single-weapon armed vessel(unless in the very early game in special circumstances), and only arm my flagships with three different systems. Interesting. That's what I'd like to do, but it rarely turns out to be the most effective option for me (I think). Is it worth giving up the extra damage you get by specializing in so

Reply to Spicing up battles, some thoughts in Warfare GalCiv2 Forums

Before you say anything about dodging those, keep in mind that GalCiv hyperdrive works by warping space, not neccesarily going faster than light (I think...). So there's little chance a fighter'd see it coming. Er...I don't get what you mean. Are you saying that the beam would be going faster than light? That the fighters would be going too fast

Reply to Spicing up battles, some thoughts in Warfare GalCiv2 Forums

I saw, but I didn't consider it a deal-breaker. Analog gunsights like the Kerrison predictor existed during WWII, so it wasn't just men eyeballing and turning a crank. And carrier battlegroups still reign supreme today even with the advent of long range SAMS and (mediocre) automated gun systems like the Phalanx. Even cruise missiles--the closest thing to an heir to naval bombardment--are more expensive than an attack mission, can't engage as many targets, and can't tell you if they've done the j

Reply to Econ Starbases Ineffective in Bug Reports GalCiv2 Forums

Are the economic modules working? If not, then there might be a problem. Otherwise it's probably working as intended--as noted above, the bonus can be easy to miss, especially if other bonuses are in effect.

Reply to Spicing up battles, some thoughts in Warfare GalCiv2 Forums

In point of fact, any "real" battles in space are likely to involve only capital ships. What a small one man fighter can do, a cheaper torpedo can do better. The advent of carried airpower in WWII showed that small, agile aircraft can do things even battleships can't. Obviously it's a different situation in space, but it's not altogether differen

Reply to 1.3 beta 2a | AI totally idle in Bug Reports GalCiv2 Forums

I've seen the same thing happen, but I know the AIs were set to something higher than Normal. Happened with the Drengin and Yor, if memory serves.

Reply to Designing Space Stations in Ideas GalCiv2 Forums

Agreed. I've suggested something like this before, and probably other people have, too. Basically, if it's so much fun to do for ships, why not do it for bases, too? Sadly, it will probably have to wait for GCIII, if then. It would be a lot to code and get the AI to use in an expansion pack. In game terms, though, I don't see why it would be terribly impractical; modules could have a BC cost, and you'd not only purchase a constructor but have to shell out BCs for construction (instead

Reply to Culture flip the last/only planet? in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

No, they pretty much work as you'd expect. If the planet is within both fields of operation, you get twice the fun. I'm not sure what you mean by "non political modules," but anything that says it increases influence does. Of course, it can take a while for planets to flip; I've seen planets cheerfully ignore ~14x influence.

Reply to carriers in Warfare GalCiv2 Forums

I don't see carried fighter squadrons as game-breaking. If my experiences have been at all representative, fighter squads need all the help they can get against the megaships. Now, allowing carriers to manufacture ships a la Homeworld... that would be game-breaking.

Reply to Soldering worthless? in Warfare GalCiv2 Forums

It's great when you're the one doing the invading. 1000 troops can take out several times their own force if the AI hasn't been johnny on the spot at researching its own soldiering bonuses.

Reply to Idea for Expansion? Cloaking Devices! in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

That was actually a special ship. Most cloaked ships couldn't fire--something about power requirements or whatnot. There was a treaty that the Federation wouldn't develop cloaking technology, though Picard seems to have been the only one in the Federation who actually followed it.

Reply to Question about battling in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

While I had him outclassed in weapons and defense, I could see where this could be affective. A tiny ship will hold 1 doomray, 1 ultimate defense, 2 mkIII hyperwarps, and still have space for an ultimate life support if you need it. A fleet of 15 would allow you to get a shot from each of your 15 doomrays every turn, where as a loaded up huge would still only get 1 sho

Reply to Spending Sliders - Why in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

The current system penalises anybody going for a more balanced approach to planet development, which is ironic as that's exactly what the AI does! Er, how does it penalize anything? I thought those sliders represent the proportion of your total output is going to each field of production. Therefore you can have 33% for each of them and be at

Reply to Domestic Trade for the Future GalCiv Releases in Trade GalCiv2 Forums

I always assumed that ordinary economic activity involved domestic trade. I'd expect implementing it as a separate system would either be 1) gamebreakingly easier/profitable or 2) so unprofitable as to be not worth doing.

Reply to Big Newb Tech research question here in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

The Good choices never seem to give the player a reason to choose them. Interestingly, the mathematics occasionally makes it more profitable to pick the Good choice over the Neutral option. This is probably an oddity rather than an outright bug, but it does count as one of the few times a Good option would appeal to someone not playing a Good al

Reply to Suggestion/Request | Combat Thrusters in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

Wasn't it like that by default in 1.0 or something? IIRC, it got balanced out because it was game-breakingly powerful.

Reply to manual battles, why not any? in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

But in all fairness, you can customize the hell outta your ships, so if theyre not doing what you want them to during battles, theres really nobody to blame but yourself. And as far as the weapons go, it taks so long to get to the big ships with the big weapons, then to build the fuckers and have a nice fleet going. Theres a reason big ships are mighty, they are built to b

Reply to Fleets with Starbases? in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

It would be nice (and realistic), but I think this isn't done for balance reasons. Being able to deliver an uber-powerful attack all over a sector is probably just too powerful to allow. Especially once you consider how many cheap constructors you can get for the cost of a fleet that could do the equivalent amount of damage.

Reply to manual battles, why not any? in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

I'd love to see a compromise system with different weapons designed to target different size ships. For example, researching Quantum topedoes would unlock a missile weapon effective only against Small or Tiny ships as well as a torpedo weapon that could hit only Medium ships and above. This would allow the creation of true fighters and bombers as well as add a layer of strategy for designing large ships. (A nice by-product is that small fighters would more easily be a credible threat to large sh

Reply to Trade/Economic Victory in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

Pure trading/economics won't net you a win, though Influence can. Boost your population and build influence-boosting structures. As you've noticed, you at least need a military respectable enough not to make you easy pickings. Once you build that up, you should have time to go for any of the victory routes you choose.

Reply to More Military Starbase Questions & Ideas in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

what will happen if you carry in only half the required constructor for the only strabase you designed? is the Starbase at 50% power? In that case the starbase would only be 50% complete and wouldn't function. Large starbases (and even large modules) might require multiple constructors before they're up and running. <TABLE cellpadding=8

Reply to Starship Amplification Fields in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

I'm not so sure about having the benefit apply to both friendlies and enemies. It might be realistic, but I'd avoid them like the plague. Why risk boosting the enemy's gear when you could just use the space and money to put another weapon on your own ship? It basically runs into the same problem that milbases run into in the endgame phase: boosting nearby ships by a few points isn't worth much when you have capital ships slugging it out with potentially hundreds of points of damage. Tha

Reply to Starship Amplification Fields in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

I'd also like to know why Starbases wouldn't be able to travel in space. Theres no gravity - so size and weight should not matter There's no weight, but there is mass and accelleration to deal with. They might not have the proper structure to survive anything more than minor acceleration. Engine size and power requirements might also be an issue,

More Military Starbase Questions & Ideas in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

First basic question: how does one actually get access to the Omega Cannon/Missile Bloom/etc. modules? I've researched the relevant techs out to III and IV, but I have yet to ever see them when I try to upgrade. Idea: this is probably too drastic of a change (and may have been suggested before), but why not be able to design starbases just like ships? This would solve the problem of obsolescent military bases in the endgame phase, and it would also be cool to have more variation i