Iconian AI, do they ever amount to anything?

That would be a boring galaxy...

I think they fail to research extreme environment techs beyond the two they start with, including advanced techs for those two. One of the main advantages the AI has on the higher diff levels is its ability to rampage through those techs and grab more planets while you're still discovering fire.

Hi!

Most of the time not. I take their planets too quickly.


No, I'm researching invasion techs. And with them I get most other techs as well.

BR, Iztok

Yup. Beating suicidal this way is actually pretty easy.

I had hoped that the Iconians would do something at suicidal with lots of planets. (just me & them, gigantic map) I just breezed through the game though, and really I could have made it easier by going to war sooner. He litterally had 90% of his planets with nothing.

I played the Thalains, and tried to keep the colony rush going too long. They did have a few planets developed, but the main advantage for the AI was quickly destroyed...thier huge tech advantage. The only thing that slowed me down is he got the tir quan training. (so I had to send a few fleets to iconiana to take it)

I'm thinking it could be even easier playing as the Korath. Then you could just spore out all those planets.

Is there any plan to fix them?

Hi!

That's quite symptomatic with suicidal games. AIs have such a bonus in production they literaly flood the uni with colonizers, but they load on them very small amount of pop. So they end with lots of colonies that don't produce anything but debt. Just watch the econ graph of the biggest AIs, and you'll see the zig-zag pattern (broke&low tax, some money&high tax) through the whole first and most of the second year of the game.

I wish AI would be capable of moving pop from high-pop worlds to the low-pop ones. That would really alleviate such a problem.

BR, Iztok

I've seen the Torians do that, actually. A low population torian planet near my homeworld was about to flip via influence, and he took a colonizer loaded with people and bolstered the population.

Well they can, in the same way that 1000 monkeys with typewriters with an infinite amount of time would eventually randomly produce Shakespeare.

Is it probable that they will do anything on any difficulty level? No. Worst. Race. Period.

IMO anyway,
- Wyndstar

I know DL isnt the 'official' release or w/e but even in DL its the same thing they are just sitting ducks...always have been.

They're worse in DA, since their super ability is rarely worth the time.

Well I'm playing a game at maso, and they did a good bit better. It seems that they need to exhaust their colonizing phase fairly quickly or they just flounder.

I'd say in this game only about a 1/3 of his planets where bare. That could be a legit strategy... It's not just a matter of them over-colonizing, they just seem to forget to build their planets up.

All the AIs seem to do this from time to time. What's sad is isn't really a flaw. It's just a hole. There seems to have been NO attention to going back a deciding how a planet is built. Hell they don't even re-arrange their build queue to avoid all the terraforming techs. The funniest thing is the way they plow through all the manufacturing techs and then just randomly queue up expensive buildings that'll take 90 weeks to build.

Sometimes but rarely. And even when they do they don't have anything to back it up. They're the failure race that can't do anything. Even at suicidal they suck.

So how do they stack up, do you think, as a player race (especially in DA)?

Is their Super Ability so weak so as not to be as worthwhile as a custom race or another of the races?

They suck. Thats what they ammount to. Don't bother playing them unless you want a racial medal.

Hehe!   Hey Gallagher, last thing I read from you on the forums was that you were quitting the game because of the whole "habitable planets reduction" fiasco. Good to see you didnt give up. Im also glad I never downloaded 1.8!

Sentient species taste better...

Even in games without colony rushes, the Iconians act really lousily. By the time everyone else has frigates or battleships with mid-range weapons(Photon Torps, Phasors, Graviton/Quantum Driver and Psionics), these guys are buzzing around 3-4 small fleets of 3 to 6 tiny fighters with Railguns, on Painful. Their 2 planets consisted of farms, influence buildings and a few factories - they don't care about research.



Custom races play better under AI control than the Iconians do.

Actually I only said I wouldn't buy the expansion. And this kind of problem is exactly why. This sort of thing is bound to get even worse with the unique tech trees. Why do they make it so hard on themselves?

I would gladly pay 20 bucks for a few new features, along with really fixing/balancing the existing game. The problem seems to be how stupid gaga people are over new features.

If GC1 played in windows, I would still be playing it. This game is awesome. This game could be spectacular if they would just polish the thing.

Utter crap. The racial super ability is POTENTIALLY useful in a galaxy with tons of extreme planets (of the correct types, no less...), but you'd be much better off starting with a custom race. The stock Iconian racial abilities are terrible, and they get almost no bonus points to spend.

Just finished a game as the Iconians.

It was a challenge in that their Super Ability didn't really come into play (the galaxy, large, was not chock full of extreme planets). I finally managed a win, despite the "handicap". I'd rather play as the Altarians or one of the other races.

I do wonder how the Iconians will be rebalanced in TA.

I remember in one of my first games in DL I played as the Iconians and I kicked butt! But that was DL and I was playing, but I wonder why their current AI sucks so much.

In the story the iconians were destroyed by the yor and they only recently(perhaps more recently than humans) came back to make a presence in the galaxy. Thats why i think they might be so gimped but its still much to weak in comparison to the rest...



**EdiT** Also i hope thier super ability gets better(maybe add another type of extreme) 'cause as it is isnt there atleast 2 other races that basically have half that super ability ontop of alot more bonuses?

The race itself isn't so bad. They're really just average. It's the AI behind them that is bad. I'd much rather play Adapter than to say Diplomat, Dominator, or Super Spy.

Personally I think they're just buggy in their planetary development strategy. On top of this none of the AIs seem to come back and look at their planets, so their planets just rot. I still don't understand what is so hard about planetary development. I still see planets with 5 vr centers, and NO farm. (or the opposite)

When it comes down to it, all the playable races of GC2 are in fact just physical manifestations of different human ideologies (Well, I haven't figured out the Thalans, but you'll get my point eventually...) - and the Iconians represent a transcendental branch of enlightenment that I really enjoy. Their particular culture is unique and their background story very interesting. It is a shame that they remain passive throughout the game. Even though they embrace a passive way of life, this is just silly.

I would love to see the Iconians as more than planet-babysitters for the more active races. They ought to be dangerous in a more subtle way. It's every race for itself, and THEY would be the first to know!

-Christian.

  I've had them take over two thrids of a galaxy once. If you let them be there like the wraith sure low tech but the over whemled me by sheer numbers.

   They've beaten my maps a few times, also the first ones knocked out.

Talking about their super ability: Shouldn't they get all of the advanced planetary enviroments? Better yet, they would get 150% out of those planets. That would really make them alot more powerful.