Precursor ships

I think the "gifts" are programmed to come at an opportune time which is a nice features of Gal Civ. I find myself the recipient of these gifts from time to time and they help you become viable enough to win. I can't remember the # of Corvettes I got one time but I think it was in excess of 55. Broke them up into three groups to do various things.

I like the Rangers better, tho...

Most corvettes I recieved was 57. But at the point in the game I got them, 57 corvettes didn't make much of an impact. During another game I was granted nine rangers in the space of 8 years.

I like the Rangers better, too.

Cirrhosis: You say the 57 vettes didn't make too much of an impact. Was that because you were strong or weak (militarily)? Maybe I was a little farther behind militarily than I thought...

I was too strong. So was everyone else, unfortunately. I was at war with the Drengins and all my vettes died shortly thereafter.

Bummer. Bad timing for the vettes.

It's still fairly early in my game, so I'm hoping it will shift the balance of power to me a bit.

I received an even 100 when I got them. Unfortunately, at the time I was under the impression that stacking would increase your attack ability, so I found out the hard way that I was wrong when I lost about 80 of them at once attacking a single dread.

Shouldn't something be done about this? I can understand one light ship getting destroyed by one battleship but 50? (random numbers). I think there should be some bonuses for the attacking fleet so that you can fight even without huge ships.

~SDC~

In my last game I got 100 of them. At the time I was cleaning out the last vestiges of resistance in the galaxy with a fleet of Overlords, so it was completely irrelevant to the outcome.

As for stacking bonuses. Since we know nothing about how space combat works, it's not totally unreasonable to assume that ships fight in such a way that they can't support each other.

Yesterday I got 65 corvettes, only in late game when I had slipped up and let the Drengins get the tech lead, and who were stomping me with Death Knights. It sure would help out a bit if the corvettes were given stats that were improved relevant to the time lapsed spent playing the game.

On a somewhat related note, why are my Precursor ships called PreCursor Ranger/Corvettes?

~SDC~

does anyone know of a way to increase the chance of getting PreCursor ships?

They say Luck increases the chance of getting the Good events such as the Precursor ships, mrbigg, but I can't really confirm that.

I've played games with Luck where I've not gotten anything.

Guess you weren't very lucky in those games.

~SDC~

Yeah, and in a recent game, I got 2 Rangers (very late so rather useless then) without Luck.

I've stopped picking Luck long ago.

Ray,

You'd know this as well as anyone: Does the game difficulty level affect the chance of good/bad events?

After taking the luck pick regularly for awhile, everybody else keeps getting the nifty events. Think I've gotten a total of about 2 Rangers since I started playing the game. No random PQ improvements, no random stat improved 1% per turn, nothing. Is this dependent on the game difficulty?

I'm not aware of any direct relationship between difficulty and event probability.

My personal view on Luck is that it's a ability that is yet to be fleshed out fully. Brad mentioned before that he wanted Luck to be a powerful pick which could provide a significant yet unexpected boost to the player. I don't think that's done as yet.

We once had a player who argued that Luck gave him superior starting positions. Anyone who have chosen Luck and used Ctl-N could tell otherwise.

From the description I'd guess that luck gives you better ods when a random roll is called for (battles and maybe other events).

I was defending well although just a couple of ships (Battle axes) and starbases against an unprovoked attack by the much more powerful Drengin, who were first in almost every category. I had fallen behind technologicaly, they were attacking with battleaxes and frigates. Lots of them! In 5 turns I got 4 Rangers! YES!!!! and with some frigates a bit later that were given to me by the Altarian I am kicking their butt back to the stoneage.


~SDC~

Actually, i would have thought that having a bunch of small, fast ships fight a big, slow, powerful ship might give the advantage to the more numerous ships. In Homeworld (excellent game), sending a single Light Corvette against an enemy Assault Frigate would be suicide. But sending ten or so would force the frigate to divide its fire between the ships, allowing you to destroy it with minimal damage to your ships.

Maybe the developers could add a bonus for stacking faster ships against bigger, slower ships.

I was just about to say I agreed when I decided to check the updated manual and had a nice surprise:

"Tip: While combat is resolved one-on-one, if the defender is in a fleet, they do get some bonuses,
reflecting the support the other ships can provide.

Tip: If a fleet is attacked, the vessel with the highest combined attack and defense values will defend
first. If there are two ships with the same value, then the ship with the highest remaining hit points
defends. On the plus side, this means that the damaged ships will be sheltered by other ships of the
same class. On the down side, you can’t get a BattleAxe commander to throw his ship away
defending a damaged Dreadnaught: the BattleAxe will hide behind the Dreadnaught until the
Dreadnaught is destroyed, and only then fight.

Tip: When attacking, you can choose which ships attacks first, allowing you to throw away cheaper
vessels to ‘soften up’ your target, but only by selecting the attacking ships individually – if you
attack with a fleet, the ‘strongest’ ship attacks. NOTE: In attacking, every vessel in the fleet uses up
a movement point for each attack, even if it is not actually attacking itself."

Good news!

The manual is incorrect. The part you put in bold is not valid. Sorry to disappoint you!

The other two tips are correct.

Ah, one of my favourite topics - the fleet defense bonus.

Well, CariElf said that it was a logical error that caused attacking ships to be destroyed easily while attacking a defending fleet and that she has fixed this for the next update. However, Ralegh who wrote this tip, disagreed because he said this tip and others has been vetted and approved by Frogboy.

So the verdict is still out.

Vincible,
well I guess accurate info is good news, even if by itself it looks bad...
Thanks for correcting me.

Ray,
so you're saying that fleets are not supposed to have a bonus but do have because of an error that is supposedly corrected, and yet not?
I guess this means there is still hope?

This feature would be very nice, but I don't know how difficult it would be to balance it (depending on numbers, ship's class, mix of ships, etc)

Yes, I know it sounds confusing. I'm not a Drengin.net subscriber so I'm not sure if the fleet defense bonus is still in the GCX Betas but it is definitely in v1.05.071.

A fleet attack bonus has been ruled out by Frogboy but apparantely there may be a possibility that a fleet defense bonus could be left in.

Personally, I rather have consistency. Include fleet bonuses or not include them. Not having bonuses for attack but having them for defense seems weird to me.

I agree with you.
Thks for clearing things out for me.

I have the GCX beta, but have no clue on how to test if there is a bonus or not (it would be nice to know, since this evening I'll be attacking my ennemies, as I told you in another thread -- strategic forum).

By the way, since you're here, and you seem to have an endless knowledge of this game, can you tell me if it is possible to ask a race to attack his ally, thus breaking the alliance (and making things easier for me )