Wyndstar

Reply to Combat bug in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

I can tell you exactly how to reproduce the full hp result... start a battle with 1 hp and be stronger. I do this all the time to heal up. For instance, I have a huge hull with 124/124, and plenty of moves and enemy fleets to destroy. I have massive attack values, so all battles will be mutual destruction on round one. It usually goes something like this: Battle one: 80/126 Battle two: 40/128 Battle three: 8/130 Battle four: 2/132 Battle five: 1/134 Bat

Reply to [DAv1.5x] Nerf Defense! (lol) in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Great explanation Entropy Avatar. After a while I start to take it for granted that everyone knows how we got to the point we are at in understanding and talking about defense. Yes defense rolls, but with the law of averages working on both the attack and defense numbers (because there are many more rolls) it is much easier to predict combat outcomes. One caveat for the above: for some strange reason, 'bonus' damage from weapons is gathered into the first sh

Reply to [DAv1.5x] Nerf Defense! (lol) in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

I dont speak mathenese. Your furious spamming of facts and logic has made me confused and angry. What was I complaining about again? I'm sorry. But it does matter. If a non-matching weapon only reduces armor by squareroot (abbreviated sqrt) of the value minus the damage, then matching weapons are actually MORE effective against armor than non matching. That is armor-damage value > sqrt(armor-damage value) What we think should happ

Reply to [DAv1.5x] Nerf Defense! (lol) in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

At least the above is how it is supposed to be working. vs. the other way: Round 1: sqrt(144)/0/0. Attacker rolls a 12. -0 hp. Round 2: sqrt(132)/0/0. Attacker rolls a 12. -1 hp. Round 3: sqrt(121)/0/0. Attacker rolls a 12. -1 hp. If defense is being calculated the second way...we have a problem.... If defense is being calculated this way, so that you had a defense of: 144/sqrt(144)/sqrt(144) - then you do 12 gun da

Reply to [DAv1.5x] Nerf Defense! (lol) in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Defense gets subtracted per round, that's it. Neither of your scenarios are correct. If my defense is 144/0/0 and I am attacked by a FLEET with an attack value of 0/0/24, it would go like this: Round 1: 144/12/12. Attacker rolls a 12. - 0hp Round 2: 144/12/12. Attacker rolls a 12. - 0hp Round 3: 144/12/12. Attacker rolls a 12. - 0hp Of course, sometimes the attacker will roll better than average, so even with my 144 defense I am not invincible against th

Reply to Neutral too powerful? in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

Actually, if you flip from evil to good the cost is 10k. To go one alignment change is 2500 (so if you start out neutral, it is cheapest to go any of the three alignments.

Reply to [DAv1.5x] Nerf Defense! (lol) in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Whoa--if you have defense of the wrong type, how does it get subtracted? If you have 144 deflectors, and the AI hits you with a 12 mass driver attack, does it subtract 12 from that 144, leaving you with 132 the next go? That would make defense overpowered REAL quick. I would've thought it subtracted all 144. So I guess to answer this specifically, it doesn't get subtracted at all. With 144 deflectors, you will block all of a 12 mass driver atta

Reply to [DAv1.5x] Nerf Defense! (lol) in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

If you have 144 beam defense you really have 144/12/12. So if you had an attack fleet that had 100/20/20 you would probably do no damage - each kind of attack and defense being figured seperately. That is fine. You will do plenty of damage if you have an attack of 0/0/140. You need to use massed attack, but it needs to be of an off kind than the def being used.

Reply to Possible to win without initial economic bonus? in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

Morale and pop growth bonuses were both being included as part of the general "take econ bonuses" strategy. Even PQ bonuses work to get you more money if you want them too. The question, I thought, was those sorts of bonuses vs. say hit point or military production bonuses, ones that really don't work to up your economy at all.

Reply to [DAv1.5x] Nerf Defense! (lol) in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Defense blocks about twice as much as attack value because of the law of averages, an attack rating of 200 will on average actually do 100 pts of damage per round. Armor is calculated seperately against each weapon type, so the order it is figured doesn't often matter. Tiny ships are still useful, because the smaller the hull size the larger the fleet attack value can be (a fleet of maxed tiny hulls easily packs 500-700 more attack value than a fleet of maxed huge hulls - the f

Reply to Strong and Weak AI players: A Survey in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

Oh, what a great idea for a thread. First off, my analysis is assuming they get in a starting position that lets them establish an infrastructure. Any AI will suffer while languishing with only its starting worlds. For what it is worth, here is my general experience: Strong (and why): The Krynn. They establish a good economy, use espionage well, build powerful fleets at all stages of the game, and seem to be generally interested in taking planets (all that really mat

Reply to [DAv1.5x] Nerf Defense! (lol) in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

I'm halfway through my first 1.5x game, and I'm very pleased with how well the AI is using defense. Fleets with non-matching weapons (missles v. shields; for instance) easily destroy the enemy - but finally matching defense really matters. Remember, defense blocks twice as much attack value - so a 150 def, with a sqrt of 12 is going to block 24 attack from each weapon type. I quickly rushed to beam weapons and then gifted invulnerability field to the remaining AIs, and I watch

Reply to Possible to win without initial economic bonus? in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

Well, you CAN win without the economic bonuses - but as already been mentioned you will need a lot of dedicated cash worlds, and that lowers the productivity of your empire as a whole. It is a lot more difficult to play on the hardest levels when the AI has loads of cash without any yourself. In my experience, the most difficult starting combination is to put your points into sensor range, courage, espionage and influence - and then take the mercantile (I think, the +20trade/+20 espion

Reply to Galactic Civilizations II: Dark Avatar 1.5X notes in GalCiv Journals GalCiv2 Forums

+ Ship defenses use slightly less space and cost a lot less Thanks so much for this and thanks for listening! I can't wait to start testing out the new values. + If AI determines it wants to go to war with someone, it will declare war even if relations are neutral Wow. I had never even thought of that as a fix. This could be the single biggest improvement to making the harder AIs a challenge - it

Reply to Korath and Krynn in Metaverse GalCiv2 Forums

Just by the way, these are still showing up wrong on my profile - although I can still submit the scores. Custom races and Krynn show up with the "image not found" red X symbol, Korath show up as custom race, all other races are working for me. It has been a couple weeks, so just thought I would keep you updated.

Defense Solutions in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

OK, there has been a lively discussion as to the worth, value and cost of defense under the new system since DA was released 3 weeks ago. See: WWW Link and WWW Link and WWW Link . First off, let me say (and I'm sure I'll reiterate again) that I am not really concerned wit

Reply to Conquering Suicidal in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

Yeah, I took Brad's advice and have been playing exclusively on medium maps with his suggested settings for the last week or so. Still very doable even on suicidal, takes me about 10-12 hours (which for me means saving and multiple day games).

Reply to Conquering Suicidal in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

Always nice to be appreciated Your welcome.

Reply to Best DA race? in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

Meh, I don't know about the drengin AI. The super dominator corvettes make them kind of a paper tiger. They get a high military rating, but then when you go to war you easily sweep aside hundreds and hundreds of nothing ships. The drengin AI is one of the best at making it competitively through the tech tree, that is about all I see. So can we all agree that Yor, Thalans, Terrans and Korath are the best of the bunch? Further, can we say that the Torians, Iconians and Al

Reply to Lame Game in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

Also, just because you turn off mega events doesn't mean that you turn off random events. Your games will still have random precursor ships that can be discovered, boosted or dropping tax rates, population growth changes, planets becoming asteroid fields, new habitable planets appearing, and many more! Turning off mega events only turns off the random events that are designed to challenge experienced players still looking for something more after they can breeze through any difficulty

Reply to Early game: Always the same? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

I agree with Mystikmind. By the end of the first hundred turns (call it the start of year three) I often already know if I have won or lost by resultant economy/industry/military and relations with the other civs. If you get a good setup at the begining, the rest of the game can just be mopup... and you haven't even fought a war yet!! Plus, I think the devs did a great job expanding the tough choices you have to make in the first 100 turns by adding the colonization techs, as well as

Reply to A couple of suggestions in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

Well, you'd just HAVE to have nebulas mess with sensors, otherwise Kirk never would have been able to outmaneuver Khan in the Motara Nebula. Duh.

Reply to Do you think this is cust svr? in Bug Reports GalCiv2 Forums

Wow... shouldn't someone delete this thread? I mean seriously...

Reply to Disappearing Tiles on invasion (DA) in Bug Reports GalCiv2 Forums

This is a very annoying bug, and I have done a lot of playing around with it. The number of tiles that disappear in an invasion are equal to the number of tiles they upgraded due to terraforming tech, although not necessarily the terraformed tiles. It doesn't make a difference what invasion tactic you use or your terraforming tech level, and it doesn't make a difference what alignment you use. If you spy before you culture flip, you will see that this even happens when you take a plan

Reply to Paths to Victory Strategy Guide in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

Well, impulse drive/sensors is only one good early strategy. I like to play with anamolies set to very rare, because the AI is not so good at picking them up, so (it feels to me) like an unfair advantage for the player. With no anomolies, the extra +1 sensor range doesn't make much difference. The same goes for rush buying buildings/colony ships - or anything at all! Believe it or not you can play whole games without ever rush buying anything if you know that you need to avoid an eco