4v4 (or 3v3 or whatever but imagine its 4v4 with diplo we've been doing non-locked with certain number of allied victors so just imagine the alliance system gets it to a 4v4)
4 x 750 fleet supply vs 1 player, every 5 minutes
Also consider 8 player games can go for 4+ hours sometimes and 1 slow pc slows it down to an absolute crawl so small fleet sizes is all u can do and hope to not play a slideshow.
I mean is this seriously an argument at any level? Thats just a broken game mechanic. We literally play every saturday, sometimes twice in a week, and we all jump on ICO and play single player as well. I don't think any of us have had any serious complaints (ok we all moan about fighters or other things from time to time) that would cause us to run screaming to the forums that the game is broken. Personally I have been playing this game since beta.Its broken completly at the moment, Maybe single player works ok cause the strategic ai doesnt know how to exploit this but mplayer is pretty much done for. Were also still getting crashes just bam straight to desktop with a windows notification of a crash (we got desynchs before but never crashes like that, still happening after latest patch)
I know alot of people don't play this game as much as me or my friends and most people play single player and other people more twitchy play the 30 min micro 2 jump from home planet 1v1 ( or essentially play out 1v1 in a larger game). We play the game as its really designed for multiplayer and Diplomacy just doesn't work at this level with pirate missions. There is another serious problem with how allied victory works also with diplomatic points versus relationship points for victory but I'll write that up in another thread.
When I say how its "meant" to be played let me qualify that statement, I mean from the point of view of playing the game in its entirety, using the full tech tree and having a begining, middle, and end game. I don't mean were any "better" than anyone else but I do think we get a full playtesting experience and thats the best way to playtest/balance a game, if it works for us it should work for anyone.
I know like 80% or something near just buys this game for single player and in the end this is mainly about multiplayer. But understand right now diplo doesn't work at any level, pirates, pirate missions, diplomatic victory, allied victors, etc for competitve multiplayer.
Pirates throughout history are hit and run and kidnapping specialits. The barbary pirates went almost exclusively the kidnapping route. Carribean pirates were mostly disaffected military and privateers gone rogue after wars ended, most of them were actually offered pardons and gave it up willingingly, the ones who didnt went on to write several legends though. They were all cuthroats and murderers and they did it as a means to an end as well as a lifestyle which assured a quick action packed life and a very early death. In this game they should prey on the weak slow undefended trade ships whereever possible if one thing is true about all pirates its that when a large deteremined navy shows up they go away pretty quickly. They also rarely attacked fortified positions.
If it were my design decision I would take out player control of piratescompletly they would be a reaction to a person who went econ and diplo, i.e . you don't build military ships and/or you have undefended sectors of space where your trade ships travel the more likely pirates show up in those sectors
less tac strucs = more pirates
more sectors of space trade ships travel through with no military ships or structures present = more pirates
less military research = more pirates
small number of overall military ships (by supply points and fleet size game setting) = more pirates
increasing cargo capacity on trade ships = slower trade ships and more pirates
You could also add non controllable (like the trade ships) passenger ships, make the diplo ships non-controllable but appear like the trade ships (maybe add a diplo station ?) , maybe culutre ships originate from culture stations?, well just more non combat non controllable ships that function like trade ships and apply the same rules to them as I listed above.
You could add a kidnapping element so the more ships you lose to pirates maybe you lose total supply points and have to ransom them back from the pirates (money sinks are always good). To up their impact I would have them more drastically affect trade income which might require the rebalancing of techs and the way credits are generated altogether (i.e. make income much more trade centric less population centric and give the races trade tech earlier, maybe by bumping them all 1 tech level.
P.S. Also Vikings killed Men Women and children not because it was efficient but because it was part of their culture. It was essentially part of their religion thefact that it terrified everyone they encountered was merely a side effect. In other words it was ruthlessness for ruthlessnesses sake it was not a means to an end. It was an almost pure warrior culture and religion where heaven itself was the promise of battle every day followed by heroic death only to repeat the cycle for eternity.
