Binksy

[quote] I'd like to have the ability to give THEM missions personally. [/quote] You kinda can if you ally with them, you can request that they send ships to different places by selecting them and clicking the buttons in the toolbar. Diplomacy is a bit messed up right now. I generally ignore it until I've beat one of the AIs, at which point one of the others is usually up to 60+% thanks to them assigning me missions to kill the AI I'm alre

Interesting. I wonder if that, combined with one of the Vasari techs, might make for an exploit. Get an observer working with you, pass them all your credits, make sure you have that advanced bounty hunting thing on and then when you attack have the observer put a high bounty on your target. Good find, would never have thought to try that :P.

Ugh! I can't believe I can't remember the name of that map either, the one with 4 stars around a central system right? I played that map so many times in beta... Yes it does have pirates. Unless I'm mistaken, however, the pirate base is in the central system (at least it was in beta) and pirates jumping from system to system is still up in the air (I've seen it, but I've also heard accounts of it not working).

[quote]You can open GalaxyScenarioDef.galaxyScenarioDef in notepad or similar to get a full list.[/quote] Perfect. Exactly what I was looking for. Thanks a ton.

Couple of quick questions about using the forge 1. Is there any way to copy/paste planets? I want to make a symmetrical map and so it would be much easier to build my planets and then copy/paste them to the other areas, changing the homeworld owners alone. 2. Any chance of getting a description of all the planet types? What, exactly, is the difference between Random and RandomTrue for instance. That's all for now, thanks for the guide. EDIT: 1 more quick quest

I've had intersteller pirate attacks on me. They're very, very rare (I'd wiped out all pirates near my planets, and the bounty on me was >3K when it happened). Was definately not expecting it, but it happens...whether it's supposed to happen is another issue entirely (I think I'd wiped out the player in the same system as the pirates with my fleet, yes fleet, of Novalith cannons, so that might have been one of the reasons as well).

I've noticed this same thing, the moment you start an attack the AI knows about it and starts hitting your worlds hard, then retreating if you come back. Saw a very interesting sight with a scout frigate, 2 enemy fleets in orbit of my star (my defense fleet was parked at the planet they were going to) right on top of one another, firing at each other, and powering up for a phase jump to my world. That's just plain dumb...

I also miss the numbers, it's nice to know exactly how many labs you have at a glance, rather than having to hover over an unlocked tech to see it's level (which doesn't work if you're building labs at the time).

Were they in battle at the time? There are at least 2 abilities that can cause abilities to be disabled, Ion Bolt and Armstice. I think the Advent have one too. That red abilities disabled tends to mean they've been hit by something, can they use it when you build them?

Odd...I've found the opposite to be true. Playing as the Vasari with the missile phasing halfway up the tree and nothing else military researched my Capital ship and 6 (max fleet cap to start with) missile frigates was having an easy time dealing with fleets of 20+ light frigates. I wasn't really watching the battle and it was at a friendly planet with some bombers so they might have been the ones doing the damage but I've never had any problem with the light frigates... Heavy frigates,

Dynamic upkeep would be nice but the current risk that comes with an upgrade is also quite fun. I just make sure I don't upgrade that unless I absolutely need it, can nearly immediately build a fleet, and can hold my own well.

Because you need a bigger fleet? That's the only way to get a larger fleet... Personally I always hold off on researching fleet upgrades until I start coming under attack so that I can keep the most of my resources for booming.

It's a bit of a crapshoot in my experience. In 3 games I've found 3 artifacts, 2 in one game, 1 in another and 0 in the third (my first game too :( :P). I also found many more bonuses in that 2 artifact game than in the 1 artifact game than in the 0 game.

Just like to throw in a 'Campaigns would be awesome' and say it's good to hear there are plans for them. Even the most sandboxy game can't be hurt by having a campaign and fleshing out the races and their backstories would make playing them much more fun (right now it's basically play the race who you play best as, with a campaign in place it might be play the race you like most, even if they're not ultra powerful). And to counter the storm of Sandbox not needing a campaign stories I re

[quote]Speaking of which. Wouldn't it be a potential game breaker where you could have all your carriers hang at a phase point, let your bombers go out and just phase jump after they have shot once or twice... not caring that they return? Shouldn't the carriers lose those fighters if they cant make it back before the jump?[/quote] Well from what I've seen the carrier's won't start charging for a jump unless their fighters are in the bays or a set amount of time (about how long it takes

I've seen both in my games. I've seen AI's with huge varied fleets and well built planets, and I've seen AI's with nothing at any of their planets and only siege frigates for ships. It's...interesting to say the least, never really know what to expect when you start scouting...

While playing my last game (as the Vasari) I came across a Jump Drive Relic on one of my worlds early on. I normally play on Doppleganger, as it's nearly exactly what I want which is a long lead-up time to prepare for the battle ahead. My first problem was with the supposed effect of the Relic, cutting intersteller jump times in half. They're practically instant already so what's the use? I've seen intersteller jumps take less time than jumping from one planet to the next so why does i

Well I'd just like to say I'm extremely happy with both the fact that there's already a balance patch (rather than a bug-fix patch, which are more irritating the closer they are to release) on the way. While I know that it's too early to determine if something is overpowered or not I am quite happy that the siege frigates are being made less survivable. That's something that really should be the disadvantage to using them, much like artillery they should be easily killable but frighten

The outcome of a battle is far from a foregone conclusion, though bringing the most firepower is a good idea. I've won many battles with a smaller fleet (just saved a game where I managed to defeat 24 disciple light frigates and a capital ship with 1 capital ship and 5 missile frigates). There's as much tactic to the battle as you want. Some people micromanage their battles exclusively and they tend to get much higher kill to death ratios on their ships. I don't really do that too much,

[quote]There is a building you can make that blocks phase jumping out of the sector. Also, Some capital ships have the ability to disable other ships from entering phase jumps. Look into it[/quote] Doesn't block anymore, just slows (which, IMHO, was a bad change. If you're willing to send ships to attack a planet you should be risking losing those ships if you can't take it and it has a phase disrupter, or at least be forced to destroy the phase disrupter).

Whenever I take a planet I immediately start research on improving the population stuff to get rid of that underdevelopment cost. Just like they said a trade post at every planet (and if you're a real eco person like me, a refinery as well) will have you swimming in resources quickly. You'll never have enough to build everything you want, but you'll have what you need :P. Also, unlike in the beta, the mining upgrades are quite useful now. Those and the other economy ones like cheaper bu

Nope, it's not a quick game

1. My medium games tend to average 5 hours, but I play very turtlish. 2. I was not aware there was a pause button lol. I play very macro-ish so I haven't found much need of it yet. 3. Nope...thought it really should be... 4. I normally grab the asteroids quick while building so good frigates (as in not the light ones) to hit the bigger planets 5. Awesome. I hope soon :P

Better still build a fleet of 25 carrier cruisers and some carrier caps and get 50+ strike craft. Things go boom real fast :P.

[quote]1. Its too slow, and takes way too long to finish a game, and I've only played on small random.[/quote] 40 minutes? Is that all? Games of Age of Empires last longer than that...I've played longer games of C&C Generals for crying out loud. What kind of ultra-fast paced starcraft were you expecting? [quote]2. In all 10 games, I've fought my "actual" opponent twice. The other times its all been me vs. pirates.[/quote] You know, I keep hearing about the pirate problem. I've n