DaveCM

To be honest Ive found even the 'normal' AI to be a total pushover. I played a few games with custom maps that happened to have no pirates and after a few hours it became very obvious that I was going to win easily (with 8 AI enemy) that it became pointless to play on. I then went back and added pirates to the maps just to add a little bit of challenge. Guess I'll try bumping up to hard AI mode to see if its any better for my next game. Maybe I just got used to GalCiv2

After a few games now Id have to say ... kind of ;p It is a 4x game, but a very simplified version of the genre. Far to simplified for my taste tbh. For all I read in interviews etc from the team about avoiding the 'consolization' of games this is by far the most consolized 4x game I have played. Im still enjoying it, but I can already tell it wont hold my interest as long as games like galciv or even sword of the stars did (do). D

Just tried, you cant add new ones but you can mod the existing ones to whatever you like. D

You can already mod the existing ones. Take a look at the files in the 'textures' folder - specifcly Player_Portrait_*.tga files. It looks like there is plenty of space in those to add new ones. Though wether the game will recognize any ones added in is another matter. I'll expirement a bit and see how it goes. D

There is also a artifact tech that can be found on a random planet which unlocks the ability. D

Agree. The AI needs to be a bit more gung ho when it comes to sticking around for a fight. I can see if they are well outnumbered but as you say they seem to do it no matter what. In my latest game Im getting really bored just because its so easy to gobble up the enemy planets one at a time as no fleet bothers to stick around and fight. They lose another planet, makes them weaker overall, I move on to next one and repeat. The AI needs to be taught that if they can weaken my fleet then i

Found this out while playing, pretty repeatable. Have a fleet with a capital ship in it sitting in a system with auto join on. In the same system have a frigate yard, with a waypoint set. Create 4 or 5 new frigates. The last one made will join the fleet then keep going back to the shipyards waypoint. Doesnt matter if you then move the whole fleet to another system that last ship will keep trying to go back to the shipyard waypoint. Only way Ive found to break it out of the

Just a quick question. Do maps made through the 'mapmaker' have no pirates by default? Just about 6 hours into a huge one I made and have yet to see a pirate and checking the bounty screen shows everyone at 0. D

Totaly agree about the game speed, in all areas. 30 seconds to build a space station, 1 min to 'research' some advanced technology ... gimme a break ;p 'Consolization' is alive and well I guess :) D

All played fine for me once I restarted the game (after changing resolution etc). Though the sound then stopped working ;p Fixed that by unchecking the option to disable sound when 'windows loses focus'. D

Just a quick note on the bonus pack update - it lists the release date as feb 4th [B]2007[/B]. A typo Im guessing ;p Was wondering whats in it also. D