Starhaus

The heavy reliance on abilities is one reason Advent is so nerfed compared to other civs. It is nearly impossible to get the right abilities running at the right time in the ideal situation they demand, and the individual abilities mostly seem far less useful than similar ones in other civs. One bad map position, for example, can completely destroy Advent's ability to get certain research which then dooms them to quick destruction. Unless you are playi

Since when are missiles affected by shield strength? I have never noticed shielding to help vs. missles. And therefore Guardians would be useless vs. missiles or missile barrage. The whole purpose of missiles is to bypass shielding which is why lrms kill caps so much faster than similar damage yields on other types of frigates, - because they ignore shielding. It is why Advent cap ships are so weak and die so quickly to focus fire fr

[quote who="Cykur" reply="24" id="2076395"]The most useful two ships in the game are definately #1) the Evacuator and #2) the Progen because they are both multipurpose colonizers that have powerful combat uses. [/quote] I would agree the Evacuator is good, but besides being a decent colonizer, the Progen is really weak. The "good" combat ability of the Progen, Malice, doesn't work well against the strategic mix of abilities of other civs. The ve

All I know is that the Marza is way overpowered. I have never been able to move my ships clear of it's missle barrage and always lose my entire fleet to it. I once lost 20 carriers and 40 illums within a 10 sec span to this Marza ability. The Marza was accompanied by some cobalts as well, but far fewer than I had ships. I originally had 3 times the number of ships, (illums, disciples, and carriers), and the Marza alone wiped out my fleet with only 3 sh

Advent is so ridiculously weak vs. vasari in early game rushes, (assuming the rusher isn't a noob), they really need to do something about it. I've tried scout and disciple spams but all have failed vs. a skirm and assailant rush since at that stage I cant keep a cap ship around to defend because of the vasari "egg" nanodisassembler ability. To survive you basically have to luck out and have more than 3 heavily pirate-laden jumps between you and the vasari at the

This game is not that good offline imo anyway, it is better as a multiplayer online game. Anyone getting it just for offline use is shortchanging themselves.

You have to find a build sequence that optimizes the use of every single credit, and every unit of metal and crystal for about the first 10-20 minutes. Even thereafter it will be very tight for most of the game. There really is no means to save up for pirate bounty and keep up militarily or expand properly in advent, and if you play against better players you will almost always lose the game if you waste money on pirates at the start while playing advent. Advent

You need patch version 1.1 to play on Ironclad Online now, I think. I also have patch 1.05 and can not log into Ironclad now.

[quote who="the_Monk" reply="16" id="1946800"] I always have, and am still willing to keep helping people work through their issues. Please heed my advice and keep your OS's healthy, patched-up, and as un-modified as possible if you want to guarantee working third-party software. the Monk[/quote] Check, check, and check... My OS is healthy, patched-up, and un-modified. If DRM control would alleviate such problems, then fine, I have no problem with it. &nbs

I would like to point out that the many people here who have not been able to get Impulse to work are also in the same boat as people who don't have an internet service. I have internet service but have not been able to get Impulse to work, - it is dead at logon claiming, "servers not responding...". Therefore I can also not update. And because the update is REQUIRED to play on Ironclad Online, (you can't even log in without it), I can't even play the game anymore,

That is what I presumed since logging on to Ironclad Online mysteriously started to give the "Disconnected from Ironclad" message the day they said they were converting the servers over to the new patch, v.1.1. My problem, however, is trying to find the patch. Impulse doesn't work, it never has on my computer. Uninstalling it to get to the Stardock patch download page simply directs you to get Impulse. I am in a Catch-22 here. Now not only c

I think you get the "Disconnected from Ironclad Online" message after trying to log on without the new patch (v.1.1), but I am not sure because I can not find a way to get the new patch. Impulse is loaded with problems. I can not log on with it, and therefore can not download the new patch. For the last 2 days, without the patch, I am unable to connect to Ironclad either, which was never a problem with v.1.05

I can't get the update either, but Impulse is flat out broken from the log-in screen, always returning the message, "server not responding, check your internet connection". It won't accept my login, nor new account, nor even email me my account info...nothing. It has always been broken since I installed it a few months ago. I just tried reinstalling it using the "full" install version of Impulse, but I get the exact same error message as before. The

How do you download it? There is no link to the patch in the download section. Also, the update button on the splash panel for the game calls up an Impulse panel that doesn't do anything. Every time I type in my account info it returns with "Server not responding please check your connection". This stupid Impulse service has been like that ever since it was implemented. The only time I was able to update via the official "update" button was when I fir

For general reference, here are the breakdowns on the prices of crude oil and gasoline: [B]Crude Oil:[/B] (based on the recent $135/barrel price) $75 Cost of crude oil strictly from supply/demand issues $30 Price increase of crude oil from speculative pressure $20 Price increase due to the weak dollar $10 From risk premiums. a premium price paid by oil dependent industries to insure priority delivery. [B]Gasoline:[/B] 55% of the cost is from the cost of

yes, it works fine now. two hours and also twelve hours ago it did not.

If pirates are active or one of your mp opponents drop then there [I]is[/I] AI in most mp games. I don't think I have seen more than a tiny number of mp games that were completely without AI. Even if pirates are inactive, inevitably someone drops. Also as mentioned before, the time it takes for an opponent to raze structures is substantial, esp. early in the game. It buys time so you can either defend or counter attack elsewhere. It also helps take advantage of any noobishness in t

I know this somewhat duplicates yesterday's post, but I never got a response which denied or confirmed it. As of 6/5 the Ironclad servers still seem to be down (getting a "disconnected from..." message). Time estimate for when servers will be up? Should I even bother trying today? Is it hours or days or weeks?

ACE, you are confusing store policy with actual availability. Try another store, as I have see many more PC games today than 20 years ago, the difference is that stores have only a fixed amount of shelf space for games so obviously they have to divy up the available space to consoles as well as PC games as consoles become more common. You are not seeing PC gaming dying so much as consoles becoming more prevalent. Consoles are becoming more prevalent because in order to gain more marke

I am a regular user of the Ironclad online game matching service, however I have been trying to log on for the last few mins and the server seems to be down. Any estimate when it will be back up?

Well for the most part Falknir simply confirmed what I already stated, so I am not really sure of his point. If a console does the same things as a PC then it is a PC, and therefore nearly as complicated in it own right, just a different set of rules. The things it doesn't do though will be the distinction. For example, if programability is limited to just a few highly capitalized firms that can afford the royalties for access to the platform, then the whole reason for a PC-like console will

Also, if people "can't program a VCR" and needs a convenience appliance, then they likely are not going to be into complex high-end gaming, either. By definition, the more features pushed onto an appliance, the more complicated it is going to be and therefore, more like a PC. That is another reason cited in news article for why PS3 sales were poor at the beginning. PS3 is for high-end gamers who had no problem dealing with PCs, therefore they picked the latter since the PS3 was al

If you look a next gen consoles or more expensive consoles like the high end PS, they already are approaching the cost of PC. Basically they are making themselves pointless, because by definition, they are more expensive. Why buy a high end console that is basically the cost of a PC but with half the functionality? Cost is cited as one of the reasons for why PS3 sales were so crappy. Sony eventually had to lower its cost to differentiate it more for those people deciding between a

The flaw in your argument is that graphics is the only bottleneck in a good game. Sometimes complex sims require lots of computing power that is not just graphics oriented. The more complex a game also, the less likely it can work on consoles which tend to focus on streamlined user interfaces. However, I would agree that less complex games are more popular these days. Most people don't or can not spend the time to play more involved games, so therefore limit themselves to shooter, ar

Even with frigates being produced as fast as could be done given the embargo, a constantly moving sova can not really be hit by another cap ship, at least not enough. The Sova ends up being about half-way killed while my cap ship will approach being 3/4 dead, despite having about 10 or more frigates also chasing it around in circles around the gravity well. Eventually you will have to jump your cap ship out to heal, while the bombers and fighters of the Sova continue to kill first the frigates