SEIV: Iran Contra Scandal
 

This game just got cooler. I should have realized before now... I could have been gifting the Abbidon on my SW galactic border ships and units to stem the onslaught of the stronger Drushocka Empire till I could reinforce that area. If I did that, I could still keep my trade alliance with the Drushocka and not worry about their ships in my space till I needed to go to war at a later time. Better the Abbidon directly deal with them than me...

Hehe... A new strategy unfurls itself. How cool...

Question, how do I gift satellites and fighters? I have no problem with ships, but when it comes to units it seems to only list my transports in the units list... Strange. Is it possible? If I have to do it via them being stored in a ship, will the gifted empire use the cargo in that ship?

Re: SEIV: Iran Contra Scandal
 

Yes, units can only be gifted when they're in storage on cargo ships.

Aiding allies against mutual enimies is a good stratagy, but sometimes, if the AI opponent doesn't like you enough, they'll refuse any gift.

This was a big part of my game strategy back when I played GalCiv on OS/2. But SE4 just isn't written for this sort of nuance.

Re: SEIV: Iran Contra Scandal
 

Any hopes we will see it on SEV?

Re: SEIV: Iran Contra Scandal
 

An AI that recognizes you have sent it ships for a particular purpose and cares enough about your relationship to use them only for that purpose?
There isn't any AI in the world that does that.

Now, in SE4, if you gift some ships to an AI that you know is at war with your enemy, but allied with you, well naturally those ships are going to wind their way into fleets and towards the enemy. It helps to fly them to a gathering point and use the default design types so the AI knows to put them in its fleets.

Re: SEIV: Iran Contra Scandal
 

Good advice SJ. B4 I gifted the ships, I had fleeted them up and sent them to a planet where that gifted empire could use them mb. I wonder if once they are gifted the last orders I had for them are canceled and new orders are given.

But yeah, at the time, both the other empires were allied to me, but at war with each other. I was gifting to the weaker empire to keep the stronger one in check.

Re: SEIV: Iran Contra Scandal
 

Keep in mind that even if you gift it to another empire it still obeys the strategy you have for it. This means if the enemy has a few of your ships you can set it's strategy to "Do not get hurt" and they will run away rather than attack you. So if you gift ships to someone make sure to design it just for them, so if they turn on you the ships are useless. As you can see I am paranoid.

Re: SEIV: Iran Contra Scandal
 

And, unless you are great allies or there is unique racial tech involved, immediately retrofit any ships gifted to you.

Re: SEIV: Iran Contra Scandal
 

Why?

Re: SEIV: Iran Contra Scandal
 

It prevents the aforementioned "run away, run away!" trick and lets you set your own strategies.

You don't have to chance any components IIRC; just design an identical design and retrofit to that.

Re: SEIV: Iran Contra Scandal
 

For exactly the reason Randallw posted?

You can't retrofit to an exactly identical design, and you better hope the ships don't rely on a bunch of racial techs. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: SEIV: Iran Contra Scandal
 

Yes, orders get cleared when ships are gifted to another empire. In simultaneous movement mode, this means the ships won't have any orders for the month they are transferred.

Re: SEIV: Iran Contra Scandal
 

I can't remmeber, will it let you retrofit to a design with the same components in a different order? Or is it smart enough to realize that is the same design?

Re: SEIV: Iran Contra Scandal
 

You can not do that either.

Re: SEIV: Iran Contra Scandal
 

So just drop an engine down one level (III to II) or a gun, or exchange a shield gen for a weapon.

If its racially built or you need it NOW, you're out of luck, but beggars can't be choosers. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: SEIV: Iran Contra Scandal
 

Whoops, guess I was just being a little dense; shoulda seen that.

Re: SEIV: Iran Contra Scandal
 

Now I've got to admit I didn't know you could refit ships from another empire. I thought it wouldn't work because they have different pictures.

Re: SEIV: Iran Contra Scandal
 

Will the AI refit one of your gifted ships you gave them? And if they do Im sure their portrait will change as do mine when I refit captured enemy designs, but will they change the ship name?

I like tracking what they do with my ships I gift.

Re: SEIV: Iran Contra Scandal
 

The AI never re-names any ships.

The ship picture changes during a refit, unfortunately. I've been disappointed by that since SE3.

Another thing you can do, if you don't mind losing some flexibility, is to put a gifted ship into a fleet whose strategy is set to NOT break formation. This way the fleet strategy will override the ship strategy, so you won't have to worry about the gifting nation giving your ships a lame strategy (at least, not until damage forces the ship to break formation, in which case some of the design strategy might be used, but formation is broken mainly when the ship loses its weapons IIRC).

Re: SEIV: Iran Contra Scandal
 

Well, something wrong here. 3 of the gifted ships I gave are sitting in the same spot for the last 3 turns. Why hasnt the AI sent them somewhere? They are just hanging out in empty space no where useful.

Re: SEIV: Iran Contra Scandal
 

Bump.

Well, its been a year or so and those three ships are still sitting in the same spot...

They have used another ship I gave them and ran it all over the map. Why not the other 3? They are just sitting there using up resources.

Re: SEIV: Iran Contra Scandal
 

Well, it's really simple.

See, the senate gave orders to the ships Bibbity, Bobbity and Boo to move to a certain planet. Congress gave orders to the ships Bibbity, Boo and Bobbity to attack. The ship captains, unsure of their orders, sent a request for a name change to Tinman, Lion and Scarecrow. The name change promptly got hung up in the filing system with the two conflicting orders, whereupon it (The name change) was picked up by the Department of Security as refering to three classified projects otherwise known as 'The Great Hotdog Caper', 'Seneter Kelly and A Skateboard' and 'Twenty-Two Uses for Twist-Ties'. Meanwhile, Congress noted that the attack orders bore twenty-two words in common with the classified project known as 'Twenty-Two Uses for Twist-Ties' (Unfortunatly, the Security Department (Not to be confused with the Department of Security (It is the job of the DoS to run classified security projects; it is the name of the SD to make sure they are indeed secret) renamed the project formorly known as 'Twenty-Two Uses for Twist-Ties' to 'Do-wop a be Bop') and so sent in a request for information on the project they thought was called 'Twenty-Two Uses for Twist-Ties', but instead is now named (Unbeknowest to them) 'Do-wop a be Bop'...

(Anybody want to see how long we can keep this coherent? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif )