quote:
Originally posted by Q:
Alpha Kodiak here I've got some more feedback for you:
In my game with full tech it's now about turn 110 and the Rage are doing fine after they had a hard time fighting against multiple stronger empires. For a while they ran out of resources but I play with no computer bonus. The resource problem was solved after I persuaded them into a Trade Alliance with me (United Federation of Planets). Now they are again constructing attack ships like mad!
In the combats I realized a major problem of the Rage: They use now as specified from you phased polaron beams as main weapon but you gave them maximum weapon range as strategy. This works not well. After I changed it to optimal weapon range they did much better. Maximum weapon range is good when you use missiles or if you have 100% hit chance by the religious talisman.
In another topic about minesweepers I proposed the inclusion of a minesweeper component in attack ships, because the AI (as the Rage) build minesweepers but they send them unprotected on mission so they got easily killed before the can sweep the minefields. I did this now for the Rage because many empires in my game use mines (including the Rage themselves) and the Rage lost many ships in the minefields. I seems to work very well!
One Last minor point: should a very aggressive race like the Rage not get angry about allied planets? Now they have "false" in the settings file.
Thank you again for your great work and I look forward to see more of it!
The range issue presents an interesting problem. When I put together the plan for the Rage, I wanted them to be heavy missile Users to start, so if you start off with low tech, they use missiles for a long time. Until they get phased polaron beams, they don't currently use any direct fire weapons except for point defense. In that time frame, maximum weapons range works great.
I don't know how to change the strategy once they get direct fire weapons, and it seems like optimal weapons range leaves them more susceptible to the missile dance early on. I noticed that when I tested them in full-tech games they had a harder time than in low-tech-start games, and the range issue is a big part of the problem. I also noticed a drop off in performance in a low-tech game once most of the Rage ships were predominately direct fire.
If anyone knows how to shift the strategy with the new tech, I would love to hear how to do it.
Currently, the allied planet anger is close to a non-issue since they won't make treaties above non-aggression in v1.1 and not many of those. I set the anger setting to false early on because I hate it when I get an AI race to make a treaty, then they get mad because of the planets I own. I am thinking about letting the Rage do trade alliances again, so I'll have to decide what to do about the anger setting.
I do like the point about mine sweepers in attack ships. While I was testing the Rage, I was more confused than anything else, trying to figure out what it thought it was doing with mine sweepers. I saw it completely ignore a known mine field, even though it had sweepers available, then saw it send sweepers across enemy space trying to get to a minefield that didn't seem to be much in the way, at least to me. (The sweepers were killed in transit, so I never found out what the purpose was supposed to be.)