This Was Much Too Easy!

Kodos · #1 November 23rd, 2000, 03:06 AM

The setup: Built my own race of Hydrogen breathing, Gas-Giant inhabiting, Organic Tech having BEMs and fired up a new game --- unfortunately, it turned out that I had to share my starting star system with another race (Humans, of all things!).

Well, I kissed their anthropoid arse for the first 20 turns or so (got a Trade & Research treaty), and then when all of their ships where out exploring other systems, I moved a fleet of Frigates onto their home planet, blockaded 'em for one (1) whole turn, demanded they turn it over to me as tribute, and the next turn it was mine!

Repeat procedure with all other colonies in starting system until bored...

Now, the Humans had some Weapons Platforms and Satellites guarding their planets, so I never actually got close enough to bombard them, so they could have held out indefinitely. Why turn over the homeworld to me? After only one(1) turn? Please tell me the AI puts up more of a fight than this...

Oh, and one other minor quibble: There seems to be a problem with definitions in the game. Planets are refered to as "Systems", and this is throwing me off! A star "system" refers to a series of planets that revolve around a sun --- not a single planetary colony, as it seems to in the documentation.

Richard · #2 November 23rd, 2000, 04:13 AM

This is more luck than anything, I have rarely seen the AI this easy to push over or to not have colonized other systems yet.

------------------
Sarge is coming...

Richard Arnesen
Director of Covert Ops
Shrapnel Games
http://www.shrapnelgames.com

pathfinder · #3 November 23rd, 2000, 04:20 AM

yeah, the AI kicks my anthrapoid butt all too often...as it just did

Talenn · #4 November 23rd, 2000, 05:43 AM

What Version were you playing with? In the release (1.02) the AI could sometimes be dealt a 'Small' homeworld which is absolutely crippling, especially if you were on a Gas Giant and close to them.

Try it under the latest Version and with 'Hard' set for Difficulty. It wont play as well as a human most of time but it can do well in certain conditions.

Dont sell it short just yet!

Talenn

Tomgs · #5 November 23rd, 2000, 11:15 AM

With the new patch also the fighters are much better. Some AI's use them to guard worlds also. I lost a few ships trying to blockade a homeworld not expecting the beam weapons to have 1% chance to hit fighters 2 squares away and only a 10% chance one square away. I bet this was one of the tweaks in the patch. This makes fighters a lot better. I haven't gone up against one with my point defence yet I just got to level 2 with PD I expect it will have a more normal chance to hit fighters.

Also if the AI views you less amiably the chance he will give you his homeworld is much less. So if you had gone around and killed his ships for a few turns first as is usually the case with a homeworld further away from you he would be much less likely to give up a world to you. It seems, at least to me, if you are amiable or warm to them they give up a bit too easy. Perfect universe for a backstabber.

Also about planets being called systems where did you see this? In my cursory look through the Online manual I didn't see it. I did report one error to Malfador Machinations in the initial release of the manual and they fixed it in the patch. So if you see an error there E-mail them. They do say some things about sectors which is one square in the game. Enough space to hold one planet and its moons if it has any (your ships can move one sector for each of its movement points). But systems are as you say a group of planets revolving around the sun which is how I saw it used in the manual (see system display for example).

[This message has been edited by Tomgs (edited 23 November 2000).]

Kodos · #6 November 23rd, 2000, 01:13 PM

This was with the ver. 0.99 Demo.

Yr point about the AI giving in if yr nice to it sounds like what happened. My first act of agression was to blockade it's homeworld, all was peachy before that. Still, it had two other planets in the system, and another colony elsewhere --- it should not have given in to my demand so easily!

And yes, it was the "sector" when refering to a planet's area that led to some confusion (specifically with Supply Depots and Spaceports), not "system" --- my bad.