finding anomalies

from GalCiv2 Forums
At the start of every game, I see that putting the flagship in auto-survey mode allows it to go to anomalies that are out of sight on the screen. If the screen shows all that the ship sensors detect, this doesn't seem right. I don't use auto-survey when I want to explore the map and make it visible to me, but this gives the AI players time to gobble-up most of the anomalies since they seem to go straight for them. Quite an unfair advantage! I know I can build scout ships and have the flagship survey, but they don't compare for sensor range. If a human player can't see things beyond what the ship sensors show, then the AI players shouldn't either. I think auto-survey should be auto-explore and the ship go to the anomalies only as they become visible (for both human and AI flagships).
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Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I rarely build more scouts than just my flagship. Usually I only build such ships as forward observers when I'm moving deep into enemy territory.

Anyway, though, in the campaign I used a cargo hull for my scout ships. They can have alot more more engines, life support, and sensors than a tiny or small hull.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I don't think that the AI knows where are the anomalies, the planets or the resources. In one of my games it happen to me 2 or 3 times, I haved a ship with sensor 9 and I found a resource and then I saw one AI constructor, but he just past, when I check this constructor he was only with sensor 2 and it seems he didn't saw the resource.
in the begining of the game, when goes the colonization, I saw AI colonyship that was going to one of the planets, but my colonyship was faster and I took this planet and after 2 or 3 turns this AI ship arrived just to see that the planet is already taken, that mean the AI didn't know that the palnet is already mine
and I think it's the same for the anomalies, the AI didn't know where are they
but maybe I am wrong
Sins of a Solar Empire II
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
OldNick,

If a Construtor flies past an anomaly it's probably because it isn't outfitted with a Survey Module and hence can't explore anomalies. But I agree: I don't think the AI cheats.
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
OldNick,

If a Construtor flies past an anomaly it's probably because it isn't outfitted with a Survey Module and hence can't explore anomalies. But I agree: I don't think the AI cheats.


the constructor past the resource, not the anomalies
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I think you've misunderstood there, I don't think auto-survey allows the survey ship to grab anomalies unless you have already found them. I personally don't bother with anomalies anymore. I put them on rare becasue I find it distracts me too much from exploring star systems to find habitable planets.
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Anomalies are one of the biggest money-makers in the early game. Sensors is always the second thing I research (after Ion Drive), and then I build at least two fast-moving scouts to find anomalies. You can get 500, 750, 1000, or 2500 credits. Some scouts with a move of 5 or 6 (and decent range) can really make a ton of money. Getting over ten thousand credits happens pretty much every game I play. My strategies are not dependent on this cash, but it certainly greases the wheels and makes everything easier. This is on larger maps with anomalies set to the default level (abundant).

As a bonus these ships also help scout for my colony ships. I can usually redirect one for a turn or two to check a nearby system. Saves time and helps me grab planets.

Also, I never notice anomalies popping up mid-to-late game. Someone on a thread here said they respawn, but I've only seen possible cases of this early on.
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I think you've misunderstood there, I don't think auto-survey allows the survey ship to grab anomalies unless you have already found them.

It does.

Auto-Survey will find anomalies even if you haven't "found" them...
Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
It does.

Auto-Survey will find anomalies even if you haven't "found" them...


I don't think so, I tryed several times to turnon the Auto-Survey on my ship ( with survival module, of course) in the begining of the game and it's always says " There are no more anomalies" ( or something like this), but after that I "found" many anomalies. The Auto-Survey work only if you already found them.
Reply #9 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
The Auto-Survey work only if you already found them.



No, he had the right of it. The only thing is auto-survey and explore are a little buggy. Auto-survey will sometimes say it can't find any anomalies when one is within 5 squares of the ship (and you can see it!) Auto-explore sometimes stops before it has explored everywhere it can (leaving some grey areas of the map.

Auto-survey will, 95% of the time, find anomalies anywhere on the map within range of the ship. The ship will head towards them even if they are in unexplored territory. This makes my above strategy for cash quite useful.

Hmm, off-topic, how do I get a nickname on this thing? Do I have to make a metaverse character?
Reply #10 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Ahh, I found it...too bad it doesn't change the name on my older posts.
Reply #11 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Auto survey only find the anomalies that show up on your map and even then it misses some.

I don't build a lot of scouts either (especially on small or tiny maps and the one thing I can't beat the AI on is finding anomalies. They go after them with a frenzy.

For that reason I usually set the game for rare anomalies
Reply #12 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I know for a fact that auto-survey finds anomalies that you can't see. I use it every game and have multiple surveyers that also act as my only scouts (all set to auto-survey).

-Drachasor
Reply #13 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
He's absolutely 100% right. Using auto survey will find anomolies that are in unexplored space. You can see where your automated ships are moving to simply by looking for the blue 'target' cursor. I put my flagship on autosurvey at the beginning of every game, and yes, it moves into unexplored space to grab those anomolies.

I'm also pretty sure the AI can do the same thing for habitable worlds and resource nodes as well. I've used the teleport cheat to reveal the map a few times to confirm this, and it defenitely looks to me like the AI is making a beeline for the closest habitable worlds long before it ever got a scout out to them.
Reply #14 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
yep, autosurvey moves out into unexplored space and is a great way of making gobs of cash while exploring the map. If you have a few survey ships going it's sometimes worth leaving the tech research on some ungodly long (for early on) research like the highest sensors or higher engines due to the occasional +25% research anomalies that pop up sometimes.

I don't really see it as a bug though, anomalies are just that... something unusual... one would expect that ships sensors could detect that something unusual was in a given direction/location nearby even when they aren't close enough to know what is actually there.
Reply #15 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
The 25% research anomalies are a reason to micromanage your research. You end a turn researching the more attainable stuff, but when you explore anomalies you switch it to the high-end stuff. You don't lose the research you've already done when you switch what you're researching in the middle. In fact, it's often a good idea to finish researching a low-end tech just to unlock a high-end one, hoping for a 25% bonus.

My favorite anomalies are the 2500bc ones regardless. I need the money, badly.
Reply #16 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

The ai doesnt know where the habitable planets are, but if you are playing as humans all the Ai's know where the planets are. They send colony ships out to the planets in the hope they find habitable ones. I have watched them do this, at first i thought it was cheating, till i saw it go to solar systems with no habitable planets in them.

Basically all AI have steller cartography so know where all the planets are, i think it even explains this in the instructions.

As for the anomolies im not sure about how that works, I havent tried the auto search, and i have beaten the ai to anomolies lots of times, they have turned to head in a different direction instead of going for the nearest anomoly like you would expect. So in my experience they are not cheating!
Reply #17 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
As for the anomolies im not sure about how that works, I havent tried the auto search, and i have beaten the ai to anomolies lots of times, they have turned to head in a different direction instead of going for the nearest anomoly like you would expect. So in my experience they are not cheating!


Autoharvest anomolies will do the same thing and pass multiple anomolies on the ships way to another anomoly before either going back or generally heading off in another direction.
Reply #18 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Last game I played I had auto survey stop and tell me there were no more anomilies, when I could still see two.
Reply #19 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Then your game was bugged or those were resources and not anomolies, BladeVenom. Frogboy has already stated at least once that 'auto survey' will find all anomolies on the map as they couldn't turn off the AI knowing where they were, I think. I'm not 100% on that one, but I do know that every map at the start I'll turn on auto-survey and after my ship has explored pretty much the full map (beelining from one anomoly to another that I've never come near) it will deactivate. Stardock has confirmed this is a 'feature'.
Reply #20 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I believe what Frogboy said is that they found it much less tedious to the player if auto-survery simply flew to the nearest anomolies, scouted or not. And since both the AI and the human have access to this same ability, no one is "cheating"
Reply #21 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I disagree - to me this seems more like a bug, and to take advantage of the bug is cheating or at the very least a 'gamey' tactic.
Technically, if the ship knows something is there, then it would communicte this back to HQ. HQ would then plot the info on the map - which it currently doesn't. So to fix the bug you either take this ability away from the AI, or show all anomolies at the start of the game to the player.

I love to micromanage my scout/ survey ships at the start of each game - a big part of the fun is discovering what's out there, and if you get lucky it's really satisfying. Winning the race to an (undetected) anomoly by superior search techniques or ship design is also satsifying gameplay.
By having an automated feature such as this which is permanently active, if its true the AI players use it, then it's taking something away from the player in my opinion.
Knowing that there's a way for my ships to 'know' where all the anomolies are and that I have to use this feature in order to be competitive against the AI has just killed this part of the game for me. I basically wish I'd not read this thread at all...
Reply #22 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
How come more anomalies don't appear during play? It seems a shame that survey modules are only worthwhile for a short period at the beginning of each game.
Reply #23 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Then your game was bugged or those were resources and not anomolies, BladeVenom. Frogboy has already stated at least once that 'auto survey' will find all anomolies on the map as they couldn't turn off the AI knowing where they were,


No I've had this problem too. A scout ship on auto survey won't pick up anomalies that are clearly visible. Even if you try to turn auto survey back on it will tell you there are no more anomalies. This is a bug that needs to be fixed
Reply #24 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Technically, if the ship knows something is there, then it would communicte this back to HQ. HQ would then plot the info on the map - which it currently doesn't.


You can select for anomalies to appear on the minimap and it will show ones that are under the "fog of war".




How come more anomalies don't appear during play? It seems a shame that survey modules are only worthwhile for a short period at the beginning of each game.


This annoys me as well.
Reply #25 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
The bug is that scout ships don't have survey sensors on them, they're simply scouts with sensors.