So, you want to be an Isolationist...ToA B3

from GalCiv2 Forums
Let me start of in saying that I'm sorry for lack of pictures and even a lot of detail accounts as I hadn't planned on making this game into an AAR and am not at the computer that even holds the game.

Build: ToA Beta3a
Race: Iconians
Difficulty: Normal (just testing the Beta)
Map: Large
All set to abundant, tech trading on, no minor civs.

I was located in the top corner of the galaxy, terrans to my left, dregin to my right. The Yor were in the bottom corner, arceans right corner, torians left corner. I was faced with the dilemma of either worrying about a influence push by the terrans or a military push by the dregin.

Things started off fairly smooth. I tried to get my military up and running early to stave off a war with the dregin all while making sure my border planets with the terran had a high population and high influence.

Most of the time in the game was snagging a few research/factory/econ techs to supplement my fairly lack of a good assortment myself.

By the time I had large hulls, every planet had been colonized (even extreeme planets) and now was the time to worry about pushing people back. I had a mere 1/5 of the galaxy to my name, the yor, dregin and torians had dominated the land grab scene and the yor/dregin had acquired some with early wars I provoked to keep the from looking at me.

Now that the scientists worked out the bugs in the terror stars, we sent 6 constructors to a uninhabited system w/in our borders and made a terror star to run a trial on. All tests worked as planned, just in time too as the Dread Lords just arrived. I think we should properly greet them :)

3 fleets of 3 ships each escorted 6 constructors across the galaxy and into Yor territory to destroy the Dread Lords once and for all. After they were mere cosmic dust (and our first Star was en route south toward the Yor border as well, we decided to right the wrongs that we and the dread lords were part of...the Yor.

A few fleets watched our border with the Yor to make sure no toasters got to our planets, while 2 Star's and 3 escort fleets did their rounds turning the massive Yor territory to dust. We decided to play the humanitarian (does that really fit when we are talking about sentient robots?) and not commit genocide. The Yor always wanted their space after all. They went to the trouble of creating some technology that slowed all ships that get close to their planets to a crawl to increase the travel time to get to them. We decided to take that 1 step further. We allowed them to keep 1 system in the far reaches of the known galaxy to themselves, but we made sure there wasn't a star nor a planet within 2 sectors of them. Remember....they wanted to be isolationists...

All this time I had Alliances with the Terrans, Arceans and the Torians with full intent on dealing with the Dregin presence once my objectives were complete. I often had to "call off my dogs" as you will and have them all call for peace with the Yor so that their ships wouldn't be taken down in the wake of a star's destruction. Well, the Dregin seemed to think it was time to expand again and fired a volley at the Arceans...starting the war with them with me as well. We may have to create a 3rd force at our Dregin border to hold off their advance while the Star forces come in and decimate them as well. In the Yor war, not 1 Iconian perished.

Terror Stars, we have a new target. Escort fleets, refit with the newest line of Phasors, remove those Sentry Droids and toss on more organic plating....we have Dregin to obliterate!!!!
aars
83,891 views 17 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Remember....they wanted to be isolationists...


;)
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Sounds good, though i question whether in ToA there will be an over-reliance on Terror Stars. They sound a bit too powerful right now and i doubt massing Constructors every game will be overly fun...
Galactic Civilizations III
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Sounds good, though i question whether in ToA there will be an over-reliance on Terror Stars. They sound a bit too powerful right now and i doubt massing Constructors every game will be overly fun...


I think they are plenty balanced. They move 1 parsec a week, nothing can increase this. They have no ship-to-ship weapons/defenses so a tiny 1 attack ship can take one out. Also, the 10 week mobilization time gives someone plenty of time to get an attack force around.

I think though a priority to take out Terror Stars should be ingrained to the AI (perhaps it is and Normal difficulty doesn't figure this). Even if your not at war with an AI and a Terror Star is in the same sector as a colony of theirs there should be some sort of diplomatic retaliation (or even owning a terror star). Heck, destroying 1 system with a Terror Star should also cause a - in relations for all races akin to "war monger". I know that if I see the AI using a TS I'm tossing a few fast-response fighters at the thing.

IMHO though a lot of tweaks need to be done so as to keep the AI from sending these things out w/o protection as well as taking them out as a priority.

Also, there is a UP vote to ban their construction by all...which wont help the Yor in this case now...as well...~coughs~.

It's horridly time intensive though. I was totally ignoring any sort of score upon winning in this game. A) I was just worrying about testing the Iconians and B) I wanted to blow everything up with the TS. This game just may end with 1 system remaining, a planet of mine and another race...and blowing it up....just to see what the victory/loss condition will say. If I remember I just said that, I'll repost it in here.
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
IMHO though a lot of tweaks need to be done so as to keep the AI from sending these things out w/o protection as well as taking them out as a priority.


How can you expect that? The AI still doesn't know how to defend a starbase. How is it going to protect a moving starbase?

The AI seems to use auto-attack. Auto attack uses the most chaotic algorithm i've ever seen. (I am always suprised at what it decides to do...)

This is why I don't like all the new bling in the expansions. It's just more stuff the AI can't deal with.
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Well, I just saw that the Torians have completed a Terror Star...and it's deep within my territory. It hasn't moved since I noticed it, but I have a fast response ship located w/in strike range if it dares move w/in 2 parsecs of any of my stars.

Also not in the news is the Dregin have been turned to space dust. Their last system went away in a boom. I say "not in the news" since the mini-movie of a race being killed off never played and no notification that the Dregin went the way of the dodo went public. They have been taken off my list of races to contact however....

The Yor are still pacified, the Dregin dusted. Now I think it's time to remove the other races. I will not stop until everyone is dusted and not 1 of my soldiers have died. I will make sure that it's the Yor that I end the game with in the new Big Bang.
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Well I believe there are more AI tweaks to come, but I have had the experience of the AI specifically chasing down a Terror Star.

During my first game with TA, as the Iconians, I toyed with a Terror Star near the Dregin boarder - when they were feeling they needed to assert their dominance over the galaxy the old fashioned way.

After they declared war they ignored my little fighters I scrambled to meet them and made a bee line for the TS.

If you leave a TS relatively undefended near a boarder, the AI will attempt to destroy it.
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Well, Terror stars sound fine but what of Leibinstram (breeding room). Whose to say that after you conqured the planet the amount left over are your surviving soldiers. Terror stars sound cool but in Large plus galaxies I wonder how good they would be. it might be best to have some Cheap light fighters and a sensor boat stationed around the boarders to prevent that.

It only takes just six constructors to make a terror star? Thats pretty cheap to wipe out a system. As far as the dread lords Usally I let them cook for a few turns to build dom infrastructer to take over.

a move of 1 is pretty useless. I player should be able in the time it takes to take one out.

Oh btw are eyes of the universe still a wonder that can be built by any race?

Duh
Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
It only takes just six constructors to make a terror star? Thats pretty cheap to wipe out a system. As far as the dread lords Usally I let them cook for a few turns to build dom infrastructer to take over.

a move of 1 is pretty useless. I player should be able in the time it takes to take one out.

Oh btw are eyes of the universe still a wonder that can be built by any race?

Duh


Yes, 1 constructor to start the starbase, 5 more to complete 20% each (along with 200bc per upgrade).

A move of 1 and no defenses is it's balancing portion of it's power. Using a TS or more to win a war isn't economically/chronologically viable. I'm just doing it to test them out and get a good feel about them. If I were to being on the MV, I wouldn't waste the year to learn the techs, 6 constructors to build, 1,000bc to build and then the 10 more weeks for mobilization of an uber-slow starbase. Troop transports are far more viable method to take out planets. If you want a big gap between stars, send in troops then destroy the planet by itself. Still tons quicker/less costly.

Eyes of the Universe is linked into Sensor IV and I haven't yet seen a race w/o that tech line. It's a galactic achievement...but still any race could be the one who earns it.
Reply #9 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
any race can have eyes of the universe exxccccellllent. Personally I think eyes are one of the keys to winning game.

I have one Question though. How many squares is the area of effect for Terror stars. Am thinking way to use them might be as mines. When the go boom do they destroy all the other little ships in the area of effect go boom too. There sorta stationary ok if they blow other ships to tiny bits they might make a good mine field too. There might be some uses for them besides destroying planets.

Once they go boom are they gone forever or can they be reused?


Duh.
Reply #10 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Any race currently released in the Beta for ToA has had it. Does that mean SD may remove that tech tree from a race not yet released...I'm unsure.

The AoE is about 3 or 4 parsecs. About the range that all the planets in the system are. Any...ANY other ships/asteroids/bases will be decimated. The TS will remain, the planets will turn into asteroids. It has to be comical in my game when the TS reaches the adjacent parsec from the star as any escort ship that was pacifying the planet's built ships scatter to the outskirts of the system. It reminds you of when the forest goes quiet or the birds take flight...some predator is near. I haven't kept track of how many billions of people and stars my TS have removed from the galaxy...but the primary one has at least 10 stars destroyed...with an avg of 2 planets per star.

I had to hold my hand from destroying some Yor systems since the Torians had asteroid mines w/in the AoE. This is also why I paid my allies to declare peace sometimes when destroying the Yor/Dregin...I didn't want to gack their ships.

When I was attacking the Dregin I had the same issue, either it was the Arcean, Terran or my planets sharing the system. The way I fixed that was called for peace, required the offending planets in return (along with all creds, IP and non-military techs). Once my TS were in position I re-declared war ~coughs~.
Reply #11 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
It's horridly time intensive though. I was totally ignoring any sort of score upon winning in this game. A) I was just worrying about testing the Iconians and B) I wanted to blow everything up with the TS. This game just may end with 1 system remaining, a planet of mine and another race...and blowing it up....just to see what the victory/loss condition will say. If I remember I just said that, I'll repost it in here.




Well, as promised I reported back to tell what happens when you destroy all remaining civs and yourself in a Terror Star explosion.

It took until I hit the Turn button to show the Defeat window...but it was as I had expected. Oh well, nothing special about none of the civs remained or such. /shrug

This concludes my odd AAR of the Beta 3 Iconians and a thorough test of Terror Stars.
Reply #12 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Well, as promised I reported back to tell what happens when you destroy all remaining civs and yourself in a Terror Star explosion.

It took until I hit the Turn button to show the Defeat window...but it was as I had expected. Oh well, nothing special about none of the civs remained or such. /shrug

This concludes my odd AAR of the Beta 3 Iconians and a thorough test of Terror Stars.

Twilight of the Arnor Beta 3b Change Log
+ FIXED: Bug where destroying any of your own planets with a terror star caused you to lose the game

You were playing with Beta 3a; I wonder if the behavior would be different in Beta 3b. Did you destroy any of your other planets in turns before you destroyed your Homeworld?
Reply #13 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
You were playing with Beta 3a; I wonder if the behavior would be different in Beta 3b. Did you destroy any of your other planets in turns before you destroyed your Homeworld?


Yes and no. I just went thru the colony screen and destroyed all my other planets until it was just 1 system left in the galaxy with habitated planets. 1 planet was mine, 1 was the Torians and 1 was the Terrans. In one star explosion I removed all sentient life in the galaxy.

The game was created in 3 or 3a, I ended it with 3b installed but I'm sure a lot was still "bugged" from being created in an earlier version.
Reply #14 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Awesome....I admire your dedication to destruction of all sentient life in the galaxy. ;)

Kzinti empire2.JPG Sentient species taste better...
Reply #15 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Awesome....I admire your dedication to destruction of all sentient life in the galaxy.


Blonde cheerleaders however, still ran rampant...
Reply #16 from Stardock Forums Top

and the crew of the terror star...at their speed it would take them ages to reach another sector.............all that emptiness....

Reply #17 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Quoting Duh, reply 7
Well, Terror stars sound fine but what of Leibinstram (breeding room). Whose to say that after you conqured the planet the amount left over are your surviving soldiers. Terror stars sound cool but in Large plus galaxies I wonder how good they would be. it might be best to have some Cheap light fighters and a sensor boat stationed around the boarders to prevent that.

It only takes just six constructors to make a terror star? Thats pretty cheap to wipe out a system. As far as the dread lords Usally I let them cook for a few turns to build dom infrastructer to take over.

a move of 1 is pretty useless. I player should be able in the time it takes to take one out.

Oh btw are eyes of the universe still a wonder that can be built by any race?

Duh

 

yea way to know german.

 

liebe means to live... living room.