The only thing that I don't like about the Jagged Knife the computer doesn't know how to play them.

The Jagged knife can't work their economics. They can't afford a military. If they appear that usually means your are doing pretty good. All it does is slow down the game, and gives you more planets in the end. Usually some extra super projects. What I would like to see is one that can function. They would be forminable if they redesigned better. You would think they would do that \, considering they have all the techs. Its part of the flare of the game. As long as they don't destroy wonders it will be all right just be patiant. What I don't like is how they took this out. When you get someones planet you don't keep the improvements that you don't know how to build.

What pirates they almost arenever there. They need to make them like sins of a solar empire. While we are on the subject why are there no feasible rebellions on the game.

The Jagged knife is part of the game. The only thing is I would actually like to see them be able to play.

Sadly, I have never had either the Peace Keeper or the Pirates mega event, though I have played 100s of DA games over the years.  I also have not had the Dread Lords for a lonnnng time.

Does playing on Suicidal make those less likely to happen?

Or, do the triggers include the human player being in a very strong position early in the game?  Or, at least not dead last, as I generally am for the first many turns in Suicidal.  By the time I turn the tide at Suicidal, I think the tech level might make those mega events non-events.

I'm reasonably certain that the Peacekeepers relate in some way to map size. First time I ever saw them was on an Immense map in TOA, and I've never seen them anywhere else. Never had the mega pirates and can't say I'm sorry... they're one of the mega events that tends to be unbalancing in favor of the human. Dread Lords appear to be one of the purely random mega events - if you invoke them with cheats, the Dread Lords and the galactic plague are the only two appearing right at the start of the game without making any changes.

I've had the Jagged Knife twice, once on TOA and once on DA, and I haven't noticed the AIs not responding to them (as previous posts claim). In DA they got a free (?) ship on all their planets, so the militarily weak races (Torians, Korx) ignored them but everyone else didn't. In fact the Korath declared war on them the turn they appeared.

In TOA the AIs were a bit more hesitant. Some of them, like the Altarians, had built no military whatsoever and were presumably scared off by the single fighter the JK rush-bought. Again, though, the militarily strong AIs went against them pretty fast. All the surviving races are at war with the JK by now.

It would be nice if the Jagged Knife ever actually did anything, although it would also be annoying unless they took less planets on average. Right now, they're effectively an armed colony rush, one where you have to fight to get planets. Still, definitely succeeds at shaking up the galaxy, and in a way that doesn't massively disadvantage either the human or the AIs.

Jagged knife is just annoying. They take lot of planets and then keep waiting on you to take them back. Whats the point??? Take your planets back is actually not hard for you..but it is for AI & I find taking AIs ex-planets thx to this event as gamey tactic which unbalances game. Its shame cuz other mega events are nice.

As I said above, I've never had problems with the AIs retaking the JK's planets. The Korx rose to a major power when they appeared in TOA by conquering almost a dozen JK planets, most of which were originally Thalan. The JK are unbalancing but that's how mega events should be, and they aren't (in my experience) unbalancing in favor of either the player or the AIs...

...UNLIKE the mega pirates, which are the event that most needs fixing. The idea is basically a galaxy-wide reset for your military and starbases, but the AIs can't ever seem to recover (at least in accounts I've read, I've never actually seen them).

I also wish the Dread Lords event was done more like the campaign story (a DL fleet appears and starts conquering worlds) rather then the way it's implemented, but that's really just an aesthetic preference as I've found the Dread Lords to be a suitable challenge as long as they don't appear too close to any race. There's also a bug where the event causes a CTD in TOA if the DLs appear on an extreme planet, but it does work if they appear on a normal planet.

Well, at the very least, no one has raised their hand and said, "Oh! I love having the Jagged Knife event!"

When i got the jagged knife even... i was far into a huge game... that took over 20 hours. The dread lords had come already, and where whiped away in a few turns... and its was just me against the Yor collective, in a culture battle because the comitee board thigsy under my command said: no war between major races... and i was winning... Then

The jagged knife.
one event... 150 planets lost...

Well that was a bummer... still won though... got every minor species to crush on them, but it was hard as they had ALL technologies..
Nasty business those guys, even more anoying then the enemy agent on all planets... which where also 150 planets roughly...

They sure make it hard

I'd probably enjoy the JK if it functioned properly.

However, the JK are really hurt by their minor race status (exclusion from the culture game and voting), their economical and military impotence, their inability to play enemies against eachother... basically, while they appear intended to give you a real challenge as the New Big Bad, they end up instead being "take back your planets (and those of others too), gaining tech and (re)gaining territory without real resistance".

The normal AI on the other hand, are at a clear disadvantage towards the player, as they simply lack the algorythms for a really aggressive invasion strategy. In the end the JK often end up helping the player more than they've hurt them.

As for the losing of key planets: Mega Events are designed to shake things up in an UNFAIR manner (you don't get to prepare, but must respond). Losing key planets does this trick rather well, making you rethink your strategy and significantly weakening you. Perhaps you can consider it an immersion breaker that you can lose planets that appear to be perfectly happy and quiet, but that is only true if you think it's possible that any government can control a population of hundreds if not thousands of billions of people spread across numerous worlds and honestly know EVERYTHING. In "reality" (lol, it's a game, but still) central power would have to delegate a lot of control and functions to local authorities, who may very well be corrupt and/or aspiring to break loose. It bothers me more that GalCiv knows so few defections and rebellions, than that the JK might be unrealistic (which I don't think they are).

I tend to agree that the JK could be a great major event.  It could add a lot to the game in question.  However, in reality, it tilts the game way too far in our direction.  So, my solution has been to "cheat."  Since the JK event does nothing to help the current game, imo, I turn it into something that does.  I always play with cheats on.  Not to help myself, but to make the game better.  For example, I occasionally hit the cheat to play as another race... in this case a minor, and colonize several planets as the minor.  I'll do this to add variety to the galaxy I'm using, always immense by the way.  Its fun when a cluster is all Snathi, Akilians, etc.  They never fight each other, so it adds flavor.  Also, when I notice an obvious mistake, like a race ignoring resources in their space, I will click on them and claim the resources for them. You get the idea.  Anyway, as it pertains to the JK.  I simply grab most of the important planets and rebalance the game by giving them to the computer races that are best benefited by them.  It helps prolong the game, and makes it a bit more difficult for me to win.  Suddenly, a race that was running low comes storming back.  I know, its "cheating," but I do it for the sake of game balance, flavor and realism.  I don't take them for myself. 

After a few JKs, I long ago decided always just to reload the previous turn and move on.

I still have never had Pirates of Peacekeepers, nor have I seen the Dread Lords since my last post in this thread.

That's interesting.  I always assumed the event would happen anyway after reloading.  Do you find the random events change when you go back to the previous save?

Yes.

But I still do the every turn save option to be sure.  That is, I can go back two turns or more, if I choose.

Jagged Edge showing up means I've won. It's completely ridiculous how useful it is for the player to be able to cherry pick from all the planets the JE stole not to mention all the tech from every single affected race.

Yes, but it's a boring win once one has done it a few times.

As I said earlier, when I get JK now I just reload (or start a new game).

> "The only thing that I don't like about the Jagged Knife the computer doesn't know how to play them."

Yep.  They are made the size of a major civ, then played like a rather stupid minor.  Further, they aren't even consistent. 

TA, Huge, Painful - I was playing Korath and starting to do pretty well.  JK took 32 worlds - 16 of them mine - and should have been in a strong position.  My lost worlds were pretty well built up with Korath tech.  JK is described as "thriving on disorder and chaos" - in other words evil - but they destroyed all the "evil" Korath improvements that they took from me.  A year later it finally dawned on me that they hadn't built any ships after the first few, so I hit a cheat code to go look.  The ONLY production techs they had were ones that they got from neutral civs and that were still in the production queue from me. 

Needless to say, I immediately sent a couple spore ships and easily won with chain reaction building.  Darn it.  It was a pretty interesting game up until that point.

Agreed. They took my Class 31 planet and tried to swindle me to not attack them! not to mention they demolished all my ultimate diabolic research facility on that planet right after that stunt. that got me pretty steamed, i was playing on obscene mode and that took me forever to fill that planet with research facility as Drengin.

What I don't like about the jagged knife is they got all this stuff that they don't do anything with

For the Dark Avatar game it is almost designed for the Altarians or the Thalan the Krynn alwayz have good abilities