Random GC2 questions

Ship Quality Bonus increases the attack and defence rating of ships, while the Ship Hit Point Bonus increases the hit points.

SQB is a planetary bonus. I.e., it only appears on planets (either through colonisation events or a planetary improvement) and only works for ships built on that planet. Originally, the Arcean Stellar Forge was the only planetary improvement that granted it. However, the CU added the bonus to the Altarian Doomsday Generator and the Hyperion Shipyard too.

Here's another one.  I just finished a game and I don't understand the score.

TotA 2.20.  Immense, all-Abundant.  Two majors: Terran player, Drengin AIP.  Terran Conquest victory just two weeks short of 4 years: 

              Terran      Drengin

Society    34,000     23,000

Tech        24,000     25,000

Econ        42,000     45,000

Military     11,700    12,500

----------------------------------

total        205,500    55,500

Final Terran military ranking was 37,371.

First, how did I lose the Tech score when I researched twice his number of techs, and the Military score when I kicked his ass all over the galaxy? 

Second, where does the final total come from?  It bears no resemblance to the purported breakdown.

I cannot definitely know what did go on in your game, but the number of researched techs is irrelevant to your techscore - only actual output (number of flasks) do measure it. Now I've observed it multiple times that the AI doesn't pick a tech to research but still musteres research - this does happen especially on the turn when you trade a tech to him which he currently does research.

And on both topics the game works & collects the area under the curve - and weighs it against the turn time passed - if you want to know this you'll have to "swap seats" using cheats and then look at the Drengin curves directly.

You get a multiplier for being victorious, plus I think all other multipliers (for galaxy size, siff setting etc) are added only at game end.

I'm bad.  I club baby seals in my dreams.  I'm so bad I make ebola look like Christmas dinner.

So why did I just get these saintly Arnorian ships dumped on me?  They burn when I touch them...

Here's another one:  I trade for a Trade Good, then go to war with the owner of that Trade Good.  Do I still get the benefit? 

It would seem so in the case of Gravity Accelerators, but I'm not so sure WRT Micro Repair Robots.

Well it works like this:

If you paid/traded for a specific good - you'll keep it forever, no matter what comes - even if the planet holding that Trade Good gets destroyed!

Except for the actual builder of that particular good - in both cases - either planets gets conquered or destroyed - he'll loose the bonus.

I didn't test how the game behaves if you conquer a planet holding a trade good (which will grant you the bonus) but afterwards you'll loose the planet again - if in this case, you keep or loose the bonus...

Anyway, unless there's a bug I don't know about - all Trade Goods should behave the same, I remember doing some tests a year ago...

Have you gotten the Intimidation invasion tactic to work?  I have the Xeno Intimidation tech but it never shows up.  Playing 2.20.

It doesn't seem to work on neither 2.20, the 2.02 rev of the CU (which was actually the one sent to become 2.20) or the last one which Gaunathor did complete. Although on 2.02 or the last one, the Drengin (I just quicktested only on them) seem to have Information Warfare instead....

The tooltip for Intimidation still spells wrongly "propgranda" - which I definitely can remember being reported + fixed. The whole winding back revs did propably break that. Think it would have been nbetter to firstly discuss any planned changes and only implement them if everyone is fine instead of doing hasty rushwork.

Anyway, can you confirm this, and what about the other new invasion techs, AFAIK Thalan & Yor got one each (and I remember there were problems with the icons as well...)

There is a typo in the Tech_Requirement for this tactic. It's set to "Xeno Intimidation" instead of "XenoIntimidation". I missed that the last time I checked the file. Though, to be honest, I was expecting this tactic to be working. It had been almost a year since MabusAltarn split Information Warfare into two tactics (for reasons still unclear to me). If Intimidation hadn't been working, somebody would have reported it during that time, right? Yeah, maybe I was stupid expecting that.

True on both counts. Feel free to fix it. My Dropbox-link should still be valid, and Stardock seems to be in no hurry to implement the files I've sent them in January.

True, that's how it should have been handled. However, the update was supposed to only fix typos and the remaining issues with the integration of the CU into the game. I don't even remember how we got into "bugfix and balance changes"-mode. Not that it matters anymore.

Mechanized Warriors and Terror Drones work, though they are still extremely unbalanced (i.e. very underpowered). The only issue is that the techs are not showing the new tactics as something they unlock.

I was playing Drengin and did acquire Information Warfare, but I'm pretty sure I had to trade to get it.  Marines is the go-to tactic for Drengin anyway. 

I tend to <ctrl-Z> around for fun about once a year to see what everyone's doing, and I'm pretty sure I saw Terror Drones and Mech Warriors for the respective infidel races.  (Some races really need the help in the rush phase.  E.g. the Failure-to-Colonize bug is better, but is still with us.)

I'll check the files as soon as I get motivated. Thanks.

When you have an option of winning a game by different means, is one method preferred for a higher score?  E.g. I can ally with the last unallied race for a Diplomatic Victory.  Or I can button up and hit the research for a Tech Vic.  Or I can go out and kill somebody, which will likely end in a very long Conquest win, or more likely a DiploVic again.  Or just build more SBs for a tidal wave of Culture.

So is there a score advantage to one type over another?  To how early the win date?

And has anyone won with an Ascension Vic?  There never seems to be enough crystals to accomplish one within 5 years.

I don't recall the specifics, but yes.

Yah.  Diplo Vic, 48K.  Techno Vic, 41K.

The number of turns act as a divisor in the overall scoreing formula. Sooner = higher.

Military Victory has the highest score multiplicator.