Incidentally I CTRL-ALT-DEL'd the game out of anger - it was that or lose my fist in my flat-screen monitor.

Combat in GalCiv is resolved one ship at a time. Which means you had 20 corvettes attack a Dreadnaught one at a time. One corvette vs. Dread = BOOM, next attack: One corvette vs. Dread = BOOM, etc.

The Combat Transport is a very, very dangerous ship. I've had them kill Avatars before! Never underestimate a defense rating...they can be deadly.

Now, the planet attack...I'm not sure what's happening here. I think attacking ships get a bonus, but this seems a bit extreme to me. Does anybody else know what could be happening? :notsure:

20 corvettes cannot hope to destroy a dreadnaught - that's not the way the combat works. (Ships take turns attacking, pitting their attack rating against the others defense rating. 20 ships effectively attack one at a time.)
A combat transport has apparently zero attack, but when a ship with defense higher than attack gets attacked, it gets a bonus to its attack rating equal to half its defense.
I can't explain anything else you described.


~SDC~

Cool, we must have answered about the exact same time!

We must stop meeting like this.

~SDC~

That's the Fellowship way...we're all eager to help!

Hey, um... stupid, you might find this tool useful.

http://www.galciv.com/metaverse/simulator.asp

It simulates combats and tells you what the expected outcome is. Give it a try, and it will show you that you should have expected your Corvettes to get creamed.

The dreadnaught taking out two higher-level ships is weird, but it might just have been bad luck. (There is an element of randomness in combat.)

Combat works as follows: in each "round", the attacker gets a random number assigned to it less than or equal to its "attack" value. The defender gets a random number less than or equal to its "defense" value. If the attacker's random number is higher than the defender's, the defender takes damage equal to the difference between their numbers. Then they switch places, and the defender becomes the attacker. This continues until a ship is destroyed.

For ships with a "defense" value higher than their "attack" value, they get an "attack" bonus equal to 1/2 their defense value. This is why combat transports with zero attack still are very tough to destroy.

Wow! Six (now seven) straight posts from Fellowship members! Talk about giving help!

Something else for the Propaganda Machine? *cough* I mean, Metaverse Review?

Shhhh! They aren't supposed to know about that!

LOL

Most times if I see a similar ship approaching a planet with an equivalent ship I will attack them and then return to orbit because that has happened to me as well.So by attacking first you might win and save the other ships in orbit.

PS FOTR I just had to break that string before it got too long!!
[Message Edited]

Thanks for your advice guys... however I'm still damn annoyed.

And yes, I'm well aware that I sound like a paranoid noob. You can't blame me though - I should be trouncing them on the game I'm playing but for some reason I'm getting splattered. What's more my p[lanets are slowly starting to get the hump with my leadership.

It was all going so well, sob. (:(

Yes usually the first few games you get your rear handed to you in a paper sack.Once you get the feel for the game then things will start to fall in place.

If you can build Dreadnaughts, you can build Antimatter Missiles. These are very effective weapons against any powerful enemy ship, as long as you get first attack. But you should focus on capturing planets, not destroying ships.

~SDC~

Destroying ships does get you extra points though. Sometimes before finishing the game by non-military means, I'll just build several excaliburs and set them to auto attack, then declare war on the remaining AIs--just to boost my military score

So destroying a bunch of ships gives you a good score, and keeping everyone warm or above for the majority of game don't.. go figure.

I have never noticed much of a difference when playing militarily or culture bombing.You might end up with a couple hundred more points with military kills.

I hate to keep flogging this dead and diseased horse, but I've gone back to that same game where I'm at war with the Arceans and tried a few different tactics to either avoid war, or kick crap out of the Yellows....

So anyway, this time I trade a load of techs, and also get a lucky vote in the United Planets where we all swap 10 techs...

I have a bunch of corvettes (again) but this time the Arceans are still mainly employing Star Fighters (mwahahahahaaaaa, I think, I'm gonna kick ass now). However, their puny star fighters are wiping the floor with my corvettes! A bit further down the line, and I've traded with an ally for Dreadnought tech, AND my people seem to be finding Rangers all over the place (six at last count), and yet their Battle Hammers (yes Hammers) are having no problem wiping out my superior ships.

I can only assume that there is something wrong here. This is the only game I've played where this is happening. "Start a new game!" I hear you cry, but I can't, my pride wont let me.

Is there any way I can give someone 'in-the-know' my save-game and they can verify whether there's something bugged here? This is really ruining GalCiv for me.

Are the Arceans playing the War Party? Do they control one or more military resources? The +50% ship bonus is a pretty big bonus, particulary when there is not much difference between a Star Fighter and a Corvette. Also, those military resources can make a huge difference.

When I play War party with a couple military star bases, I've found that I can out capital ships with Frigates or at least trade 2 for 1... so that makes a HUGE difference.

If it's military resource situation, either trade for those star base or take them out...

Good Luck,
Cypher



~SDC~

Hey,

send me a copy of your save game and I'll take a look at it. I'm not officially "in the konw" but I'm pretty experienced. Maybe I'll be able to see what's going on.

[email protected]

Thanks Vincible, I'm emailing you now with ZIPped files.

Cheers

Will look at it tonight.

You're a diamond

Gerakken's military advice: combat in Galciv favors the attacker, at least in open space. Ships a generation down the line (frigate vs. battleship, starfighter vs. corvette) stand pretty good chances in destroying a superior ship if initiating the hostilities. Ships parked in orbit do get a bonus to attack power that could make them a little nastier to take out than normal, but in open space the tactics should be relatively straight forward: guerilla warfare. Kill incoming transports at all cost if the target system cannot repel an invasion of that size, but besides that, keep falling back and only rush in to score a quick kill and try to have enough moves to get back out of range alive. Mobility and intel are key in this nomadic strategy. Keep scouts and sensor drones in key areas to see the enemy coming. Eyes of the Universe and Grav Accels are vital both to see the threat a long way off and to get the speed required to get in and back out again alive. The strength of this tactic? Being able to stall anything but an overwhelming invasion with minimal of losses by simply leaving planets undefended when there are no transports to threaten them. Learn to give ground when it is not required to hold it. The big weaknesses? Starbases and trade routes are left vulnerable due to a lack of dedicated defenders. The other big weakness comes if your ships are vastly inferior to the attacker. A battle cruiser is not going to do much to a Death Knight, for example. And once in a while it is necessary to deliberately overdrive a ship into counterattack range, but experience using this tactic will teach when doing this is an acceptable loss vs. a reckless waste.

SIGH................. yes

So what. What AI don't cheat. Shame tho, for the most part I have found the AI to be fair....until now.

In what way you ask?

AI: Achean
Item: Diplomatic Translators
Turn A: AI is 360 BC in the hole
Turn B: They build the DT and go in the hole 2757 BC

I don't have a problem with the AI rush buying items, but you do not have the option to rush buy when you have a negative balance (even -1BC). They clearly did.

Now, this might be a bug, and not intentional. But the problem exists either way.

Possible explanation: They extorted 361BC from another empire and then bought them, but I have my doubts.

Game is at "crippling".