I've played several games and a crazy game I should have lost. I kept a couple saves and I'll upload the early one and challenge anyone to beat this game, load as much as you like and I'll still be surprised if anyone can crack it.
I have a few more critiques and observations. But let me reply to some of these posts first.
But this reasoning is weird. I don't think classic Warlord was overpowered at 8 picks.
I assumed since the command point ability was tweeked, you must have felt it was too strong in some way. To be honest, I personally can't even justify it's use any longer over economy picks. It's been watered down by the two factors I've mentioned before. Reduced command and +25 starting offense for all. I don't use the ship offense picks as it is, even though you've made them more tempting by cheapening them. That's why I suggested cheapening them but you might be right in that they may be close to a tipping point which would make them too cheap once crossed but considering you start out with 50 offense, I value offense even less than before. Seeing as warlords key features are ships values now, it's also devalued in the same manner. I lose battles I would normally win all the time now and it's why I stopped using it. I can no longer use the entertaining tactic of "more ships, less tech, better crews".
Yes, I have increased the Electronic Computer from +25 to +50, as an extra defense for a.i. against early human missile boats.
I played a strategic game and all my ships hit everything with every cannon from clear across the screen every battle. Why would I pick more offense? All I needed was the base computer and a battle scanner clear until the end of the game or I steal a better attack computer. Pleasure dome is way better when I already have +100 attack. If I went holos I will get the positronic computers. Unification makes this a no brainer though. With uni I will have attack coming out the wazoo. I know positronics was pushed up the tree but I cant under emphasize starting with 25 free attack for everyone on the board and how it affects early to mid game. I feel like everybody hits everything now.
The beginning sets the tone for the rest of the game and why unitol +1p was so powerful even though on paper it's not all that powerful late game. Sub with moral bonuses and will yield much higher proportions late game. So.. if missile abuse was the inspiration here, why not just weaken missiles? Make em heavier. Easy fix.
The Classic Optronic computer was a no go really for humans coz Research Labs was pretty much a mandatory pick. A.I. would research it, missing out on R. Labs as they have no clue how to prioritize research.
When someone, including myself neglected attack computers in the past, it was a problem. You missed! If my enemy went a powerful attack computer, I knew they would be a problem in combat but they would have a weaker research economy. I think your tech tree is improved and the best I've seen of any mod but I worry about "singletons". The argument here is that you'll pick the better one anyways and the computer might miss the good one out of stupidity. The thing is research techs did have powerful techs in competition with them. You were giving something up to do this. Now you're giving up less or nothing at all. This serves to make valuable techs available to all without as much penalty. There might be a better way. It seems to me that the most powerful techs to rush for to build your empires are these 4 techs. Aside from moral techs, automated factories, research labs, robo miners, and supercomputers. Here's a thought. Place automated with research labs and robo miners with supercomputers. Now that's a "very difficult choice" and depending on your race and available richness of planets, your decision will differ from game to game. Another minor problem with singletons is weakening the power of creative, which isn't all the great anyways when you can trade and steal your way to glory.
Note also that Warlord is an ability that increases in value as turns progress. The more you expand, the larger the fleet delta can be and the +15 advantage grows to +20 at Veteran (Elite) and +25 at Elite (Ultra-Elite) levels.
Hey, who do you think you're talking to here? Ofcourse I know and loved it! I also noted you made elite and ultra elite easier to reach. I like it. Ultra elite was insanely hard to reach unless you had 5 planets with space academies in one system with a specialized instructor haha. And yes I like the change to militia, should invading an entire planet be so easy?
You probably mean classic Alkari here, because ICE Alkari are a quite good race imho.
Yes and I'd say the real demons are the Meklar now. I go to red alert every time I encounter them.
Anti Missile Rockets & Lasers prewarp:
See other thread.
Which thread am I looking for? I did see you were going to remove techs unused in strategic. *Edit* Ah I see it now. I'm touched, you opened a strategic warfare thread.
For ICE mod I have simply corrected this textual mistake. If I knew how to remove the 1 BC from the Replicator tech, I would do that right away.
You know what might be good enough? Just remove the 3 maintenance. Right now there are times when autobuild throws it up on planets where I don't even use it. It also makes logical sense to only pay when it operates.
What can I say, this is what players do to gain a few turns in eco devlopment...
I kid somewhat, I have scrapped it but only in emergency situations to speed build defenses on a planet with an incoming enemy fleet. The way I play might have something to do with it, when you declare war on everyone you meet, you may need a cruiser asap and there is no guarantee I will find a rich planet that will make a better shipyard than my home planet. I experimented with it under my harsh game rules and it was a mistake. If you use diplomacy and do not foresee war, I could see scrapping the shipyard like I would scrap the marine barracks most of the time to save on maintenance and make a few quick bucks.
Tactical has prio over strategic.
Gasp! Ofcourse I realize most play strategic and it's fun but how do you guys find the time? It took me a week of casual playing to finish one game on strategic. I can finish 10-20 tactical games in that time. As long as strategic gets some care, I'm happy. VLC cares so little about strategic that it doesn't even work.
Just incase it isn't apparent, I think your mod is great. I know all these criticisms may seem aggressive but It's my hope these observations and arguments might be useful.
Attached are two saved games, one game is a challenge and for fun. The second is just before encounter with the massive Meklar fleet and when the game finally turned around. Also, there is an odd bug in the second game. I don't know if it's Icemod related but I've never seen it before. My homeworld began reproducing rebel population and even stranger they would never assimilate. They even tried to rebel and take the planet once, I wonder who they would rebel to if they won. They only appeared if I shifted out population. Newly reproduced population would become rebels. Maybe they were rebelling because of my warcrimes.
