Roxlimn

Reply to Psyonic Weapons in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

tetleytea: I play at normal research Speed and only Large Galaxy. With Abundant Anomalies setting, there's maybe 10-15% left anomalies by the time you get to the point where you can research and build Galactic Guide Book. By that time, you could probably more usefully sweep the remainder with what early Sensor ships you've had built. For scouting purposes, Eyes is more useful, but it's something of a mid to late game development. So

Reply to PC game piracy hurts us all in GalCiv Journals GalCiv2 Forums

Bodyless: That's not entirely true. Depending on what copyright laws are, how they're enforced or upheld, and what they're actually doing to your society, they may or may not be beneficial. Certainly, Renaissance Italy needed no copyright laws to develop some of the most enduring pieces of artistic endeavor known to man.

Reply to So, what's the good stuff? in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

Everyone enjoys different things. The colonization is the early part of the game and it does seem sort of repetitive, but it is also very challenging to do well. You need to build up your economy with an end in mind - not just execute it without thinking. It requires "tweaking" in every game. Ship design and upgraading can be done automatically based on automatic computer suggestions. You can design your own ships, but there are basic templates you can use, ins

Reply to Psyonic Weapons in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Regarding Eyes: I usually research up to about Sensors 2 and then start putting an odd Sensor on my Small ships when the space warrants it - odd little spaces that don't get used anyway. I need Sensors 2 to get Survey Ships up and running, so that's little cost as well. Eyes is significantly further down the Sensors line and requires significant resources to acquire. I would perhaps build about 10 or so of the Smalls in the relevant time frame. The added IP c

Reply to Psyonic Weapons in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

I've played DA, too, and the cheaper defenses there meant that invulnerable ships made even more sense, rather than less. What didn't always make sense was fleeting attack ships with them, particularly when the advantages you gained would be marginal at best. That still makes more sense than just throwing away Defense ships against targets that don't suit them. Of course, I always try to get 100% max attack coverage with Defense when I can, but that isn't always possible.&

Reply to PC game piracy hurts us all in GalCiv Journals GalCiv2 Forums

psychoak: I would venture to speculate that I personally allowed for game companies to hike up the pricing of their games to ridiculous levels in the closing years of the 20th century because in those times, gaming was a niche industry. You can't do mass market economics in a niche industry because there aren't that many buyers. A game with a development cost of 1 million dollars and a market share of 5 000 is going to cost a lot. I was willing to pa

Reply to Psyonic Weapons in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Well... ...since you asked so nicely... ;) In general, when I see a matchup where I'm pitting 100 defense against 168 offense (a less than 100% max attack coverage), I'm also usually putting in at least 2 relevant weapons modules of the same tech level. I can do this early because I don't generally put a lot of research into Logistics. You normally need Advanced Logistics to fleet two Mediums together, or else it would be a Medium and several Smalls. Once I c

Reply to PC game piracy hurts us all in GalCiv Journals GalCiv2 Forums

Internet piracy is trivial, I agree. Actual commercial piracy is not. It's not the internet pirate that forced Philips, Sony, and other DVD player producers to avoid selling DVD players that only played region-specific DVDs in Asia. They probably still make and sell that in the US where it would actually sell, but in the South East Asian and Chinese markets, these DVD players are practically unsellable. When you can force hardware to conform to piracy standards, no a

Reply to Psyonic Weapons in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Sole Soul: I realize that Defense rolls also, but for some reason, 60-70% of max attack seems to be sufficient for my ships to take little to no damage. Occasionally, they'll die in spectacular fashion, but that's uncommon - probably the result of a low defense roll, I surmise. I wouldn't fleet two such defense ships because it would be pointless! It makes more sense to fleet several attack ships and a defense ship than to fleet several defense shi

Reply to Psyonic Weapons in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Ah, but that is the beauty of Reinforced Hull Point and Organic Hull Plating! They extend the duration for which the attack to HP ratio is 4:1! I would venture to suppose that if you had more attack than your enemy, then you are, in fact, winning because you had obtained a military advantage. Do you tech that fast on Maso? I've played a lot of games on Tough and I've never yet seen a Doom Ray. The game simply doesn't last long enough to get there. Once I as

Reply to Psyonic Weapons in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

JustinSane4: That's something I don't understand. I can see where a defense-ship strategy can help you to beat an opponent militarily where you're otherwise behind, but I can't see how an all-attack fleet would have any chance assuming you're behind on all fronts. Could it be that we are not, after all, postulating a situation where we're behind on all fronts?

Reply to PC game piracy hurts us all in GalCiv Journals GalCiv2 Forums

Regont: Correct. Doctors are paid more because people want to pay more for their services. However, by the same token, pirates exist because people want to pay them enough to compensate them for their risks and services. You can't be all moral and mighty at one point and completely economic the next. Companies who say they're emplying DRM to fight pirates are either completely bonkers or are lying in order to hide more suspicious activity - s

Reply to What would be viable copy protection? in PC Gaming GalCiv2 Forums

If you look a little closely, removing CD-keying and online checking is essentially just a product add-on, being the same kind of program modification as a minor patch. The checking of ownership is not an integral part of the game. The same skills involved in correcting product problems in a game are also involved when that problem is DRM and similar limitations on games sold publicly. If companies would be persuaded to be more reasonable in terms of price point and produc

Reply to PC game piracy hurts us all in GalCiv Journals GalCiv2 Forums

Excuse me. Mr. Idiot here. As much as I like being personally attacked at random, I would like to clarify that I said that Americans do not respect the intellectual property of others. I didn't, in fact, say that Stars Wars was a copyright infringement of Hidden Fortress. I merely said that inspiration was taken, but no obvious or immediate reference was given for it. Of course, I only mentioned that as part of a series to establish a trend. Copyright infri

Reply to Psyonic Weapons in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

JustineSane4: Begging your pardon, sir, but I have made no bones about what level difficulty I have been playing and am talking about. I do not pretend to know what works on Suicidal or Masochistic difficulties, and I never have. Let's please be clear on that. When opposing fleets have over 1000 attack and you have 84, nothing is going to work. When you reach the end of the tech trees because your games are Battle of the Gods

Reply to Psyonic Weapons in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

JustinSane4: If I were trying to be rude, I would call Sole Soul a noob. I haven't. He may be knowledgable about game mechanics, but it seems clear to me that his knowledge of game mechanics is leading him to incorrect conclusions - so much so that he doesn't even seem to want to try out something that I have personally found to be devastatingly effective. I know that the HP modules change the equation somewhat, and it kind of changes the tip off p

Reply to What would be viable copy protection? in PC Gaming GalCiv2 Forums

WIllythemailboy: I don't believe that that's all that different. An iPod likewise will have the most issues when reinstalling or reinitializing it to a new computer, as a new user would. Apple provides the same product support whether you're the original owner or not. Likewise, when a new user adapts a new phone to his interfaces, likings, and SIM, that's when it's most likely to have a problem, too. Nokia still gives product support.

Reply to What would be viable copy protection? in PC Gaming GalCiv2 Forums

As a matter of fact, I do insist and expect that a car insured or warrantied for 10 years will continue to have that warranrty even when I acquire it second hand. Certainly, I would expect the same for an iPod or a cellphone - and I get it. A product sold to me void of otherwise normal warranties would be extremely suspect - I would not even consider a purchase for 75% value of an otherwise new car, which is the standard markdown as soon as you drive it off the lot. Toyota

Reply to What would be viable copy protection? in PC Gaming GalCiv2 Forums

WIllythemailboy: In theory, I agree with the concept that companies need to be recompensated for services rendered apart from point of sales, but I don't think that used copies are necessarily exempt from that. A sale is a sale. Whether the primary user usses it for the remainder of his life or someone else does is immaterial - that particular instance of a sale requires support for the added value.

Reply to PC game piracy hurts us all in GalCiv Journals GalCiv2 Forums

Right now, the most effective form of anti-piracy is good service, ongoing value, and good customer relations. Of course, having a good game helps, too. DRM is at such a point that pirates essentially pirate the game at will. No form of DRM is likely to work, IMO, if even hardcoding the software onto hardware doesn't help. I'm beginning to think that the software industry needs to fundamentally rethink value and creating opportunities for the encouragement of creat

Reply to Psyonic Weapons in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

JustinSane4: I only have experience up to the Tough difficulty level, but up to that level, defense ships are extremely powerful and useful. They don't, in fact, go from "all-powerful" to "junk" very quickly, and retain a great deal of usability even where their total defense might not, in fact, make them invulnerable to fleet action. The key point of usability is based on the fact that up to a certain attack value, a Defense ship is completely invulnera

Reply to What would be viable copy protection? in PC Gaming GalCiv2 Forums

Plaigiarism isn't the only way to violate copyright. Making information publicly available for consumption is, too. I could direct you to torrent sites for the downloading of manga and anime straight off the net without paying Tokyopop or any Japanese publisher or mangaka anything at all, but I would rather not be responsible for direct closure actions against them, and they're easy to search out anyways. Look for torrents for the downloading for Death Note manga or anime

Reply to PC game piracy hurts us all in GalCiv Journals GalCiv2 Forums

psychoak: I did much more schooling and training than a plumber would have. That means that for that amount of time, HE is being productive supporting ME since I'm essentially a social leech at that point. He can work long hours, too. He can train in all kinds of esoteric plumber jobs, too. He still won't get paid as much as me. Becoming a doctor involves a lot of hard work; but so, too, should being a plumber! I know plumbers tha

Reply to Psyonic Weapons in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Sole Soul: I believe that you don't really get the point of the defensive techs. tetleytea certainly appears not to. The point of the defensive techs is to rapidly research up the defense tree that's appropriate to your enemy's offensive line to the point where you can cost-effectively build a ship that's invulnerable to his fleets. You don't research up this line until you have established that your enemy is pursu

Reply to What would be viable copy protection? in PC Gaming GalCiv2 Forums

US authors pretty much ripping off of manga, anime, or foreign authorships is nothing new. Star Wars, for instance, is essentially a retelling of The Hidden Fortress without any formal recognizance and reworked in several ways to become a "different work." More recently, English torrenting of subtitled and/or dubbed copyrighted material in manga and anime is pretty standard issue sourcing for such material in the US. I don't know that the US government is doing anything to