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1

Discussion, Suggestions & Feedback / Re: Marauder should be nerfed.

« on: January 08, 2020, 12:22:34 AM »

I've not seen NR ai spamming these myself. 86 at once sounds terrifying. Though the ai wouldn't be as smart at using them as the player would be.

Launching an SSD right under them would likely do the trick but that's usually not an available option.

It would likely require sacrificing a few tanky ships while you try to pick them off one by one with a strong frigate core.

  My suggested Nerf is make them cost 3 points instead of one. They doubled the points from 60 to 120 but left these at one point when they should have been kicked up to two points minimum. They're still probably slightly two good at 3 points but they would suck at 4 and the NR lacks similar support frigates that other factions get.

I would be ok with them going to 3 pop, puts them more in line with something like Carracks. I don't think they would suck at 4 even. Compare to Mc40 which costs 5 and is imo worse.

Speaking of odd pop costs, why do Tie Defenders cost 3 pop? I can get a Ton Falk that spawns 3-5 fighters at once depending on faction for 3 pop.

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2

Discussion, Suggestions & Feedback / Re: AI Difficulty

« on: January 05, 2020, 02:33:53 AM »

Are you enabling that Cruel AI option? Really gives them a lot more teeth. I recommend it.

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3

Discussion, Suggestions & Feedback / Re: Any hints or tips for dealing with cruel Ai for Galatic conquest?

« on: January 05, 2020, 02:28:11 AM »

It really depends a lot on which map and faction you are doing. Some are outright impossible on cruel such as From the Ground Up day 1.

Anyway, probably obvious, but pause the game on the first day and figure out your economy. Also probably obvious, but spread your hero bonuses around and do try to keep them alive.

Find the most efficient ships for you faction and use them. You might have to "try hard" and make less interesting but more efficient fleet comps instead of spreading the love to more unit types. Know which ships provide the most value per credit and which ships provide most value per pop point and make decisions according to which you need to optimize. Don't invest in ground defenses, you don't have enough money and if your fleets all die then you've lost already anyway.

Early GC blitz tactics can be highly effective as the AI usually takes a few days to get going. Combine you starting forces and rush a few planets if it will give you a better defensive position. Some smaller GC's can be outright won by just stacking everything and destroying all enemy planets in the first few days. On the flip side, feel free to cede difficult to defend level 1 station border planets if you have a better choke point further in. Try not to get stuck having to defend a level 1 station border planet.

Don't overinvest on defensive structures at the expense of units. I find that 1 Golan is a very high value compared to 0 Golans, but 2 Golans isn't that big a step up from 1. Golans are more cost efficient than the 10K stations. The 10K station isn't doing anything without a fleet to support it, get a fleet first. Ion Cannons and H-Guns are highly valuable, as I don't believe the AI factors them in when deciding how many units to attack you with. Getting 1 on borders is a high priority, and eventually 2 H-Guns since you are allowed to double up, but again make sure you have a fleet there or it is pointless.

Use 1 fleet to block two border planets if possible. Depending on the length of the star lanes, you can sometimes have one fleet capable of bouncing between two planets upon news of an attack faster than the enemies can reach you, allowing one fleet to pull double duty. Also along this line of thought, if you leave a border "undefended" then the enemy will attack it with a weaker force, but if your defensive fleet is camping nearby and can intercept in time then you net an easy win. With interdictors you can use this strat to cheese a lot of free kills. This tactic is extremely gamey though if that bothers you.

Another gamey but highly effective tactic is to create a buffer planet that you purposely do not defend. The enemy will take it from you and then usually run off somewhere and leave it poorly defended themselves. This allows you to very easily take it right back and rinse and repeat. Since the AI seems reluctant to attack you multiple times in quick succession, they will keep attacking the bait planet and not attack your actual planets behind the bait planet. This works extremely well in the Transitory Mists since they are hard to defend and you don't have to repeatedly do ground battles to retake them over and over.

Anyway, month and a half late but maybe it helps.

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4

Imperial Civil War Tech Support / Re: AI in control of my GC, 2.3.4

« on: December 30, 2019, 01:26:56 PM »

Ah, that makes sense. Thanks Corey. Cheers.

It was an amusing experience at least.

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5

Imperial Civil War Tech Support / AI in control of my GC, 2.3.4

« on: December 29, 2019, 10:03:06 PM »

Finally switched over to the steam version of the game and I ran into an amusing but game breaking bug where I was backseeting an AI in a GC.

It was Final Imperial Push as Empire and I paused right away to set up all of my buildings and turn on cruel ai. Then when I unpause the AI is there moving all of the my units around and buying things and well, generally playing as if I wasn't there.

It was like having a spectator mode where I got to watch how an AI plays the game and with all of their economy buffs. I could still issue orders and buy things like normal, there was just two people in control at the same time. The ai launched attacks on planets and would command the battle as well.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1952239625

Also, unrelated the GC thing but whenever I try to quit the game on the steam version it just locks up and I have to Alt-Tab and kill the process. Not sure what that's about.

Is it possible my disk version of the game is somehow conflicting with the steam version of the game? I had assumed that as far as my computer was concerned that they were two separate entities and it wouldn't matter.

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6

Discussion, Suggestions & Feedback / Marauder should be nerfed.

« on: November 03, 2019, 01:15:59 AM »

I spoke about this a bit when I was reviewing the CSA fleet, but the Marauder is too good right now.

It is too cost efficient. 24 Turbolasers and a squadron for 1 pop and dirt cheap for credits is extremely hard to compete with. That's more Turbolasers than all small ships, many 3-6 pop frigate types, and even things like MC80A Mon Cals (according to the manual which I know is outdated but I assume is mostly still accurate). 3 of these out damage a Star Destroyer.

Their small size is another big upside. Having too many large ships in your fleet makes cohesion and pathing a nightmare and results in many space donuts. The pack/horde of Marauders allows you to get a ton of firepower in a very small amount of space and they don't get in the way of your other ships. Pack 30 of these in a death ball and you basically got a 30 pop Executor.

Its relative fragility isn't really a problem because the ai tends to shoot whatever is closest to them so it is pretty easy to get them shooting a tanky Mon Cal instead. They also have a dodgy hit box.

I know you can't judge a ship's value entirely on its Turbolaser output, but it does count for a lot. I know it is strange to call for nerfs in a single player game, but right now the Marauder outclasses too many other ships in the game.

Easiest nerf would be to up the pop cost. Somewhere from 3 pop to 5 pop depending on how harsh you want to be. I would still build them at 5 pop, I think they are that good. Strike Cruisers are 6 pop iirc and they have less damage output.

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7

Discussion, Suggestions & Feedback / Re: The courtship of the Hapans

« on: November 03, 2019, 01:44:38 AM »

Yeah that is strange. I just played it the other day and Leia joined on week 6.

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8

Discussion, Suggestions & Feedback / Re: The courtship of the Hapans

« on: October 31, 2019, 11:54:39 AM »

Leia joins via event sometime in the first ten weeks or so.

Save up some money because when the Hapes cluster joins they come without any buildings and if you are on a harder difficulty it will get attacked quickly.

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9

Discussion, Suggestions & Feedback / Re: Comments, Suggestions, and Questions about the Boarding Feature in ICW

« on: October 22, 2019, 03:03:33 PM »

Boarding is fun yeah.

It does seem to based on chance with higher chance for lower health enemies.

One problem I've encountered might have to do with the Z-layer. I was trying to steal a Secutor (iirc) and I think it was out of range of my boarding ability because it was at the bottom of he Z-layer and my boarding was at the top of the Z-Layer.

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10

Star Wars Discussion / Are you going to go see Episode IX?

« on: October 09, 2019, 08:59:59 PM »

I will not. I still haven't even seen Solo.

My only interest in IX is more of a morbid curiosity to see just how bad it is rather than any real hope that they can somehow turn it around. But I'm not giving Disney my money for that. I'll just wait for the reviews.

Maybe you guys are more optimistic?

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11

Discussion, Suggestions & Feedback / Re: Hunt for Zsinj (Maldrood, Cruel)

« on: October 07, 2019, 09:13:20 PM »

Ran it again and it went much better this time. Things went a little different. Empire seems completely inactive when last time they were doing work. NR hasn't been as aggressive toward me either.

You actually do start with enough units to run 3 fleets as long as none of your fleets gets blown out early. So Togoria (also guards Kashyyyk), Roche, and Columex (also guards Centares) are the hold points. Bimm we ignore because NR won't attack there until like week 20. You also start with a very generous 27,000 credits to get going.

Teradoc's fleet takes Antimeridias as your first move so you can get the economy hero as soon as possible. His first job is to get 2 H-Guns and 2 Golans at Columex. Teradoc's fleet then holds on Columex because Zsinj himself will attack here before week 10. The Economy hero goes around getting double H-Guns on Centares, Kashyyyk and Togoria. Next priority was getting one level 2 or 3 Golan on each border, and then getting each fleet to 120, and then getting a second Golan and Validusia on each border, finally get an interdictor into each fleet because at this point I was strong enough to want to trap things.

Zsinj himself did indeed attack Columex before week 10 but I was ready for him. Even better a Raid fleet spawned right behind him and blew out his engines so he never even made it to my Golans and ended up attempting to retreat after I destroyed his pals thus removing himself from the game. Unlike last time he didn't start in range of my fleet either so I was able to safely pull them away to the Golans. Defeating Zsinj and his pals with no losses is a gift.

NR attack on Kashyyyk was less fierce this time. Since my guard fleet was on Togoria, Han apparently thought he could take Kashyyyk with a 70 pop fleet. But when he arrives my 120 Togoria fleet is there to welcome him. With those two attacks beaten back I got a lot of breathing room and since I hadn't lost any ships I was in a really good position. The Empire like I said seems silent this time. Only fighting two enemies instead of three is a lot easier.

After I had my Interdictors, Zsinj goes after Centares with a 260 pop fleet that I completely destroyed without losses. The majority of the fleet was Quasars, Neutron Stars, CR90's, and Nebulons which aren't very threatening when he only has a handful of good combat ships to hold the line.

Eventual attack on Bimm was way different this time. Last time they crushed it with a 100 pop fleet and this time its just 20. I scouted Mon Calamari and there's not much there either. Idk why this turned out so different. I just swatted it back and I'm in the process of building my 4th fleet which is going to go take Mon Cal since my guard fleets are doing just fine and I have all of my defensive stations. I'm in a very good position this time and have probably turned the corner where not much can threaten me.

When Zsinj dies the CSA takes control of Etti IV but they need a lot of help. I'm not sure how the script works or how much you can give them as an emerging faction, but as it is right now they just die immediately.

I know that the Hapans are getting some work in 2.4. Will they get separated as their own faction on this conquest or will they still be merged into the NR? If you separate them idk how you prevent the NR and Hapans from attacking eachother which would be a problem. As it is right now the NR and Empire attack eachother when they aren't supposed to until Zsinj dies.

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12

Discussion, Suggestions & Feedback / Hunt for Zsinj (Maldrood, Cruel)

« on: October 07, 2019, 02:52:57 AM »

Dang this is tough. Anyone try this?

Had one of the most fun campaigns I've ever run on this even though I lost. I apologize for spelling errors in advance.

You have to defend 6 border worlds: Centares, Columex (or Antemeridias), Roche, Togoria, Kashyyyk, and Bimmisari and you only really start with enough units for two fleets. Further, you face a 3 pronged attack from the NR, Empire, and Zsinj who are all very aware that you are vulnerable and feel no shame in ganking. With two fleets you can defend 4 of those worlds by having one fleet guard two at a time but that leaves Roche and Bimmisari exposed which led to my downfall.

Spent the first few turns selling nearly all of my ground buildings to get taxes and Hypervelocity Guns. Blitzed Kashyyyk and Antemeridias.

Early on Zsinj gave me a lot of trouble. He caught me on Columex  and I was forced to go for it because your fleet spawns so far forward on that map that he literally killed Larm before I could issue a command. Managed to kill him through the power of Crimson Vics but lost most of the fleet including the Allegiance hero (forgot his name) and Larm but thankfully Teradoc just barely survived. I ceded Columex and fell back to Antemeridias where I had the Teradoc brothers commanding what was left of that fleet.

The female hero that starts at Columex I moved to command the fleet over by Togoria/Kashyyyk. That fleet took a large beating when it was forced to fight Han, Wedge, and Tycho at Kashyyyk. Opening seconds I actually one shot Chewie in the Falcon with an H-Gun blast I aimed at Han so that was fun. Killed the Rogues but had to flee the battle. Luke led the ground assault and I literally had to survive for like 20 minutes with almost no units, dodging bombers and bombardments, against never ending Wookies while Luke cloaked around and played a very smart coward. Somehow he was still dumb enough to let me kill him and win. Got space control back and later killed Rogriss when he showed up with an imperial stack. Idk if Han died somewhere, I never saw him again though despite the NR constantly hammering me.

Despite taking some losses here and there I was holding on quite strong for awhile. I think my biggest mistake was investing too heavily into Validusia Space Stations. I managed to get 4 of them which is about 34000 credits at the discount. If I try this again I think I would rather grab two Golans instead or rather some more ships. Four Crimson Vics have to be better than the station and they have the benefit of being mobile for counterattacks if necessary. When I did finally lose Bimm and Roche my fleets were too worn down to do swift counterattacks, and once the border fell the inner worlds were defensless leading to my resignation.

As I mentioned before, Roche and Bimmisari are the problem worlds. They are too far away for your two fleets to support. The NR ignored Bimm for quite awhile which is good. If I try again I won't even bother caring about space there at all. The ground map has an extremely good shield generator placement (which I found out thanks to the NR who took it briefly and built one) so I think just defending it on the ground might be totally viable. With a ground defense at Bimm and spending that 34k on a third fleet  instead of space stations maybe I will have a better shot.

Anyway, thanks for reading. If anyone is looking for a challenge, give this one a try.

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13

Discussion, Suggestions & Feedback / CSA Fleet Analysis.

« on: September 29, 2019, 05:16:30 PM »

After completing Corporate Acquisitions (era 1, Cruel), and doing some individual tests on From the Ground Up, here are my thoughts on the CSA fleet. CSA has no proper corvette so they need a good fighter screen to stay safe and ships with laser cannon support are welcome.

Capitals:
Invincible Class Destroyer: I like this ship a lot. Pretty balanced loadout for a capital. 12 pop cost is easy to work with. Spawns 5 squadrons, not sure on reserve.

Bulwark III: Grumby is my only experience with this ship. Has good brawling ability but pathing is sometimes a problem. 25 pop cost might be too much for its worth, but Grumby is free and his leadership buff is nice to have. Spawns 6 squadrons. Not sure how much reserve.

Lucrehulk: Not sure on this one. I only built one of them. Spawns 9 squadrons and probably has a lot of reserve. It spawns so low on the Z-layer that I have trouble telling whether or not it is actually shooting at things. For 20 pops it is probably better to build other carriers.

Frigates:
Recusant: Deceptively good despite only having two Turbolaser hardpoints. It outranges everything for some reason which is very useful. Its turbos pack a harder punch than you might expect. Has a good number of laser cannons to help support your flak efforts. Does not have any strikecraft which I would say is its only weakness. However for 5 pops this is a clear winner in the frigate category.

Marauder: These are probably nerf worthy. I was a fan of them before 2.3 and I think they got even better here. 1 pop, spawns an IRD-A which is one of the better CSA fighters as far as I can tell. Might have a slightly higher range than other frigates. Has a huge amount of firepower for how small and cheap it is. You can pack 10+ of them in a small bubble and have them snipe from behind your more durable frontline. Its poor durability isn't as bad as you might expect because for some reason a lot of shots have trouble hitting it (this should be fixed if possible). Whenever you build a ship you have to ask if it is better than X Marauders where X is the pop cost and that is kind of nuts. In From the Ground Up I had 10 Marauders beat 5 Recusants and only lost 1. Part of that is dumb ai and the aforementioned shot avoidance, but the power of this ship cannot be denied. It should maybe be upped to cost 2 pop? And the hitbox should be fixed.

Bulwark I and Dauntless: These ships have a very similar loadout but I give the edge to the Bulwark because it spawns 2 squadrons instead of 1. Both of them will outdo the Vics and other frigate options.

Vics and Dreadnought: We are familiar with these. They are decent but I would say worse than the other frigates above. Vic I gets a nod for Conc spam being helpful for anti-fighter support.

Gladiator: These are bad. Very fragile, not very strong. Spawns a Skipray which is nice but for 6 pops there is no reason to ever build this when Recusant exists.

Carriers:
Neutron Star: 5 pop. Spawns three bomber type craft (T-Wings can only torpedo ships). It's armament can support your frigate war a bit if you can get them in a position to shoot safely.

Quasar: 3 pop. Spawns 3 fighter type craft and a Preybird which idk how to classify. As far as providing a fighter screen for you this is a lot better than the Neutron Star. Their Quad Lasers can help a bit to keep your backfield safe but that's not really where the value is. A few of these are nice to have in a fleet.

Nebulon-B: 2 pop. I classify this as a carrier because its brawling potential is atrocious. Spawns two interceptors and has a few laser cannons to support your flak. If you want fighter support then Quasar is better, otherwise get two Marauders instead. These are not worth building.

Corvettes:
The two gunship-fighter hybrid things are both very good. Surprisingly durable and helpful for supporting your anti-fighter effort.

Those are my thoughts. Would love to hear others' thoughts as well. Loving 2.3 so far. Loving the ground combat changes too. Big thanks to the mod team.

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14

Discussion, Suggestions & Feedback / Thanks so much for the disk support.

« on: September 27, 2019, 01:29:07 AM »

Hey just wanted to give a shout out to Corey and the team for taking the time to put out a disk version despite the problems involved.

You guys keep bringing me back again and again with each update. Love your mod and appreciate your work.

I'll pick up the steam version next time it is on sale. But just wanted to give thanks for the disk version so I can get in on the fun now.

Recently started rereading the Thrawn Trilogy which got me excited in the mod again. Then I saw the new version and it was perfect.

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15

News & Updates / Re: Fighter Rebalancing Preview

« on: July 24, 2018, 05:28:47 PM »

Hey, this is really neat. It would be cool if you show weaponry and shield recharge rate too. How long does a ship have to not take damage to get shield regen?

Also how much of an impact do speed/turn rate/acceleration have in a dogfight? I mean I understand the advantages irl but how do they actually translate into gameplay? If two ships had equal weapons, hull, shields, but one has twice the values in the movement stats how much better would they do in a 1v1?

I guess an easier question to ask would be if locking S-Foils is ever worthwhile once combat is engaged? Will my B-Wings survive better with the increased speed? Or is the loss in fire rate not worth it. Does it slow down torpedo recharge or just laser fire rate? How big is the speed increase?

E-Wings are slightly faster than X-Wings but the health is effectively the same. But don't X-Wings have 4 laser cannons and E-Wings only 3? Is being slightly faster worth a loss of one laser?

Sorry for all of the questions, I just find all of the nuance here really fascinating.

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Star Wars Discussion / Re: Boba Fett movie confirmed. Are you guys interested? Obi Wan rumors.

« on: June 17, 2018, 12:11:28 AM »

My main concern with the Obi Wan movie is that there isn't any room in the story/timeline for him to do anything without contradicting the original trilogy/Revenge of the Sith. If he leaves Tatooine to go do cool things than it undermines his decision to HIDE and protect Luke. Not go running around saving the galaxy or whatever. You think Palps and Vader would not be keeping their eyes out for the single most threatening person to their regime who they know is alive (Or maybe that's Yoda idk).

So if Disney actually respects the existing movies and characters (what a concept) then Obi-Wan is stuck on Tatooine and I don't think that leaves a lot of room for an interesting story. And if he makes a huge scene on Tatooine than that still manages to contradict the older movies. We know from A New Hope that the empire eventually has a presence there.

I've mentioned this before and some have disagreed, but just imagine if the Thrawn Trilogy had been the revival of Star Wars and that Disney didn't RIP the extended universe. It would have been so much better. Almost anything would have been better. Though I guess we also have to assume in this hypothetical that Disney isn't being run by a bunch of loons who actively hate on and insult the fans and that the movie directors aren't the clowns we have now.

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17

Star Wars Discussion / Boba Fett movie confirmed. Are you guys interested? Obi Wan rumors.

« on: June 14, 2018, 05:31:56 PM »

Sorry if there's already a topic about this somewhere, I figured somebody would have mentioned it by now.

Anyway, Boba Fett movie is confirmed. Here's a link.

http://www.denofgeek.com/us/movies/star-wars/17775/star-wars-boba-fett-movie-coming-from-james-mangold

I'm actively boycotting myself anyway, but even if I wasn't I have to say I've never understood why the fandom cares about Boba at all. He's on screen for like 5 minutes and "dies" like a clown.

Imo the movie is dead on arrival. A lot of hardcore fans are boycotting. The general public has no idea who Boba Fett is and SW hype is dead so they won't go. So all that leaves is casual fans and hardcore fans who aren't boycotting. If this movie has a similar budget to Solo it has no chance.

The article also mentions rumors of an Obi Wan movie with Ewan McGregor. I like Ewan and I thought he did a great Obi Wan but let's be real here for a second guys. Obi Wan is one of the few loveable character that Disney hasn't ruined yet. Do we really want them to have that opportunity?

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18

Discussion, Suggestions & Feedback / Re: New Units thought.

« on: June 10, 2018, 02:18:30 PM »

Yeah transports have a lot more health than in vanilla but they still get shredded by corvettes. Keep your fighters in the battle and just send a corvette or two.

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19

News & Updates / Re: [ICW] 2.2.5 Updates and Developer Livestream - 12 Years of Thrawn's Revenge

« on: June 10, 2018, 02:15:15 PM »

That faction stat tracker is going to be awesome. I've always been bummed out that the UI was limited to the main 3.

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Discussion, Suggestions & Feedback / The AI underestimates static space defenses (Shipyard/Golan/Station)

« on: May 21, 2018, 06:10:37 PM »

I have had a lot of instances of the ai suiciding into "undefended" planets because they don't seem to properly assess the threat of what is there and don't send enough ships.

The main issue is Space Stations though and not just the Empress. They are all quite strong and as far as I can tell the ai doesn't even seem to realize they are there at all.

For example I had an Empress and Golan 2 and level 2 station on Kashyyyk with two corvettes and two marauders also. The Empire attacked me with just 5 MTC's and two SD's. You could probably even beat that attack without the Empress at all. The Empire has the strongest military score in this campaign and they don't have a ton of borders so I know they have more ships they could use.

In 2.2.0 I had the Yvetha attack an Oto Space Station and Visvia with 4 Thrustships, a Vic, and an Interdictor.

Those are just two examples but it happens consistently enough that You can just drop an Empress somewhere and move on with your fleet and they will never defeat it.

They also don't seem to count HVG or Ion cannon as part of their threat assessment either but I'd imagine that isn't easy to code for. I don't know how the ai decides on how many ships to attack with but whatever it is they are doing, they aren't respecting the stations well enough.

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