Random Events, Free Wins, and Hopeless Evil Civs

First off, I'm new to these forums and adore this game. I've noticed a few distressing trends in the games I've played, though, and am wondering if it's just chance, something about the way I've set things up, or just the way the game is.

First off, evil Civs never seem to survive. I've seen posts around here about the Yor being overpowered, I've never seen them with more than two systems and they usually get eaten by the ALtarians or Torians by mid game. The same is true of the Drengin, if anything they do even worse. This tends to result in a very friendly galaxy, expediting diplomatic victories markedly. That's fine now and again, but it's gotten awfully predictable. Is this common? Are there particular settings that make life easier for evil civs?

Second, there seem to be a LOT of precursor ships being found in my galaxy, and an awful lot of them tend to end up in my hands. I like winning, and all, but I like it to be because of decisions I made, not because I found 3 ranger class ships in the span of 100 turns. Is there a way to turn down the random event frequency?

Neither of these are gamebreakers, and I nitpick only because of how much I love the game. I don't want it to get stale and predictable on me, so I'm hoping for some new ideas. Thanks!
16,130 views 22 replies
Reply #1 Top
To stop finding precursor ships you might choose to be a race/political party combo that doesn't have luck as they seem to be related.
Reply #2 Top
evil races die quickly because the good races 'gang up' on them, they see them as something that should be purged from the system


if you want a challenge, play evil and you soon see the good races ganging up on you heehee
Reply #3 Top
It also seems that a majority of the races are good, so if you want the evil races to have as much a chance to succeed only create a match with a balanced amount.
Reply #4 Top
To stop finding precursor ships you might choose to be a race/political party combo that doesn't have luck as they seem to be related.


Well, that stops *me* from getting them but presumably doesn't stop them from turning up in the game. Considering how insanely powerful the things are compared to anything I've ever seen legitimately built in the game, there really ought to be a way to radically turn down the chance of these things turning up at all.
Reply #5 Top
It also seems that a majority of the races are good, so if you want the evil races to have as much a chance to succeed only create a match with a balanced amount.


Actually, according to the wiki at least, there are 3 good (Altarians, Torians, Drath), 3 evil (Yor, Drengin, Korx), and 4 neutral empires (Terrans, Arceans, Thalans, Iconians) in the game. I've been playing with Altarians, Torians, Yor, Drengin, and Arceans (as Terrans myself), so that's 2 good 2 neutral and 2 evil.
Reply #6 Top
i thought korx were evil anyway the same thing happens to me the yor get crushed by a few groups except the drengin usually thrive a bit maybe thats sense i don't put torians in my game
Reply #7 Top
the evil races benefit more from intelligenmt difficulty upwards more than anything, as the penalties from lower difficulties make them suffer more than the other races
Reply #8 Top
I have the difficulty roughly middle-highish and the Drengin consistently start out on top in my galaxies.
I'd imagine that its just happenchance, or the difficulty needing to be turned up (if you're on the easier settings)
Reply #10 Top
Amen brother. Can't believe folks whining that easy is too easy.
Reply #11 Top
TURN UP YOUR DIFFICULTY!


Happily done, but I'm playing on normal here, not cakewalk or something. Regardless, that may fix the evil empire problem but does it change the random event frequency? I've read elsewhere that it doesn't, but don't claim to know.
Reply #12 Top
Can't believe folks whining that easy is too easy.


That must be very annoying, fortunately I'm neither whining nor playing on easy.
Reply #13 Top
In the past three games, I've had to deal with a monster Drengin. You know, the type that quickly has four times the military rating of his closest competitor? The kind that decides the gobble up its neighbour simply because they smell funny?

In my last game I managed to catch them early and prevent them from eating the Torians. Their attention was redirected toward me and they sent fleet after fleet into my solid defense. After a while, they got tired of that and sued for peace, but only after their military rating was halved. That game was relatively balanced, for most of the game. No one except for the minors fell until much later in the game.

In the previous game, however, the Drengin were quite monstrous. After the colonisation phase, they were as big as their Torian neighbours in terms of influence, so at first I didn't worry. To be honest, I was more worried about the Torians. Soon, however, the Drengin declared war and started gobbling up Torian worlds. I was on the opposite side of the map and between us was a massive expanse of empty space, so there was really nothing I could do other than trade and give some tech to the Torians. I also had my hands full dealing with the Yor, who honestly weren't too much trouble, but I was still on the defense, due to a lack of good ships.

By the time I started taking Yor worlds, the Torians were gone, having surrendured to the Altarians. Apparently, the Drengin didn't appreciate their prey disappearing, so they started munching on the Altarians. Once that was done, the Drengin controlled half the galaxy and their military rating was at least 8 times their nearest competitor: me. It wasn't all fluff, either. I had finally decided to try and do something about them, but my best ships were very easily outclassed. They had a tech advantage and they were using it well. . .

Needless to say the game ended painfully. I couldn't hold out against them. They had a powerful economy and industry backing them up, while I had an alliance with the Thalans. Heh.
Reply #14 Top
In the past three games, I've had to deal with a monster Drengin. You know, the type that quickly has four times the military rating of his closest competitor? The kind that decides the gobble up its neighbour simply because they smell funny?


Sounds like fun. Can I ask what difficulty you're playing on?
Reply #15 Top
I found a challenging game to be much different than a normal game. The evil races dominate more easily the harder things get. They just play much much more effectively, and the pactifists cannot compete!

This is the first game where the difficulty levels actually "feel" the appropriate difficulty for me.
Reply #16 Top
I'm glad to hear that the difficulty setting fixes the evil civ problem, I'll start playing on Challenging. Any word on the precursor vessel events being affected by difficulty?
Reply #17 Top
Even on Tough, the Evil races are pretty much make or break. They either become a significant late game power or are mostly destroyed by the middle game. I'm afraid I still haven't had a game where the Drengin manage to achieve anything. They always get horribly outcolonised, then out-teched then beaten down in a war of attrition. They always manage to achieve highest military statistic at the start of the game (together with the Altarians and sometimes the Drath) but they have never amounted to much in any game I have played.

The Yor sometimes fare a little better. They tend to colonise well and get a goodly number of planets under their belts.... but they also tend to get into a lot of wars that slowly wears them down.

The Korx tend to be a medium power in most games I have played. Nothing threatening, but enough to be quite demanding.

I basically agree with the first poster, late game political maps tend to have mostly entirely Good and Neutral races left in them.

One solution as posted - Play an Evil race!!
Reply #18 Top
I have been playing on beginner level w/4 races, tiny (or small sometimes) galaxy, have played about 3 games so far and never did I find a Ranger ship, not one and not in one game. I imagine my galaxy size has something to do about it? I would like to know how just the opposite, how can I find one of these ships so I can conquer the galaxy?
Reply #19 Top
I have been playing on beginner level w/4 races, tiny (or small sometimes) galaxy, have played about 3 games so far and never did I find a Ranger ship, not one and not in one game. I imagine my galaxy size has something to do about it? I would like to know how just the opposite, how can I find one of these ships so I can conquer the galaxy?


I think I can advise there: crank up your luck. These events don't seem to pop up until a certain length into the game, so it may be less your map size and more that games on small maps tend to end more quickly.
Reply #20 Top
The Korx are opportunists if I've ever seen 'em. If you're weak, they'll be right behind you with a dagger to your back. If you're strong or have something to offer them, they're your best friend.
Reply #21 Top
Sounds like fun. Can I ask what difficulty you're playing on?


I play on "Tough". At my current skill it'd be insane for me to give the any AI economic advantages. . .
Reply #22 Top
I play on Tough, as well, and the last game I played had the Drengin and the Yor allying-before I had even given them the tech, one of them must have teched to Alliances-and thrashing on the Arceans, who at the time controlled a significant portion of the galaxy. With both evil races united, they quickly thrashed the Arceans and split the worlds amongst themselves. I couldn't really get involved, being half a map away on a Huge galaxy, but I sent words of encouragement and the occasional funding package to the Arceans.

The evil races do seem to be limited on lower AI levels, but on Tough, at least, they do just fine. Crank that shit up.