Conceivable to be a defensive powerhouse?

from GalCiv2 Forums
I cant play the game, seeing as my comp is currently busted and wont be fixed until next month.

So in my spare time I find myself considering how I might enjoy playing the game, based on all the things ive read about it.

And I was wondering, is it possible you think for a player to focus mostly on the defensive techs.. and create a ship which doesnt pack a whole lot of firepower, and cant move very quickly.. but is very hard to kill and is ideal for protecting the players "area" ??

I wonder because id like to try and set up something like that.. making myself very hard to kill.. and then focus on dipolomacy and espionage until my economy is to the point that I can begin pumping out more offensively inclined ships to go out and begin taking things over.

I just wonder if strategies such as this are viable.. or if there will be a couple of "set" ways that a player must follow in order to be competitive in the game.
6,302 views 5 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
There have been some changes in the gamma that will definitely affect this answer. In the Beta, the answer was "not the way you mean" in that almost all of my effective ships had far more offense than defense.

However, the Gamma changes two important things in regards to your question. The Gamma AI tends to focus on a single opponent at a time (I'm used to seeing almost every race at war with 2-3 other races, if not more, but my only Gamma game that lasted long enough saw most races not at war, and noone at war with more than one other race), you're less likely to have everyone picking on you if you can maintain enough military to be average, and at least the early weapons have been toned down a bit (my first defensive ships were 8 attack 0 defense in the beta, and I can't do that in the gamma).

You should be aware that even defensive ships work better with at least as much offensive power as defensive power in GC2. What really sets offensive and defensive ships apart in GC2 are speed and range, though I'm more likely to use expensive, less cost-effective modules in offensive ships. And even then, I like having my defensive ships having some speed so that they can snipe at passing transports.

So yes, you can build defensive ships and hunker down.
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
Not knowing how the AI will react in the public version it is hard to say.

In the current build your overall military rating affects their atitude and you can build your rating with attack ships. There is some talk that the AI will build to counter your strength but whether they will know this through espionage or trial and error battles is unknown to me.

In any case, I imagine the AI will tend to attack those with a lower military rating when it is left up to them and the foregoing of offensive capability could cause a lower rating.
Star Control: Origins
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
unless of course u build a ton of ships with no engines or life support and just a ton of weapons, the only promblem is that you need a couple of fleets that can intercept enemy fleets because if you dont the enemy fleets will cut through your defenses like a hot knife through butter (this is assuming that you havent built any defensive improvements)
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
if you wanna just sit back and relax till you get some offensive stuff honestly it might be easier and cheaper to go with offensive stuff in the first place. it takes time to research to the point where "hunkering down" is effective and you'd probably be alot better off just starting with offense techs. although im not sure what happenes when you encounter a ship with defense higher than the enemys offense but no way for it to attack... anyways. in short, if you eventually plan on going offensive later on dont bother building up your defense unless you are EXTREAMLY patient.
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
One of the AI personalities tends to focus more on defensive techs.  So we'll have an idea soon on whether it works out for them.