Manual update: Super Abilties

Brad Wardell

Join Date 03/2001

+137

Manual update: Super Abilties

Each civilization is really unique at doing something. The super abilities are:

Super Diplomat. Civilization is able to secure much better deals through negotiation that other civilizations.
Super Dominator. When they go to war, they receive a group of Corvette class ships. The number they receive is based on their military power.
Super Organizer. When they are attacked, all races of the same ethical alignment will come to their aid.
Super Warrior. When in battles, they get the first strike ability. That is, their ships attack first and if their opponent survives only then do they return fire.
Super Breeder. If their approval is 100% their population increases at 4X the normal rate
Super Isolationist. Can colonize barren worlds and no foreign ship can travel more than 3 spaces per turn in their area of influence.
Super Trader. Gets all the trade techs at start of game and gets 2X from trade.
Super Manipulator. Is very good at getting other races to go to war with each other.
Super Hive. Unlimited range and all factories are built in 1 week.
Super Adapter. Starts out with aquatic and toxic world technologies.
Super Annihilator. Can build spore ship which when used on a defenseless colony will eliminate all population and turn it into a toxic world of the same class.
Super Spy. Gets an agent to start with and worlds are immune from agents.

(these aren't all impemented in bta 1 of Dark Avatar).

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2nd Dystopic's (demanding?) suggestion that 1 or 2 "extra" super abilities would be swell for custom races. And I like all the suggested new abilities, at least in brainstorming mode.

"Demanding" probably didn't need the question mark

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Because Neutral does not mean indifferent. Another civ that values a balanced approach to life on the GCII map is worth keeping around, at least in my past DL playing. An alliance between two mid-ranked Neutral players can help keep them out of harms way when the "good" and evil folks get to slaughtering one another.

No, it means whatever is in your best interest, and that usually isn't going to war over some other civ that may not even be an ally. And that's what *Alliances* are for, right?

You're talking strategic thinking (not alignment), and that goes for good or evil too, not just neutral, as long as it helps you strategically.

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ToS, I think you're foretting that some of us put a fair value on the story parts of the game. I fell into my Neutral rut on account of being a research addict, but I've stayed there b/c I've really grown to *hate* the Torians, who strike me as about as "good" as the Spanish Inquisition. I've never been able to keep playing as Evil b/c that seems to limit options for winning and drastically increase your chances of someone attacking you.

Plus matching alignments are a big leg up on the diplo status charts.

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So, what you're saying is that you're not good because you think the Torians are not accurately represented in the game (or their way to act in the game more precisely) in terms of alignment, and you're not evil because that's not good for you in game terms, so by default you're neutral. I fail to see how that helps your point...

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ToS, I think part of the problem here is that I don't have "a point," just a hasty collection of loosely related remarks.

That, and I have some out-of-game kneejerk stuff about "neutral" alignments from both my limited reading of European history and (turns a bit pink, drops eyes to floor) D&D.

I didn't mean to ruffle feathers, but the line of yours I first quoted just poked me into semi-snarky response mode. Pretty unproductive digression from OP topic, apologies.

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I was actually thinking about AD&D when I made the remark about being neutral

(too many years playing it in the good old days).

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I guess the recreational arguments vary across D&D crowds as much as house rules for Monopoly

. Of course I should admit that I basically disliked every D&D system I ever saw even though I was a junkie player.

My favorite paper RPG ended up being the Hero System (starting with original Champions). I think they were pretty revolutionary in explicitly separating numerical mechanics from special effects. That's doubtless part of why I sometimes have pretty weird responses to GCII--I can easily get distracted by the stories I tell myself and tend to leave the core mechanics to my instincts.

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this forum's been inactive for a month and a half, so this is coming a bit late. still i feel the need to state it.

my ideas were in no way meant to seem demanding. i'm usually candid, but i don't think i'm in any position to make demands on a team of game developers. moreover, the good folks at SD are the friendliest and most helpful bunch i've seen. if memory serves, i was merely trying to get my thoughts out amidst work (or at least trying to look like i'm working).

now that DA is out and the super abilities are final, it's definately past the point. i'm happy with the way they've turned out.

edit: i just realized that by demanding, he meant demanding of a lot of work, not demanding in the tone of the suggestion. duh. well, the props to SD stand.

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Super Isolationist. Can colonize barren worlds and no foreign ship can travel more than 3 spaces per turn in their area of influence.

That's the way military SB's should work

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Keep in mind that this slowdown effect only takes place if the enemy ship starts its turn in your area of influence. If the AI ever gets smart enough to build really fast ships, they can counter that effect and just start their trips on your border.

The slowdown effect is especially nasty if you combine it with a military star base and the module 'Warp Field inhibitor', which then effectively reduces enemy speed to 1.

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