[Dark Hunter]

Well, that is the usual strategy: kill them with large numbers of glass cannons, but usually when the Dread Lords show up in a normal game, you've already got a decent start on tech and can quickly research the Life Support systems necessary to get everywhere on the map, making it easy to rush them.

In these missions, your ships simply don't have the range to get to the Dread Lord home systems. That means I have to colonize planets on the way there, build starbases, or spend tons of time researching life support tech. Quickly colonizing planets means the Dread Lords capture them within a few turns, and I can't defend them because the planet doesn't have enough people or infrastructure to build defenses; quickly building starbases means the Dread Lords destroy them within a few turns (I've yet to see ANY starbase survive a Dread Lord attack, even ultra-late game fully-upgraded ones). And if I wait until I have sufficient military defenses for my planets or starbases, the Dread Lords have already set up shop and are too entrenched to be dislodged.

It's a Morton's Fork situation as far as I can see. If there's a happy medium that allows you to build fast enough to maintain a minor edge, I haven't found it.

[Mongoose]

Too much Minecraft.  The Nether is a ***** and can go straight to hell and die.

[An4ximandros]

Fallout: New Vegas

Cazador
Seriously, **** these things. Crippling their wings helps, though.

But the worst is when you are our of medical supplies, the camera turns back and you hear: "DEKAISERHASMARKEDUFORDETH!"

EDIT: Scotty: Done.

[Lorric]

Well, that is the usual strategy: kill them with large numbers of glass cannons, but usually when the Dread Lords show up in a normal game, you've already got a decent start on tech and can quickly research the Life Support systems necessary to get everywhere on the map, making it easy to rush them.

In these missions, your ships simply don't have the range to get to the Dread Lord home systems. That means I have to colonize planets on the way there, build starbases, or spend tons of time researching life support tech. Quickly colonizing planets means the Dread Lords capture them within a few turns, and I can't defend them because the planet doesn't have enough people or infrastructure to build defenses; quickly building starbases means the Dread Lords destroy them within a few turns (I've yet to see ANY starbase survive a Dread Lord attack, even ultra-late game fully-upgraded ones). And if I wait until I have sufficient military defenses for my planets or starbases, the Dread Lords have already set up shop and are too entrenched to be dislodged.

It's a Morton's Fork situation as far as I can see. If there's a happy medium that allows you to build fast enough to maintain a minor edge, I haven't found it.

I remember the Dread Lords not acting rigidly the same play to play. So they could be beaten with enough attempts.

If there's another way, I don't know what it is, their advantage seems insurmountable, all I can think of doing is throwing numbers at them and hoping they die. As you say, glass cannons.

Of course, if you simply want to win, you could always stick it on the bottom difficulty. That should slow them down. I don't know what difficulty I beat it on, it wasn't bottom, but it wasn't anywhere near top either. It was the first thing I did, so it was probably normal or maybe a notch below.

[AdmiralRalwood]

I played Galactic Civilizations once and decided it was a really crappy 4X compared to Space Empires IV. I didn't see anything about GalCiv II that made me want to play it.

Slightly more on-topic, I have been playing the Terraria 1.2 update virtually nonstop since it released. Wow.

[Scotty]

An4ximandros:

For the consideration of those on this board who do not wish to see profanity, please place that image behind a link, rather than embedding it in the post.

Thanks,
Scotty

[Lorric]

I have been playing the Terraria 1.2 update virtually nonstop since it released. Wow.

Hmmm...

http://www.destructoid.com/terraria-update-1-2-is-out-today-here-s-what-s-new-262788.phtml

Wow indeed. Is that free if you already have the game?

[NGTM-1R]

Well, that is the usual strategy: kill them with large numbers of glass cannons,

Perhaps you're not glass cannon-y enough. I typically hunted them down with merchant hulls that had a lot of guns strapped on and relied on aggressor's first shot to kill them in one blow, rather than spending the time researching combat hulls sufficiently gutsy to carry enough guns.

This also alleviates the problem of sufficient life support, to some extent.

[Dark Hunter]

Yep, that's what I was doing: strapping as many guns onto a Cargo hull as possible and producing them en masse.

The issue was my guns weren't powerful enough to one-shot them. I had to rely on attrition to fight them, sacrificing ten ships to blow up one. My industrial base simply couldn't sustain that long enough for me to research the real heavy hitters.

[deathfun]

Since GTA Online had the patch out, I've been hammering away at it

Nothing is better than chain robbing stores

[An4ximandros]

Have you been hit by a car that has been hit by a plane that has been hit by a train? It's not the endgame until that happens.

[Scourge of Ages]

Have you been hit by a car that has been hit by a plane that has been hit by a train? It's not the endgame until that happens.

Throw in an earthquake and you get this:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dx0m6ZfltQQ/T0PgwYnYO_I/AAAAAAAAAfg/OQ2qEU0nvsA/s1600/calvin+and+hobbes+disaster.jpg

[Klaustrophobia]

just bought descent I and II from gog.  unaltered.  i distinctly remember sniping robots from distance before they saw me when i played this as a wee lad.  i have no idea how, because now i can't see them from far away at all.  i'm also very happy that it plays out of the box on a modern system.  tried playing from a non-gog source a while back, never made it work.

anyone know how to get a joystick to work with them though?

[Mongoose]

I haven't checked out the GOG versions of the games myself (still have my beloved Definitive Collection CDs lying around), but in general, the best way to run D1 and D2 these days is the DXX Rebirth source project.  The joystick config using them should be much easier than having to deal with DOSBox.

[MP-Ryan]

Having just finished the Thief series, I now have a conundrum... KOTOR 2, Assassin's Creed, or The Witcher.... decisions, decisions.

[Lorric]

Having just finished the Thief series, I now have a conundrum... KOTOR 2, Assassin's Creed, or The Witcher.... decisions, decisions.

Since there was a bit of a stink kicked up about The Witcher on here not too long ago, I'd be interested in what you thought of The Witcher.

I haven't played it btw.

[Husker]

Having just finished the Thief series, I now have a conundrum... KOTOR 2, Assassin's Creed, or The Witcher.... decisions, decisions.

I don't care 1 bit bout the other 2. I'm a Star Wars geek, KOTOR all the way!!!

[Scotty]

Assassin's Creed is gameplay excellent if you skip the first one, while the first one has (in my opinion) the better written story, or at least less of an "I can see this crashing and burning three games away" story.  Then again, if you like to like you protagonists, Al'tair (AC1) is kind of a gigantic dickwad, while Ezio (AC2/Brotherhood/Revelation) is fairly likable, if naïve.  They're pretty good games, though.  Unless you hate collection based side-quests.

[deathfun]

Just bought myself a nice little place in GTA Online
for 205k, it's pretty solid. Ten car garage? **** yeah!

EDIT:


**** yeah stole a tank, had a friend winch it out of the airbase, and wrecked havoc upon Free Roam!

[jg18]

Back to Book of Unwritten Tales.

Even played some FS2 retail only to find how rusty I am with the CH Flightstick Pro although it seems to handle a bit weird on my Windows machine.

Also played some DDR for PS2 with a friend this past weekend. The community is pretty much dead, but there are still a few who play. Waaaayy out of practice though. It's been a while.