Unarmed Defenders + Close Eyes = Beat Game

Having a ship, even one without weapons, is still better than no ship as it prevents a free rush.

It just means the AI hasn't researched weapons yet. It's not a bug.  Before, it would simply have had no ship in orbit at all. Turn up the difficulty if you want it to be tougher. At "normal" the AI is getting roughly half the resources you get.

Actually, they do that to prevent human players from sneaking in a transport and taking their worlds without an effort. A troop transport (unless armed) cannot "land" troops while there's a ship in orbit...and even if armed has to destroy all ships in orbit first. That is why the AI puts an unarmed ship in place, since most transports do not have weapons.

Play the game. If you find Normal too easy, there's several other difficulty settings higher.

BTW... there were so many complaints that Normal was stomping on all the new players that Normal was tweaked down a notch for the 1.1 patch.

Try a harder level before you pass the judgement.
At NORMAL, AI's economy is only running at 75% and with basic algorithms.
Try atleast Tough+, then come back and tell me what do you think.

"Unarmed fighters" is a good cheap tactic to shield the plant off from trooptransport, you might be using it yourself as you go up in game level. So don't laugh at it.

The reason they started cranking out more is because you started taking them out. It's figuring you're going to try and sneak a transport in there, so the AI is making it tougher to do so.

It just really sucks when the AI gets a transport through to one of my undefended planets.

Hm... Ok, I can see that, but I still find it kind of odd that the AI would spend the 20 or so turns I spend pounding them into oblivion while researching planetary invasion NOT researching and implementing some form of weapons tech to turn aside the very real threat of my tiny little weapons skiff, while at the same time producing defenseless "blockers" to counter a nonexistant transport rush. "Sneaking" in transports at that point is irrelevant, if I have 1 Armed ship in orbit to take out their Unarmed Ship, and they don't scramble something with a weapon, I have tactical superiority over the planet that can be maintained indefinately.

I spent the first three missions of the campaign completely asleep, when I was expecting something a little closer to, um, normal...

i live in southern california, so i don't know if this will be the case where you are. generally there are 3 spiciness levels of salsa: mild, medium, and hot. in some of the more authentic restaurants, there are 5 or more. mild, medium, hot, very hot, and masochistic. notice how 'medium' is not in the middle?

besides, it sounds like 'challenging' is an apt way to describe what you're looking for, and it just so happens to be the next difficulty level. i just started playing on tough myself.

here's a question about the game you were playing. was your military significantly stronger than theirs? yes? well, that means they're probably going to focus on defensive tactics, like keeping you from waltzing right in.

that said, i do agree. it's a strange thing to do. i haven't noticed it before, but i haven't been playing on normal for some time now (especially since they made it easier).

one more thing though: i've learned a few things from watching the AI. i also hate it when they invade an undefended planet. and this seems like a perfectly logical tactic for me to use in the right situations. earlier in the game or when a significant number of planets become yours at once (cultural revolutions and surrenders), or if your economic is strapped and you can't afford a real defense, it might be nice to have something cheap as a stop-gap measure. as it is, one of my preferred tactics when i can swing it is to have lightly armed transports double as planetary defense. if i've got military bases in the area, these ships can actually become pretty scary.

Having a ship, even one without weapons, is still better than no ship as it prevents a free rush. It just means the AI hasn't researched weapons yet. It's not a bug. Before, it would simply have had no ship in orbit at all. Turn up the difficulty if you want it to be tougher. At "normal" the AI is getting roughly half the resources you get.

Space Weapons costs 150 RP, 225 RP including the prerequisites. Planetary Invasion costs 900 RP, 975 RP investment. If the AIs can't field armed ships before a player can park a transport on their doorstep, then the problem is their research order and threat recognition.

From a player's perspective, every time I've gone for a rush strategy (and they've all been on Suicidal, so difficulty isn't the issue), 1 beam attack cargo hulls arrive at my opponent's planets before any troop transports get close. The easiest time I've had was precisely when the enemy built these weaponless albatrosses. I'd blow it up, he'd build another, I'd blow it up, and all his resources were wasted like this by the time my transport got there. This was beta 3 or beta 4A, I can't remember. In beta 4B I was surprised to see they actually built ships with weapons while my transports were en route. Needless to say, it was more challenging that way.

Do the AIs even put sensors on these? They're what, 2 bc each? A scout ship (or constructor, but they're expensive) serving a dual role as a transport blocker would make a lot more sense to me than an unarmed fighter.

I encountered that unarmed ship thing many times. Even when the AI has a fleet flying around with attack value 3 per ship it still build unarmed ships for defense. That makes no sense, because putting in some weapons is not so much more expensive.
I saw that in the first and second campaign mission on normal and tough several times. Also now in a metaverse game on a small map on tough in a war against the Yor. I see the usefulness of an unarmed "invasion-preventer", but the AI uses the feature often in a stupid way.

What I don't like is, that I need to have that improvement to make the defending ships in orbit fighting as a fleet. Why that? I have my logistic ability for that. Period. I also don't like that I can't help a starbase in its defense with other ships.

Have you ever just built a ship without anything on it? It's like 2 bc...

Have you ever just built a ship without anything on it? It's like 2 bc

Tiny hull is 35. Cargo 55.

Particle beam costs 25, Sensors cost 2.

I also don't like that I can't help a starbase in its defense with other ships.

U can defend a starbase, place a fleet/ship on the same tile and it is attacked before the starbase. So its got to be destroyed before the starbase. Very hard, especially if u have a military starbase.

Not tried this in 1.1 yet, not upgrading until i have finished the 2 games i am playing.

Hm... Interesting. Well, I set the difficulty to Challenging, and now, instead of building a single, unarmed defender, the computer will place two or three unarmed defenders in orbit around their colonies, even when they have access to such esoteric technologies as Laser V.

There's a defensive block measure, and then there's insanity. Wouldn't it have been better to stick a laser on one of those defenders rather than create 3 blank blocking ships?

what is the point on arming any planet defender? I am talking mid game here, yes I agree some firepower is needed at the start for several reasons. It is a waste of time and resources as if and when something comes calling it is likley to be a fleet of real nasty ships. Much better to put your hard earned into space going fleets to intercept the bad guys than wasting it on orbital fleets.

I have heard a lot of players talking about using the same strategy themselves with unarmed ships. Also, to criticizes a game's AI while playing only on levels where the AI is crippled is ridiculous. It's crippled at those levels on purpose to help gimps, little kids and newbies be able to enjoy the game even though they suck at it. If you havent even beaten the AI on Tough (which is far from the most difficult level) you shouldn't be complaining about the AI...since you haven't played it yet, lol. That is like saying "Hey, that guy with his hands tied behind his back doesn't pack a very good punch".

Hm... Interesting. Well, I set the difficulty to Challenging, and now, instead of building a single, unarmed defender, the computer will place two or three unarmed defenders in orbit around their colonies, even when they have access to such esoteric technologies as Laser V.

Well, from what I understand the AI is only allowed to redesign its ships once per year so you are probably attacking before it has a chance to incorporate it's new technologies into their ship designs. I guess it is something that needs to be tweaked a bit for the early game, but for now it is probably better than having every AI run through all possible ship designs every turn.

Sentari.

I'm not sure if a planet defender with zero mobility is such a good strategy.

Seems to me it is better for each star system to build mobile ship with good sensors to intercept all comers. But it seems the AI doesn't like to use fast ships. My ships are all speed 7 = 2 warp engines, and I have no problem intercepting and getting the first strike in all the battles.

People, this isn't something to explain away. There is a serious bug in version 1.1 that cripples the AI in the campaign game. I played the first scenario in version 1.0, and the AI was solid - reminded me of an improved GalCiv 1, in fact. I patched it to version 1.1, and it is as limp as MOO3 - never attacks, never builds weapons. I did a clean install on another computer, patched to 1.1, and it is still lifeless. The answer isn't to pick a higher difficulty than normal; the answer is to fix whatever bug was induced in the patch. Winning should not consist of researching planet invasion and building one ship per Drengin planet to turkey shoot defenseless ships that they build.

There is no AI research order. The AI isn't scripted at all. Regardless I too thought why the AI was doign this, one ship makes sense but not 5 :/ Still they eventually built ships with weapons.

I experienced unarmed Dreign ships too in campaign.
Both first and 2nd missing.
I wonder is there point playing 3rd one with this patch?
(just starded playing GalCiv2 immediately with 1.1, so maybe i'll switch to sandbox for now)

Victory in 2nd mission was so easy (on tough).
I just built ships with minimal weapons and destroyed everything (exemp one star base they armed).
Then gone straight for planetary invasions and won.

I mean, if it's not a bug, it's a joke...