Reflections on the way we were (Liir).

5 Sept 06

I apologize if this ends up being a light week for updates. I'm working on two other websites, and it's taking longer than expected. They're both local websites and probably not of much interest to most of you so I won't be posting any links unless I need people to check layout and functionality.

I wanted to do a post game wrap up today. My Liir story ended successfully. I hope everyone enjoyed it. That will probably be the last one unless I get a multiplayer story going. I'm afraid my limited time keeps me from doing too many stories like that even though they are fun. When I can play a RTS match or a tactical shooter and write up a good story in the same amount of time as one episode of an epic 4X game, it doesn't make much sense. I'll probably be eating crow if I get a build of Sins of a Solar Empire or something. I do listen to me readers so let me know what your preferences are.

So what did I notice during my Liir game? It was nice to get more research breakthroughs. That was especially true during the times when I slowed down research to build up my navy. However, that still didn't make up for those delicate Liir ships. Generally speaking I like the hard points and weapons distributions on Liir ships, but it seems like if someone sneezes on board, the ship explodes. My last Liir game I got some pretty advanced shields to make up for it. This time I didn't get an option to go beyond level one shields, and I felt the hurt.

I think my play style is best suited for the Tarka. The Liir slowing down before arriving at a planet annoyed me. It's like, "here, take a turn to respond to my 'surprise' attack fleet."

I did notice a difference in the AI play with the higher difficulty level. They had more ships, made more aggressive moves. They left fewer vulnerable planets under defended. They also expanded a heck of a lot quicker. If two factions had teamed up, I would have been wiped out. That created a nice tension. I also liked the Hivers exploiting our non aggression pact to place a lot of gates in my systems. Too bad they were always sending out attack fleets and never had enough ready troops on hand to respond quickly to an attack. Of course, I didn't let them get a second chance.

The Humans put up a great fight. If they had researched a cure to the retro plague either already or soon after my offensive, I'm not sure I could have won. They did seem to turtle too much once things turned against them. They stopped sending the big attack fleets even though they had the ships.

Overall, I really enjoyed the game. The challenge kept me on my toes. The battles were fun as always. I wasn't able to build a big lead and crush my enemies. It's good to keep me honest. Don't look for me to be playing the Liir too much though.

If you have any questions, send them on. I'll do my best to answer them. For those of you sick of the Sword of the Stars coverage, I'll be moving on. There should just be the review left and a post mortem interview, at least until expansion time.

Jason