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Bugsby · 24 Jan 2007, 02:50

After a lot of deliberation, I am playing Zik this round (for the first time).

As to the allegations that Zik will be unblanced this round... well, that's just wrong. If anything, they'll be more balanced. This puts Ziks directly on par with the other races. When Terrans (for example) fire at an attacker, the attacker loses value while the Terrans neither gain nor lose. Now it's just working the same way for Ziks... they neither gain nor lose value by killing enemy ships. In fact, this is an added advantage for the Ziks. Because the ships that are lost will be the ATTACKERS ships, the defender will get less salvage than if you were killing his ships.

But isn't stealing supposed to be the Zik racial advantage? How is it an advantage now? Well, Ziks can get diverse fleets. The first thing I am going to do as Zik is build a lot of Buccs and start going after Cats who are just starting to build up a CR fleet. I'll lose Buccs, but roaches in the Zik CR fleet will make it a whole lot tougher than it currently is. If I am able to gain some of every type of DE and CR in the game, my roiding fleets are going to be very tough to deal with. Of course, Zik have always had that ability. So they keep their racial advantage.

But what about them still having such a high initiative? Two things make up for that. First, they steal before pods, so steal ships can actually function as effective defense, something that has never happened before. Second, the Zik efficiencies are crazy. They have the best D/C in the game, and an A/C second to only the Terrans. Look at the Bucc: A/C 63, D/C 75. That's crazy.

Ziks are really only going to be hurt in three ways. First, they can't get an exponential growth going for their fleets. That's good - that's balanced. Ziks always surged late-round with their massive stealing abilities, and that has been cut down. Second, FCs are less practical and less profitable. I'm a fan of that as well. I've always though FCs are pretty cheap, and besides, I am never awake at the time you would have to launch an FC. People can disagree with me on this one, but I don't think it's a bad change. And third, your fleet composition can get messed up with steals. If I capture a whole bunch of roaches by using ALL my Buccs, for example, I am out of anti-CR. And that's a bad thing. The solution to this one is just a bit of prudence in fleet composition and making sure you never put yourself in that kind of situation.

The final thing that's making me play Zik is that their fleet matches up well with most other fleets just in terms of what attacks what. It's not perfect - every race has its weaknesses, but looking at the ship stats, I'd much rather play Zik than, say, Xan.

It's not going to be easy, but I think I can get a pretty decent round out of Ziks this time. I guess we'll see.

24 Jan 2007, 02:50	#88
Bugsby Registered User Join Date: Dec 2006 Posts: 17	Re: zik dying 1:1 ??? After a lot of deliberation, I am playing Zik this round (for the first time). As to the allegations that Zik will be unblanced this round... well, that's just wrong. If anything, they'll be more balanced. This puts Ziks directly on par with the other races. When Terrans (for example) fire at an attacker, the attacker loses value while the Terrans neither gain nor lose. Now it's just working the same way for Ziks... they neither gain nor lose value by killing enemy ships. In fact, this is an added advantage for the Ziks. Because the ships that are lost will be the ATTACKERS ships, the defender will get less salvage than if you were killing his ships. But isn't stealing supposed to be the Zik racial advantage? How is it an advantage now? Well, Ziks can get diverse fleets. The first thing I am going to do as Zik is build a lot of Buccs and start going after Cats who are just starting to build up a CR fleet. I'll lose Buccs, but roaches in the Zik CR fleet will make it a whole lot tougher than it currently is. If I am able to gain some of every type of DE and CR in the game, my roiding fleets are going to be very tough to deal with. Of course, Zik have always had that ability. So they keep their racial advantage. But what about them still having such a high initiative? Two things make up for that. First, they steal before pods, so steal ships can actually function as effective defense, something that has never happened before. Second, the Zik efficiencies are crazy. They have the best D/C in the game, and an A/C second to only the Terrans. Look at the Bucc: A/C 63, D/C 75. That's crazy. Ziks are really only going to be hurt in three ways. First, they can't get an exponential growth going for their fleets. That's good - that's balanced. Ziks always surged late-round with their massive stealing abilities, and that has been cut down. Second, FCs are less practical and less profitable. I'm a fan of that as well. I've always though FCs are pretty cheap, and besides, I am never awake at the time you would have to launch an FC. People can disagree with me on this one, but I don't think it's a bad change. And third, your fleet composition can get messed up with steals. If I capture a whole bunch of roaches by using ALL my Buccs, for example, I am out of anti-CR. And that's a bad thing. The solution to this one is just a bit of prudence in fleet composition and making sure you never put yourself in that kind of situation. The final thing that's making me play Zik is that their fleet matches up well with most other fleets just in terms of what attacks what. It's not perfect - every race has its weaknesses, but looking at the ship stats, I'd much rather play Zik than, say, Xan. It's not going to be easy, but I think I can get a pretty decent round out of Ziks this time. I guess we'll see.