Hello, It's been some time since I've posted in this forum and this may already be a point of discussion. I've taken a break form ES2 and have some back to it in the past few weeks. I've seen there is a great deal of discussion about the Spear of Isyendier (spelling?). I do feel this is very game breaking early game, but my bigger concern is the academy fleets that are controlled by the Academy itself. The one they patrol around with early game. I've started about 4 games in the past 3 days. In each game, the academy sends it's fleet to sit at my outposts, we're talking about turn 10-15 in a normal speed game. They kill off the outpost and move on to the next outpost I build. I find it nearly impossible to even take a single system beyond my home system. The academy will then send the fleet to an AI outpost, it stays 1 turn and then leaves the outpost alone. This seems like odd behavior to me. I'm not at war with the academy it just simply shows up with the fleet at the first system I try to colonize and waits for it to die and then repeats. In one of the games I started, I was the UC, the academy fleet came and sat on my cloaked starting system and blockaded it for about 5 turns before leaving and then finally coming back. Mid and let game, sure, this makes sense. But there isn't really an option to do anything about it early game as the fleet is so powerful. I'm not asking for this to be balanced, however if you do that would be amazing. I'm hoping for an option in game settings to disable the academy fleet, the academy abilities (Spear, librarian, etc.), and remove the academy colonizing it's own systems.

TL:DR

I'm hoping for an option in game settings to disable the academy fleet, the academy abilities (Spear, librarian, etc.), and remove the academy colonizing it's own systems.

At least you can lower the academy difficulty setting in (new) game options, what should solve the trouble with your outposts.

Groo wrote:

At least you can lower the academy difficulty setting in (new) game options, what should solve the trouble with your outposts.

I must have overlooked that when I checked the settings. Thanks for pointing that out.