Well, if you preclude adjacent sectors then the whole concept of sector will need to be reworked because a star might me on the edge of a sector. A terror star within striking distance, y'know?
I really hope they do develop a reasonable mapping concept to replace sectors in the next release.
        
| |
|
Well, I did say that terror stars in an adjacent sector should be viewed as a threat...but it would still be better to force incremental completion rather than "Presto! Chango! There Goes the Neighborhood!"
BTW, my last two attempts at gigantic maso I've gotten so deep in debt that I'm not sure the position is recoverable. Say rather: "so deep in debt when all I have is Soil" meaning that my economy is weak too. Thinking back, I did something dumb. You see, there were these juicy systems out of range of colony ships, and I didn't want the AI to beat me to them, so I rushed a constructor (275bc+20bc forever, or some such). So I used up 27.5% of my starting capital, and saddled myself with a nice fat lease, all while I was still in the initial 100% military push. Then of course it takes half of forever for the constructor to reach my border. Memo: don't DO that!!! 
Say Maxti, crossing threads again, in one of those poverty-stricken games the nearest potential trade partner is the Scottlingas, four sectors away in a straight line. You wrote something like "send all the freighters to the nearest system." In this case, might it be worth boosting those trade routes with some trade SB? The cash gain might offset using constructors for non-TS purposes. OTOH the 4-sector length might make trade SB less valuable, particularly in the Lightning Alpha Strike context. Yes/no? -- HtL
[Message Edited]
   
| |
|
At the moment, you build a terror star on one turn, and it's not until next turn that it can fire, so the AI has time to declare war on you and destroy the base if he wants to - it's not like I ever defend them. I interpret his failure to take action as a fatalistic acceptance of the inevitability of death.
It could be fixed, but unless they also make the AI better at culture war and military strategy, it won't add much to the difficulty of the endgame - it'll just make it take longer.
    
| |
|
" boosting those trade routes with some trade SB?"
sure, why not. Your constructor production will eventually be so high that spending a few on trade won't make any difference. I've done it that way and the extra income is certainly welcome.
Matthew Downie
-- have you noticed that the AI rarely attacks on the first turn he declares war anyway? I think it would be 2 or 3 turns before he attacks anyway. A couple of times when I made a mistake I actually parked (set on guard) TS's for a few turns while I brought in my last stack and none of the AI's seemed to mind. that was 1.12, though.
| |
|
I like the idea of making a 1 module per turn limit for any starbase. That would help the AI defend against terror stars and culture bombs. Of course, he would also have to be competent at controlling warships in the area, but at least this would give him a chance. If you combine this with having to actually pay for terror stars, the alpha strike setup would take longer and might not work every time.
I still say your morality should be affected by use of terror stars!
| |
|
| I like the idea of making a 1 module per turn limit for any starbase. |
|
That makes perfect sense to me...then it would make sense to say "Construction of our first starbase is coming along..." Also simpler to code. Constructing a starbase s/b a time-consuming process.
| If you combine this with having to actually pay for terror stars, the alpha strike setup would take longer and might not work every time. |
|
Agreed.
| I still say your morality should be affected by use of terror stars! |
|
Well, after a Lightning Alpha Strike, who cares? Like the tech text says, "They're all dead now." But I basically agree with you. Now someone could make the argument that a "good" civ might be "purging a nest of evil." But are they *all* evil? "Kill them all, let God sort them out."
| |
|
|
|
I set the sensor drones to sweep across the entire map, so you can see when the new stars are colonized by the color change even when the sensor drone is no longer around.
if there is a i constructor / turn limit to building, there needs to be a build queue or I would forget what I was building where *grin*
| |
|
Maxti,
I have been trying this approach for a while, but I've run into a snag. I can win every time, but it seems to take too long--hence score drops markedly. I stop colonizing early, set all to constructors, but they take too long. By the time I attack, I have most of the tech tree (granted most of it by trade with minors), a ridiculous economy (I almost didn't go in the whole on the last game), and no worries with the majors. What am I missing to speed things up? My games are in the 4-5 hour range.
| |
|
| I set the sensor drones to sweep across the entire map |
|
Do you do this manually or is there a way to make them "patrol" across the map?
| |
|
well, your constructors will probably build a lot faster if you turn your research and social spending to zero. I find taking the time to dialogue with minors is a hit, as is spending a lot of time thinking about the next step. Kinda "GalCiv, Twitch Style."
If you haven't read this thread completely, I forgot to specify "rare" wich makes a huge difference.
I don't know about a score hit. On Maso it doesn't matter, somewhat surprisingly.
I do the sensor drones manually, first sending them down one side in a pattern based on sensor range, then sending them across the map.
Good Lock!
| |
|
Thanks for the help. I don't spend any more time than what you said at the beginning of this thread.
One more question: You said that 15-25bc for 100 months would be enough to keep the majors at war with themselves and at peace with minors. I end up in the 40-50bc for 100 range. And I have +70 Diplomacy. I don't get it. Any thoughts?
| |
|
|
|
Couldn't the "missing planets" be avoided by letting the minimap show population (It will actually shows population in undiscovered areas) or did i misunderstand the issue ?
 
| |
|
|
|
The way I have found to avoid the embarrassment of leaving the one star standing is to turn off population so that you just see the stars colored the AI's color. It's a little hard on the eyes to look at dots that small, but it works.
| |
|
I use a full sensor drone sweep to avoid missing stars.
as far as the cost to bribe, I was quoting from a starting bonus maxing out diplo bonuses. Without maxing I found 30-50 was more the mark
| |
|
This may be silly, because I play on small maps, but on gigantic, when you access another AI screen (eg to trade), dont you get a list of all their planets? Or do you only see the list of planets YOU know about? On small, you can easily count their planet list and make sure you have them all...
  
| |
|
|
|
Yep. Right before the alpha strike, I go though the diplo screen and count the number of planets for the species in question. Then I make sure I have that many terror stars on my ship list. If so, I have accounted for all the planets. If not, I have to search the map to see which little punk planet I missed. You REALLY don't want to miss any if you are mortgaging your entire future on the one strike.
| |
|
| if there is a i constructor / turn limit to building, there needs to be a build queue or I would forget what I was building where *grin* |
|
Absolutely agreed!!! In the absence of that new feature, forget 1/turn! (Well, except for TS, but that would require nuisance coding.)
| |
|
CAN THIS AFFAIR BE SAVED?????
Dateline Sol, September, 2192
The Lombard League has been quietly making progress toward its innocent goal of blowing up the galaxy, but now the very existence of humans is threatened. The Ambassador to Arcea was caught tup--I mean, "insulted" the wrong mistress, and now Arcea has declared war on the defenseless Lombards. Memo: do not leave envoys on station for ten years without suitable companionship; after ten years even Arceans start to look good.
The entire navy of the Lombard League consists of one starfighter and three survey ships. The highest military tech we possess is phasers, while the Arceans have Avatars. My first thought was to trade for Dreadnought tech and pump out AMMs, but I don't think that will save the collective Lombard neck.
Arcea is #3 on the military graph, and I have #1 and #2 at war with Arcea. Before the scandal broke the Lombards had friendly relations with all five majors.
I see three possible courses of action:
1. Pump out AMMs and try to stave off the inevitable.
2. Let the Arceans do some damage to satisfy their honor, then sue for peace, likely offering star systems.
3. Invoke the time-honored science fiction technique of travelling back in time to seek an alternate branch. [And no, I'm not part of Realms Beyond.]
Your advice, O Noble Sages?
-- HtL
| |
|
1, if you can trade for Dreadnaught tech (tends to be outrageously expensive). AMMs tend to be a better strategy than Avatars - they're much cheaper anyway. Otherwise, 2. A bribe of some money over a hundred turns can be a good alternative to a planet.
If that fails, resort to 3.
I'm currently in a bit of a hopeless game myself. Medium galaxy, and I only got one star, and various powerful people are demanding my planets and have combat transports floating around the earth. It makes a change, I suppose...
| |
|
| I'm currently in a bit of a hopeless game myself. Medium galaxy, and I only got one star, and various powerful people are demanding my planets and have combat transports floating around the earth. It makes a change, I suppose... |
|
Sometimes you are the windshield,
sometimes you are the bug.
I doubt I can bribe my way out of war at maso. I thought *maybe* if they do some damage first. I suppose I could try to sneak a stack of constructors over and blow up the nearest Arcean planet, but that trick never works!
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
