by Citizen Daetrinn - 8/15/2004 5:53:47 AM
After realizing that the medium difficulties were getting pretty easy to beat, i decided to take a crack at Masochistic. I read through the current MASO threads and got some usefull tips, but they're all either really old, or foucsed on tiny/small galaxies. So i started out on tiny and did pretty well, then tried small with a one planet strategy and managed to win that one too with some minor cheating (ctrl-Ning for a much better start than i was expecting, and no, the Torians did _not_ just undergo a sudden alignment shift to Evil.)
So now i'm finally trying out Gigantic, and three or four hours in i'm doing okay. I did Tight/Rare, which seem to be the best option for MASO, Populists with +60% Diplomacy and +1 Speed, and ctrl-Ned until i started in a system with another yellow star. I managed to find about nine planets in my cluster, and got all but one of them before the Yor started edging in. I've done a little cheating other than the ctrl-Ns, mainly to go back and buy off the Diplomatic Translators at the last moment before the Yor got them, however that put me about 700 BC in the red, meaning three or four turns of zero production to hit -500, and another 20 or so turns of 20% spending to get into the positive again. Since then i haven't had a chance in hell of getting any other Trade Goods or Wonders, but after taking a long time to find all of my neighbors, i've finally traded up to a tech equality, and even a tech lead on some (i think the Drengin got screwed with just one or two planets in their cluster, up against the edge and surrounded by four other races.) I've got almost no military and crappy infrastructure, but the trading and occasional capitulation to demands has kept anyone from hating me, and a couple of them even like me, so i think i _might_ be able to win this.
However as i said, i'm three or four hours in, and i've probably got that much again ahead of me at very least before i can bribe everyone into a close relationship for an Alliance victory. However looking at the Metaverse stats shows a lot of people turning in about one Gigantic MASO Alliance win every day, and sometimes as many as three or four in a day. They even manage to get to Pure Good/Evil on a regular basis while doing so.
Unless they're independently wealthy and don't sleep, they've got to have some kind of quick technique going on, so what am i missing? And how do you get your alignment that high/low in what seems like a couple hour game? Just lots of colonizing 12/13 PQs and abandoning or what?
I'm playing 1.21. Don't have AP yet because i'm currently unemployed and can't really afford it.
Thanks for any help.
      
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Mods can help: research.inc party for having a nice boost and saint event pack to get pure morality.
       
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If you were to take a speed bonus on a Gig map I can see finishing up in 2hrs or less. Especially going for an alliance win. With lots of gifts to the AI and a high Dipomacy bonus it's kinda simple. And yes, you can use mods and still earn Meta points. Just be sure not o trip and flags that would cause and anomalous score and earn you a Zero.
     
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| And likewise, what flags could i trip that would give me an anomalous score? |
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Use only Stardock approved mods. Using unapproved mods or creating your own mods are risky. Mods need to be balanced an unbalanced mod will yeild flags that will give you a zero score.
  
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| Sure, it's _possible_ to finish in 2-6 hours since there are people clearly doing that. However without some kind of idea of what to do differently than i'm doing now, it doesn't really help me much to know that. |
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You really need to search out some MASO strategies in this forum. The strategies are months old. So be patent when looking.
I do not play MASO on anything bigger than small right now. Here are some tips that should help you with a new game on huge/gigantic.
start with high diplo, influence and morale. +1 Speed is required on large / huge.
You need to find and contact all the AI fast and that is not easy to do.
You have to build about 3 scouts right away and send them to 3 corners and search out the AI.
Once you find the AI you need to start trading techs for techs. This will improve your relationship with them. Over time you will become friendly then close.
Once you have found all the major AI and they are friendly or close then you bribe or trade your way to an alliance. You should try and do this all in the same turn or 2.
By doing this you will get an alliance win and 60K points.
You can use mods like the research party and the saint pack to help you out. Parties like the research party will limit your attack / defend ability so choose wisely.
There are some people that are able to complete this type of game in under 1 hour.
There are more complete versions to this strategy in this forum.
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I can post my strategy as well. I go for military and it takes me about 2 hours. then agin, I tend to play large maps.
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I play small maps and it takes me 2 hours to be play a game. I have to win via military because on a small map an alliance win does not get you a lot of points.
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#9
by Citizen Daetrinn - 8/18/2004 3:45:56 PM
NewfyScotian: The early scout thing is a usefull tip, thanks. I tried boosting my speed bonus up to +2 from +1, it helped a little, but i am also having a lot more trouble with the diplomacy because of the reduced diplo bonus =P About two hours into the new game, and i think i'm stable finally, but not close to an Alliance.
I did look through the forum for MASO tips, which is why i'm doing as well as i am. However i didn't find anything about how to beat gigantic quickly, hence my current question. There was also a lot of outdated advice i had to sort through, such as the "1 IP trick" which doesn't seem to work in current versions anymore.
Littleworts: Sure, more strategies are always good, post away!
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Ok. I'll get something together and post it. Also, drop into the Diplomats Embassy and have a look around. There are some more up-to-date tips and tricks there.
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| I tried boosting my speed bonus up to +2 from +1, it helped a little |
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I think that you would have a better time of it if you were at a speed of +1 and then put those extra points to diplomacy.
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| I've also tried giving away my own freighters that are near my planets in the hope that other civs will use them to start trade routes with me. |
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I think that the AI first takes them back to their own planets then send the ships back out. I have seen this happen when giving offensive ships to the AI.
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| what conditions do you actually get 60K points? |
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On 1.21, only when a military victory on gigantic / maso.
I get 52 - 55K on 1.21 gigantic maso with alliance victory
With AP (1.51), 60K can be reached with alliance victory on different settings.
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One thing that really can help the speed of your game is turning off GNN and letting go of the micromanagement aspect of the game. Load up your Governer's build queue and don't look at each planet each turn. It's hard to get away from it at first if you are a veteran of 4x games, but it really can make a difference. You just have to get confortable with the fact that your builds won't always be efficient.
 
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I haven't forgotten about this, it's just harder than I thought to write down. I'll probably post i at the Embassy and here. I'll be sure to link to it there.
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| And for the freighters, if you trade for another civ's freighter, what planet is it considered to be from when it establishes a trade route? |
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Doesn't look like this was answered. When you trade for another civs freighter it belongs to Earth your starting planet. I don't know which planet it belongs to if you loose earth though.
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| Doesn't look like this was answered. When you trade for another civs freighter it belongs to Earth your starting planet. I don't know which planet it belongs to if you loose earth though. |
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Not in any game I've played lately. Last game for me, they all belonged to the 3 planet I colonized. 
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| Not in any game I've played lately. Last game for me, they all belonged to the 3 planet I colonized. |
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interesting, I wonder if there are rules to determine the planet that they go to. For me as far as I know its always been earth.
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