Holy cow... you've got some of that kinky pattern of tactics at times also?

Nothing i enjoy more than to lure any AIs into humanly emotions & overly complex (abstract too) logic. Just to see how well they react or adapt. I can say, surprisingly so, that most circumstances i could devise were all pretty much hilarious and allowed a terrific amount of diverse reactions or counter-measures by (as it may have seem then) confused enemies.

Example; Setting a boobie trap with a few well placed "attractive planets" loaded to the rim with high defenses and many (more like in the multiple dozens) low-cost-single-shot (triple offense designs) ships... and watch them send tons of attacks and a single invasion troop transport -- only, to have ME coming right back along with 4 more just nearby. Mind you, any these planets CAN be wasted if only just for the fun.
But, don't try comin' anywhere close to the core systems. Since, i always keep retaliatory armadas. Better be ahead in all aspects though. Upgrades and all.

- Zyxpsilon.

How about my Beta game that I decided that I'd blow up every last star in the (medium) galaxy with my Terror Stars? Including my own in the end (took out a total of 3 races in the final explosion).

I believe that would constitute "madness".

As a designer by trade - I am always interested in the extremes of a solution to shine a light on the strengths and weaknesses in approaches to resolving problems. One aspect of this is the use of Provocative Statements to challenge an established way of working.

For example - Provocative question - What would happen if we set our tax rate to 0 and kept it there?

* Happy population, maximum growth rate
* No income from tax and we can't grow without money
* No need to build economic advantages, less need for morale advances
* How do we get money?
* Will have to trade technologies, planets, ships to generate money - or threaten lots of people for tribute
* How much does a small ship go for - can I pump out sufficient numbers of small ships to generate sufficient money to fund expansion?
* I don't want to provide the enemy with armed ships. Do they pay more for ships with specific technologies on-board?
* Can get away with smaller cheaper colony ships as we don't need a lot of settlers to populate a planet quickly.

There's lots to think about, and experiment with, in there. This kind of thinking would lead to the "all production" or "all research" model of planetary improvements quite quickly.

So - in summary - have a look at all of the sliders and ask "What would happen if I set that slider to (0% or 100%) and ran with it?"

--
Shymer

How about you've got to make sure you get a 100 to 1 or something of the likes Kill Ratio with your ships (and if your feeling particularly insane, your ground troops as well) at the end of it, to be like a real Spartan?

Fate,

You are sooooooooooo posting the results of this game in here ShadowDemen, you've got me interested in how it turns out!!