Tech victory and keeping the peace

Hi there, looking for some sage advice from the community.

I tried for a technological victory yesterday, creating a race from scratch with some decent research, economy and defensive bonuses. By mid-late game all was going well. I was starting to research the final 'blue' tech items needed for a victory and I had a reasonable defensive fleet.

My problem, was that the Terrans were out of control. One by one they conquered my neighbours and slowly their attitude went from friendly to cool to hostile. I started bribing them with occasional gifts (as if they needed it), but all to no avail and inevitably they declared war and annihilated me.

Does the AI sense you are chasing a tech victory and come for you? Or was I simply unlucky to have a warmongering Terran AI dominating the galaxy.

Hints and suggestions are greatly appreciated/

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The AI knows when you are going for a tech victory, just as you will know when they go for it.

There will be a popup window telling you, when they reach a certain point.

And any attempt at any sort of game victory will make friends hostile, very fast.

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Hints, suggestions?

Make sure your research capability is enough to get you to the tech victory before they can defeat you.

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Haha - I suspected that answer would come. I probably did not invest enough of my tech in actual military options, so when war came I could not defend myself adequately. I was hoping for the peaceful lovey dovey outcome...

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You always need a decent military to keep the AI from attacking you, no matter what victory you are going for.

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Well, you need to balance economy with tech.

You need enough money to buy what you need, and the tech to obtain victory.

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The tech victory takes forever to research. You actually might want to have dominating fleet (start wars with the top competitors, give your fleet auto-attack, wipe the galaxy clean of enemy ) and then go for tech victory. I think you were just generally unlucky as of course the AI is always trying to win by some victory. But the AI doesn't seem to 'sense' like you are 10 turns away from victory and then launch an attack. It's just always looking out for number 1.

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Philocthetes

Join Date 10/2003

+153

You actually might want to have dominating fleet

This is indeed necessary unless you're lucky enough to have a map where paying enemies to attack others can keep everyone else so busy that they leave you alone. When I try for a tech vitory, I wait until I'm substantially ahead of most other empires on the Military curve, and that firepower usually damps their agression towards me.

But the AI doesn't seem to 'sense' like you are 10 turns away from victory and then launch an attack.

Are you sure about that? Since the computer players have to follow the same rules we do, I've always assumed they have the same info, which would mean that they get the "those folks are getting too smart" warning. Or has that warning gone away in TA (I haven't gotten to play that much yet.)

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