I also do not play TA.  Almost all my experience is with DA.

In DA, if you waste resources to research any extreme colonization techs at Suicidal, you get drowned by the AIs.  If you chose to be one of the AIs that begin with one or more extreme colonization techs as a mega-ability, the AIs will likely crush you with their own mega-abilities.

There are a couple Suicidal AARs that may give you some ideas, but i do not know if any of them are TA.

I have my first win at Suicidal almost in reach, but may have forgotten to disable the Research Victory, and so may have succeeded in snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.  I have all the other AIs in wars with each other as I crush the one that declared war on me, and have Alliances with 4 of the other 7 surviving AIs, including the very strongest one.  But that same ally is about to win a Research Victory!  Damn!

No, no!  Not at all!

Many posters here have stated that they have won games at Suicidal.  IIRC, many are posted on the Metaverse pages, and some AARs are posted in the forums.

It is just very, very tough to win straight.  One must seize certain potential advantages, and more.  At Suicidal, the AIs have truly huge bonuses.  Manu of the Metaverse clans have "secret" tricks and such that are cited as helping top win at Suicidal.  I do not know those tricks, but there are many tactical elements that have been mentioned in the forums.  They are generally not needed for victories until one gets a few levels above Tough, but one needs something extra at Suicidal.  The most common "trick" is to iterate galaxy setups until one has a Homeworld that has at least one really good bonus tile.  A 3X research and/or a 3X production, a 7X tile, etc.  A Morale tile is also a good one to have with the 3 ot 7X tiles, but there ate tactical things, as well.

For example, one common tactic one can read about on the forums, is to keep constructors loitering within one turn of AI mining starbases.  Then, if that AI gets that base shot out of space, seize the resource.  One might even pre-position the constructors there on station and then get the AI into a war with other AI(s).  Another might be to grab all the diplomacy techs quick, whore your techs to the minor AIs with the Diplo bonuses, then build the Spin Control Center and fill the orbit of that planet with defenseless cargo hulls filled with weapons to keep other AIs from declaring war on you.

Another might be to choose the race with the meaga-ability to get others into wars, and keep them all fighting amongst themselves for as long as possible.  It seems that AIs generally do not get into serious wars on their own until their coding concludes the Colony Rush phase is over.  Thus, the longer they can be kept from that conclusion, the longer the human has to get infrastructure done.  Keeping the AIs in premature conflicts with each other prolongs the Colony Rush.

I'm playing Dark Avatar, but not the campaign. I have a question;

assume that I have 3 planets:

A --> 10 shields, 15 hammers and 30 flasks

B --> 5 shields, 3 hammers and 7 flasks

C --> 2 shields, 1 hammers and 3 flasks

If I set my research slider, the number of flasks on every planet will change accordingly. Even when I set research slider at 0, the planet will still produce some research. I'm confused.

Anybody know the formula to calculate the number of flasks, hammers and shields on each planets?

What has always confused me is this talk about hammers, shields and flasks...well not flasks, that I get.

Each DA planet has a base 16 POINTS of production and 10 points of research.  Industrial points produce research, albeit to a lessor degree.

The formula is a straightforward # of structures X their worth X bonuses.  Some bonuses are worth more (multiplicative) than others.

I dont't mean to be trite, this is something I struggled with too.  If you don't understand what I'm saying, I'll go into more detail.

Edit:  As LTjim said focus is another matter.  First understand the numbers assuming 100% on each.  Focus takes IIRC 50% of other areas.  Focus is useful in transition and certain strategies.

The person I meant was Mumblefratz - the first one to post a reply in this very thread.  Many have won at Suicidal, and many post that it is not that difficult once you get down certain things/tricks.  You are likely to learn those insider things, exploits, whatever, if you join a clan in the metaverse and ask for help.  I have not done that, trying instead to view re-inventing such a challenge of sorts.  For example, it may be that the name you choose for your Homeworld can affect the Class #.  I had not expected any such thing, but see now why that could be the case.

I do NOT claim to be expert at this game, but here's one approach I'm trying now:

1) Choose Technologist - which i hate because I actually prefer Federalist or Universalist

2) Iterate using Control-N until I get a Homeworld with decent bonus tiles.  The best might be a 7X research tile plus a Morale bonus tile.  The very best might be 7X Research + 7XProduction+Morale, but I have never seen that on any of my Homeworlds.  However, a 3XResearch+3XProduction+Morale tiled Homeworld is quite good, and I more-or-less happily settle for it.

3) Rush build a Research building on Turn 1 or 2 on the bonus tile and pour most/all resources into Research for the first few turns.  Note that one cannot gain more than N+1 techs in a turn where N is the number of planets you occupy.  Thus, you want to colonize at least one or two more planets fairly soon.  Keep track of the "Time to Research" thing.

4) Run the Research trees for the Economic Capital and put it on your Homeworld.  Same for the Manufacturing Capital (and maybe the Tech Capital), but these latter Capitals might be ones you want on a colony planet if you snag a particularly juicy one.  I do not generally build a Tech Capital, but others swear by it.  The Political Capital building is also a good one for your Homeworld, as it does not get the big bonus for being a high Class planet yet will have your highest population for a long time.  Remember that revenue is the product of (taxes)population), so having Morale bonuses on the Homeworld is the key to tax revenue in the early game.

5) Run for Sensors and get some Survey ships out.  I generally build them on non-Homeworld planets while I tap the Homeworld for colonists/colonizers.  If you spot a Green or Red resource, consider "upgrading" the survey ship right there to a constructor and grab the resource.  I do not do that for a Blue.  Sometimes I do it for a Yellow.

6) Somewhere in the first 10 - 15 turns, the paths diverge, and others who have won often on Suicidal will have better ideas tha I do.  However, what I am currently trying is to shut down all Research production around Turn 8 - 18 and even build over my one Research building to a factory or something, and shift to an All Factories strategy using focus for Research.  This is why I do not build the Tech Capital.  I'm pretty sure I would have won my current Suicidal game (I might still) using this approach but i forgot to disable the research victory.  Unless you intend to go that route yourself, you might consider disabling that.  With the huge AI bonuses out there at Suicidal, that seems prudent.

Sooooo, disable the other victory conditions!

I suspect, though, that the easiest victory at Suicidal may be the Alliance one. 

The second easiest may be the Research Victory.  For that one, you might iterate until you get 7XResearch + Morale tiles, limit the Colony Rush to maybe a 10 planet circle, then turtle up and go at it like crazy.  I've not tried that one yet, but the limiting aspect might be paying for all the Research w/o a wide Empire full of tax payers.  Instead of tax revenue, you would be selling your Research fruits almost as fast as you got them, but researching the Diplo tree to get better value in the deals takes you away from the Research victory sequence.

I think wins in DA are harder than they should be because of the bug with the Mind Control Center.  It still gives the 100% economic bonus but, instead of making planets flip instantaneously, they almost never flip at all.  This is a known problem, but it really guts a lot of strategies.  For example, one strategy is to colonize only the biggest planets, let the AI have the little ones in the same system, and them flip them to you on Influence.  That will not happen if you have built the MCC due to this bug.

Yes, my Qs were indeed somewhat similar.  I have been tinkering ever since with variations.  I would have one Suicidal won except that I forgot to disable the Research victory.  I may win it yet, but it does not look good.

On a separate but related thing, I had forgotten that the races start with different Class Homeworlds.  Many start with Class 10, some with Class 12, and the Thalians with Class 15.  Some interesting potential there, but it seems that the Thalians get fewer setup points.  Worlds get a Morale bonus at some size.  IIRC, worlds >10 Class get some morale bonus, but is it the same for Class 11 as for, say, Class 20?

Does this bonus apply to Homeworlds?  That is, do the Thalians at Class 15 start with a morale bonus that races with a Class 10 Homeworld do not get?  What about races with Class 12 Homeworlds?

LTjim......Racial bonuses and starting techs are more important than Homeword bonuses.  There are ways to chose your HW and secondary.  A good HW must have bonus tiles, the type depending on your strategy.  The most important bonuses are resources and ethical alignment.

Judging from your posts, you will soon have a Suicidal victory.

Thanx!

I have not figured out yet how to manipulate the system w/o cheats to get the homeworld and secondary the way I'd want.  That is, I can Control-N for Homeworld placement and tiles, but the size and secondary world thing remains some sort of "secret clan knowledge".  I'm good with that! 

I can see how to change the name of the Homeworld, but I cannot see how to change the name of the Home system star.  Must one go into the xml files to do that? 

Thank you!  I will copy and save your post above and that in that other thread for future use.

For the moment, I am reluctant to mess with the xml files.

I am reluctant to play with fire and files, and for similar reasons.

When it comes to editing code, I seem to have the Sadim touch.