1.1 Turned into a war simulator

Just depends on how one plays whether it turns into a war or not. Basically there are two things that will keep the AI off of me indefinitely and that is military power and political power. Influence goes a long was as well. I can get the entire map on friendly with wheeling and dealing and trading low techs when they are 1 or 2 turns away from completeing them anyways. Makes them like me better and eventually I get to sit back and watch the AI's just go at each other while I go for the influence or tech or alliance victory. Not going to tell you my strategy, part of the enjoyment and fun of the game is figuring it out. So get to work.

This is my second game

Not very statistically significant is it?

Basically there are two things that will keep the AI off of me indefinitely and that is military power and political power

Do you mean political power in your parliament? Or have I missed something?

I have the same experience. First game I leapt into a quick weapons research lead, then went to war with the altarians (this was VERY early...nobody had good relations with them when I did so). From then on, just about everyone attacked me, often 3 or 4 at once. I eventually got caught in a (probably) unwinnable situation when the drengin caught me without the ship power to bring down their monstrous dreadnoughts. All because they were researching and building massive armadas down in one corner whilst I was fighting a war on 3 or more fronts!

Next time around, I'm focusing on trade and economy. Quickly got to master trade, and had 8 trade routes going with my nearest neighbours the Iconians. No weapons development except enough to fit a single shield and laser on a small hull so my territory is basically impregnable at the moment thanks to military starbases. Result...the same damn people I was trading with just declared war on me! And nobody likes me.

The common thread in the two games...I do nothing with influence. First game I was second in population and planets but had no embassies, other than on captured planets. Second game I'm first in population but again bottom in influence.

So it looks as if you have to concentrate on influence if you want to avoid war. Oh, and probably have a strong standing military since the AI incorrectly calculates military strength. Diplomacy will NOT do it...I had superb diplomacy skills in the first game. The only difference it made was how much I could afford to charge when my attackers inevitably came back with their tails between their legs begging for peace!

The red lines in the diplomacy screen while playing 1.1 reminds me of the beta.The A.I is war crazy.It actually makes it very easy for the Human player to win.You just watch the A.I kill each other and choose a weak target.

Basically there are two things that will keep the AI off of me indefinitely and that is a modded TechTree file that increase radically (10 times) the technologies costs and the other a enormous increase in the Colony Module cost.

The goes with a very nice and peaceful pace while allowing me to manage my colonies with care and explore, also avoid Colonization rush.

Kisses from Portugal...
Edna

They are warlike. Played my first metaverse game as the Drath on the beta, and I'm used to handing people there dignity (among other things) to them on plates.
They... trashed... me....
After years of play, it had settled to a pattern. My tech worlds were lost, I could do nothing. My ships were temporarily the best in the game, but with one plasma tech costing 30 turns it wouldn't last. I surrended in the end, and got a really crap metaverse score. 1.1 Beta seems to make the game rely more on your starting skills (IE torians with that bonus are now harder to invade, the Yor need to build ships taking advantage of their miniturisation), so it's harder yet more fun. If you watch, the small races WILL put their foot in the door, and if you don't break their ankle (probervially speaking) they'll kick your empire down. (another example, the Thalans were by far the weakest race,korx gave them 2 planets in a surrender, now they're the strongest)
If they declare war on you, crush them very fast, because the AI is a lot better. It's wonderfully human-like, attacking more often, sticking up for their business partners.

And as for the starting points, that appears built in. I have tried adding a few, but it doesn't work.

Yea, I don't like the way the new 1.1 AI games play out. I'm on my 3rd game and you have to focus on one of 2 things --- being more military or having a greater influence. If you get the Torians are opponents, I find it difficult to keep my influence up against them due to their massive population. So I rely on having the largest military to keep them from attacking me. Plus with the goofy way the AI measures military strength in order to stay #1 I have to build to "game" the ranking (quantity over quality).

I have tech trading turned off (yea for that) so I can't bribe with techs to keep people happy. Everyone has the "I know what you're doing" negative modifier, even races I don't share a border with so I'm not sure what's up with that. There is one race (don't remember) where I have 6 positive modifiers and 1 negative one and they are Neutral with me. Everyone else is cool or worse. Diplomacy doesn't help at all --- Mine is much higher than anyone and I have the + diplomacy modifier with everyone. Nor does trade. I have master trader and spread my traders around to the 3 main races and they still all hate me. Alignments doesn't seem to make a difference --- I declared neutral and everyone else is leaning neutral, although nobody else has declared.

I really hope they tweak the settings before it goes live. I feel like there is only one viable path to survive now.

Aye the way the AI calculates millitary strengh should really be reworked cuz in its current form it simply doesnt work. Even if my ships are vastly superior the AI still declares wars on me with their armadas of junk ships.

well... random50, even with 1.0x, if you have little military, they go warring against you. I don't build a large military at all, but research almost only military techs. They all come demanding tributes, and in just a few turns after they declare war.

(truth is, that fits ok with my way of playing: Since the upgrading costs so much, I find it not worthy of it to pay maintenance fees for quickly outdated ships. So when war comes, I tweak the sliders to max military, design very fast moving, low defense high attack ships, and in a couple of turns I have large fleets approaching their territory. )

anyway, having a weaker military means being a prey to the AI's... but to human players also.

Ive played several (3-5) games with the 1.1 beta and i didnt really notice the AI to be much more war hungry than in the 1.0x patch. I would like sumone to tell me wut exactly the negative modifier " we know what your doing" is all about tho.
I also have never seen the AI choose an alignment, they should prob focus on that a bit more. >.>

You guys just don't know how to play it as I don't have issues with war the way I play and I play on tough with intelligent opponents. Obviously you aren't setting your sliders correctly enough to tech up very fast and apease the AI with trades as I do. It's rare there is anything I haven't already teched first except some of the extremely long ones which I will eventually buy and then trade to the other races. Also I "custom" build my civilization, I don't take those cookie cutter premade builds. Superior intelligence will let one know a custom build is much better and can "focus" on a path much better than some cookie cutter premades. I also have a very fast productive empire and am always 1st in economy and technology from the very start. I work on military and influence buildup, trade with the AI's to keep them happy and "Diplomacy" certainly does effect whether they will attack you or not, it's one of the + or - they look at when determining whether they will goto war with you. Quickly getting diplomacy and military up and then working for long time friendships I have no problems at all. I get to pick and choose who I goto war with. Don't worry you'll figure it out someday.

You can set how other races view you before you start the game. IF you want a purely non-combat game,set everyone to be your bestest buddy in the whole galaxy. Sounds rather boring to me, but hey, to each thier own

Don't worry you'll figure it out someday.

Thanks for the vote of conficence.

I think 1.1 has changed things somewhat, and the AI is more competitive. At a glance, your strategy is very much like mine. I play at Tough, with a custom build. Of your strategies, I use a similar set except I don't do the early game trades. The strategy of micromanaging trades, ripping of the AI and getting them to like you for it seems cheesy to me so I don't do it. Without that piece of it, keeping the AI happy becomes much trickier with inevitable holes where one civ gets pissed off enough to come after you. My current game I am "Demonic" Evil, which also tends to tick off all those neutral/good civs out there. I am not currently at war, have the largest industry, second largest military, and am only OK with technology.

But in 1.0, I was kicking the AIs butt wtihout much worry with this set of strategies. In 1.1 Beta, it is challenging (hurray!).

Eventually diplomatic ties break down and suddenly everyone "knows what I am doing", which is surprising, because even I don’t know what the hell I am doing, as I am not building starbases in the middle of other civ’s territory, nor am I planting a huge armada next to their home planet, so what exactly am I doing anyway?

I second that part. WHAT THE HELL AM I DOING?! NOTHING I OWN NO REAL MILITARY NO TRANSPORTS I TRADE AND I ALSO OWN 0 INFLUNECE STARBASES! Please explain!

Did you guys disable tech trading ? If yes I suppose that the effect of no trade tech is less diplo trades (you can buy/sell ships and planets, but it ain't that frequent), so worse relations, ending in wars.

#12 by psychoravin

Tough? OMG! When you come play in the big leagues give us a call!

You guys just don't know how to play it as I don't have issues with war the way I play and I play on tough with intelligent opponents. Obviously you aren't setting your sliders correctly enough to tech up very fast and apease the AI with trades as I do. It's rare there is anything I haven't already teched first except some of the extremely long ones which I will eventually buy and then trade to the other races. Also I "custom" build my civilization, I don't take those cookie cutter premade builds. Superior intelligence will let one know a custom build is much better and can "focus" on a path much better than some cookie cutter premades. I also have a very fast productive empire and am always 1st in economy and technology from the very start. I work on military and influence buildup, trade with the AI's to keep them happy and "Diplomacy" certainly does effect whether they will attack you or not, it's one of the + or - they look at when determining whether they will goto war with you. Quickly getting diplomacy and military up and then working for long time friendships I have no problems at all. I get to pick and choose who I goto war with. Don't worry you'll figure it out someday.

Wow, do you have problems getting that head throug the door?


For those who have something constructive to say:

Lack of tech trading (for those that have turned it off) is making it harder to make friends. Tech Trading was easy mode for diplomacy and $. But it seems the game was balanced around that.

"We know what you're doing" shows up on every race on my map. Not sure why.

Aggressive AI and screwed up Military Ranking causing much more frequent wars.

and had 8 trade routes going with my nearest neighbours the Iconians

Spread it out a bit more - active trade routes is one way to help keep the AIs from picking on you. Try to have at least one with each AI. Can't say I've noticed too much difference in AI war tendencies with v1.1 - the only wars I've been involved in are ones that I've started, and I'm always near the bottom in the military power graph.

I have tech trading turned off (yea for that)... ...I really hope they tweak the settings before it goes live. I feel like there is only one viable path to survive now

So, all these people that demanded the ability to turn tech trading off are now going to complain that it makes the game uni-dimensional well what did you expect if you take away one of the fundamentally biggest aspects of the game - in that the AI is different for each race and they will focus on different areas of the tech tree, so you take away the ability of the Drengin to trade for their non-military techs and wonder why they then want to go to war with everyone... couldn't possibly be because that's all they can do now, and when they make demands of other AIs or you for tribute, they don't get paid because no-one has been able to sell any tech to be able to afford to pay them

I assumed what I was seeing was influence based, which I had no problem with. Now I'm not so sure.

Anybody out there successfully running a "make friends with everyone" campaign WITHOUT tech trading being enabled? I need to know as the next phase of my campaign was going to be influencer starbases so I can pick and choose when and with whom I go to war!

OIC now so turning off tech trading which was one of the features to help keep the AI at least on a neutral or better relationship with you, you now expect the game to be the SAME without it? lol When you turn off a feature of the game you should expect it to change and wars are going to be more common without trading with the AI. Not saying it's impossible to get a decent relationship with the races without it, but, it's certainly going to be harder and you should expect and accept that. I certainly hope they don't "dumb it down" now for those that want to turn off tech trading.

And yes my head fits through doors rather easily, if you can't stand it cause someone is far superior and intelligent than you are playing a game or even in life, well, you best give up on life now cause no one is the best or the smartest at everything (even myself I get slaughtered in chess) I just happened to have figured out a strategy that works against the AI even in 1.1 sorry if it makes you feel dumb cause you haven't. It's still a challenge and it's still harder than 1.0X, but, not so much one can't use a well thought out strategy to maintain peace in the galaxy. Nothings broken, some people just don't have an IQ above 80 is all.

With that far superior intelligence of yours, you sure miss the point.

-Brian

LOL! He's just after an argument I suspect. Best ignored.

Speaking selfishly, I don't mind a military campaign for now as it's only my second game. I'm sure the devs will not share a certain person's attitude and will rebalance for those of us who prefer tech trading off. But only if they know there's an issue (if there really is!)...that's what the thread is for...

Thank you for opening your mouth and removing all doubt. (again)

I guess my hope (and it is only that) was that in allowing us to turn off tech trading that we wouldn't be handicapped in winning the game in one of the 4 methods --- tech, diplomatic, conquest, and influence. Differenct sized maps, changes in planet frequency, etc, make each method more or less "fitting" for your map, but all are viable. Is a non-conquest based game viable now in 1.1 with tech trading turned off? I have found myself getting influence victories due to the constant warmongering by the AI. Even when I work hard to sit back, be nice, trade, and work on my diplomatic skills I get attacked all the time, even by those with "warm" attitudes towards me. My only peaceful periods are those when my military level is higher than the AIs, but that take focus away from winning the game by the other methods and so drags the game out.

When you turn off a feature of the game you can forget expecting it to play like it was meant to be played with all the features turned on. The trade off feature option was added for the whiners that didn't find the game challening enough with it turned on. Well, now you have your challenge and it will be a warring challenge, hell, what else did you expect? With trade turned on the AI hardly ever went to war, now with it turned off and it becomes a warring AI you gripe again? LOL Forget them Stardock they will never be satisfied until you make an option for every little nitpick about the game. You gave them their trade off option, now, let them eat cake.