Hey there,

Gallahger118, or anyone else who feels like replying...

You mention having taxes at 75%, and 4 or 5 vr centres..did you mean on one world? Cause it seems like you did, but, I mean, that's too much room to devote to such things, is it not? I mean, factories and research facilities seem like much more viable options to me, since I can make money from trade anyway and why not use that room for better things? I mean, yeah, you COULD buy a lot of social projects or ships, but you could also produce them in a few turns with the right buildings, no? And you can't buy research, so...

That said, I'm willing to ry new things, and despite how logical my reasoning sounds to myself, I'll admit I can't believe people saying that suicidal is too easy! I mean, I'm a pretty tactically smart fella, but even on Painful, I'm so far behind it's crazy! So clearly I'm missing something.

Sorry to get so off topic, but yeah, any advice would be welcome.

To give you an idea, I guess I'm just way more about fun than being frustrated and worried about losing...it's wierd. Even in my Painful game...it's just not that fun to be so behind, you know? I love the game, but am just not really what you'd call hardcore. I have NO idea what the spending bar does. Hoes that. Am I crazy? I've played like 10 games at least. No idea, haha. Anyway, I'd love to hear some advice for keeping up with the comp at high lvls.
Thanks

All of the things mentioned here...
Moddable.
All of them.
If you don't like it, mod it into something you DO like.

Here's some examples
Secret Police center....the description says it's supposed to improve loyalty, so give it a civilization wide loyalty bonus.

Galactic guide book
make it cheaper and available earlier...or do what I did and reduce basic sensor ranges and make the survey module also act as a good but expensive sensor, which becomes free if you build the guidebook (eyes of the universe also reduced to a flat +3 sensor bonus with the inherent ships on minimap display still intact...you can mod things downwards that are too powerful in your opinion also. Spin Center is completely removed in my mod for that reason.)

Galactic Privateer
Give it a civ wide trade bonus...a nice fat one. So they don't protect ships in your experience...oh well, you can still make it useful right? Sure ya can.

Hyperion shipyard...make it available earlier or make the speed boost better, +5 or something.

Food production tiles
Personally I lowered the effects of farms drastically, since I never bothered to research up that tree before. So now they're +1, +2, +3 etc instead of +4, +6, +8. The side effect of this is suddenly those tiles are VERY nice. Although it's now harder to get monster planets...and that cuts tax econ slightly which brings us to..

Trade
There seems to be a split here, and personally I don't have a problem with the way this one is now, but if trade isn't good enough you can always give every civ a +100 trade bonus from the start and ramp up the other bonuses accordingly.

Wormholes
You don't like them, just remove them entirely...I have another...+1% to some random ability is not quite useless just almost. I shot them all up to +10, so now they're all somewhat useful, not just the free 2500bc anomalies.

Invasion...tweak away, I think by now you get the picture.

While I agree that some of these things are blatantly useless (subspace blaster..cough...) in the unmodded state, and that's a sign of...lack of polish?...the developers were kind enough to give us the opportunity to *fix* them. My only complaint with modding is if I try something too drastic..borderline total conversion-ish, it won't work they way I want because I run into too many hardcoded rules, scripting would be VERY welcome, including ai scripting.

If you insist on playing metaverse then I suppose none of this is an option, one of the many reasons why I don't play metaverse. Though I still wish we could play true and well-done multiplayer, if only to settle the debate between things like trade vs taxes, or defenses vs high attack ships...or just so we could mod things in that the ai would have NO idea how to use, but would still be cool.

ps: I can't believe no one mentioned banking centers...I guess everyone just automatically skips to stock exchanges immediately

The one reason mod-ing for me isn't the answer is that you need to mess around for god knows how long to get the AIs take your mods into full consideration. Not to mention making sure the AIs end up in a balanced state in the end.

Metaverse is also key.

I have to disagree with the statement that starbases are too weak. It is my opinion that any relatively stationary object is dead meat to a mobile attacker in space. Nothing will prevent the attacker from sending in missiles ballistically at near C strikes from outside the powered missile envelope, or coasting missiles in under stealth/unpowered ballistic flight to have them power up and make their attack run before anyone has the time to react with an effective defense. Finding an object in space isn't that hard for the most part. It's knowing where to look and correctly interpreting what your sensors see. Space is big. There's no way to defend against that type of attack with just a static fortification. There has to be a mobile reserve of starships.

Not to mention that the AIs focus so much on it. They build loads of freighters. The game would be much better if trading money was increased. I supose if you're not smart enough to get stock exchanges, and build up your population early then ya trade is great...

Maybe the trade income should scale up with the population size of the home/target planets or even beter with their econommical strength? Making it dependent on the distance only is not too realistic.

Anyway even now it may be quite useful on low density galaxies with not so many planets...

It seems like a lot of this game was play tested heavily on smaller galaxies. For example starbase defenses and trade work to an extent on smaller maps. However trade doens't scale up well, you only get longer routes. The starbase defenses also get obsolete very quickly.

I agree that a starbase would probably be hard to defend. I think the solution is probably making the defenses a little stronger overall, and needing about 1/2 as many constructors to get there. This change would help the AI a lot, since it has such an affinity for them.

For trade maybe there should be some sort of economy bonus to the planets involved, that's how real trade helps the economy.

300% food tiles: Put a farm there if the planet is big enough.

Invasion Tactics: Mass Drivers And Core Detonation are pretty useful if you don't care about the penalties (-15% to -50%)  

- Survey Module (no anomalies left after I can build it)

Sorry I thought that is only available with Sensor IV tech (maybe it was the case in older versions I don't remember). But of course if it's available with Sensor I it's quite useful.

The whole tile business doesnt sit right with me anymore :/ Especially since the teraforming is so limited. Also think Loyalty is largely worthless because morale is so much mroe important. Low morale high loyalty means jack compared to high morale.

wwwaaait just a sec, I just started plaing and I'm wondering how some of you are buying survey mods on turns 5-6, im on like turn 40+ and still doing research! I started with my militery uped to 40%, after getting 3 scouts to find planets I colonized nearly all, now im slowly poping them and building on tiles. tech tre is also growing now so i selectively choose social vs no selection depending on how much i gotta make on the planet.

what am I doing wrong?

Probably need to play with your spending sliders. Most people in the beginning of the game do something like this :

1) set 100% research. research xeno labs
2) set spending to 100%, or at least enough to get labs in 1 week.
3) quick build a factory, and maybe a colony ship 1st turn
4) go for impulse drive next
5) continue quick building factories/and or xeno labs through the beginning.
6) as money diminishs, set sliders something like 40/25/35. (mil/soc/research)
7) once you get impulse, redesign colony ships, and focus on getting them built.
8) research sensors, and then build a cargo hull with engines/life support/survey.

A lot depends on the map size, where your neighbors are, and how you have anomolies set. Everyone has a opinion on how to start, but on larger galaxies this should help you. I generally run at 100% spending for a while, so i tend to stop quick buying once i get below 2k.

How i start and get survey ships between turns 5-7

Get a 20% research bonus at start of game -- I take Technologists as my political party ( get +1 to sensors too -- that helps ). But 20% research bonus with race abilities would have the same effect.

Take Galactic Warfare, Xeno Engineering, Stellar Cartography, and Sensors as starting techs -- this allows me to design a survey on the first turn -- cargo hull and survey module only -- cost = $948. Buy 3 survey ships on 1st 3 turns.

Buy a basic lab on 1st turn and a second basic lab on 2nd turn. I only need the equivilant of 2 basic labs so if i got a research tile bonus, i don't need the 2nd lab. If I got a 700% research bonus tile -- that is what'll let me get my survey ships on turn 5.

Set spending to 100%, set research% to 100%. Research from hyperdrive to impulse drive will take 4-6 turns.

After getting impulse drive technology, design a survey ship with a survey module, 3 impulse drives, and 3 basic life supports. Upgrade all 3 survey ships to the new design -- cost = $204 each. Note -- they'll cost you more to just buy the new design. You end up with survey ships that have 8 tile moves/turn ( =1 tile for impulse drive tile ). Have fun getting all the anomalies.

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i also take max race ability that gives +50% to military production

I buy basic factories to get to the equivilant of 4 basic factories -- if i run low on money -- i build em ( should be able to buy at least 2 basic factories ).
Then build an entertainment center on last turn before starting colony ships( preferably after getting Planetary improvement tech, +10% to social production with it ).

Then i research planetary improvements and then space militarization -- these both give +10% bonus to military production. Also got another +10% from Galactic Warfare at start. My military production bonus is now 80%.

So now i'm ready to start making colony ships -- i design em with 2 impulse drives and 2 life supports. Set social production to zero. Military production % to whatever kicks out a colony ship every 2 turns. And the rest on research.

Set my tax rate ( 9% prob ) so i get 100% morale so i can put 300M colonist on each colony ship ( 500M if i've pick max population growth race ability ). Research to Xeno Entertainment to get the +10 morale bonus -- think it is necessary to get the 100% morale on colonized worlds.

Oh yeah i research to warp drive next and upgrade survey ships and colony ship designs whenever i can take advantage of it -- guess i'm just addicted to speed.

Also i never research techs that upgrade factories, labs, or markets till I'm finished colonizing and have built the basic building in on all my worlds. I do 3 factories/world (min), Labs on bonus tiles only, 1 farm, rest of tiles are markets ( of course prob not going to fill up all the tiles on all the worlds ). I don't do any espionage till i'm done with the basic buildings either. Tech trade as much as possible within this strategy. This givs me an economy that works just fine without any economy bonus's except from techs -- but give me an economy resourceor 2 and watch the cash roll in. Also get them constructors out and get them resources when you find em -- have to time it to get em before the others but not slow down the colony rush -- sort of have to play that by ear.

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This is a little slow getting out colony ships but the speed of the ships makes up for it for me. I get plenty of cash from the anomalies and a lot of small bonus's that add up. I buy starports on each colony on 1st turn. Also buy factories and labs on any +300% or +700% tiles i get, Usually not enough cash to buy em on +100% tiles but if there is I buy em. Of course this is just the general strategy and there is plenty of room for improvization. This works plenty well for me on suicidal level with gigantic maps and 9 opponents. I've also tried it on a suicidal level with a large map and 4 opponents and it worked fine. If there are too few worlds per civilization on the map i'm sure this strategy wouldn't work -- have to go to buying colony ships right off the bat.

Hope this wasn't too confusing and if nothing else gives you food for thought.

I get impulse and survey within a few turns, build 3 survey ships (which gives me 4 total), and out survey all the other races. Ido this every game.

I would say that the "surrender" button on the diplomatic screen is useless. I lost a game cuz i thought it was asking the computer to surrender...

if it's on your side it always means you offer it.

if it's on your side it always means you offer it.

While that is perfectly true and correct, it doesn't make the Surrender feature anything less than utterly useless.

Cheers,
Reaver

if it's on your side it always means you offer it. While that is perfectly true and correct, it doesn't make the Surrender feature anything less than utterly useless. Cheers, Reaver

yea I'd rather fight to the end than surrender.

also, I don't think the mind control center is working right, or maybe I don't understand how its suppoused to work. From the description it says essentially that it causes planets to flip very fast when they are ripe for doing so, and to me, ripe for defection is when a planet has the number in the brackets bieng at least 4.0 or higher. in a game I did, there were enemy planets with the number in the brackets bieng high numbers like 20, or even 50 or so in a few cases. I thought it was suppoused to cause them to flip very soon, but it doesn't seem to work.

of course though it was late in the game when I switched to an influence takeover tactic, so the enemy influence would already have built up.

Trade can easily make up 25+% of your income. The larger the map, the bigger the payoff due to the distances. Usually, the extra trade income is what makes the difference between running at 75% industrial capacity and 100% industrial capacity. The positive effect on relations with multiple races lets you fight only wars of choice. The extra money helps you bribe other races into entering wars when you need some help. I've played games where I've paid other races to be my military for me, with my troop transports following their warships. It's quite cool conquering the galaxy with no real standing military.

In summary, trade and freighters are very useful indeed.

P.S. - The more brutal invasion tactics can be very useful. Bring in two troop transports. Send them in separately. Send the first in with core detenation to kill off most of the planet's resistance. Send in the second on normal tactics to capture the planet. No penalty to the planet's quality but more soldiers survive.

I Mass Driver planets sometimes when my sole goal is total conquest, with no interest in the aftermath (I.E. eradicating the final enemy race, or dealing with some pathetic, barely habitable rock like Mars, or worse). Tidal disruptors are useful on recently colonized or underdeveloped planets, where rebuilding from scratch isn't too bad, but you don't want to risk PQ.
The Galactic Privateer? Instead of killing the trade route, your enemy can only kill the mini-freighter. No worries. Is good, yah? Although invulnerable/defended freighters would be better.

But, about the things I find useless:
Mind Control Center. What DOES it do?
Galactic Guide Book. We can almost all agree on that.
Surrender Button. If there was multiplayer, it would make sense. But really! It's just decoration right now! "If you give me 5000 bc to build a mansion on Tycho II, and frictionless clothing for my wardrobe, I'll surrender my empire to you."

Nothing new, I admit. Whatever.

P.S. - The more brutal invasion tactics can be very useful. Bring in two troop transports. Send them in separately. Send the first in with core detenation to kill off most of the planet's resistance. Send in the second on normal tactics to capture the planet. No penalty to the planet's quality but more soldiers survive.

First of all it's not that they are completely useless, I just think there is some need of cost tweaking in this area.

I agree that this tactic of 2 phase invasions is pretty useful, but this isn't really realistc though! Using core detonations should cause damage to the planet even if you didn't manage to capture it. Don't you think?

Useless on the trade screen:

- I agree that Surrender is useless
- trading influence points (AI values them far too high)
- also AI values starbases and planets too high; it's almost impossible to buy them: once I tried to buy a new mining starbase from a very week civilization (new means no modules installed), I offered all my techs (30-40) much more advanced than anything that this civ had, also all my tradable goods and around 20000 credits still they didn't want to sell it; if I was on their place I would agree to sell it already for 1/4 of the things that I offered

@NerdzRool81
Pls don’t assume something is useless just because you don’t understand it or the description is totally incorrect. As a hint look at your economy before and after building the Mind Control Center… I think you may be pleasantly surprised.


Personnally I don't use tiny hulls either... but I know they can stack well with certain logistics values.

oh the mind control center affects economy? I thought it was suppoused to make enemy planets flip to you faster. The problem with that one is that it's labelled as doing something but doesn't actually do it.

tiny hulls are awsome if used properly, they are best used for quick annoyance strikes and just generally being a pain in the arse lol specially since they are cheap , ive had tiny hulls tak eout full capital ships before so they cant be that useless, although i did need alot of em with high tech weapons lol, or just good for patrolling your planets for enemy transports