Strategy?

Is there any way to beat the AI? I always get creamed! Can someone post a strategy?
51,268 views 47 replies
Reply #1 Top
There are plenty of strategies posted in here, finding them however, is up to you. It would probably help if you gave a little more info, like what diff level you play at? Galaxy size, number of opponents, etc.
The people reading would probably want something of substance to comment on and advise you, unlike me, who just likes to go around ranting senselessly.  
Reply #2 Top
No evil, there are two types of people who answer that question, you who are constructive, and me who gives a generic question a generic/sarcastic answer just to be an arse .

Answer 1: No, you cannot beat the AI. That's why no one has recorded a victory on the metaverse... ever.

Answer 2: Here's my strategy:
1) Colonize some planets
2) Build up those planets
3) Research stuff
4) Build some ships with the cool stuff you researched
5) Attack the bad guy, or the good guy, whoever really
6) Somewhere you should probably manage your economy
7) Invade some planets
8) Invade some more planets
9) When you fail to invade all the planets, research a tech victory.
10) When the AI crushes you because you forgot to build ships researching your tech victory, scream, rave, blame the game for cheating, smack your monitor, then promptly uninstall.
11) Yell at StarDock for making a bad game, and demand your money back... on the forums
12) Watch us laugh

But seriously...
If you have a specific question, try reading some threads in this Strategy section, especially posts by Mumble, he's good at splainin stuff to noobies. If the answer you're looking for is not there, ask it. But please try not to leave such an open ended question.
Reply #3 Top
Yes. Numerous ways. Economics are the key to most strats.

It would probably help if you gave a little more info, like what diff level you play at? Galaxy size, number of opponents


And what race you play, starting attrubutes, are you on 1.4.

Reply #4 Top
Answer 2: Here's my strategy:
1) Colonize some planets
2) Build up those planets
3) Research stuff
4) Build some ships with the cool stuff you researched
5) Attack the bad guy, or the good guy, whoever really
6) Somewhere you should probably manage your economy
7) Invade some planets
8) Invade some more planets
9) When you fail to invade all the planets, research a tech victory.

This is both very funny and not a bad strategy (at least steps 1 through 9).   

The part about making your questions a little more specific is a good one as well. Doing well in the initial colony rush sets up the entire game. Play beneath your ability for a bit, set the AI to downright dumb. Outcolonize them and beat them and gradually increase the difficulty. As you do so you'll find you'll have some very specific questions that are easier for folks to address.

The other problem with strategies is that there are a lot of them and most of them are good while at the same time most of them totally contradict one another.

This is because there are many different strategies. Some you'll like and do well at while some won't work for you at all. No one can really just give you a step by step formula that will work. Also you need to look at your strategy as a unified whole. Taking one from column A and one from column B often doesn't work.
Reply #5 Top
Another detail missing is, at what point do you feel like your getting creamed? I play large/occasional and many times I get pinned in by the AI and lose the colony rush to the point I am lucky if I get a 4 planet start (esp starting near the Yor). Sometimes I only get my "Mars".

IF that is the case, B-line for planetary invasion and take those planets away from the "pinners".

Work on specializing your planets. I still tend to balance my planets out, but always run behind the AI because of it. It's hard to change your nature even when you know there is a better method.
Reply #6 Top
I play as the Yor mostly, I play on normal, ussually tiny galaxy, drengin only opponent, starts friendly, waits for war, gets crushed by the frigate hordes.
Reply #7 Top
try playing against the terrans. a bit easier.
Reply #8 Top
Can someone post a strategy?


I think you're a troll.

Read the Strategies section that you managed to post in.

The game itself is loaded with charts and statistics on you versus your opponents. The minimap has several different ways to view what is happening as well.

Difficulty levels below challenging will not teach you how to play the game.

Did you learn basketball/soccer/football/baseball out of a rule book? No. Odds are you simply played, screwed up, listened to experienced players, kept playing.
Reply #9 Top
Thanks! I won a game like that!
Reply #10 Top
Ignoring wheel's post.
Reply #11 Top
Keep ignoring me while you read this:

You're a loser. You have cheat codes on four games. You don't deserve sympathy or respect.
Reply #12 Top
quiet with the lying.
Reply #13 Top
I think the game is mostly about the colony rush, which is good because it's my favorite part of the game. As you get better at it, the dificulty level at which you can beat the AI will increase. Try playing a medium galaxy with 2 or 3 races. That will actually be an easier game since there will be more planets available to colonize and will provide more opportunity to out-pace the AI. Also, take advantage of anomolies. Set your flagship to auto-survey first thing and build a few survey ships as soon as you can (research Sensors for the survey module). Set anomolies to abundant during game setup. That makes the start much easier and it's fun hitting those 2500 bc cash deposits.
Reply #14 Top
quiet with the lying.


Lying about what? Your record on the Metaverse? Everyone can look at your profile. 4 games. 3 with the cheat flag.
Reply #15 Top
What is with the Yor? Oh cmon I didn't use cheat codes the Yor prob have somthing wrong!
Reply #16 Top
I like to focus on research and trade after the colony rush. Then I make a bunch of tiny defenders, one for every planet, and continue to put everything into research and trade. The defenders usually are enough to prevent a rush, as I've researched weapons before anyone else in most cases.

I never upgrade the defenders, and just wait until I am invaded because of my apparent weakness. After I'm attacked I use all that money I've made with maxed out trade to purchase top-of-the-line ships (usually have medium hulls by this point) and counterattack.

It works for me more often than not on normal with a gigantic map and 9 opponents, I think I'm ready to step up to tough and see what happens.

Reply #17 Top
Oh cmon I didn't use cheat codes the Yor prob have somthing wrong!


Think your on the losing side here(most are against Wheel). You are asking for basic strats on several threads and posting 100K plus scores. Little fishy.  
Reply #19 Top
Actually, I do have to agree something is a bit fishy here. AFAIK any victory less than a year is automatically flagged as a cheat, but I thought that a one year military conquest would be OK.

But 100K scores on a tiny galaxy have to be suspicious and even with very fast tech, a tech win on a tiny in less than a year is a bit incredulous. The 1 year military victory is incredulous as well. I'm not sure exactly what level of AI you get in crippling, but AFAIK it should be a decent opponent. I could see a single year military conquest on a tiny against a single opponent by getting plantary invasion ASAP and rushing the AI, but that's not something I would think a purported noobie could do.

I'm all for giving folks the benefit of the doubt or even a 2nd chance if necessary, but if I were you I'd make every effort to find out what's wrong as soon as possible. I'm sure any of the more experienced Ocra's would be happy to help you out, I've always found them to be an honorable bunch.

Also you could make a post in the bug report section about how you can't understand why your games have been flagged as cheats. This sometimes gets some developer response, but that may be more difficult with DA in the works.

Anyway, while I must agree with others that this looks suspicious, I'd like to suggest that there could be many different innocent reasons behind this. It's a little premature to go on a witch hunt.
Reply #20 Top
What is with the Yor? Oh cmon I didn't use cheat codes the Yor prob have somthing wrong!


Mumble, I have too much respect for Stardock to tolerate this comment.

The Metaverse wasn't born yesterday. If they say he cheated, he cheated.

Cheating, per se, isn't the problem. He could claim he was learning but didn't. Instead of playing straight, he blames Stardock's mysterious heretofore unknown problem with the Yor AI generating cheat flags.

Megvolt needs to create a new character for legitimate games.
Reply #21 Top
I'd like to suggest that there could be many different innocent reasons behind this. It's a little premature to go on a witch hunt.


Always the voice of reason.


After seeing all the characters stats. It looks like Megvolt started out using cheats, but now is playing it straight hence the need for help on strats. Look at the N-1 character, tiny galaxy,Suicidal,0 years,155k+. I don't think that is possible without "help". Megvolt if you didn't use any cheats, you need to let support know.

 
Reply #22 Top
I played with BOT-1 with Yor with NO CHEATING WHATSOEVER and it flags as cheats, Ill just use custom team.
Reply #23 Top
WTF It flags as cheat!!!
Reply #25 Top
WTF!!!WTF!!!WTF!!! I DIDN'T CHEAT THE INFLUENCE VICTORY BUT MY DIFFICULTY IS SAME!!!!!!!!!