I use a swindle with the Humans, concentrating on diplomacy. You buy the galaxy, and never fire a shot. (Not until they have no chance, anyway) I didn't invent this, but I've sure mastered it on a suicidal, all abundant, medium map vs 9 opponents and 8 minors. It'll be interesting to see if I can do it on a larger map.

Looking forward to reading your strat, KP.

This thread is over 100 pages now, and has the most posts of any empire thread.

I PMd the Swindle write-up to those who requested it.  Any other Kzinti that are interested let me know.

Nicely done.   If you are interested in the Swindle strategy, please report to your nearest Kzinti recruiting office.  Or I'm sure you could probably convince me to send it to you even though you arent a member.    You've been around the forums and this thread for a long time.

My latest game is nearing completion, with just 1 year to go.  The last score test at the end of year 5 came in at 558,950, so at year 6 (which I intend to be the last year) should be about 585k.  If I went to year 7 I could break 600k, but for just 15k more it doesnt seem worth it.

There is one thing I'm seeing in the game, which I've wondered about in the past too.  Here is my approval graph:

The regular and continued fluctuation in the latter part of the graph is a little puzzling.  At this point in the game all planets are maxed-out at 20 or 14 billion (depending on PQ), and nothing is happening in the game other than me rush-buying ships for the military starbase array, and hitting end turn.  Also that the graph for my civ and the last AI are mirrored is quite odd too.  Anyone have ideas as to what causes these effects?  I've noticed it in previous games too.

Sentient species taste better...

Very interesting, KP.  I would sort of expect to see that kind of graph on popularity, actually, but not approval.  Hmm...

So long as you're passing out writeups, I'll take one. 

I have a hypothesis, I just dont know how to phrase it LOL.  I'd have to see yer numbers to be sure, but I am gonna hazard it has to do with yer population actually fluctuating around the 20 billion mark- that is, yer high tax rate and high population have a downward motion on population (because under normal circumstances that would lead to very low morale, to a point where you would actually have negative growth) being countered with numerous morale boosters which have an upward motion.  And so i think, but can't prove, that the two forces don't necc work in concert causing a continual fluctuation in your approval ratings of a minor amount.

I came up with a list of homeworld names for the races in the MV Empires Mod,

Homestar:      Planets (Habbital Only):

Kzintai           Kzin/Keevash

Tyranicor       Tyranis/Arakis

Diplomis        New Earth/Mars 2

Hegiris          Heges/Urdon

Sol               Earth/Mars

Gecknis        Geckonia/Ras'hik

Klingon        Qo'noS

I can't think of any for the Colonial Fleet and Gerontocracy. Any ideas

Oh proud Patriarch of the Kzinti, dare you welcome the Queen of Blades into your midst?  Death and Destruction are my Hands, and Sorrow and Despair are my Feet, and I am the Body Immovable.  Treacherous I am, but Powerful too.  For the hunger of the Swarm knows no bounds, but it is not without intelligence.  A common goal is in sight, and Domination is sought by Many, but only Few shall achieve. For now, I offer my Allegience, but be Wary, oh Great Kzin, that you dare not incur the Wrath of the Zerg.

lol, i really can't wait for SC2, but for now, I think I will just play a few GC maps and send the Zerg Swarm to envelope the known galaxy

Welcome Queen of the Blades.  Your fearsome reputation precedes you.    The Zerg understand that one galactic truth is that the strong devour and dominate the weak.  Our hunting-grounds extend to nearly every corner of this galaxy, but there remain those who stubbornly resist our might.  Zerg Queen, we will feast together heartily on the bodies of our fallen foes!  Do not forget who is the dominant species though...

That was my initial thought, but there are a number of things that argue against it.

1.  Population does not seem to be fluctuating, but holding steady at current levels on all the planets I looked at.

2. If population fluctuation were the answer, it would be reasonable to think that at any given time, there would be a roughly equal number of planets in either the decline or growth stages, which would cause the graph to even out, and show a constant value.

3. This does not explain why the fluctuations of the graph of the remaining AI seems to mirror the graph of my empire.  They have one planet with a static population of 6 billion, and are definitely not experiencing any growth or population death.

4. While the graph appears to fluctuate, my empire approval rating in the lower left corner of the main screen does not change.

These things lead me to believe that it may simply be an error in the visual display of the graph, and that approval is not really fluctuating.

Caprica would work for the Colonial Fleet, and one of the other astrologically name based planets could be the secondary.  The Gerontocracy, hmmm....  Have you asked in their empire thread?

Sentient species taste better...

I set a new ZYW record today.   If anybody wants the write-up of this strategy also, let me know.

I started with 3 precursor libraries on my homeworld, and had one 250bc anomaly.  With better anomalies I'm sure I could have broken 115k.

Sentient species taste better...

I might ask.

Don't you mean King of Blades?

@Seth: nope, the leader of the Zerg (at least 'now' with the fall of the Overmind at the end of SC1) is Sarah Kerrigan, who gave herself the title "Queen of Blades".   Which makes me think you haven't played StarCraft, to which I must say "OMG! Why Not! Go play it!!!"  Sure, its 10 years old now, but graphics aren't that bad, and its balance is the stuff of legend.

The battle chest of it and it's expansion could be picked up for less than dirt cheap.

Not only is it 10yrs old, but it's still going strong over in Korea where they still have tournaments for that game.  As SB said, there balance between factions is hard to compare against.  Each faction has an answer to the other faction's units and buildings.  Each faction MUST be played differently than the other in order to use it to it's fullest.

What they are doing for SC2 is amazing though.  Incorperating height into the maps and having some ground units that can bypass height changes, types of attacks that are better vs units than others (like the sweeping laser of the Protoss or their slow buildup dmg beam air unit).  Strategic analysis of the enemy and the terrain will be phenominal in SC2 in order to win.

Also, I am very proud to see that the Zerg have retained the "zerg rush" capability in being able to have 100 zerglings trouncing across the screen.  If it's true that you haven't tried SC1 yet Seth, the one strat for the Zerg (think the bug things from Starship Troopers) is a massive rush of all their units at the enemy.  This term has been used in many other games whenever the strategy is to toss large numbers of mediocre units/people at the enemy in hopes to win the fight.

Sounds pretty cool Could you PM that, KP?

Also, on the topic of Starcraft: They have an american commentator named Nick 'Tasteless' Plott in Korea now, who does the english commentaries on one of their tournaments. It's surprisingly entertaining to watch...

I would definately like to see your write up. I've only ever did one; in one of the MVL rounds. I may try one more game on my old PC. I've received most of my new PC, but UPS says the motherboard and power supply would be delivered until Monday.

I just saw something interesting in the 2.02 changelog:

+ TWEAK: Advanced Computing more expensive

+ TWEAK: Xeno Communications less expensive

+ TWEAK: Various other research tweaks

+ TWEAK: Ethical alignment becomes increasingly a source of tension as the game goes on in terms of diplomatic relations

The first three may drastically change a ZYW score depending on magnitude of the changes in cost.  The 4th one is very interesting and may make longer games that much different.

Xeno Communications: 50 --> 25
Advanced Computing: 100 --> 200
Galactic Stock Exchanges: 2500 --> 3500
Medium Scale Building: 800 --> 1000
Advanced Starbase Construction: 1000 --> 500

Didn't look into weapons/defenses, and/because the previous update has shown us that Galactopedia can't read hidden modifiers to tech costs (such as weapons/defenses now have).  In any case, looks like a first turn tech capital is no longer possible in TA.

Also, for what it's worth, this is apparently a TA-only update.  DA (ZYW) games will be unaffected by these changes.

Thanks Loup and Sole Soul.    If it doesnt apply to DA, then ZYWs (at least the way I do it) will be unaffected.

Finished my latest Swindle game.  Here is some info:

final score at 6 years: 584,150

warships: 2174

colonies: 247

I did the war-swindle in Dec of Year 0, the earliest I've ever done it.  I made a few changes which really speeded things up.

I built a full military starbase array, with every module that is ship-assist.  I had a number of fortunate random events, including an economic boom that started near the end of Year 1, the "thinking machine" event near the middle of the game which greatly increases research, and the 5x tourism income event soon after.

You can see the economic boom event in the early part of the econ graph:

And here is the military graph where at the end of Year 0 you can see the rating jump from zero to dominating in one turn:

For having the AI at one planet for years of points-grinding, here is what I leave for the them:

The Re-Education Cneter ensures it wont culture-flip to me, and the Fertility Clinics are cheap and prevent them from building anything else.  They never get a chance to build another ship.

Sentient species taste better...

Because Brad has never gotten around to fixing the AI so that it overbuilds...

*sigh*

No offense meant, but I still feel that is a hole that should have been plugged ages ago, and would make for a much more interesting game.

On the other hand, the idiocy surrounding building a starport and decommissioning it will suffice as well.

I've decided to create a new made up race for the MV mod, the Fellowship of Tyranis. I'll have more info as soon as I can.

I totally agree, its definitely a fault in the AI that should have been fixed.  Even with that being fixed though, in this case all you would need to do is station a decent ship at their planet, and every time they build a ship, destroy it.  They'll just have it sit there in orbit.  So that would be yet another flaw in the AI that needs attention.

I would say that the Swindle strategy does not make for interesting games once you've done it successfully a few times, rather the sole purpose is a high score.  The AI is not capable of dealing with the range of tactics that the strategy employs.

Sentient species taste better...

Welcome to our newest recruits, Lunds and Vyxxora! 

I finished something I have been working towards for a while:

Sentient species taste better...

Nice going, KP.

now with just a lil more work, you'll be able to get that Former 1st medallion on all three of them too

+1. StarCraft is probably THE gold standard for real-time, space-based strategy. the story is much better than the average video game storyline... honestly one of my all-time favorite games. plus, StarCraft II is in the works. of course who knows when Blizzard will finish it, but still, now would be a great time to break your zergling cherry.

En taro Adun!

I don't like Starcraft, I prefer the Command and Conquer games.

I don't like Starcraft, I prefer the Command and Conquer games. Also I am very excited for Doom 4 hope they include a gun like this one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ljd_hUxCfI