Fifth Fifth

How I got to number one in metaverse.

How I got to number one in metaverse.

This is not a post to brag about how good I am because I'm on number on at the moment. Well, perhaps it is a little bit (woot, woot).

But mainly this post is to point out some design-issues that I used to get to that top. I hope someone, somewhere reads it and does something. Sometime.

1/ Make a seperate ranking for players that play the game without any mods. It's unfair that players like me get in the same ranking as players that play the game 100% unmodded. I mean, they don't have a chance against players that use "easy playing mods" (maintance-free buildings that boost the abilities five times more then normal, cheap but very fast ships, only the planet-quality event,... you get the picture)

2/ Close some cheesy money-loops in the game :
a) Make the AI pay less money for tradegoods
b) Do something about the loophole where you attack, demand money for peace, attack again, demand money for peace again. You can do this ten times in one single turn. With every minor and even major when you have much more military.

3/ Stop the armsdealing-thingy, it's waaaaay too easy : my guess is that you can win this game without researching anything, just buy everything with ships.

4/ Put a minimum length on trade-routes : I usually get half my money from trading with some minor who's planet is only two or three sectors away, sectors filled with money-starbases.

5/ Limit the number of starbases a player can have. It's just too easy to make ten starbases in someone's backyard and watch the his planets run to you.

Some other rants :
- I don't know ANY game where you waste so much resources every turn. Don't make a 218-reply post about it, fix the thing !
- The end-game is mind-boggling boring : mass building constructors is only fun for an hour or three, four, after that it becomes boring (I did it anyway because it's the most efficient option there is).
- Fix the terror-star-fleets-with-excalibur-to-get-17-movement-bug.
- Make some sort of "autosell" screen : I spended countless hours selling utterly useless buildings on planets that joined me. Or even on my own planets once I researched everything !
- Make a fleet worth more then one-ship-attacks-one-other-ship.
- Don't just use the attack-value of a ship to determine it's value, also use all other stats.
- Do something about the CPU-usage of this game. It sometimes takes three minutes for him to make one single turn in a gigantic galaxy on my 2 gigahertz PC.
That are 2.000.000 * 120 * 3 = 720.000.000 calculations it makes. 720 million, I mean, what are you guys doing with those, calculating all prime numbers between a zillion and a trillion ???
- Make the races more customable like MOO2 : forget the governements and give everyone thirty points or something.
2,073 views 86 replies
Reply #76 Top
I recently attacked the Drenghin. It was late in the game and they had been fighting the whole time so their ships were aready spread all over the universe. Thus no surge.

But in the first post-attack turn they did not move. Anything.

I wasn't pre-staged, but I was able to move twice and they mos' def' were not the better for it.


~SDC~
Reply #77 Top
Yea, I also frequently see races not moving ships
during war when there is some juicy targets for them
right next to some big ships.
Reply #78 Top
Gee, compared with the others here, I'm the most honest man !

Frogboy, if my tone was rude, I apologize for that.

The only excuse I have is the excuse I always use : "English is only my thirth language, how polite can *you* be in your thirth language ?"

But then again, after re-reading the excuse, it sounds a bit rude too. Sigh.
Reply #79 Top
Im not one to get in a pissing contest on honesty
but I resent that you claim to be more honest then I :)
Reply #80 Top
1) Trade goods are allowing players to massively exploit the AI to the point where they can win a research victory while only actually researching around 60 techs in which case the trade goods are far more imbalancing than any mod currently available
End of quote

Yes they are overpowered. Yes you can get battleships or some such with trade goods.
I play tiny rare maso, and usually have 4 or 5 trade goods. With these, diplo translators and f.e. +30% or +70% diplomacy, when you've got an additional treasury of several thousands bc, you can easily buy all techs. You get all non military techs from someone, tehn sell some of these + 2 or 3 trade goods + some cash to get dreads, rangers or whatever.
I think everyone playing masochistic uses trade goods more or less that way.

Brad, you should log in the metaverse all the deals made by the players. In particular, things that the AI never does would appear, like:
1)Selling trade goods for techs/cash
2)Selling whatever in order to cause ai XX to go to war with ai YY
3)Selling ships.
Reply #81 Top
Well, I'm glad that someone is finally going to do something about trade goods. I've been harping on this imbalance since 1.01 and I find it amusing that the first assumption by the developers is that the players were cheating. LOL

It's very simple. If the trade goods are that valuable, then the AI should rush after them. If they are not that valuable, then the AI should not offer so much in trade for them.

Is this going to be addressed in 1.04?
Reply #82 Top
Speaking of HONEST; LOL

For the people that see major problems and expose them at the risk of being UNPOPULAR I must thank you all very much for help making a BETTER game. :CONGRAT:

THANK YOU. :)
Reply #83 Top
alexti's point number two is almost impossible to put in effect because at least in my case and i assume nearly everyone else, if i get a new tech i trade it to every other race that turn with the intention of not allowing the other races to benefit by trading MY tech. So, to have the comps percieve the value of the tech based on how many other races have it (without major changes to the game would only update at the end of every turn) it would be pointless because everyone would trade off the tech they get to everyone the turn that they get it.

sorry for the grammar

~SDC~
Reply #85 Top
The only question left is whether given their value on the open market in 1.04, they should be less expensive to produce, given how easy they are to trade for.

My bet is that from now on the Metaverse top players will consistently gain the trade good bonus without researching the trade good and the cost will have to be adjusted (add more value to the good in trades - capped at 2 regular techs or 1 weapon tech *or* decrease the bonus and make it cheaper to produce).
Reply #86 Top
Yes, there does seem to be a logical imbalance between
the cost of building tradegoods and their value in trade.

Wonders make sense this way, because of the value of
the bonus. The tradegoods have the same bonus but
its way easier to let the AI build the tradegoods
and then just trade for it.

This problem isnt nearly as exploitable as it was
the other way around, but it doesnt make sense.