I have played on Obscene quite easily with Tech Trading disabled. This is how I do it.
Build a custom Civ. (prebuilt civs are very tough to play with on higher difficulties)
15 points spread 1creativity, 4economics, 8speed, 2soldering
explanation- creativity for free techs, speed is VVVImp for faster trade money and soldering for going to war as quick as possible.
change your ethics to GOOD bcoz AI always priortizes weapons over defenses and good ethic will give you defensive techs
and less maintainence.
Civs to choose from (order difficulty is from 1 means easy to play to 4 means never choose them)
1. Yor
2. Drath
3. Arcean, Altarian
5. Rest (never play with them)
Super Abilities- Super Hive- No other ability comes close to usefulness of this ability.
Map settings Medium map and tech speed normal ,anomalies very less with max opponents + minor races
EARLY GAME- Build custom ship colony ship with only colony module and Nothing else. It will cost 1000 bc. Upgrade space miner to standard colony ship. So 3000 bc will lead to 4 ships(3+spaceminer). Economy slider 0mil,95social,5res.
Always remember creativity will only work when atleast 1 research point is done. Build collective/factories ONE AT A TIME.
Superhive will make 1-2 turn factories. Also when you build any social project with no ship building in starport or 0mil slider you will in fact gain money when you finish social project.
Tech--> Trade. Build only 2-3 factories in all planets and starport and immediately start building freighters even before Labs,Morale,Trade centers. Also 8 trade routes 4 for 1 civ , 4 for another civ pref both good civs.
MID GAME- AI will start buiding military by turn 30-40. So tech space weapons build ships now only to keep level with AI. Dont overbuild them. See what AI (particularly Drengin, Korath) are building by clicking on planet(not espionage).
Tech--> Planetary Invasion, Planetary Bombardment, Starship defences and appropriate defences, and any weapon to level 1 or 2 ie Stinger 1 is sufficient dont waste time to Stinger 4. Also tech basic and enhanced logistics.
Start Invading nearby civs. If choice always attack Drengin, Korath, Thalan, etc
END GAME- Money is key and so tech pop growth and money techs. Always leave slider of research to 2-3 out of 100( for creativity) and research logistics techs. Without logistics winning is impossible. Treaties should never be signed. Only use for bribing a stupid civ(less diplomatic) to wage war to another eg. Bribe Drengin with research treaty to attack Korath etc.
Not to Research--> Weapons tech( steal from AI when you conquer their planet), Farm techs, Diplomacy techs(diplomacy is useless since Tech trading is disallowed)
Key Notes --> 1) Never Build Constructors until you conquered half the galaxy. Starbases are useless (even Mining Starbases are useless) since protecting it is a gigantic pain in the neck.
2) Dont waste time in teching too much. Remeber if you think you are teching even the AI is and much better than you. Keep conquering planets one after another.
3) Why certain choices?
Good is for defence techs and 50 less maintainence and when you keep conquering an event will occur where most people will attack you saying (terran- on our planet earth a nation germany kept conquering while others just stood by.we wont allow that to happen etc) Good will allow you to bypass that for some reason ie. even if you keep conquering people WONT attack you.
Super Hive- Factories without it take 3-4 turns and will delay your planet production by a lot. Also when you conquer planets you have to build from scratch. This ability really shines here especially with YOR. 1 turn Factory, no need to build banks and you have a really good game.
Other Strategies
1) Drath- There is a problem that if you are drath No one will war bcoz AI is programmed that it will think twice before making you profit. Choose this and game really becomes easy. really easy.
2) Arcean- Church of valour will give you insane soldering. Also they can get really fast speed of all their ships due to navigation centers.
3) Altarin- Creative Good is so ridiculous that even though Early Game is average at best Late Game is ridiculous. You basically get free techs(especially expensive ones) much faster.
