Because there is no real competition at the Metaverse anymore I'm going to make some of my personal scoreing strategies available to anyone who's interested to find out to what extreme levels a MV player can take the unmodded game. 

This one, which I coined the name 'Military Starbase Field' (because the starbases are so clumped together they rather resemble a field...) is most likely the strongest way to increase your military score that exists in the game. It's presented here for the first time, previously it's been hosted into a private/protected section of the Kzinti Empire-forums (now defunctional...)

The 249 Military Starbase Field

It is actually possible to create a much better ship-enhancing SB array than the commonly known 16 or 24 MSBAs - IF one is able to sccop up this UP vote (which annually is elected every 22nd December):

Please note that there are actually two similar UP votes - however, one is permanent & the other only lasts for 3 years (which doesn't matter since 3 years is enough; plus it can be renewed anyway....).

Simply quicksave on 22nd December and reload until you get it... (yes cheesy but who cares )

At the time I realized the gigantic implications this vote can have on military score I immediately started a game in order to test out if you can get the thing working under MV-legal laws:

In this game I've been able to ally with all Stock & Minor races, errect MSBs & gift them to my allies, always careful to double back and build new bases; rinse & repeat.

However, I've only added a single +1 Beam support module to each - but as you can see from the displayed tooltip, it works. The Fighter has a +2 attack Beam-weapon mounted and receives a total of +249 attack from the bases.

The maximum amount of support a single base can give a ship in DL/DA is +54att +9def needing 28 constructors.

The maximum amount of starbases that can be placed together in a field which in turn will all support ships/fleets in their midst is 249 - more is not possible (because there is no way to increase the zone-of-influence starbases do have...)

Therefore, in order to completely max out a Military Starbase Field you need 6972 constructors & 15 Allies.

Every ship parking at its middle sweet spot will then receive a bonus of +13446 attack & +2241 defense = total +15687!       

This is so immensely much that it's nearly irrelevant if the ships sitting under the MSBF have lots of weapons/defense, are Tiny Hulls, Cargo Hull-based or Huge Dreadnoughts.

Ofc the greater or stronger a hull is, the better it is generally for your military rating - but there is a huge *BUT* for the practical implications of a successfull metaverse game trying to build such a MSBF:

While you are building these bases you need to stay in positive balance - because the game doesn't allow to construct new bases while being in debt. And Tiny Hulls are simply much more cheaper to get than Huge Hulls - esp. because you want your planets to release 1 hull every turn!

Secondly, you'll need to realize that all these constructors used up to build the field in the first place could have been Fighters actually sitting in the sweet spot netting you military score instead. And that it is highly unlikely to get basically all enemies to the point where they're going to ally with you - and esp. not soon.

Therefore it might be a more feasable option to build substandard fields, just concentrating on a few potential allies (most likely the one of same ethical alignment, trade & treaty partners...) such as this one:

here, I'm allied to 3 AIs (Drengin, Human & Torian) while my own 16 bases are also amidst the field. The +1+1 Fighter still receives an obscene amount of additional firepower, and a player can just cut it at that point and simply turn to produce the ships which are then placed in the mid of this MSBF. Early military score = higher military score.

So if you want to play a "Multi-Million-Pointer-Game" this is actually your very best shot to successful achieve it.

Also note that the game itself imposes an artificial limit of 3.500.000 for any score. You cannot score more per each game.

Notes on Alliances:

(I just browsed the forums regarding Alliances and realized there is alot of mis-information given out).

Here are the basics:

- In the Foreign Policy screen the relation a potential ally shows you has to be "close".

- Both sides also need the tech "Alliances"; most likely you'll have to trade it to the AI.

- Once both points are positively affirmed there will be an "Alliance" dialogue option shown in the diplomatic screen above the treaties/peace/attack-declarations.

- If the AI doesn't accept this barter you'll need to throw in some other goodies, such as techs/money etc

- MV games cannot start with relations higher than "friendly"

- there is an artificial hardcoded limitation in place to prevent that you can actually & easily achieve a "close"-relationship during the first ~104 turns of a game. I assume this has been coded in order to prevent that you simply win any game by just buttering the AI up (handing out freely techs/money/IPs...) in order to secure an early 100% guaranteed Diplomatic Victory. At the time when the AIs are tradeing out their treaties (esp. Econ Treaty) somewhere in March/April of the 3rd gameyear, it becomes very easy to shift your relations from "friendly" to "close" by just gifting techs. But only if there are no other negative aggravating factors present such as

• "-- they don't trust us" or
• "- your historic animosity";

both you can get when you declare war on them (or too often). Because of this I actually find it more helpful to not swindle* them in these game. Instead, I simply get their planet via techtrade (except the last remaining 3; 2 of those I culture-flip), always 1 or 2 per turn. Allowing the AIs to still have their own planets can generate a steady flow of cash and also ensure they constantly colonize new planets (onto which they then can enqueue precious farmable buildings, such as the 'Hyperion Shrinker')

- There are actually 2 ways to circumvent the 104-turns-alliance limitation... as of now, I do not understand the underlying mechanics well enough to make a definite true statement. But I did observe it a few times that my relation (when gifting several thousand bcs...) to the DarkYor went straight from "warm" to "close" even early as March in the first game year!

It may have to do with the fact that the boost started at "warm". Perhaps the limitation only acts as a hardcap when the relation is at "friendly". Another possibility could be that there is a small chance that it can simply jump to "close" if something beneficial happens to the AI - and that this chance gets significantly improved by the game once ~104 turns have passed (on that it should be noted that positive diplomatic factors such as

• "+tradeing",
• "+our historic friendship",
• "++our treaties together" or
• "+our ethical alignment"

may act as constant beneficial factors which may (or may not) also trigger this jump (or they may only trigger it past 104 turns...). This is actually highly speculative now on my part and I definitely need more testing here... or someone who can decompile & take a look at the source code 

- The other way to get to close is pretty stable but is based on what the AI does.... well yeah, that's enough for now as far as hints are concerned    

[*] swindleing means putting some powerful warships under the SCC, declaring war in order to sue for peace by taking the AI planets.