Tiger8

I play the highest level. The game is not that easy. I win about half the time. On Gigantic galaxies it would probably be lower, but the game crashes too much and the turns take too long, so I play on medium galaxies. That said, there are any number of really stupid things that the AI does. First, is that they only design ships once a year. Second, is their building queues for planets, no factories, poor use of bonus tiles. Third, is building too many colony ships early (plus th

Scout out their planets with the flagship and then see what ships start showing up. This is the cheapest and easiest method, though there is a lag, because the ships don't show up until well after their techs have been researched. Another way is to go to the tech trading screen and see what they have. Espionage is not necessary just to see what they have.

It is kinda worthless in single player. The +1 speed is still amusing to use on certain designs and I have built the shipyard. However, I find it more useful than Hyperion Life Support for extended range--which I never build. Much easier to build a few constructors for refueling bases. Hyperion Logistics and the Shrinker are very useful. In multiplayer, I believe the shipyard would get a lot of use. Being one faster than an opponent of equal intelligence is a big edge, even if t

Two best uses I have found: Early in the game, get Laser II and Impulse tech. This fits on a tiny hull without any Miniaturation tech! A cheap ship with 1 atk, 4 moves. This also helps bulk up military strength, because the computer just counts ships in version 1.1. This tiny ship counts the same as a large ship when the rating is calculated. This ships are still useful into the midgame to stop blind transport rushes or use as pickets or to round out fleets to use up logistic points.<b

One entertainment building for each farm, is the rule of thumb. Only build the farms as needed, because they do nothing until that time. Fill the rest with a few factories and economy buildings. Stock market is a LOT better than banks, so if you get banks, keep going to stock markets. The most effective ways to increase the money flow are to increase population, trade with freighters, get a better government (Republic on up), and raise morale via tech, buildings, and wonders so t

Press turn after moving all your ships, setting up your planet production, shipyard production, research choice, taxation level, production level. This will take you to the next turn, where any new techs, new buildings, and newly built ships will appear. Repeat. The early phase of the game is for exploration, colonizing and building up planets. The middle part depends on your play style. For some it means war, for some it means trading and trying to gain influence and allies.

Research at 50% (100% spending level) will get a player the first propulsion tech on turn one. With that a player can design a four-move colony ship. Planetary improvements gives +10 all bonus and is a high priority and is only three or four turns at 50% research. Another tech gives +10 to military production, another to social, another to economy. All of these techs early will help a lot more than a few more early buildings so keep research high until all these early bonus techs are gotten

A player can add support modules to extend range, research life support techs, or build constructors to set up refueling starbases. Sometimes the map is tough. Four planets isn't bad on a medium map, if you are playing on large or gigantic, it may be a tough game.

Play the Altarians. You get a class-3 planet, Wisp to start. Have fun with that one. It can be starport plus factory, a research planet, or a place to grow pop, media center, plus farm.

I'm in the opposite camp. Defense of 1 early is huge on a level playing field when attack ships have one or two weapons. Defense of 15 when your opponent has attack of 5 is also huge, however any player that gets there probably could get to a more impressive advantage on the offense side. Again, player vs. player would make it all so clear. Right now defenses are cool for those who wish to pursue them. However, they are not an efficient way to win the game. A player focusing almo

Yeah, that huge hull with 90 def, 30 atk won the game. Another player could have won 20 turns earlier with 20 atk, 5 def ships in fleets, or even 20 atk, 1 def ships. Just retreat or replace the damaged ships and a player will rarely lose any of them if they keep attacking. I'm not sure what the bias is on the design team against defenses, with the high costs, the inane devices such as Orbital Fleet manager, and the like, seem contrived to me, to make defending a lot more difficult

Yes, defensive systems are too expensive for their benefit. The combat system that depends on a die roll means even a super defense ship might get hit often enough to die. Near invincibible ships are real cool, however, they cost a ton of production to produce. I'm not sure what the fix is. Lowering the production costs a flat 20% might be a start. Do too much and the balance would swing the other way. Defense is very useful early, because a defense of 1 will make your ships a lo

Xinthian Hull plating the trade good adds 15%, if it 115 with a base of 100 that sounds right. Certain advanced techs add some too, I think only for new ships built after the tech is researched. Veteran status obtained by winning battles also adds. This last bit can add a lot. Use fleets to go after freighters or weak star bases and watch the hitpoints pile up.

Must be a design decision. Sure makes the game easier. It might be less fun for some players though, when the computer swoops down and crushes them. With the 1.1 advantage to attackers it makes a huge difference. Maybe 1.2 will balance it out a bit more.

A lot depends on map size, difficulty and racial traits. On most levels, a player can research some techs to help with morale, sell some techs to raise cash and run most of the game with relatively high approval (though not 100%). Sometimes it is useful to lower production during the mid game to let the population expand for a few turns. Especially true if a player has a lot of low pop planets due to fast colonization or conquest. Use transports or colony ships to shuttle colonists around so

Keep production at 100% and run a large deficit. each turn That's what the bulk of the 5000 initial bank will go for. Run the deficit for 10 to 30 turns depending on map size, and that player will have double the pop of a player with normal taxes during the same period. At that point, crank up the taxes, and have about double the economic b

Here are a couple more, have one or more AIs make a priority of resources over habitable planets. Again, perhaps have them build a set number of colony ships depending on map size and then go all out on constructors to find all available resources, without first seeing them. The minor races do this on occasion. Again, don't always have a certain race or two do this, but maybe in 66% of their games. Figure out which races would naturally prefer each of these preferences and then add

I posted some simple, easy to implement suggestions that might make the AI much more interesting. Have a bit more unpredictability in the AI. They can be attached to certain races to make it more predictable for the human, and still enrich the human experience. Examples: have some AIs go for a military rush strategy right out of the gate. Be bold and don't worry if the enemy seems to have double their military. Superior ships will take out superior numbers, especially early, espec

Research propulsion first. The first tech allows a 4-move colony ship, impulse drives a 6-move colony ship, impulse II, an 8-move ship. Rush factories on the homeworld. Three factories and a player can crank out a colony ship every 3 to 4 turns. After propulsion is done, research planetary improvements to get +10 all bonus. Then sensors to start building survey ships. Scout ships are not worth it, unless they can colonize or survey. A player can build maybe one scout and then up

A player can design buy a 4-move colony ship by waiting a turn and maxing out propulsion research. These 4-move ships also let a player move on to other research besides propulsion. Planetary Improvements gives a +10 all bonus. If a player plans to do a military rush, basic military ships are good to build and upgrade when slightly better weapons come on line. This is usually faster than waiting for the tech to start building the ships. That production will be needed for transport

I'd say the AI is about the same as other 4x games. Perhaps a tad better, but not much. Unpredictability would add a lot. Sometimes have a race do a military rush right out of the gate, after building a set number of colony ships depending on map size (0 for tiny, 1 for small, 2 for med, 4 to 6 for large, maybe 8 to 10 on gigantic). Sometimes have them keep their transports with their massed fleets. Sometimes have them separate. Sometimes have them build fast armed ships, sometimes with on

A good use for extra colony ships is to upgrade to constructors. Move them where they need to go and then upgrade to the cheapest constructor (no engines just the module) for about 200 bc. A player can also upgrade them to freighters, though off hand, I don't know what that costs, probably about the same. Do unload the people first, because more people means more money. Planets with less than 1 billion do not get the full pop growth so look to unload them there. A fast c

With 1.1 a player is usually much better off with more weapons and minimal defense. With 1.2 and simultaneous combat, defense will be more important. That said, defensive ships cost a small fortune to build. Another thing to keep in mind is that it is often better to choose a bigger hull (more hitpoints) and use lower tech defenses and get a ship that is close to the same production cost as a higher tech smaller ship. The defense rating will be lower, but the difference in hitpoi

I'm in the same boat. Just when the game is getting good on a gigantic map, it is crashing every few turns. Sigh. I don't know what to do. It crashes at unpredictable times, the last couple when moving a single ship. The worst is immediately after loading a saved game! I don't want to abandon the game, but it is hard to see finishing it with it crashing all the time. Each turn can take a long time and the saves have no guarantee of loading.

Oh, and also hold the mouse over the approval number on the planet detail screen. It will give a breakdown. If population crowding is part of the equation, build transports to take some people off.