Purge

[quote]I was the one having troubles on a tiny, suicidal map. No shame in that. I find tiny maps with max opponents to be the most challenging game myself. One mistake and the AI can blitz you, out tech you, or worst of all - decide to gang up on you and take you out in just a few turns. Problems with "escorting" troop ships hurt the AI less because their transports are only in space for about a turn with everything cramped together. Maybe some people find this setup as easier than

The other reason for using very fast tech is that scores are not normalized for the affects this has on your empire (the research score effectively is normalized, since I think you are just getting points for RPs spent) so it can be a huge boost pointwise. This is especially true because you can earn many more points in the first three years of the game than you can the rest of the years. I was the one having troubles on a tiny, suicidal map. I'm used to 900 planets, not ~15 with 9 AI

At least into late 1.7 revisions. I'm pretty sure they haven't changed it over the last couple revs that I haven't seen.

^ | | Did somebody mention squirrels?

Mumblefratz posted this over in the metaverse questions sticky thread a while ago. I'm pretty sure it's what you are looking for: SumOfDepreciatedScores / NumberOfGames^0.4 It's SumOfDepreciatedScores divided by the NumberOfGames to the 0.4 power (that's slightly less than the square root of NumberOfGames). Also each games score depreciates at 5% a month down to a minimum of 65% of their original value. This results in your getting 'credit' for a decreasing percentage

[quote] Is it just me or is that really annoying minimap glare gone!!? Very nice. Really wish i had the money to pre-order. [/quote] Oh. You are right! The minimap shadow is gone! I hated that! Kudos to it disappearing!

I would add one more. On larger maps, the AI doesn't build anywhere near enough transports in the first place. Once you take out the first wave, all you will see is one here and there. Also, I've seen them put 200+ attack on a transport, which is completely wasteful...You can't build many transports when they are that expensive. I have, occasionally, seen the AI build 12+ move transports though. Those do have a chance of hitting one of my worlds.

Frankly, having the date slip a couple of days is no biggie. I'm sure there is plenty to work on!

Best of luck to you! Marrying a fellow geek (if from the artistic side) was the best thing I ever did.

[quote] i'm not sure it constitutes a full-blown discussion, perhaps a quip. i don't think i'd want to see a full-blown discussion on Torian reproduction and sexuality... not until i'm ready to join a monestary, anyway. The torians should get an economic bounus for dirty magazines like Playtorian. Perhaps even an influence bonus for all of those xenophiliacs out there. Now that I think about it, the torians are a dark and disturbing

Thank you Cari, for your clear explanation. Long hours and lack of sleep can take their toll on the best of us, and I hope you all take an afternoon out every now and then for a siesta. I know, at one point, I sent you what I'm sure was an annoying number of "It still doesn't work" e-mails over the minimap pop up game crashes. You responded quickly and without annoyance through them all. I appreciate that.

Well, if you destroy all their ships on the first shot, they never get to fire. So, it's not useless, but yeah, I wouldn't rate it real high either...

On the first round, yes. Not sure on subsequent rounds.

[quote] And by the way, what was the average amount of stars in a gigantic/abundant galaxy before the cap? Like 500? I don't play abundant, I like having vast distances of space [/quote] I can't tell you how many stars, but the habitable planet count usually came in at 910 to 920 planets.

Your interpretation of mutual destruction is correct. I [I]think[/I] you misunderstand the Super Warrior ability though. It just means that your first salvo goes home before the enemy can fire on the first round, it's not really an extra salvo, but an early salvo. They still get to fire on the first round, but only after the damage done by the Super Warrior's first salvo is calculated.

I found a very fast research, a very narrow tech focus and early war, to balance out the tech situation, works pretty well for me on Larger and above maps....

My home world is usually mostly factories or all factories, plus, eventually one farm. Sometimes I trade in a couple of economic factories instead of all factories, depending on how my economy is running. [quote] Artificial slave center doesn't provide an empire wide bonus AFAIK, it's planet specific. [/quote] It is an empire wide bonus. It just doesn't show up directly in any of the stats. Even better, it's a multiplicative bonus, n

There has never been any definitive answer posted anywhere. But here are a few things that are relevant. 1) Scores are calculated over time and not at the end of the game. Think of it as an area under the curve effect. 2) The early years are "worth more". AKA the same ship gets you more points in year one than in year two. 3) The three of the four components are obvious in their sources (economic, military, and research). The fourth (society) appears to be just population

[quote] They just releasead 1.8a with more planets supposedly. Checking it out now... You gotta love em even if they do worry you now and again LOL [/quote] They just wanted to see you sweat!

[quote] Since your A Diplomat, you'll find most the answers your looking for at our forums at the core . [/quote] Absolutely. After reading through the back threads over there when I joined, I found enough stuff to double up my scoring the next game. We have since added to the collection of scoring tips significantly. It's re

[quote] You can always PM me here and i will go and sort it out [/quote] Thanks Drengin!

[quote] I actually can't do this....I've just been sending people to Technican for this as he is on pretty much everyday. Yes, neither can I directly. In my case I simply put in a request in the moderators forum. But you and I are probably the most recognizable names for folks to contact regarding access to the Diplomat

[quote]Then you can send a PM to Purge or myself (or any of the admin's) to get yourself access to our private forums. [/quote] I actually can't do this....I've just been sending people to Technican for this as he is on pretty much everyday. I suspect that we, collectively, have done as much or more analysis in our private forums on maximizing points as anyone else as well.

Good to see you around!

[quote] That shouldn't happen with the latest beta, as I changed the way that games were saved so that it saves to a temp file first, then moves the AutoSave to the PreviousAutoSave. Good to hear you guys are working on this. I've learned to deal with it since it's something farily predictable and has been a problem since day 1. I can get an out-of-memory error when saving after just a few hours during a heavy invasion. However,