MMadsen

Make no mistake, a diplo/tech-whore strat is very strong at the moment in DA. As near as I can tell, it is the only strat that people have used to beat suicidal (max) difficulty although perhaps others just aren't posting about their success. I've personally done it twice although it wasn't easy either time. On the other hand, playing the diplo/tech-whore requires a lot of things to make it work (at least at suicidal). It is very map dependent. It also requires a lot of synergy from Bazaar,

Keith, I'm probably not as scientific about my corner start as your question suggests. Frankly I just want an unpopulated section of the galaxy that looks "doable." By this I mean something that I can realistically colonize before getting deluged by the AI. It usually involves grabbing everything on my side of the "void" between me and other majors. As discussed, I hate contested borders (I hate them because the AI hates them.) As I look back at savegames this is usually so

A few final thoughts regarding manipulating the other AIs into attacking the leaders. I suspect a lot of it had to do with the fact that everyone in the game was friendly or close to me for most of the game. Of note, this is nothing I actually labored over. Although I gave in to every demand for tribute, I never spontaneously offered tribute to anyone. While I can't be certain, I suspect that the following play a role: 1. Constant trading appears to cause your relations to go up gr

Thanks for the replies. In response to some of the questions I’m going to post a few general comments on how I played the diplo/trader whore in this game. Most of these ideas are of course not mine but are borrowed from strategies that work in the Civilization series. (This is pretty long again, sorry for that.) First of all, there are two ways to play the trader. The first is a “zero” tech strategy (you spend nothing on tech), the second is a “selective” tech strategy. I prefer th

Thanks for the replies. In response to some of the questions: First of all, on my computer Suicidal is the max difficulty with Obscene one step below. Perhaps one of us is running a bugged version? More detailed startup info for keith: Galaxy size: Gigantic Number of Planets: Occasional Habitable Planets: Common Stars: Common (and in clusters) Tech Rate: Slow Minors: Eight Resources and Asteroids: Abundant Race Config: I play humans wi

I’m halfway through my first suicidal game (max difficulty) on huge with max major and minors and am winning (I think.) Just so you know what you’re getting into here, I am a old school Civ and Galciv player. I know how to exploit cheese and I’m not afraid to do it. You will notice that I reload many times in this game. If this playstyle sounds like something that bothers you, don’t bother reading <br

Played a few games today. With the AI reset I don't seem to be having the problem. Considering that the only changes I made to the AI were giving them more cash, making them more agressive, and shuffling the starting abilities this suggests to me one of two things. Either the process of modding the AI somehow bugged it, or it's just random and I'm imagining an association.

Regarding increasing the difficulty so the AI won't give me such outrageous trades for the colonization techs: I typically play at crippling or higher. My ability to generate such huge amounts of cash allows me to run an overheated economy indefinitely without regard to the tax slider. It's unbalanced. I'm sure increasing the difficulty slider to the range of "godlike" would reduce the trade value, but it doesn't change the fact that it will still be an overpowered strat for the othe

Yeah, clear then save restores the default. I thought I'd tried that but it definitely works. I'll start a game later tonight or tomorrow and see if the AI colonizes now. At last check the only thing I'd altered was making some more aggressive and giving them more money, so I don't think it was the settings themselves.

By the way, one thing you may want to consider changing is that there doesn't seem to be an easy way to restore the default settings to each civ. I've been tweaking the AI settings seeing if I can get them to colonize again. I even uninstalled and reinstalled DA, but the changes I made to the AI civs persisted, and the AI still won't colonize.

I've had the same problem enough times that I've stopped playing DA until the next patch. I also play max number civs at painful. I didn't have the problem until I tried altering the personalities a bit (made Yor more aggressive, etc.) Multiple restarts later I keep getting the same thing. The AI intelligences are set for Gifted or higher so I don't think that's the problem.

First of all, I've long been a fan of your work. I've owned each of your galciv games buying them on or near the day of release. As a long time strategy fan I appreciate what you do. I've played two DA games. Not as many as some I'm sure, but enough to collect a few impressions for anyone interested: 1. Mega Events (ie. Jagged Blade) -- This event has been commented on in other posts, but I'd like to add a few words. First of all, I am a big proponent of anything that adds

Possibly a dumb question, but I don't clearly see a map editor. Is there one? If so , where do I find it?