Re: SP late game boredom?
 

Space Empires IV. There's enough good automation that you can focus on what's fun and leave the AI to do the rest.

Re: SP late game boredom?
 

SE IV did get tedious if you were an extreme long-term maximizer (like building atmosphere converters on all domed worlds, converting to Monolith IIIs, ensuring per-planet and per-system computer facilities...) but yah, you could set it up so that the end game didn't have as much micro, like using finite resources (Anacreon-style... well, in Anacreon, it's even worse because you run out of trillum and that's used to both build and FUEL your ships) or tweak the tech tree.

Ex: mod away System Gravitational Shields and let the Stellar Manipulation technologies do their work.


As for late-game D3, if it's essentially won, I might merely hit 'enter' for a few turns (if it looks like dominion kill is going to happen), or I might ignore micromanagement and start running strange experiments (GoR'd mindless summons, insanely-equipped assassins, collecting all the elemental royalty, cloning enemy pretender types with Wish, basically playing around with items/magic I normally deem too risky, silly or expensive).

Re: SP late game boredom?
 

I think SEIV automation routines are the equivalent of playing sloppy in Dom3. They'll both get you the win if your blowing everyone away, but don't get you optimal results. I personally find SEIV more tedious at end game than dom3, mainly because the SEIV AI rolls over after the game hits a tipping point.

Re: SP late game boredom?
 

Yeah playing with VP is the answer. If you set the AI to a difficult setting and aggressive, play on a small/medium map and make each province worth one VP, game ends when someone has 50% of the provinces or so,... well then you have an actual goal to chase. The AI doesn't seem to take VP into account (as far as I can tell) but it certainly likes taking over provinces, so it does much the same thing as you. I'd also suggest roleplaying a bit,.. for example you might decide you're going to get full use out of every unit type available to you (even if they're a bit crappy) or try to use low level summons a bit more. It's not playing badly on purpose, it's just a matter of being varied rather than uber-efficient.

Re: SP late game boredom?
 

Thanks folks. Been playing either vp or dom win, and with higher lvl opponents. Its been a lot more interesting, unless I get an actual corner I'm usually in combat pretty quickly.

Is there anywhere in the manual where it goes over what the varying difficulty levels give to the AI? Will generally play a few hours on a faerun map, 10 players, 3 difficult, 1 mighty - seems like a big difference even with just 4 buffed AI. Been playing this game for quite awhile, MA Van for the first time - fun. Met 6/9 so far, 5 of which are at war with me http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

So, tougher opponents = more interesting, dom/vp conditions = attainable goals.

Re: SP late game boredom?
 

Yep. I've always preferred fighting something of a losing battle. You have to make the most of everything once that's the case.

Of course I never want the AI to be so stacked against me that I have to use exploits. That also sucks the fun out of the game because you lose all variety.