Re: Building New Planets
 

the other thing i have noticed is that people will select 5000 racial points and then not edit the AI to take advantage of those points too. If you decide to play with extra points, make sure you hand add your enemy and give them bonusses which will help them out like advanced storage tech etc.

Re: Building New Planets
 

I only use 2000 racial points, however, I twiddle the points a bunch and have a huge research bonus along with 20% cargo & 25% production.

I will apply the new patch and start a new game under more difficult settings and see http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif I am easing my way up while I figure out efficient ways to do things....

Spyder, Chairman of the Arachnid Consortium

Re: Building New Planets
 

Triumvir - as much as I play w/this game I can't believe I never realized this - are you sure that if you select 5000 pt setup and let the computer randomly pick its starting races, the extra 3000 pts will not be used?

bummer - but would explain some things I suppose.

------------------
Character is best defined as that which you do when you believe nobody is watching.

Re: Building New Planets
 

Spyder,

You are probably not going to get much of an argument to your position. The fact is that in a "conquer the galaxy as fast as you can" type of game there are probably more efficient uses of your researce and production points. The ammount of work involved to build a ring world or sphereworld is pretty staggering.

But that isn't really the point. There are a lot of things about this game that are really cool that aren't necessary to wipe all the ai of the face of the map. The variety is what makes it so interesting for someone like me.

I can defeat all the ai without researching past CSMII and destroyer, but that would be a pretty boring game if that was all we had.

Against the ai ringworlds are not really necessary. I do think in a large galaxy against several evenly-matched human opponents, the game could stretch out long enough where they became usufull, or even neccessary to have.

Geo

Re: Building New Planets
 

Spyder,

I think you will have a lot more fun playing if you jump immediately to high difficulty with medium bonus. But you absolutely have to restrict yourself from using SM ships to open/close wormholes. Unless the 1.27 AI is smarter in its use of SM ships, you have won the game as soon as you close off all your wormholes. I personally have never seen the AI use SM ships; so, I try not to use them myself even on high bonus.

Re: Building New Planets
 

Geo....you probably are right. However, I tend to be an aggressive & competitive person....thats how I play games. Thats why my wife and her children won't play Risk/Civilization/Cards with me any more http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon9.gif

But, that's what I look for in a game. The logistical (not Military) challenge of taking over the galaxy. I approach all of these games as a logistical puzzle, and, at every move I ask what is the most efficient way to accomplish this.

Of all the games I have played, in all but one I used very same strategy at the difficult levels which I had developed at the easy level. MOO II was the only one that made me change my strategey significantly at the hardest level (had to go strongly to defense significantly early in the game, negating any chance for heavy research).

Raynor...I figure that you are correct, however, one of the very first games I started, one of the AI critters actually opened wormholes into a couple of my systems...soooo, I don't know how much use they make of Wormhole maniuplators, but they DO use them (its actually what gave me the idea http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif ). I'd like to see the AI improved to make use of those tools...the wormhole manipulators & planets-out-of-asteroids planet builders. it would definitely make them more challenging.

Spyder, Chairman of the Arachnid Consortium

Re: Building New Planets
 

Start a game with minimal bonus and after the game starts take control of the AI and check his stats.
next start a game with 5000 points and do the same, there is no difference.

I have it quite a bit, when i start a pbem invariably i have to restart because someone forgot to assign points in their emp, that is why i started checking the ai in the first place,....

once you assign points to him in a fair manner he gets quit a boost,... increases in research/mining and simple techs like advanced storage techs seem to work best.

Re: Building New Planets
 

Aw, man! Spyder, I was just starting to like you. But then you go and say you saw Bigfoot, err, SM wielding AI's. http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif

Seriously, a couple of other folks have seen the AI open wormholes too.

I WANT to believe!

Next time it happens, please post a savegame. PLEASE!!!

Just think of me as the equivalent of Fox Mulder searching for SM AI's instead of
UFO's. http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif

Puke, you be a figment of my imagination too. http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif

[This message has been edited by raynor (edited 27 February 2001).]

Re: Building New Planets
 

the AI will definitly open wormholes in 1.19, but they have to think that they are cut off from part of the galaxy. start a max-tech no-wormhole game, and they will open up all over the place.

ALSO: I have seen the AI use star destroyers. I was once moving a fleet of DNs through an AI system. another AI who was at war with the first AI came in and turned the star into a blackhole, wasting my innocent DNs who were just on military parade.