A funny thing...
 

Okay all this is in my very first game of SEIV...it is now almost 80 years in game and my empire has actually not expanded that far..reasons being.

Okay by turn 20 the EEE had over 200 ships and over 100 planets!!! WTF!!!?!?!?? The Gamilons had 80 planets and 120 ships!!!!
Okay now currently my empire has over 100 colonized planets with buttloads of mineral and radioactive miners yet I can barely support my 40 ship star fleet!!

So what I ended up doing is cutting my empire off from the other two and have since been launching devestating raids against them blowing up entire worlds with several raids, and in four cases I even destroyed entire star systems with billions upon billions of people and I even took out 57 EEE warships!!! (20 in combat and 37 when I destroyed the system) yet they don't seem too effected.

I have been more cruel and devestating to the evil Gamilon empire whom I have destroyed several 16+ ship fleets in battle and even a 28 ship fleet when a system of theirs went nova! Yet I am still in 3rd place and still have a small fleet!

So my question is WHAT IS GOING ON WITH THIS!? How did the EEE have so many ships so fast much less planets!? Sure they had a lot less tech then me at the time but still it confuses me?
The Gamilons were agressive colonizers and war fighters so it doesn't come as a suprise to me that they had conquered one or two of the neutral empires and taken over their space which is what allowed them to make such great leaps in their territory and production abilities.

I am a natural merchant so I don't even need space ports so shouldn't I be getting a lot more resources then them since i can devote entire worlds JUST to mines?

Re: A funny thing...
 

i dunno. maybe your playing TDM. i don't know how well they do with production, but i normally beat the ai in that.

Re: A funny thing...
 

I could easily see 100 planets by turn 50, with a human in control, but turn 20 for an AI???????? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/confused.gif I've never seen/heard of an expansion like that, even from TDM or other good AI. What game settings did you have--#/quality of HWs, starting resources, AI bonus/difficulty, all AI vs. player, etc.?

Re: A funny thing...
 

1 Home planet quality good
2 Major AI players 4 neutrals
AI setting high
Starting resources medium
Large Cluster for map.

Well there yah go...that's how it's set yet the AI's didn't even meet me until turn number 15 the EEE allied right away and I found out they were really getting up there in the number of ships and planets they had. Then it I met the Gamilon who declared war right away and tried to destroy several of my colonies...luckily they failed because my ships were superior.

Re: A funny thing...
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">How many systems do they control? Moons count as colonized planets.

And plus, just because they have 200 ships, it doesn't mean they're all fighting ships; I usually have about 100 ships by turn 30; and Colony ships and Transports make up almost 2/3rds of my empire's fleet.

Also, did you give the AI any bonuses? A high bonus would explain the fast expansion.

[ December 31, 2003, 03:57: Message edited by: TerranC ]

Re: A funny thing...
 

Nope they had normal AI no bonuses or anything like that.
The funniest thing about this all is that I have destroyed almost 70 EEE warships by now with my warfleet or because of the 37 ships that died in the nova bLast yet they are still in first place and I am still in Last place :-).

I have 50 warships (mainly concentrated into one fleet with a warp point opener) 2 nova ships in mothballs 1 ship that can create 2 worlds and destroy 1 (I have it in my warfleet), and 2 warp ships that I used to send my fleet into enemy territory.
I also have 2 troop transports with my fleet, 1 mine layer and another population transport.

There is another interesting fact, the enemy still has cruisers floating about with it's dreadnoughts but they apparently have scrapped all of their battlecruisers and battleships because I havn't seen even one of these ships in EEE service.

Re: A funny thing...
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Turns or Years ? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: A funny thing...
 

Are you playing with a mod?

Re: A funny thing...
 

AI bonus High does multiply the number of resources the AI players get.

PvK

Re: A funny thing...
 

I beleive I meant turn 150 which is about year 15 or 20 I can't remember how many turns in a year ATM...hmm.

Either way updated report, I destroyed over 78 Gamilon warships with a nova bomb in one of their main staging areas.
I have also engaged over two battles 100 Gamilon warships and destroyed all of them, in total that is 170+ warships that have fallen to my navy and nova's. I have launched an offensive with the bulk of my fleet into Gamilon space and taken over one of their worlds, there is currently a 45 ship enemy fleet and a few lone straggelers in this system and that is after I destroyed a 48 ship battlefleet and two 13 ship task forces in the very same system.

Intel reports say that the Gamilon have 90 ships massed in the Lundra system...this means that the known ammount of Gamilon ships to around 150 to 160 ships.
That is amazing considering I have in one way or another destroyed around 50 of their planets and three entire star systems that belonged to them were destroyed via nova bombing.

HOW can they muster the resources to keep such a large fleet when they are still at war with the EEE empire yet I have only 75 ships with over 100 planets under my control and I only bring in about +8000 minerals per turn?!!!!

Edit: Note most of my worlds have mineral mines or monoliths in large numbers PLUS other resourcing operations. I also have the most updated resourcing systems. Shouldn't I be getting far more resources per turn?

[ January 01, 2004, 22:03: Message edited by: Starhawk ]

Re: A funny thing...
 

Do the Gamillon have maintenance aptitude?

High AI bonus multiplies resource, research, and intel production.

PvK

Re: A funny thing...
 

It is not unexpected to be able to support 300 to 400 ships by that point (or even more), on a larger map. Especially with a really cheap 10% reduction in base maintenance rate (15% instead of 25%, for 500 points).

The AI can support a lot more ships because low/med/high bonus means it gets 200/300/500 percent of the resources that their planets produce.

[ January 01, 2004, 23:27: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]

Re: A funny thing...
 

I gave it NO bonuses at all.

Re: A funny thing...
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Then things sounds a bit strange. If you email me the game file I can take a look at it.
I'm pretty sure it's nothing major http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: A funny thing...
 

The problem is that you cut your empire off and did not expand enough. So, you are much smaller than you should be by turn 150-200.

Re: A funny thing...
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">You should have played as the Gamilon. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: A funny thing...
 

LOL I guess I should have..

But to update that I have now destroyed well over 100 Gamilon warships while losing only 24 of my own...

Another funny thing is that they are not counter attacking, I have invaded and taken over entire worlds and they have not attacked me once, in fact they have thus far NEVER started a fleet engagement I started them all.

Recently I gave up on my offensive against the Gamilons and have since taken over an entire EEE star system and have taken the steps in taking over two more, ever since I destroyed their 52 ships mustered in one system I have met mininimal resistance from them.

My empire is now expanding quite well, I have 100 warships throughout 2 fleets, and have launched a two pronged offensive into the EEE systems, the best part is my weaker 2nd fleet has two other enemy systems near it's current location that are practically ungaurded and should be easy to take and hold.

The Gamilons can wait for now but their day will come soon when an Icaran fleet will be coming into their systems and invading or destroying worlds with all the fury I can muster :-).

[ January 02, 2004, 21:35: Message edited by: Starhawk ]

Re: A funny thing...
 

Yes, the Ai does do some very odd things like not counter attacking.

A long time ago I was playing an FQM game and the AI would often start doing what I was doing within a few turns. IE I would land troops and take a planet, and then the AI would do the same to me a few turns later.

I don't know why the AI in SEIV is the way it is, but it is all that we have, and even though it can can be improved, I am still happy to have it. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: A funny thing...
 

Well I wonder if the reason they aren't counter attacking is often times they had their ships cloaked and maybe they were trying to lead me into a trap?

Update: I lost my 1st fleet flagship today the INSS Andromeda and 5,000 crewmen gave their lives for the glory of Icara (cry) :-(
Operation Broken hammer (assault on Gamilon space) has been abandoned at this time do to heavy losses for minimal gain.
Operation Urgent Wrath has begun on the EEE continum (sp?) in two systems spearheaded by the entire Icaran Navy with most of the Imperial Guard (army) deployed to take over worlds as they come, thus far enemy resistance has been minimal, ten enemy dreadnoughts were encountered sad to report the loss of the Base ship Aggressor and her 5,000 spacers. No enemy dreadnoughts escaped that engagement.
Three enemy carriers were caught in orbit around a world, they were destroyed and the world taken.
The 2nd fleet has completely taken over an entire EEE Star system.
1st fleet is encountering more resistance, one of the worlds they took was destroyed by a cloaked EEE dreadnought whcih it's self was later intercepted and destroyed.

I might just make a story out of this ;-).

Re: A funny thing...
 

One other possibility for your low number just occurred to me. Have you captured and made use of enemy populations? By getting the right breathers on the right planets you can really ramp up your economy. Turn a 5 facility domed, huge into a 25 facility breathable!

Re: A funny thing...
 

Mainly I've been using terraforming projects to solve that problem for myself so I don't much need the whole breather thing going.

But I've also captured entire enemy systems I've destroyed over 200 Gamilon warships and it never seemed to make a dent in their fleet sizes.

Re: A funny thing...
 

Do they have construction bonuses? (Hardy Industrialists, temporal race, construction aptitude bonus)

It does not take that many turns to rebuild lost forces. SY III and some construction bonuses can get high tech battleships built in 4-5 turns (depending on population) built at planets.