quote:
Originally posted by capnq:
I doubt that the MEE settings were ever intended to be "realistic". Their purpose seems to be for play balance. By the time you're dominating the game enough to be MEE, the individual AIs aren't going to be any challenge if you can pick your opponents. Having them all gang up on you at once should make for a more interesting endgame. (I say "should" because I can't recall a game where I've triggered MEE, so I haven't had to deal with the results.)
I think you are absolutely right. But IMO the purpose is not really achieved, because the AI still continue to fight each other after you reached the MEE status. And sometimes it is really pathetic that a small AI empire, that is completely inferioir and at your mercy, declares war on you and gets wiped out within two or three turns! So it would be better if the MEE status makes all AI empires to conclude partnership treaties between them (you would however have to change the happiness trait for the xenophobic races at the same time, otherwise they end up all in riots) and then declare war on you.
In my games I usually turn the MEE option off. I like galaxies with a chance for peaceful coexistence!
An other alternative, that I already mentioned in earlier threads and works quite well IMO, is that you switch all AI empires to human control when you think you have won the game and loose interest. Then you surrender all other AI empires to the one AI empire you think has the strongest racial technology and switch it back to computer control. Like that you suddenly face a completely united mega-AI empire!