[Alpha Kodiak]

Originally posted by Rexxx:

quote:

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Originally posted by Alpha Kodiak:
Has anyone been playing against the Rage outside of this test? If so, what are your impressions?

I often met them during my EEE test games (different quadrants, no up to medium bonus, high
diffculty, TDM-races).
If anyone survive the first onslaught of your Rage the fortunes of war change. I think the Rage "kill" themselves by fighting almost every race they meet. They are bleeding out literally....
Probably the price for making them so aggressive.

Is it possible that the Rage research mines relatively late? After the EEE had deployed their first minefields (they research mines very early), they can relax for several years, crippling the expansion of the Rage at least in their direction for this time.

The fleets of the Rage are deadly in early game, a lot of ships. But I never met many fleets. The EEE could glass lots of planets before running into one of them. When they met one, well, very bad luck and some new construction orders.

Later in the game lack of technology becomes an issue. Maybe it comes from this "bleeding out".

According to my experiences it is true when I say: the later I met the Rage the better. To be honest I used (and use) them to test my AIs in early game. If you survive the first and second year after making First Contact with the Primary Sequencer (in his usual mood) you know that your race is doing fine.

After two games against your new Version I would say these impressions are still valid.

I cannot say anything about the expansion issue GE mentioned. Don't work with rock/ice planet races.

Regards
R.

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Interesting observations. I was aware of, and accepted, the problem of falling behind by not having trade relations with other races, but that shouldn't have an effect in a one-on-one game. You may be right about not researching mines early enough. Also, in this game, there is a fair distance between the two opponents, which gives more time for the Rage's opponent to develop. Another map related issue may be the number of moons on the map. It seems like there are less than an average number, and the Rage flourish on maps with more moons. I think I do need to look at the number of fleets issue. I had messed around with those settings early in the developement of the Rage, and I may have made them build too few large fleets. I will have to investigate that. I also need to make sure that they maintain a good expansion rate.