Played a very good game.... questions though..

Iron Giant · #1 July 10th, 2002, 05:54 PM

Played with 2000 racial points, medium map, highest AI bonuses, maximum AI races.

Me: Ice, Methane. Bloodthirsty pluses to research, pop growth, +1 movement.

Saved the game right at the start:

Game 1 - Well I figured, I'm bloodthristy so I'll role play it! Declared war on the first 2 races I met (humans and the orange guys (name? forgot doh!)). Game Lasted 25 minutes, they ganged up on me and wiped me out.

Game 2 - Ok, so I'm bloodthirsty, but not stupid.... This time I looked around a bit: 3 systems off mine. One leads to Orange race, 1 leads to dead end, 1 leads to multiplanet system which leads to Terrans. I park a FF over the Orange race homeworld stopping their expansion. I trade Ice colony for Gas colony with them, Ice Colony for Rock Colony with Terra.

Big mistake.

They expanded like mad, I was stuck in my 2 systems. I had all the planets populated in 2 entire systems. I also had trade and research treatys with both of them.

Then, they decided that they didnt like me anymore.

Question #1 - why do they simply decide that they don't like you anymore? It appears that the AI doens't like races it perceives as weak and decides to attack them?

They both declared war for no apparent reason. I'll spare the gory details but I spent 3 hours mining my 2 warp points, putting up defence satellites, sending fighters to defend. No ships, coulnd't afford them. They both lost around 30 - 40 capital ships just getting into my system, and I mined every planet when they did get in. However, it was inevitable, they wiped me out...

Question #2 - There were times I lost 100 mines to the Terrans with NO message?? Just all of a sudden a fleet appears in system on a warp point where I KNOW there were 100 mines.

Question #3 - What is up with Terran Drones? Whoever thought that drones were useless forgot to tell the Terrans. Fleets of drones and drone carrying ships wiped out my smaller planets, right past mines as if they were'nt there??

Games 3 through 5 - Tried different variations of the above, using different battle tactics, better timing of research, etc, all failed.

Game 6 - Same idea, but with the addition of 2 tactics I've used in the past: send out 2 long range scouts and make treatys with all available races. The funny part is, your people HATE this when you are bloodthirsty! After making trade and research treatys with everyone and then being able to defend my 2 little systems well, 2 things happened:

1. The Terrans and other race left me alone, apparently figuring I'm not such a pushover.

2. 1/3 of my planets rioted!!

I appeased my planets by not increasing my treatys with the races and by building the Pacification Centers.

I also traded Ice Colony for Rock colony with a race on the OTHER side of the Terrans, hoping they would go to war with them over territory, which appeared to work. Then, I traded Rock Colony for Gas colony with the Orange race (Abidons?), hoping to have the Terrans and them go to war, which also worked, while making it possible for me to populate all the planets in my 2 little, very well defended, systems.

Even though I lost the first few games, it was lots of fun to see:

"Minefield triggered - The Terrans have triggered a minefield, they have lost 11 ships to the mines"

Muahahahahahahahahahaha

Lemmy · #2 July 10th, 2002, 07:08 PM

orange race = Abbidon?

Quote:

Question #1 - why do they simply decide that they don't like you anymore? It appears that the AI doens't like races it perceives as weak and decides to attack them?

The AI dislikes anyone who is on planets they want, and the AI wants every planet in the neighbouring systems, even if they are occupied by an ally.

Quote:

Question #2 - There were times I lost 100 mines to the Terrans with NO message?? Just all of a sudden a fleet appears in system on a warp point where I KNOW there were 100 mines.

dunno, did you select to show all message in your log?

Quote:

Question #3 - What is up with Terran Drones? Whoever thought that drones were useless forgot to tell the Terrans. Fleets of drones and drone carrying ships wiped out my smaller planets, right past mines as if they were'nt there??

whoever said that, also forgot to said that to me too, cos i think they rock in the early game, one drone can take out one small ship, and it only takes one turn to build a drone

[ July 10, 2002, 18:09: Message edited by: Lemmy ]

capnq · #3 July 10th, 2002, 08:33 PM

Tips for playing a Bloodthirsty race:

1. Make treaties one at a time, and let your people calm down some before you make another.

2. Research Construction and Troops, and garrison your colonies as soon as possible.

3. Research Psychology and Applied Political Science for the Urban Pacification Centers (or Organic, Religious, or Temporal Technology, which all have happiness facilities).

The same goes for a Neutral race, except you should never accept a treaty you don't really need.

chewy027 · #4 July 10th, 2002, 08:35 PM

Were the minefields wiped out by minesweapers? or did the Terran ships have no minesweapers on their ships? If they did have minesweapers that could be the answer to your question.

sachmo · #5 July 10th, 2002, 09:28 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by capnq:
Tips for playing a Bloodthirsty race:

2. Research Construction and Troops, and garrison your colonies as soon as possible.

Will the troops you create fight in the defense of a planet? I thought I read somewhere that they were treated as cargo, and hence do not fight in ground combat?

Fyron · #6 July 10th, 2002, 09:33 PM

Yes, the troops on your planet will fight in it's defense if invaded.

Grandpa Kim · #7 July 11th, 2002, 02:15 AM

If minesweepers remove ALL the mines in a minefield, you will get no message. I agree, this seems odd, but that is what I have seen without exception. If even one ship receives minor damage, then you will get a message.

Kim

Zarix · #8 July 11th, 2002, 11:36 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Iron Giant:
Question #3 - What is up with Terran Drones? Whoever thought that drones were useless forgot to tell the Terrans. Fleets of drones and drone carrying ships wiped out my smaller planets, right past mines as if they were'nt there??

This is the mine bug. Early mines can't do enough damage to destroy drones because there isn't partial unit damage in SE4. Next patch should fix this. Before that mines are useless against drones if they don't have mine warhead III.

DirectorTsaarx · #9 July 11th, 2002, 05:40 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
Yes, the troops on your planet will fight in it's defense if invaded.

Just remember that ground-based troops can't help the space combat (SE3 allowed the larger troops to fire on spaceships; of course, SE3 didn't have weapon platforms, although it did allow facilities to be armed...).

DirectorTsaarx · #10 July 11th, 2002, 05:44 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Lemmy:

quote:
Question #1 - why do they simply decide that they don't like you anymore? It appears that the AI doens't like races it perceives as weak and decides to attack them?

The AI dislikes anyone who is on planets they want, and the AI wants every planet in the neighbouring systems, even if they are occupied by an ally.

In other words, the AI "claims" neighbouring systems, and gets angry about colonies (again, whether ally or enemy colonies) in "claimed" systems. Some AI's also get angry about ships in "claimed" systems, whether it's allied or enemy ships.