Riots

Gozra · #1 September 23rd, 2002, 05:11 AM

OK I don't recall seeing this subject talked about too much in other threads.
I have Troops on every planet and and the Department of Mental Hygene on ever corner yet when I loose a few planets and take some battle losses virtually every planet starts rioting.
I know the best thing is not to loose ships and planets but an Empire should not crumble so readily. What am I doing wrong?

Gandalph · #2 September 23rd, 2002, 05:23 AM

What Happiness type did you select for your empire at game setup? Some happiness types (Bloodthirsty I think) get really pissed if you sustain any major casualties.

Ragnarok · #3 September 23rd, 2002, 05:55 AM

If you chose Peaceful from the start. They absolutly hate wars. If you fight you really bring them close to riots.

And as Gandalph mentioned. Bloodthirsty hates it when you lose fights. If you picked nutral or whatever the 3rd one is. Then they hate it when you even come into contact with another empire.

Gandalph · #4 September 23rd, 2002, 06:41 AM

IMHO, Peaceful is the easiest to work with. Even if you are in a war or two, as long as you are not losing battles or allowing enemy ships into your systems, the population will generally stay happy.

[ September 23, 2002, 05:42: Message edited by: Gandalph ]

Fyron · #5 September 23rd, 2002, 09:13 AM

The only time I have seen a peaceful race that has taken no precautions against riots start to lose happiness is after taking 100s of ship losses. Other than that, they stay jubiliant quite easily.

Mylon · #6 September 23rd, 2002, 03:44 PM

I can't quite understand the riots. That is, "Oh dear no! Enemy ships are bearing down on us and going to kill us! Let us go raid the planet's space yard and protest so it can't build the ships would otherwise protect us!"

I'm getting stomped in a game against the AI and it's annoying. Thankfully it looks like the AI found a bigger fish to fry for the moment...

capnq · #7 September 23rd, 2002, 05:46 PM

That's why even the most xenophobic stock AIs have Peaceful as their happiness type. I've seen a few custom AIs that use Bloodthirsty, but even a human player has a hard time managing Neutral.

Arkcon · #8 September 23rd, 2002, 05:49 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Mylon:
I can't quite understand the riots. That is, "Oh dear no! Enemy ships are bearing down on us and going to kill us! Let us go raid the planet's space yard and protest so it can't build the ships would otherwise protect us!"

Well the galactic population in SE4 is a little weird by contemporary human standards.

I remember when the first game I started to win vs the AI. Those crystaline, xenophobic, 5 year life span, gas giant born methane breathers were only too happy to live on a small methane rock, rip out the oxygen domes, and build extra intelligence facilities to help me kick over their old government.

I do that now all the time without thinking about it, but at that time, I was marveling at how this game worked. I thought I had discovered some grand mystery of the game, now I hear on PBW people trade population as soon as they meet for the mutual bonus.

Rioting is just there to penalize you for not defending your planets. The population is just a number to determine bonuses, not a group of people with opinions.

Which is something I probably wouldn't like. People griping 'cause I expanded too fast, or too slow. If I ignored some oxygen world 'cause I didn't think I was ready to defend it -- conspiracy theorists would spring up and wonder what the goverment's real agenda was, just who was I really working for, votes of non-confidance ending the game, or maybe they would build a colony ship and go there on their own?, etc.

[ September 23, 2002, 16:56: Message edited by: Arkcon ]

Wardad · #9 September 23rd, 2002, 09:16 PM

It pays to add some cultural and racial points to happiness. Avoiding riots in the middle of a war is essential.
The minor bonuses are nice and so is the extra reproduction. I also like not having troops everywhere, costing cargo space and build turns, and not having Pop facilities taking up space.
Bloodthirsty can be handled easily enough. Don't make too many treaties too quickly, and kick butt.

[ September 24, 2002, 00:25: Message edited by: Wardad ]

Grandpa Kim · #10 September 24th, 2002, 07:01 AM

The thing is, all the enhancements you can add act very slowly. Battle losses of any kind appear instantly. For instance, loss of any planet is a drop of 5%. So all you have to lose is 4 planets in a turn and your happiness goes down one level. Lose two systems and a fleet and you can go from Jubilant to Angry. Riots are just a turn away.

Kim