Tale of a Game - from a play test perspective

[God Emperor]

Have been working on a Borg variant since Saturday and decided to put it through a serious play test.
Set up a large galaxy, high difficulty, low bonus and decided to use the most developed (and vicious AI's that have been developed in mod pack). The computer players were;
Borg, Colonials, Darloks, Klingons, Narn, Norak, Piundon, Pyrochette, Rage, Romulans, Sergetti, Shadows, Toron and Xi Chung. The computer added the Abbidon Enclave and the Terran Confederation. With my race (the Light Alliance), there were 17 races all up.

[God Emperor]

Turn 14;

I'm exploring and expanding steadily. Most systems I have found have planets with low minerals. Looks like I'm in for a tough game.

Player position Ratings;
1st Borg 6 planets, 5 ships
2nd Me 7 planets, 7 ships
3rd Romulans 3 planets, 5 ships
4th Sergetti 3 planets, 7 ships
5th Xi Chung 2 planets, 6 ships
6th Shadows 5 planets, 7 ships

Diplomacy
Me No contact so far
Borg At war with Norak
Romulans No contact so far
Sergetti No contact so far
Xi Chung No contact so far
Shadows No contact so far

Comments
Shadows are in a part of the galaxy that has very poor planets. They have already triggered the auto mining colony due to the lack of mining colonies nearby and their rising maintenance bill.

[God Emperor]

Turn 30;
Still exploring and expanding steadily. Minerals have become an issue. Any planet with a value above 90 is now a mineral planet. Encountered the Terrans and ended up at war shortly afterwards. Am holding them out of a system with two "home" type worlds and three potential minig colonies.

Player position Ratings;
1st Borg 16 planets, 21 ships
2nd Romulans 13 planets, 17 ships
3rd Shadows 11 planets, 19 ships
4th Pyrochette 11 planets, 16 ships
5th Colonials 11 planets, 15 ships
6th Me 16 planets, 13 ships

Sergetti and Xi Chung have dropped to the back of the pack (see comments later).

Diplomacy
Me At war with Terrans
Borg At war with Norak, Shadows and Abbidon
Colonials At war with Pyrochette
Pyrochette At war with Colonials and Rage
Romulans Contact with Norak and Darloks
Shadows At war with Borg

Sergetti At war with Klingons
Xi Chung No contact so far


Comments
Colonials are also in a part of the galaxy that has very poor mineral planets. They have already triggered the auto mining colony due to the lack of mining colonies nearby and their rising maintenance bill.

Sergetti are also in a part of the galaxy that has very poor mineral planets. They have already triggered the auto mining colony due to the lack of mining colonies nearby and their rising maintenance bill. Klingon pressure is restricting expansion in one direction (map edge on another).

Shadows are still suffering from poor planets.

Xi Chung are surrounded by planets but are not colonising. Not sure why, except that they only have one colony ship - may be a problem with their Construction_Vehicle file.

[Nitram Draw]

What tech level did you start with?

[God Emperor]

Turn 39;
Still exploring but are now constrained in my expansion by the Terrans and the Rage.
Minerals are critical, reserves hover around 4000 minerals all the time now. Am gifting the Rage to keep them from attacking as my border system as it has five!! mining planets (all above 110). The system is strategically of major importance to me. Only have two shipyards within 4 systems of the system. Am sending every build its way, to the detriment of my Terran war.

Have defeated two Terran Lt Cruisers with two destroyers and a light cruiser (lost one destroyer dead and one heavily damaged). Am blockading the warp point between them and me.

Player position Ratings;
1st Romulans 21 planets, 33 ships
2nd Borg 25 planets, 24 ships
3rd Klingons 15 planets, 25 ships
4th Pyrochette 13 planets, 23 ships
5th Piundon 13 planets, 21 ships
6th Rage 11 planets, 22 ships
8th Me 20 planets, 16 ships

Shadows and Colonials have dropped back (to 9th and 10th - see comments later). Me too - due to my lack of resources to build ships.

Diplomacy
Me At war with Terrans. Contact with Rage
Romulans at war with Norak and Darloks
Borg At war with Norak, Shadows and Darloks
Klingons at war with Narn and Sergetti
Pyrochette At war with Colonials and Rage
Piundon at war with Narn
Rage at war with Pyrochette

Shadows At war with Borg
Colonials At war with Pyrochette

Comments
Colonials have found 3 new mineral planets and no longer have a minerals problem.
They are getting a lot of No Storage Messages however - suggesting that their Construction_Vehicles files needs to be checked - ditto for Darloks and Narn.

Shadows have found a couple of minerals planets but have run out of organics!! - being an Organic Tech race, this is a problem. Have just doctored their Planet_Types file to lower the trigger level for Organics planets - from 130 to 120....

Klingons are the big movers, leaping into third place from obscurity, despite being at war with the Narn and Sergetti.
They have a few good minerals and refining planets, plus a few poor mining planets. Have several research compounds, so they would be expected to start to do well.

Piundon are doing well too. Lots of nice planets but no research compounds. Will be interesting to see how they fare....

Rage are lacking in mining colonies so may run into trouble down the track, unless they find some soon.

Romulans have lots of nice planets and are doing very well - should continue to do so.

[God Emperor]

Nitram,
Started with destroyers and point defence available at game start.....