Racial attributes in PBW games

trooper · #1 February 3rd, 2003, 11:44 AM

I've started two pbw games. And what I saw from other players is that their race attributes are "optimized" for PBW. I haven't thought of that when creating my race, so I think my "standard" attributes are going to be a serious handicap.

So, what I think about race attributes in PBW :

political savvy : totally useless, has to be set to the minimum.

Farming and refining aptitude : not critical ressources, must be low.

Repair aptitude : not many effects on the game, must be low.

Intelligence, cunning, combat skills, maintenance : have bo be set to the maximum.

I don't know if all players are used to optimizing their stats, but if it is true, all races must be quite similar in PBW games (except races using advanced traits ) ?

couslee · #2 February 3rd, 2003, 01:12 PM

Not too sure about lowering the repair ability. If you are having a lot of combat, having to support extra repair ships to make up the difference could cost you a lot a minerals in support.

In a SP I tried a lower repair setting and the end result was not good. don't lower something you have to use all the time. imo

trooper · #3 February 4th, 2003, 12:07 AM

hummm, it seems I've talked too fast. Nothing is so simple in SE IV, I should have known !

Ruatha · #4 February 4th, 2003, 02:03 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by trooper:
I've started two pbw games. And what I saw from other players is that their race attributes are "optimized" for PBW. I haven't thought of that when creating my race, so I think my "standard" attributes are going to be a serious handicap.

So, what I think about race attributes in PBW :

political savvy : totally useless, has to be set to the minimum.

Farming and refining aptitude : not critical ressources, must be low.

Repair aptitude : not many effects on the game, must be low.

Intelligence, cunning, combat skills, maintenance : have bo be set to the maximum.

I don't know if all players are used to optimizing their stats, but if it is true, all races must be quite similar in PBW games (except races using advanced traits ) ?

I'm playing in 20 player game, at turn 50, 2/3 of my research and resources comes from Trade and Resarch treaties. So a low political savvy would be suicide in that game.
(This is so even though I have 130+ developed planets!)

Preacherman · #5 February 4th, 2003, 02:15 AM

i don't totally agree with you trooper.

physical strenght: 50% high value is not really necessary to capture planets

intelligence: normally maxed to 120%

cunning: depends on your style

enviro. resistance, reproduction, happiness: cannot go without it but normally you do not need to invest more points

political savy: a total must if you play with many people, you get huge bonuses from trade. in the midgame quite strong

aggresive, defensive: not below 100% any points further depends on your play style (more is better, but not a must (in multigames with a low number of players it tends to get more impotant and can be bought at the expense of political savy)

mining: 120% most needed ressource

farming: 50% if you play a non-organic race otherwise higher

refining: 50%-70% i personally do not like going to 50 but there are other opinions

construction: 120% a must have

repair: i tend to go with 70% or so

maintenance: 110% is a good value, anything above costs very much points

and do not forget advanced storage and hardy industrialist

geoschmo · #6 February 4th, 2003, 02:41 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by trooper:
political savvy : totally useless, has to be set to the minimum.

Unless you are talking about a two player game I would have to strenously disagree with you here. T&R treaties with five other empires that are roughly the same size as yours effectivly doubles the economic output of yoru race. Dropping your savvy will put you in a serious hole against the other empires. However, in a small game where you aren't likely to make treaties, minimizing this is just fine.

Quote:

Farming and refining aptitude : not critical ressources, must be low.

"Must be low", not at all. "Can be low", most definetly. It depends on your style. For myself I prefer dedicating all my early game colonies to research almost exclusivly. I have tried dropping my organic and radioactive numbers down and I consistantly end up running short in those resources at inoportune times. However, it is entirely possible to drop them and make up the difference by building some resource facs on your early colonies instead. So it's a matter of what you like I guess.

Quote:

Repair aptitude : not many effects on the game, must be low.

You can usually offset lowering the repair apptitude by building repair bases. However this requires adjusting your research priorities to get repair. In a low tech start with one starting planet, this could be a problem. Again, it depends on the game and your style.

Quote:

Intelligence, cunning, combat skills, maintenance : have bo be set to the maximum.

COmbat skills are and maintenance are a big plus as is intelligence. However setting all these to there maximums is going to cost more than you are going to get back from decreasing your other characteristics. If by maximum you mean as high as you can afford, then yes. Many people don't raise their intelligence, prefering instead to just build more research faciliites. Of course if you've already decreased your resource production that may not be an option for you.

Cunning is not one I would recomend increasing, unless your plan is to be a race that depends heavily on aggresive intel projects. And if you are, prepare to be disaponted. It's a lot easier to defend then attack with intel. You can make up the difference between you and the other guys by just building more intel faciliites. Some people suggest that cunning can be safely minimized. That's probably true, but you'd have to build even more facilities then. A more reasonable tactic I think is to just leave that one to it's default setting.

Geoschmo

Grandpa Kim · #7 February 4th, 2003, 07:17 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by trooper:
hummm, it seems I've talked too fast. Nothing is so simple in SE IV, I should have known !

Welcome to the club, trooper.

I put my foot in it about every other post. LOL

One more point though. High happiness can be a godsend. Helps a lot to get your people out of the riot zone quickly during a lull in hostilities, allowing you to attack again before your opponent is ready.

Pax · #8 February 4th, 2003, 05:23 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by trooper:
Farming and refining aptitude : not critical ressources, must be low.

Farming becomes more critical for races with Organic Manipulation.

Refining becomes more key in some mods (particularly, I've found, in P&N 3.1b).

Quote:

Intelligence, cunning, combat skills, maintenance : have bo be set to the maximum.

50% Cunning is usually sufficient for a race that doesn't plan to go on the offense in terms of covert operations. Unless a 150%-Cunning race decides to go pure offense, neglecting their own defense, focusses solely on you, AND has more Intel facilities than you ... you'll be fine.

[ February 04, 2003, 15:55: Message edited by: Pax ]

Fyron · #9 February 5th, 2003, 02:32 AM

Mods do not alter the problems in the unmodded game.

Nodachi · #10 February 5th, 2003, 03:43 PM

Originally posted by some guy who claims he's Imperator Fyron

Quote:

Mods do not alter the problems in the unmodded game.

That depends on what you consider a problem.

If someone thinks that colonies develope too fast then they can play Proportions, or if someone doesn't like the easy resupply in the stock game they can play P&N.

Back to the topic

, in a multiplayer PBW game you'll encounter a plethora of strategies and just as many counter-strategies. IMO as long as you have fun and walk away having learned something new you'll improve as a player everytime.