New to the game and Overwhelmed. Any hints? - Page 2

cswiger · #11 May 26th, 2002, 12:46 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by TerranC:
You CANNOT upgrade units. You CANNOT scrap units.
What you can do is jettison them.

Well, that's enough nitpicking.

That's alright-- and it's entirely possible that the Sagella are about to kick my butt with their temporal ships, too. :-)

If you do have a small planet and wish to upgrade it's defenses, as you say, you can't upgrade the WP's so you have to replace them.

Anyway, my point was that you shouldn't build a bunch of the same type of WP on a planet, because you can only jettison them all at once in v1.67. Creating lots of different Versions (even different names with the same components, ie, swp1a & swp1b) lets you work around that.

-Chuck

PS: It looks like some people are using RCS for Version management. CVS...?

Dogberry · #12 May 26th, 2002, 03:17 AM

Leo ... I'm an old MOO & MOM gamer myself, & I have just started w/ this game. The AI is a lot less fearsome than it seems at first glance. The most dangerous point for you is early in the game. An Orbital Ship yard in the first 5-10 turns is a must, & to be truthful, I have found WPs a waste of time. Your big advantages should be numbers, & then choke points if you are hard pressed. Get the numbers..load your initial ships to the gills w/ weapons, don't bother with larger mounts, & when you have a battle... go "tactical" & break up your fleet. The AI will go for your big ship or a wounded one & you can use this to benefit your play.

I haven't given the AI any bonuses yet, as I am not sure what this means.. you might want to avoid this also. Usually it doesn't mean that the AI plays better, but it just comes at you with more of everything.

On your home planet, after your have your minerals built up in your "natural" storage, go ahead & scrap a mineral miner & replace it with research. In fact, prioritise research over about everything else.. when building facilities. Aside from getting the frigate class of ship, & bigger, badder DUCs & missiles, your research priorities are your own.

If a race is not threatening & does not share your initial atmosphere or planet type.. go ahead & make peace. If they are not soreheads, they go for trade & better on treaties.. pretty easily. You can always soften them up by gifting them a 1000kt of Organics or even Radioactives.

Don't forget to build a resupply depot in every system that is likely to see heavy traffic, & build a space port, right after it... as you receive NO benefits from that system.. in resources, research & Intel.. until a port is built in that system.

Once you get past the early part & establish yourself..it's a piece of cake.

take care... Dog

P.S. you can scrap fighters & sats if you have them in orbit around a planet with a shipyard.

[ May 26, 2002, 03:07: Message edited by: Dogberry ]

capnq · #13 May 26th, 2002, 11:11 PM

Quote:

I haven't given the AI any bonuses yet, as I am not sure what this means

Low AI bonus = 2x production
Medium AI bonus = 3x
High AI bonus = 5x

The net effect is that the AI builds more ships with better tech.

High AI difficulty = AI uses all ministers
Medium AI difficulty = turns off some ministers
Low AI difficulty = turns off more ministers.

Master Belisarius · #14 May 27th, 2002, 02:46 AM

Quote:

Low AI bonus = 2x production
Medium AI bonus = 3x
High AI bonus = 5x

The net effect is that the AI builds more ships with better tech.

High AI difficulty = AI uses all ministers
Medium AI difficulty = turns off some ministers
Low AI difficulty = turns off more ministers.

Also, from the times when I was testing the random race generator, remember that the random race generator doesn't use all the available racial points, if you don't pick High AI difficulty.

[ May 27, 2002, 01:49: Message edited by: Master Belisarius ]

Dogberry · #15 May 27th, 2002, 05:26 AM

If the AI doesn't use the Ministers.. then what does it use ? I assume the production bonuses are across the board.. resources, research.. intel .. everything . This might explain why the AI demolishes the capacity of a planet so quickly in Finite Resource Games. My guess is that this production multiplier wiould be of marginal use in certain respects unless the productivity of each planet.. orbital yard .. etc. was also increased, as the bonus points, especially minerals.. would be "lost in space" .

If this is true... the "natural" storage capacity of the AI ought to be doubled or tripled, from that of the human player.

Dog

capnq · #16 May 27th, 2002, 09:53 PM

Quote:

My guess is that this production multiplier wiould be of marginal use in certain respects unless the productivity of each planet.. orbital yard .. etc. was also increased, as the bonus points, especially minerals.. would be "lost in space" .

If this is true... the "natural" storage capacity of the AI ought to be doubled or tripled, from that of the human player.

Actually, I think it's more common for an AI to stall on production because it can't pay any more maintenance. The bonuses make it take longer before this occurs.

I don't actually know which ministers are turned off; I'm just repeating what I've seen posted here. My first guess would be things like the Population minister, so on the lowest difficulty, the AI wouldn't shuffle population around, for example.

Dogberry · #17 May 28th, 2002, 09:21 AM

Capnq.. this is what I have observed. Many of the AI's "mining" planets & its Homeworld are at 0 minerals .. while it's observable fleet consists of a half dozen light & regular cruisers, a couple of pop transports & a orbital yard or 2. I easily keep a fleet 4 or 5 times the overall weight of the AI & none of my main mining planets are zeroed out.

It might well be that the Finite Resources Game is sort of an AI killer itself.

Dog

oleg · #18 May 28th, 2002, 02:57 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Dogberry:
It might well be that the Finite Resources Game is sort of an AI killer itself.

Dog

Yes, AI can not play Finite resources at all.
The main problem is that there is only one set of AI files which is used in all possible game setups. Since SE IV AI is tuned to "normal" resource game, it follows the same route even when you play "finite" and swiftly runs out of resources. No AI should ever be used in any finite resources game, IMHO.

Dogberry · #19 May 30th, 2002, 10:06 AM

Oleg..Took your advice & that of others here & started a new game w/ regular resources & moderate AI bonus & the difference is striking. You are really under the gun if you know that eventually your opponents will be coming at you with twice the weight & what's worse, twice the tech, if you sit still for too long.

Think that I will scale back to low ( x2 ) bonus though. X3 just shoves your game a long to the point, where your choices are limited & you are forced to be real agressive.

Really looking forward to the TDM mod, when I get to it.

Dog

[ May 30, 2002, 09:08: Message edited by: Dogberry ]

Perrin · #20 May 30th, 2002, 07:45 PM

Here is a mid to late game hint. Especially useful before going to war. Start building ships in your ship yards. When they are only one turn from completion click the queue on hold button. This will stop the yard from using recourses but you will be one turn away from a finished ship if you need it. Great for replacing battle losses.