Please Help a n00b

[CareyB]

Hey guys, I've been playing SEIV for about a week now, and its starting to get really frustrating. It's almost to a point were I just don't want to play anymore.

Here's my problem, I've tried a good few strats, the tutorial strategy start, a couple of my own things, and on my current game I did the old build a ton of colonisers and grab half the quadrant.

All have failed. Now, that wouldn't be a problem, but my Last game I poured about 30 hours into 2 days of playing before I was wiped out, that bummed me hard. The situation was I was at war with one race, fair enough, I was at a partnership with another, and found a nice system to colonise over the other side of the map, so I sent a ship on its merry way, next thing you know this race declares war on me... I was thinking "Why?!" and because the majority of my ships were on the other side of my borders I was at a loss to bring them back in time.
"Ok" I thought, I just won't go through another race's territory.

The current game I'm on involving the massive colonisation was going really well up until Last night, when, out of nowhere, all 3 races declared war on me at once for being "Too big".

What the hell is that about? I was already at war with another race and was at a partnership with another one, military alliance with the 3rd. Next thing I know I'm fighting a war on all fronts and getting me *** handed to me.

That's a fecked up bit of diplomacy there, the other races were supposed to fear my hugeness, not decide to go on their merry way and attack me for no reason.

So... I've read the FAQ's, and still at a loss as to what to do, I know things like ship building will get better in time (I'm still losing to smaller ships 1v1 no matter how I kit them out).

Please give me some real newbie tips, this game is what I have been looking for in a VERY VERY long time, after I stopped playing Civ 3, this seems so much better, apart from diplomacy.

Cheers guys

[Unknown_Enemy]

Welcome to SE4.

You really need to read the "Frequently Asked Questions for Newbies", it was created by skilled people exactly for these situations.

http://www.shrapnelgames.com/cgi-bin...;f=23;t=009760

As for your ships, one 1 on 1, you may loose or not, depending on the situation. You gave very few details, so I can't tell.

However, read that faq, it explains quite a few things about how work the game.

Once you'll have mastered the game, and beating the AI will become boring, go to PBW to fight some of us.

[se5a]

simple solution?
play againsed humans

http://seiv.pbw.cc

[narf poit chez BOOM]

once you reach a certain size, 250% bigger than an ai empire, i think, it always declare's war on you. check settings.txt in the data folder under 'mega evil empire'.

[Asmala]

From Newbie FAQ:

13.1 Mega Evil Empire (MEE)
13.1.1 Settings.txt governs if & how MEE is used. Basically, if used, this system tries to limit an empire from running away quickly and winning the game. If a player is declared MEE, all AI’s will declare war on that player. A human or an AI can be the MEE. It does this by comparing the #1 player’s score with an absolute value and to the #2 player’s score. With default values, a human player becomes MEE when his score is 500k and is 170% of the next highest player. It is a little more forgiving on AI’s since they won’t be MEE until their score is 250% of the #2 player. New players are sometimes unaware of this and can’t understand why a game is going great and then suddenly the whole galaxy appears to turn on him. This is why.

Briefly, the AI sucks in SE4. As you have noticed it can declare a war without a reason.

The key to win is expansion. Expand as much as possible and research mines for early defence. Then research components required for your basic ship, light cruiser. A light cruiser equipped with four large mounted phased polaron beams, one or two point defence cannons, ECM, combat sensors and some armor are effective. Also remember to train your ships! Do not attack without 20% ship and 20% fleet experience and enough mine sweepers.

[CareyB]

Thanks for the help guys, in regard to me not giving many details on 1v1 battles, here it is:

I nearly always loose. My Cruiser would 90% of the time loose to a light cruiser, no matter what the hell I equip it with, I've run tons of simulated tests and I usually win those, but in the crunch, I loose.

BTW, in the simulator I usually try to fight 1 v 2 or 1 v 3 to know that if I can take out at least one ship, I should be able to win against most odds.

I will try Asmala's ship loadout, and haven't trained my ships at all so I will definately do that.

I haven't used mines either but keep hearing it mentioned. The reason for this is I want to expand as much as possible, and laying mines could restrict that, also it would be a waste of resources.
Would a good idea to get to a certain point, not too far out from my home system and just keep those border for a good while?

[CareyB]

Oh, and I copied the entire FAQ into note pad and saved it the other day for reference.

I won't be starting again tonight because I have to get up early tomorrow to go out for a couple of days and if I start a new game I won't get to bed 'til 5am again, not good for Christams morning...

[Slynky]

Originally posted by se5a:
simple solution?
play againsed humans

http://seiv.pbw.cc

I would advise people to get tired of beating the standard AI before letting them get stomped by humans. It's bad enough without having to endure simulatneous play, too.

I would advise the same thing I did in MOO and MOO2: Play the easy levels, then move up as you learn more. Pretty soon, you'll learn the basic tricks and strategies.

THEN come in and play some humans . I thought I was pretty good till I did that. I even played a lot of email games but only with one person. I still remember the first KOTH game I played against the Primitive Hoards ! Talk about a stomping! But I've come a long way since then.

Good luck! It's one of the best strategy games made...don't give up on it.

[Fyron]

Your mines will never hurt your ships. They only interfere with enemy ships (allies do not get hit by minefields). So, deploying mines is not going to restrict your expansion at all. Even just 1 or 2 turns of mines launched over each planet as the first thing they build will help a lot. A few transports loaded with mine layers can ferry mines out to the borders and launch them. They are certainly not a waste of resources.

What bonus are you giving to the AI? If you have them at a bonus, try giving them no bonus.

[Atrocities]

Welcome to the forum CareyB,

We all have been in your position as we learned to play the game.

Have you been using mounts? On ships of 400 KT and larger you gain access to weapons mounts that dramtically improve the range or power of your weapons. (Design window upper right hand side MOUNTS)

Lean that Phased Poloron Beams are your best friends. Physics 2, then start researching Phased weapons. The AI really does not defend against them earily on.

Point defense weapons. These shoot down incoming missles, fighters, and satellites.

Specialize your ships, have one class use nothing but PPB, and PDC. (Phased Poloron Beams, Point Defense Cannons) Then another uses Torpedos max, and say Depleted Urainum Cannons as an example.

Research Military Science and then Advanced Military Science to gain access to both Ship and Fleet training facilities. Then build them and fleet your ships at those worlds and their experiece points will grow. This will give you a tactical advantage against the AI.

Always deploy mines and Weapon Platforms to your planets. The AI will avoid attacking them for a good while. Deploy the mines first, then build WP. The reason for this is mines take up cargo space on a planet, and once you deploy them, your cargo storage is back to zero thus leaving you room to build weapon platforms (WP's)

Mining your Warp Points is useful as well, but the AI, most AI that is, will research Mines early on and will plow through your mine fields with little problems.

There is a strategy article or thread floating about the forum, and I think there is a link to it in both the Frequently asked Questions sticky and the Important info sticky.