Noobie Question(s)

[Arkcon]

Originally posted by dbt1949:
Another question for you all. What kind of victory conditions do you use? Right now I'm just trying to destroy everbody with this uber fleet. But I'm always missing some colony ship somewhere and by the time I make my rounds of the galaxy the bad guys(some anyway) have built back up their strength.

I guess I should take it a little slower and send colonies of my own into the abondoned systems,but I was just trying to take a shortcut.....and it didn't work!

I created an old galaxy if I remember right and every other region is a black hole or radiation or rogue planets or something. Don't think I'll try that again!

Last man standing can be a little annoying at the very end. Just colonize and defend the best planets per system. The AI won't come back strong from a nothing position. That said, you won't win until every Last planet, ship, and satelite group is destroyed. Ususally I take over those guys, just to find where they are. Scanner sats in each empty system will help you. If you've won you have ships and resources to burn.

Originally posted by dbt1949:

I created an old galaxy if I remember right and every other region is a black hole or radiation or rogue planets or something. Don't think I'll try that again!

This galaxy type is full of eye candy, but the AI is not as good at playing these quadrants. It doesn't know how to pace it's supply to cross empty space.

[dbt1949]

More question for you experts out there.
How do you handle spying,either yours or theirs? I build tons of intelligence centers and still their spys keep getting thru. Also,how can I spy?(wan't that a TV series? )

[Arkcon]

Originally posted by dbt1949:
More question for you experts out there.
How do you handle spying,either yours or theirs? I build tons of intelligence centers and still their spys keep getting thru. Also,how can I spy?(wan't that a TV series? )

dbt1949, you don't know how happy I am to see your question. You've discovered the most important part of intelligence, the part most people who hate intel haven't figured out, building lots of facilities.

In fact I have a tear in my eye -- our little NEWBIE: has gone and grown up and become an EXPERT: (click links)

Okay, yes, you have to build lots of intel facilities. But you also have to select intel projects. Click the alien head on the commad bar to get the diplomacy window. There is a button for intelligence. Select them like you select research projects.

[ January 11, 2003, 17:18: Message edited by: Arkcon ]

[Suicide Junkie]

Of the few times I got it to work, the result was poor since each time troops drop, a separate ground combat session is generated. Either I win after the first ship drops its troops or I lose with the first ship, the militia regenerates and I lose with the 2nd ship too. I have read about using troops in the first wave with only shields followed by the combat troops, but I have not been able to coordinate this with more than 1 troop ship.

This is an artifact of there being 10 ground combat rounds per turn. With so much shooting going on, it is usually over extremely quickly.

In my mod I set the # of ground combat rounds to One. That means your troops are almost guaranteed to survive for a while, and allows reinforcements to arrive from both races. When invading a large world, it can take a year or more, which I find much more realistic.

[dbt1949]

Thanks!

[ January 11, 2003, 17:30: Message edited by: dbt1949 ]

[couslee]

Originally posted by mottlee:

quote:

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Originally posted by dbt1949:
Not a question this time,just a comment. Here it is 3:30AM and I've been playing SE4 for 8 hours straight. Well,almost.I've had 3 bathroom breaks.

Come on just 1 more turn!

"Honey Come to Bed"

Just 1 more turn

Dang 4 AM

1 more

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5am, one more

5:15am. gotta potty, whoa! what was that?

6:45 am......whats that smell? DAMN! JOMT really was just one too many. (steals one of grannies Depends and returns for just one more turn.)

[Quikngruvn]

A couple of other settings to tweak on your 'Capture Planet' strategy:
--Select 'Damage targets until all weapons are gone' under the Damage tab. The theory is that your ships will stop shooting when all the planet's defenses are gone. It usually works for me.
--Under that same tab, set 'Damage Percent per Planet' to something smallish, like between 20 and 50. You don't want to set it too low, in case the planet is heavily defended, so you will keep pounding the planet's defenses while it still has 'em.

Quikngruvn