How do I make the game hard?

Puke · #1 March 23rd, 2001, 01:05 AM

quote:
Originally posted by suicide_junkie:
[b]Why? That would reduce the challenge. All you Pirates have to do is shoot the ship until it can be captured (no SDD, no Shields)

basically, because the self destruct device is a standard component on every AI ship above a certain weight class. and they are fairly low on the research priority list. therfore, it will be quite impossible to capture anything above a LC (i think) after about year 3, unless you play all your battles in tactical and get a lucky shot on the self destruct unit. Just my opinion though, if you like them, keep em in. not like its a hard tweak for each person to put to their own preference.

Dracus · #2 March 23rd, 2001, 01:07 AM

You can change the max number of systems they defend int the AI_Settings.txt
I changed all mine to 20 systems. They seem to build more ships to handle this.

Sabre21 · #3 March 23rd, 2001, 01:52 AM

Raynor

I about fell outta my chair when I saw one AI race with over 4000 ships and another with 1000+. With 20 players, or actually 18 since 2 were wiped out by the AI..poor EEE..hehe. Darth Vader bit the big one too...he just doesn't seem to win in any galaxy

I have a PII 450 128megs, and the turns take about 10 minutes, maybe a little more or less..I've never really timed them, but I have enough time to get a sandwich, hit the head, and let the dog out

Hopefully this will get faster when I upgrade next month.

Dracus...I should be able to get to that set on Saturday...maybe even get to sneak a few in tomorrow.

Sabre21

geoschmo · #4 March 23rd, 2001, 02:54 AM

Ten minute turns? Ugh!

Can I play a PBEM game against my own computer?

Geo

Will · #5 March 23rd, 2001, 05:04 AM

You know what I've actually noticed with the game? It always seemed to run faster BEFORE I upgraded, when I didn't even have the minimum requirements... I had a 80x586 133MHz with 16MB RAM (2MB was borrowed for video)... I recently figured out something about that... there's a conspiracy run by the computer and software companies. They force you to buy faster computers, because they give you a bunch of worthless programs that run all the time

I did the CTRL+ALT+DEL thing, and saw around 20 useless programs running... stuff that shipped with the hard drive, stuff that is very difficult to do a search and destroy mission on, and stuff that eats a LOT of processor power...

Just felt like ranting about how much faster my 133MHz 16MB RAM is than my new 550MHZ 128MB RAM in SEIV

Oh, something else I do in games, lots of AIs get weeded out: ClusterWars. In the setup, set Large Cluster galaxy with not all warp points connected. You will get 10-12 "clusters" of systems isolated from each other. The AI will grow as big as it can in their own cluster, then open warp points to the others. I just stay in my own for a while and let a few AIs gain dominance, then I go out and kill 5-7 semi-powerful AIs instead of 15-20 weakling AIs.

Suicide Junkie · #6 March 23rd, 2001, 07:46 PM

quote:
it will be quite impossible to capture anything above a LC (i think) after about year 3, unless you play all your battles in tactical and get a lucky shot on the self destruct unit

Yes, the battles do get harder, and many of your potential captures will be burning hulks of wreckage by the time they lose the self-destruct. That dosen't matter if you're just scrapping the ships for funds, and you can then retrofit only the somewhat intact hulls.

The challenge of the pirates is in always going up against superior forces, with no funding. You have to nip the solo ships to gather strength, and use all of your human advantages (tactical combat, mines, general sneakyness), just to survive

If you can manage to form a trade alliance, you'll be much better off, but scraping by on remote mining & half-trade, is the norm.

In my game, I get 3000 minerals (all from the Eee in trade), and am at war with the crylonites & Jreanar. I've only got two resupply bases hidden is outlying systems, and one colony ship from the cyslonites forming a base in their territory. I've only got 15 ships (50% escorts), and I've seen the Eee with 15 LCs in one fleet

I researched mines right after that!
That one colony ship that I captured was the first one I attacked. The next 5 couldn't be captured until they were down to a single engine, or were otherwise useless