How do you do that, Dragonlord?

[capnq]

quote:

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How do you people decide if it's time for war? What has to happen that you choose to attack someone?

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In my first PBW game, I maintained peaceful relations until I ran out of colonizable worlds in my claimed space. That game had Allied Scores turned on, so I knew that my two neighbors were in 1st and 3rd to my 4th. I decided to expel 3rd from a system that I had colonized first, and seize the two worlds he'd colonized.

In my second PBW game, I joined a partner's war against an AI that happened to claim most of the systems that still had colonizable planets available. In that case, I just poked at the AI until it declared war. Since then, I haven't been the one to declare war first, so I haven't had to make the decision.

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Cap'n Q

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the
human mind to correlate all of its contents. We live on a placid
island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was
not meant that we should go far. -- HP Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthulhu"

[Dragonlord]

When to go to war? Depends on the victory conditions. If those call for galactic domination then all alliances are temporary, though they may Last for over 5 years. Usually when I run out of room to expand I pick a target which is close by and a threat to my frontier, and start provoking them. However I must do this in-char (roleplaying) so it isn't always easy, unless you play a xenophobic berzerker race
What sometimes works against humans is demand they give you stuff or reduce their fleets or such until they get fed up an break their treaty Or, make friends with an enemy of your target and find a reason to help that enemey against your target, e.g. if you are merchants you could say you were bribed with promises of tech and colonisation rights...
etc etc, be creative :-)

[Gorgo]

Oh, I messed up something: It's Heretic who's leading in War and Diplomacy, Shujo is 8th.

Has stellar manipulation tech ever played a crucial role in one of your PBW-games, in a way that it was decisive for victory or defeat? In SE3, you could build a star destroyer or a ship with an open warp component in a really short time, now it's taking forever. Do you guys really use this tech area on PBW, or do you concentrate on building stuff that can fight?

Gorgo

[Puke]

stuff that can fight. i only build that stuff in huge games against the AI where i want to wipe out their systems and dont have time to deal with all the planets.

on the other hand, in high tech games on PBW, i could see the warp point components coming into play a great deal, maybe even star destroyers if the game was running long. basically tho, star destroyers would only be worthwhile if planets were too well defended to crack with less than 50 or so ships. I would guess that any low-cost technology game that ran over 200 turns would see alot of SM.

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"...the green, sticky spawn of the stars"
(with apologies to H.P.L.)

[Puke]

stuff that can fight. i only build that stuff in huge games against the AI where i want to wipe out their systems and dont have time to deal with all the planets.

on the other hand, in high tech games on PBW, i could see the warp point components coming into play a great deal, maybe even star destroyers if the game was running long. basically tho, star destroyers would only be worthwhile if planets were too well defended to crack with less than 50 or so ships. I would guess that any low-cost technology game that ran over 200 turns would see alot of SM.

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"...the green, sticky spawn of the stars"
(with apologies to H.P.L.)

[Shoujo]

I'm 8th in Diplowar because I surrendered for personal reasons

Well Dragonlord and I appear to be doing mostly the same things. I must thank you for starting this thread cause now I know what his secret is

Anyway, here's what I tend to do in games...
1) Get increased mineral extraction because you can never have too many minerals in a game
2) Get increased ship construction to crank out ships faster
3) Get advanced storage because more facilities = more resources
4) Never let surplus resources go to waste. Some people build storage facilities. I tend to build/retrofit ships, and then build storage only if I can't spend my surplus.
5) Units are a waste. Fighters are point defense fodder. Satelites are just for cloak detection. Don't bother with mines unless there's AI in the game, or you want an invisible scout between you and the enemy. When a human player attacks, he usually brings a couple of sweepers with him.
6) Trade colonization tech as early on as possible. If you delay, somebody else is gonna get the tech.
7) If there's AI grab their colonization tech then declare war as soon as you're ready. They're only taking up space on planets you could be using. Not to mention your very existence is usually good enough reason for them to declare war. No need to let such scum live
8) (optional) Get organic tech - This tech lets you crank out ships at a cheap cost FAST. Dreadnoughts in 3 turns without emergency build or SY III is possible. Since most people use PPBs, Organic armor gives you quite an edge.

I don't declare war unless one empire is building too many ships or colonizing too many planets. Other people are most likely worried about it as well, so there won't be any shortage of allies.

Stellar manipulation - I haven't been in a game that Lasted long enough for this to be of any use. It's usually Last on my list of research priorities. Monoliths take too long to build, other techs are too expensive to research.

[Gorgo]

You surrendered in Diplowar? Your empire is not marked as dead yet, so this comes as a surprise!

That part about trading colonization tech raises some questions: How do you get humans to trade that, as it immediately produces competition in colonizing the same planet types? I would think twice to trade this tech, unless the other player is at the other end of the galaxy.

What about weapon platforms? I used to think they're good for their range and power (and zero maintenance), and as you can't do the missile dance in PBW, they should be much better than any bases which tend to orbit on the wrong side of the planet when attacked. Or do you rely mainly on ships for planetary defense?