Mega Evil Empire - Triggered once or every turn?

[Q]

quote:

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Originally posted by capnq:
I doubt that the MEE settings were ever intended to be "realistic". Their purpose seems to be for play balance. By the time you're dominating the game enough to be MEE, the individual AIs aren't going to be any challenge if you can pick your opponents. Having them all gang up on you at once should make for a more interesting endgame. (I say "should" because I can't recall a game where I've triggered MEE, so I haven't had to deal with the results.)

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I think you are absolutely right. But IMO the purpose is not really achieved, because the AI still continue to fight each other after you reached the MEE status. And sometimes it is really pathetic that a small AI empire, that is completely inferioir and at your mercy, declares war on you and gets wiped out within two or three turns! So it would be better if the MEE status makes all AI empires to conclude partnership treaties between them (you would however have to change the happiness trait for the xenophobic races at the same time, otherwise they end up all in riots) and then declare war on you.
In my games I usually turn the MEE option off. I like galaxies with a chance for peaceful coexistence!
An other alternative, that I already mentioned in earlier threads and works quite well IMO, is that you switch all AI empires to human control when you think you have won the game and loose interest. Then you surrender all other AI empires to the one AI empire you think has the strongest racial technology and switch it back to computer control. Like that you suddenly face a completely united mega-AI empire!

[Steppenwolf]

I completely agree with you, Q and capnq, that the main argument against making the MEE function more "realistic," meaning less all-against-one-like, less suicidal, less black-boxes-fighting-each-other-like, is that this would make it too easy for the human player who has achieved MEE status. As already alluded to in my lengthy post, the reason for this is the general weakness of the AI.

But making the MEE function more realistic doesn't necessarily entail fewer war declarations on you in general. I just think there could be better reasons for anger against you than just your size and power. I'm a newbie to this game, but is it wrong to say that the AI players very rarely declare war on you when you are one among equals? Instead of waiting until you are the sole remaining superpower, the MEE, shouldn't they more often attack when you are still vulnerable with open flanks? Couldn't we make the MEE function AND the opening game more realistic?

This, above all, is how it works in reality: In times of state-building, imperialism, and colonialism, states don't wait until you grow strong or even become the sole remaining superpower. They aggressively expand when they see a power vacuum and when you are still weak. Isn't that what we human players all know? Expand your empire at the early stages, then secure your borders to prosper and build up your armada, then take on the rest!

By improving the AI to better seize opportunities in the early game AND modifying the MEE function, MM could make the game more realistic AND keep up the challenge for human players.

Be that as it may, fact remains the AI must become stronger...

Cheers!

[ 16 December 2001: Message edited by: Steppenwolf ]

[Molar]

quote:

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Originally posted by Q:

In my games I usually turn the MEE option off. I like galaxies with a chance for peaceful coexistence!

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Forgive my ignorance but how do you turn off the MEE option?

[ZeroAdunn]

settings.txt

[Steppenwolf]

In Settings.txt, where it says "AI Uses Mega Evil Empire := True" - replace True with False.

[Skulky]

First off, i don't think that the US is a benign empire. Not quite mega evil yet, but we are definatly not benign. I totally agree with the thoughts of Steppenwolf in the other aspects. I have encountered MEE in two ai only games i played. I was so strong at that point that i was able to isolate the enemies, get their allies to attack them and then clean them all up. However i got very frustrated because even small neutrals who i had maintained good relationships with attacked me, they all died consequntly. However, i turned of the MEE thing and then proceeded to create states (PPP) that were loyal so i would have some friends . Anyway i got pissed in the end in both games and just wend and built a lot of rign and sphere worlds, had an enourmous pop (starting to get like SimCity) and all my enemies population in prision stations (cargo components) orbiting my capital world, they all died hard. HAHAHA.