The neutral challenge

[DirkHowitzer]

You guys should try what Henk Brouwer suggested in his post in this thread. I did things alittle differently...did a little Role Playing as to a disasterous even on my home world(nuclear war, accident, etc...).

So anyways when I began the game I built one colony ship and sent it out having ditched my homeworld(abandoned...). I settled the poorest planet in my system and went from there. Did a little more role playing stipulating that I couldn't colonize my original homeworld for at least 100 turns due to high radiation levels or somesuch...

Anyways it was quite fun. You start out with a MAJOR population deficit and lack of research and production...quite fun.

Being ever the resourceful one, however, I have since claimed 5th place out of 16 and am beating everybody I've contacted in resources and research so it's not all bad...



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"He's dead, Jim."-- Lt. Commander Leonard "Bones" McCoy |Chief Medical Officer / USS Enterprise (NCC-1701)

[WhiteHojo]

update on the low AI bonus N.C. I mentioned in my Last post.

1st contact was achieved around yr 2412.0. The now hated Pionda race (look like rock faces). This very unfriendly race promp'tly attacked my homeworld - fortunately my race was rather suspicious of this strange new intruder so was able to put up a couple of small WP w/PDs & TPs - beat off the attack.

This incident, needless to say, led me to view ALL new races with suspicion, not initiating contact w/any new race untill they approached me 1st a verrrry nervous way to play if you're a small, weak empire hoping to not get crushed.

At 1st contact, I was in 11th (the EEE were actually in Last by a few points). But the notable thing was that the EA were already in 1s w/1.2 Million points to my lowly 112K (I had jacked up the Mega Evil Empire setting to kick in at 1 Mill and 200% of 2nd score - I believe EA was MEE at this time)

Anyway, I expanded to 2 neighboring systems, continued fighting my little personal war w/the Rock Heads - made Partnership treaties w/the 2nd & 3rd place races and have a TR treaty w/the EA - after I glassed one of their colonies in my adjacent systems (nothing makes me madder than goin thru all the trouble of building a Col Ship, sending it to the system to colonize a green plus world and finding that I was beat to it by some other race!!!) Fortunately the EA weren't too concerned w/the loss of 1 of their 195 planets (I had 5 - I am in such trouble).

I have clawed my way to 6th place, control 4 systems have 20 ships (cruiser/Lt Cruiser), have around 55K RPs, & 8K Int Points... of course, the EA have 2.5 Million in score, something like 100K Intel Pts, and over 200 ships & 1000 units (game limits were supposed to be 1000 units & 500 ships - on a 200 system galaxy - all pts were b/f the bonus is added, 2X I believe)

Pray for the mighty Nar Empire - now I know how Switzerland felt in WWII - the whole galaxy is at war and I'm trying to just survive.

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Character is best defined as that which you do when you believe nobody is watching.

[This message has been edited by WhiteHojo (edited 08 February 2001).]

[Zanthis]

WhiteHojo wrote:

quote:

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...fortunately my race was rather suspicious of this strange new intruder so was able to put up a couple of small WP w/PDs & TPs - beat off the attack.

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You beat them back with toilet paper? I'm impressed.

[WhiteHojo]

Never underestimate the power of a good roll of Charmin!!!!

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Character is best defined as that which you do when you believe nobody is watching.

[geoschmo]

Well Zanthis, he said he was being attacked by the rock-faced Pionda's.

Everybody knows paper covers rock.

But watch out for the scissor people WH!

[Alpha Kodiak]

quote:

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Originally posted by Daynarr:
This sounds like my Sergetti . Good luck.
Make sure you tell us how it went, so I could improve them more.

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Yep, it's your Sergetti alright. I haven't had much time to play (some strange thing called work keeps getting in the way) but I have run through several turns since the initial combat. I backed off and started trying to build up. So far I have seen nothing of the Sergetti. I don't know if they are going to come after me soon, or if they are going to give me time to build up what is at least a semi-functional defense. Time will tell....

[Dracus]

I play like this all the time, I do not research any weapons until first contact. I only explore one sytem at a time. The game I am playing now has 14 races and 200 systems.
made contact on my 3rd turn, they entered my home system and sent a trade treaty. they have not been back since. they nor have they explored beyond thier home system which is next to mine. I never sned ships into their system nor beyond their system. My next contact came after I had moved two systems out. This race declared war on me. since I do not explore beyond one system at a time, I had no idea how meny systems they own.
I never use the map to look this up. once war is declared I switch to weapons research. I also impose a rule that I can not glass any planets. they must be captured. In 4 weeks real time playing 3 hours a day, I have captured 30 planets in 5 systems from them. but have 6 races in my empire since it seems that they like to either capture other Ie races or use subVersion to get planets to join them. only 4 planets that I have captured had the crystal race I was fighting. hope I find their home system soon. plus the game now reports 3 new races are out there somewhere.
Yet I have yet to run across the actual empires of the races that once owned these worlds. 2 still only have 2 known races. They all seem to be voiding the war zone.

[Alpha Kodiak]

Well, I got a chance to play about 20 more turns, and while I got one message from the Sergetti threatening to kick me out of one of my outlying systems, I have not seen anything of them, other than when one of my scouts encountered a perimeter system of theirs. I have avoided entering any systems that I know are theirs because I know that I am still technologically inferior to them. Much longer without contact, though, and I may probe their defenses a little, because I'm starting to get into a little better shape militarily.

[taterbill]

Just an idea for a new N.C. house rule:

Once you max out your home system, you can start to build unarmed (only) scouts and colony ships to send to adjacent systems, but
they can only have ONE engine component. This simulates the premise that early warp technology is incredibly bulky and early warp-capable ships will be very slow. Until Activation, only ships with a speed of 1 are allowed to utilize warp points.

Also, this may be completely suicidal, but I'm going to say no weapons research until Activation or until I colonize a planet with ruins. That would at least give me a hint that I am not alone in the galaxy. So until until then, I'll have nothing but "police" boats with DUC I's and Missle I's. First contact will be suitably scary.

I'm going to apply the new Mod Pack 1.50 tonight and start my first NC game using these rules and the rules suggested in previous Posts. It should be a bLast!

[taterbill]

Also, I agree that turning off neutrals in an N.C. game is probably a good idea.

Finding a neutral next door and either fighting a war or building an alliance with a similarly handicapped neighbor would be interesting. I could attack them, but only using my speed 1 ships, because I'm not really fully warp-capable yet!

But on the downside, neutrals seem to be "borders" for AI empires. I've only played a few games of SE4 so far, but I don't recall ever making first contact with an empire that had expanded beyond a neutral whose system acted as a chokepoint. So the presence of neutrals will probably (on average) really slow down the onset of First Contact and Activation.