Two new warriors have joined the ranks of our ferocious t'kzintar.  Welcome to Imsen and MarkWarren!   

Thats a good idea Seth.  Trying to create some Kzinti-like creatures sounds like fun.

Sentient species taste better...

Thanks Looking forward to actually uploading a score!

The domain of Kzinti is steadily expanding as more systems are subjugated and new warriors carry our might to all corners of the galaxy..  Our empire now encompasses more than 25 million light years!  The Fanged God feasts heartily on the souls of our fallen foes, and we now stalk the lands of countless worlds.

Hey MarkWarren, welcome to the Empire thread.   Show no mercy to the grass-eating foes of the Empire!

I've been playing some more Political Machine 2008, and as George Washington have beaten all the Democratic candidates except the last one, JFK.  I've tried a few timees, but just cant muster enough electoral votes.  My smear-machine isnt working!  

I've also started another Swindle game, which I hope to submit to the MV this weekend.

Sentient species taste better... 

Another GSW,

http://metaverse.galciv2.com/index.aspx?g=player&id=18664

Nice game Seth! That's about double your previous best I believe.

Sentient species taste better...

mmmm Espionage 2.0

I gotta get this MVL game out before that goes beta next week

Welcome to our newest member, Martok!  This famous and honorable Klingon general will surely serve the Empire well!

What do you think of the espionage changes Loup?  I was hoping for something a bit more radical, but I am very glad to see the return of passive spying, and spying on minor races.  I dont think spying on minors will be super-useful, but it's nice to have the option.  Probably the best use of it will be when the Jagged Knife type events happen.  Going to do some espionage research again?

Sentient species taste better...

My third swindle has been acomplished but I got a lower score than last tim, although last time I was using a different character, http://metaverse.galciv2.com/index.aspx?g=player&id=19205

I'll get an answer to you next weekend.  Once the 2.0 beta comes available, I'll install it and try it out.

To make guesses now,  They didn't mention much about reducing costs on spies or such...they get insane when you hit 100 spies (yes, I'm wierd enough to do this).

Passive spying's return is good.  I'd often keep 5 spies on hand to get Low intel on all races in the game.  I don't see a way to remove passive spies in that interface shot.  It may be by design to upkeep the intel as weeks go by to keep a spy actively passively (yeah I know...) spying.

Yikes...100 spies!  How much did it cost to get 1 spy at that point?  Yep, I dont think passive spies can be countered.  Not sure what my opinion is about that.  I remember in MOO even passive spies could be eliminated by counter-intelligence.

Congrats to MarkWarren for your first victory posted to the MV! 

Another good game Seth...remember when you were doubting you could play at Challenging?  Quite a huge improvement in your skills.

Sentient species taste better...

Thanks Trying to get some military tactics down on some middle maps, but the Thalans keep handing my Yor back to me in pieces, leaving me to desperately scrape together the shattered pieces of my broken ships to build new ones for months at a time before giving in. Now playing as Thalans

No clue, but I plan on finding out the spy cost formula once 2.0 comes out.  That was part of my in-depth look into espionage.

-cost of spies

-effect of +espionage skill

-spy-weeks for intel levels

The third one so far is the only one I've made any headway on...and I'll have to re-do it with 2.0's release to confirm it.

Well, at least they're giving the pieces back so you can re-assemble them.  Very kind of them.

The way the espionage skill was explained in the past makes it seem virtually useless.  I think they said it allows you to spend +X% on spying, rather than giving you +X% more spies for your BC investment.  Sems rather silly that way, but maybe I am mistaken about their explanation.

I'm very curious to find out the spy-weeks/intel levels in particular.  I also hope the changes will be included for DL & DA, not just TA.

Sentient species taste better...

I don't think much will see DL beyond bug/AI fixes.  I think the new governer and espionage will only go as far as DA.

I'm hoping they don't change much in intel level stuff, just so my numbers will be fine still over in my espionage post.

The +% to spending IS helpful though.  If you play as the Icionans (+100 espionage) vs the Alterians (no bonus) and have the exact same income via economy, the Icionans can outstrip the Alterians in a spy-war since they'll get spies twice as fast since they can spend twice the cash.

If for example, the slider at max (25%) would net 250bc a week to spies, the Iconians would be spending 500bc (half thier income) on spies.  Spies have a bc cost associated to them that must be reached in order to get one.  In a game like I sometimes play, I'll try to shut a race down with spies.  In order to do that, I'll choke their economy buildings, farms and yes...even factories to try and decimate thier income.  With a reduced income they can make spies to nullify fast enough to stop me from adding more.

As each spy I make headway on, it makes making headway easier and easier.  In the game I had over 100 spies I had shut down the Dregin's economy to the point they were in a perpetual -500bc and thus had no way to continue their war campaign and then crumbled to the weight of their foes since they couldn't replace ships anymore.  Sure I spent Zillions of bc to do this...but I didn't raise a finger to the #1 military in the galaxy to truely create their fall.  They were on a rampage taking down every race they came across.

The C4-pen is mighter than the sword.

see, now THATS what I like about GC....if you really are willing to think outside the box, there are some very interesting ways to conquer the galaxy; though I'll admit I'm partial to the Krynn's culture flips

I guess it woul dbe more accurate to say that the espoionage ability as it works now is virtually useless to the way that I play the game, which is very aggressively...go figure.   I feel much more satisfied capturing a planet than blanketing it with spies.  My use of spies is generally limited to using them on farms, countering enemy spies, and getting the intel levels up.  Just for fun though, it would be interesting to try to completely shut an enemy AI down with spies.  Nice job crashing the Drengin Empire like that!

Conquest is my favorite, then culture flipping secondarily.  Especially with the fixed MCC, which is still the most powerful structure in the game!

Sentient species taste better...

What is it that the MCC does? I've heard a few conflicting statements about it (at least so it seems to me). I've heard of a +100% econ (which is eight different kinds of awesome, and a life-saver to my own multi-spending, rampantly debt-inducing playstyle), but is it planetary, or galaxy-wide (which would be eighty different kinds of awesome: Refer above)? Then there's it being broken what with the influence beng impossible and all, but it was just referred to as being fixed? And is the fixed being the econ things or the influence things? *Confuses*

The broken MCC gives a 100% civ-wide econ bonus, which as you said is completely awesome.  It also prevented planets from flipping to your side.  The fixed MCC (only for TA so far), does what it was originally intended to do, to almost instantly flip enemy planets once your culture is 4x that of the specific planet.   Both versions make it one of the best, or the best, structures in the game!  The broken version is a key component for most of the high-scorers of the game.  It makes playing evil the overwhelming alignment of choice if you are playing for score.

Sentient species taste better...

Look into the Korath tech tree and get back to me about culture flipping races....OH the fun the Korath's tree is even if you don't play w/ Super Annihilator...

But now, one has to find alternatives to getting that grotesque economy score? Such as tech-trading with the Yor, I'd imagine... But now, it simply makes evil Terrrans or Krynn influence monsters that will flip planets faster than they can possibly be conquered? That makes the Drath Creativity bonus for being good die out instatnly... I'm going evil with the rest of the big boys...

What is used instead, if you want to achieve the high scores, when the MCC has been fixed?

Nothing can hold a candle to the pre-TA MCC.

I seriously mean it though...on a tightly-packed map (not like this MVL round unfortunatly), the Korath are HARSH competitors for influence.  That Dark Influence building is SICK.

A 1-per-planet 200% influence building that is affected by an influence tile.  Once a planet flips, quick-build one on that and watch the dominos fall.  I played on an all abundant large map with scattered clusters.  I bee-lined for the DI building and had gotten wars thrust upon me for a weak military.  I however beat those races once the DI was operational and the MCC was in place.  I was gaining planets exponetially when that galactic bomb went off.  NO invasion force can match that.

Also, make sure the Iconians are in your game.  They have a 25% influence passive tech they can sell you

Match that up on a custom race or ARCed Korath with Super Diplomat...

I know I know...WTF is this wolf talking about...hes CRAZY!!!!  I'm like SB said, an out-of-the-box thinker on this.  That building I think was meant to offset the -% influence the Korath factories put out.  I only place 1 or 2 of said factories on my planet, don't worry about any sort of production anotherwords...I just research/creativity my way to the BOMB.

I did much the same with the Thalans, only I didn't have DI, and didn't get MCC until the Korath researched it for me (not included in Thalan tech tree). That was the beginning of 40 planets flipping on one turn, and a six turn domino that gave me about 100 more while finishing off 3 civs. I killed two civs in one turn by flipping their last planet.

Of course, I had a *minor* pirate problem after that

Yeah, but unfortunatly, the Thalans must still use the normal culture buildings...far more inefficent

I've got to try the Korath thing some time I've had a grudge against the Terrans after they drew out a game (wherein I'd *saved* them at the beginning) to the point where my computer took 30 secs to a minute per turn due to stuff happening, forcing me to surrender out of agitation, so Influencing them back to hell would be a nice payback. Should play against Thalans and Iconians, then... Thalans have two pretty nice Influence techs.

I wanted to come by and thank Kzintipatriarch and Seeker for the invite.  Kzintipatriarch even sent me a private message in February ( Kitty Kat date is unknown to me ) and invited me then.  Once again, thank you for the invitation to your extremely powerful Empire.  I must admit, I doubt I would have been interested in even returning to the game at this time, without that invitation.

I must however, decline.  I feel I owe you an explanation, but I fear the one I may give will not sit well with your members.  I like a challenge, and coming back to the game, already in first place, does not seem like much of a challenge to me.  That is why I joined the HCH, while in its infancy,to begin with.  I really hate the fact that the HCH is in its twilight.

Furthermore, I detest the Feline Species.  Although the magnitude of their species is enormous, in all my travels I have never found a single feline who is loyal.  They all seem to want something in return, or will claw you in the back the second they feel you are no longer needed.  I have no desire to have to watch my step.... nor by back.  Maybe one day I will feel differently, but until then, beware.... I will find you in the far reaches of space.... Kitty Kat nip in one hand.... A heavy Blaster in the other.....  HERE KITTY KITTY KITTY!