How does the AI do it? Grow, grow, grow?

well at least on bright setting, you should be able to do anything they can. it's all a matter of the right combination of taxes and sliders in the beginning

~SDC~

they might adjust propaganda to always maintain 100% morale on every planet. IIRC this leads to massive pop growth.

cheers

h

guide to winning higher AI levels:
MICRO MANAGE MORE

that's really all there is to it as long as you understand how the game works.

~SDC~

Well, it is propaganda for sure. First off, I had TOTALLY missed that screen for "Details". I set each plane to 100% morale spending whatever it took. They took off growth wise. That's a whole piece of important strategy there I was missing - it has to be how the AI does it. Thanks for the tip.

Grifman

i didn't notice the "details" button until my third or fourth game and that was only after someone mentioned it in a post. needless to say, i felt like a tool.

cheers

h

I only noticed the "details" button after I looked up "how to switch governors" in the manual.

Okay, that's not true. I saw it, I just paid it little mind.

~SDC~

Thanks for the info Horatio! It never occured to me to use propoganda except to prevent very low morale. I'll have to try this approach

But... if you set the morale slider to 100%, doesn't that mean that all money allocated to this planet ends up exclusively in propaganda?
Meaning, both constructions will simply stop?

no, you just increase propaganda until morale is at 100%. this doesn't necessarily mean propaganda is at 100%. in fact, you can have 100% propaganda and less than 100% morale.

propaganda spending is also capped at a 10bc, i think.

in the later stages of the game i keep every planet's propaganda at 100%. i have no idea if this is worthwhile...but it sure makes elections a breeze.

cheers

h

Pretty sure I've seen propaganda spending higher than 10 bc. I think it is proportional to population.

Back to the original topic on AI population growth:

I was also really surprised by it. My population just sort of sat there, while the AIs really took off.

Reading through most of the threads here, I started by putting 100% into social work, and upgraded the planets. Next, 100% research, for more planet upgrading. Switch back to 100% social, and build them.

My population growth now exactly matches the AIs. Joy!

And switching to 100% military work really made me pump out the starbases, causing me to lead on all fronts - in 'beginner' difficulty, though, but definitively better then ever before

Combine all this with an even 50% tax, and I don't have to touch the propaganda sliders at all...

I was able to match and even overpower the AI on growth through the propeganda. The other thing I did to help out was I wheeled and dealed with the AI, getting them to start wars with each other. Thing of it as population and military strength control. By doing this, I was able to keep the AI for the most part in relative parity with each other for most of the game. By the time a couple of the AI players bit it, I had a military strength of 180, research of 300+, and an economoy in the low 200s. At this point I took off for my research victory.

I think in the next game I'm going to take a swipe at playing tougher AIs and see how well I can try to pull a military victory. I find that diplomacy in this game is so much more important than in other games. You can actually use it to turn the tide again your enemy, (or perhaps get someone else to help you out)

Good stuff here
SeanB