Destabablization

As far as I can tell, even at lower levels such as Normal the AI is pretty fervent about keeping morale up (e.g. frequently in the high 90s). You may be doing economic damage to them, 'tho, if you are forcing them to do any of the following:

- lower their tax rate
- use propaganda
- build morale-boosting structures

If they have some Morale resources, and access to the morale-building trade goods, you might be waiting quite some time to see that morale dropping. You should at least be able to check the state of their economy, though, and see if you're having enough of an effect to justify the expense (my suspicion is that unless their economy was very weak to begin with, you'd probably be better off building a Party Palace Terror Star for that kind of money).

I think one of the developers said that destabilization is like espionage. You need to spend quite a bit to have an affect, which means you have to give it some time to build up in as your spent money accumulates its affects.


:notsure:

~SDC~

Thanks for the suggestions, I'll look into it, and keep trying the destabalization. I may also try some culture bombs, etc. But I'll save my game and see if the destabalizaion has any real affect a few years down the road. Please, if anyone has any more suggestions, post em, theis thread isnt closed

Well, let me see here. One, arrange to have any morale starbases of theirs destroyed if at all possible. This is not a requirement, but it would be very helpful if their empire wide morale fell by a good deal while you were doing destab. If someone else can't do it, then weigh whether a war to get the job done yourself is worth it. Not necessarily a war where you have to take planets (though that is good if you can manage it), but one to cripple their navy and destroy those bases. Then go to the peace talks and make them pay for a way out, then destab them with their own money.

Two, massive destab at the scale you are talking about is very inefficient to do all at once. 2K a turn? Ow, ow, ow. It doesn't matter how high you crank the slider if their overall morale is near 100. My usual tactic is to try a hundred a turn for a couple of turns, then increase the amount a hundred more every couple of turns. All the while, I look to see if their spending or saving amounts have changed and the individual morales of the most vulnerable planets near the culture starbases. If there is no real effect, then keep things on a low but constant pressure until you do see a noticeable effect. Once you see that effect, then start pumping it up faster.

Signs of effective destab are simple to see. Besides the overall economic damage that your spies will report on, wars may spontaneously start as the affected aliens try to shed people for a quick morale fix. Ships might start travelling to low morale planets in order to prop up problem areas. Planets may get down to 1 morale. Not because of any tremendous destab efforts, but because of destab plus the alien scrapping every building on the planet when they know they are going to lose it eventually. Problem is, that 1 morale planet might hold out for a while still.

The whole point is to be in it for the long haul. It may take a hundred or more turns, but slow and constant destab pressure building up combined with culture bombs and possible starbase stikes will win the day.