Maso money question.

from Stardock Forums
So I'm trying out Maso, thought I'd see what it was like :) All hardest AI, tiny, abundant, clusters. I get a decent starting location, colonize everything within reach, flip to tech, research to diplo translators, and then buy them.. me being surprised that I got there before anyone else bought them (last normal game I played, a AI got them first somehow).

So I'm sitting there at -7000. Usually I trade techs around using my high Diplo skills & translators to get some positive cash flow, and dig my way back to positive cash fairly soon.

Well, I sat the rest of the game around -8000, with my money going up only to be forced to give around 1k tribute to random AI's.

The main problem I had was that I Never could trade more than around 60 bc for 0 months. Even when I managed to get around 15 high level techs towards the end, talking to a massively rich minor civ, still wouldn't pay me more than 60 bc.

Maybe this is written somewhere else, but do the civs realize that I'm broke, and refuse to sell me anything? They also wouldn't trade me any military, once again me offering piles of techs, diplo translators, etc etc. Not a single scout.
2,144 views 7 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
Welcome to Maso, Ceberon. ;)

No more leaning on the cash trading crutch at this level. It has nothing to do with your current cash crunch. Cash trading is basically nerfed in Maso.

They used to allow Alexians to be exploited for cash but even that little bit of kindness has been removed from suffering masochists.
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
Do remember to check out the Maso Strats thread.
The Political Machine 2024
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
I am playing a maso game, medium size, tight clusters. I have not been below 10,000 credits or 100% productivity for a long time. I started with +50% diplo and traded the alexians for the translators. The Alexians have been very generous to me and usually trade about 300 or more for 20 turns in exchange for a handfull of techs :CONGRAT: . The other minor races won't give me squat (so I waited until they were well developed and killed them). I am using 1.05. Is this different in 1.09?
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
Are you using the latest 1.05 version? The Alexians are fixed so that can't give you money but I recall experiencing just one game where they still did give.
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
I only tried this once so I may be misremembering, but I believe if you set the AIs to different levels so that you just barely qualify for Maso level (3 Incredible 2 Genius), then the AI routine that governs the minor races will sometimes still allow cash trades for tech. I think you can also still tech whore to the 2 Genius AIs, but they get wiped out by the Incredible AIs even faster if you do.
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
Usually one of the two minors will allow you to Tech whore, the other will be resistant, and Gyb is correct that the two Geniuses are also good customers for your tech whoring.

(I've only been able to beat maso on the 3/2 configuration so far....)
Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top
The 3/2 configuration is my favourite way to play. The Alexians always seem willing to pay money for techs, which tends to keep me in the 100% spend rate zone. It doesn't score quite as much as a pure maso, but I can win on it without using any major cheese. It works better on the larger maps, where the genius AIs tend to survive longer.


~SDC~