Whole bunch of Morality questions...

You can see your exact morality rating (0-100) under the domestic/stats/society tab, IIRC.

You can't really calculate exactly due to the different weightages of choices, which I will explain later.

You don't have to pick all good choices to be pure good. You can still be pure good as long as your morality rating crosses 90. So you can go down to demonic (0) then choose good choices and get back to saintly (90).

All event choices have weightages. Generally, the greater the benefit/penalty, the greater the impact to your morality. Using your example, choosing a +5PQ may knock your morality down by 2-3 points while the +45PQ choice will certainly knock it down by 10 points (which is the max for any one event choice).

~SDC~

thanks once again Ray.

From what I have seen, 10 is the max for evil choices and 5 is the max for good choices. I don't think I have yet to see a good colonization event give a +10.

Yes, there are. Pick the -45%PQ equivalent for good choice.

There are a fair number of such events. But most people don't see the morality +10 events because they can't stand to take them!
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thats why you need to be evil

I want to go down the evil path, but so far everytime I have tried I get attacked by the Torians or Altarians. In most of my games the only evil colony events I have taken have been PQ ones. I have found that as soon as I have taken more than one - they come at me with the "It is our mission to wipe out evil" thing.
I don't play very well at the colony and early stages and usually wait far too long to build military as I am concentrating on getting trade goods. So unless I have a Good morality rating then I am a prime target. The Evil guys seem to leave me alone though. (as long as I gift them tech every or gold every now and then).
I will probably have to change my playing style around at the start and churn out some attack ships if I want to become more than the Diet Coke of Evil.

The only evil games I ever played was when I first got GC and didn't really know what I was doing. I like playing the Saint but still making the Evil Trade goods after buying the Evil AIs techs toward the end of the game.

Jeff try leaving the relations screen open as you go after your goods. That way you can see whos getting 'narcie' well befor they declare war (ussually). Then you can do one of several things to distract them (bride them to attack some-one else, give them gifts, launch a pre-enptive strike etc, etc)
Also consider setting the AIs that are giving you grief to another Alignment, mabye they'll lay off you a bit?

My stratergy I consider very evil (Terror Star Suprize against the remaining economically weaker Allies). I think it's not cheesy (betrail is a very real part of the war room) but I do think destroying over a dozen planets in a blink of an eye should effect player morality . . .

Jeff,

I've tried going evil in a couple of my recent games, and usually shift back to good just to keep the Altarians and Torians from posturing. It helps to have a "paper tiger" military in orbit - a few Starfighters in the early going, supplemented by Corvettes when you get them, helps a lot. Also, try a few bribes whenever relations drop too low - they'll probably just call you up and make a demand for it anyway in a few turns.

I find it amazing how they seem to tuck tail an shut the hell up when their flag ship gets destroyed early. A 1/3 survey ship is a nasty focker when it comes across the 0/1 or 1/1 "Hero"s of the other empires. I pick the fight as soon as I meet them, and by the time they have enough tech to try anything, I am far ahead of them, in all stats. Partly becacause I certainly get the lion's share of the anomolies. Try going beserk right from the git. Lot of fun, even if the AI manages to make a come-back (yet to happen).

And yo can be as evil as you want. LOL
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Thanks guys. I am learning to keep more of an eye on the relationship rating now. I used to pretty much ignore it (or not really understand how to manipulate it) so would often get what I thougt were random declarations of war, when in fact it was me not paying attention. But as you said - bribing and getting them to attack others is a good way to keep them off my back. I will give that more of a go next time.
I was also wondering if the Terror Star thing was a bit cheesy. I did it in my last couple of games. The last one I was Close with the Torians but the were way ahead in military and had 8 planets left which were heavily guarded. They were also in alliance with the Yor and Altarians who were also both stronger than me so war with one meant war with all. I had a heap of cash so I ended up sending a fleet of constructors to each Torian planet and building Terror Stars right next to each planet all in the ine turn. Next turn I destroyed all their planets. They don't disappear from the Diplomacy screen until the turn after - so to avoid war with the others I gave them all my TGs in return for peace and they disappeared the turn after that. I think you are right in that we should possibly take a morality hit for using Terror Stars or maybe even a morale penalty from our own population for using inhumane tactics or something.

I wll also build some Starfighters at the start - never bothered since Brad fixed it so Defence counts towards your rating but that sounds like the way to go as Battleaxes (which is usually the first ships I build) are too far down the track.

thanks again to all for the tips. Helps alot.

Jeff,

Once you have better units available (the Battleaxe can serve you well as a defender for a long time) remember to help your relations even more by giving away the Starfighters. It saves you upkeep and improves relations at the same time. But don't give away so many at once that the recipient gets so much of a military boost that they feel cocky.

i dont get much problems with the alterians or the torians when i play evil. i dont even build much of a military compared to the other AIs -most of the time i have the weakest military of all the AIs, and still its very rare that someone declares war with me -in the last 3 games, i think i only got 1 declaration of war. the only gifts i give are the 1 influence point per turn, and i dont even pay much attention to trade.

I start off going evil.. to get their techs and build their constructs then i keep playing till i get enough to get all the good ai techs (yes it takes a while) at last count i think it was a total of 155 techs all up

As far as a paper tiger military is concerned: I like to go with corvettes early. It seems to work pretty well even at maso difficulty level. They are cheap and low maintenance. Then I rush to frigates, also a good bang for the buck. I also try to trade as much as possible with the empires that are of opposite alignment to me, and give them small meaningless gifts, but on a regular basis (every turn if I can remember to do it!). Also reasearch diplomatic techs since this helps all your relations. This strategey should be good for keeping you out of alignment motivated wars.

In my opinion, bribes are cheaper than a paper tiger military. I've often gotten to Dreadnaught Technology without building a single ship.

what type of bribes are you giving? i ususally give everyone 1 influence point per turn, and it has kept me out of many wars.

Usually tech. It helps to have a high diplomatic rating.
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I'll give away 1 influence point, 1 credit, an obsolete ship, stuff like that. I compare it with buying your significant other a small, thoughtful gift everyday. How can they not love you for that? LOL

Qui-Gon, does that work 1 credit gifting stuff work for you on maso? I thought it worked on crippling but not maso, but I can't play now because I'm moving into a new place, so I can't test it out.

Yes, it works for me. In my current game I am playing as a good and trading heavily with the evil Drengin. Their relations to me grew to friendly without bribing them. However as I grew closer to the Drengin, the Altarians driften from neutral to cool. I gave them tiny gifts (1 influence point) and in a couple of turns they drifted back to neutral. Then in a few turns (I neglected to keep gifting them) they went back down to cool. I gave them a couple of small gifts and went back to neutral. I have to keep a close eye on them so that I can keep them happy this way.

Edit: I don't think this would work to create any big swings in relations at the maso level. It does seem to work when trying to smooth out a few rough edges though, and keep things on a nice even track. Just as in real-world politics, constant maintenence in relations is a big plus, in my opinion. Also, I don't think the gift strategy is a silver-bullet either. I assume the A.I. is looking more than just the small gift. It is factoring in my diplomatic skill, military strength and who knows what else.

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if an AI demands 500 BC in tribute, i refuse, and instead i give them 1 influence point, and i find that it works the same as giving them the 500BC of what they asked for. mind you, i havent had an AI demand a tribute from me ever since i started giving them 1 influence point pre turn.

As well as giving them 1 influence point / turn.

When I trade a tech (or anything) for cash.. I also after setting it to the most cash i can get over a period.. in the same transaction I also ask for influence points.

When doing any trading if the writting is in green then they'll accept the trade.. so I just up everything as high as i can.. till it changes to yellow writting then take it back a notch till the writting turns green again

That is what I was looking for in the tidbits thread. It also brings up the old PITA.

WHY for the love GOD do game developers ALWAYS use that &^^%#&$*)^!!!!!!! green/yellow combo? With my color blindness I can NOT tell when it green, or yellow. WTMFH can't they use green and, light blue, or something with a greater variation than two close pastels. Or start giving players the ability to change certain colors in the displays/UI. I get so tired of that sghit.

Because of it's use in the same manner in non-gaming environments. Stop lights, for example, are usually red/yellow/green.

~SDC~