True...Evil Empire is sure to be behind this sudden wave of biological mayhem.

We are reserving our most effective weapons for the crunch moment of takeover In the meantime, our own counterterrorism strategies are focused on defence against germ vectors by keeping our own blood alcohol levels significantly raised at all times; alcohol kills germs, you know.

I hope all of us managed to get the 1.12 update.

I've just started a Maso Huge game.

Let's all report in on new AI improvements that you spot.

Not an AI improvement but I note that minors are still buying techs for cash. Alexians and Carinoids bought but Kwailisians didn't.

Can someone check if you have problems scrolling the mini-map? I asked in another thread but didn't get a response.

Could be a new bug in 1.12.

Yup, I'm having problems.

Thanks vincible, I've posted the bug.

"We have no weapons of mass destruction. Our weapons are weapons of growth and nurturing."

Just getting to download 1.12 now as I was busy tonight. Nice to see bugs already spotted

It may be too late for me to try anything out tonight. Apparently, I gave my wife the little bug I had last week. She's not happy. :notsure:

Talk to everyone in about 8 hours.

I just played half a game in basically pacifistic fashion. I don't see any difference in the AI though, except perhaps that they seem to be more aggressively attacking starbases during war. But I'm not really sure about that since I wasn't involved in the wars.

Tomorrow, we'll see how they respond when I start the cultural assault.
[Message Edited]

Good morning, all!

Is there anything noticeably different on 1.12? I mean, besides the bugs? So far, the only things I've heard about are the bugs, but really no commentary about any improvements to gameplay. I d/l the update last night, but didn't start the game up, so tonight will be my first chance to check it out (hopefully). I was just wondering if the overall opinion was that this was just a buggy update which didn't do a whole lot for the game?

Ray,

You've got hotmail!

Thanks Theoden, to think the thing I was looking for was under my nose all along.

~SDC~

Report from my 1.12 Maso Huge game.

Dec 2182.
Flushed with minor cash, I've managed to get all the early TGs (A,DT,GA,FC,US,GSE,TS)so far.
The AIs seem to favour building star fighters and corvettes now.
The Alts, who had two systems, next to me did not build a single defender.
With Transports at Def 1, their system defense didn't look solid at all to me.
No tribute demands from the AIs so far. All relationships at Neutral.
Traded Interstellar Tactics from a minor. First time I've seen a minor get that tech before the Majors.
Traded IT for all the Alt warships and invaded one of their systems using their own transport.
Gave "Attack Alt" contract to Arcs. Relationship shot up to Friendly.
Amazingly, I had 10:2 base invasion odds even though I had no soldering bonuses so I conquered the 3Mil system with my one transport.

No sign of any noteworthy AI improvements as yet.
In fact, I'm having one of my easier Maso games. :notsure:

~SDC~

So I had a bunch of "Merc" starfighters and corvettes waiting outside the remaining Alt system currently defended by 2 colony ships. My transports are on their way.

Usually in this scenario, I would expect the Alts to build a defender but it was a corvette which sprung out to strike at my Merc force. It died and a while later, a Battlecruiser sprung out. I had a frigate on the way but one transport had arrived so I destroyed the colony ships and took out the system. Had a good 8:2 base odds which made my invasion easy.

~SDC~

Bye-bye, Altarians! LOL

Ray,

Are (Were) the Altarians Incredible or Genius?

Incredible. I'm play 5 Incredibles.

~SDC~

Your example certainly doesn't sound like these were implemented.

Too early to draw conclusions from one game, Theoden.

One unusual thing I noticed was that the Arcs declared war on me with the "I better deal with you before you deal with me" message which usually meant that they detected military buildup. I had all 4 trade routes with them too. However, I managed to get peace easily for some techs.

I've been careful not to stage any warships near their systems. However, I had ships parked next to a Cari system which also contained one of their starbases. I suspect that the military buildup detection has been amended to detect human ships near their starbases.

~SDC~

Wouldn't be able to complete my game tonight.

Will wrap it up and submit tomorrow.

~SDC~

I'm looking forward to your AAR, Ray! Good night!

Bleh...double post.
[Message Edited]

in my game Gigantic masso.. all set to incredable / caotic evil.. rare tight

I've noticed that it is definatly harder to get all the races to be diplomaticaly close to you.. By the time I succeeded i was down to 2 AI players and no minors..

I've also noticed that the random planetry events are a lot less frequent.

the AI's diplomatic status with you deminishes a lot quicker (I ended up having to give 50bc / month for 50 months just to maintain a status quo

not as many space sharks

there seems to be more resoreces to be mined

and to top it all off.. just when i used to be able to say .. "I have them at my mercy" in earlier versions it wasn't the case this game..

it took me an extra 60-80 years till I could honestly state that (Baring any more supprises.. eg: AI's Dropping out of Alliance with me.. GULP... now i've been and gone and done it.. Given Stardock yet another way to make the game harder... sheesh.. me and my big mouth)

All in All I've found this version to be a lot more satisfying and interesting..

(BTW.. I'm still not finished.. I think i'm in the mopping up stages of the game for me that starts just over half way through the game time playing wise)

Frogboy just said there was no change to diplomacy other than fixing the 1 IP bug. So it sounds like you just had bad luck.
[Message Edited]

3 million. Grats! Looks like the scoreboard did not break, so I guess it is onward and upward to 5 million. Nice bit of action going on in the 2, 3, and 4 spots on the empire board. I know the current Fellowship lead may seem pretty comfy now, but folks down there might start getting pretty pushy as a side effect of the new Euro offensive. Keep your guard up, Ringwraiths.

Welcome to the Fellowship, Nhat Nguyen!

Drop by and say hi.

~SDC~