Maso Games - how to survive?

Move up to crippling and play awhile then make the leap.

have done.
had the game for a while now, but have only just started posting scores and joining in with the metaverse. but could never master maso

Yeah, sorry about referring you to the Maso strategies thread. I didn't check your profile. All the posts assume you've figured out how to beat crippling without much trouble.

Not sure I can help but I give money, run your economy tight use most of your income building infrastructure, ships or wahtever the moment calls for... if someone doesn't like you give them money.

Otherwise If someone declares war on you find some one (or more) who like you and give them something... anything try and get them to like you more. This can lead them to sending you ships or even join on your side which can be used to destract the one your at war with and this can lead to peace.

Invest in building some ships as well, I play with out ships until declared on then build nothing but ships to protect the worlds from transports. Often at this stage I can build 1 corvette per turn (varies) per planet. This pushes my military rating up and can sometimes work too.

Sorry this is a quick post hopefully something was useful...

~SDC~

thanks it all helps

Just thought I might add in the above strat for me is if I choose diplomacy ability.

Otherwise I go the harder path of military and socal bonuses and try to out produce them in everything.
I use the bonuses to counter a high research program etc. I'll stop babbling now

~SDC~

1 IP trick, thats all you need. All I basically do is blow through the tech tree, pausing every two techs to trade and give 1IP. In the end game I send five constructors to every enemy star and build terror stars to blow the aliens to pieces in one turn.

sounds like fun

I don't means to annoy anyone but what crippling?

~SDC~

the difficulty levels are labeled by the AI strength. Crippling is the second highest level, with all AIs at "genius." Masochistic, which the thread started out being about, is the highest level, with all AIs at "incredible."

a) stay out of war -- 1 IP trick
bribe the AI's to go to war with each other
c) build free improvements and improvements that improve PQ, econ and morale
d) manage the morale on your worst planets
e) build no military until overlord

I start with econ 30%, diplo 40%, morale 40%

My 2 cents.

The easiest way to survive on Maso is to ensure you have a planet advantage. If you can manage 3-4 planets for each 1 AI planet, it becomes much harder to lose. The other thing to remember is that diplomacy is your friend. Even without resorting to the 1 IP trick, a good bribe (say, 100-500 credits, or a tech) every year or so will keep most of the AI's off your back if you took some solid diplomatic skill picks. The only tricky part is to actually remember to check the relations screen every so often to see who is starting to hate you.

On Maso the AI will outproduce and outresearch you unless you have a major planet advantage. So make that work for you. Keep them at war with each other, and trade them for the techs and ships you don't have time to produce yourself. Be very willing to skew the economic sliders far beyond what you might do at a lower difficulty level; Spend 100% social when you are trying to grap wonders or trade goods, 100% military when you need to crank out a few specific ships, etc. Think of your game in phases:

Phase 1: Colonize. 91% military, 9% research (approx.) Gives you enough to crank out colony ships every 3 turns, but still gives you a little research. Do this until you have claimed every world you can.

Phase 2: Ramp up economy. 50-80% social, rest in research, no military. Get all your planets up and running with soil, habitat, banking, entertainment, fusion, manufacturing (in whatever order works for you). Pick your highest PQ world and also put manufacturing capital there. Use that world to crank out wonders and trade goods. During this phase you hope that AI's will start sending freighters to you. Also start trading your techs for others you don't have; if no techs, try to nab AI freighters to quickly establish routes.

Phase 3: Constructor maddness. Military 20-40%, Social 10-30%, Research 50%. Pick up the techs you don't have from trading. Start building production/trade/culture starbases in your habited sectors. By now the AIs should be fighting each other, so go nab the resources they are blowing up. Also use this phase to build freighters and max out your trade routes.

Phase 4: Win the game however you want. Either wait for a solid military tech (Dreadnought or higher) or go the cultural route. Military is a bit harder since the AI goes crazy with ship production and races for the military techs.

Ultimately you can win with any starting picks, but right now I prefer Diplo 60%, Pop. Growth 70%, Populist party.

Hi!
What is the 1IP trick?? 1IP means 1 Influence Point??
I read that this trick was corrected in new galciv version... it is true??

Thanks from a new-new-bie!!

LOL

no not yet it still exists. please come visit the academy on the galactic forum. your presence would be most welcome.

thanks everyone for the tips. please keep them coming. i am a true believer that you can never have enough information.

kyp

The 1IP bug is not corrected in 1.11, s1mone.

The 1IP trick is to give the AI 1 IP every three turns to increase relations. It is felt it is a serious cheese. Aparently, it takes a little longer in 1.11, but it still works.

It's the worst exploit in the game imo.

I put it in the bug report thread. Carielf said she'd look at it again--there might have been an issue with file versions.

I can now verify that there was absolutely no change in the 1 IP bug. It doesn't take any longer than it used to. I gave an AI 1 IP, and boom. They moved up a level in relations.

How do influence points affect the AI? What are they for?

~SDC~

HI greenfox

As Theoden described, if you give one influence point to the aliens (major or minor), the relationship often improves, for example from neutral to warm. PontiusBruinPilate has described giving IP about every 3 turns to keep the AI happy. Some feel this is a bug because the value of one IP is low. Theoden thinks this might be like "sending flowers" to the opponent AI and I like to think of it as a state dinner - not expensive but the attempt to be friendly is made. Others feel you should have to give things of more value like tech to make the AI happier. If the AI is warm or friendly, they are less likely to extort or declare war on you and seem more likely to send a freighter your way to trade. If they are close, you often can ally with them.

At maso levels, the major AI will not trade cash to you and most of the beginning minor AI will not either (except maybe Alexians - this is still being worked out). So, if you are trading tech for tech and everything is still green in the trade box, you can often get some extra IP from the AI. Having the extra IP can give you the upper hand in the United Planets (UP) voting. Having really high IP might also make the AI more friendly toward you according to some but I am uncertain about this. At maso levels, cash exchange is no nerfed that IP sort of becomes the new coin of the realm.

Hope this helps.
[Message Edited]

FYI, in my maso games where only Alexians and Carinoids are in at the start, it's about 10/80/10 of Neither gives cash, Alexians give cash, Both give cash. (This is a rough estimate only, of course.)

citalhellion; thanks. In my current huge maso game only the Alexians ( . . .uh the late Alexians) traded cash. By the time we figure this out, the next version will be released.

I have tried playing Maso, but I never get past the first few turns.

They declare war on me and I have no tech, no money and no planets to give them.
I have tried 1p very few turns, but it has no effect.

They arrive with frigates when I am just building defenders.

For those who want to play maso and like hints and walk-throughs here are some recommendations to check out:

1. "New Number One Thread": See #9 by Cotal aka Amidala aka Cupid and #18 by Essex99 around 10/11/2003

2. "Maso Strategy with no military thread": See #8 by Wild Wombat from 10/11

3. "Fellowship of the Ring Empire Thread" See #1916 by Ray the Wanderer from 9/22. I think Ray reposted this in the big maso thread here in the strategy section.

4. "A Small Maso Guide For All the Family" See #5 by PontiusBruinPilate and the lead post by Killa Koala on 9/22

5. "The ANZAC Republic thread" #250 by Jeff DeSilva on 9/20

Those are the maso walk-throughs I know of in no particular order and I may have overlooked some. Of course, the big maso thread here in the strategy section has loads of good stuff as well as the other maso threads on the forum. The ones I sited above might be in forum or strategy section so if you can't find it in one place, check the other. Start with a tiny maso map and work your way up to gigantic. Hope this helps all the maso players who seek advice.

Marquesa, start with a tiny-rare map and hit control-N until you get two yellow stars in your home sector. That should be a great help in keeping up (since you'll have twice as many planets as the AIs).

Thanks Ricbayer. Sounds too difficult.

Vincible. Thanks. I have always resisted playing the AI, rather than the game.
Guess if you want to win at Maso, that is what you must do. Not sure that I want to.