Exploration, Stellar Cartography, and Uncommon/Rare planet games
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Stardock Forums
Stardock Forums
I've done a three games now with Uncommon planet setting, on a large galaxy. The first one, I had a very good setup -- influence resources everywhere, a decent amount of planets... I won easily.
The second game was far different -- I had three planets, having to colonize two 14 PQ planets to bring myself up to 5. I was able to capture one resource. Why? Because of my start position. There was very little around me, and I was in the center of the galaxy, basically surrounded. I ended up abandoning the game, because it was becoming quite clear my race was on a downward spiral.
The third game has been similar to the first, and while I don't have quite as many resources, in my -beginning- sector, there were three other yellow stars. Three! Same settings... and I in a few months I had more yellow star systems than on the game before.
The point of it all -- it seems to me that your starting location, especially on uncommon planets, dictates far too much how you will end up doing in the game. I was wondering what others have done to solve this in their games, in terms of ideas for production/winning method/etc. Personally, I'd like to see a more balanced start position for all races. And more use for stellar cartography -- everytime I finally get it, all of the planets are populated, so it does me little good.
The second game was far different -- I had three planets, having to colonize two 14 PQ planets to bring myself up to 5. I was able to capture one resource. Why? Because of my start position. There was very little around me, and I was in the center of the galaxy, basically surrounded. I ended up abandoning the game, because it was becoming quite clear my race was on a downward spiral.
The third game has been similar to the first, and while I don't have quite as many resources, in my -beginning- sector, there were three other yellow stars. Three! Same settings... and I in a few months I had more yellow star systems than on the game before.
The point of it all -- it seems to me that your starting location, especially on uncommon planets, dictates far too much how you will end up doing in the game. I was wondering what others have done to solve this in their games, in terms of ideas for production/winning method/etc. Personally, I'd like to see a more balanced start position for all races. And more use for stellar cartography -- everytime I finally get it, all of the planets are populated, so it does me little good.
