I started a game with 1.04.59 last night (my usual Huge/Tight/Normal settings). Trade goods do seem quite tradeable now, which is good. A minor was quite demanding with regards to Diplo Translators, but well within acceptable limits. T'was also good to see the AIs, even minors, more frequently refuse to pay tribute to the other AIs.
Grab some military resources if you can, too. Each yields +68% attack/def once fully exploited, if memory serves.
Jeff Stuart -- Rally points (probably same thing) are likely to be in the free expansion pack this summer, if memory serves.
Hm, it doesn't get much faster than that.
It might be to keep the game fluid during late-game play. This way, offensive war is possible -- but both sides may lose numerous ships due to attacks and counterattacks. To assist your counterattacks, build starbases (each can get you +12 attack, +1 def, +2 speed, -1 enemy speed -- although it wouldn't surprise me if -1 enemy speed didn't stack, or was limited in doing so).
You can't stop a lease once it's started. As for economic modules, aside from the mining modules for a base on an econ resource (which boosts tax income), there are two types: trade boosters (boost value of trade route while mini-freighter is in that sector) and production (for planets in that sector). They require varying levels of research.
The "let's permit corruption and gain shorter leases" event may need to be toned down a bit as well. In one game, I got that a few times, always chose the Evil path... and was soon able to choose Mitrosoft for a *lower* total cost than outright purchasing even without taking into account any decay factor with regards to long-term payments. The benefit should perhaps be non-linear so that it only asymptotically approaches the outright-buy price, if it can even get anywhere near that.
Stranger than the "trade price versus leasing cost" would be the "perceived trade value versus benefits" issue. You'd think the AI would be more willing to trade its goods (considering that it doesn't lose the benefit, except in the case of diplomatic translators where it loses the benefit but only relative to those to whom it was traded) and more eager to get at least certain ones (because of their increased power; Aphrodisiacs and Diplo Translators carry some hefty percentiles on 'em); somewh
Build starbases with economic modules along your trade routes. Mine economic resources. Sell tech, trade goods to AIs. Go bully a rich weakling into giving you all his current treasury for 50+ turns. Don't take your incoming tribute income for granted, as it'll end some day (might be what happened in your case if it was sudden).
Judging from http://www.galciv.com/docs/undocs.html Production caps are in absolute numbers, methinks, not percentile. e.g. PQ 31 => bonus production (capacity or used production?) above 3x31=93 is penalized; if memory serves, you get additional bonus production at the square root of what it normally would be. Penalties also apply if non-bonus production > 10xPQ. I didn't notice anything about trade route boosting being capped, however, so there may still be so
Can't say I'm pleased with either the untradeable trade goods or the sudden bloating of clusters, even on tight clusters (Yay, two humongous clusters each stretching across the entire length of a Huge map. Mmm hmm. If I wanted there to be few borders and no no-man's-lands, I'd be playing Scattered.) On the other hand, fixing unloadable-saved-game bugs and assorted other obvious bugness is definitely good.
Staffa -- Trade good values appear to be altered for Normal, as well. Want to buy Diplomatic Translators, offering Aphrodisiacs and Tri-Strontium Steel, plus a few low-level techs and several colony ships plus a thousand influence points? No dice. Want to sell a trade good for, say, three low-level techs? Again, apparently a deal seems unlikely.
Hooookay. I suggest that you be on the lookout for killer robots.
For even more cheese, use an anti-matter missile instead of a dreadnought. That way, if the missile is used to hit the base (and you can surround the missile and base with your own vessels to force it to, if the AI wants to use it at all) it can't be used against you later.
Alzandrion -- It can, if you're having morale problems e.g. you just got a heavily populated world by culture conquest, but the AI destroyed *all* its improvements first. Remove some of the overcroweded folks and drop 'em on a PQ 31 paradise world.
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An Overlord of mine ran over a monster once in 1.03A57, and I think it was the red wormy kind.
Start with exploration and expansion. You've got 1000 BC for a reason; set spend rate to 100%, consider pumping up taxes, and -- since you need to crank out colony ships while doing research -- consider something like an 80-0-20 split for military/social/research. You can add the soil improvements later. You start with a survey ship, which you should use to check out nearby stars -- exploring the densest regions first, to maximize stars revealed per turn. Your colony ship should prob
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Staffa -- Heh. And, if the AIs research them, you may not even have to change your alignment. It's rather amusing, in a disturbed way, to be able to build Life Force Power with a 90+ alignment because you just bought The Dark Side off the Drengin.
Hmm. On fool, beginner and sub-normal I found it not really a problem to dominate -- at least on large maps, which probably give human players a bit of an edge due to better strategic grasp. On normal, I need to try if, say, I want to combine a massive military force with always having on-par tech and getting every trade good and galactic wonder before AIs do, even with a decent start. It's far less brutal than King of Dragon Pass, though, where you're struggling for survival -- not d
Hm. It's an odd approach, perhaps, and likely only viable on big maps where you can afford to give away a system, but in one game I actually gave a minor race a system in a corner, so it had a presence deep in my territory. That way, I could run all my trade routes in what should be a pretty safe zone. (And if some major had been sending warships in that area... well, THAT would have been seen as a declaration of war. My main worry was that a major would bully the parts of the minor
Trade can be very, very lucrative. In my current game (Normal difficulty, Huge/Tight/Common), I have a "pet" two-system minor literally in my corner. I also have ten trade routes going back and forth between it (usually no more than, hm, maybe five sectors or so), plus almost all of its trade routes go to me (and it has quite a few, as I've been good about giving it tech that adds trade routes). I then put a few econ starbases in each sector that the freighters go through, and pull do
Or, for that matter, filter by "Stardock Certified".
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MM77 -- Look at the PLANET morale, not just the global. Planet morale can be very, very skewed... I've had global average morale > 90%, and the odd planet morale of <50% -- for instance, when I just colonized a marginal planet with a couple of billion people because the colony ship slider wouldn't let me choose anything less (can easily get a 1% this way, at least briefly), or when it's placed in an opposing sphere of influence and before my own influence takes over. After all, it's t
Hm. In 1.03A.057, it seems that on the invasion screen if you push the space bar really, really early (e.g. immediately after you choose tactics) it'll hang the game. The odds stop changing, but the battle never starts...
Did you check the revenue deficit before or after it went back above -500 BC? When it dropped below, /all/ production and related expenses dropped, so if it made 5000 BC + maintenance cost, it would jump back up -- and then production expenses would resume. The other bit: might it be getting tribute from the dead? At least in 1.03A57, I've noticed that if you manage to get multi-turn tribute as, say, part of a peace deal, it continues even if that player gets removed from the game!