I was researching Improved Environment Control. When I had not yet completed research (it was "Next Month") it showed up on my trade screen with the Caronids, and I traded it for various things. However, it did *not* show up on the trade screen when I tried to trade it to any majors. The next month, I got the "research completed" screen and suddenly I could trade it with all the majors.
#4: Tiny/rare/incredible is the easiest masochistic game possible, imo. #9: Diplomacy is still a very effective pick. I often go +80 diplo on my masochistic games because I do so much trading. You do a LOT of tech-for-tech trading at masochistic. You'll also want to be able to play the AIs off against each other, and to have your gifts to the AI count for a lot. [Message Edited]
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Yes, I wish there were more. In my "good" games I'm often not getting enough random events to get me all the way to chaotic good, much less pure good. It's quite annoying.
Go to higher levels, it will get harder. I think experienced TBS players should play their first game on normal or maybe bright, then move up if it's easy. On bright, the AI is still handicapped: it has production penalties compared to you and also is not as smart as it could be. Once you get to Incredible it's quite hard. It's certainly possible to grab more star systems than the AI, but not a 2:1 ratio as is generally possible at lower levels. Incredible AIs will never give you money
Lifewish: I'm in the middle of a maso game right now and I can easily see at least five unimproved AI starbases that have been that way for years. Some of these can be justified for scouting purposes, but some of them cannot.
Actually, Ralegh, I had the Torians, who were just Friendly, offer me Dreadnaught Tech for something useless like Virus Elimination once. This was on Masochistic. I have no idea what the AI was thinking but needless to say I was quite pleased to accept. Your allies will usually join you in war, and that alone makes alliances worthwhile in some situations.
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I stole Overlord tech from the Torians yesterday on Masochistic, so it's definitely not impossible. Perhaps I just got very lucky though. It wasn't their last tech, they had one or two other techs that I didn't.
I got over 60 once, with some lucky events and a bunch of improvements. I think the maximum possible would be about 70, with a precursor event, a +PQ colonization event, and all the improvements.
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If you find it boring, don't play that way =) Personally I don't play with more than one starbase in any sector, except of course to harvest resources.
He's referring to the tech description "We are the Alpha and Omega!" For Beyond Human or something like that.
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They're going to insert a cinematic within the expansion.
Yeah, tiny/maso/rare is easy (for maso)since you can quickly pick off races with only one planet, and most races do only have one planet. Once two AIs go to war against each other, they don't adequately defend their homeworlds, and you can sneak in a vastly inferior fleet and take over their homeworld in one turn. You never have to deal with their actual military. Something that I've been finding useful in the early game (best on large maps) is when I'm tech whoring early in the game I
How much did you have to control-N to get that start?
Are you allowing yourself to build culture starbases outside your sector?
The strategic AI could be improved, too. When I go to war, I prepare. I move ships into position near key targets but out of sensor range, I put defensive ships on vulnerable starbases and planets, etc. Only when everything is ready do I declare war, and it is short and devastating--I try take out the AI's most important starbases and planets within the first couple turns of fighting. In short, I do a lot of damage as the war starts and can often land a crippling blow before any sort of resistan
If you have excess colony ships after colonization, just bring them back to an already colonized star. You can add the population in the ship to a world you've already colonized--just have it travel to the star and then click on the planet that you want to add population to. (You lose the ship by doing this.)
There have been lots of suggested ways to deal with waste. I think I read that the difficulty in implementing any of the many suggested systems is in teaching the AI to use it properly. Personally the system I would like most is for the governors to each have their own set of sliders. Your planets' differences would actually matter--you could have a research governor in charge of specialized research colonies with research improvements, and a "ships" governor in charge of ship-building
I've been playing masochistic. You can never get large tributes out of the AI at that level, for tech or trade good or anything else. It is still essential to trade for techs--indeed, you need to do it constantly, otherwise you'll never keep up--but you can't be a "tech broker" as he put it. [Message Edited]
Altarians: pure good Torians: chaotic good Arceans: neutral Yor: chaotic evil Drengin: pure evil
The strategy forum is sparsely populated, unfortunately.
I've sued for peace with the Draginol then a couple turns later been at war again. So at least one minor races can declare war, though the Draginol are of course a very very special case.
Yeah, the AI gets quite stingy at the highest difficulty levels in 1.04. So don't become too dependent on this strategy if you plan to move up to harder games or you will have to unlearn everything your previous experiences will have taught you.
Heh, that sounds like work. I was hoping Brad would just tell us. I might not keep playing maso anyway. I feel like in order to have a chance I have to viciously exploit any AI flaws that I can find--tech trading for example--which makes me focus on the fact that I'm playing against a bunch of dumb computer programs rather than letting myself get caught up in the quest to wrest control of the galaxy from hostile alien empires. It's just not as fun to me. My hope is that this will get
Thanks! Since it's probably been at least fifteen minutes since someone said this, I'll reiterate that we all really appreciate the support you give this game.
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The most important bug to me is the unreliable research times. This techs without prerequisites issue gets second. I definitely agree that the issue exists, rather than being a figment of our imaginations. I noticed it completely independently of this thread, but never bothered to post about it since I had assumed it was being dealt with.