I'd like to see Smuggling tech change (is it an official tech in 1.0.4 now?). Instead of another trade route, I'd like to see it retain one trade route when you're at war. Now that's evil. :D
I'm playing at Crippling (one below Maso) and tech brokering fine. It just takes a few games in 1.0.4 to know what techs the AI will pay for. Being evil seems to really hurt, too, unless you have good Influence. And I usually will not sell a tech for less than 60% research price. I can wait for him to accumulate some cash, when he'll pay more. By the way, if you keep the AIs' cash low they won't Purchase any Trade Goods. This is a very GOOD thing!!
They stop researching because their research money is going to you. I definitely broker the early techs, but later on I go to war and, uh--research by alternative means. Pwahahahahahaaaa. One thing I've noticed: an AI with lots of cash in hand offers much more for techs than an AI nearly broke. So it's good to drive them into the ground at first, but then give them a breather. If they're over +600bc they tend to pay more than it would cost to research it.
I tend to keep Transports in orbit a lot. Those deter AI Transports almost as well as Defenders. Zero maintenance, and lets you shuffle around population. Actually, I encourage AI Transports all I can. That's so kind of him to depopulate his planets for me. Muahahahahaha.... And all it takes is a Corvette to blow them away. By the time Combat Transports come out I've got Frigates, and now I get to blow away 5 billion a whack. :D But those 5 billion died for a good cause--they ga
I agree with those Trade Goods, but I'm also really liking Eyes of the Universe. Once I've got Frigates on his home turf, it's a turkey shoot. :)
Thanks, man. Suhhh-weeet!!
I can't stand defensive ships. All that maintenance going to ships you're not using. Get Grav Accelerators and go offensive. Get some experience. Cause trouble. :)
Frigates are invariably the mainstay of my fleet. Gosh I love Frigates. Combine with War Party, Grav Accelerators, Eyes of the Universe, and some stat-boosting, and you dominate. I take down Battleships very regularly. 2 games ago I took out a Dreadnaught. Big reason I like them, though, is they take down Battleaxes in orbit and unenhanced Starbases early in the game. Once you've cleaned out an AI of all his starships, he usually sues for peace on pretty good terms. That usually puts the
Sweet trick with the multiple-transport/Invasion Tactics move. Do I hear a Tidal Wave coming? The Colony ship capacity doesn't bother me, because you lose the ship the minute you use it. I'm playing around with unconventional Colony ship tactics right now. Such as: 1) Redistributing population within a multiple-planet star system. Simply train a Colony ship and launch (which draws pop equally among the planets) and land on the high-PQ you want to beef up (which populates
Do Constructors built at Shipyards result in Starbases with more HP?
You get 1/3 free production from the Power Plants/Manufacturing Centers. 1 free production is as good as a free 1bc in economy, if not better. That makes Manu. Center break-even at just 12 IU's production, and Fusion/Anti-matter break-even earlier because you should add the econ bonus AND free production bonus together. Granted, in a happening Star Sector, Constructors are probably better, but one Constructor is 200--Manu Ctr. is 100, Fusion is only 50. Grab the easy stuff first and use tha
I'm experiencing a number of bugs: 1) Late-game research is still not right. The label at the bottom that says how long it takes to get a tech is unreliable. I've had research down at 0% and it says "Next month," and I've had it say "2 months" and I'll get it next month. If you save & reload it seems to correct itself. (which probably makes it hard for Stardock to reproduce) 2) I got a +56% Starship bonus for picking an evil ethical choice, and got no bonus. Frigates I m
The worst part about AI declaring war on you is he destabilizes you. That really sucks. And then there's the time the Drengin opened up 4 trade routes with me and then declared war. What a moron....
I'm still on 1.0.3 but I'm getting the same problem with AI getting techs before the prerequisites. The REAL doozie I just experienced, though, was my newly-conquered star system having 450 billion population. Billion--with a b. I invaded a star system with 3 planets, 20bil+ population using Information Warfare. Post-war, instead of pop 145 on all 3 planets, as I would expect, it was 145000 on each. Talk about exploitable....
I didn't know that about the pop growth cap. That one's huge. I get 200/0.03=6666, which basically means that any planet over 6.5 billion hits their cap regardless of morale (more or less). That has some serious strategy ramifications, if it's still true. Maybe we should go after those class-14's after all, to farm pop.
If trading Trade Goods is nerfed then they're not really Trade Goods anymore. :(
Paul A, you're right about about only really worrying about 100 morale on Earth and the other important planets. You can crank up tax rate and bombard your important planets with propaganda. Your other planets aren't as important, but then again they're not as populated so don't have the morale problems either. What other people have said is true, too: Earth very often doesn't end up your highest PQ planet. Especially when playing Evil. I will gladly depop Earth and make a large
Dreadnaughts are gas guzzlers. :)
There's a workaround for the planet vulterage, as you cleverly put it. Gift the AI with a Treaty of Attack against your victim. He'll think you're doing him a favor. :) Also, another "cheese" tactic (I don't think it is): usually blockading resources/planets isn't necessary. All you need to do is slow the AI down while you race your own Constructor/Colony at it. If you put just 3 ships in his way, you slow down his ship by a square every turn. If you have 4 (sometimes 5), you
So the AI cringes at 100-attack AMM's more than Dreadnaughts? Sweet. Thx for the info. I guess that also means crank out Star Fighters as an early deterrent.
My problem with low tax rate is it renders your economic improvements useless. After the initial colonization phase I usually lock in at 35%. Later I'll try to nudge it up to 40% and then 50%, as my +morale and +econ improvements really start to kick in on the key planets. The not-so-good planets I can help out with a little propaganda, and/or load Transports with them. Nothing like a few Transports to do some Tech "research" for you. :)
Best thing with Planetary defenses either way is to build them up to "Next Month" and wait till you're about to need them. Save on the maintenance. Same with Shipyards, or pretty much anything you don't really need right away yet you gotta build something because you're going hard Social.
I'm going to recommend the exact opposite as some people here: keep your tax rates low and get the 100 morale. 100 morale means population growth, and pop growth means more taxes and more colonies. Because you have only a few planets, you can micromanage your propaganda to get the 100 morale, too. Build colony ships on the planets you're having morale problems with; that'll save you money pleasing them, and those are the planets you can afford to de-pop anyway. Scout not only for ye
I've tried that trick before, sell the AI ships and immediately blow them away for experience. :) I've found experience isn't that big a deal, because ships get outdated before too long. Better to stay at peace and stick him with the maintenance costs. I pull that trick with Battleaxes all the time, on Intelligent. Sell some faraway AI Battleaxes, at a profit. He gets stuck with maintenance costs on ships that really aren't of much use. And it really confuses everybody diplomatically. :)
I just finished my game with +7PQ, and I will say one thing: it's the only game where I got the +16PQ event. I'm on the lookout now to see if that event only happens with +PQ. Even with it, though, I say thumbs-down to +PQ ability. Much better stuff out there. +70% Pop growth gets my vote.
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