[quote]Their ships can be launched but their enemies can't take their planets militarily[/quote] Does it matter much if the AI does take their planets? Unless you're at war with the conqueror, the trade should continue. I have used the surround technique, for the new minors appearing later in the game who tend to get conquered before I have a proper chance to exploit them.
[quote]I sure as hell would want them exterminated[/quote] That's because you're evil.
I got about 100. Quite annoying really - it really slowed down the game, and they were pretty obsolete at the time for anything except intimidating AIs with your military rating.
Excellent bug! It seems more effective when you have only a small number of people on the transport - if you launch about 65 million people and land them, you get an extra 65 million pop every time.
Dunno. Reinstall? But if you want the default alignments: Drengin, Pure Evil. Yor, Chaotic Evil. Arceans, Neutral Toreans, Chaotic Good Altarians, Pure Good
[quote]Are you trying to tell me that you never ever quit a game that your loosing.... and then start a new game[/quote] There's nothing wrong with resigning when in a hopeless position. But that's not the same as giving up and starting again immediately just because earth is only PQ16 even though the game would probably be perfectly winnable if you gave it a try. Anyway, just because I say Ctrl-N is cheese doesn't mean I don't use it.
Where possible, I bribe with techs. It's cheaper.
[quote]Ctl-N is not a cheese or cheat.. its mearly a time saver.. to save having to go : menu: mainmenu: start new game: ok: ok:[/quote] I would say that going back to the menu is cheese too, just slower cheese. My rule of 'anything that wouldn't work on a human opponent is cheese' applies here. If it was me versus you, would you allow me to keep generating maps until I got one that gave me an advantage?
'brides'????!?
I colonise PQ12s all the time. They're don't bring much tax income, but in AP there's enough trade around it doesn't matter. With SE & HI, you can get them up to PQ 14 (15 with the 5% PQ bonus) at which point they give you no financial penalty. They produce research, population, events, ships and influence. I agree with your basic point though - with an extra +30% PQ bonus I'd be taking PQ10s...
Cheese that I use comes into two divisions. Category one: Things that wouldn't work in 'real life' Buying freighters and combat transports from the AI. I consider this cheese because it doesn't really make sense that you could sell someone's own trade products back to them at a profit, or that you could invade someone's planet with his own soldiers. Offering long term bribes I can't afford for more than one turn to gain an alliance victory. Category two: T
[quote]a massive civ-wide PQ bonus (say 100%) allows the player to merrily colonize low PQ planets [/quote] That's true of a massive bonus, but he says he only took +30% PQ. Cheating, yes, but not very effective cheating. For my own amusement, I just tried a tiny abundant maso where I gave one of the political parties +500% PQ. All the Majors chose this party. It was something of an advantage that I could colonise PQ 14 worlds that the AI ignored and turned them into something decen
[quote] don't think the AI gives you any more credit past 99 months.[/quote] The minimal testing I've done suggests this is true for buying techs, but not true for bribes.
[quote]Is CTRL-N cheese? How about 99 turn bribes? will there come a day when it is decided that those who used this cheese will be punished?[/quote] (1) Yes (2) Sort of (3) No
[quote] He uses a political party mod that gives him a huge PQ bonus. This helps him throughout the game.[/quote] Yes, but if the aliens are picking the same party (I'm not sure if there's anything to prevent them) then they'll get the same bonuses on top of their standard Maso bonuses and he won't be any better off, relatively speaking. Maybe he could have won fairly all along if he'd just kept trying... [quote]There are questionable real-world events that are not getting this muc
[quote]In my point about the PQ anomolus generation, one can back out that score as well. Is there really a difference?[/quote] Suppose I used a similar trick to give myself a +500% PQ bonus and then made it disappear before submission? Would you see a difference then? The difference is in whether you abused the modding system to give yourself an unfair advantage during the game.
You know, I'm not even convinced that Renegade's sneaky political party trick would help. If he created a party that gave the massive bonuses he describes, then the AIs would choose it too (unless he gave it some massive penalties as well). Also, there's been a lot of argument about whether Renegade should have been zeroed for doing this. But he wasn't banned for doing that. He has never been accused of doing it by anyone but himself. The accusations against him are totally different. I supp
[quote]I believe they both work as long as they aren't in the same sector and the trade route goes through both sectors containing the starbases.Dont forget to add speed bonuses to the star bases to ensure your freighters go that little bit faster.[/quote] Unless the system has changed since I last built a trade starbase, this advice is wrong. You can have loads of trade boosters in one sector and get massive trade all the time the mini-freighter is in that sector. You don't want to put spee
[quote]In conclusion I found the maso games to be quicker than crippling, easier and comparively boring, so back to crippling for a more varied, interesting game.[/quote] I'm pretty sure there's nothing easier about Maso - or less varied, for that matter. It's the same as Crippling, only the AI gets various bonuses - eg a big increase to influence - and is less willing to pay you money. There's a big luck factor involved. If the AIs start off right on your doorstep and are hassling you f
[quote]I guess maybe I'm bailing too quickly on my games[/quote] I tend to give up as soon as I start losing my good planets. But merely being behind isn't as serious as in, say, Civilisation 2. If I survive into the late game, I always win, one way or another. I'd give you a list of the techniques I use to do this, but the game's probably more interesting when you don't know the cheesy tactics that fool the AI every time. Just remember that what looks like an overwhelming AI military advant
There's a strategy forum for this kind of thing. You might want to look through it. There are lots of ways to keep up, and I don't know what exactly you're doing or what type of galaxy you're in, but a typical starting strategy is to set spend rate to 100% and 100% military production and churn out colony ships until there aren't enough planets in your area to make it worth continuing. (Buying ships early on is dangerous to your finances.) Then switch to research and go for Universal Tr
[quote]Well, due the recent events, it appears to be better tu use different maps, what you think?[/quote] I think it might be safer not to submit any game that has been played by multiple players, but there's nothing to stop us playing them.
[quote]when you reach high, you're told that you know some things that even the alien government's top officials don't know[/quote] I thought that was the message for 'advanced'? Was that the 'With esponiage spending having run into the trillions...' one?
When your survey ship goes over an Unknown anomaly, you have an chance of it boosting your current research project (by 25% of its original research requirement). High creativity improves the chance of this working. It's reasonably useful in Gigantic galaxies where there are a lot of anomalies. [Message Edited]
Yes, I suppose that's just my experience of trade. If I play in a gigantic map, I always set rare planets, so I never have 100-200 of them. I never build trade boosting SBs either. I play in games with lots of major/minor AIs, avoid fighting early wars with them, and research extra-trade-route technologies, which I then give or trade to them. Most of my trade income is from the AIs' trade routes with me.
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