And it would be kind of imbalanced. Any race that needs low class planets could just use mass drivers or whatever to knock down any planet to an eden-style place for them...it's much harder to increase planet quality.
Funny how some people said the AI in SMAC couldn't handle the late game. I actually had more problems then, because I just stopped caring about playing well once the initial rush was over. I knew that crawlers were a good idea, I might do a better job with the formers than the automatation...but that was just too much work :) I never actually lost a game, but that was because I quit before it became an issue. Of all the games of this type I've played, GalCiv seems to handle the late gam
What's your population compared to the drengin?
I'm pretty sure that morale improvements are worth building, at least the most efficient ones. Better morale - more taxable population - you get more effect out of your economy improvements.
I usually just let my ships sit around. They're good for keeping your military rating up and ensuring you won't get squeezed for tribute.
Actually there was a magic: the gathering game by Microprose. Have a look: http://www.the-underdogs.org/game.php?id=1550 Cool game, but it's hard to make it work on new PCs.
Why does everyone call Heroes 4 braindead? What exactly is the problem? Granted I've only played the campaign a little but I just can not get the hang of this game, the AI seems pretty damn good at building up his forces. The game never really grabbed me though, so I can't say I mastered or even got any good at it. Just curious.
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You're talking like the way the AI values the theory techs make sense. It doesn't. To take Defense theory - it's easier to trade for deflectors or shields than defense theory, and the opportunity to research that is the only benefit defense theory gives. you even get a ship type from them! Oh, and I suspect that the AIs trades between itself like they trade with you, when THEY initiate the deal. I've seen the Drengin offer to trade Battleship tech 1 for 1 with some silly social tech.
Two questions: 1.Does +espionage ability also help destabilization? 2.Could someone PLEASE say something concrete about how much of an effect destablization has? If you max your spending and keep in maxed the whole game, will you be able to mess up a civ completely at some point?
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There's something wacky about some of the theory techs. It's almost impossible to trade for them, especially industrial theory. I've seriously had to pay less for Shields than industrial theory. Solution: Research them instead. It'll take 1 turn or so.
The techs that give you new types of offensive ships have a crazy value in trade. It's almost never worth it to trade for them.
I have seen the AI build culture starbases in my sector, but that was a slow buildup, and pre-cultural palace. In general AIs design starbases in a very strange way. For example, in my last game I checked what modules were actually installed, and it was common to see starbases with +15 defense, but the base +5% mining bonus, and culture mods of all things. This was deep in the AI's territory, as far away from anyone as possible.
It's easier to start a trading empire if you have trading bonuses. I've done that my last two games. Everyone were strangely friendly both times. I think it's better for the AI to trade with your or something. Of course, military is a big part of the game that can't be ignored(I was forced to rush for transporters and starfighters my last game because I lost the colonization race. I took over a minor civ's worlds. No longer very good for trading, but they give excellent real estate :)), but
If you have 2 advantage factor and the enemy has 1 you'll kill around 2 times more troops than you lose. Soldiering bonuses from tech and elsewhere matter a lot, also the special options like Mass driver and Tidal *something*, have a big impact. One thing to keep in mind about the special options is that they have no negative effects on the planet unless you win.
Military resources give you increased military stats. Max hp, attack, defense.
I had a huge problem with maintenance until I stopped colonizing marignal planets(12-13 Maybe even 14.) that really can't support themselves. I build like Valamir, except that I only use social spending in bursts(when my colony number will be stable for a while, or I absolutely need to implement an improvement), so there's not that much money spent on pointless things. I like to have 100% spending on one category. Gives results faster and it's very easy to keep track of everyth
I have a sneaking suspicion that technologists suck. being able to pump more money into research(that IS what +research does isn't it? No free research?) really isn't that good.
I keep getting scores in the 300 range. I once got 630, but I have no idea what I did different that time. My latest game was on painful difficulty(all races set to Genius), Medium size galaxy. Really fun game, I had several wars, once in the starfighter era, out of pure necessity, because the Arceans dominated from the very beginning(They had LOTS of good planets. Nobody else had a chance. I wouldn't either if I hadn't taken a class 31 planet before he could develop it much.) <br
Wow. No idea it went so high. To think I went to war using starfighters my last game just to get a class 31 planet from the arceans...(I won too, and the arceans didn't have transporter tech yet, so no real retaliation. Muahahahaha :))
About the Stellar vision thing: It might not be neccessary to see where all starbases/ships are, but it would be VERY nice if you could always see where the resources were once you'd scouted them. Without any kind of tech. It's just silly that they vanish from the map once they get taken. I sometimes forget where my own starbases are!
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picks = abilities (no idea where "picks" came from.)
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War party: +50% hit points - Same effect through picks: 5 Technologists: +20% research +1 sensors - Same effect through picks: 3 etc... I suppose you could say it's just another difficulty setting, but it seems a bit weird to me.
Going all out on the military picks will probably enable you to rush against a civ without them(I have managed to win a war with starfighters, but that was my second game at sub-normal.) But I have to admit that I don't bother with it, the transports are just too damn slow at that point.
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Qualification: I had the ISO version by Fairlight, not the rip by CLASS. If you have the rip the full version might work fine for you.
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Well, I pirated the game before buying it(MOO3 syndrome for me too actually :)) and I never had any problems. You don't give the warez guys enough credit.