I have never seen the final opponent surrender. I think they will only surrender when there are at least 3 majors left. That would be pretty cheesy to win the game due to a surrender, even if it would be less painful.
Yep, you are basically giving them a loan. The aliens seem to value trades over 15-20 months the best. I usually use 20 months for anything I'm paying them for. To make serious money, you need to go for trade. I usually pick my trade partners mainly by their military level, adjusted for how much they like me. If there are 3 big military guys, I will send my next freighter to whichever one likes me the least. Of course, they get money from this too, so you need to keep them at war w
Missions 3 and 5 would not end for me, because the Altarians took out the opponents by flipping their worlds. Apparently this didn't meet the victory conditions, even though there were no more enemies on the map. That's what I get for trying to play on Cakewalk! I upped it to normal and won with no problems. I saw multiple examples of morality problems in the info screens- "string not found", switching to the good or bad interfaces with only one good/bad pick (40-45 or 55-60 range) a
OK, I think I'm going to have to fix that Wraith. In my last game, the aliens finally figured out that it's the best ship to build. They really opened a can on me! Fortunately, I was nearing the end of my conquests, and was able to outlast them.
Yep. You can post games on random maps, but you can't post games on pre-made maps yet. Those will have their own mini-metaverses.
Arturus, my starbase had been there for many years before it wouldn't allow me to enter that sector. I've had this kind of thing happen before, but they always fixed themselves on a save/reload. This one doesn't fix itself.
Sorry, Cari, now that I've reported it, my savegames no longer do that. It must have been fixed by a reboot/reload. I have a savegame that won't load, but I think it's a Beta 2 with a rally point. All my Beta 3's work fine. I'll keep an eye out for it. New bug: I think the Wraith HP is supposed to be 80, not 800. The Paladin is 80 hp, and about the same price. The way it is, the Wraith is more powerful than an Overlord, and costs 1/3 as much. Possible Logistics bug: My
Where can I get 1.19? Stardock Central only lists 1.13 and AP Beta 3 for me. ~SDC~
Now that I've played a few games with all 7 races at Incredible, I figured I'd start a new disussion. By the way, it's called Obscene while you are starting the game, but it's called Suicidal when you are posting a Metaverse score. The first big wrench thrown in the works is the new Logistics limitation. Basically, it makes having large numbers of starbases very expensive. When you are building a new starbase, you have to pay an increasing amount of money based on how many st
I don't know if this bug has been reported yet, but I can't add any planets to the bargaining deal in the diplo screen. This always results in a CTD.
My game was in the second beta. I have not destroyed any stars. I have placed some rally points, but haven't directed any ships to them. I played a previous game and did not use any rallypoints and had the same problem. Unfortunately, I did not save that game. But I could start another and replicate it, I think. I tried to email my savegame but the message bounced because my email was unknown ([email protected]). A couple other bug reports: It appears that either th
I tried playing and everything worked fine at first. However, I cannot load a saved game, because I always get a CTD just as the progress bar reaches 100%. This has happened both loading from in-game and loading from the initial menu. I can send the save if needed. I had 1.13, then installed the first beta, then installed the second beta, if it makes any difference.
Wombat- I don't think your social project money gets transferred to the new project. If someone builds a wonder before you get it, you just lose all that saved production. If you notice when you switch projects away from one that's half done, you can come back to it later and it's still half done. The new one starts out again at zero.
Yep. Right before the alpha strike, I go though the diplo screen and count the number of planets for the species in question. Then I make sure I have that many terror stars on my ship list. If so, I have accounted for all the planets. If not, I have to search the map to see which little punk planet I missed. You REALLY don't want to miss any if you are mortgaging your entire future on the one strike.
That's usually the case, but since I usually play without a military, the game can get much harder all of a sudden when the 2nd to last major dies or surrenders. Then the last major has nothing better to do than whomp on me. If he's ahead far enough in military, I can't make large enough stacks of AMMs to kill his Excaliburs, and he eventually kills me. There are also a few random events that can change things quickly, even when you think you have the game won. In Maso, reall
My trading policy is to send freighters to the majors with the largest military. I need the diplomatic edge with those guys to make sure they don't whomp on me. This is especially important if they are of opposite alignment. I never waste trade routes on minors. However, I have found that in some games the Carinoids will buy tech. And sometimes the Kwisilians will buy tech. Of course, the newbies always will buy techs, but they start with everything, so it might take a while to ge
I like the idea of making a 1 module per turn limit for any starbase. That would help the AI defend against terror stars and culture bombs. Of course, he would also have to be competent at controlling warships in the area, but at least this would give him a chance. If you combine this with having to actually pay for terror stars, the alpha strike setup would take longer and might not work every time. I still say your morality should be affected by use of terror stars!
I've been playing abundant gigantic for quite a while. It is very difficult, with most of the major decisionmaking occurring in the diplomacy screen. For that reason, I usually start with Speed +1 and everything else in diplomacy. I prefer to play scattered so that I won't have to build extra starbases for range. I would think that clusters would be harder for the player, but I suspect that the human player is better at dealing with the range limitations than the AI. However, the AI gets th
I tried this method, and was surpised how well it works. I hadn't realized that the metaverse scores have NOTHING to do with the rest of the scoring system, which led me to believe that building a large empire actually gave more points. To that end, I have played with abundant habitable planets on almost every game. It is MUCH easier playing with rare planets. My habit was the opposite of Maxtipherous. I think the next version of GC needs a fix for the terror star alpha strike probl
Another thing that can cause a big change in cash flow is if you trade a pile of techs to someone for cash payments over time. I usually trade for 20 years, since the AI will give much more money that way. But when the 20 years run out, you better be paying attention, or your economy will fall into the red.
I usually leave the AI at default, so I can keep them straight. The main thing you have to do is prevent alliances between the good guys and the bad guys. If a lot of them are good, or a lot are bad, it's hard to cause enough wars to prevent any alliances. I find that Maso is all about balancing the other superior players against each other. If one ever gets out in front, things aren't looking too good.
You are right about almost all of that, but if you promise pay them money, you WILL pay them the money. It might not make sense that you're paying to someone who doesn't exist, but apparently their banker still collects for them...
Yep, you have to keep them at war with each other, so they can only trade with you. It really helps your diplo rating if you are supporting their whole economy. Not to mention, it really helps your economy. Essex has a good point about the 1 influence gift. I think every time you give a gift, the AI "thinks" about whether he should increase his relations towards you. If you have lots of trade with him, good diplo rating, etc., he might increase the rating. I have had several AIs increase u
The Draginol event made my last game much easier to win. I had 80% of the galaxy and was slowly culture-bombing my way to victory when he showed up. He gave me 165000 bc/turn for 50 turns for peace. That sure made things easy! I have seen the "artifact of incredible power" event a few times, but it never really seems to do anything. Those losers keep on losing even when they find the artifact. Never seen any dread lords or sharks.
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The trade strategy I use is to colonize a planet in the same sector with a minor I want to help (preferably Alexians or Carinoids). Then I build all my freighters there and send them all to the same minor. Since your trade ships are always in the same sector, you can build a few starbases with trade bonuses. Even though the trade route is short, with all the bonuses stacked, it's worth more money. And it's all going to your best pal, in a well-defended sector. That way he also has more mone