Theres a sweet spot according to what I have read in Frogboys posts about scoring. At a certain point in the now or not so distant future, you will exceed the spot determined to be your optimum point and start losing points instead. I believe that this will be determined by the planet/star/habitation settings you make and maybe population bonuses.

Good hunting,

Suralle Straykat
Kat Lord @ Large

Okay, I guess that is it but I wondered if I was missing something. My games are decided in 5-7 years. So the people that get these very high scores are just pushing end turn lots of times? I would rather get the win and start another game.

My last post did not show so I will try again, sorry if it double posts.

I play on gigantic and suicidal now and the games take longer then 10 years. Many times you find you are up against an opponent who out produces, has more money and military and the only advantage you have is tech because you traded to get everything. When this happens the game slows down as you slowly take over a system at a time. With all their ships and the ability to replace them it does take a while to win. I still think 45 is too long. Maybe they should put something in the code to score a conquest at a certain % point (like 80%) and count that as your score (don't tell us what it is). This way the end turn person does not get anything for all the time wasted.

Well, the time for games longer than a dozen years definitely is over with 1.1, and that's a good thing.

How to get high scores? High difficulty level, high population population count (a.k.a. large number of habitable planets), military victory and don't take too much time, then you'll be fine.

Does the number and strength of military vessels you have play a part in the scoring ?

When it is obvious I am going to win, I usually disband some of my fleet, to save money, and time.
Should I keep them ?

most of the military score is based on victories, defeats,

Actually not.

I'm not sure, otherwise I'd have said something.
Truth is that your military score increases even when there is no war at all and you're not even building ships. My guess is that the military rating ( = the standing army/navy) is the most important thing.

I guess the "trick" is to maximize the number of habitable planets, so you max pop and economy, and to play on Suicidal (if only I could do that!). I've seen elsewhere that it might be better to slow down tech advances so the game plays out longer.