The Game Starts with Fun, and Ends With Work

Try beating the game as fast as you can, rather than simply hitting the end turn button until you can. It's what keeps the game fun for me, as I develop more efficient strategies to victory. Also, try raising the difficulty level

As a suggestion, try turning off the alliance and tech victory wins if you find them boring and go for a military one instead.

As the architect of your own style, you do mostly have yourself to blame if the pace is too slow.... either that or you regenerate the map repeatedly at the start to give yourself space to settle and an immediate winning edge.

Getting ganged up on by the AI is fun if you have set yourself up nicely. I have come to love those starts that puts you smack bang in the middle of a few aggressive civs, you just know it's going to get crazy in the mid game.

Honestly, who even bothers to equip ships with survey modules? All the anomalies are gone by the time you can space the production capacity to equip ships with them.

I usually get a couple of my early scouts upgraded to survey before all anomalies are gone. What is truly worthless though, is the Galactic Guidebook, by the time I research Sensors III and build it, all anomalies are loooong gone.

What is truly worthless though, is the Galactic Guidebook, by the time I research Sensors III and build it, all anomalies are loooong gone.

Not even worth a planet tile as even with it sensors still take up hull space!!

I am sure at some point they will fix the anomalies not respawning like they used to.
Gigantic galaxies, I tend to find it's well worth building combo sensor/survey ships in the early game with a fair bit of life support - these pick up all the anomalies that the AI cant reach.

And if you team up with the Drengin at the beginning, you know you're gonna be at war with everyone

The middle / late game could use more "spice"

I suggest:

Late game tech to build missilebases to defend planets. I would love to make a few huge missilebases to protect my most precious planets. This would not alter the game much. Its just about balancing cost, hitpoints and attack/def value. Ships could shoot at them as they were ships when attacking the planet.

Mercenaries who come to you and offer to harass your enemy for a cost. The demand x amount of money each week and will use their fleet to harass freigheters and ships blonging to the enemy (in other words, the player doesnt control them).

Spacemonster/pirates/secret races who threaten the galaxy. The one who terminates them gets a reward (tech, money from all the other races or something).

Merchants offer ships for sale.

Minor races will slowly expand (if left alone in a corner they could potentially become quite big).

Stuff like this would give more life to the Galactic Universe

I agree I can "find" ways to make the end game more interesting. But in a gigantic universe, that can be 8 hours. These days, once I win (reach 1/3 to 1/2 galactic domination, and have clear eco/tech advantage), I either quit and start over, or go for the influence victory.

I usually end my games with an influence victory as well. It's similiar to Civ IV where they gave you an option for a "Domination victory" where you owned a certain % of all land tiles. It's what you take when you don't want the tedium of mopping up.

I can't agree. I find the middle of the game more interesting and intense, after the land grab has taken place and the races begin the long struggle for dominance or just survival. One thing that bugs me about this game is that the land grab unfolds very quickly while the technology advances very slowly. So basically, all the planets are colonized but their primative ships only have simple lasers. It seems skewed. Master of Orion had a more balanced, realisic rate of expansion. For that reason, when setting up a new game, I set the tech rate to high, and space the star systems further apart with less habital planets. But I still think the initial ship range is too high, and that the imperial land grab should be earned throughout the game and not just be the opening phase of the game.

Here is what I do to spice up my games:

I play a custom race called The Clartoo. They are essintially cousins of the minor race The Snathi (much like the Terrans and the Altarians). In medium to gigantic galaxies you are almost always gaurnteed (sp?) to have the Snathi pop up. Even though they are evil and I almost always go neutral I feel that the Clartoo have a bond of kinship and a responsibility to help and care for thier wayward nut hunting cousins.

As such I basically make it my task to defend and help the Snathi wherever they pop up in the galaxy. Given that all the AIs feel it is thier duty bound responsibility to crush all of the minor races under thier bootheels this makes the game much more interesting as I desperatly try to keep my evil (yet fluffy) cousins from anhilation even when they are on the other side of the galaxy.

This leads to hours of fun and the constant need to adapt to new enemies, desperate strategic problems and gives you genuine "real" feeling goals that lead to feelings of loyalty and emotional involvement and make it feel like you are really running an empire in a galaxy not just out to crush an AI in a game .

Felk the Nutty

davidnv - That is an interesting setup. You have inspired me, and I will setup my game the same way and give it a shot.

Here is what I do to spice up my games: I play a custom race called The Clartoo. They are essintially cousins of the minor race The Snathi (much like the Terrans and the Altarians). In medium to gigantic galaxies you are almost always gaurnteed (sp?) to have the Snathi pop up. Even though they are evil and I almost always go neutral I feel that the Clartoo have a bond of kinship and a responsibility to help and care for thier wayward nut hunting cousins. As such I basically make it my task to defend and help the Snathi wherever they pop up in the galaxy. Given that all the AIs feel it is thier duty bound responsibility to crush all of the minor races under thier bootheels this makes the game much more interesting as I desperatly try to keep my evil (yet fluffy) cousins from anhilation even when they are on the other side of the galaxy. This leads to hours of fun and the constant need to adapt to new enemies, desperate strategic problems and gives you genuine "real" feeling goals that lead to feelings of loyalty and emotional involvement and make it feel like you are really running an empire in a galaxy not just out to crush an AI in a game .

When I said that people are the architect of their own style.... I wasn't meaning to take it this far!!

Seriously though Felkethar - respect! Creating your own in game goals, building races with character will definitely give you a longer period of enjoyment. Sandboxes are meant to be just that, things you shape and create in the way you want them. I hope my Diplosquirrels get to bump into your Clartoo some day.... just be careful of your stash of nuts as they have a tendency to rob a race bare in the diplomacy screen!

I hope my Diplosquirrels get to bump into your Clartoo some day.... just be careful of your stash of nuts as they have a tendency to rob a race bare in the diplomacy screen!

Oh the Clartoo are quite capable of holding thier own at the trade table. I have maxed out starting diplomacy. Think anime fluffy animal cute with a twitching tail (thats how I always imagine the Clartoo after they pick up the Majesty tech), I mean even the tight-fisted, penny-pinching Terrans can't resist that!

Not to mention if you are looking for a challenge... lets see you defend a minor race on the other side of a gigantic galaxy before you've barely finished researching (or robbing another empre blind ) basic laser techs. It also forces you to work all angles, tech just to keep up and specific techs to do what you have to do to help or save your fluffy kin, diplomacy because I have had to make alliances (and sometimes alliance between people who just don't want have anything to do with each other) just to keep people off my back to keep the little guys from being swallowed up, and supply and strategy to keep enough ships and star bases so you can actually GET to the other side of the galaxy and the economy to do so. Couple that with having all intellegent or higher AIs and you are in for a rough fight

But then again thats what happens when you try and grab my nuts

Felk the Insane

My opinion is the same as the opening post.  I attribute it to playing to win the game, knowing all future conditions and tech needed. Try to back off this and just focus on what would realistcally make sense for a race to do if it was exploring the heavens *without* the foreknowlege of how it will end, or at least progress. Heck, I just play for the fun of it and am not concerened if I win or lose.  My goal is to develop a style of play that mimics reality in my opinion. Whats my next immediate goal and wha do I need to achieve it. Hopefully, if I do meet comptetion, I have developed in a balanced enough way to respond well and prevail.  The game may not be biased for this style, but its fun trying.

I kind of wish the game had a total random mode where you knew nothing of who or what was really out there. True, I can set up that game kind of, but I really know.

I kind of wish the game had a total random mode where you knew nothing of who or what was really out there. True, I can set up that game kind of, but I really know.

Correct me if I'm mistaken but I believe they are adding a few such features to the game in 1.1. Random numbers and types of enemies and not being able to see realms of influence till you actually meet them and such. I'm not sure about having a random universe as far as system type and habital planets and such but I think so.

Felk the Helpful

Am I the only one who when he sees the Snathi expects them to break out into a black and white PSP commercial?

"Come Out & Play!"

"I cant, I'm researching sensors!"

"But now there's Sensors IV!"

"Say Whaaaat?"

Ok the squirrel thing is funny. I've always thought those little fluff balls have galactic domination in their hearts. This just confirms it.

I keep the mid to late game interesting by seeing how many turns I can keep all the other empires at war with each other. I get a sadistic giggle going every time I manage to get one AI to attack the ally of a very powerful empire and then laugh at them when they beg me for help as the larger one that they would have never attacked on their own starts making swiss cheese out of their fighters.

Then I make it my mission to show them true power and march one fleet as far into their territory as I can destroying all ships and starbases it can along the way. Then I park it outside their homeworld and give all the ships to someone else... usually someone they are at war with. This is of course after I've made peace with them and gotten a nice planet, tech, or wad of BCs for not destroying their home world with my fleet.

They need to add a tech after terraforming called genesis bomb. It would allow you to turn class 0 planets into habitable ones. Of course, it would need to be very expensive in both research and production of the ships carry it. This would certainly create a second planet grab and result in a lot more tension in the later part of the game.

Try winning by conquest instead. That is what takes up a large part of my mid-games.

neat idea Sorael although Genesis Bomb probably would be like copyrighted or some such thing.

Ok the squirrel thing is funny. I've always thought those little fluff balls have galactic domination in their hearts. This just confirms it.

Next time your in-game read the species description of the Snathi. "These guys are E-V-I-L. Rumor has it that in the a desperate final attempt to finish off the Arnor the Dread Lords created a race of war loving deamons!..."

I didn't get that exactly right but it hilarious!

Felk the Laughing

I've never been able to just mash the turn button and have my economy magically start piling in money.What is your secret?The fun thing about htis game is the dynamic starting point.Who got the best real estate?Who is my neighbor?How powerful are they going to be?How far away from me are they?There are alignments and things that keep you on your toes especially at the higher difficulties.

it is fun when you start getting your economy in order,and are just about ready to metaphorically kick some butt.And I do feel a sense of accomplishment when my economy stars humming,wondering if the next war will jeapordize my freighters.

I helped the Snathi once and they ended up having an "empire" of 4 planets. They were quite aggresive those armed rodents....

i always become the advocate for whatever minor races i find... when the Arceans (usually) or whoever start to harass them, i give them techs for self-defense, and bargain for peace on their behalf.

for galaxy setup, i like lots of planets and lots of habitable ones, so to make ship range more meaningful i set to tight clusters and use a larger map. this creates large voids on the map that either take life support or cleverly placed starbases (built with constructors that have life support, of course) to cross.

if stars are evenly distributed, it makes it easiser to use habitable planets as rest-stops, making starbases and life support less important.

i suppose this could be countered by having fewer planets and fewer habitable ones, too, but i like making the land-grab last for as long as possible.

maybe i'll keep my galaxy size and tight clustering, but turn down the number of planets, next game... to see how much more of a difference that makes. it should certainly reduce the mid-game micromanagement burden!

Speaking of space monsters... I'd love to have an option for dreadlords on the map. Especially if they just show up on the edge of the map with a ton of battleships and troop transports in the late game. Should really shake up the detente that happens near the end of the game.