Galaxy Setup, Custom Maps and Scenarios

Anyone?

I am wondering about that too

I would also like answers to those questions.

Seeing a pattern developing.....

I see a pattern and cannot see an answer.

I also would like a little help.

Or is it like falling through a dimentional rift. You only know what you get when you arrive.

MD

On #2, the scenarios, or rather the main campaign, is an interesting challenge, and quite different from what you'd find in a normal game. You spend most of the campaign fighting against an opponent with vastly superior technology, which requires a very different approach. A couple of the scenarios in particular are especially tough, and very satisfying to win.

On #3, a larger galaxy and more opponents does not necessarily make for a more difficult game. The human player seems to benefit the most from very large maps; the AI is surprisingly good at short-range colonization (they routinely beat me to nearby worlds), but not so good at long range colonization. The Medium map seems to be about perfect for the AI; Large is just a bit big (I can usually find uncolonized corners) and Huge is a human colonizer's dream.

I think fewer AI opponents may actually be more difficult. When there are numerous AI opponents, they balance themselves out for the first part of the game, until one of them gets an edge, but usually by then I've outgrown the leader by a substantial margin. That doesn't happen when there are relatively few opponents.

In short, the Huge/Nine opponents setup may not actually be the most difficult (I hope whoever's doing the coding for the Metaverse is listening); the usual "expand like mad and play the AI off against each other" strategy works like a charm for that format. If you really want a difficult game, I'd suggest going with Medium size against a lone Drengin opponent, or Large against a Drengin opponent and a Yor opponent, playing a Good race, of course. If you want even more of a challenge, try playing as a race that starts in the corner (like the Thalan) against a race that starts in the middle (like the Terran or the Drengin). I haven't tried any of those setups, but then I'm not a glutton for punishment .

Thanks for the insights.
By now, I too get the feling that a it is easier on a large map with all nine opponents. If I manage to survive the first Drengin attack wave (playing as humans) all my other friends/good races beat the crap out of them. Sometimes I pity the poor Drengin. Always starting out to conquer with the most advanced weapons techs and suddenly they are fighting on all fronts for bare survival. And I just sit here with all the other races in good relations going for alliance or tech victory.

However I like to play games with all nine races. It would be hard to chose wich one to leave behind, because I like the diversity and to see how they all react.
For Difficulty I think fewer races is better.
I like to play with 4 opponents. Two being the Drengin and Yor and the other two their old enemies the Torians and Iconians. And me in the middle choosing the good or the dark side...

What I am still searching for is the "perfect" galaxy setup regarding number of stars, habitale planets etc.

@ Z42: Are some races fixed in their starting positions (middle/cornor). Didn't notice that. I mostly played humans so far. But now that I think of it the Thalans do seem to start in the corners all the time.

I think fewer AI opponents may actually be more difficult.

Having tried from 9 to 1 opponents, the fewer opponents u have the harder. I played me (Yor) vs Altarians, suicidal, 1.11, tech trading off, small galaxy and got beaten to a pulp, ouch...

I personally liked the campaign but it does lack atmosphere, a cohesive storyline and is really, really hard in some places. Its very different from a sandbox game.

Not played any of the individual custom scenarios yet, been too busy playing metaverse games and completing the campaign. Any of them particularly good, worth playing. Please someone tell us?

One bugbear I have got, why, oh why can't yr campaign scenario scores be saved to the metaverse? This is why I have not played any of the individual custom scenarios yet because they do not add to my metaverse scores. Any chance of fixing, allowing this to happen stardock?

I agree fewer opponents and sammer Galaxies up to Large have played harder for me. Also Playing against races of opposite alignment good or evil. In terms of Stars: rare everything and loose clusters makes it harder for you to use starbases to cover multiple planets and boost manuf. and research. This tends to even things up too as noone can get more than 1 extra planet. It also make choosing tade goods or wonders a trade off as you dont have many tilees to spare.

Changing your relations to poor or worse also would make for a harder start I suppose but I have not tried this.

What I have tried to achieve but failed so far is to get an evenly matched game where the AI opponets (<=3 at the start)
manage to develop at about the same rate in terms of economy. I really want to try and get an all out WAR where it is going to be a close contest. I play on either painful or crippling. So far it has always developed such that it is always me, plus 1 or 2 other sides in the best postion after about 30 turns.

I have not tried against a sole AI yet though as I want other races in the game and as stated above trading becomes pointless unless you want a culture victory or something. Maybe I'll give it a go though because I dont enjpoy loosing out to the AI if I need to put them higher than Painful as I know the AI has all the advantage. A tougher game on a level playing field is ideal