Expectations of difficulty

from Stardock Forums
Greetings all,

I'm a bit concerned about my first total disasters tonight. I've played about 7-8 games so far. All previous games have been Fool and Beginner with various numbers of AIs, all on tiny or small maps.

As I suspected, the AIs simply drooled on themselves offering not even a hit of competition. Minor civs and events were 100x more deadly.

So, I kick it up to Normal against all the AIs, on a Small map. Ouch. All the AIs were developing everything at at least 4x the best I could do. I stuck it out for a while trying to find something that I had done wrong, but no luck. :sniff!:

I expected the AI to cheat (overproduction) at the top two difficulty settings as I had read on some previous thread, and perhaps it does only there. Were my expectations off that far?

I guess I need some opening tactics for real levels. If anyone has any suggestions, or a link to a thread where this has been covered, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks,
PJP
167 views 3 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
The only thing I've got handy link-wise is a thread on another message board about this topic: http://www.gonegold.com/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=2;t=011881 The conversation gets rather derailed, but you might find the first 3 or 4 posts interesting. Check out the Strategies forum here as well (link should be on your left)... I'll take a quick look over there in a second and see if anything useful jumps out at me. :)

- Ash

~SDC~
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
Thanks much Ash. I should have been looking for such a forum. :-)

I did find a quote from Frog on another thread: "As many of the higher ranked players can tell you, it is not terribly difficult to out expand the AI and control more of the galactic resources than the AI even at higher levels. It's a matter of knowing how to use the leases and trading for money."

I figured after restarting a copule times that I might have to mortgage the future to fast buy the extra 2-4 colony ships to claim nearby systems, but after that I just can't keep up with all things at once. It seems like the AI can focus on Military, Social, and Tech simultaneously. In my case (take two), a fleet of constructors came up after my two special resources before I could get one constructor even 20% built. I talked to the AI and found he was alread up at least 5 techs on me as well. That just seems like too much for the first year of the game. /boggle

This chump needs some schooling.

Thanks.
Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
I can think of a few ideas that might help you, but it's almost 3am here and I'm incredibly tired. Hows abouts I write you up some tips when I get up in the morning, unless somebody else chimes in before then? :)

- Ash

~SDC~