The Good, the bad, and the neutral

I always play Neutral with a heavy econ bonus.

Free bonus tiles, and the NLC's make getting to ultimate techs an easy matter.

The good and evil techs are mid-line at best. Once you get top-of-the-line in anything, the game is over.

Oh yeah....I'll put my MCC and Psonic beams againt your NLC's anyday!!!


Seriously though, i used to play neutral then switched to evil once i understood the game better. The econ bonus, MCC, Artificial Slave center and evil weapons are too good to pass up.

And I'll put Doom Ray against Psyonic Beam any day.

[Weapon]
[Name]PsyonicBeam[/Name]
[DisplayName]Psyonic Beam[/DisplayName]
[Class]B[/Class]
[Type]4[/Type]
[Size]8[/Size]
[SizeMod]4[/SizeMod]
[Cost]150[/Cost]
[Damage]12[/Damage]
[Model]PsyonicBeam01[/Model]
[Category]Beam[/Category]
[Tech_Requirement]Psyonic Beam[/Tech_Requirement]
[Animation]WFX_PsyonicBeam01.X[/Animation]
[Explosion]explosion01.png[/Explosion]
[AttackSound]battle_psyonic_attack[/AttackSound]
[ExplosionSound0]battle_explosion_small[/ExplosionSound0]
[ExplosionSound1]battle_explosion_small_2[/ExplosionSound1]
[ExplosionSound2]battle_explosion_small[/ExplosionSound2]
[DeflectSound]battle_shield_deflect[/DeflectSound]
[ScaleWidthPercent]100[/ScaleWidthPercent]
[/Weapon]

[Name]DoomRay[/Name]
[DisplayName]Doom Ray[/DisplayName]
[Class]B[/Class]
[Type]5[/Type]
[Size]10[/Size]
[SizeMod]4[/SizeMod]
[Cost]150[/Cost]
[Damage]22[/Damage]
[Model]Plasma2[/Model]
[Thumbnail]Plasma2[/Thumbnail]
[Category]Beam[/Category]
[Tech_Requirement]Doom Ray[/Tech_Requirement]
[Animation]WFX_DoomRay01.x[/Animation]
[Explosion]explosion01.png[/Explosion]
[AttackSound]battle_doomray_attack[/AttackSound]
[ExplosionSound0]battle_explosion_small[/ExplosionSound0]
[ExplosionSound1]battle_explosion_small_2[/ExplosionSound1]
[ExplosionSound2]battle_explosion_small[/ExplosionSound2]
[DeflectSound]battle_shield_deflect_3[/DeflectSound]
[ScaleWidthPercent]100[/ScaleWidthPercent]
[FrameCount]63[/FrameCount]
[LaunchFrame]3[/LaunchFrame]
[ImpactFrame]59[/ImpactFrame]
[/Weapon]


Notice the difference?

12 vs. 22
Doom Ray is 20% larger, but 80% more powerfull.


The faster you can research - the faster you can gain the advantage.
Period.

Simple:
1) Who and how many exactly i'm up against (according to THEIR shown and selected alignment).
2) What victory i aim for once my own alignment has been frozen along with my destiny. Don't be fooled by the smoke screens;
- IF you want power - invade & destroy...
- IF you want control - buy out & spread around the widest possible territory...
- IF you want Peace - find the good races fast to either alliance yourself with or die later...
- IF you want to win - DO monitor the percentages & please, cross fingers.

I prefer Neutral for a reason; let them AIs fight over the void and watch at the very solid ready, unless provoqued!

- Zyxpsilon.

Surely you realize i know the difference between Doom Ray and Psonics.

My point is that Psonics are evil only and the fact by the time someone playing good/neutral has Phasors II, the evil player has Psonics. They are a huge advantage. And since Doom Rays are for all alignment i cant see your point. We're talking alignment specific here are we not.



Well thats not entirely true. If you do not have the economic power with which to turn that research into a reality then it does no good for you. Granted on evil your research suffers compared to neutral, but the economic advantage far outweighs that and nullifies your statement. A research advantage does not automatically mean the advantage in the game. The AI has the advantage over me in research in nearly every game i play, yet i can still beat them. The MCC is a huge boost plus the inherit econ boost for being evil can allow the player to attack early and overwhelm the AI.

Anytime you have a medium hull with two Psonics on it inside the first 6 months and are not in debt...you have the game won.

All that being said, i did play neutral right up till DA was released, the auto granting of the extra tiles was a huge deal in DL and coupled with NLC's made neutral, in DL at least, very viable.

I have never seriously played on good alignment though....never seems worth it.

I agree with neilo. Considering what it takes to get to doom rays, you can conquer the galaxy much sooner with the P beams.

true...... do you stick with the moral ethic though? you know if you were a good civ you wouldn't randomly attack other races... or being an evil civ you wouldn't give stuff away (unless its money to bribe, or 'use' the race)

yeah, I thought thats what u were getting at Ravenor; not the ethics in the game or their benefits but if the player actually plays to those ethical standings. I tend to take the Evil ethic choice but I play rather Neutral. I do have a sense of "fair play" and keep an eye on the AI. I will often help out the smaller AIs against an aggressor, though I will maintain trade with the largest ones. Maybe its a case of the right hand not knowing what the left foot is doing but it works for me.

I play good. Not only because I'm a nice guy, but also because the bonuses you get playing as good are good (no pun intended). The bonuses to defense you get from good only techs doesn't become obsolete when the modules you get with the tech does, unlike the evil weapons which becomes useless once you get better techs.

You get +5% extra hitpoints, and +15% to defense from the good defense techs alone. If you also build the Empathic Tactical Command Center you can build with the good techs, you get +35% bonus to defense.

I've beaten ships that relied on psionic weapons with ships that used strong defenses. At some point, I get Doom Rays, and then my enemies can't compete against the quality of my ships.

All the alignments have their place. There's no reason not to play good if you are looking for that challenge. If you're simply out to score well and dominate the map, evil is going to be the ticket. Neutral can provide benefits for tech victory and influence victory.

I mostly play evil because I'm usually going for score. Sometimes I'll play neutral for a change of pace. As neutral, I can still score well while working the influence angle. I played good a lot when I first started because it's the best alignment for a diplomatic strategy and it took me a while to master combat. So, it just depends on what you are trying to get out of your game.

Hmm, I've always been more of an Eisenhorn guy myself.

Anyway, the middle path is the way to go. Instant terraforming is REALLY useful, neutrality learning centers are da bomb, and the ground invasion bonus actually makes a difference.

http://celerisdrive.com/zarel/alignments.jpg <----My man Machiavelli agrees.

So being evil makes it easier to score well?! thats just not right, each ethic should have an equal chance of generating the same points level....otherwise people will just use that ethic for the points and not so much for their own personal enjoyment...



As for the Hisenhorn comment, I half agree, Hisenhorn books were better, but the ravenor character I think is better..

The ethics are not for personal enjoyment so much as, personal fulfillment.

I have never played anything but Neutral.
I am not good nor evil at heart, I suppose.

Evil is simply too wrong, and good is simply too self-righteous.

So, I have to play the middle ground.

Hey, that's interesting. I take it the higher score comes from the higher econ from the MCC and the fact that you can grow faster, which I read elsewhere is a significant factor in score. Any other reason evil will tend to improve score?

Interesting discussion. I hope more people will join this debate.

The score difference I believe is because of the multiplier from the conquest victory type and the number of planets that will entail. Personally it's more important to me that the game is fun playing it than what score it gives me at the end.

I think I'll play them all eventually. My first half-dozen games have been as a good Civ, and I play it as good (no unprovoked wars etc). It seems to have intuitive advantages to me, where it's easy to make alliances and people who like me typically will surrender to me when someone evil has beaten them. My last political victory on a Gigantic map (only at tough though) I never even researched Planetary Invasion, had three Civ's surrender to me after someone else beat them up, and mostly built alliances/economy with minimal army to not look too weak.

Now I'm enjoying the flip side and being as evil as possible. It's great because the game plays differently. With the way the game flows and how the other Civ's treat me, it just feels like I'm evil, and because it's such a large departure from how I've been playing the game, it feels more difficult.

To fully enjoy the game I would recommend playing them all, and role-playing them as such.

The high score also comes from the fact that when you are evil, your Starbase upgrades are free. When you are making a huge SB array of 20 or 24 Starbases and adding 20 or 30 modules to each of them, that makes a HUGE difference, which reflects in your score.

And yes, the MCC helps score, also. And the more planets the better, since it seems to grant the bonus to your overall econ, not just the planet it is on.

There is none. The only economic boosts Evil gets are the Mind Control Center and the useless "freighters passing through your influence pay 1 bc per turn" thing. Neutral gets a 10% Approval bonus, free terraforming, and 3 more trade routes. Good gets a 25% trade bonus with other Good civs.

Since the MCC grants its bonus to all planets, it is the single one best structure around. It easily beats every other bonus of the good or neutral alignment.

Having said that, I stell prefer Neutral because that is my personal mindset.

Agreed.

Well, I ususally get a diplomacy victory before I research Xeno Ethics, but I always go neutral.

"Anyway, the middle path is the way to go. Instant terraforming is REALLY useful, neutrality learning centers are da bomb, and the ground invasion bonus actually makes a difference."

Agreed.

I find that diplomacy victories are so easy (especially as humans) that I turn them off. It's just not as enjoyable as steamrollng over every opposing empire with a fleet of custom ships...after embellishing your planets with all that free terraforming, of course