xpyre

Galacticus I think there are only 2 strategies which work... 15B or as much as you can. The worst stopping point is 25B. You have all the pain and none of the gain. If you can keep 25B people happy then you can keep 100B happy. Having said that 15B is much easier to manage but the other route can be fun if you are a little warped. Trade is based on planet population so if you are a trader (I'm not) then there is a reason to get at least one planet with ri

Maybe we agree with you Seebs but the developers don't. It is not a bug... It is the way they planned it... mixed up, yes, but not buggy. In any case depending on the size of the map there are more things to consider than those starting bonuses. If you set your initial relationships (so you can see all races), and use the custom races picks to select Universal Translators, then you can get tech trade all the starting techs of all the races before making your first move. Ther

@NerdzRool81 Pls don’t assume something is useless just because you don’t understand it or the description is totally incorrect. As a hint look at your economy before and after building the Mind Control Center… I think you may be pleasantly surprised. Personnally I don't use tiny hulls either... but I know they can stack well with certain logistics values.

Suicidal gives you a mountain to climb at the start. It is however still using the same AI which is certainly beatable.

I must admit I like turning the tech off... For no other reason than each race gets to be unique. With tech trading on, everyone ends up having a sort of generic strategy, a bit of weapons, a bit of infrastructure, a bit of defence. With it off the Dengim and Yor forgo the infrastructure and defences and head for weapons and planetary invasion, the good races tend to go for planetary improvements, which in turn leads to a better economy and such. This imbalance causes a dynamic that is interes

In general I think the concept of a repair module would be a good one... but it needs to be v big...

300% food production tiles are great... Stick loads of influence buildings on the same planet and a few stock exchanges and look at the revenue. You need to be looking at a happy 100M pop (not obsessing about how bad 25M is for morale). I do tend to get the morale wonders and trade goods but honestly it is one of my favourite tiles. With 100M planet you can get a troup transport per turn and not diminish your population at all. Also it is great for trade routes (not that I use it myself).

@Moosetek13 This is going off topic but...Believe me I've tried... took all extra trading options, got the trading wonders, got a huge 100M pop planet in one corner, littered the route with maxed out econ bases, had trade routes into a big pop planet in the diagonally opposite corner... and my conclusion was... it just wasn't worth the effort! Too much micro management and concerns about keeping relations with all civs along the route. 1000-1500bc is only 4 decent econ planets. O

@gallagher118 Totally agree. Apart from that once I go for Ethics ASAP and choose Neutral for them. Trade is still useless on Meduim maps and above, the revenue from planets is just so much higher... and on small and tiny maps everyone tends to go to war before the trade starts to kick in. All in all trade sucks.

Worst one for me was playing as the Korx... decided to give trading a go and picked my choices accordingly. Chose evil on my ethics for role playing purposes then next turn the "limit evil races to 2 trade routes" came up... Arghhh!!!! You can leave the GC if you really don't like what they do but as a side effect you cannot trade... Restart.

Great idea but it would mean influence was more important... I'd make flipping planets a bit more difficult just to balance things out.

This seems a bit silly... If you can capture a planet then why don't you keep it? You are after all still giving away planets, hardly the basis for a sound strategy. The number of times a planet can't be held against the AI is very small.

It does happen in one turn... But unless they were 5 billion transports I am not sure how he emptied the planet with one ship. All planets have 5 bill min pop don't they?

@Richrf Spot on.

@unfunf... good point.

Unfunf - Sorry I had to rush off last evening... I too have e-mailed you at hotmail.

Well having spoken to unfunf I think his "exploit" is just "good" gaming. There doesn't seem to be any weird bug that he is taking advantage of as such... certainly no huge reloads, blockading planet, allying to everyone. I guess he just wants to make the AI better.

Sorry for butting in but I will.... Why are people getting so angry esp you Marcathonas? Unfunf has made his peace, and if I may say after a clumsy initial post, he has done it largely in an eloquent and reasoned way. Lets get the experiment out of the way, probably fix a few loopholes and then get back to playing "properly". I think the one thing it shows is that the scoring is exploitable... and I'm sure everyone who is near the top of the league has us

@P0rcup1ne Ah localized english use of the word "top" to mean "excellent". @unfunf What do I do next... I can handle tough... Honest.

P0rcup1ne what didn't you understand? I was agreeing with your post. There is uncalled for flaming of someone whose major crimes are lack of sensitivity and commumnication.

@Iztok Bitenc I've never looked at your scores but I can tell from your posts that you can play. I guess the numbers mean something, but even the number of games and the difficulty settings don't mean a right lot. @Purge Thanks. Shows I never play Metaverse games. Still seems a huge advantage to set everyone to friendly, if for no other reason than immediately being able to tech trade.

Yep you are right this is a bug/oversight...

@P0rcup1ne Top post. Flaming has no place on forums. I am intrigued by what he is doing but I just can't understand the flaming. @unfunf How is recruitment going? Are you still looking for players?.. I'd give you a couple of evenings of my life (no more, as I assume it is as interesting a watching paint dry) to try out your methods if you are interested.

P0rcup1ne Top post. Flaming has no place on forums. I am intrigued by what he is doing but I just can't understand the flaming.

How/why do you rate him #1? Just cos he is at the top of the Metaverse scores. Surely just someone else who has found an exploit.