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Kanthulhu posted:Will the AI break trade agreements to declare war on you? It's a 4x game--so of course! There are so many reasons the AI will declare war on you, from expanding too close to their borders, to you being framed for espionage, to you being too strong(!), it being a tuesday. Seriously--I might be thinking of a different game but I think the AI spends the start of each turn spinning a RNG to decide how it will regard you.
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May 3, 2017 15:54
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rchandra posted:Do you have to refit your ships to take advantages of improved technologies (things like armour)? There is no refit mechanic in this game. The closest you get is scrapping the ship in orbit (returning a quarter of its build cost to the reserve) then redesigning it with the new tech and giving the producing planet a bit of a kick with the reserve points. Obviously, suboptimal. So you want new armor on your fleet? Gotta build a new fleet. The only things that get immediate upgrades are missile bases (Armor/missile, but NOT planetary shields) and ground troops.
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May 6, 2017 20:06
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PurpleXVI posted:Do Missile Bases require a sizeable amount of credits to maintain? Or are they free once built? And is there a max # of bases per planet? Bases require upkeep like fleets, but it basically just eats a portion of your production ability. So it's all but impossible to build too many bases and go negative--your ability to build more drops to zero once you have too many ships/bases/etc. That said, if you had a ton on a poor planet and you lose a bunch of other systems I guess you'd be left with a net negative situation. I suspect the max number might be 255 bases, but tbh I've never tried building that many.
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May 8, 2017 23:47
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At this stage missile bases are very good deterrents. Plus the computer opponents build back up quickly. The silicoids having fusion bombs could be a problem, but unless they strike immediately the Alkari will probably bounce back--possibly with a more modern fleet (since the old ones got cleared out).
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May 11, 2017 18:27
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Mzbundifund posted:How exactly does this work? Does it add a bunch of pollution to the planet you have to cleanup at whatever your tech rate is? Or does it actually decrease the max population and require re-terraforming? The former. It directly kills population, and it reduces the cap via the pollution mechanic. Nasty stuff, but population is generally easy come easy go so long as the colony survives--you still have all the factories so you don't have to build back up. Just have to dispose of all the dead bodies littering the streets and factories.
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May 19, 2017 16:56
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Yeah. Even if there's no RNG benefit to "big drat force" over sending piecemeal, the intervening turns allows them to mitigate--especially if they have cloning. 55-45 to start, and they had a net +20 (zortrium cancelled by hand lasers), so that's a 75-25 advantage. Ouch. Now that Zort is equalized, you're looking at 70-30 attacks in the future, or 60-40 (against) for defense. Not that you'll be able to go on the offensive any time soon with that shield deficit issue. In terms of the population rankings, it's just a temporary dip of 3-4 years so long as the eco budget can be buffed. Only time that would factor is if he ill-timed the attack recovery to happen during a council vote. Thankfully, the silicoids just lost 90M rocks as well.
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May 22, 2017 21:23
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Yeah. I usually use the diplomatic victory to make Impossible+ by unifying my enemies. They don't work in concert, but they also don't fight each other and they share techs. Can make for a very interesting fight.
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May 24, 2017 04:56
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PurpleXVI posted:Think we'll get around to conquering Orion this time around? I imagine that's a lot harder to do on this difficulty with regards to sparing the fleet strength needed to knock down the Guardian. On Impossible, it has 10,000 HP and massive shields (along with a Lightning shield to prevent missile cheese). So, yeah. By the time you can even dent the thing it's late game.
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May 31, 2017 06:32
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"exiled beyond the known galaxy" ~= "he's living on a farm upstate"
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Jun 3, 2017 23:57
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PurpleXVI posted:Yeah, for all the extra complexity(particularly in ship design), MoO2 feels a lot more approachable and forgiving than MoO1. But that may just be me. It's MUCH better documented and the UI is really good, so that the added complexity is just taken in stride. Read: "Bulrathi: better ground fighters" Interpret "Oh, they've probably just got some minor buff. NBD. Maybe send an extra 20-30%" Actual: "By default their troops win 3:1 against you, and that requires you to be a full 2-3 ground tech levels above to negate" I love MOO, it's a great game with a surprising depth, but explanation and documentation were NOT the devs strong suit.
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Jun 4, 2017 07:45
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Yeah, missile destroyers can be brutally effective in the early game; large ships don't really become cost effective until you have the tech to mitigate their being large bulky targets you can only build in small numbers. I tend to lose big ships on the regular until level V in shield/computer/jammer (and zortrium armor). Then they get enough resiliency to stand up to smaller craft.
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Jun 15, 2017 05:15
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One quirk of the AI is that if you have a ship and the missile bases, the AI will keep ships in the fight it would retreat to try and kill the ship, even if they're getting pasted by bases. You could have probably taken out most of that fleet if you moved the nuc recons away but didn't retreat them.
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Jun 26, 2017 19:04
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General Revil posted:An alliance forged in the blood of cats is not meant to last. They're two sides of the same coin. Improved and sometimes advanced Eco restoration are usually available earlier to cut down on that eco bar--definite benefits to sidetracking into that early on. You are right that they are redundant, but that's by design--you're never guaranteed to get Reduced Waste or Eco Restoration; having two ways to deal with waste gives all but the most unlucky a good way to free up resources.
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Jun 29, 2017 06:24
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Two things to throw into the calculus: 1) Sakkra are far east. May be worth the genocide hit to kill the bears and use it as a stepping stone to attack them 2) If you do go silicoid, prioritize the non-hostile worlds. They only have Terraforming +30, so with gaia xform you'll be adding that many more votes to your total.
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Jul 8, 2017 04:53
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That FF tech is a nice buff. Missile bases get the best shield tech, plus any planetary shields. So if you had Class X planetary shields and class XI Deflectors, that means you negate 21 points of damage. BUT! It gets better! Non-bomb attacks are halved when attacking planets. So a non-bomb weapon would need to do 43 points of damage just to scratch you. Weapons that halve shields fare a bit better, but most have low enough native damage that they still lose. So yeah. Barring bioweapon/bomber ships, Psilons will need to bring some seriously big guns to bear to eliminate 100 missile bases. Probably secure.
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Jul 18, 2017 07:37
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Yeah, that's the thing with AI fleets: just because they have high level tech, doesn't mean they put it on everything. The top-tier stuff is bulky, and the AI tends to focus on purpose-based, cost effective builds. On top of that, it seems very prone to sunk cost fallacy, and will keep around ancient designs long past their prime if it has decent numbers of them. Gauss AC is probably one of the better weapons in the game, especially coupled with HEF. It'll do damage to just about anything, and it's great at chewing up destroyer spam. I remember that "hits all four shields" refers to a game mechanic that got scrapped for MOO 1 (that ultimately made it into MOO 2)--directional shields. So I'm not sure if that mechanic still actually works for 4x damage.
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Jul 20, 2017 05:15
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Aesclepia posted:Never played the MoO games, but I'm greatly enjoying the Le'ts Play At this point, there's only 5 ways this plays out: 1) He votes for the Psilons and hands them the win 2) He genocides or takes over enough worlds with enough population to give him 2/3 the vote 3) He loses enough pop/worlds for the council to vote in the psilons 4) He ignores council votes and genocides everyone 5) He votes for the psilons/they hurt him enough to give them the voting edge, he rejects the vote, and then either genocides everyone or gets wiped out.
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Jul 23, 2017 20:19
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As for predictions, do you expect to have to genocide some more races here to win, or might there still be diplomatic victory?
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Really just being thorough. If he's ever in a point where he can win the council vote on his own then he's basically already won; just how much he wants to draw it out. He's just past the veto margin for pop, so he could conceivably lose just enough to lose the council without being in total death spiral...but odds are if he starts losing worlds then barring some game changer tech or random AI flub he's lost
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Jul 23, 2017 22:25
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Was gonna post about the "why the hell are you using scatter pack" flub when I saw you addressed it. Not sure if you've covered it, but the twitchy ships are using displacement devices, which make 1/3 of all attacks just miss outright. Which can be hell for every-other-turn firing torpedoes. For ships that tough, Black Hole Generator is one way to kill them. Another way is a tough ship with Ion/Neutron stream projectors. Those reduce the max HP of a ship by 20/40 % per hit....and if you hit them enough with it, Zeno eventually gives up and the ships get 0 HP and go pop. BHG is definitely quicker though. This is pretty cool. It's rare that you get to an endgame where the enemy has a tech advantage and isn't just rolling you completely/is getting rolled by you.
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Jul 27, 2017 06:29
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Palladium posted:Never played this game before, but while I really liked MoO2 I hated the shitton of tedious micro. It's like an inherent plague that is impossible for 4Xs to avoid. The thing that makes 4X's great is their ability to invest and build up worlds and tech and toys. Much like with RL though, the pram eventually gets pretty full. AI governors would be the thing that saves the late game from this, but that can pretty easily go off the rails--see *cough* MOO3 *cough*
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Aug 1, 2017 04:29
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MechaCrash posted:Silicoids can't learn how to upgrade planet environments naturally, but if they find a fertile world, do they get any benefit from it? Alternately, if they can acquire the relevant technology, can they use and benefit from it? Or is "make planet less lovely" just not a thing they can ever do, short of "deliberately let enemies take and terraform planet, then steal it back"? They do get the additional pop cap. Not sure if they get the growth benefit though; though if they do it's probably still relative to their low base growth.
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Aug 2, 2017 23:56
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General Revil posted:That's a lot of poor planets. At least there's that one ultra-rich planet. That's nothing. Just started a Sakkra game, and literally 1/3 the huge galaxy must be poor or ultra poor. Decided to pop the see all cheat and see WTF...and yeah--not too far off. 
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Aug 5, 2017 23:40
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GuavaMoment posted:So what are some of the methods to deal with bugged stacks? The only ones I can think of are the Ion or Neutron Stream Projectors. For those who don't know, those weapons do a a percentage amount of damage (20% and 40%) to every ship in a stack, rounded up. Since it's a percentage of current hit points, it can take a while, but it will blow up 32k ships eventually. Black hole generators just wipe out X%. Also another "eventually" weapon tech nullifiers; they become toothless. warp dissipator, reduce movement to zero, plink at range with high energy focus/missile bases. Late game bugged stacks are damned tricky, since they usually have high movement and resistance to the counters.
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Sep 14, 2017 06:34
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ManxomeBromide posted:I've played this game off and on since the 90s and I have never seen that happen Yeah, had no idea that ending was even a thing. Wow. I've done it to other empires a bunch. Basically, if over half the total population is in revolt, there's a revolution. Effectively, it's a personality reroll for that empire.
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Sep 16, 2017 07:19
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I thought Silicoids could take advantage of fertile/Gaia, but they just can't research them? Definitely could be wrong there.
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Sep 17, 2017 16:55
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Settle more, prioritizing hospitable systems (toxics can wait) and setting up a border. We can snatch up those 10-20 pop systems later.
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Sep 17, 2017 20:47
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Yeah, the only way you might be able to get out of this is by threatening to attack in the diplo screen. They MIGHT just react by pulling their ships out of orbit (though transports already en route are fait accompli). Remember: if the AI orbits a planet, they WILL send transports unless Allied.
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Sep 24, 2017 02:46
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PurpleXVI posted:What determines whether you get to "steal" any technology when you conquer an enemy planet? I would've figured that recapturing Crius would have gotten us something. Factories. If the colony was small enough for us to snag this early, they almost certainly had next to no infrastructure built. So if you're ever in a spot to plant a risky colony, it may be better to build up pop only for a bit. That way if you lose it there's little to no chance of losing a tech.
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Sep 25, 2017 08:25
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Yeah--you put one sliver in there and let them discover their tech level. Means the difference between "start the invasion now, lol", "OK, I can tank whatever they throw with bases", and "holy crap, keep them happy!!!"
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Oct 14, 2017 15:15
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Yeah, the vote is determined by "Do I know them?" "Do I hate the other guy?" and then "Do I like them enough?" If you've never met the race, they won't vote for you unless they hate the other guy.
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Oct 16, 2017 20:45
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Also CTRL+F11 to slow it down. Very useful when you want to shoot'n'scoot during battles, since the window for clicking movement is vanishingly small for some weapons. Actually a good argument for breaking up weapons into multiple groups, since it gives you longer to click move.
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Nov 14, 2017 14:43
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GuavaMoment posted:Meanwhile, the wind gently whispers... ...meklars need braces...
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Nov 17, 2017 17:38
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As long as the council vote doesn't go against you, I think you're in a winning position. Just need to keep those homeworld systems and build them up; losing Altair cost you 1-2 votes.
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Nov 21, 2017 05:18
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Ouch. Yeah, late game bio terminator stacks are a pain to deal with. You really need to primary that tech nullifier capship ASAP. They may take a while to burn down your ships, but that special will reduce your damage output to nil in a hurry.
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Nov 25, 2017 05:37
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Wayne posted:Ha ha, yep, there's the supernova. Geez! I thought the names were based more on flag color? Never paid too close attention. Yeah, downgrading one level of computer saves you huge, and if you can cram 1 torp on a destroyer by doing so that would be more effective. Alternatively, go down 1 level and up your shields to ruggedize a bit. Luckily the silicoids don't have missiles so you can ignore ecm this generation.
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Dec 28, 2017 18:19
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Just be careful not to end up 2nd in population while still at war with everyone but the Psilons!
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Wayne posted:Well, I think it's safe to say playing the vulture and picking over your foes' carcasses was definitely the right move. I really did not expect the Psilons to leave that many worlds open after bombing them. Maybe they upgraded their colony ships and the batch that usually comes along with their doomstack got scrapped and they had to send them from home, and you got there first? He's got zortium armor at least. And the option to get armored exo, which he really should do next. I mean, he's screwed regardless if the bears or psilons land, but against the other races it should give him a fighting chance.
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Jan 1, 2018 06:29
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Well, that's the situation you normally use bioweapons in, but Guava Strats are out since you don't have those techs either, right? Not much else for it but maybe split up your fleet after you destroy the bases on a planet and try to limit bombardment damage....
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This game was trying to murder you in the cradle, and you turned it around to be #2--another 20 years and you might have been able to stave that off.
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Jan 5, 2018 18:30
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Definitely expand downward so you can pounce on those rich infernos the second you get the tech. IIRC that's the tech after "dead" landings so you have some time, but position is everything. Compared to last time this has been down right hospitable. Maybe the game feels guilty?
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Jan 7, 2018 21:25
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RabidWeasel posted:I'm sure the RNG has something unkind up its sleeve for you, this is far too good. Settling so many planets so quickly can trigger the "gently caress the human" response in the AI, so he might find himself in unavoidable wars or worse--a council vote before he secures veto.
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Jan 10, 2018 23:59
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BurningStone posted:Personally, I always play red. I like the ship designs. If by "Take" you mean "glass and resettle" then maybe. Bulrathi are utterly ridiculous on the ground at any stage where they equal or better you in tech. To put it another way, to get a sakkra soldier to have a 50/50 chance we'd need duaralloy battle suits, personal deflectors, and the hand lasers...and that's if the Bulrathi only have titanium combat armor.
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Jan 27, 2018 09:54
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