Alpha 1b on "suicidal"

I took the latest version and wanted to try something a bit different, something that would mimic a more powerful AI at and allow me to exploit certain aspects fully in order to challenge it.

In plain terms, I created a race with +1 science, +.5 money and warlord... with no racial specials and set the difficulty to hardcore. The galaxy is large and I am playing against all stock races. In my opinion, this is a pretty poor stock race, not powerful and certainly nowhere near to what a player can optimize.

The plan is to use every thing I can to overtake the AI, asteroid mines, strategic resources etc.

Starting up the game it was evident that this would be made even harder as I spawned close to the center, here you see turn 1...

 

The start of the game was the usual, explore the surrounding area for suitable planets, research, etc. Soon enough, it was quite clear that there were no worlds nearby that offered much benefit, with the exception of Terra I, only hostile worlds were nearby.

Sierra was the first to show up, I hired her and put her on my HW, Once she demanded (and got) an econ Cap, I felt I was stuck with her. Kxuta showed up later and I hired him for Ezron, but once Santini showed up, I was forced to make a choice (I had no other colonies then) and I let him go so I could hire her instead.

Now we fast forward. I’ve been building non-stop, bases, outposts, some ships… and my empire is a joke. Terra has Sierra, and a barracks. I’ve completed the adventure culture and am receiving a benefit from that…and my base production is under 600! Ezron has a support ship in orbit to hasten production there, once the research cap is completed, I will send it to the dirt farm on Goth. Terra I will be impactful in the future as s second shipyard world… but that is still far away.

I’m just now producing the outpost for my first asteroid mine and my technology is lagging, normally I would feel pretty screwed but the other factions aren’t doing much better, even with these stats, I’m number 2.

My military is just 4 DDs, and I would love to swat the Sulak ship hanging out at Ezron, but war is out of the question right now. The economy is doing well… but that is with two trade treaties active, (another reason why I don’t want war as I would lose one of those treaties instantly)

Ah yes, Sierra got greedy again and asked for a raise, fortunately for me, I have leader opinions high enough that I can say no. Apart from her and Sophia, I have JEK and Archibald on the payroll, all the rest have been hired it seems.

Now it may sound like I’m whining… but the truth is I find this session quite invigorating, it looks like it will be a tough fight to get the win.

After I get back from some shopping with the Mrs. I’ll continue playing and post some more updates...

 

I resumed the game and took stock of my situation. I have a compact state and the internal lines of communication, meaning that I can quickly respond to any threats arising, the defensive situation is good. I set about increasing my realm and founded two new colonies after clearing out a Space dragon at Peadsu. I also went on an outpost binge. Two large asteroid mines are directed towards my HW and another large mine at Ezron. This has helped both worlds increase their production but not to dramatic levels.

Research continues to lag so I created my first science outpost around a medium belt, unfortunately the effects are negligible at this point in time and the only asteroid belts left within my territory are small.

Sierra asked for another raise and was denied, so did Santini who also has the greedy trait. That means that a total of 3 raises were denied, or in other words, 3X14=42 credits per turn saved. Considering my surplus is 93 per turn, with Ezron pumping out trade goods and two trade treaties intact… it was a no-brainer.

Meanwhile elsewhere the Sulak and Draguul went to war, then signed a peace treaty and now are back to war. I discovered the Moltar who are cautious towards me and my cousins the Humans are pleased, they even voted for me in the recent elections.

I’m keeping up with the AIs and hoping that the Draguul and Sulak damage each other a bit so I can pounce on one of them in the near future, my ships are being refitted but my fleet is still small, consisting of only 4FF and 4DD. Once the current research is finished, I will design and build some Cruisers, right now I can’t get them to the way I like as miniaturization hasn’t kicked in enough to make them worthwhile for my tastes.

Interesting session this, I haven’t had to focus this much in a long time.

 

I pretty much agree across the board with this, by the time the benefits are felt, you don't really need them. I like the option, but I don't see where 5 picks are justified.

Nothing my friend and only a single tolerable in my home system, (there were two more guarded by the space dragon so I couldn't get to them early), it forced me to settle hostile worlds early.

Agreed, here I'm seeing two races showing growth and two that have fallen far behind... flatlined as it were.

Yes I did, both are in the Green right now, +30-40. I was able to raise them via event,defense desires, and in Sierra's case by building what she requested.

Ah, my cushion, let me explain. I have a surplus each turn but also have trade treaties. The surplus is mostly my insurance so that I can go negative for a long time if needed (lose all trade treaties) and it insures I can make any choice (via event) that needs a lot of cash. Last, it is insurance again in the sense that I can push out something heavy like a BB in case of emergency, I seldom need it, but having it gives me more options and peace of mind.

Yes, and it is getting better, it's allowing me to go long and explore many aspects I usually don't have time for, at least in a natural setting.
Here is another update

The Sulak got the better of the Dragul and by the time their second war ended, they had taken Nodulara from them. As I saw them continuing to rise in power, I decided to attack them, even though I wasn’t quite ready.

I’ve done well, I took two of their colonies and one outpost, this time opting for invasions rather than destruction so I could increase my own realm. For their part, they have been counter-attacking non-stop and with forces that are significant. I’ve had to fend off attacks by multiple smaller ships, a couple of Cruisers and even a single Battleship. The only slight criticism I have is that they have sent their forces piecemeal and I was able to counter all of their attcks.

In other areas I am now focusing on wealth culture and trying to get the bonus for asteroid mines, I’ll be building more soon directed towards production and have already established additional science outposts. I’ve already reached the culture for faster terraforming and I’m now researching the tech that will allow me to start terraforming some of my hostile worlds, Ezron is a prime candidate for that.

The Humans and Moltar are happily beating on each other and the Dragul are licking their wounds from their last war with the Sulak. Over-all, when the AI has near parity with the player, it makes for an excellent game. In this case it’s because my own growth is slower compared to other sessions, in the future it will be because the AI develops itself better, this is very promising indeed.

 

Sigh… I’m going to be sad when this session ends, it is magnificent.

The Sulak kept up their relentless counterattacks, one or two of those were laughable, but for the most part they had me constantly responding to tangible threats. I decided to take the fight closer to them and attacked a strong colony at Bilet, destroying considerable forces in the process, unfortunately the planet has a strong shield and it deflected my bombardment, grudgingly I settled in for a blockade. They in turn responded by sending a Battleship to attack my outposts at Epleuls, I scrambled units from two locations to intercept.

My growth continues but it is reasonable, I have 10 colonies now and 11 outposts, 4 of those are production mines. Research is lagging but I cleared out an Amoeba at Suter, the tiny world there has fossils which should give me a considerable boost across the board. I began terraforming Ezron, electing to turn it into a swamp world so as not to incur crowding penalties later on, (it’s a large world with vaults). However, even with half my production going to PE it will be another 48 turns before this is done. Speaking of Terraforming, I colonized a rich barren world and thought to terraform that as well. I have 50% speed to terraforming and the required tech, but once I saw that I would need over 2K turns to complete the project… I elected to go with a few domes instead.

The Humans and Moltar made peace but they are both in last place so I don’t pay them much heed, (other than my trade treaty with the apes)

As I play and see the game going well past 200 turns, a lot of it starts to fall into place, the key of course is not outpacing the AI by ridiculous factors.

Parity, it’s a hell of a drug!

 

Eventually after further bombing runs I too Bilet from the Sulak but their counter-attacks are persistent. They have a rogue planet somewhere nearby and I’m trying to locate it and take out as they are cleverly using it as a secret base to launch their attacks from.

My production got a boost from culture as I selected the cjoice giving a boost to asteroid mines but the pace remains very sweet. Research also got a boost from the special on Suter which I misreported as fossils, it is unique biota.

I must have well over a dozen colonies and a similar number of outposts at this stage, each one alone is perhaps not that significant, but the cumulative effect is outstanding, giving me noticeable boosts without allowing me to run away with the game.

The plan now is to focus on some military tech and build up my forces for a crushing offensive at the Sulak, after that… the Humans seem to be a ripe target. I’ve decided that the only way to win this is to either kill everybody, or take enough of the galaxy to vote myself a win.




The plan is working well but it's taking time..,
The Sulak are crippled, Battleships now head my two main fleets and I've designed some light carriers to test out fighters.
Production got another boost from Anti-matter exploitation and Ezron has been terraformed (need to remember to upgrade the ecology further)
The Draguul are pleased with me, (as if I care) and I expect to finish off the Sulak soon, after that, I will shift the bulk of my forces towards the Humans who have now taken 2nd place

It's been a hell of a session, if we can get the harder levels to mimic this on a consistent basis, it would be a huge asset for ISG

P.S. My greedy leaders were denied 3 more raises with one accepted

 

I rolled up the Sulak and eliminated them, destroying some worlds outright, occupying others and even resettling one.

Then I moved against the humans, taking their colony at Brabsi and their outpost at Carinus. They launched some counterattacks against multiple targets but their drive systems are far inferior to my Tachyon equipped ships. Defending against their raids is easy as a result regardless of the fact that they are committing even battleships to the counterattack.

I’ve grown my production slightly more thanks to my leaders leveling up, who had more raise requests, (this is getting to be a nuisance). Rakka joined the cause after I eliminated the Sulak and she is now the main driver behind the production at Glex.

My cash is misleading now. I scrapped all of my FFs (a dozen of them) as they are in-effective this late in the game and that gave me lots of extra money. I have trade treaties with the Moltar and Draguul and Glex contributing a hefty amount of cash as well. I tried to use my surplus to speed up my BB at Terra but it seems I am short by half…

My fleet consist of DDs and CAs mostly with two BBs as Flagships, I am in a position to produce non-stop for the time being as I have plenty of SSP to spare. Refit is out of the question so I have upgraded ships serving side by side with older models, thankfully those are still effective.


Now about this

In a word, underwhelming. Fighters are treated as a special and I can only install a single bay regardless of how much space I have. It made no sense then to build carriers on BB hulls so I opted to create light carriers based on Cruiser hulls instead.

In MoO2 I use to put two bays on a Cruiser for a total of 8 interceptors. This gave me enough room for 2 high tech direct fire weapons, a bank of missiles, a pd weapon and some bombs. On a battleship hull I doubled everything. This was cool and felt like a carrier. Here a single bay feels underpowered.

I tried them in battle, in the first they moved too slow to actually engage before the contest was over. In the second battle, I launched only the Fighters against a base station and waited. The base took them both out with a single shot at point blank range, they never got a chance to fire. In my opinion these still need work before they become anything more than just a cosmetic choice.

I consider the game ended now and will probably call it quits as soon as Sol is captured, I don’t think the AI can recover now, but it was a hell of a lot of fun while it lasted.

 

Nothing like that here at the moment, I built a total of four of those Light Carriers but their fighter squadrons were too slow. Maybe this could be addressed by an expansion sometime in the future as I'm not sure how labor intensive the amount of work is required that would get them to at least MoO2 level.
Now as to the game
I took Sol and a vote was held shortly after, I narrowly missed taking it on my own... so I made peace with the humans, attacked the Draguul and took a single colony before making peace with them, then I built up a bit more. By the time the next vote was held, I had close to 30 colonies and over 20 outposts.
I won the vote all by myself on turn 318, and while I completely outpaced the AI in the last part of the game, this was without a doubt, the most satisfying game of ISG I had to date.

Now for @Adam Solo

Take a look at the screenshot my friend. I have 239 SSP total, (no, don't make them harder to come by, I earned them and in a different setting they are hard to get and not enough), instead look at how many SSP my 5 picks at warlord generate at this point, 26. Roughly 11% I'm not sure that the rest of the bonuses offered with warlord are enough to justify the cost

 

I can concede and envision this

but not this.
You only gain extra ssp when you construct an orbital base, meaning my extra 26 are a result of 26 orbital bases... only possible because I conquered half the galaxy. Early on what would this get me? 5-8 SSP if the AI fights well.
I don't know my friend, this particular session simulated a potent AI well, especially early on, it retained parity for a long time and counterattacked multiple targets at once when at war. By the time the SSP part of the bonus really became substantial, the contest was already settled.
Do you recall MoO2? the extra command points were tied to the number of colonies not star bases. Numbers wise this means that I would have roughly the same bonus right now ( about 5 more I guess), but I would have gotten my first point on turn one if it was a point per colony. Now that would have been far more useful early on.