Funny, I thought I’d written my last aar, but after reading some of the comments and reviews on steam… I was left wondering “what game did these people play?” So in the hopes of clearing some things up, here is my last aar, written in a straightforward style… hopefully Adam gives me a few days before the next release so I can finish it. (Due to wanting clean data for testing purposes, I always delete old games every time we get a new release, same with custom factions). But enough of that, let’s get straight into the game. My settings are Custom human race replacing the stock humans for me, against the other AI factions, six players total on a huge map. The difficulty setting is at the second hardest possible configuration, severe for the AIs and emperor for me. This means that the AIs will start with a couple of extra infrastructure levels on their HWs, some extra pops, and six extra low level techs… and that’s it. Apart from this the AI gets no advantages or cheats, it plays by the same rules as I do. (Pissed me off to read a review from a steam player that claimed the AI cheats) (Yeah I’m angry, I don’t mind a negative review, but get your facts straight. Being angry is bad for the AI by the way… it makes me play very aggressive. Let’s see then if this “cheating” AI can survive). Oh, I’ve also set events to few, as these tend to be mostly positive, I want to make things really hard. My emperor setting for myself means I will find crappy worlds nearby, thus inhibiting my growth further. Basically I need to overtake the AIs quickly in tech and production, build a strong fleet, and then crush them. Something that shouldn’t be easy with a cheating AI and a game that plays sooooooo slow. Alright, rant over, now let’s set the stage. I spawned in the upper right corner on a representative Sol system with some red stars nearby. For me, the opening sequence of ISG is like a chess game, meaning I have my standard opening moves. This means I explore what I can with my FFs, research basic techs,(including colonization technology) based on what the FFs find, and remotely explore in a systematic effort. I pick over mining first, grab the free colony ship second, and the free survey ship third. At that point I re-explore any systems that have been visited by my FFs but not yet fully explored. Doing this allowed me to locate some nasty specials and three sets of ruins. In one of those ruins I found Wan who is now at my HW. (so much for nothing of interest in ruins). I also received a single event, (some sentient asteroid that got scrapped for 750 BC…super nice that)! By turn 50 I have set down my first two colonies and an outpost at Jupiter. Remote exploration has also yielded the location of some dark matter and juicy asteroid belts. But this is the beginning still, only the stage has been set, I’ll pop back in after another 50 turns so…
Alright! 50 turns later, and here’s where I’m at. I found a rogue planet with unique biota and colonized it, this instantly gave my research a boost. Then I hired Ka2120 and gave him the same colony, this means this will be my research center soon, driving my technology at a rapid pace. Hopefully this will allow me to outpace the AIs by the time we meet. Wan asked for an economic capitol and got it, he also asked for Mars to be colonized and got that too on turn 99. Because this was a colonization request, Mars started out with 4 pops and is already the second most productive world in my empire, aided by the support ship at sol. My tech reached a level where the Destroyer under construction at earth is outfitted with the following Tritanium Armor Triple hull Class 3 shield 2 heavy/autofire lasers 1x5 fast, eccm, mirv nuke missile 2 pd autofire lasers 240 degrees Trust me, this layout can handle anything the AIs will have for some time, especially when it is grouped with 2 missile Frigates and a single Cruiser in a task force. I plan on smacking the first AI I meet. So to recap 5 colonies, 2 outposts, excellent weapons and shield tech, the beginnings of an adequate fleet and a very healthy economy… Not too shabby if I say so myself.
Lol, I don't mind the reviews per say, I mind the misinformation. You and I have considerable time with the game, yet we both know that we do not have a 100% understanding of everything in it. Therefore, when I read a comment from someone that has played minutes... and they make a claim as if it were the gospel truth, I see red. This is not restricted to reviews or games, but a life philosophy... "make sure you know what you are talking about before opening your mouth" I believe Mark Twain has an excellent way of putting it. Regardless, I got sucked in to one more turn last night and lost track of time (Thanks Adam), I'll post an update when I get home.
I also think some people have been burned with 4Xs in the past so some of the early criticisms are people seeing mechanics not work quite like they expect and then thinking the game wasn't designed well. Agree, it's one I tried to abide by as well
What a peculiar session. I continued my build up, both in the civilian and military sector, and expanded my territory outwards in an attempt to contact an AI. I met a single Draguul Cruiser, (escorting a survey ship), at Eanope and decided to give them a proper introduction to the human race. I attacked them on sight. Even though my own force was a single Destroyer accompanied by a Frigate… the lizards withdrew from battle. A few turns later a Nova Frigate appeared at the same system… and received the same exact introduction as the Lizards. Concluding that this system was of interest to the aliens, I quickly colonized a planet there and made it my southern forward base. I then colonized Thecitune at the western edge of my realm in an attempt to make contact with an AI, and made that my western forward base. But it was all in vain. Technically I am at war with the lizards and the Sand…things, but this is the first game I have ever played where I have contacted no-one by turn 170. This of course made me alter my strategy and introduce plan B My original intention was to pull off a ferocious attack against the first AI I met with my superior ships. However, that plan would have worked 50-30 turns ago. I know how the AI builds up on these difficulty levels if you leave it alone too long, so now I am going to attempt this… Sooner or later I will meet an AI, now the plan is not to go to war until my next generation ships can be produced, this is about 20-30 turns away. So, in the meantime I will expand a bit more, and then produce about 4 support ships to send to my most promising worlds. Not only will this accelerate the growth of those worlds, but it will mirror the AI’s use of multiple support ships to expand quickly. I am keeping my fleet adequate but won’t build up too much more until the new designs are available, this will reduce the number of ships I need to upgrade when the time comes. But when that time does arrive, I will go on a massive production run. Assault ships are being built on Mars and stockpiled for future use. You can see the growth of my realm, both in production capacity and the number of colonies under my control, what you can’t see is the number of buildings I’ve constructed. There are numerous structures completed including my first Galactic wonder on Earth (Industrial conglomerate). Additional leaders have flocked to my cause, and I now have 8 of them on the payroll, 4 are governing my most promising systems, and the other four are commanding various task forces.
Bwahahahaha! So I get home, write a summary for yesterday, check some comments here and on Steam, and then launch ISG to continue from where I left off yesterday. I process a single turn and there they all are… The Lizards instantly asked for peace and the sand guys accepted my offer for the same. I looked at the faction stats and I have the number 1 tech and number 1 fleet, my overall rating is number 2, slightly behind the space rabbits… So much for the “cheating AI” I’m now deciding if I should pounce straight away (not likely), or continue with plan B and take them on a bit later. Either way, there will be no surrender here, and if I lose the council vote… I will fight them all.
A single support ship has a dramatic impact on new colonies and undeveloped worlds, less so on productive ones. I have 5 right now spread out in separate locations. In the past, and eventually in this game, I will stack them in ore or two locations. On harder difficulties like this, I usually see the AI stack 5 together. They colonize a world, move the support ships in, and develop that world rapidly, then they rinse and repeat. This is one of the reasons they hit critical mass at some point. During the opening phase of my campaigns, I always look to see if I can strike those support ships when they are un-escorted, it slows the AI down a bit... and feels satisfying to boot.
So that's how they 'cheat' Will have to try that out to try and speed things up on my end. I wasn't sure if there was a diminishing return. Putting a stack and then moving on makes a lot of sense. I wondered what all that fleet activity of the AI was, must be part of it. They are constantly shuttling stuff in and out and I felt I must be missing something as I wasn't doing the same.
Just be careful, by doing this, they are committing a lot of SSPs to support ships... which is why even when they have a commanding lead, I still have a stronger fleet. Add to that my focus on military tech, and their "cheating" isn't enough. Take a look below. My new designs have been under production for a while now and my older ships have been upgraded… with one exception. I’ve scrapped my Frigates and retired the design permanently. Frigates simply don’t have enough space for the later game, so my smallest ship is now the Destroyer. The trick of course is to make sure you have enough SSPs to do this, in my case, that is not an issue. I struck at the Moltar first at Lithios and beat back a counterattack of theirs as well. My invasion force is just a single Cruiser escorted by two Destroyers… but they sliced through the Moltar Cruisers easily enough. There was no particular reason for attacking them other than gaining Lithios and expanding my logistical range further. I am now solidly in the lead with the number 1 position, highest tech and Fleet, I am gathering forces for additional offensives, possibly on multiple fronts and also have The Moltar HW in range, it will fall… but not tonight, I need a break from this
The main reason I avoided them was the SSP but might try pushing that a bit. Just like with the first 50 turns it seems sometimes it's good to ride your capabilities to the edge to get things going. One thing I have also avoided is going to war until I had a sizable set of fleets. It sounds like we can get away with more skirmishes early on. I let the AI grow pretty big in my current game to avoid an early war I couldn't get out of but maybe I was being too cautious.
Hit them early if you can and keep them off balance... this holds true IRL too. Don't leave the AI to set up it's own check-mate, disrupt them, they are excellent at growing their way to victory if you leave them alone long enough...eventually the stronger AIs start absorbing the weaker ones and you can fall too far behind. If you play hard or above, my suggestion is to get a credible fleet together quickly, strike first, and strike hard...(like the schoolyard my friend, find the biggest AI near you, and knock it out). Edit Yes you can skirmish with them, border wars are just fine. I had one where I fought the entire conflict with just 4 Destroyers only.
Thanks, just playing on average and didn't have much battle experience (I spent a lot of time learning the other stuff first). I'm taking out the weaker of the two AI now and seems fairly easy. So maybe I over estimated the AI on this difficulty. Once I finish this game will try again on a higher one.
Your experience level now leads me to believe you are ready for hard. May I ask about your own settings, Viceroy or Emperor? It makes a huge difference.
Ok my friend, that setting is probably more crucial than the AI difficulty you choose. To put it in plain terms, the normal setting is viceroy, that means normal space around you. The Emperor setting usually puts you in the slum of the galaxy and can mean that you go the entire game relying on your homeworld only. My suggestion is to leave it on the viceroy setting until you master the difficulty levels. Once you accomplish that, you can go back and try the same settings with yourself on Emperor... it will be quite the challenge and add tremendously to the replay value of the game
Cheers for the headsup, I'll try that. What's interesting is I played the same difficulty and Medium map with the Moltor only and they barely grew the entire game. In this one I'm playing on Huge map with them and also the Draguul and this time the Moltor have taken 75% of the map.
The inconsistency of the races is very consistent! I play all of them on the huge, sometimes I use my custom race against the other six (gets crowded quickly) and here is what I see. The Sulak and Nova usually take the lead, but not exclusively. I've seen the Moltar do it as well as the rest of them. It is partially dependent on what worlds are nearby them and on their own cultural choices which are variable game by game. Don't be surprised at anything... and don't come to expect the same behavior from them Combat... that is an entirely different matter, they are very predictable there and you can slaughter them once you understand their behavior... unless you fall too far behind in military tech of course.
Leeku has fallen and the Moltar remnant is now inconsequential, a good bonus is that I now have a second tech capitol for my empire. I’ve started setting down warp interdictors on my colonies and I’m researching Tachyon drive. Once I have that drive in my possession, it will be over for the AIs, as I will be able to be far more flexible with my fleet deployments. My support ships have remained scattered and I no longer have any intention of moving them, I may even scrap them to gain the extra SSPs. The military situation is excellent. My fleet consists mostly of highly advanced Destroyers that can easily defeat any AI Cruiser one on one, I also have a small number of Cruisers and a single Battleship. The plan now is to attack the Sulak and possibly the Draguul and Nova as well, that worm hole at Eanope gives me quite a lot of strategic options. All else is also excellent, I have a healthy economy, have solidified my tech lead as number one, and I have the largest military with plenty of SSP to grow it further. In summary, I consider this session already won, but I will continue on to the “formal” victory just to prove the point that the AI does not cheat, even at the hardest settings. After all, every action available to the AI is also available to the player, and it was by combining AI behavior with my own play style that I was able to produce the result shown thus far.
