| I had no idea that there is a white smiley! That would be a nice achievement. |
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No, the one you've already got! That's the most good you can get!
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Woohoo! Did anybody see CariElf's reply to that troll in the 1.13 bug thread?
You go girl!!
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#1928
by Citizen CypherPax - 1/28/2004 12:13:25 PM
Hmmm... this medium maso talk is going to my head. I've won a couple of dozen and I can give you some suggestions if anyone is interested.
I don't think it's hard, but it's a different mindset then most maso players have -- I play a military strategy and know how to win wars when I'm completely outgunnned -- which isn't as hard as it sounds. The AI will attack 1) an undefended planet or (2) an defended planet that is closest to them. -- so you actually don't have to bother defending most of your planets (most of my planets have a single corvette or occassionaly a freighter in the mid-to-late game.) (3) Experienced ships are valuable - if you notice a ship has made level 2 or higher, pull it back and heal it. You'll be glad you did and it will always take down several ships of a similiar value later on.
The key is to taking down a major as soon as possible, you need about a 2.5 to 1 planet ratio to most of the majors for them to leave you alone - also while I don't take speed as a pick, speed techs / grav accelators are VERY important though - but trade for grav accelators. The AI war alot without encouragement and it is critical to be in a position to capitalize.
You need some diplo, but pop bonuses are most important. You need to build critical mass through population.
Don't be a afraid of wars - you don't have to alpha strike, but you do have to hit the AI hard enough that it will settle for you. As long as you have positive cashflow and a planet advantage, don't worry if it won't settle for peace.
By the way, I don't consider it cheese to bribe AIs to attack a major that I'm at war with....
The best ships are corvettes, frigates, and a few death knights - don't build anything else and trade for the death knights if possible. Don't know why, but they aren't that expensive.
Also, keep track of all the starbases - the map isn't that big and grab any that free up...
Happy Raiding,
Cypher Pax
[Message Edited]
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Excellent strategy tips, Cypher! Thanks!
My way of playing is not that far off from your's. Basically, I depend on a larger military and feel Dreads are the best ships. I also bribe AIs to fight the others.
Hmm...stomach's growling. I think I'll go to lunch!
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Wow! Good to see everybody here!
Lunch was great, by the way! Homemade chicken pot pie!
Cypher: Basically, I keep a paper tiger. It's only big because I want to keep the AIs off my back and I hate paying tribute! I generally build a ton of corvettes to boost my military rating and then build some Dreads to handle any emergency. I like to declare war on my own terms, generally by invading several systems the same turn I declare war, then suing for peace a turn or two later. I don't like losing transports on their way to a target.
I am guilty of culture bombing some systems, mostly if they are near resource starbases that I pick up in peace treaties. I try not to make culture bombing a primary tactic since it's kind of boring to me. Terror star strikes are generally to mop up or if I'm not doing well against someone.
I don't know if anybody noticed, but the last Gig/Maso I submitted was around 49000 points! I think it was because I played 3 Incred/2 Genius. I felt like such a loser!
vincible: Glad to hear you are relaxing a little. I hope by that you mean your are comfortably ready for the exam!
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The sharing of strategies only helps all of us! What's your take on military, Greldon? Do you like big or small militaries?
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Well, gang. It's time to get out of here. I'm busy tonight, so I'll talk to everyone tomorrow.
Look for a Metaverse Review soon. RL has kept me from my duties for far too long!
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Just popped in to say hi! Re the scoring - as vincible says, everyone has been involved in this debate at some time or other. Looking over the latest thread about scoring military victories, while it's an interesting debate, it isn't anything I didn't hear Staffa and Sergei discussing when I first arrived in the Metaverse. The scoring system rewards commitment more than skill, in a sense - if you're dedicated enough to keep submitting games, you'll rise: but to get to the top, you have to submit at maso. The game designers long ago said they felt the top of the ladder deserved to be occupied by players playing at the highest level, and I can see their reasoning. We might reignite the debate about linear versus exponential scoring systems, but really that discussion has been over for a while - I don't think Stardock are interested in changing.
I've just moved up to medium for my last few games; Theoden I can tell you that I think there might be some time efficiency value in it. I would average 28,000 for a small map and 35,000 for a medium map so far - so I'm getting 25% more score and I dont think it's taking me 25% longer to finish a game.
Tactically, I'm moving away from my favourite influence game and experimenting with pop bonuses (pop 70+ picks and universalist govt for another 10+) - Metaverse score (as opposed to game score) should benefit from that. Mixed in with a hybrid adaption of alpha striking for quick clean up of games. Sirian made an excellent point recently - if you can get over the early to mid game anxiety and struggle, the rest of the game should go easily, because unlike Cypher, the AI seems unable to recover from poor sitations - it either gets rolling and dominates, or goes downhill.
Have fun people!
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Of late I don't build ANY military.. quite happy to pay the tribute as I'm normally at 100% spend with surplus coming in and keep all the civ's at friendly...
It's funny the way the ask you for money and call you friend to help with their peace keeping efforts.. Then say how much they appreciate it.
You would be surprised just how much trade comes in.. It's then all the sweeter when you terror star them later on.
Doing this strategy I can now finish a game in the region of late 2192 was my best to about 2198.
[Message Edited]
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Similar tactic without the combat transports unless I'm going for minors.. Check out Nand1's mod that if you don't have it.. give higher capacity freighters and transports.
I now go for finishing the game as early as poss.. When playing Gig/Maso you will always get 60k.. so what I try and do now is to beat my best time of 2hrs 21mins for a game.
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That's my best, but always under 3 hours.. check out the lighting alpha strike by maxtipherous, I've just tailored that to suit my game.. if you want to email me Email i can let you have a doc i prepared with screencuts but it is huge 17mb just to give some pointers as to how I play... There may be a couple of things in there taht you don't use, also would be interested in your comments
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