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Ring fencing of resources and other stuff with ships
Exchanging peace for tons of goodies from a dead Major (doesn't work in maso)
Exhorting zillions from new minors that appear
Additional move/attack for ships using autopilot
Super fast Terror stars through fleeting star with ships (bug still there I think)
Information Warfare invasion tactic results in bazillion pop in captured planet (still there I think)
Using destructive invasion tactics to reduce pop without collateral damage by ensuring that planet is not captured in attack (cheese resulting from an anti-exploit feature)
Buying ships from AI and invading with their own ships (arguable cheese)
         
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Two varieties of cheese presented herewith:
Repeatedly colonising, and immediately destroying colony, of some size 3 planet for sole purpose of getting events to change morality.
Selling planets you know will flip back very quickly.
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I think the cost of a starbase should be tied to the greater of either:
- the value to the selling AI civ: or
- the value to the buying human civ (Using Staffa's example of a starbase adding 20,000bc per turn then the AI should realise the starbase is of immense value to you and charge accordingly)
I have only purchased a resource starbase once. Handed over a planet for it on a medium abundant map. So cheap it seemed like a cheese so I haven't done it since. (It was worth far more than that to both me and to the selling AI civ).
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It seems that the AI tries to build every improvement on every planet with the consequence that it saddles itself with a lot of improvements that are worse than useless. It builds an economic millstone around its own neck as there are so many improvements available that really ought never be built or at best built only on the very best planets.
This can be easily fixed by modding the opreating costs of the buildings.
BTW This is also a trap for new players. In my first game I thought it would be desirable to develop my colonies by building improvements. Example follows. Early on an entertainment network was available giving 20% morale for 2bc per turn. I though the morale boost should increase the population enough to pay for the upkeep. Not so for most colonies. Umh, later Virtual Reality Centres become available so I built them, drove my economy into the ground.
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Agree with Staffa that trading tech for cash is currently the most overpowered strat in the game. Other than Maso where it is disabled, anybody employing it at any other level would be able to massively exploit the AI to the point of bankruptcy.
The AI seem grateful to work their butts off so that they could buy over some tech without much regard for their direct usefulness to its empire.
I like the idea of limiting their tech purchases to a percentage of their income so that they don't overextend themselves.
[Message Edited]
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The AI does not seem to consider fully how developed a starbase is when setting a price. Maybe that's a bug?
  
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I do that as well on Maso, vincible but I don't see this deft tech trading as exploitive. This is because the Maso AI has diplo bonuses and unless you get Diplo Trans or have diplo picks, the human will be trading at a disadvantage anyway.
Unlike tech selling, the AI is not weakened by this strat. What it does at most is to allow the human to keep relative parity with Incredible research.
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I don't think Brad has the intention to make Maso any easier for the few of us that still play it.
I've read some of his really old posts and he implied his intention to make Maso an unbeatable level where people will boasting about how many turns they survived rather than how they have won. 
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There are probably dead Maso players who don't do this. Those that win most definitely do.
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I support making the Maso AI more intelligent in their trading and balancing that (or whatever) with less "straight" bonuses.
    
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#21
by Citizen ytszazu - 7/4/2003 1:07:49 AM
I found some bugs too:
1: You attack one race, his ally declares on you. He is ten times smaller than you. Two turns later the asks for peace. Immediatelly after agreeing, he automatically declares war again. This repeats on and on until you sucked all his resources or killed him off.
2: Game kicks back to Windows after exiting conversation screen.
3: Autopilot send you by 90 degrees, not diagonally, and sends your poor ship right into your enemies.
4: REALLY STUPID AL: Two races at war. I'm neutral with both of them. There is one battleship on the left of my planet and an opponent battleship on my right of my planet. Al decides to attack enemy battleship and rams right into my planet and we declared war.
5: Trading for goods. I bought his Aprondistic(an unique good) and it does not show up in my inventory and gives no bonus.
6: Purchasing buildings: After clicking purchase and I bought the building, then I get the bonuses from the building, but before I end turn and I decided to change the building, the building "vanishes" from my inventory and is not on the planet's improvement list.
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 Cheese or not.
IMHO the one way to trade is at the moment. Look for the nearest star system and build countless starbases with trade upgrades... Bonuses for distance are not relevevant because it seems to me that trade boni stack without a cap. Besides it is much easier to defend only one trading partner. Sideeffekt you can build up a minor superpower that way.... 
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