Harder than ever !!!

Now this confuses me... I'll be the first to admit that I'm not that great at this game, but I can say that I don't find it overly difficult.. I play with 2 good and 2 evil and 1 neutral race, all set to average and a large to huge galaxy most of the time... and although I don't usually win, I don't usually lose all that badly either...

I play with all smart opponents. I have no trouble winning. Haven't tried it with genius opponents yet, maybe next beta.

Don't get discouraged. It gets easier the more you play. Most of it is learning what works and what doesn't. It sounds like you are learing what doesn't right now, so keep at it. Look for what works.

I am also increasing the difficulty settings (don't forget the one on the first setup panel) as I test, even with the new complexities being added to the game. I am up to "smart" on all of the other races and at the fourth difficulty setting (is that "difficult"?). I have not lost yet, but I had my experience with the OS/2 version to help me.

Anyone wish to share some strategies? I'm up to simple and average, but I find every game consists of keeping up militarily until I can get an alliance win (or a research win if I get far enough ahead militarily to relax), which is getting a little old.

A small aside: it would be nice if the diplomacy screen stopped you and asked if you really want to go to war to alert you that you may have inadvertantly chosen to trade "Attack the ..." with someone. That can make a game unexpectedly "fun".

-Robert

My first piece of advice is to learn what taxation and spending rates you can tolerate at the start of a game. I crank mine up when I start a game, giving me more resources to get started with.

Second, at the start of a new game, look for and colonize just as fast as you can.

Third, remember that tax income is increased by having more population AND/or MORE PLANETS. Find out how poor a class you can colonize and get all the planets you can. (Start with the best ones, of course).

Fourth, expand your range as fast as you can. That is, get to the colonizable planets at the extent of your current range and colonize them. Look for good ones, but don't be afraid to pick a poor one if it is the only way to extend your range.

Don't be too conserned about the other races ganging up on you until all of the habittable planets are colonized. They will be just as busy as you are trying to colonize planets until then.

After that, it becomes a matter of learning how to build on what you have obtained and how to protect what you have.

Like Lucky Jack said, early colonization is very important. I turn my spending all the way up right at the beginning, and I usually buy as many colony ships as I can afford at the longest lease price. You're taking a blow to your early economy, but the gains should outweight the losses.

Trade with the minor races to help out your economy. I sell my techs to them at 10 credits for 28-32 months. With several minors to trade with, you can sell techs multiple times and usually net 600-900 credits total for each tech. Currently there's a bug that causes the credits of minors to drop several million into the negatives at some point, and with the latest beta you can't sell to them any more after that. So you can only sell so many techs to them, but usually by that point I have enough planets that I can support myself.

That's basically what I'm doing, but I see tips here--I've been neglecting my occasional "high" class second and third planets in a system. I've been afraid of the long-term leases... I have been taking a tip from the AIs and leaving freighters parked around targets until the number of routes increases. (By the way, when would I vote "no"?)

I get the impression that we'll eventually get an AI that doesn't automatically reach for the gun. And I especially hope that allies end up only being able declare war under extraordinary circumstances!

Thank you all!

-Robert

You might want to vote 'no' to limit AI income. I've done that to keep AI fleets down in size during preperation of an invasion fleet, and to slow their research to keep certain advantages as long as possible.

Another tip: Try to avoid colonizing more than one planet per star until you have colonized all the stars you can. Then colonize all of the second, third, fourth, and fifth class planets in the systems you own that you can.

I just stolen few hours to have a play (out of time now), and I have to admit there is great improvement. Maybe just one notice - the Soldier enhancing anomaly (forgot the name, sorry ) makes you too strong, I believe.

I think we should wait until the AI gets better at exploiting the anomalies before we start trying to balance the affect of anomalies.

Now that I have thought about it some, I am going to retract my previous comment. Instead, could the "Soldiering" enhancements be one of those that are supposed ot be percentage increases but is being applied as unit increases?

Also, where is "Soldiering" supposed to show up? I looked at my domestic polocy "stats" screen but could not find it there. I thought I would find it in the abilities list but the list completely fills its area and soldiering is not there (unless it is an entry or more below the bottom).

Soldiering is in the domestic stats area but if it gets above a certain level it vanishes from the display.

'Now that I have thought about it some, I am going to retract my previous comment. Instead, could the "Soldiering" enhancements be one of those that are supposed ot be percentage increases but is being applied as unit increases?'

Soldering does apply as a percentage. The problem is that it is a compounding percentage. If you have a +10% (110% norm) to soldering, the next '+10%' increase leaves you at +21 (121% norm).

'Soldiering is in the domestic stats area but if it gets above a certain level it vanishes from the display.' I've mentioned this before (back in beta 1D). It occurs at exatly +1000%.