That's something to think about.  Maybe using just a couple of fast huge hulled beasts and upgrading them as time goes on.  I'm thinking the experience upgrades should make them legendary after they single handedly take on entire empires.  That would make for a rather long game, but the resulting ships would be incredible.

Maybe I should start them with psionic beams and go from there.  For a change, I'll put some decent defense on them.

I should probably name the ships as well, since they'll be there for the whole game.  At least I hope so.  Imagine losing the Enterprise along with Kirk, Spock, Sulu, etc.  That would hurt.

I've always liked Achilles and Agamemnon as ship names.  Yeah, that's the ticket.

I'll have to discipline myself into not building any more warships other than troop transports.  Getting from one end of the galaxy to where a war is going on and then getting a distraction from another area could be challenging.  Maybe I'll build some defensive ships without engines to protect the planets as needed, but only use my two mobile ships for projected combat.  This might even be a good game to take advantage of the defensive structures that we usually dismiss.  I might even scrap the small fighters I took in trade to purposefully lower my military level.

Thanks for the idea, Neilo.   +1k   

Experience

Yes, I'm linking to my own post. 

Best way to do it is to get large/huge hulls early on, slap one or two low-grade weapons on them, and go to town on Super Dominator Corvettes.

I don't need planet defense at all. The AI has thrown some transports at me, but none with more than 1k troops, and since just about every planet is at 13B, they don't have a hope. i just let them come and in a turn or two, i have regrown the loss pop.

SS, not at all keen to join in on some straight up gaming are you? Be nice to have someone else join the game chat and have another game going we can hear about?!

Just a few pics of the upgraded missile ships. i have 15 of these, and 4 huge hulled ships. the huge hulls haven't seen any real combat yet, but every one of these Predator Class are over lvl 10.

I'd love to; KP was starting in on these as well when his system died.  But I've got a project in GC2 at the moment, plus an RL project that's taking precedence even over that and may well tie me up for the next several months.

-

Thing is, having already played The Most Epic Game Ever™, in which I had to fight off 3+ incarnations of the Dread Lords, Peacekeepers with fleets of 20-strong huge hulls with 700 attack/1400 defense per ship, in addition to the Jagged Knife and at least one appearance of the I-League, while in 500 million bc of debt because the AI couldn't handle it themselves, without knowing about the focus in debt bug and without having had a fleet built or weapons research done when the 500 million debt bug hit...

Well, what's left?

And while playing straight up, no gimmicks is certainly more ethereally satisfying, I'm almost too good at it to even enjoy it anymore.  If you'll recall, back when (nearly?) everyone else had moved up to Suicidal and diplomafied their way through it, I was still hanging back on Tough, out colonizing the AIs individually 9-to-1 (that is, all AIs combined).  And I didn't even know then what I know now.

Then again my playstyle has always been about high research values early on; more akin to a ZYW-style game even if not quite at that ridiculous level of spending.  And the hidden bonus to a player's research higher than Tough makes it easy for me to wipe the floor with the AIs.  I've only ever lost one Suicidal game-my first-and that was in a Tiny galaxy.

But if either of those two qualifies as a gimmick-and while I maintained for a long time that the second did, there isn't anything that can really be done about it-then I suppose I need to go back to the drawing board.

The real question is, how badly must I handicap myself?  What's fair?  What's fun?

And the answer is, I don't know anymore.  Suggestions are welcome, of course, but as per above, it may be some time before I can do anything but spectate.

So, I should never research anything...

Sounds fun!

Actually, I've been playing Europa Universalis III off and on for several months, and I've gotten to the point where I pretty much only play as nations that are supposed to be doomed from the outset-South American pagan tribal nations, Albania (one province minor) at war with the Ottomans at the fall of Byzantium, etc.

But there's really no parallel to that in GC2, aside from playing a minor race maybe, which I'm not even sure how to manage.

I don't think I'm familiar with that bug.  Not that it'll matter though.  If it's an exploit, we're not looking for that sort of thing.

Your knowledge of the game mechanics might kill the fun for you, but I guess that depends on your goal.  If you're trying to win, you'll default to the math.  If you're playing it along the lines of a role playing game, it can take on a different feel.  At least that's how it's going from my perspective.

If you're in it for the fun of it, anything is fair.  For instance, I'm still using diplo skills to get money and planets, but I'm putting a limit on what I can sell.  No warships is my self imposed limit.  Neilo might have a different limit, such as no attack techs.  We're both limiting our military capabilities.

If it makes for a fun game, why not?  You can probably find a balance for yourself in there.  With your knowledge, you might need to limit yourself more than we do.  That's up to you though.  You might want to treat the AI as respectable beings in an alternate reality.  You might want to roll over them like a bug under your car's tire.

Maybe, but the last one started out fun and got bogged down with lawyerish rules.  I got tired of the team captain micromanaging each player's style.  It's not about how one person can control each member of his team like they're his dogs.  I'm not mentioning any names, but I won't be a willing sub to Silverbeacher.

There was a weird bug in DA 1.7 where the game lost track of how much money you had when you were rush buying things, and wound up setting your money to a few hundred million in debt.

Fortunately there was also a weird bug in DA 1.7 where once you researched Xeno Ethics if you didn't have enough to switch ethical alignment your cash was set to 0 even if you were in debt, so I got out of it eventually.

But with no research it took me a great deal of time, and I didn't even know about the second bug until it happened.

My understanding is the first bug was fixed when the second bug was fixed, though, as I haven't seen it happen again yet.

And getting yourself into 500 million bc of debt is hardly an exploit :P  It certainly doesn't help you!

Motti, my brain works differently; it always defaults to the math.

I really think the only way to make it remotely challenging is to never research a tech myself.  This means relying on the AI to research -everything-, so I don't have tech superiority over all of them, although I might have tech superiority over one or two targets.  It also means I'll need to make enough money from my planets in order to buy techs in the first place.

I guess it's debatable whether research treaties should be allowed.

That's about as old-fashioned colony rush as it gets, I think. 

Ouch.  I'm glad they fixed that then.

That would certainly be a challenge.  Fun?  Maybe, but that's up to you.  Sounds a little too restrictive to me, but that's just me.

As far as research treaties go, if you got one, you'll be doing research even if you don't want to.  Still, it wouldn't be a lot and the restriction would probably be more than anyone else has ever tried.

On my Torian game, I built the Achilles and Agamemnon.  I then saw that I should have built the hyperian thingamajig that gives a base +1 to your speed for ships built on that planet.  I built it on my homeworld and upgraded the huge warships to survey ships.  That felt really weird.  I then built a new Achilles and Agamemnon on Toria.  

I was going to go to war with the weakest race first (Iconians) to get a feel for it, but the Thalans took 2 of my planets with their influence while I was rebuilding my ships.  They're the strongest race BTW.  

So I started it off with the Thalans.  I've only been able to reach one of their colony ships so far.  No fighters are within reach for me yet.  The Thalans have a lot of speed and a huge area to play in.  I saw one of their colony ships zip past me and go back into the fog of war.  No chance in me chasing them down.

I'll try to catch more and build up some experience as I can.  1 down anyway.   :) 

As Motti mentioned, the lore of the game to me means alot. Mess with the AI and give them a different flavor and create a race for yourself with some kind of story to it. Perhaps a race devoid of all technological achievement, so they must scavenge for tech. i could see where espionage might actually be meaningful in this kind of game.

Create a custom Krynn race perhaps, heavy on econ and morale.

Gee, i might even be tempted to try a game like this myself!!

We set up some odd galaxy settings and fire away......

Ohh and uhmm..*cough*...err *NAZI*...*cough*.....excuse me...



I got plenty to do around the house today, so i might not get much game in. the Ildrians are down to about 25 planets, and are no threat, though they did start producing transports with 3k troops. Good thing they have little to no, invasion or soldiering tech.
I'm ready to hit the Torians and should take them out within 1 or two turns. Then it will be the Drath and Korx at the same time. My econ is an out of control locomotive now, ~75k per turn and increasing. I did start going though all my planets and buying Stock Exchanges, but meh...i really could not be bothered, so each planet has one Industrial Sector and they build out on their own accord, ever so slowly ofc..

It's early year 4, i have just under 400 planets, and if i really wanted to, i could probably end the game by years end. But i want to see if i can take everyone out with just the capital ships i have atm...
i have in all about 15 large hulls (as the above pics) all over lvl 10, and about 10 huge hulls, spread over to differing designs.

"hyperian thingamajig's" coming to a store new you!!!!

Particlewave you lurker!!!

How are you good sir? Stop in for a chat.

Hope things are well for you!!!

@Neilo, you  are right. I enjoy reading about how your games are going and how I can change and learn in my own games. This last game I just did was special      party at my Empire thread because I didn't lease buy any ships or most buildings under 10,000 credits. When I took out all the races except for Krynn in the first year but it ended (accidentally culture flip) in the second year because I forgot to place a Re-education building on New Iconia II V when I made a peace treaty with Krynn to trade their home planet for (PQ3) New Iconia II V. After that I set up trade and Econ Star bases started making a little money.

We are looking for players to join to become aggressive Admirals to lead your fleets across the Galaxy!

Empress Saint Mina of Ophelia VII of Order of the Bloody Rose of Orders Militant of Adepta Sororitas

Muhahahahahaha... oops, sorry that's Motti's line IIRC. Hello Motti!!

I'm doing well Neilo. I hope things are good with you and that goes for you as well Motti if you are reading this.

Yes, I noticed some activity in the TOE forums as of late and both you and Motti seem to be enjoying a renewed interest in the game (DA).

Good to see some vets from the old empires still playing... puts the rest of us to shame, but what I've really noticed is that you guys are playing not so much for score but for the role playing aspect of the game... I think that's fantastic! Not being a score monger ever, I always played it that way and it seemed to be more natural for me I think, but there are so many ways to play this game, that there are no limits really.

By reading some of the reports from games you guys have played or are playing, it certainly appears that both of you are having one hell of a good time with discovering new and creative ways of approaching the game.

Cheers!

I'm well mate, or, as well as not being a multi-millionaire can be...

Great to see you drop by mate!

particlewave!  It's good to see you again!    

Yeah, we've gone back to the soul of the game instead of working on score.  We've had to cripple ourselves a bit to make it more interesting.  It might take a little more of that to find a good balance.  It sure would be nice to hear some gaming stories form a few more folks too.

@Neilo - I see you'e started a new thread for the gaming discussion.  I'll go check it out.

It's got awfully quite in here all of a sudden! I havent had alot of game time recently, but i swear today i'm going to get in at least a few hours....
I hate being away from a game for too long, you forget what the hell you were doing on the last save.

Hi....I'd love to join this Tyranny of Evil...but the homepage is down and the AltMeta page says you don't exist.....A little help is all I'm asking(Probably in the wrong place) but i do have goodEVIL qualities and can produce a number of Evil based technologies for the Empire to exploit, one such being a Life Force Re-cycler(uses an old, broken improvement locked in the game files) that drains the life from a old civilian, and forces it into a younger one, thus making long lasting citizens of the empire! Alternatively is could be used for making slaves last 2-3x longer.

My custom race, The Akzard, can access evil, neutral AND good techs all at one!(Custom tech tree)

Let me know if i'm accepted into this black cloud of evil people....

Greetings good sir! Yeah, i really should update the OP, we were very inactive for some time.

I'll send you an invite, you are most welcome to join! There are not so many of us active these days, but there are still a few of us old timers hanging about!!

<edit> Galactic, you need to create a Metaverse character for me to invite you. Conversely, you can click here, and click the Join Empire button. You still will have to have a MV character first though mate.
To manage your characters, from the GC2 homepage, click Metaverse - Account (along the top) -Edit Characters. <edit>

yeah, i know, i just remembered that beforeyour edits.

i joined the empire and would like to ask.....what tech focus should i use?

Weapons

Improvements

Defenses

Propulsion

Biology

Etc...?

**Always remember when i give advice it's based on DA, not TA, but there shouldn't much difference.**

Depending on what type of game your going for i would say determines your priority's. For me, not matter the game, it's get the first two research techs and basic miniaturization, which gives you the Tech Cap.
then i move onto the diplomacy techs, and build the diplomatic translators. (you get that with the first diplo tech.

Then i look at the game and keeping in mind what setup i used and what goals i want to achieve in the game, i might then go,
Propulsion and Sensors (to aid your survey ships)
Econ and Entertainment (higher taxes!! Plus getting to Stock Exchanges quick is very helpful since they have an econ and a moral bonus)

then i would look at weapons.

It all depends on your game though, i go for techs i can sell/trade to the AI. Playing All Labs helps you get a huge tech advantage, but your econ will tank, dealing with the AI is crucial. The AI pay very well for the Trade techs for instance.

thats a very rough outline that i use in my current games, which are not for score. When playing just for score, there is a very difined set of techs you MUST research and in a certain way...but i won't get into all that, since i assume your playing for the fun, and playing for score is no fun......beleive me! LOL

when i asked what i should focus on, i meant in producing techs for YOU guys to use, im getting rather good at it(besides balance).

If you give me a tech type to make, like Weapons, then please give me a type of that tech(if there is any), like Beams.

If anyone would like to see it, here is my FlagShip(not default):

Welcome aboard, Galacticruler5000!    

It's been a while since we've seen a new member.  I'll break out the Torian ale if I can find it.  

In totally unrelated and trivia news, my new dash cam came in.  Pretty decent resolution, too.  Here's a short vid I took on my lunch break today...

New toys are always cool for a while.    

Nice Camera, that has brilliant resolution! What size it mate? Iv'e thinking about getting a cam i can mount on my RC cars (they are 1/8th scale) to make some vids of the off roading and track work i do with them. something like that might be perfect!
Oh...by the way...girls girls girls, nice choice! the V8 revving gave it away straight away! love Motley Crue!