I'm too powerful now.

[Foraven]

My game is a sandbox, 700 stars with all races in, starting tech, normal piracy and aggressive AIs.

Even though my empire isn't the biggest yet population/colony wise, it has the biggest trade network and the most massive navy (not only i have lots of ships, but most of them can take out 2-3 ships of their class on their own). My reputation is also so great that other empire's colony keep defecting to my empire all the time. Pirates are a minor nuisance, they can't even cat one of my civilian ship, and my escorts can take out their destroyers. And economically, i earn around 200k (not sure if it's per week or months) and have over a million (at one point i had over 2 millions) in reserve. It's only a matter of time before i'm the biggest of all... Well, i guess i can consider that sandbox game won.

The only memorable event in the whole game was when i captured the world destroyer by parking my fleet next to the whole army of construction ships of nearly all the empires in the game. My economy wasn't so great at that time so i retired it... Too bad i did not even salvage any tech from it (even though it had stuff i still don't have now).

I guess i got it right this time [8D].

Is there supposed to be any major events in the game that can wreak havoc aside from one faction getting the world destroyer and using it? I wish so major events would happen in that game when my massive navy could be put to use (and no, i'm not interested in conquering the galaxy, i like to play the honorable guy).

[feygan]

Aside from having some psychotic race find a world destroyer or the ancient cruiser/capital graveyard then once you get the hang of how to play pretty much any game like that becomes easy to win. Seems the AI does suffer from some issues on planning and such when you all start from a level playing field. But then also you endup with a similar problem that if you randomize all starts then your larger AI's endup trouncing everyone. MAybe have to wait until full modding support arrives for someone to fix up the AI here.

[Foraven]

ORIGINAL: feygan

Aside from having some psychotic race find a world destroyer or the ancient cruiser/capital graveyard then once you get the hang of how to play pretty much any game like that becomes easy to win. Seems the AI does suffer from some issues on planning and such when you all start from a level playing field. But then also you endup with a similar problem that if you randomize all starts then your larger AI's endup trouncing everyone. MAybe have to wait until full modding support arrives for someone to fix up the AI here.

I also noticed all the AI have very poor reputation; seem they are all eager to backstab their friends whenever they see fit. I also noticed it's very hard to get into a lasting alliance with anyone, the AI seem coded to despise anyone who has a bit more than they do, or have anything they want. It's sad, i wish there could be powerblocks or some endwars happening in game...

[WoodMan]

I would suggest putting your home system on trying or harsh (I use Trying for me and all AI), reduce the independents sliders both to minimum (so it takes much longer to grow an Empire), put the agression on Normal so the AI doesn't wear it self out on each other (agression setting doesn't make the game harder, just makes more wars and less trade/peace mainly between the AI), reduce the planet quality in the galaxy to one below middle, or minimum, set tech speed to very slowest, and have all automation settings set to manual except ship design, which let the AI do for you (this makes the game harder because you can't out design your opponents, and also adds a roleplay element because if you take a stupid race, you have inferior designs).

Also more to try below: [:)]

Use Spiral galaxy and start on the edge

You could also try setting the AI Empires up with an advantage.  I tried setting them by intelligence before, so, the Quameno being the most intelligent were the largest size and highest tech, and the stupid races like Atuuk started off the worst with Basic Tech and Starting Empire size.  This made the game a bit hard though, the pirates were insanely powerful and the Haakonish just wiped me out in one attack (without even declaring war) [:D]

[Foraven]

I hope an update is coming... Quite a few issue to solve to make this game as good as it has the potential to be.

[Eldiora]

I know what you mean, sometimes I think the empires are really really stupid even if I turn up the AI a lot. For example in my newest game I choose to be a trade empire, except 3 races out of 11 they were mostly friendly towards my Theekans and their Mercantile Guild so i quickly amassed a huge income with trade routes and gained respect among the galaxies races. Well the Sluken werent that impressed and hated me naturally.

I began with their outlying colonies and simply moved some troop transports over... I conquered 3 of their worlds and they simply were annoyed and i should with draw my presence.. NO WAR declaration.
They simply sat in their systems. I did that a second time and still they did not try to retaliatie. I gave up and simply extinct their government and took over their whole star domain of 30 colonies with a swift stike of troop transports.
There was a 2nd Sluken player that had exactly the same issue. 50 Colonies, good military (ok mine was 2x bigger) but he still didnt declare war on me even after loosing 3-4 colonies. Then i went to his homeworld, no War still and the AI was set above normal agression.

Something is terribly wrong here. After that i declared war on every other race in the galaxy and now im looking at an all out war. But hey every one of my colonies is defended by a small starport with a deathray ^^

[torrenal]

Try playing as a Military Dictator...
Most empires naturally distrust you (more prone to war with you vs others), your spies are prone to trigger wars if left unchecked (Assuming you take time to recruit them yourself), and if you let the game order ships for you, you won't live -- you need to be ordering construction of your own ships&bases.

//Torrenal

[the1sean]

Is everyone playing with the newest patch? Your experiences seem very different from mine...

[2guncohen]

ORIGINAL: the1sean

Is everyone playing with the newest patch? Your experiences seem very different from mine...

Maybe they like you or hate you more ? :p

[2guncohen]

ORIGINAL: 2guncohen

ORIGINAL: the1sean

Is everyone playing with the newest patch? Your experiences seem very different from mine...

Maybe they "like you" or "hate you" more ? :p

[torrenal]

I'm on 1.0.6.0...  I think race and government both have a bearing on the difficulty, as will play-style.

[Foraven]

I think races and governments are not fully balanced yet; some are much better than others, at least until you include other races in your empire.

[torrenal]

Is it that they arn't balanced, or they offer varrying difficulty?  Opposing a military dictatorship should be easy.  They don't hire many spies, build many bases, or ships.  Opposing a Way of the Ancients would be dififcult, as the build a military up to the size that the empire can support.  Playing the two would be the opposite, for the same reasons that opposing them is easy...  The dictatorship will fail without micro-managemnt, the ancients, you can pretty much just walk away and leave the game on Auto.
//Torrenal

[Foraven]

ORIGINAL: torrenal

Is it that they arn't balanced, or they offer varrying difficulty?  Opposing a military dictatorship should be easy.  They don't hire many spies, build many bases, or ships.  Opposing a Way of the Ancients would be dififcult, as the build a military up to the size that the empire can support.  Playing the two would be the opposite, for the same reasons that opposing them is easy...  The dictatorship will fail without micro-managemnt, the ancients, you can pretty much just walk away and leave the game on Auto.
//Torrenal

To me that's an imbalance. Each races/governments should be about equal in potential, just not play out the same way. I don't find it fun to have opponents that are pushovers even if they are twice or three times as big. I don't mind having worthless advisors, i turn most of the features off anyway because i want to run my empire my way (that is until we can fine tune the advisors to run things properly).

[WoodMan]

I prefer unbalanced races in games personally, more atmosphere, rather than cookie cutter 20 races but no difference between them all saminess

[Foraven]

ORIGINAL: WoodMan

I prefer unbalanced races in games personally, more atmosphere, rather than cookie cutter 20 races but no difference between them all saminess

Sword of the stars managed to make 6 different races that are mostly equal, but very different to play. But DS races difference are mostly starting tech, bonuses and maluses and what kind of worlds they can inhabit; the rest is pretty much the same.

[the1sean]

I loved the race customization in Master of Orion 2. The final build of GalCiv2 had very cool individualized races. Armada 2526 had varying racial victory conditions, very cool but didnt live up to its potential...