Your game settings?

[Kadrush]

Aside quick starts, how do you configure your games?

Let me start

General settings

1-Huge Galaxy - 1400 stars (thanks 4gb memory)
2-Planet Quality - very high (for massive economic/fleet purposes)
3-Independent alien life - teeming (it helps to create huge, powerfull AI empires)
4-Expansion - doesnt matter (I am going to set all 19 empires, one by one)
5-Agression - normal (it is important, many wars means more weariness, minus income and more empire shatter which is equal to less challenge)
6-Research speed - very slow
7-Space creatures - many (for flavor)
8-Pirates - many (adds flavor and helps to bump reputation by hunting them)
9-Independents CAN NOT start new empires
10-75% all around winning conditions

My settings

1-Home system - Excellent
2-Size - Expanding
3-tech level - basic
4-corruption low
5-Government - Democracy
5-Race - Human
6-Starting position – deep core


19 AI empires (tech level as basic and starting system as excellent for all)

1- Ackdarian - Expanding - Random (government) - Average (Distance)
2- Zenox - Mature - Random (government) - Average (Distance)
3- Boskara - Old - Hive mind - Distant (distance)
4- Dhayut – Old – Military Dictatorship – Mature – Distant
5- Gizurean – Mature – Hive mind – Mature – Average
6- Haakonish – Young – random gov - nearby
7- human – mature – military dict - average
8- kiadian – expanding – random gov - average
9- zenox – expanding – random gov - average
10- human – expanding – random gov - nearby
11- Mortalen – mature – mil dict - distant
12- Naxxilian – expanding – mil dict - average
13- quameno – expanding – random gov - average
14- securan – expanding – rangom gov - average
15- shandar – expanding – random gov - average
16- sluken – mature – hive mind - average
17- teekan – mature – random gov - average
18- ugnari – expanding – random gov - average
19- wekkarus – young – random gov – average

Now here comes the magic, start the new game, open the editor (try not to look a lot), see where the boskaras and the dhayut started (if they started one over the other, start again), go to their empires, place a ruin of darkness in 1 planet of each. Close the editor, unpause the game, run for a few months (1-3), pause, save, open the editor, edit empires, if the boskaras and the dhayut didn’t changed to way of darkness yet do it for them, open alliances, make them allied.

Voíla, they are going to be so powerful that even on normal aggression lvls they will start to swallow the galaxy quite early.

Good luck!!!

[Snowpeople1]

I really like the small tweak in Boskara and Dhayut that you did! I will definately be giving that a shot, nice having consistently solid bad guys to duke it out with =P

My settings have been a little all over the place as I am still trying to find that "sweet spot" for my games.

So far my preference seems to lean towards -

- 400 to 700 star systems (Just seems to help keep the map a little less cluttered)
- Planet quality High (I like to make sure the AI empires will have decent economies/resources)
- Independents set to normal (I have a difficult time restraining myself where they are concerned)
- Aggression set to normal, an overly aggressive galaxy plays itself out alot faster and I like my games drawn out.
- Research set to slow, seems to make each and every discovery that much more important.
- Space creatures to low, I like them to be a rare event.
- Pirates to normal, just enough to be a viable nuisance without so many one can exploit the bonus of killing them.
- Independants set to "can start a new empire", for no other reason other than sometimes I like to take a fledgling empire under my wing, gives me the side goal of keaping them alive and well =P
- I set my games to sand box mode, I prefer to decide when I feel the game has ran its course.


My empire settings -

- Home system, excellent, I hate having a crappy home world/system =P
- Size, starting, I can expand faster and better than the AI so I don't like to give myself a starting advantage.
- Tech is basic, I have alot of fun discovering techs.
- Corruption to low , one of the features I would dearly like to have the option to eliminate completely from my games...ugh I dislike the corruption system in this game (plus I suspect strongly it is prone to errors in its calculations)
- Race is usually Human, republic , I keep telling myself I am going to write an AAR and I want it from the human perspective...I guess now that Emperor Fred has gone AWOL (sadface) I just might actually get around to writing mine.

Other empires -

Really varies with my mood at the time


~Snowman

 

[Igard]

ORIGINAL: Kadrush

Now here comes the magic, start the new game, open the editor (try not to look a lot), see where the boskaras and the dhayut started (if they started one over the other, start again), go to their empires, place a ruin of darkness in 1 planet of each. Close the editor, unpause the game, run for a few months (1-3), pause, save, open the editor, edit empires, if the boskaras and the dhayut didn’t changed to way of darkness yet do it for them, open alliances, make them allied.

That's a nice solution to making empires more aggressive. I don't like that you have to look at the map though, any amount of peeking is still naughty.[:-]

Have you tried playing with the bias settings also? It takes a very, very long time to change all of them, but if it's just one or two empires, then it's worth the extra effort.

[Kadrush]

Igard

bias settings?

Today, I got my first war with the dhayut using my new settings, they where quite agressive, lucky me they didnt called the boskaras to the fight. As AI code, I am starting to believe thar Dhayut post a better challenge than the Boskaras.

That way I plan to run a new game with the same settings, but changing the boskaras and sluken empires for 2 more old dhayut way of darkness allied empires. Ouchy

Snowpeople

I agree, I hate corruption and would love the option to eliminate it. On the other hand it would make old empires quite powerful at game start which can be both a good and a bad thing.

Also I agree which starting system and galaxy richness, tech lvls and research speed

I disagree with pirates coz on late game they start to run on cruisers, which is very funny as you need to activily hunt their bases and give defenses to your bases + more and more powerful patrol ships.

About the independents starting new empires, I like that option but I strongly believe that it has a bug related, since I stoped using it I never had another ctd.

[Igard]

Sorry, Kadrush, let me explain.

Races that are of the same family have a natural liking for one another, like the insectoid races all have a natural bias of +10 toward each other. Of course, they don't like humanoids so the bias towards them is -10. You can alter these settings using the editor in the range of -50 to +50. To change this, go into the editor and click the Edit Empires button, then select the empire you want and at the bottom you can change their relationship bias toward each of the other empires, so you can set them agianst who you want.

[Kadrush]

Nice!!!

That way you can force some races to wage war to others, ie. making the dhayut and the boskaras more agressive.

[Igard]

It's a great feature, but can get tiresome changing the settings every time you start a new game. According to Erik, one of the planned modding features is a file to adjust these, so we can set up our games to always start with the racial bias settings we like. I don't think he said it would be in the expansion this time, but it is planned for a future patch.

[Kadrush]

Hey, I was thinking, why dont we create a "scenario" post with the savegames of our current settings?

The idea is like that

We start the game in the configuration we like, open the editor, mess things a little bit, close the editor with a password, save the game adding "start" to its name. Upload, and place a link on the topic.

That way we can create "scenarios" that people who plays wouldnt now the changes, starting players locations or game settings...a complete suprise.

Savegames would be only of current version (1.6)

[Kadrush]

Ok, let me start.

I am here to launch my 1.6 save game challenge (14mb savegame file)

Zhar Federation VS The Mighty Bug Axis of Evil

http://www.2shared.com/photo/Ut7FtsNK/Zhar_Federation_2754-02-13_sta.html

In Summary

You start in a huge galaxy (1400 stars) with a expading human empire, you got a few gifts from start (like an explored way of darkness ruin, can you resist the temptation?). Out there there is an axis of Gizurean-Sluken-Boskaras-Dhayut (mature empires), way of darkness, allied, with +50 bias to each other.

Can you forge alliances and fight such evil?

Good Luck!!!

[Shark7]

General settings

1-Huge Galaxy - 1400 stars (thanks 12gb memory) [:'(] it's really, really nice. [:)]
2-Planet Quality - very high
3-Independent alien life - Rare - it really slows down the expansion phase and makes the game last longer
4-Expansion - Starting
5-Agression - Chaos
6-Research speed - very slow
7-Space creatures - rare (hate them)
8-Pirates - many (something to shoot at)
9-Independents CAN start new empires
10-Open Sandbox

My settings

1-Home system - Excellent
2-Size - Young
3-tech level - basic
4-corruption low
5-Government - Republic
5-Race - Human
6-Starting position – Random

19 AI empires (tech level as basic and starting system as excellent for all)

Not going to list each individually (plus I play a mod anyway).

General settings for AI empires are:

1. Size - Starting to expanding
2. Governments set manually to fit the race
3. Research - Basic or expanding (anything more makes one race too over-powered)
4. Starting conditions - Random
5. Distance - Average or Distant (while it gives me more space to expand, it also limits trade income early)

I also leave the 2 really stupid races out of the list, and add them to the map randomly via the editor...sometimes they manage to make new empires, sometimes not. I also add 3 factions of one of the most agressive races.

[TheLastRonin]

ORIGINAL: Kadrush

Hey, I was thinking, why dont we create a "scenario" post with the savegames of our current settings?

The idea is like that

We start the game in the configuration we like, open the editor, mess things a little bit, close the editor with a password, save the game adding "start" to its name. Upload, and place a link on the topic.

That way we can create "scenarios" that people who plays wouldnt now the changes, starting players locations or game settings...a complete suprise.

Savegames would be only of current version (1.6)

We start the game in the configuration we like, open the editor, mess things a little bit, close the editor with a password, save the game adding "start" to its name. Upload, and place a link on the topic.

If the In-Game editor had a bit more depth and we were able to manipulate the resource types and planet quality of systems then we could make some really awesome scenarios. As it stands though the in-game editor is crippled without these basic functions [:(].

[Kadrush]

Yeah, game editor still have flaws, but it still is very usefull

Just a small add on to my game settings.

For the first time I lost a game.

I add to my personal settings of sluken-boskaras-dhayut way of darkness allied empires with +50 bias to each other, 20b independent teekan + gizueran colonies on their territory + superweapon ruins.

Man, I created a monster...

[Bingeling]

To jump on an old post...

If I want to start a huge game with the storylines. I am turned off by them, as I don't like the sites with lots of wrecks, and I am afraid it would mess up my game, but I should see them. I started one prestart with some 6-7 planets at start and the goodguys awoke to rally against the badguys all to early. No real ownership to my empire, anyways...

Which are your stupid races (I am too lazy to look through the list). Leaving two empires out is 18 specified by you including yourself, are the Ancients the 19th who appear automagically?

I enjoy randomness but can of course randomize my own race before starting so i set up the others manually (huge die roll).

To you randomize (externally) who gets the tech advantage? Starting or expanding would matter, I'd think.

[Data]

By randomize (externally) you mean via the editor? I didn't do it yet but plan on doing it to give the AI a leag up.

[Bingeling]

Randomize externally.

For my empire. Roll a D20 dice, and for instance count the number as listed in the PDF manual.

To randomize AI empire/benefits - do an out of game lottery for the beneficial position, another D20 would work. You can set some benefits in the empire settings, right? A selection of smaller dice are good when you start dropping to lower numbers (if you want a random of 18 empires you roll D20 and roll again on 19 and 20 of course).

Or you could do it the modern way and find some randomize function or a web site. Somewhere I have a lot of standard RP-dice, but I don't think I know where they are. Moving leads to those issues...

Though I think you can change empires in the editor without seeing anything about them. Apart from their starting tech level and maybe some other stuff which is what you would set manually otherwise.


Edit: Empire settings as the game setup options for opponents.

[Grfin Zeppelin]

I use something close to what the OP recomended. However seting the aggression level on peaceful makes the most interesting and difficult games. The AI Empires are strong and stable and war is serious business.

[Bingeling]

Interesting about setting peaceful for harder games. I guess it means you have to declare more wars, and take the reputation hits, meaning that the high pirate count set in the original post may be necessary.

I am waiting to start my big game until the next patch, I hope my interest will last that long.

[Grfin Zeppelin]

ORIGINAL: Bingeling

Interesting about setting peaceful for harder games. I guess it means you have to declare more wars, and take the reputation hits, meaning that the high pirate count set in the original post may be necessary.

I am waiting to start my big game until the next patch, I hope my interest will last that long.

In my Current game I play a Dictatorship and I am surounded by large and stable Empires. I struggle for space and would love to declare war on the waekest one which is managable for my forces. I however dont dare to draw the sword atm because if they get help from their friends they would crush me like a bug.
The Galaxy is far from peacful however. There are wars going on but its not like in other setings that everyone is at war with someone.

[Bingeling]

It is maybe better avoid starting with single colonies empires too. It should help compensate for early human research boosting and huge exploration ship advantage.

Did you start with expanding empires?

[Kakuzu]

Galaxy Settings
Spiral Galaxy
Huge Galaxy
Abundant Colonies
Normal Independents
Starting Expansion
Normal Aggression
Expensive Research
Normal Space Creatures
Normal Space Pirates
Average Proximity

My Empire
Various Starting Location
Excellent Home System
Starting Size
Starting Tech Level
Various Corruption

Starting location depends on what race I'm playing. I like my humans to start in the far regions for flavor. Likewise, corruption depends on my government and race. Human republics will usually be pretty corrupt, for example.