Anybody interested in a 25 empire extended mod game?

[Jeeves]

I have a game I've been playing for a month on very hard difficulty, universe extended mod. I'm currently in the seventh year, with wars starting in year 10 planned. I have already opened the tech archive, and have 38 colonies. I'm going to conquer at least another dozen independents in the next game year. My reputation is dubious -21 according to the Guardians, but that can be fixed with gifts. I have save games from the very start up to yesterday at about 9 month intervals in the game that I can upload. If Icemania or anyone else is interested in examining my empire as I play the game, and especially my ship and base designs, I can upload the files this weekend or early next week. You might want to play this map, it has some interesting features.

1) Outstanding leader at game start, playing as Quameno.
2) Despicable home system except for a couple of continental colony planets
3) Outstanding stellar neighborhood in the center of a spiral galaxy, but in a cluster of dozens of systems providing all the resources and luxuries needed to get started and grow the empire.
4) Naxillian independents to conquer to get minimum cost clones, but they are a half dozen sectors away, making exploration high priority.
5) Wekkarus, Paratis, and Visareen empires near each other to conquer for racial bonuses.
6) Lots of independents, emphasis on conquering military races and high quality planet ones.
7) Korobbia is a Dhayut independent, with a beacon in the system which you can force to yield a Dhayut colony ship.
8) Carida armaments and energy engineering facility can be colonized using abandoned colony ships found early in the game. There's a beacon near the Unity forum to yield a race able to colonize it.
9) The super luxuries besides Korobbia can be controlled by conquest or colonization of nearby good planets, instead of colonizing them, to allow building mining star bases for maximum extraction of super luxuries.
10) I'll continue the list of features if anybody is interested in playing the map, just respond on this thread. You can play it blind from game start, or join in at my latest major event save...

Lonnie Courtney Clay

[Icemania]

Jeeves I think it would be very useful to share detail here with the community and a save game to compare strategies.

I'm certainly interested in the Ship and Base Designs for the AI Improvement Mod but please keep in mind there is no conditional logic i.e. the number of components of each type (once available) must be fixed from the start of the game until the end of the game. So I can't really apply either of our design ideas unfortunately. That said I'm on the lookout for any cool ideas that I can apply.

I probably won't play the save game as I'm a bit focused on tinkering with silly ideas but I hope others do.

One last comment ... only Very Hard Difficulty! C'mon Jeeves go Extreme! I assume it' also Shadows Age with Max Pirates, Expensive Research, other Empires more advanced, no technology trading, no exploits? Then you will have my full attention because it will force compromises in your favourite strategies ... [:)]

[Darkspire]

One last comment ... only Very Hard Difficulty! C'mon Jeeves go Extreme! I assume it' also Shadows Age with Max Pirates, Expensive Research, other Empires more advanced, no technology trading, no exploits? Then you will have my full attention because it will force compromises in your favourite strategies ...

Quick get the roller skates out dobbins going to lose his legs again ... [:D]

I was going to PM you to see if you wanted to beta Darkverse for me as I have been boxed on time, I can either play test / balance / add or write the theme, if I do both it will take a few months longer as I am having to write it from scratch, PC died taking all the data with it, was down for a few months at the start of the year, I have put every available minute to get the data back and get the theme back up and running, everything is in that was there before and a few bits more, just need to iron out the chinks and tighten / balance the sections up, need an experienced player like yourself who can give me good feedback on issues etc.

Darkspire

[Icemania]

Happy to help Darkspire, very interested in what you have in mind. And, if you wanted, a helpful testing team from other friendly community members would be even better ... ?

[Darkspire]

ORIGINAL: Icemania

Happy to help Darkspire, very interested in what you have in mind. And, if you wanted, a helpful testing team from other friendly community members would be even better ... ?

Possibly, Darkverse is not a one race theme, it encompasses practically the whole modding spectrum for Universe, hence I need folk who know the game inside out and backwards, those who would know an error if they saw it, not bogging down the feedback with comments that express a lack of experience, I will be giving it 190% this weekend to see where I can get it to, if I can get it where I want to by Sunday night I will make a shortlist of testers to ask besides your self, I don't really want to start a theme thread in modding mainly because I am afraid I will put a brick through the monitor if I see the words [WIP] again [8|]

Darkspire

[Jeeves]

One last comment ... only Very Hard Difficulty! C'mon Jeeves go Extreme! I assume it' also Shadows Age with Max Pirates, Expensive Research, other Empires more advanced, no technology trading, no exploits? Then you will have my full attention because it will force compromises in your favourite strategies ...

Nope, it's a classic game difficulty hard scaling as victory approaches, currently at very hard, but expected to be extreme before much longer. Max pirates at average distance yes, currently paying 88k per year to 68 gangs. Tech cheap rather than expensive, otherwise I would be uncomfortable selling to the AI at 30% of market value or more, my rule of thumb for this game. All empires started with the same initial conditions, size starting, tech starting, excellent home, and distant. Technology trading permitted, and in the past year I got 5 million from selling tech. The only exploit I've done is reloading when I got lousy tech off a base, in the case of the technology archive, 100 tries for the tech I accepted. The state miners and mining star bases rather than mines I don't consider an exploit, though some may.

Map is 1400 star 15x15 galaxy spiral, abundant colonies, teeming independents,, no colonization range limit. Story lines and racial events are enabled, no disaster or race victory conditions. Victory at 75% of 75 GDP, 75 population, 75 territory, after 13 years.

Lonnie Courtney Clay

[Icemania]

No worries Darkspire, just let me know when you are ready (no need to rush), happy to run some test games and provide helpful feedback.

[Keston]

ORIGINAL: Icemania

I'm certainly interested in the Ship and Base Designs for the AI Improvement Mod but please keep in mind there is no conditional logic i.e. the number of components of each type (once available) must be fixed from the start of the game until the end of the game. So I can't really apply either of our design ideas unfortunately.

Trying to figure out what you mean and how conditional logic would matter. I thought a set design file can be exchanged and loaded up in another's game, other than one that overwrites a design that is in use.

[Tcby]

Conditional logic: if 'X', then 'Y'.
eg. If you reach size 400 ships, upgrade your escort design to be larger by adding 'Y' components. Or, once you hit Shockwave torpedos, swap Escort Rail Guns for Torps. And so on.

In other words, at the moment you can't give the AI 'changeable' designs. Adaption is the heart of ship design, and this capacity for alteration and judgement is what Ice is referring to. Simply copying your own ship designs on to the AI won't work. Or rather, they will only work for a single, specific tech level.

That's my understanding of the situation anyway.

[Icemania]

Yep, exactly. With that capability I could use the design templates to emulate almost all of my in-game ship and base designs.

[Jeeves]

So nobody is interested? I haven't been online since the 4th. I ate steak with some difficulty last friday, since my teeth are all rotten. Saturday very early I woke up to serious pain in my jaw, which escalated to severe over the course of the weekend, even with painkillers. I had an abcess that made my cheek look like I had a golf ball in my mouth. Since I don't drive, and have little cash, being unemployed, it was tuesday before I finally got a relative to take me to a dentist. I went to affordable dentures, a chain that specializes in pulling rotten teeth and quickly fitting dentures. They pulled the two teeth suspected of causing the abcess, and next week I get my other 14 teeth pulled and start on dentures. I had a really rotten weekend, but feel much better now...

Lonnie Courtney Clay

[Rhikore]

Wow man, So sorry to hear about your situation!
I will pray for you. [:)]
God Bless!

[Jeeves]

ORIGINAL: Rhikore

Wow man, So sorry to hear about your situation!
I will pray for you. [:)]
God Bless!

Thanks, but no prayers necessary, the abcess is just about gone today...

Lonnie Courtney Clay

[Tcby]

Woah, I'm sorry to hear that Jeeves. I hope that abcess continues to clear up.

I'm actually really interested in examining your saves. I thought I made a post to that effect when you first put this thread up, but I guess I didn't. Strange.

I find your progress (38 colonies in 7 years!) quite mind boggling.

Please upload some saves...I look forward to examining such dominant play

[Jeeves]

Okay, I'll do that soon. Right now I'm too still too miserable to do much except sleep - lost 4 days sleep due to the abcess...

Lonnie Courtney Clay

[Tcby]

I think that's reasonable. Get well soon [:)]

[Jeeves]

ORIGINAL: Tcby

I think that's reasonable. Get well soon [:)]

Thanks! I surely hope so...

Lonnie Courtney Clay

[Jeeves]

I feel much better now, and will be uploading files wednesday or in the wee hours of thursday. On thursday I'm getting all my teeth pulled and having temporary dentures made.

Lonnie Courtney Clay

[Tcby]

I'm looking forward to it.

[Blackstork]

Good luck with your game!
If you interested participating in another, organized sucession game you are invited to sign up here: tm.asp?m=3655993&mpage=1&key=�
rules are simple , it will be kinda organised with alot of discussion, and setup details we will set once we have the team to start.


Also , some announce - Quameno Alien Immersion package will be released in 1.00.09 version this means in 1-2 days. Would be cool to see you using it, all Alien Immersion extensions are quite boon to playing experience.