Issue with game setup.

[necaradan666]

I'd say yes, it's because he's playing on extreme difficulty. The AI will get large bonuses to research and economy on that setting. So even though they are starting at the same level as the player they are quickly overtaking him. I guess he's just not playing as well as the AI.

[Sirian]

I would prefer an answer from thefinn himself.

[Tcby]

Thefinn: higher difficulty settings lower your research potential relative to the AI. This scaling is separate to the research cost that you have set to 400k. So on extreme their output is indeed higher. As far as I know, the 400k research cost is correctly applied to the AI. What you are observing is their far higher output.

Hope that helps.

[Unforeseen]

I still think this should be a discussion about player skill and playtips. Even if it didn't take him the 40 some odd years to leave his home system it doesn't appear that he expanded in between then and now. If even one of those extra planets the AI has are decently developed that would make a difference economically as well which would contribute to their overall size and power. (Research differences aside)

Some questions I would have for him are:


Do you have colonization techs researched?
Are you seeking to expand?
Do you have trade agreements?
Have you taken steps to ensure you have access to all the necessary resources?
Is your population happy?
Do you have scientists with bonuses attached to the correct type of research station?
Is it possible that the AI have scientists that are giving them considerable bonuses?
Is anything DIRECTLY preventing you from expanding? (Lack of colonizable planets, Pirates shooting down your colony ships, War, Space creatures etc)

[Icemania]

thefinn, please post more screenshots regarding your Strategy and we can help.

By Year 43 on an Extreme Pre-Warp start, experienced players would have many dozens of colonies.

[Tcby]

Unforeseen: I agree, however you can only have that discussion once thefinn accepts evidence that disproves their initial hypothesis (that the AI is unaffected by the research cost slider).

[Seraph86]

by reading his comment in the DW Extended mod thread and seeing his comments here i think that he might not have build any research stations? is that correct? first thing i do when i start a game is to build a spaceport and one research station per category. in the DW Extended mod thread you said that you didn't reach your research cap, that means that you have still room left for more research stations.

[Cmiller]

Hi finn,

After playing this game for over a year I can rightfully say its NOT the AI at fault here. That's normal expansion for them at this point in the game. And yes, after 43 years of game time you should be well along in progression. I'm not too certain of your skill level in the game, but its apparent in this scenario your doing something wrong. Because I don't know what your doing wrong, all I can really give is my strategy during prewarp. If you are quite new to this game, I recommend leaving automation on, and gradually remove the automation until you have something you're comfortable with. Anyway, let me begin.

The first thing you always want to do is build a SMALL spaceport, followed by 2 construction ships, then 3 research bases: one Energy, one HighTech, and one Weapons all at your home planet. Mow, when your spaceport is finished build 2 explorations ships. Make sure you set one of these exploration ships to head to the abandoned frigate before you automate, so that the pirates don't grab it. You should also send your constructions ships to build mining stations at the nearby boides in your home system. Make Caslon and steel top priorities. Also, something I learned from Larry Monte on youtube (I'll give you a link to his channel later, he's a very good resource and helped me develop my own strategy) is that if the planet's resource %s don't add up to at least 100%, its not worth mining. Those % numbers are basically the mining speed at which the station will extract resources. Make sure the total of all resources add up to 100%, and you should be good. Obviously if you are lacking a source of a certain reource disregard this tip. If you need a resource, you NEED a resource. The last thing you want to happen is having a hundred bases that need retrofitting and you're missing a required resource. Anyway, with this out of the way, let me share with you my recommended order of the tech tree.

First and foremost research Shields, Armor, and Transport Systems. Without Shields and armor you are very vulnerable to pirate attacks. And transport system will help if you plan on starting a resort base during your prewarp. There's usually at least one viable location for resorts in your home system. Next start researching higher ship sizes, this'll prepare you for the warp bubble once you get access to it. Then go for better reactors, energy collection, and then proton ionization and better vector engines. For weapons, go ahead and choose a category you'd like. For beginners I recommend either blasters or torpedoes. Missile weapons are good decision too. And for the HighTech branch, get medbays and recreational centers first. These will provide happiness bonuses on your homeplanet. After that I always like to bee line it for a the trader's guild wonder. The extra income can really help. More money = more ships = more power = victory. Remember that.

I know its a lot to take in, and it would be impossible for me to explain everything in a single post. But this should get you going at least for pre-warp. Here's some more resources that could really help you:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCu2elZ ... v5Xqa7t2IQ
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHJM-V ... xvGp4BHWBA
tm.asp?m=3333889
tm.asp?m=3497284

Definitely check out Das channel and Larry Monte they are really great commentors and have great tutorials on their channel. If you have any questions feel free to ask here, there's many good people that can help you out. Just remember the most important thing: HAVE FUN! Cheers! [:)]

Cmiiler

[Frio]

Hello

I am also having similar problems as thefinn.

My idea was to create the most challenging experience i could handle and slow the game down (research cost set to 960K).
I have attached the settings i used in this post and here is my savefile (46MB) on dropbox:
dropbox.com/s/ewynmrzu0u1nq7u/EXTENDED-EXTREME.dwg

I have about 80 hour played in the game and i am familiar with research.
I am playing Enton with Democracy (45% research) and this was the 4th attempt with these setting and the first i managed to stabilize (after setting pirates proximity to distant) the way i played my games was the following:
1) build a spaceport with about 8 (to cap capacity) energy research labs and start researching shields
2) after the spaceport is done i build 2 scouts (46 cruise speed) and send them to the 2 ruins
3) when the first warp tech is available switch to it with full capacity energy research
4) when the tech is done i went to search the nearby systems
5) keep the lab amount up to date with the max capacity (added 1 hitech later)

At this stage everything seamed ok, until i discovered some of the larger empires that had about 15 colonies (at year 2137) to me this seamed unreachable. I have about 10ish empires discovered and they are waaaay ahead of me (24K military strength, 19 colonies...). Even the 1 colony empires have at least 4x more of everything according to statistics window.

At year 2137 with uninterupted research i am 62% research done of HyperDrive tech (second one in the line) while i have already researched energy collectors, shields and the first ship size increase tech.

Conclusion: to me it seams that the settings do not apply globally with the extended mod, did not try without the mod.

Edit: typos and such

[johanwanderer]

I'm about to go on vacation, but after next week I'll take a shot at the save game and see how far I can get in the similar amount of time (assuming I don't get squished by pirates or another empire by then.)