How do you make your games more difficult?

[feelotraveller]

ORIGINAL: unclean



I think the trick in any 4X is finding settings that make things interesting for yourself without making it so unfair that it feels like an entirely different game.

ORIGINAL: feelotraveller
2) No invading alien homeworlds.  Exception is end game if required by racial victory conditions, but I wait until it assures victory.

Arghh, that's like taking out an X I know where you're coming from, but I think making them harder to take out in the first place is much more fun, even if it's worse in the long run.

Putting an expanding AI that hates you somewhere nearby is also a pretty good way to keep from conquering every Ewok looking thing in sight, at least if you have to bombard.

Big agreement on tweaking the settings to get the kind of game that makes it fun for you.

I'm happy enough with games where I don't go for the complete cultural genocide but just confine them to reservations or native homelands. [X(] You like a slightly different game to me and that's fine. I'm sure a lot of players get fun out of invading homeworlds...

Another suggestion which has yet to mentioned is to give the alien empires some ridiculously good characters (by making a custom theme) before the start of the game. You can give them bonuses like +100% income or research, or some killer spies (sometimes literally) or super-legendary admirals, or whatever.

p.s. Although I agree it's a 4X I think that the official byline of DW is something like 'Explore, Colonise, Defend'... must be what all those high powered weapons are for. [:D]

[morik]

Hi guys,

I'm on my 1st "real" game (my actual 1st game I was following the no automation guide through a bit, and once I learned enough about how to play I restarted in a huge/huge galaxy on hard, tech trading off).

I haven't found much challenge yet (I have maybe 10 colonies total now, empires are starting to solidify their borders), but its been a lot of fun anyway.
I'm hoping I'll start running into challenges when I go to take out pirates, or when I start trying to war with others.

Any comments on the difficulty after the expansions you guys were discussing came out? I realize this is a really old thread, but am curious how things are after a year and a half of improvements and such.

[Max 86]

I make the game more difficult by keeping my skill level incredibly low.

[CaptainBipto1]

Play pirates with very many very weak pirates. They keep me busy. I don't sent techs for cash unless I am in dire straits (like having to rebuild so I don't die)

[Tanaka]

tm.asp?m=3647528

[Hikikomori]

That's probably the single most effective thing you can do to make your game harder. I hadn't had much time to test it, but what i saw looks very nice. By which i mean very mean.