Reputation

[taltamir]

i have seen it get a lot worse cindar... It is mostly your government that affects war weariness... but you get bonuses to it from incorporating "warrior" races into empire... so its easy to stack up reducers to war weariness to the point where it doesn't matter... but an all human democracy can be crippled by it.

[Malevolence]

In one recent instance, I let the Dhayut's empire rage on all the empires in the galaxy while I sat back in a corner of the galaxy and waited. I really didn't do anything but look for some valuable planets and concentrated on just colonizing them. I was small, barely armed, and innocent. After the Dhayut had wiped out all the other races, I had an enormous pile of cash. After about a 15 minute build cycle, I proceeded to march across the galaxy and wipe every one of their colonies from the 400 system-sized map. Reminds me of playing Risk and letting the two strongest, most aggressive players grind themselves out of the game. I note that my randomly generated position in the galaxy was crucial to this strategy. I was mostly alone while the other empires started on the other side of the map.

Was it fun? Sure... once.

[Gertjan]

Good strategy Malevolence. Let the others do the dirty work and weaken each other, that's when you strike at your hardest!

[Fishman]

ORIGINAL: Cindar

More aggressive races have stronger troops. More intelligent races research faster and have stronger troops.

Which brings us to the next question: Does anyone know who the best warriors in the game are? I have this suspicion that the Atuuks rank rather highly on the list, because the planet that has given me the MOST trouble to invade, ever, was an Atuuk planet, and not even especially heavily defended. Damn Ewoks.

ORIGINAL: taltamir

This is where you are wrong. Reputation affects your morale... all the other empires have to deal with war weariness AND bad rep... which means they will be having civil wars and rebellions left and right. You on the other hand have steller reputation and likely chose a government with minimal war weariness... so you don't.

Yes, it gets to the point where neighboring systems are defecting to your side without a shot fired, which extends your reach, and causes more systems to defect. Meanwhile, every AI world I've seen has negative morale, as their citizens don't seem to enjoy the fact that their reputation is "Evil".

[Wade1000]

It looks like the next update will change all of this.

[Spacecadet]

Does anyone know how big a hit your Rep will take if you conquer an Independent Colony?

I have two Independents I really need to get before the AI takes them.
One I need for Colonization abilities, and the other for Resources (they have a loaded Luxury Planet).

I don't know if there are enough Pirates to get me back to a pretty decent positive or not, so if the hit's too bad I may need come up with some kind of alternative.

[Fishman]

Pretty large, but not so large that it's not worth doing, particularly if it's a tasty colony of a race that will give you an ability you didn't already have. I suggest conquering a nice race like the Securans or the Hunams first, and using them as your ambassadors to the more moderate races. Unfriendly races pretty much have to be squashed always, although once you own some, you can use them to convert the others of their kind.