Easy way to always win.

[Harrs]

After winning the last 5 games with random races in very hard (aggressive) here are my tips to success.

The most important key to success is a redesign of the star research and gas mining bases. And to double the fuel storage of all ships!

Short Version:
I. 0% tax for all colonies except the home world, till max population,
II. Only one research base for energy, high-tec and weapon research. Eliminate all labs in the star base designs.
III. Leviathan gas bases.
IV. Double all fuel storage.

1. First important key to win is to acquire one Polymer and more than one Steel mining station.
2. Redesign the gas mining station. Double the gas extractors, double the docking stations double the cargo bays.
It only costs 1/3 more.. but it really helps you to refuel all ships.
3. Redesign explorer ships. Just double the fuel storage.. they can fly much further and they will find for you nice military ships which you can use to stop the early pirate attacks.. You need 40 explorer ships as fast as possible.
4. Design a troop ship with 300 ship size.. low defense, double fuel, build as fast as possible to gain the independent colonies. This one ship could bring you 5 colonies. Its much more efficient than a colony ship.
5. After you found a location with high-tec research bonus, build a high-tec research base there. Double the labs in the research base design. Defend this base with some frigates..
6. Redesign all star bases, no star base should have a lab.. This key to success in research is to accumulate all bonuses to one station. You will lose research potential if every star base have little lab capacities.
7. Research the 100% high-tec research bonus wonder and build it as fast as possible,
8. Build a weapon and an energy research base at the place with the max bonus.
9. Set Tax to 0% for all invaded independent planets and colonies. The population growth ratio could be 50 times higher with 0% tax. Build the 50% population growth buns wonder if you can.
10. Build military ships with double fuel storage. The mobility is much more worth than one or two laser more.

That´s it you will win! You can’t loose with this tips.. Very hard aggressive..
Even Shakturi is no problem.. if they come..(10% likeliness to appear [I think if your empire develops fast the Shakturi doesn’t come])

For later games you have 3 big research stations with good defense potential where you accumulate your best scientists. You will need leviathan gas mining stations with 20 docking stations and 80 storage cells..
There you can refuel easily big 50 capital ships fleets. This ships have 15 ultra dense fuel cells.. They can invade a whole empire without refueling.
To build this big bases a redesign of the construction ships is helpful. Double the storage and the fuel cells.. And they will build much faster.

With the 0% tax trick you always have the most population in the game.. so when your money gets short set the tax to auto tax.. start the war, save some money. And then switch to 0% tax to all colonies which have less than max population. Important is to have always the newest tec in your passenger ship design.
Resort bases are nice to have in the early game they can give you some money.

Resupply ships never helped me to refuel my big armies. They will help to refuel small strike forces.. But not big Capital ship fleets..
If the enemy empire is far away from your next gas fuel station, send a construction ship with the army and build as fast as possible a gas mining station at an invaded system..

[feelotraveller]

That's all good advice.  Sounds like an always win to me.  [:)]
 
You could probably get away with less gas extractors.  Once you have a couple of tech upgrades two max's out your extraction speed.  Even with starting tech there is no point using more than three...
 
Just a little clarification - research bonuses* are empire wide and not just for the labs at that location.  That said stripping all of the research labs out of spaceports and putting them elsewhere is something I always do too.  The important thing is to have your best scientist in that discipline at the best bonus location.
 
If you want to try a somewhat harder game start with a harsh homeworld - you won't be maintaining 40 explorers anytime soon.  [:D]  (And it may have been tweaked in the meantime, but it used to be the case that raising the aggression levels made for an easier game.  The computer players don't play as a team and get involved in all sorts of wars with each other.)
 
And ONE steel mine.  You've got to be joking. 
 
But as I said to start with, all solid advice.
 
[*WTF is a 'bonii'? ]

[Bleek]

You can load up the private sector ships to make them more expensive and act as sensor mules, that both helps with discovery and income.

It feels a bit like a cheat doing that sort of thing though. Not sure how the devs would stop you doing it!

[joeyeti]

I guess such things are inevitably possible and if someone aims to find the bestest strategy to beat any AI game, they can do it somewhere along these lines.

However I would never "ruin" my game experience by trying to exploit every little aspect of the game, nor build a single best ship type or the like... I like "roleplaying" the game to victory, so I avoid any deep game analysis and rather focus to getting info on how the game works and what I can do in it...

[Bentley264]

Lots of laugh, I am always running out of fuel until I research the better cells.  And the super refueling gas mining station sounds great.
 
Are resupply ships at all usefull, and if so, how do you use them?
 

[Nedrear]

Supply ships only make half the dig so you need the double amount of extractors on them to get the best result. Further they need twice as long... still without a proper base at a frontline or close to a starting colony construction far away you might wish to place a mobile fuel station in a cloud.

You need to deploy it by right click.

[Bentley264]

Thanks, that helps alot.

[Pipewrench]

Harrs,

Congratulations, I hope your having fun.


joeyeti,

Just smile[;)]

Putting 3 queens on a chess board still makes it a game. A challenge? no, but still a game.

[numahr]

Well, Harrs is not cheating and not even exploiting, IMO. He found optimal designs, and designing ships and bases is part of the game. Same for tax rates. His approach is more like using a killer opening move in chess than playing with 3 queens...

Now, as the strategy is heavily based on re-designing some of the base designs, I wanted to ask: is it possible to mod the designs used by AI, to "teach" them part of this strategy?

[Bingeling]

No, he is not exploiting. But being able to afford 40 explorers early hints at playing at rather easy difficulty level.

Contrary to him, I love resupply ships. But it is of course possible to create fleets that are too large for them.

From the hard days of the return of the shakturi, when the AI designer loved to have the cruiser design just a tad too large to be built until at least a few size upgrades were available. Two resupply ships fueling up a couple of hosts soon to reunite in one fleet to take on the powerful shields of the Zenox:



(Calculating wrong when estimating how many destroyers are needed also helps)

[Pipewrench]

My 3 queens analogy is in reference to chess and should not be taken as exploitation or cheating. This simply creates a game where an outcome is predetermined and any move by the other player of no consequence.

If you or anyone else feels that they need to create killer moves then by all means do it and have fun. Just be aware that the events and storyline can become sideshows along with other empires.

As for your last point in modding:

If the AI can mod to your designs then would you not create bigger ones?
Would you increase the size of the silver mist and increase the pirates punch or are they irreverent?
Would you let the AI tech trade heavily for easy cash because taxes cannot support the military, who now is strengthened?
Do events become bigger or do they become irreverent?
Where exactly do we end this and how does the AI's economy handle the challenge?

In my opinion a great mod is play balance. Give unusual differences but try and keep a personal restraint on too many modifications that cannot be matched.

Bingelling, great picture and yes 40 explorers is fascinating. A harsher world and corruption turned up would make the economy throw a fit.

Again do what you want and always have fun because it is a game.

[Harrs]

@Bingeling try it on very hard.. 40 Explorer is not really hard to build. You can build it easily with a 10 billion people start planet. And with the double fuel you get always some goodies for it.

@pipewrench.. It is in my nature, in my job I optimize parts for gas turbine engines to cope better against thermal and structural stress.. So in this game I make the best designs to kill the enemy. But I think that is in the nature of every 4x player.. ! I was so proud for my Doomstar design in MoO2 where I could kill the whole Antares defense with just one Ship.. what a killer design.. ( in DW I couldn’t find the best capital ship design jet..) Events are still important.. But one big problem is that the shakturi doesnt appear.. I dont know why and nobody answered me.. With the shakturi appearing early it would make more fund.. How do you play?? with standard design? tax set to 40% for every colony to kill the growth ratio?

But this tips are really good..
I am now playing a game (very hard second hardest aggressive level) against 10 enemies with excellent starting condition or level 1 and level 2 tech.
And I have poor condition and starting tech random race random policy..
And I have no colonizable planet in my near, my 40 explorers couldn’t find any military ships.. First I thought it is impossible.. But I think I will win this game. Maybe I make an AAR for it.. And this makes fun..
I don’t have fun if I start the game over and over to have the best starting condition.. No it makes more fun if you start small .. as the last in the comparison table.. and then win!!



The designer should start a genetic algorithm optimization for the AI Design. Set for all ships and bases with different parameter like number of fuel storage number of docking stations and so on. Let them fight against each other [same starting condition] 100 times and choose the best designs for the hardest AI level. And they should really optimize the auto tax level settings.. Maybe with some options (1. max population growth 2. max income 3 mixture of 1 and 2.)

[Arcatus]

ORIGINAL: Harrs

(...)

But one big problem is that the shakturi doesnt appear.. I dont know why and nobody answered me.. With the shakturi appearing early it would make more fund.. How do you play?? with standard design? tax set to 40% for every colony to kill the growth ratio?

(...)

Shakturi appear when:
1) Average Galaxy tech reaches a certain level
2) You have explored all the beacons.

[oogs]

I realize I'm asking for spoilers, but, what's the best way to prepare for the Shakturi? My fleets are approaching 20+ capital ships (and carriers), 20k+ firepower, with individual ships having 2-4k shields and 500-1k armor.

[Harrs]

ORIGINAL: Arcatus

ORIGINAL: Harrs

(...)

But one big problem is that the shakturi doesnt appear.. I dont know why and nobody answered me.. With the shakturi appearing early it would make more fund.. How do you play?? with standard design? tax set to 40% for every colony to kill the growth ratio?

(...)

Shakturi appear when:
1) Average Galaxy tech reaches a certain level
2) You have explored all the beacons.

No...

not always..

Its a bug. I think if you tech too fast they dont come.
See in the tech section.. I described my problem..


@oogs I dont think that they will come for you.. In all my games they appeared before I had the tech for capital ships or they dont come.. But tell us if they appear..

[Gareth_Bryne]

S******* require just one more tiny thing[:D]. I do believe it was noted somewhere in the older threads...

[Bentley264]

Well, if you explore the Shaturi Beacon, they definitely come.  I tried flying away from it, but too late.
 
You could always check the option that they don't come.  They are very difficult to defeat without overwhelming force; even my death star was defeated once, obviously should have sent other large fleets in first to clear the defense.
 

[JosEPhII]

1. First important key to win is to acquire one Polymer and more than one Steel mining station.

I've always wanted to ask this....but how do you mine Steel? There never has been a Steel mine on earth, Iron mine yes, and Then you Make Steel. Why did the Dev's do this?

JosEPh [:-][;)][8|]

[feelotraveller]

ORIGINAL: JosEPh_II

1. First important key to win is to acquire one Polymer and more than one Steel mining station.

I've always wanted to ask this....but how do you mine Steel? There never has been a Steel mine on earth, Iron mine yes, and Then you Make Steel. Why did the Dev's do this?

JosEPh [:-][;)][8|]

[:D]

'Mining' Ekarus meat would be even harder methinks!

[Nedrear]

Just consider the "Iron" mine to have a processing manufactory at the same time. They smelt the ore right there and refine the iron to simple nonalloyed steel and deliver it for further refining to alloys in other manufactories.