Grand Strategy Settings

[reducing]

This is a set up to make the game like a Grand strategy - with asymmetrical enemies. By randomizing the starting size and tech level it produces some entertaining games. Using the built in randomizer doesn't work as well, you usually get a few large empires and no randomization.

This set up was originally posted on the DW subreddit. The post has since been deleted so I'm posting it here in a cleaned up format.

Game systems like spying, defensive pacts, trade sanctions, tech trading, ship commanders, etc all matter more and survival is challenging. You can also exploit or be exploited by the races that have special tech. Defeating large empires requires a good plan, so the game requires more strategy. Playing as a large or medium empire is also fun and rewarding.

The last game I played, the 3 largest powers in the galaxy were all friends with each other. I thought it was going to be boring, but one empire attacked a single planet race and it set off a wild galactic war.

Mods

• This set up can be played in vanilla or whatever mods you choose.
• Mods that slow down hyper speed also make the game a bit more manageable and give you more time to expand. It also prevents the larger empires from taking over the whole map before you get hyper drives.
• I recommend playing with RetreatUE. It slows down hyper speed, has a better tech tree, the AI is better and the economy is generous. The Extended Universe mod is built in so there is more variation on how the races play.

My post from this topic has the RetreatUE and update download links. https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/view ... 2&t=279423

At the moment I think I will just post it here. I'm not the best writer or explainer of any idea.

Basically this mod is UE2 with a unique AI improvement mod. It is hard. There is a readme in the mod folder.

Mordachai, if you want to do anything with this, that's fine. I made this mod for me, so I'm not too worried if anyone else plays it.

http://www.mediafire.com/download/1byh8 ... reatUE.zip

I've been playing with this mod for a while and haven't noticed any problems. This is hands down my favorite version of the game and all the changes are amazing. Thanks for the work Retreat!

Edit: I've just noticed this post https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/view ... 2&t=354659. Is that the updated version of the one above?

Set up

• Custom Game as Standard Empire

The Galaxy

Shape

• Spiral or Irregular
• Spiral is the more dynamic, your location will determine if you are in danger. Irregular is fairly balanced and your position doesn't matter as much.

Star Amount/Size

• Huge

Expansion

• Prewarp

Aggression

• Chaos
• Chaos makes the game work, on Unstable or less the AI won't attack each other and will only go after you.

Difficulty

• Normal or Hard
• Normal is fairly difficult, if use Very Hard or Extreme the population growth is so slow it is impossible to catch up. It also helps to have the better characters the game spawns on normal, it gives you a chance against the bigger empires. No better victory than taking out a larger fleet with your better commanders and battle tactics.

Research Costs

• Normal or Cheap
• Expensive slows down the game and gives a huge advantage to the larger empires.

Pirates

• Player preference
• The original guide recommended very few and to randomize the proximity. I randomize all the pirate settings to make the game more interesting. I have someone do it for me so I don't know what type of pirates I'm going to get. The larger empires do a decent job at taking the pirates out, so they will only really be a major threat with close proximity, many, strong, etc.

Colonization and Territory

Colony Prevalence

• Normal
• This is up to player preference. Plentiful or higher will make the game easier.

Independent Life

• Rare

Influence Range

• Suggested by game

Colony Range

• 2 sectors

Other Empires

• Turn off auto-generate.
• Add 12 to 15 random races in the "specify the starting empires below" window. (12 races is my preferred amount, 15 empires is more chaotic and the max number.)
• Leave government on random.
• Home system on normal.
• Proximity to random.

Randomize using a number generator with a total of 100.

Size

• PW(1-60)
• Starting(61-80)
• Young (81-90)
• Expanding(91-94)
• Mature(95-98)
• Old (99-100)

Tech Level

• PW(1-60)
• Starter(61-80)
• 1(81-88)
• 2(89-91)
• 3(92-94)
• 4(95-96)
• 5(97-98)
• 6(99)
• 7(100)

Rules

• Prewarp empires can only get prewarp tech
• Starting empires always get starting tech with a chance to roll higher. 
• Young through Old always get tech level 1 with a chance to roll higher.

Victory Conditions

• Off
• Deselecting all the story elements is probably the easier way to play. (The original guide recommending turning off the Shadows story events so pirates don't spawn in your system at the start of the game. I randomly select them for more variation.)
• Allow tech trading. (It helps!)

If you have any questions I can try to answer them, hope you enjoy!