Does minor race AI play fair?

I wondered the same thing. Very early on in the beta and final, the minor civs have pretty high tech weapondry. I am guessing that this is necessary to keep them alive, since the only reason that I noticed their ship status was that I wanted to take all their planets. LOL

Keep in mind there is a lot of trading betweeb the minor races and the AI. Perhaps they are buying these techs with their massive amounts of excess cash.

-Dave

~SDC~

they have excellent espionage i think. didn't one of the play examples have brad buying tech from a minor stolen from another empire?

there is a random event concerning a minor race and the tech of a major. I won't spoil the surprise but you might like it. The minors are yours to exploit as you choose. In a game you don't care about, try getting tributes for x months and then invade and take the planet and see what happens.

one of loui's the cat's galciv lesson

available whever kitty litter is in use

yours in TUNA

the cat


~SDC~

I had the I-League's last world surrounded with battleships and every round that I cleared away all defending forces to make way for an invasion the next round there would be another grossly expensive battleship sitting there.

Now, 12 rounds later I start to wonder how the I-League comes up with 70,000 "credits" to be able to pull off this sort of perpetual build-up without "cheating"

It has a rich aunt ?

Elrikk



~SDC~

are they being supplied by an empire that hates you (a lot)?

hmmm, can you give $$ and ships to the minors?

In my first game (yay Drengin.net!), I spent most of the latter half trading technologies with the minor races for easy monthly payments. It really did help the cash flow, although I don't know if it contributed to any winning scenario. The whole game was plagued with space sharks (from three turns in!), and it was nigh impossible to set up trade routes (tiny map).

~SDC~

'If a world defects and joins the Independent League or some other 3rd party faction how is it that it suddenly acquires an UBER-economy that allows it to pump out a battleship every turn? (or worse) '

Races that are created by defection of civil war may have the tech of their parent race. In the case of the I-League, that would be the race whose planet first defected to them.

Still doesn't explain how they get tech HIGHER than any existing race (or how they manage to pump out endless supplies of ships).

It was down to me and another major race (who had decent relations with me and not a very good econ), and the I-League pops up with uber-econ/military. I'd love to find a way to keep minor races MINOR!

A minor race has much fewer expenses I would have to imagine. For the most part, they're not interested in rapid expansion or conquering other races. So they don't need to crank out colony ships, survey ships, scouts, or any military ships. It all goes back into that one planet. Or if there's excess, into the bank. They really don't need to do too much tech dev because everyone is happy to sell them tech for probably far less than it would cost them to research it.

It might be interesting to play a game as a "minor race." Just colonize your own system and build it up.

There needs to be a minor race difficulty slider or something. I`m playing on beginner level and the Carinoids always clean up the wonders & trade goods and build indestructable, uber-fortress systems with huge armadas.. blah.

i dont worry about minor races tech levels. As long as I stay on good terms they NEVER bother me, only my enemies. I sell techs to them when I need money. Why would you bother attcking their planets? Cant you win without that? Or does total domination mean killing everybody? I havent played enough games to get into that situation yet. Normally, I have my hands full with the major races so I've never had to take out the "last planer".

..The problem here being that they build all the wonders and trade goods before anybody else has a chance.

..and I just don`t like the Independent League.. so yes, they must die. LOL

"The problem here being that they build all the wonders and trade goods before anybody else has a chance. "

i have biult in this current game diplomatic translators, gravity accelorators, eyes of the universe, nanaobots,and fristionless clothing. This is on a gigantic map with 3 races st bright andd 2 at intelligent.

I suggest you try adjusting you spending sliders to perhaps research tech faster. also keep enough money so if you can buy the trade good rather that waiting for it to be built. It also does help when starting out to have a tech bonus selected as part of you abilities

rich





~SDC~

How about this - Its September 2183 and the Carinoids already have two unique trade goods and a manufacturing capital. BS!

A tactic I used to clear away all the BattleAxe's from the Carinoids/Alexians system (at a lower difficulty level) was by paying them off to declare war in one of the major races. One by one they sent all their B.Axe's out to fight them. Then, I stabbed them in the back. They were easy to conquer at that point, they only had like 1 Defender guarding the planet. (Before I conned them, they had 8 B-Axe's orbiting the planet, impossible for me to take out with my current level of tech).

I`ve changed my opinion on minor races. They`re overpowered in the early game, decent in the mid game, and a push over in the late game. They just don`t scale with the changing enviroment of the game.. not to say that it is a bad thing.

I find that minor races are equal to major empires with 3 or 4 good planets.

The minor races do have supercharged economies. This allows them to purchase a lot of goods early, but it also allows you to bend them over later in games. Short on cash, sell them some techs or trade goods for 5K/turn for 20 turns. Really strapped, sell them a crappy star system for 20K/turn for 20 turns. Really Really strapped (but with a decent military), declare war for a few turns, then offer them peace for 100k/turn for 20 turns (you read that right). They are like little banks!

-Dave

~SDC~

Dont forget that they earn their cash the same way. You sell them a tech, they sell it back to an AI or they are bullied to give it.

~SDC~