Some random, early, observations

from Stardock Forums
Well, only played two games to completion so far, so still just scratching the surface. But some early feedback FWIW.

Dumb AI category: ALiens are fanatical about killing Scout and Sensor Drones. I often will see 3-4 Dreadnoughts slavishly following one of my sensors. Meanwile, they remain unconcerned about my nearby warships/transports. I honestly think I could keep my Earthlings alive with just Scouts and Gravity Accelerators.

Dumb AI #2: Diplomacy is too powerful. Alien civs need to trade techs with each other more often. In my games I have essentially unlimited funds, and even emergency fleet reinforcements. Anytime I run into a pinch, I just sweet-talk one of the many races. Honestly, the aliens willl just GIVE you the galaxy if you just keep asking for it. ;p

Earth alignments: In messing around while learning the game, I've seen my alignments easily plunge to the evil range. But in one game I decided to take the good choices all the time I could ... and managed to raise my alignemt to a whopping 58 by game's end. How am I supposed to play a 'good' civ then? Alignments do not move fast enough ... Earth is ALWAYS going to start neutral, and will spend a solid chuck of the total time as neutralish .... regardless f player desires.

AI Handicapping: The AI rates the power of your civ. Sometimes this is used for little news blurbs. But I assume these calculations are also used my the AI aliens to determine their AI foerign policies. Problem is, the game will tell me I am being crushed, due to a low economy. But it does not take into account my strong trade routes, and my immense river of incoming tributes. I suspect the AI conclueds I am weak and attacks, when in truth my positions have been quite strong.

Some hair-splitting here, some big concerns...Just doing my bit to throw out some feedback on what is so far an impressive PC game.
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Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
Comment on Earth alignments: The "good" choice is the one that appears at the top of the list. If you always choose that choice, you alignment should be changed by game's end. The only reason it shouldn't is if you haven't encountered those choices very often (or if the game was <100 turns). But in any case, I have not encountered that problem.

Comment on AI Handicapping: The game reports about a low economy are correct, even if the bit about being crushed isn't - the trade routes are vulnerable to enemy attack (unless the Trade Federation steps in), and the tributes have a chance being unable to resume (if your sources suddenly have a bad economoy as well).

In general, you are probably not getting enough internal economy to support your forces and have to rely on others. You will need to look into the reasons why your economy is bad, such over-production, low morale or some other economical hinderance.



Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
Based on what other have posted, I was under the impression that the other civs look at your military strength when they decide if they want to bully you around or not.

My assumption is that if you take the trade revenue, and use it to build up a strong military, then they will act nicer towards you.

Don't know if this is true or not.
The Political Machine 2024
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
Your dumb AI#2 comment is especially ironic in light of the review from Adrenaline Vault, which claimed that the AI traded amongst itself "too much and too easily". I suppose it is a matter of perspective, and the AI difficulty settings.

My experience (which is more limited than yours) is that the AI decides whether to attack based on military strength; games where I neglect my military often have the Drengin, or others, knocking on your door. Conversely, a very strong military can lead to unsolicited "gifts".
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
The thing with alignment is that the change is dependant of how much planets you colonize (the other choices are way too seldom). So in tiny galaxies its pretty much impossible to get good or evil (unless you cheat by colonizing sub 15 planets and destroying them again, just to get more choices).

Also, I think "neutral" choices should make you tingle back to neutral - because in big galaxies, you can become "good" and never take any disadvantages - just select neutral all the time except for the few choices that are both good and don't "cost" you anything.
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
Havig played a bit more, I tend to agree that the AI decisions are made based upon the military rankings, not the economic ranks.

I think some of my impressions are colored by the fact all my games have ended rather quickly. I have not had a game go past the introduction of dreadnaughts. That is, the game continues, but it has already been won. Just a matter of having the game programing admit it. ;)

Ah well, next step is to play on the biggest map, I guess. :)