Does anyone know the formula SEIV uses to calculate score?

[Drake]

I don't think it's really a bug, but probably more of an oversight that occured when they changed the effect of maintenance in race creation. I'm guessing they didn't intend for maintenance to fall below 5%, but forgot the merchant maintenance reduction.

I think the maintenance issue, coupled with the AI surrendering so easily, totally unbalances things with regard to the contest. I'd much rather see it be the player vs all other AIs, who have a huge bonus, and the player isn't allowed to communicate with the AIs at all. Either that, or base victory on something other than the score. Oh well, it's probably a bit late to change things that drastically.

Also, another tip - if you set your construction to 128% and pick hardy industrialists, on your standard HW with 2000M pop, you can build the shell of a colony ship each turn without having to go into emergency mode. Then just retrofit to include engines and a cargo module. It'll actually cost you less than building the full ship from scratch, due to the way retrofitting works. You'll only be delayed one turn, but after that you won't have a slowdown period. I wouldn't recommend doing that with your starting HW, because you'll probably need the quicker start to get your points up faster, but it works great with the homeworlds you'll acquire from getting the AI to surrender.

-Drake

[This message has been edited by Drake (edited 24 January 2001).]