Vote-hardest campaign-non moded

[mac5732]

I just was thinking, what everyones idea/s or hardest played campaign setup in SP play was. Such as what map, aggresiveness, bonus, etc. Do you pick some of the races and tweak them then have computer pick additonal AI's?
What map gave you the greatest/toughest game?

This is for a Non-Modded Game only

example ONLY

Cluster
High Aggressiveness
Med Bonus
Med Tech
3 planet start
Racial bonus 5000
High Catastophic
picked 4 races, tweaked (give areas)
computer picked additioal races
Human played straight no special tech
etc.

just some ideas mac

[Suicide Junkie]

Choosing all racial techs simultaneously. Especially with less than 5000 starting racial points.

[mac5732]

SJ, I'm not with it today, I don't get what you mean by simultaneously pcking traits, do you mean what each one originaly starts the game with including the race you pick?

mac

[Suicide Junkie]

Let the AIs do whatever they want, any reasonable game settings. Use a 3K racial point game.

The human player takes ALL 5 racial techs.
Cost: 7500 points

[Tarquelne]

Here's what I've found:

"Medium" or "Low" number of computer players gives the best (most challenging) results. (I enjoy having lots of computer players, but they seem to get in each others way more than they get in _my_ way.)

Don't play with any "Neutral" AI players. Why? Too easy to get access to new Colonization tech and other-atmosphere breathers.

If there's a tech you like to use that the AI can't seem to cope with disallow it when setting up the game.

Play a 2000 or 3000 pt. race while the AIs get 5000 pts.

Mini-max the AIs some... buy down ground combat say, since that isn't used much. Or maybe give them all Advanced Storage Techniques (or whatever it's called) - that ability seems worth more than 1000 pts to me.

Try to start in the center of the map. (I don't think I've ever played a game in which starting in a corner wasn't an advantage.) The simplest way to do this is to keep setting up games untill you start in the center. The _best_ way to do it is to generate a map with the Se4 map generator, setup a starting position in the center and then use that map.

Here's a mod - but a very simple one - that effectively gives a huge boost to the AI races. Add a new culture to the cultures.txt file. You'll use this culture for your race. I like using these modifications:
-30 production, research, trade and intel.
-20 happiness.
Modify whatever culture you would otherwise be using. (So, for example, if the culture normally gives a +5 to intel, give yourself a -25 to intel, not -30.)

I first tried -50 for p r t and i, but that seemed to be too big a penalty, though a -50 in just one or two area would probably work.

I like the negative cultural mods because you're not just handing more resources to the already inefficent AI, you're making yourself try to get by with less. (I also like the feel of changes to the culture file - it's easier for me to pretend the AI got smarter. And I can pick favorable characteristics for my race without feeling as guilty about it.)

[This message has been edited by Tarquelne (edited 13 November 2001).]

[Puke]

low tech, small quad, med AI, High diff, High bonus, high tech cost. of course, you have to turn on the 'all-humans vs all-ai' setting, use 0 points for yourself and 5000 points for the ai. I would suggest either a 1 or 3 planet start, with low starting resources, and no better than average planets.

odds are, you will lose. the high bonus really kicks your *** starting from a low tech start, esp with the high cost. since its a small quad, you wont be able to establish enough of a production base to outproduce the AI, so you have to play smart. also, the computer cant get big enough for their empires to start falling appart of their own accord

------------------
"...the green, sticky spawn of the stars"
(with apologies to H.P.L.)

[Menschenfresser]

I'm not a big fan of AI bonuses, so I've played one game with every attribute set as low as it can go and without any advanced cultural traits.

Only went through 50 turns, and out of 7 or 8 empires I was second to Last...and that only because the Last placed AI had been mauled from the beginning.