Imperialism Mod

[Puke]

no more takers for a game of economic conquest and abusive trade relationships? no one wants to simulate colonial imperialists or the WTO?

any general feedback on the current Version of the mod?

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Originally posted by Puke:

sorry, i could not figure out how the new shrapnel file area works, so its not uploaded there.

as far as i know, it doesn't and we don't have a new one.

[Puke]

Well, I'm trying to start a beta test for this thing on PBW. Come check it out.

Puke's Imperialism Mod Beta Test
Status: Game open to new players

Game description
This is a Beta Test for Puke's Imperialism Mod (ImpMod). The significant changes in the mod are the high level of resource, research, and intel production that Neutral races are capable of, and the greatly increased profits available through trade (50%), protectorates (200%) and subjugated races (400%).

Profit by making treaties with Neutrals and leting them make resources, research, and intel for you! Manage client states instead of a homogenous empire. Protect your client states from enemy empires, the puppet neutrals of your rivals, and from each other.

This is a Beta Test game. I am still trying to make sure that the AI behaves properly. I would like to pay attention to things like AI happyness, AI anger levels, the williness of AI to make treaties, to keep treaties, if they switch sides or if they stay with their original treaty partner. How the AI handles multiple treaties, how difficult it is to establish a treaty with an AI later if you do not do it immediately, and so on.

It will also be important to take note of how the game plays out and what tactics are viable, if there are any tactics which are "unbeatable" or "unfair" and require adjustments to the mod in order to fix or balance. (for example, Communications Mimic is being removed).

A link to the most recent Version of the mod will be provided as a news item before the game starts, and any time there is an update. the mod runs on 1.91, and currently involves minor changes to the settings file, major changes to neutral AI files, and one edit to the Intel file.

Starting resources: 100000
Starting planets: 3
Home planet value: Good
Score display: allied
Technology level: Medium
Racial points: 2000
Quadrant type: Spiral
Quadrant size: Small
Event frequency: None
Event severity: N/A
Technology cost: Low
Victory conditions: when we are done
Maximum units: 20K
Maximum ships: 20K
Computer players: High (neutrals only)
Computer difficulty: High
Computer player bonus: High
Neutral empires: Yes!!!
Other game settings: Turns will be processed offline in case any adjustments to the MOD are required.

[Lisif Deoral]

Hi Puke... I knew you liked Imperialism...

A potential problem: I suppose a good tactic would be to destroy homeworlds of those neutral empires which have been subjugated by another player. This can be done without declaring war to the human player, so that (at least for the first turn) you won't have to fight his ships (I suppose every human player will place ships/units/whatever to defend his colonies). Since the AIs aren't very good at defending themselves, this could be exploited in some way (maybe).

Also, what about gifting your own planets or colony ships to your subjugated neutral empire? I think this is ok as far as game rules go, but it's somehow weird... you'd gain more resources by having a single homeworld (or maybe not even a homeworld) and gifting everything else to your neutral colonies...

[Urendi Maleldil]

I suppose then the controlling empire would have to defend the homeworlds of its subjugated races.

That sounds fine to me.

[Lisif Deoral]

Defending someone else's planet isn't very easy, unless you declare war on any potential enemy...

Suppose you've subjugated a neutral and placed a large fleet on his homeworld. Should any other human-controlled empire attack the homeworld without declaring war to you, your fleet will be completely useless, at least for the first turn (but I don't expect the planet to survive for a turn).

So, to effectively protect it, you would have to declare war to any allies of yours approaching the planet (in other words, "don't enter systems leading to Zymarra, or I'll break our treaty"), but this is easier said than done... Especially in crowded quadrants, many players might have good reasons to keep fleets only a turn away from the homeworld you're trying to protect.

[Urendi Maleldil]

You could gift them ships and things. War by proxy. Like the cold war.

[General Woundwort]

Application for PBW game put in...

[Suicide Junkie]

This is a Beta Test for Puke's Imperialism Mod (ImpMod). The significant changes in the mod are the high level of resource, research, and intel production that Neutral races are capable of, and the greatly increased profits available through trade (50%), protectorates (200%) and subjugated races (400%).

Um, dosen't the subjugated race LOSE the 400% they're giving to you, thus making their economy instantly collapse and all their ships die?

[Puke]

Glad you asked!

yes, they do! which is why you play with a high AI bonus, giving them 500% production rates. tarriff ammounts are only based on their normal (non-bonused) production rate, so they give you 400% and keep 100% for themselves. aint it grand?

Regarding giving planets to the AI, yep definitly possible, could be a very good tactic.

Regarding wars-by-proxy: A very valid tactic, this is what i think will make the game the most interesting. You will either have to declair war on people that send ships to harass your client state, gift ships or defense bases to your client state, or take a world (request gift, tribute, or trade) from the AI and build defenses on it before giving it back.