How to be powerful in solo game...

[Kamog]

Edit the cultures.txt file. Add a new culture at the end with Research := 1000000 or some big number like that and call it "super-powerful race" (or something). When you set up your empire, choose that culture and you'll get tons of research points and be able to quickly get all the techs.

[Griffin Cloud]

Thanks so much guys! All of those are great ideas, can't wait to try it out.

[AMF]

I was thinking about a similar topic recently, and how it related to 4X games in general and SEIVG and SEV in particular.

here goes (and forgive me for being verbose, I'm on my fifth pilsner Urquell and I tend to get stupid when drinking and writing at the same time):


I play SEIV and similar games for many reasons, but, above all, I have found that I enjoy the *politics* of these games. In particular, to put it in gaming terms, I find it fascinating to observe and participate in the interactions of unequal powers dealing with each other and their own goals...

The political world is not fair, nor is it equal. And yet, the "lesser" powers in any given unequal relationship can often influence the greater powers far beyond their inherent capacity. Witness the leverage Cuba had over the USSR during the COld War.

I remember, I used to play a PBM before computer gaming, and the backdrop was exactly the same as SEIV..EXCEPT there was a really big power next door to all of us that had mhigher tech yet was "sluggish" and rarely got involved in our affairs as we built up our empires and fought each other..

And, then, look at MOO2 - a great game (lets' be honest now) and one of the reasons it was challengeing, at least the first few times, was becuase the Orions always held the upper hand. You nevber knew when they were gonna sweep down on you.

And, now, I've started a game (zeta quadrant) in which I wanted a similar dynamic - one powerful race, against which all players must fight (as well as each other) to attain the victory conditions. Problem is...it's hard to make a single power much more powerful than the players in SEIVG.

The idea I am trying to convince you of is this: in SE V, it would be nice if you could set up empires that were unequal and/or had pre-controlled regions, planets, fleets, etc...

For example, do you remember the game Traveller? Remember the war game Spinward Marches in which the setting was a powerful Zhodani empire in close proximity to a bunch of small unorganized human empires and the Imperium? Or the game where it was energetic humans on earth (solomani) making contact with the pre-existing but corrupt and inefficient first Imperiumn empire?

It would be nice, great, to be able to model those situations.

But, to do so would require SEV allow setups that were, first off, unequal in characteristics and, second, pre-set in terms of planets, fleets, etc...

The possibilities for such a set up are pretty limitless if it is made moddable.

I mean, there are an amazing amount of space stories out there that start in the middle of their storylines that we could model if we could, at the start of a game, set an empire to whatever we wanted and then run it from there...

Think of it: not only could you have a Star Trek Mod, but you could have a Star Trek on the eve of the Dominion War, or The Star Wars Empire v. the Rebellion right after the Return of the Jedi movie, or anything...

OK, I'm now, officially, babbling. I should go post this in the SEV requests forum I guess....

thanks,

Alarik

Well, it would be nice to be able

[Captain Kwok]

What you really want is a scenario creator.

[ChinMonster]

Ateually, a scenario cruton woold bee kicking-*** if you cold maneuer every speculation of the game, incolding these whatt have no yet bee thinked off.

(again in english)
Actually a scenario creator would be kick-*** if you could manipulate every aspect of the game, including those which have not yet been thought of.

I am HA......ving difficulty flatulating

[ March 01, 2004, 01:34: Message edited by: ChinMonster ]

[Sabin]

Alkariff, I think that it is possible to do so. For example, look at my example for the cultural modifiers: They can affect research, shipyard build rate, ect. Give a designated "Empire" player those bonuses and not allow the other players to have it. In effect, that player is already stronger then it's immediate neighbors.

Another way to go about is to raise the racial points of a game, and let only one player use 5000 points, while keeping the others to 2000.

The third method is to download a mod that allows a person to set-up the game so that specific players may be weaker then the others.(I am fairly sure it exists, I just don't recall the name.)

The fourth option is to create a specific map that favors a particular player. For example, give that player "optimal" planets and outside of the systems you wish the player to control, you make blackholes that prevent anyone entering or exiting the systems you wish to protect. By making a ring of such defensive blackholes, you can prevent contact for a period, and let the "Empire" player develop.

[Griffin Cloud]

OH WOW I PLAYED TRAVELLER!!!!

Yeah I loved that game, I specifically played MegaTraveller 1, but couldn't get past the part where you had to get a jump2 engine to reach the rest of the game. Resorted to piracy and after about 20 hours of just pirating ships got smacked down by imperial cruisers. Yeah, that game was awesome up to that point, then it sucked
I get what you are saying, a way to scenario create something like that would be awesome, maybe the guys over at Malfador could add that in as a Last patch or something, nothing fixed, just the scenario editor. I did notice a part of the UI that had a "scenarios" folder in it and was wondering just what that was for?

[AMF]

well, sure, you can tweak the current system, but the basic fundamental setup is always going to be based upon equality.

What I would like is an explicitly *unequal* setup . Among other things, this lends itself to more interesting politics and role playing...

I think.

EDIT: what I would like is the *option* to have an unequal pre-arrange setup, essentially, as mentioned a scenario editor. But, what I meant to emphasize, was that this would be an OPTION, and certainly not the norm...

Originally posted by Sabin:
Alkariff, I think that it is possible to do so. For example, look at my example for the cultural modifiers: They can affect research, shipyard build rate, ect. Give a designated "Empire" player those bonuses and not allow the other players to have it. In effect, that player is already stronger then it's immediate neighbors.

Another way to go about is to raise the racial points of a game, and let only one player use 5000 points, while keeping the others to 2000.

The third method is to download a mod that allows a person to set-up the game so that specific players may be weaker then the others.(I am fairly sure it exists, I just don't recall the name.)

The fourth option is to create a specific map that favors a particular player. For example, give that player "optimal" planets and outside of the systems you wish the player to control, you make blackholes that prevent anyone entering or exiting the systems you wish to protect. By making a ring of such defensive blackholes, you can prevent contact for a period, and let the "Empire" player develop.

[ March 01, 2004, 01:47: Message edited by: alarikf ]

[Alneyan]

There is actually another way to do this, without using a Mod of some sort. You should start up the game with all other Empires disabled (perhaps under AI control while the AI is disabled?) and then play on your own, bringing your Empire to the desired level. (Or another Empire for this matter)

This way you would have a much stronger Empire, and its advantages could go from a few turns to the whole tech tree and a hundred sphereworlds fully developed with Cultural Centers. There was a Scenario a bit along these lines, where you play an Empire with two mere planets against 18 other Empires at war with you. So you have to rebuild your Empire from scratch, and you can capture some of your old warships drifting in space. It is Awakening by Geoschmo if memory serves right. (I cannot even recall where I found this jewel. *Grumbles*)