questions

[d=me]

About the non blind research thing, the computer choses which techs are available for you to chose. How do you disable this by making it random or show all of the techs available? And what if you want to go to war with someone? how do you declare war on them?

[d=me]

And how come I didn't get a colony pod at the beginning?

[Adalbertus]

Didn't you get a colony pod at all in "look first"? That's a bug and tough luck.

Did you play on Transcend or easier? AFAIK, only in Transcend difficulty you are guaranteed to get a colony pod at the beginning.

[Petek]

Re: questions

Originally posted by d=me
About the non blind research thing, the computer choses which techs are available for you to chose. How do you disable this by making it random or show all of the techs available?

When starting a new game, select the CUSTOMIZE RULES option. Remove the X next to the Blind Research option. You will then be able to choose from a list which tech to research.

And what if you want to go to war with someone? how do you declare war on them?

You generally have to attack an opponent's base or unit to start a vendetta. An unsuccessful probe action also can lead to the same result. However, if you already have contact with the other faction, call them up and start making demands. They might declare war on you.

And, as was already pointred out, you don't get an extra Colony Pod when playing at the lower levels.

[Adalbertus]

I understood the question of E=mc^2 a bit different.
When you have enabled directed research, you don't get offered all techs you have the prerequisites for but a selection of them. The selection depends on the techs you already have, and someone here has discovered the mechanism for this.
And no, I don't know how to make the selection random or to have offered all possible techs. And I'd doubt there is a way.

To my knowledge there is also no way to declare war in the sense that you open the diplomacy screen and say "Hi, I want to have war". By constantly probing your opponents you can enrage them that they will declare war. I don't know if it lowers your reputation. If you are a bit patient, normally they will declare war anyway.

[Mr. Harley]

Probing an opponent into starting a war does not damage your reputation. It's about the only way to initiate one. Otherwise you need to bait them into it, camping military units next to their cities, making unreasonable demands, etc usually does it. It also helps to choose a social engineering setting they hate.

[gwillybj]

If you land in an area that tends toward mostly rainy/moist and flat/rolling, you are much less likely to get the extra colony pod. Conversely, if you land in an area that tends toward mostly moist/arid and rolling/rocky, you'll very likely get the extra colony pod.

[Datajack Franit]

I always choose my own research, going by EXPLORE-DISCOVERY-BUILD-CONQUER criteria isn´t fun

[Major Guz]

I usually keep the settings belonging to the faction I play (ie. BUILD for Morgan).
This is because I like to role-play my faction (at least research-wise).

[Barinthus]

Same here, Major.

[livid imp]

Originally posted by Adalbertus
By constantly probing your opponents you can enrage them that they will declare war. I don't know if it lowers your reputation.

Yes it does lower your rep, but very little and only if you are not at war. I have probed several factions serveral times before I dropped to scruplous. It is so little I don't even worry about it.

Other than probing, you can always station a unit on the other factions land until they demand you leave. Or if they are at odds with you to begin with, call them up and demand some ECs

[Mr. Harley]

Thanks for the info livid imp. I didn't realize it had fractional results, I've never done enough to nail me.

[livid imp]

You have to probe and awful lot, I have only noted it a couple times. Most of the time you probe once and the faction goes to war with you so you never get to probe enough to get to that level.

[Commy]

Yeah, probing and demanding from the AI is a good way to cause war, but the easiest way, hands down, is simply to ask them to get out of your territory. Even if they aren't in it, 90% of the time, they'll declare war. No, this method has no guarentees, but all it requires is two clicks...

[Kirov]

Subverting their units and bases (by Mind Probe, not TTC) really damages your rep and decreases your relations with everyone. I've experienced it recently when I bought 2 Zak bases in 1 turn - it lowered my rep even before I obliterated them (which also didn't help a lot. He really shouldn't have built VW and HGP...