New player, advice needed.

[Morgan Everett]

How many nutrients do I need for a base of size four to be stagnant?

( Assuming I don't have any penalty or bonus in GROWTH. )

[Elok]

Eight--two per citizen, no more. The growth factor is irrelevant there; it only determines how much excess food you need to grow the base to the next size. Your people still require the exact same baseline amount of food to survive at -2 growth as they do at +6.

[Morgan Everett]

Thank you for your appropriate answer.

Do you know if there's a mod that changes factions leaders' gender?

I'd like to role play a male Spartan.

[Lord Avalon]

No mod necessary for the player - you can change the gender and name of your leader.

[Elok]

I can't recall if there's any spot in the UI where you can actually see the character you're playing as. If so, I guess you can pretend your character is a girly-looking dude who compensated by being ultra-tough and starting the Spartans.

[Elok]

Question: does Miriam's attack bonus apply to psi units too, or just the regular kind?

Sorry, but dangit, I wanna know. Not that it matters at this point in my game; I have enough lifecycle bonuses that my worms will slaughter her, bonus or no. Also, that psi-defensive SP. But it's academically interesting, since if it does it weakens her Planet penalty considerably.

[551262]

Might want to also check with the Aliens, as Marr gets +25% Alien Offense and H'minee gets +25% Alien Defense.

I don't think so, but I can't check now. Secret Projects affect Psi combat, sensors (but only on defense), fungus (only when attacking into fungus, defense doesn't, although I think there is a defensive bonus against aircraft), base presence, morale, Planet rating (but I'm not sure about Psi Attack and Psi Defence weaponry over mind worms).

To get a definitive answer, I'd have to check all the cases, not just one.

[Elok]

I don't have the expansion, so I don't need to worry about aliens. I started my new game on the lowest level, since it'd been ages and I knew I'd forgotten how the game works. I'd forgotten just how low that level is. But I don't feel like quitting, so I'm seeing how grotesquely overpowered I can make myself before smashing the rest.

[Morgan Everett]

The first level is really low. You should play the fourth level like me.

[Elok]

Yeah, yeah. I was never really what you'd call a great player anyway, of any game. I know the mechanics just fine, I'm simply too lazy to put in the sustained mental effort to direct myself to victory. I'm more of a "sit on my butt and watch the empire grow" player.

[Morgan Everett]

Yeah, yeah. I was never really what you'd call a great player anyway, of any game. I know the mechanics just fine, I'm simply too lazy to put in the sustained mental effort to direct myself to victory. I'm more of a "sit on my butt and watch the empire grow" player.

There's nothing wrong with that as long as you get your share of fun.

[Elok]

Don't underestimate the fun of creatively abusing a weak AI opponent. I had lots of fun doing that with Age of Empires II, back in the day. I remember the one time I had a Persian opponent send his super-expensive elephants at me--one at a time, as he built them--along a route that required him to walk up a long, narrow inlet of water, then down the other side. So I parked a couple of monks there, converting the elephants as they came. Only expected it to work once or twice, but I had about ten elephants before I got bored with it. He never staged a second type of attack, or gave the elephants escorts, or even tried a different route. Just endless elephants, one at a time and unprotected.

[Lord Avalon]

AoE1 Priests used to freak me out. I'd hear "wo lo lo" out of the dark (fog of war), and a unit would be gone. At first I didn't know WTF that was. When I figured it out, I learned to send a bunch of chariot archers to take the ****er out.

[Elok]

Yeah, my first encounter with monks was when they were MY elephants. That was annoying.

[Morgan Everett]

I used to play with the Spanish. AoE2 is an awesome game.