Little diplomatic snags and other MOO1 problems.

[Zed-F]

Originally posted by Elok
It probably helped that I was playing against the Mrrshan and Alkari though. What a bunch of vermin. Is there any player, besides the humans, weaker than them?

Well, in MOO 1, I'd argue that the Humans are one of the stronger races, not one of the weaker races. They are not so good at conquering, but can get a diplo victory very easily. Their improved trade agreements at least give them SOME form of economic advantage.

I'd say that the Alkari are actually somewhere near the middle of the pack as far as race strength goes, say around 6th or 7th. I find that the Mrrshan, Bulrathi, and Darloks are all weaker. Some other races can also be weaker depending on what map size you are playing. If diplo victories are on the table, Humans are in the top 3, but if not they are middle-of-the-pack as well.

[vmxa1]

That seems fair to me. I consider that it is Klacs, Psilons and then everybody else.

[Elok]

Mmm, granted, I'm a newbie at this game, but can't the Alkaris' "bonus" be simulated with a single propulsion tech level to boost manueverability? The Bulrathi +20 ground combat is a more rare kind of bonus, and more frequently needed IME. Don't get me wrong, I think the Bulrathi suck too, but the Alkari seem even worse. The Darloks are challenging just because everybody starts out hating them. Their actual ability is awesome, and they're fun to play as. At least they have a strategic bonus, even if it's not as good as the Sakkras, Meklars, Klackons, or Psilons. Heh, Sakkra swarm-hordes are fun.

[Ljube]

Humans are easiest to win with. You don't need to have a single war. You can just expand, trade and win the vote. And Humans also have a bonus when researching force fields, construction and planetology techs, which makes them even more powerful. This used to be my favourite race at the beginning of my MOO days. Some of us would argue now this kind of victory is empty and this kind of game boring.

Later, after Humans I played Klackons. They are also very easy as they have a huge bonus on their production which offsets their increased cost of research. What can't be offset in any way is their lack of creativity, so some of the crucial techs aren't available for research. Still, they are a fairly easy ride. I found Meklars to be very similar to Klacks, except they need some time to reach similar levels of production cause they have bonus factories which take time to build.

Psilons are a race for themselves as they can quickly take the lead in tech race and thus almost always win. Their problem comes when they are boxed in, in which case they can face difficulties expanding compared to Humans or Klackons.

Silicoids were my next pick along with Sakkras. They are similar in that they can quickly expand and take less hospitable planets and Sakkras are a very nice invasion race (they multiply quickly). However, Silicoids are tough to play unless you can expand like a plague.

Alkari are not so bad, cause they have bonus propulsion and they can fly farther than other races at the beginning so they can expand faster. This coupled with their bonus initiative makes them a very strong race for an early war with small design ships with laser before the enemies have built the bases. I employ this strategy sometimes.

Darloks are not too bad either, cause they have a nice bonus on computer techs and they are very skilful in tech stealing. They will, however, almost certainly be at war with everybody else nearly from the start. If you play Darloks, just focus on computers and steal the rest, cause the probability of a successful infiltration depends on your and your opponent's computer levels. Bulrathi are the best target.

Yes, Bulrathi are the best target for tech theft. They have increased cost of computer research, so their levels are likely to be rather low. They are only good for early wars while their natural toughness can dominate, before any advanced weapons. So they are one of the weakest races to play with, as are the Mrrshans since they only have weapons bonus which isn't much compared to the others. These days I only play Bulrathi or Mrrshans.