MOO2 Tricks

[Aabraxan]

Fun with outposts and allies

As noted earlier in this thread, it's sometimes hard to tell what's a "trick," and what's just strategy. Note that I have only played in SP games, but here are my two cents' worth:

1) Outposts - In addition to extending the range of your ships, outposts are good for denying planets to the other races. Don't put the outpost on that gas giant. Put it on the huge swamp planet and keep your enemies from getting a great farming planet! That way they can't colonize it (a) without your knowledge; or (b) without bombing it and starting a war. You, on the other hand, need only fly a colony ship to the system, and start a colony up. Personally, I also like to drop outposts into just about every valuable system my enemies own. That way, when I get jump gate (I think that's the term) technology late in the game, I can just drop in on their good worlds, or, even better, their homeworlds, and bomb the snot out of them.

2) Allies - A trick that I'm sure would be utterly useless against human players, it's nonetheless quite amusing against the AI. I haven't used it in years, but I seem to remember it working this way: If you've got an opponenet whose homeworld is out of range of your battle fleet, make him an ally. That way, your ships can fly straight into his space as though his colonies were yours, you can scout his planets, and begin your assault by capturing or destroying his most valuable planets.

[vmxa1]

I would tend to put an outpost and the gas to keep the AI from wanting to destroy it sooner. That is if ti was for extending range and not just a precursor for a colony.

I find that the AI will not hesitate to bust my outpost (at impossible). Since I am often repulsive, once a war starts, it rarely ends. It also means never having allies.

Jump Gates are an early tech, you are thinking of Star Gate a 15000RP tech.

[Aabraxan]

Originally posted by vmxa1
I would tend to put an outpost and the gas to keep the AI from wanting to destroy it sooner. That is if ti was for extending range and not just a precursor for a colony.

I find that the AI will not hesitate to bust my outpost (at impossible). Since I am often repulsive, once a war starts, it rarely ends. It also means never having allies.

Jump Gates are an early tech, you are thinking of Star Gate a 15000RP tech.

I guess that it's a matter of purpose. No question, the AI won't hesitate to bomb an outpost on impossible. Sometimes, though, I've used outposts to keep my AI opponents busy, for example, while I refit my fleet. The opponent bombs an outpost, I send another, the AI bombs it again, and so on. A human player, I suspect, would bomb the outpost, drop their own, and move in to attack a colony.

I've never played repulsive, but haven't used the allies trick in several years. As I recall, I was in a position where the Darloks could get to my outermost colonies, but my battleships couldn't get to them . . . until the alliance.

Yes, Star Gates, thanks.

[vmxa1]

That is one of the games great features, you can play so many ways.

[Croesus]

Outposts also give you a 'free' marine baracks. Again, I am sure most people know this, but someone might not.

[Chimera_MM]

My trick, (not sure if this is listed else where

Instant leader assinment (i have a prepatch moo 2)
1) assine a leader to a planet/ship
2) Return to main screen
3) Go back to leader Screen
4) hit pool leader
5) pool X leader
6) the assine him to the same ship you assined before

[vmxa1]

That was fixed in 1.3

[Chimera_MM]

I know, but i figured was worth mentioning, i play both versions actively

[vmxa1]

Both version? You mean 1.2 and 1.3, not 1.31? 1.2 is just too cheezy for me with the amped plasma cannons and gyros, creative at 6 picks.

There are enough bugs in 1.31, so I would not use prior versions.

[siron]

BTW. The above mentioned cheat (delete bought items) is now fixed in the new 1.40b19 patch.

[theCzar]

ahhh the plasma cannon from 1.2, i miss it, it was a glitch i suppose that you could get the most powerful beam weapon in the game (damage v space) near the start...

I played an MP game with a mate and he killed himself to get disruptors, while i was building a fleet of plasma bs's that whipped him... happy days... curse 1.31

and nobody say "...but upgraded fusion beams" they're pants against shields

[Zoetrope]

theCzar, do you miss the more powerful Plasma Cannons enough to restore them to their former glory?

What about the Gyro Destabiliser, which was compact and powerful in version 1.2?

Would you like shield-piercing heavy ion pulse cannons?

How about making a beam into a bio-weapon?

Fighters too wimpy? How about making Fighter Bays smaller, and carrier ships unleashing fresh Fighters every turn?

Could your Starbases use more space, stronger armor and more marines?

OCL can do all that, and more.

See the zoetrope moo2 website for OCL and other editors you may enjoy using.

Btw, i'm planning to slightly reorganise the utilities directory to classify the editors so it's easier to find the right one for a task.

[Brutalisk]

Zoetrope, would be nice to include instructions on how to use them as well

[Zoetrope]

OK, here are the interim instructions.

(1) Some editors are inscrutable as the UI is opaque, their documentation is absent or vague, and I haven't figured out how to use them.

(2) A few crash so early that it's uncertain what their capabilities would have been.

(3) Several are redundant, as their functionality is subsumed by much more powerful, comfortable, compact and efficient editors.

Don't use utilities of classes (1), (2) or (3).

(4) There are some good ones. Most of these have good documentation, and they are intuitive anyway. (e.g. COrion2, MeltPot, PickHack.)

(5) OCL is so useful that the best way to learn it is to try it. Its docs are a summary of its command-line and its output file format and tell more than I know.

[theCzar]

i may give it a look, but i'm moo-ed out at the moment!