Toughing up the AI races with Corion

[Tiemler]

I just found out about Corion 2, a cool editor for MOO2. So I Googled for it and found a copy.

Figured I'd try and spice up my next game by modifying the AI races with some additional racial traits. Haven't played it out yet, but I'll let you know how it turns out.

Meanwhile, here are some ideas...

Humans - Give them Federation. Jjust too appropriate.

Darloks - Telepathic.

Silicoids - Subterranean. Mind you, they'll take a while to fill those colonies up, but this will still make them even tougher rivals.

Mrrshans - Lucky (more lives than a cat?) and +1 Research (we all know what curiosity did).

Bulrathis - Large Homeworld. Makes sense if it's a high-gravity world. Also, Warlord.

Psilons - Give 'em back the Artifacts HW they lost when Creative went up to 8 picks.

Elerians - Confederation. That ought to put them in the fight.

Sakkra - Aquatic instead of Subterranean. I like the idea they're evolved from lacertilians (look it up).

Still no ideas for the Alkaris, so I left them alone in my savegame. Any ideas for them or the Meklars?

[Main_Brain]

Remember to give them Evolutionary Mutation First, it can screw your game otherwise.
Personally I like to give the Meklars +5 Produktion but thats extreme ;=)

Well, for the Birds I suggest either Warlord or an Ship Def Bonus.
This should make them stronger in early Game when fewer Ships are arround.

[Tiemler]

Re: Toughing up the AI races with Corion

Some results from my first couple games against the toughened-up AI races...

Humans - Made it to that exclusive club, the surviving races, at the end of both games. They colonized widely and expanded militarily at the cost of their neighbors. I maintained good relations with them.

Darloks - Man, it's tough to keep spies alive with telepathic Darloks in the game.

Silicoids - I encountered them early in both games and their production bonus served me well. They took longer to dislodge with Subterranean, though.

Bulrathis - Very successful in both games, rivaling my own empire at the end of the second.

[Garth Vader]

I made a bunch of custom races with the Meltpot editor a number of years ago you could design considerably better races as long as you disabled evolutionary mutation.

My favorite was the Borg which I considered my advanced Meklars. I don't exactly remember what picks But I think they were +2 IND, unification, subterranean, transwarp, telepathic, +ship attack, +ship defense, Cyber, LHW, -1 SCI, -0.5 food, repulsive.

The only race to really give me a chill when I encountered them. You couldn't negotiate with them, they had a lot of ships and they always seemed to get neutronium armor and automated repair quickly, so their ships would be repairing a few hundred points of damage each turn. They were hard to conquer because you couldn't mind control them. Great fun

[Aabraxan]

Originally posted by Garth Vader
My favorite was the Borg which I considered my advanced Meklars. I don't exactly remember what picks But I think they were +2 IND, unification, subterranean, transwarp, telepathic, +ship attack, +ship defense, Cyber, LHW, -1 SCI, -0.5 food, repulsive.

. . . .

They were hard to conquer because you couldn't mind control them. Great fun

Can you not mind control telepathic races, or is there some other reason for not being able to mind control them?

[vmxa1]

You cannot mind control a tele or a tele leader.

[Aabraxan]

Originally posted by vmxa1
You cannot mind control a tele or a tele leader.

Good to know. So even if I'm non-tele, I can prevent mind control on my planets by hiring a tele leader for that system?

[Garth Vader]

Yes, although the AI would then just wipe out the colony killing everyone including the leader

[Aabraxan]

Originally posted by Garth Vader
Yes, although the AI would then just wipe out the colony killing everyone including the leader

Oh, yeah. . . ouch.

[Straybow]

lacertilians (look it up).

Can't find any such word.

[vmxa1]

Of, relating to, or characteristic of lizards and closely related reptiles; Saurian.

[Straybow]

What does that have to do with making Sakkra aquatic??

[Tiemler]

Crocodiles are aquatic creatures, and I thought it'd be cool to give the Sakkra this characteristic, as well. I'd associate subterranean tunnelts with insects more than reptiles, personally.

[Zoetrope]

With COrion2 it's possible to give races +100 science and production, though I think that gets truncated to +12 or so. Playing such a race, one can easily colonise every planet in a prewarp-start Huge galaxy in under 30 turns.

After playing as that race once, I forgot to change it back, so next game I was happily playing legally for the first few dozen turns, then encountered this empire that had the entire southern half of the map covered.

Boldly, I continued playing, refrained from cheating, and eventually conquered them!

Lessons:
(1) If you can survive to the top of the tech tree, research is no longer an issue.
(2) Skill overcomes the AI even if it's a monstrous industrial power.

I'd like to multiplay but the UT+10 timezone is a long way from most MOO2 players, and my friends are either too restless to play past a few turns, or too itchy to keep their hands off the cheat codes. "My, your lone cruiser carries advanced technology!"

[siron]

"I'd like to multiplay but the UT+10 timezone is a long way from most MOO2 players, and my friends are either too restless to play past a few turns, or too itchy to keep their hands off the cheat codes. "My, your lone cruiser carries advanced technology!" "

There are a lot of Canadian or US-players near the pacific. Just 6 hours difference? Thats almost no trouble at all if you can play at the weekend.