Need challenge for SP game? Moo2

[Molach]

Hi.

I just post this because I have recently started playing Moo2 again (installed my old disc on my new computer), and the game still rocks, 10 years after.

I did get quite good in SP, never tried MP though due to expensive internet access.

So, after crushing the computer in a regular (impossible, of course) game where I design a "good" race (a typical MP race will do) I have some fun playing the game using "fun" designed races. Like, a perfect spying race (telepath +20%spy), cybertronic races for innate autamated repair, trading races, etc etc.

But I've come up with a real challenge now:
The "empty" race. (or the "Sitting ducks" as I call them)
This is a race without any positive pick whatsoever. In addition, they must take -10 penalties (-9 is not enough)

They must also start in pre-warp.

And of course, play in impossible difficulty.

And certainly with a lot of other races. (5 +1 per size bigger than small)

As a final touch, they must get the "evolutional morph" tech, and use the +4 racial picks for ...absolutely nothing.

I got the idea after I found out that final score is multiplied by (1 + 1/10 of your available race picks)

So I guess one could get a truly amazing final score this way.

Anyone tried anything like this?
Which negative picks to take is open to debate.
I tried repulsive (to not hamper my abilities too much) but I would then always get clobbered by my closest neighbour.

I got a lowG, -spy and -ground combat going now. The trick is to survive long enough to be able to out-design the AI...

[vmxa1]

Yes you have to use 10 minus and zero positive and not use the picks from Evolution to get the max score of 340%.

24K is not hard at that point on a huge map.

[Molach]

Yeap, I'm winning a game I'm playing now.

Huge, 8 players, Normal, Pre-warp, Impossible.

-3 scouting
-ground combat
-lowG
I took 3 glorious defeats, but this time I've as good as won. First luck was starting in a corner, next piece of luck was having the innocent, happy Alkari next to me (stayed friendly the whole game).

Finally, I managed to hire the guy that gives research labs + autolab. It might be just me, but he sure seems to pop up when needed.

Anyway, I was hopelessly far behind in tech and production. I traded away the labs for needed stuff, then managed to kill off the aggressive Mrrshan. Next I filled all new planets with labs, getting me up to par on tech. Luckily I was friendly with a lot of other guys, anyone could have walked all over me at this time. (Only Bulrathi were Repulsive, and too far away).

A nice bunch of well-designed battleships took care of low-tech bulrathi.

Then I got Trilarian to declare war on the Darloks. Darloks were by far the most dangerous race, doomstars, three times my fleet strength, good tech and annoying surprise attack.

Star gate was crucial to pin down his death-fleet. He attacked a 3-system star. One planet utterly destroyed (by steller converter, no less) but then my full fleet hit him. Good , long fight but his fleet was destroyed at the cost of 35% of mine. And I have better production capability. After I walk over the rest of darloks I can kill the rest at my leisure. Nice challenge game.



Anyway, my next challenge would be to take certain terrible -picks.

How about Feudal, -food and -research for a pre-warp start? Wonder if that is winnable...

[vmxa1]

Stealth ships are a real pain. If it was a std game, I would get evolution and take omni so I could see them.

There was a lot of hashing all the worse race games on the old Atari board a few years back. I can't recall all the stuff tried any longer.

In the main most are winnable, but not much fun. Using huge maps makes them all easier as you have more time. Same for prewarp starts.

A bad race game on smaller maps with adv tech starts will make it harder as the AI's will find everyone quickly and planets will get filled faster.

[Iasius]

I played a game like this about a year ago, too. Lost two times due to starting next to Sakkra or Silicoids. Then won the next time. I think I picked the same negatives as you did. Starting next to peaceful races is crucial I think.

Try this with feudal or uncreative some time. It wasn't pretty.