POST your favorite CUSTOM Race ;)

[Old n Slow]

No I had a box -- bought at a low price a few years back but I didn’t open it until this year. My SMAC is now two years old & yet to be installed. Picked up Civ III about two months ago -- figure that it will sit on the shelf until it ripens.

For the last week I’ve been toying with Heroes of Might & Magic (I). Part of a six pack with II & III & some add ons. I also have a half dozen Ultimas & Wizardys yet to try.

By the time I open up some of these I think I’ll discover that Windows 2015 won’t work with them.

But I’m still with version 1.2 of MOO2; once I get comfortable with weaning myself off creative, then I’ll sniff around for version 1.31. But for now, there are still some of those choices that I don’t want to make, especially if I’m not rushing out to conquer early on.

[Sikander]

If you hate to constantly upgrade ships, then you will enjoy the feature in 1.31 that allows you to simply upgrade to a set design. That was a huge timesaver for me. Also I like what they did with initiative, it makes the battles more interesting.

[RGBVideo]

Ok I had a unusual map in Moo1. Silicoids not in the game, but only 7 normal ecology planets, plus Orion.
Only 1 near me and one near Mrrs. One more 5 parsecs away form me. No planet that could not be colonized.
Never seen that before.

Was the map "huge"?

[vmxa1]

I can't remember, but probably not. I tend to not play a lot of huge maps.

[RGBVideo]

"Large", then? 7 normal planets doesn't sound a lot for medium ones (unless you mean non-toxic?)

[vmxa1]

What I remember for sure was that I had one Normal planet by me and One by one of the other races. There was a third one not in range, plus Orion. All other planets were hostile or uninhabitable to anyone.
I suspect the game was on med map, but I have jumped around so much I can not say for sure.

[xoham]

vxma garth vader help

Vxma and Garth,

You guys have been very helpful in the past helping me with the MOO2.

I've had a hankering to play again and it seems I've forgotten some of your key advice.

I'm looking for a tech or industry custom race for an Impossible max players game. Please do not assume anything. I've seen races listed where the points don't add up because something was assumed (I suspect Uncreative).

I usually pick Psilons so I don't have to fight them.

Also, early game combat tactics. I think one or both of you suggested corvette or smaller missle ships to start.

Some specifics:

What's the load out of your first conquest ships?

When do you attack Orion and with what?

How do you feel about beams before Phasor?

Assume v1.31

Thanks in advance for the refresher course.

[bakalov]

Creative Artifacts Aquatic +1 Research Large HW
Low Gravity -20 ship def or att (whatever you prefer) -10 Spying.

This can usually win in 190 turns Prewarp, Huge, Impossible, 8 opponents. No colonization outside the home system. You may go even with no colonization at all.

First ship ~ at turn 110 (should be built with academy):
Hv AF Mass drivers (cant remember how much - 5 may be?)
Pd AF Mass Drivers - 10?

Battle Pods
Battle Scanner
Inertial Stabilizer
Heavy armor

3 such ships are enough for the whole game; may be enchanced with better armor, and better force field techs. If you run into planetary shields you'll have to add some bombs.

After you produce the first ship with good logistics you may get them all for ~80 turns ...

My research path: Research Labs, Auto Factories, Cloning Centers, Supercomputers, Robo Miners, the techs needed for the ship.

[Whoha]

Cybernetic/tolerant/+2 production
Feudal/lithovore/creative
Lithovore/tolerant
Telepathic/charasmatic/+20 spying/warlord

[Whoha]

Favorite negatives are -pop -money -ship defense feudal.

[vmxa1]

Re: vxma garth vader help

You can choose any number of races. If you want to prevent the Psilons from being in the game, just use their picture for your race.

Combat is up to ones taste, I prefer to go with beams most of the time in a huge map. I will use a cruiser with nukes arranged as single slots for the first 4, no computer if I am a tele or have a race on top of me.

Otherwise I will wait until I can build battleships with beams. By and large, I prefer to go with mass drivers to start my first attack and then switch to phasors.

I will put heavy armor if creative, if not reenforced hulls. My best armor and shields and computer. Battle Pods, Battle computer, stablizer and pack in guns. No bombs, no missiles, no missle def.

Once I get to Phasors and I have 6 battleships, I go for Orion, if in range. Once I get it, I refit ships to take advantage of any new tech from Orion.

I should mention, I tend to time the attack for right after I have researched most of the 3500 RP techs. This is to get the increase room for ships and the Deep Core to make ships faster.

How about Uni Aqua Sub +1 production, you can use what ever minuses you like.
-GC -ship def repulsive
Many like -low g -spy -gc, I dislike taking low g if you want to spread out and are not creative.

[xoham]

Re: Re: vxma garth vader help

Originally posted by vmxa1
You can choose any number of races. If you want to prevent the Psilons from being in the game, just use their picture for your race.

How about Uni Aqua Sub +1 production, you can use what ever minuses you like.
-GC -ship def repulsive
Many like -low g -spy -gc, I dislike taking low g if you want to spread out and are not creative.

I meant to say that I do exactly what you said about choosing the Psilon picture.

Can I assume you are hunkered down in one system this whole time then? Otherwise how would you avoid the agression of the other races long enough to obtain the 3500 stuff? If you are not creative, please fill me in on some of your bigger tech decisions. For example. Planetary Supercomputer, Positronic (if I recall correctly).

How many spies do you need to defend against having all your techs looted?

Thanks to everyone else that posted.

[xoham]

.

When I've played creative, I have definitely favored auto-fire mass drivers on early ships. Great for knocking down missles too.

But I haven't had a lot of luck against space monsters with beam ships in the early game. If there is a juicy planet one system away, I really want to take it.

I had a lot of luck last game with nuclear missle ships. Sacrificed a couple but still got the system. Lost the game overall though.

[Whoha]

mirv nukes hit and run are the way to go if you want to kill monsters and not take loses. With beams you need the positronic computer and the battle scanner to hit them, and you need shields/tritanium to stand up to their weapons for more then 1 round.

The ships I build are based on how fast I can finish them, ~10 turns and ok. That means for a non super production race cruisers. Of course once I have several cruisers I'll be willing to plunk down 20 turns to get a BB out.

I go missiles until I can get mass drivers. They are better against the AI then fusion beams because of AP and the lack of heavy armor on AI ships. Then it depends on where I go from there, some times I get gauss cannons, some times phasors, some times plasma cannons. all of them have their ups and downs. I've never played a non creative game with only fighters, I'll have to try it. Gauss cannons have AP and are on the way to class 7 shields(which give AP/AF on the cannons), phasors have SP and are good pd weapons, and plasma cannons hit really really hard.

[Whoha]

Bleh I'll have to get off my butt and play the next term.