Playing as the Borg

[Iceman]

Hey Iceman
Here's my game from turn 284. My fleet that just assimilated Xyril comes down to Romulus next and in about 6-8 turns will take it. The system hasn't had a shipyard in over 30 turns.

Well, Romulus is a mess. It is trying to upgrade its TL4 Gravitic Turbines to TL5, which will take another 378 turns to complete. Romulus has 35 Gravitic Turbines, to power all the buildings and the 14 OBs.
Between the Organics Plants and the Gravitic Turbines, I guess there's no pop to assign to industry. Since the Romulans are low on credits (~700), they cannot rush build anything. In fact, a couple of turns later, they cancel production on all systems, I suppose to try to make some cash and keep afloat.

We'll need to review the logic and get them to power down all non-essential stuff, but honestly there's not much that the Romulans can do to stop the inevitable in this particular case. The shipyard will do them no good.
But you have a point, that's not what I'm saying! Thanks for bringing it up!

As for the Klingons, by turn 320, I was able to strand their 39 ship stack after destroying the Dominion homeworld (they should know better than to count on allies...) and now I'm taking their planets at will.

The AI doesn't yet know what an alliance is; except using its benefits ofc. It does not yet have an agenda or a global strategy. It expands and fights wars. There's still a lot to do in that department.

By turn 345, Romulans and Dominion no longer exist and the Cards are all but extinct (note the nearly dead planets with huge garrisons, what's up with that!?!?). Feds are a mess, but I've begun cleaning them up.

Those systems (they're 3 or 4) are most likely the victims of a war between the Cards and the Feds. Since they didn't have Command ships yet at the time of the war, they couldn't use the Maximum Precision targeting strategy in assaults, and Maximum Damage (the default strategy) causes extreme collateral damage to the civilian population, but not much to the garrison. Max Precision does the opposite.
That's probably the cause for the low global morale of the Feds, their bombing of those colonies.

[Iceman]

Well, Romulus is a mess. It is trying to upgrade its TL4 Gravitic Turbines to TL5, which will take another 378 turns to complete. Romulus has 35 Gravitic Turbines, to power all the buildings and the 14 OBs.
Between the Organics Plants and the Gravitic Turbines, I guess there's no pop to assign to industry.

Yep, no pop to assign to industry...

Should we make orbital batteries work like Stations instead of like Buildings? I mean, instead of an energy cost,
- have a credits upkeep cost (only when active? always?)
- and/or have a higher build cost
- and/or have a higher duranium cost


(which also reduces MM)


Or reduce their energy cost - quite a bit

[Warp Core Breach]

Hi Iceman!
Thanks for the new release! Just d/l'ed.

Should we make orbital batteries work like Stations instead of like Buildings? I mean, instead of an energy cost,
- have a credits upkeep cost (only when active? always?)
- and/or have a higher build cost
- and/or have a higher duranium cost

Something I've seen is that the AI builds more OBs than it can power, and over time (i.e. higher Tech Level) powers them up. If you treat them as buildings, then defenses would be overpowered early on, I think. At level 4, going up against 10 level I OBs would be impossible for anyone other than the Borg. You might do it once, then have no fleet left. Having to replace the fleet *and* all the troop transports will grind invasions to a halt. On the other hand, who needs a fleet when all your systems have 10 OBs each? (oh yeah, and double the casualties if you try to attack the Dominion in their nebula!)

I like the energy approach. It forces you to choose between production and defense. It also means that smaller/insignificant systems won't be protected more than a core world.

My 2-cents, anyway...

[Iceman]

Hi Iceman!
Thanks for the new release! Just d/l'ed.

I'll try to work a bit more on the AI. I'll put my games on hold and check the AI playing, to see how it can be improved.

Something I've seen is that the AI builds more OBs than it can power, and over time (i.e. higher Tech Level) powers them up.

Just a few remarks about this, that can be helpful to analyze the AI's behavior - not that it is perfect, not by a long shot!
The AI will not power all its OBs unless it is at war with someone. It will only power a couple of them when not at war if it has a neighbour that is potentially dangerous (Warlike minor, major).
If not at war, it will prioritize building other stuff, that is not defense related. If there's nothing else to build or upgrade, it may build OBs up to the colony's cap.
It may power down OBs and unused shipyard slots if it needs energy for other structures.

If you treat them as buildings, then defenses would be overpowered early on, I think.

Probably. Though they're only available at TL3.

At level 4, going up against 10 level I OBs would be impossible for anyone other than the Borg. You might do it once, then have no fleet left. Having to replace the fleet *and* all the troop transports will grind invasions to a halt. On the other hand, who needs a fleet when all your systems have 10 OBs each? (oh yeah, and double the casualties if you try to attack the Dominion in their nebula!)

OBs are stationary ships. They cost duranium to build (and "credits" in the sense that you're not building Trade Goods instead), so they need to be effective. The drawback being you can't move them. And losing them is equivalent to losing ships (duranium). They have the advantage of firing first.
There's a cap on the number of OBs a system can build - pop/25, IIRC.
This doesn't mean you're wrong! I'm just enumerating pros and cons.

I like the energy approach. It forces you to choose between production and defense. It also means that smaller/insignificant systems won't be protected more than a core world.

Like mentioned above, this wouldn't happen anyway because of the cap that was introduced.

My 2-cents, anyway...

Thanks!

[Warp Core Breach]

Hi Iceman,
Any idea why I can't build ships any more. I have 1100 duranium, but I'm being told that there isn't enough duranium to build anything at Unimatrix01...

borg170.sav

(659.62 KiB) Downloaded 69 times

(Note that once again, AI Klingons are kicked butt... )

Thanks!

[Iceman]

Hi Iceman,
Any idea why I can't build ships any more. I have 1100 duranium, but I'm being told that there isn't enough duranium to build anything at Unimatrix01...

Because you need 1250 to build a Cube
It's kind of strange that you need all the resources up front to start construction, since they're deducted on a per turn basis, but that's the way it is coded.
Not sure if that should be changed.

(Note that once again, AI Klingons are kicked butt... )

Yes, it's hard to call it luck at this point.
I probably should have left their colony ships with the lower starting pop...
I really am puzzled by this. Can't think of anything that might give them this advantage.

[Warp Core Breach]

Well, you are able to build TTs even if your garrison is too low. Construction just stops until the garrison builds up again. Note: if you have garrison enough for 1 TT, and a 3-space shipyard, you can build 3 TTs. It is annoying that if the garrison is too small for 1 TT, then TT doesn't appear in the ship list anymore.

I say, let the commander start building the ships, he/she/it i's in charge. If construction stalls partway, and then the SY gets destroyed, oh well!

[Iceman]

I say, let the commander start building the ships, he/she/it i's in charge. If construction stalls partway, and then the SY gets destroyed, oh well!

Notice that if the colony's build queue is empty, and the shipyard is building ships, industry is converted to shipbuilding instead of trade goods. That shipbuilding bonus is split between all slots that are building ships.
So, that might potentialy be inneficient.

[Warp Core Breach]

Notice that if the colony's build queue is empty, and the shipyard is building ships, industry is converted to shipbuilding instead of trade goods. That shipbuilding bonus is split between all slots that are building ships.
So, that might potentialy be inneficient.

Really? I didn't know that. Good to know! What other secrets like this are out there?
Thanks!

[Iceman]

We need to make sure the manual will have these secrets explained.

[Iceman]

Notice that if the colony's build queue is empty, and the shipyard is building ships, industry is converted to shipbuilding instead of trade goods. That shipbuilding bonus is split between all slots that are building ships.
So, that might potentialy be inneficient.

Really? I didn't know that. Good to know! What other secrets like this are out there?
Thanks!

Forgot to mention some very important details...
The colony needs to be producing dilithium and have some active industry PFs, in order to get this bonus.
The Borg do not benefit from such a bonus though.

[geordie]

I played about 500 turns as the Borg, with the last patch. At least the turns are quite quick.
I was able to control one quadrant in that game, so the Borg was not developing too fast. It was a constant struggle between assimilating new systems and defending possessed territory. I have 34 cubes for now, but quite extended borders.
I would say that the Borg game is the most challenging choice for now.
I am not sure, but I have a feeling that the ship support depends more on the population than the total intel. At least I was not stuck in the first phase of the game.

[Iceman]

I am not sure, but I have a feeling that the ship support depends more on the population than the total intel. At least I was not stuck in the first phase of the game.

Total intel only affects minimum support (accumulates with turn number). The highest value (minimum support vs population support) is the effective support.
Any suggestions for improvements are welcome.

[Iceman]

I was able to control one quadrant in that game, so the Borg was not developing too fast. It was a constant struggle between assimilating new systems and defending possessed territory. I have 34 cubes for now, but quite extended borders.

Should we increase the stats of Borg ships (go back to the old stats), to compensate for the "low" support

[geordie]

Should we increase the stats of Borg ships (go back to the old stats), to compensate for the "low" support

I would leave it as it is, at least for now.
Playing as a fully dominant Borg is not fun.
I understand that an AI for the Borg opponents could be more unique (alliances and unified fleets?) and then maybe some changes in the Borg stats would be necessary.
For now I would propose only to add second Maturity Chamber for systems 300+ population.
And please make a change in the AI not to colonize systems inside the Borg cube range.