Random questions from a (relative) newbie

[Flocke]

Edit: I typed this as Flocke responded as well ( everyone seems to type faster than me ).

Sorry

[xDx]

@Flocke its all good no worries

[dune165]

Many thanks Flocke and xDx for your fine suggestions it is a pleasure to read, as it brings under my fantasy various aspects of this great story..!! And you make it so easy to achieve, gives me again more drive while am trying to build ships, facilities, infrastructures, and to reconstruct what my big friends the Cardassians continuously distroy. Pity we only have one building list with 4 items, I could well do with 4 of those building lists….

I start the game following the instructions of : “This guide is copyright 2001 Callidice.”

“…The most difficult game to play is all players at “early” with no minor races, I’ll explain this later, once you have cracked the “advanced” technological game you will be much better equipped to play the harder scenarios. Thus, mostly this section is for the “advanced” single-player game…”

So, then the Cardassians appears around turn 35, and from then onward, -totally undisclosed and invisible/clocked(?),- they proceed to the systematic distruction, robbery, pillaging of my game. As I said I have not found yet a way to stop this bleeding, whereby invariably death will follow around turn 120-150.

Still I find it great to read about these subjects some of you are writing about advanced –to me- aspects of this game I can only dream about.

Thanks again all, wish you all a lot of fun,

[KrazeeXXL]

hi and welcome to afc,

Take a look at your systems and check the moral on them. Systems with low moral (some not that friendly minors f.e.) are perfect for Intel-buildings.
Use systems with high moral for research/shipbuilding so you have the highest use of the moral bonus and won't waste it on intel.

This'll help you on mid/long-term sight. Not that much on short-term sight, tho.

Even if it might seem unecessary @ the beginning, it's good to build/buy an intel building here and there. It's like driving a car - you need to act foresightful as you don't know what'll happen in the next turns. It's also good to build or buy some intel buildings between bigger upgrades or put them somewhere on the queue between bonus-buildings like replicators, shipyards and such. In this breaks you can free valuable workers and put them into research while building this little 500credits stuff.

Against the AI I always try to have at least a ratio of 1:2 (intel: research). Depends on who you meet first. Except the cards, all the others are negligible when it comes to intel. But always prepare for the worst - Cards/Fergs. Cards in case of intel and fergs in case of their huge amount of ships.

A good reminder of way too less intel is the terrorist attack on shipyards f.e. Somehow it often happens in the beginning of a game and seems to say: build more intel-stuff

btw: there's nothing you can do about those random event-intel strikes (except deactivating random events) - as they have nothing to do with the AI.

and yea, look for the Betazoids. their special building gives 50% to internal security iirc. Also nice to build in Balance of Power (BOP-mod) are surveillance stations. They give 8% on internal security and you can build them on every system.

some screenshots of my latest T1 game (BOP) I recently started. First game for a year or so:

tsuhw.jpg (235.65 KiB) Viewed 5678 times

jn7TR.jpg (233.19 KiB) Viewed 5678 times

6MIk4.jpg (234.8 KiB) Viewed 5678 times

E9cPZ.jpg (227.73 KiB) Viewed 5678 times

I played a bit "China" in this one. I didn't invest too much into my fleet as usually, just enough to kill all the monsters, and be able to scan every sector on my borders. I had big luck with minors in this one so I focussed to build a strong economy. Met the first major (Klingons) exactly in turn 250 and they declared war instantly. I killed their whole fleet (60 ships, most of them elite) in 3 battles ~5 turns. ratio of my losses 1:10
Since I then bombed one of his bigger systems, the kling decided to offer me a peace treaty. Some ~600 credits for around 50 turns.

It is good to have some muscle ready for combat. As you can see on the third screenshot - I'm building a starbase to get near to the Romulan. If you scare them off enough, they will give you huge amounts of money. In my last epic multiplayer game, I managed to get 5x400k credits from the Ferengi I think he gave us over 3,5 million credits overall, which we badly needed

welcome dune165, with answering on thundercheros signature, you seem to be new to forums, too

I'm glad that there are ppl who actually read his signature at all

Edit: I typed this as Flocke responded as well ( everyone seems to type faster than me ).

Sorry

Flocke isn't a fast typer at all

ya all sloooooooow

[dune165]

Remarkable post KrazeeXXl, I will use it as study and reference. Will right away try your “least a ratio of 1:2 (intel: research)”.

Of course priority has also to go to the economy. And with the Cardassians happily plundering and destroying repetedly my starter systems (3 of them), the building list must also be used to replace vital structures just now destroyed by the Cardassians.

Of course at runde 316 and with a credit pro runde od 5581 credits, life must become quite easy.

Will also apply your example of closing the zuteilung for Biotechnik, Energy, Computer, Antrieg, and concentrate a 48% on Bautechnik and Waffen.

Have to click now a few turns, thanks to you all, I really have work to do.
dune

[KrazeeXXL]

Remarkable post KrazeeXXl, I will use it as study and reference. Will right away try your “least a ratio of 1:2 (intel: research)”.

my priority against the AI is always on research. If you are some tech-levels ahead of the AI you don't need that much ships to destroy them and can focus on other things (minors, economy). It also shows me where my limit in points is, which my population is able to generate. This is important to know, so you can compare yourself to your opponent when you meet him for the first time.
But everyone does that differently. I aim for round numbers. At first I try to get to 1000 research-points, then next step 2000 points and so on. If you meet cards early and have just some hundreds points, cancel stuff you can cancel and start building intel like crazy

It's also good to know what the intel-messages mean. When they become more frequent (every turn) it means that you should buy more intel - very fast. A good sign is always the message of that ship full of spies which has been catched during some routine control.

Of course priority has also to go to the economy. And with the Cardassians happily plundering and destroying repetedly my starter systems (3 of them), the building list must also be used to replace vital structures just now destroyed by the Cardassians.

this might be the source of your problem. As Flocke wrote, it's important to get a fleet in the beginning. The more ships you have, the better; as you will scare the AI by your power. This'll give you more time to react = time to erect more intel buildings.

Of course at runde 316 and with a credit pro runde od 5581 credits, life must become quite easy.

might look this way but it was a stony road to get there. 20 turns before I only had 2k credits per round. Minors helped me out and gave me the badly needed population to maintain a bigger fleet so I jumped to around 5k credits per turn. But that's just for SP (Single Player). MP is another story.

Will also apply your example of closing the zuteilung for Biotechnik, Energy, Computer, Antrieg, and concentrate a 48% on Bautechnik and Waffen.

whoa, hold on I put almost always the whole 95% into one specific research field. It depends on what I need. Do I need some better shields for my ships and do I want to free some workers from energy buildings to put them into intel f.e., I go for energy research.
If I plan to colonize tons of new systems, I try to up my biology tech, to fasten the process of terraforming.

When I need some range or just want to go there where no one has gone b4 I put my scientists into propulsion. It's always depending on the situation. In this case I just put the 48% in Bautechnik and Weapons because I need those 2 techs to upgrade my massive fleet of Cruisers from version IV to V.
So it wasn't a recommendation in general in how and what you should put whereto in research

Always buy and research only those things which you really need. Check the research techs and look what tech-levels the better ships need. If you got lots of destroyers, see that you can upgrade them and then think about which technologies to research first. Always having in mind what your next steps should be and the situation you're in currently.

[dune165]

Surely some of you people must have had a few words on my behalf with the Cardassians Obsidian Order as the following happened:

Having restarted the game for the ntn time, then around turn 20 there my big friends Cardassians appear. Bit early I thought. Wonders der wonders, they seem “receptive”..?? and by turn 27 I had them “affiliated”, by turn 32 am profilably trading with them, not only, but the Caldonian had asked for friendship then affiliation, then trading was also a matter of a couple of turns.
My day could not be better. The sun was shining and would never set on my Universe. The door to total ruling of this and neighbouring universes was open.

Just you wait. By turn 40 I had about 45k credits, an income of 365 p.t., a couple of starships, a few in the making, a second shipyard, intelligence and research set to max.
Cardassian spies started to become active. Then funds started to disappear. 17.000 and 19.000 once just in one lump sum. One starship was destroyed, universities destroyed, data stolen, farms destroyed, etc. etc. etc. the well known pattern was leading my game to stardust, as usual. By turn 90 or so, dilithium was at –5, income – 170 and total credit at – min 45.000.

Then I stopped, it did not make sense, Cardassians happily trading and firmly affiliated to my “? Empire ?”…..

There must be something wrong then with my installation.
I regularly –almost every day- I perform rescanning of my C:drive, remove temp files and empty mail and paper baskets.

Next will try to totally remove BOTF_1.0.2. and reinstall it again.

Cardy..!! just YOU wait, I'll be back..!!

[xDx]

Dune165 you forgot Rule of Flocke #4

4. don't trust the cardassians, when you make peace. they take it as an invitation to spionage and sabotage you. only if you manage to get allied or affiliated they stop

How strong was your fleet? Did the Cards have a affiliation treaty or Alliance with another AI empire? Just because (and this really goes for any empire but especially the Cards) you have a treaty with an AI empire doesn't mean you turn off intel or neglect it. Even with treaties if the AI feels you arent pulling your weight in galactic domination they will start looking for someone else who can As I said as soon as you can man those intel buildings early and keep them manned especially if playing Feds, Klingons, or Ferengi (in that order). This will add points each turn to your internal security until you meet your first AI empire and will act as a buffer until they either break through and start attacking you with sabotage or espionage or you do the same back. Krazee is right in making research a priority as Feds or Ferengi specifically IMO. But if playing as Roms or Klingons then you should make intel and attack (Roms) or build fleet and attack (Klingons). You should really play to each empires strengths to be the most effective against teh AI and also since you are learning the ropes to playing BotF. It just takes getting to know how the AI plays and after several dozen (hundred ) games or so you will see the AI is very predictable. Hope this helps you.

edit: Come to Warzone sometime and try out a game in MP and you can get a good feel how the game is with real non-artificial "hu-mons." Hope to see you sometime.

[KrazeeXXL]

Cardy..!! just YOU wait, I'll be back..!!

You don't have to reinstall the game completely. it's fine as it is. Btw I fully agree to xDx' post above.

Imo you have three options:

1. you could restart the same game for the tenth time and focus completely on intel

2. or just start another new game and hope you don't encounter the cards as first major race

3.Or you could bribe the Cards with lots of your money and become allied with them... would be the easiest way to get rid of that pesky intel-hackings (start bribing them immediately when you met them - every second turn...)

Anyway meeting the bloody Cards that early isn't easy and requires some experience to deal with. So I'd go for option 2 if I were you. Every game is different. Sometimes you don't meet another major race for 100 turns, the other time you just have 20 turns (which makes it hard as it's better to conquer them fast in this state of game, no matter which empire you are playing).

My suggestion: choose a large map, so you will have some more time to develop. If a game suxx, start a new one.

[zozozo]

i'm playing UDM on hard or normal. how do i get the other empires to be peaceful with me? i swear 100 turns in, everyone goes to war with me. every game. whether i am strong or weak. and they never let me make peace with them.

[Flocke]

build a fearsome fleet, give them cash when they ask for, declare war on their enemies and help fight them or sabotage their enemies even if you don't pass through, and keep out of their room and don't colonize close to their border.
the cash you give you easily can demand back once they like you, you just need to keep enough in stock.

it's hard to keep in peace with all together. when they start battle each other, decide for one side, don't reject war pact

HTH