A-C is total war?

[Cutlass]

I hadn't played the game in many years, so I go back to it and try to build a society and the other idiots won't let me live in peace. War is nearly constant. No time out. In my last game, I had a 300 year war with Yang, and I had no border with him.

Are there games with more building time and less being attacked?

 

[M_J_M]

Hm, usually they ask you for something like a technology or energy for not attacking you. If they do so and you want peace i'd give them what they want . If you start a customizeable game you get the option to get more aggressive enemys, perhaps you did somehow hit that button. Social engineering is another issue, for nearly every choice you make you'll find a faction you p*** off with your choice. As you have been at war with Yang for 300 Years you might have a democrazy or a fundamentalistic regime.
You can work around the attacks by using larger maps. This won't make the other factions more peaceful, but you get more time before they get close to you.

 

[GooglyBoogly]

You can also crush them into dust. That'll put an end to the war

 

[NwabudikeMorgan]

What I find is a good way to avoid bugging the AI is either to go University and choose Power for your values, or to go Morgan and choose Green economy, or Spartans and choose knowledge value. this way, for example the first: you're happy with Spartans because of the Power choice, and then you either kill of morgan quick and go green economy for the rest of the game, or kill deirdre and go free market so you're buddy with morgan, and then kill off two of the 3 political factions and buddy up with the last one.

This way you at most have to kill 3 people (usually just 2) in order to secure world peace.

 

[Cutlass]

You can also crush them into dust. That'll put an end to the war

Unfortunately, Yang had 20 bases size 4 or better before I had 6 size 4. I just can't build enough units to crush him.

I'm not sure what i'm doing wrong, cause i'm trying to make sure there are nutrients, but the growth just isn't there. (as Morgan, first time i ever played him. but i mostly have played Zarkhov, and that wasn't much better. )

 

[sendos]

I have constant war all the time. My last game as the drones, the Hive (yes, I made a mixture of factions) surrendered to me when I, like, blitzkrieged his empire and he almost crushed the UN. I just saved them when they were on their last base and since I had planned, I crushed the Morgans. It was a fairly tough war since they had better tech, they mind control probed my captured bases from them, but I had far greater force. And the Hive warred with me for ages without any conflict with them. The planet was about 30-50% sea so they could have launched a ground attack which could have taken ages to get there. War always occurs, so when it happens, I'm ready.
My current game: I'm the morgans, The hive wanted me to attack the gaians, so I did. I didn't realize that they were on an island not far from me, so I attacked them whilst having Free Market and Wealth (and right now, I still have 'em!). The Hive wanted money and eventually it was from Pact to treaty, then a few years later, from treaty to war, and they had already crushed 2 factions. So I'm like fighting an empire and I've just captured almost all their sea bases, but they keep firing missiles at me! But I'll show how powerful my defences are, thanks to certain projects.
Difficulty: librarian. Just need to clock all factions with that difficulty, then I'll go thinker.

 

[Sarcasticon]

Does your own military might discourage the AI from declaring war on you (e.g. like it does in GalCiv II)?
It's been ages since I've played A-C so currently I'm starting a game on easy difficulty to get to know the tech tree and units again. I have the impression even ridiculously weak AI's will declare a vendetta against you. Not that I mind, I just wonder if there's anything built in that should prevent them from doing so at higher difficulties.

By the way, what is the key difference between difficulty levels in terms of AI behaviour?

 

[Dharma Punk Dan]

I hadn't played the game in many years, so I go back to it and try to build a society and the other idiots won't let me live in peace. War is nearly constant. No time out. In my last game, I had a 300 year war with Yang, and I had no border with him.

Are there games with more building time and less being attacked?

I believe that there will rarely be peace when the Hive is on the map. I have long periods of peace when I play either Yang or Santiago. With SMAX, the alien races always bring war.

IMHO, AC has a lot more war than Sid's other Civ games (III & IV). With Civ III, I have played to a peaceful end many times. With SMAC, I might have had one or two games end peacefully in almost ten years of playing.

 

[beermaestro]

If you're playing as Morgan, probe the crap out of him. Use your extra cash to subvert Yang's bases, bribe units, and drain energy credits. Eventually, they'll figure out they're getting bled away, and start suing for peace...

 

[Cutlass]

I haven't really relearned how to use probe and psi yet. I need to work on that more.

 

[M_J_M]

ok, 6 vs 20 bases, thats the point^^. When you are so desperadely weak he'l simply take the chance. Guess you should expand faster in the early game.

 

[Cutlass]

I can't expand faster though, because my growth is too low. I honestly can't figure out how to increase it.

The good news on this game is that yang and santiago are in a centuries long inconclusive war so have very little time and resources to bother me for a change. so now that i've finished off Zarkhov i'm free to build, even though i'm still at war with yang

 

[GooglyBoogly]

If your growth is >=6 then your cities will 'boom' growing by a pop a turn as long as there are nutrients availiable. A Golden Age will, amongst other things boost the growth of a city by 2

 

[Sarcasticon]

How about building more colony pods very early on, plus accelerating the last 1-2 turns of their construction? Or if the land is getting too crowded, expand with sea colonies as soon as you can build them.
Early colony rush used to be my weakest point but now in AC it seems to be more in balance with the AI's colonization speed.

 

[sendos]

I believe that there will rarely be peace when the Hive is on the map. I have long periods of peace when I play either Yang or Santiago. With SMAX, the alien races always bring war.

IMHO, AC has a lot more war than Sid's other Civ games (III & IV). With Civ III, I have played to a peaceful end many times. With SMAC, I might have had one or two games end peacefully in almost ten years of playing.

You're right, Dan. I tried fighting one alien race and I do quite well, and then the other alien race attacks me. ahh!!

If you're playing as Morgan, probe the crap out of him. Use your extra cash to subvert Yang's bases, bribe units, and drain energy credits. Eventually, they'll figure out they're getting bled away, and start suing for peace...

I'm currently the Morgans and well, that's a fine idea, but it appears that the Hive acquired the Hunter Seek algorithm. I've taken out their sea power though.

How about building more colony pods very early on, plus accelerating the last 1-2 turns of their construction? Or if the land is getting too crowded, expand with sea colonies as soon as you can build them.
Early colony rush used to be my weakest point but now in AC it seems to be more in balance with the AI's colonization speed.

Yeah, I do the same, if you are on an island, you can do both launch sea colony pods and send colony pods to more islands (hoping you don't bump into enemies or the mainland containing an enemy. If that's the case, circumnavigate the island). The Morgans are bad at colonizing quickly due to negative support and are bad at growing population due to pop limt 4 (why is that anyway?).

 

[Cutlass]

I tried probing yang, and was getting less than 10 credits a probe. Then they found a way to block me. It's not the Hunter Seek algorithm, because I built that. They don't have anything else for me to steal since i have a tech lead.

 

[Dharma Punk Dan]

You're right, Dan. I tried fighting one alien race and I do quite well, and then the other alien race attacks me. ahh!!

I think the best strategy regarding the aliens is to let them duke it out before they turn their attention to you.

In my current game (as the Pirates), I made a pact with the Consciousness who was already fighting (and losing) to the Usurpers. While I was mobilizing my forces, the Usurpers defeated the Caretakers, leaving just one alien faction to fight. Now it's been slow-going, taking one of their bases at a time with my air power.

 

[sir_schwick]

Morgan is the ultimate builder so he doesn't need a lot of bases. Use air power to destroy their infrastructure. They will not be able to effectively sustain any kind of war then. A phoney war is not a terrible thing. Eventually you will have PBs.

 

[sendos]

Well, I've just thought of mixing the factions a bit. I seem to lose interest fighting the aliens. I have:
Pirates, Morganites, Gaians, Believers, Yang, Peackeepers and the Drones. Each with their own political and economical interests. Yang and peacekeepers I think are major factions.