Favorite race?

[shadowdale]

Hmmmm....

I have been looking at the different races and with my prefered abilities I have found that the following races are not "qualified" for my play style:

Human
Psilion
Meklar
Sakkra
Raas
Grendarl
Klackon (I thought they would suit it)
Tachioli
Silicoid
Imsaeis
Eoladi

When I play I can't help playing like I used to play MoO2 and Civ, expand expand expand - and let the sci catch up later on. And that has made the following abilities my "must have":

Mining - Superior
Manufacture - Superior
Goverment - Collective
Citizenship - Loyalty
Special attributes - Natural manufactures

And I like having "good" in both research and creativity.

And that leaves me with the following races to choose from with spare points to use as I see fit:

Ithkul 90
Evron 80
Cynod 70
Nommo 60
Trilarian 50

My problem is now - I haven't played any of those races so I don't know which are good for rapid expansion, and by this I mean which of those races easily find green planets to settle. I know that the different races "like" different planet types, so if anyone could tell me which of these easily find green or yellow planets I would be gratefull.

NB. I ahve tried to play the Ithkul (harvesters) but since I don't like to war they aren't really my first choice even if they leave me with most points to play with.

 

[Lucky]

The Ithkul are great and fun to play, especially if you don´t want to bother with diplomacy.

But they don´t find green planets that easily, in fact I think they are a race which has more problems to find suitable surroundings. Kind of weird given their background to conquer and adapt to all races, but you´ll find many red planets with them.
They also have a HIGH gravity preference, but this is rather good, because it favors big planets.
Otoh, finding more than 3 or 4 green planets with having at least 20 planets total is actually enough. At least it was for me.

From your post I´d say the Evon would suit you best. I don´t think the aquatic Trilarian can find enough water planets, but I´m not sure. I only tested all races once, yet really played only with 3.

 

[shadowdale]

Yea I also think that Evron are gonna be my next race of choice, I just wondered if the Cynod didn't find planets easy. I mean they are bio mechanoids and should be able to live on most planets!

 

[S1Genocide]

My favorite Races are
Human
Klackon
Silicoid

I can customize these suckers to be very dangerous
however if you play them as they are they kinda blow.

 

[damunzy]

I have been playing the Humans only. I have found that some games I will get a slew of Greens, or even Sweet Spots, and other games will be full of Yellow and Reds - seems to be random.

 

[Cheetah]

I like to customize my race and I will do so for a while more, untill I have found the best one for my playstyle.

Currently I am using a modified Grendarl, with emphasis on Research and Creativity.

Technology rules the universe!
During a game against three friends, two of the went to war against me. During one final battle, my fleet of 19 ships, ranging from Battleships to Light Cruisers, won over their combined fleets of 39 ships, also ranging from Battleships and Light Cruisers.

As my friends are good players, I only have one conclusion: Technology is Power!

My 300th post! Finally! [dance] :worshp:

 

[Bloog]

Does difficulty setting affect tech progress ? I guess one needs techs for conquest, but do you always need to research 'em on yer own ? Like in Civ3 on Monarch+, one can get techs faster by brookeraging.

Maybe on higher difficulty diplomacy or spies are required instead of research ?
'n Other approach may be to get a good relation with NO and have them do the dirty jobs. I bet they go berserk on high difficulty. Could get very nasty in MP .

I hope I get my game this week. I think I'll start with high-grav tentacles.

 

[minionman]

I haven't played most of the races, here's what I think I'd like;

using the regular stats:

1. Cynoid
2. Meklar, Klackon, Raas, Ith'kul
3. Eoladi, Psilon, Evon, Nommo
4. Trilarian, Tachidi, Sakkra, Grendarl
5. Silicoid, Imsaeis
6. Human

If customized:

1. Cynoid
2. Klackon, Tachidi, Ith'kul
3. everything else

I like manufacturing a lot.

 

[bahman]

There are some spcies which are harder or easier to play but all of them good. You have try them all to become master in playing each species so you finaly releasie what I am trying to say.

 

[neutrino]

i have only played MOO, not the sequels. so .... whatever i can say is within the boundary of MOO. favourite races? hmmm ...

1. Psilons: probably the easiest race to play with and to fall in love with, because of their research bonus. it makes your job considerably easier, if you have and maintain technological superiority. however, they need some time to develop their economy (cannot do much research w/ a bunch of underpopulated planets).

2. Klackons: their population contributes additional resource points, so they are cool to play with as you can beef up economy faster. OT: computer-controlled Klackons can be pain in the arse to deal with as they might swamp you w/ enormous fleets (computer player tend to stock up on massive number of small warships).

3. Darlocks: they can be fun to play with, if you are more interested in diplomacy and espionage. no technological, no economic bonuses, but keeping computer tech high and constantly engaging in espionage will rectify your technological needs.

*****
overall, races w/ significant technological or economic bonuses are easier to easier to play with, hence easier to develop them into superpowers.

 

[Murky]

MOO:

Human, Klackon, Silicoid and Psilons.

MOO2:

Custom race: Unification/Tolerant

MOO3:

Not played it much. I would probably go mainly with a customized human race.

 

[neutrino]

i am currently playing a game (huge galaxy, impossible difficulty, 5 CP races), in which i control the Humans. the five CP races consist of: the Darlocks, the Silicoids, the Alkaris, the Bulrathis, and the Klackons.

though the Humans are rather boring, insofar as economic bonuses are concerned (except for the trade), their diplomatic bonus comes in handy. diplomacy can be very important in that forming one or more alliances considerably eases managing wars.

 

[knigh+]

MOO: Psilon or Klackon.

MOO2:
Impossible: Unification, Telepathic, Rich, Artifact, (Spy+10 or Charismatic), -Growth, -all 3 combats.
Hard: Feudal, Subterranean, +all combats, +spying, Artifacts world, -growth.

MOO3: Sucks whatever you play with.

 

[R.B.]

Moo: Mrrshan

Moo2: Mrrshan

Moo3: N/A

 

[vmxa]

I think the title should have been fav race for MooIII to be a little clearer.

I always like the Klacs, since the first game the game came out for Moo1.

Moo2, many good custom races.

Moo3, I only remember play as the Ithkul or something like that, but that was the first weeks it came out and I have not played since then.

 

[Phlegmak]

Moo1: Darloks are the funnest to play, but are somewhat hard.
Moo2: Custom race, with Creative
Moo3: Couldn't say.

 

[neutrino]

Recently, I have been playing MOO1 games as Meklars. After the Psilons, the Meklars may be the next easiest race to play, due to the latter's factory bonus. Meklars' significant disadvantage is its Planetology research, but it can be remedied by tech trades and espionage without much difficulty. (They have good Computer research, which indirectly helps espionage down the stretch.) Because of the factory bonus, the Meklars can use a 'turtle' strategy, in which, after their initial expansion, they can pause and build up industries and eco, while protecting their planets with shields and missile bases.

 

[Zed-F]

I'd tend to rank Humans and Klackons above Meklars as far as ease of play goes, but the Meks are certainly a strong contender. They are certainly more dangerous in the hands of the AI than the Klackons are.

 

[neutrino]

I'd tend to rank Humans and Klackons above Meklars as far as ease of play goes, but the Meks are certainly a strong contender. They are certainly more dangerous in the hands of the AI than the Klackons are.

I think the AI tendencies go something like this, the longer a game drags on:

1. The Psilons: They are the most dangerous, if they are allowed to expand and build up. (Better to take out the Psilons earlier than later, just like some human players like to go after the Darlocks as soon as possible.)

2. The Meklars: Somewhat less dangerous than the Psilons, but watch out. The common traits with the Psilons and the Meklars are that they will deploy stacks of heavily-armed large and huge warships.

3. The Klackons: Usually less dangerous than the Psilons and the Meklars. They do not make tech advances as rapidly as the first two. Their worker production bonus is not as dangerous as the Meklars' factory bonus.

 

[Zed-F]

Of course all this applies only to MOO1.

Their worker production bonus is not as dangerous as the Meklars' factory bonus.

Of what you said in your previous post, this is the only bit I flat out disagree with.

The Klackon worker bonus is better than the Meklar factory bonus in many respects. In the earliest parts of the game, it is free production that requires no cleanup and makes for the ability to quickly get a new world running when starting from scratch. This is extremely powerful in the expansion part of the game (i.e. the most critical part of the game, which sets the tone for everything that follows) and the main reason why Klackon are one of the top three MOO races for a human player.

At the highest tech levels (50+ planetology) the Klackon worker bonus is also superior to the Meklar factory bonus, even with Industrial Waste Elimination or Complete Eco Restoration. This is because base income derived from population increases with Planetology tech level, and thus the Klackon bonus improves over time. At 50 planetology, most races get $2 per pop, whereas Klacks get $4 per pop; this bonus is the same as what the Meks get from having two extra factories. At planetology levels higher than 50, the Klackon bonus starts to outperform the Meklar bonus purely on raw BC generated.

The Meklar bonus initially is weaker than the Klackon bonus because of the extra cost of building factories (which doesn't help the planet to reach its normal maximum, like the Klackon bonus, but only occurs after the normal max is reached) and because of the extra cleanup that entails. It starts getting more powerful than the Klackon bonus after a few pollution reduction techs, IIT techs, and RC techs are researched, say about TL 15, and/or once the bulk of the galaxy has been settled and colonies have matured. It remains more powerful than the Klackon bonus until ~TL 50, whereupon it is once again eclipsed.

The other reason the Meks are weaker than the Klacks for a human player is that the Meks' weak planetology tech hurts more than the Klacks' weak propulsion tech. Except at the very start of the game when one is researching one's initial range techs for expansion, planetology is arguably the most important field in the game for economic growth. Planetology is the tree one will most often go back to pick up extra techs in rather than just climbing linearly, because there are so many highly desirable techs in that tree: pollution control, environment control (colony bases), terraforming, soil enrichment, atmospheric terraforming, and more.

The main reason why the Klacks are weaker for the AI than the Meks, is that the Klacks are less likely to make use of a crushing economic advantage to just steamroller you on Impossible before your nascent empire really gets up and running. It's more a matter of the Klack AI personality tending to be less aggressive and tending to stick with less powerful ship designs than the Mek AI personality, than anything else.

EDIT: I should also mention not to discount the humans as a powerful AI race. While the player is certainly better at manipulating the diplo landscape as humans than the AI is, a human AI that gets off to a good start is always a danger to be able to provoke final war before your empire has geared up enough to be able to deal with that. The humans are IMHO in the top three for player races along with the Psilons and Klacks, and can probably compete favourably with the Klackons for 3rd spot as far as danger level in the hands of the AI goes.