Markus Ramikin
Justicar
Sounds like a good one.
(It's always GC with you!)
(It's always GC with you!)
[MoO] ICEMod strategy and walkthroughs
- Thread starter neilkaz
- Start date
neilkaz
King
I've gone to Antares occasionally, but GC wins are more common in my super expansionist style where I conquer with ground troops and get my pop well over 1000.
Thank you for your detailed walkthroughs. As I read it and read other website, I am not sure how you all get those high population numbers. I barely get 50-57 population on my large homeworld using uni/sub/aq/large homeworld playing 1.50 huge/imp/prewarp. Maybe race picks with +growth would be it, instead of aquatic (I am not sure how much benefit aquatic adds to subterrainian)
I micromanage like hell, use 1 pop housing technique, stock up on production, follow the built order that I've found to be the best (build all cb -> few freighters in between -> rlabs -> clones -> scomps -> biosphere,) in the long term, and still approach nowhere near the numbers that I see on this and other websites.
I've seen cabman video. My approach is even more complex, except that I don't have colony ships to start with. If I had, then with big system nearby, I'd probably manage to reach around 100 pop (assuming two systems with ~ 50 pop total). But I like to start prewarp.
Any comments, suggestions, critique?
Thanks,
neilkaz
King
I get high pops in ICE-X by conquering with many ground troops and also since there are many planets. Conquest, artificial planets, and androids help. I play pre-warp and the basic normal default huge map that comes with the installer. The only change from default I make is to add the command line that sets AI surrender to turn 999.
If you try to expand too quickly at the start some AI will take planets from you. Cabman's video I think is intended for MP 1v1 where there's plenty of space.
If you try to expand too quickly at the start some AI will take planets from you. Cabman's video I think is intended for MP 1v1 where there's plenty of space.
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neilkaz
King
Here's a few common abbreviations. FF frigate. DD destroyer, CC Cruiser, BB Battleship etc.
CS colony ship. SB Starbase. etc
CS colony ship. SB Starbase. etc
Thank you, nelikaz.
And how should I equip these ships? Is there any common template like Monster FF should have MIRV nuke x2, electro CPU and extended tanks?
neilkaz
King
I've been playing many ICE 18a X impossible games lately and it is a supreme challenge and with many diverse paths to choose although a super custom race is a must. Last night was the first time I've tried basic UniTol (Unification Tolerant Prod+1) in quite a while and things went fine with a good start, but then the Psilons broke treaties and good relations to attack me. I could deal with that, but then he allied with the Darloks (Darloks told me to get lost when I demanded they break the alliance) and sure enough Darloks DOW me a couple turns later to honor the alliance and I soon have a big fleet of stealth ships darting around my part of the galaxy and clearly strong enough to overwhelm my SB's along with missile bases and fighter garrisons and radiation shields. This is ICE-X and races can be that strong by T200pw especially when they're friends with a tech heavy Psilon.
Darlok stealth ships are an incredible nuisance. So my question is, what do I need to research and do to detect stealth ships at least from a couple of parsecs away?
I may end up surviving as it is about T220 now and I've finished off the Psilons and am frantically building more replacement ships so my fleet rating isn't too low and I get dog-piled by more AI's.
EDIT: I do want to mention the blunder I made during a battle with the Psilons after they counter-attacked me as I was taking all their home system planets. I had leaders on all 4 BB's and it was too late when I realized that while I had destroyed some of their ships, I was losing the battle and my final BB got finished off just as it was retreating. So all 4 leaders dead! (Yeah, I always tech Survival Pods).
EDIT: I think I need Sensors to detect them as from what I read, Stealth ships can be detected at 10 spaces less than your max sensor range for the ship. So maybe I can see them when they are one turn away?
Oh and LOL at me for thinking I could survive! T 231pw and Gnols took Orion and by two turns later it seemed all AI's had X-armor and Death Rays and all DOW'd me. I was allied with Tri's and we were maxed at Harmony relations but they still DOW'd.
I have an early save and will replay it, but try to kill the Darloks early when I met them down a wormhole and see if I have a better game.
EDIT: and LOL easy to go down the wormhole and capture the Darlok's planet in their second system but they always soon recapture it as I couldn't muster a big enough fleet quick enough.
So I started my 2nd UniTol game and this one so far (T150pw) is going better.
Darlok stealth ships are an incredible nuisance. So my question is, what do I need to research and do to detect stealth ships at least from a couple of parsecs away?
I may end up surviving as it is about T220 now and I've finished off the Psilons and am frantically building more replacement ships so my fleet rating isn't too low and I get dog-piled by more AI's.
EDIT: I do want to mention the blunder I made during a battle with the Psilons after they counter-attacked me as I was taking all their home system planets. I had leaders on all 4 BB's and it was too late when I realized that while I had destroyed some of their ships, I was losing the battle and my final BB got finished off just as it was retreating. So all 4 leaders dead! (Yeah, I always tech Survival Pods).
EDIT: I think I need Sensors to detect them as from what I read, Stealth ships can be detected at 10 spaces less than your max sensor range for the ship. So maybe I can see them when they are one turn away?
Oh and LOL at me for thinking I could survive! T 231pw and Gnols took Orion and by two turns later it seemed all AI's had X-armor and Death Rays and all DOW'd me. I was allied with Tri's and we were maxed at Harmony relations but they still DOW'd.
I have an early save and will replay it, but try to kill the Darloks early when I met them down a wormhole and see if I have a better game.
EDIT: and LOL easy to go down the wormhole and capture the Darlok's planet in their second system but they always soon recapture it as I couldn't muster a big enough fleet quick enough.
So I started my 2nd UniTol game and this one so far (T150pw) is going better.
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Rocco.40
King
- Joined
- Mar 2, 2015
- Messages
- 652
Battle Scanner on ships adds +2 to your best available scanner, star bases add +2 to your best scanner, battlestation +4 and fortress +6 (but a battle scanner on a star base does not increase scanning range there, only on ships...)
neilkaz
King
So I've been playing ICE-X 18a for about 3 weeks now, after about a 2 year layoff from MOO2. It is such a good game now compared to vanilla. It is also an improved game from early versions of ICE. 1.50.11 patch is great and almost all critical bugs are gone. The launcher is a great help and allows one to play so many versions if they desire. Hopefully others are playing as well, and it would be nice to read some game stories vs ICE-X impossible. I play Pre-Warp Huge/Impossible/8 players. Ship initiative, random events, Antarans etc etc. Only change I make is to turn off AI surrender. Note that I don't allow myself to excessively smooze the AI's. I can't take Charismatic and shower them with stuff etc.
The UniBalanced race I used to commonly play now has too many positives so as I was getting back into the game I tried some others, usually losing but not always. I tried Feudal which may have been the best a couple years ago, but now has been nerfed somewhat. That game looked good, but then the AI's basically all turned on me at once.
I've had the most success with DemoLith (even though I was never really good at it in Vanilla). DemoLithRes+1Arti. Get factory up ASAP then colonize your system. Try to diligently buy stuff half built with your cash flow. STRESS production improvement buildings and techs! So nice to have Powered Armor, but forget about it as Demolith as you MUST have Robo-Miners. I won 6 of 8 Demolith games, although I'll admit that I lucked out with a good portion of AI's wanting to sit around the camp fire and sing.
I tried a few DictCre (+ other attributes) games. Lost one, won the other and got bored with two more (unsure if would win or lose) and decided to drop Creative and replace with +1 production and research and LHW. This made for a better economy and I saved a game for later that is an easy win around T250. Yes, Dictatorship seems viable now.
So I am back to UniBalanced now. Playing Uni,Food+1 (so as to only need 2 farmers starting out) Prod+1, Res+1. RHW, Artifacts. Negs are pop -50, spy -10 and ship def -20. Am not sure whether LG or pop growth -50 is worse, but this race has decent production to build housing.
Yesterday's game was fun as I started out dead center but along the bottom edge. I crept along that edge towards the left and ran into the Psilons in the corner. Mentar was right in the corner and he had two other systems and soon a 3rd new system.
Often they are friendly but not this time. Sure enough at T124 I see their DD and some transports 1 turn away. Fortunately, I had three planets in that system and each made a Monster FF (MIRV Nukes) and I wasted their DD. OK full scale war was a must and while I needed 2 BB to bust their SB's I took all 4 of their planets with transports by T152. LOL as only I-fuel cells were stolen. Good to be rid of them before they could really get going with all sorts of weaponry and defense buildings. Also good so that they wouldn't meet many AI's to spread techs to.
So it was back towards the right bottom edge for me and thankfully the Ants had stayed away from the nice system guarded by a Crystal. It only took one BB with Z-armor and 27 MIRV nukes to kill it. Now I had a great system and as expected, the Klackons soon DOW'd me. They were also fighting the Mecklar above them. Gnol were above me, and none of the 3 wanted to trade, although finally that cantankerous troll agreed to a treaty. My ships were good enough to push back the Ants, taking colonies and getting some good stolen techs. But then, as I was heading into the lower right corner to take Kholdon and 2 other systems, the Mecks attack me and with more ships that I can handle. I felt that I had to finish the Ants and then try to hold out. Gradually, my defenses managed to destroy a couple of Meck ships, but they really had too much for me. Ants gone T189, but Mecks destroying some of their former colonies and taking others. Antarans wrecked a couple more colonies, but sometimes I could fight them off with EMG and SB/BS.
Battle Stations stolen from Ants were going in as I tried to defend. EMG ships helped some, but most missiles just got shot down. I went for powered armor and assault shuttles but couldn't stop the Mecklar avalanche. Finally they had almost all my Klackon colonies and most of the ones I'd built myself and I was left mostly with Psilon colonies and a couple of former monster guarded systems near them. Oh no T213 as Gnols DOW me as I was framed. This looked like the end, but my ships and defenses held them off. 4 turns later Mecks arrived at a planet that had a BS and I had a few ships there as well. They had about 14 BB and a couple smaller whereas I had 4 BB and a few smaller EMG ships. I captured two of their ships and killed 2 more with EMG and my BS killed a couple more. I lost my fleet and planet, but this weakened them enough that they decided to head back towards home systems.
I got some good steals from Gnol worlds now, as they had no real defense and as my ground combat strength grew, I captured many of their ships and scrapped for tech and money as my CP issues were severe! T235 and Gnols not gone yet but mortally wounded and I was also starting to recapture a bit of what the Mecklar took from me. I was making ships like crazy as I expected what usually happens and that would be the Mecks coming back at me with a fleet of a couple dozen BB with some Titans added in. Oooo 6 Antarans are 5 turns out from a key planet. I can back away from the crushed Gnols now and muster as many capture ships as possible along with whatever EMG ships I can get there. MY GC was +90 so with powered armor one can most definitely capture Antarans with BB loads of shuttles. I captured all 6 of them and only 1 exploded! X-armor, Dampers, Reflection Field, +150 comp and some other goodies. LOL two turns later T242 I see more Antarans two turns away from a system near the war with the Gnols. I can get there in time and capture all 4 with 3 exploding. Now I have all their techs but Death Ray.
Gnols soon finished and surprisingly little counter attack from the Mecklar. They were distracted in the upper right corner, helping the Tri finish off the Coids. Orion taken T254 with a combo of upgraded Phaser ships and some MIRV EMG Pulsons.
It was clear that I had a win now. I just had to win it and retook systems from the Mecks with a vengeance! Tri's had been friendly but a couple instances of framing put an end to that although they never DOW'd. T270 and I am 1 vote shy of my GC win.
LOL a few turns later as I found out where the Mecklar fleet was. I'd left a capture BB guarding a planet with a BS. They had 14 BB. My capture ship took one of them but was destroyed before it could warp out. However, my BS was so stocked with high end goodies that it carved up the rest of their fleet. Game over now and the official win came T294 in GC with about 3/4 votes myself. In safe areas away from the front lines I made artificial planets and colonized everything. Androids were frequent as well. I had some Star Fortresses along the front lines but Mecks had nothing left so they saw no action.
Attacking a high teched world (like Psilons late game) when they had SF's and everything to shoot at you from the shielded planet incl. Converters can result in shocking losses. But none of that here with Psilons dead quickly.
Next game is same UniBal race and I started smack dab in the middle and right next to Orion. T75 and things aren't going well as I met a super Sakkra race and they are repulsive. I need ships and I need them soon.
OK T130pw in my next UniBal game. The HW provides 54 pp/t which pollutes to 31 pp/t or 36 rp/t. You can get off to a fast start noting the need to now tech colony bases.
Anyhow...Z-armor completed. Nuke 27 BB next turn (make Space Academy first when making BB's) AI's friendly and both repulsives (Bear and Lizard below me and they've fought a bit).
One more nice monster system to be mine. Nuke 27 BB with Zort will take it.
Game looks good.
Yep T150 and game looks good. Autolabs going in on my 15 colonies. Good relations and treaties with the 4 non-repulsives (haven't met the 5th). Fleet rating OK, tech rating OK. Pop leader. Soon to take my 4th monster system and this one is really good. Close to Humans and Birds so I hope it doesn't piss them off. AI races have had minor fights and a couple of planets have changed hands. Small Antaran attacks have been fended off twice. Thx..Missile Base that I traded for!
T170 now and the wonderful leader Commissioner Rocco (!!!) has arrived at Galileo (that 5 planet system with the now colonized Orion-like planet. I now have 4 planetary leaders and will bid farewell to Lydon as I don't need his megawealth and diplomacy seems fine. Things look great for me and I am terraforming and also cranking out BB's.
T176 and with decent GC my Capture 9 BB's could just manage to capture an Antaran FF. I got 3 and killed off the rest of their fleet with missiles after a while. 1 of 3 didn't explode so I now have X-armor, Particle Beam and Neutronium Bombs (trading the Bombs to AI's)
T190 and 6 Antaran DD attack. (Hmm they really do attack the human player a lot in ICE-X) and I capture 2 and one doesn't blow up. My big fleet of Particle Beam ships wrecks the other 4. Now Quantum Det. (trading it) and Multi Wave Jammer and the awesome Damper Field is mine.
T208pw in the very OP game. Orion falls to my 17 BB armada of ships with 7 Heavy Particle Beams. Why this weapon when the Guardian blocks its SP? Well it was the best weapon I had at the time. Then it was time to make many transports and down the wormhole my fleet goes, lead by Locknar, who just sat back and watched the destruction. Sakkra conquered fully T223.
Now next are the Bears and I think I can soon win if the GC vote comes up.
T231 and Bears gone and a couple turns back I just missed winning the vote. Coid attack (also Repulsive and along bottom edge into right corner, shouldn't take more than 10 turns. Am building some major planetary defense in key systems and keep some Ray 2 (Two Heavy Death Rays and many goodies) back in case I get backstabbed by a "friend" as nothing else can threaten my upcoming win.
T 245 and Coids conquered and I basically next turn it 'til T254 and my GC win as I am now super dominant.
Next game maybe I'll discuss in a new post. Anyhow it isn't a Kumbaya game and by T135 I was DOW'd twice and fighting two wars, fortunately near each other.
The UniBalanced race I used to commonly play now has too many positives so as I was getting back into the game I tried some others, usually losing but not always. I tried Feudal which may have been the best a couple years ago, but now has been nerfed somewhat. That game looked good, but then the AI's basically all turned on me at once.
I've had the most success with DemoLith (even though I was never really good at it in Vanilla). DemoLithRes+1Arti. Get factory up ASAP then colonize your system. Try to diligently buy stuff half built with your cash flow. STRESS production improvement buildings and techs! So nice to have Powered Armor, but forget about it as Demolith as you MUST have Robo-Miners. I won 6 of 8 Demolith games, although I'll admit that I lucked out with a good portion of AI's wanting to sit around the camp fire and sing.
I tried a few DictCre (+ other attributes) games. Lost one, won the other and got bored with two more (unsure if would win or lose) and decided to drop Creative and replace with +1 production and research and LHW. This made for a better economy and I saved a game for later that is an easy win around T250. Yes, Dictatorship seems viable now.
So I am back to UniBalanced now. Playing Uni,Food+1 (so as to only need 2 farmers starting out) Prod+1, Res+1. RHW, Artifacts. Negs are pop -50, spy -10 and ship def -20. Am not sure whether LG or pop growth -50 is worse, but this race has decent production to build housing.
Yesterday's game was fun as I started out dead center but along the bottom edge. I crept along that edge towards the left and ran into the Psilons in the corner. Mentar was right in the corner and he had two other systems and soon a 3rd new system.
Often they are friendly but not this time. Sure enough at T124 I see their DD and some transports 1 turn away. Fortunately, I had three planets in that system and each made a Monster FF (MIRV Nukes) and I wasted their DD. OK full scale war was a must and while I needed 2 BB to bust their SB's I took all 4 of their planets with transports by T152. LOL as only I-fuel cells were stolen. Good to be rid of them before they could really get going with all sorts of weaponry and defense buildings. Also good so that they wouldn't meet many AI's to spread techs to.
So it was back towards the right bottom edge for me and thankfully the Ants had stayed away from the nice system guarded by a Crystal. It only took one BB with Z-armor and 27 MIRV nukes to kill it. Now I had a great system and as expected, the Klackons soon DOW'd me. They were also fighting the Mecklar above them. Gnol were above me, and none of the 3 wanted to trade, although finally that cantankerous troll agreed to a treaty. My ships were good enough to push back the Ants, taking colonies and getting some good stolen techs. But then, as I was heading into the lower right corner to take Kholdon and 2 other systems, the Mecks attack me and with more ships that I can handle. I felt that I had to finish the Ants and then try to hold out. Gradually, my defenses managed to destroy a couple of Meck ships, but they really had too much for me. Ants gone T189, but Mecks destroying some of their former colonies and taking others. Antarans wrecked a couple more colonies, but sometimes I could fight them off with EMG and SB/BS.
Battle Stations stolen from Ants were going in as I tried to defend. EMG ships helped some, but most missiles just got shot down. I went for powered armor and assault shuttles but couldn't stop the Mecklar avalanche. Finally they had almost all my Klackon colonies and most of the ones I'd built myself and I was left mostly with Psilon colonies and a couple of former monster guarded systems near them. Oh no T213 as Gnols DOW me as I was framed. This looked like the end, but my ships and defenses held them off. 4 turns later Mecks arrived at a planet that had a BS and I had a few ships there as well. They had about 14 BB and a couple smaller whereas I had 4 BB and a few smaller EMG ships. I captured two of their ships and killed 2 more with EMG and my BS killed a couple more. I lost my fleet and planet, but this weakened them enough that they decided to head back towards home systems.
I got some good steals from Gnol worlds now, as they had no real defense and as my ground combat strength grew, I captured many of their ships and scrapped for tech and money as my CP issues were severe! T235 and Gnols not gone yet but mortally wounded and I was also starting to recapture a bit of what the Mecklar took from me. I was making ships like crazy as I expected what usually happens and that would be the Mecks coming back at me with a fleet of a couple dozen BB with some Titans added in. Oooo 6 Antarans are 5 turns out from a key planet. I can back away from the crushed Gnols now and muster as many capture ships as possible along with whatever EMG ships I can get there. MY GC was +90 so with powered armor one can most definitely capture Antarans with BB loads of shuttles. I captured all 6 of them and only 1 exploded! X-armor, Dampers, Reflection Field, +150 comp and some other goodies. LOL two turns later T242 I see more Antarans two turns away from a system near the war with the Gnols. I can get there in time and capture all 4 with 3 exploding. Now I have all their techs but Death Ray.
Gnols soon finished and surprisingly little counter attack from the Mecklar. They were distracted in the upper right corner, helping the Tri finish off the Coids. Orion taken T254 with a combo of upgraded Phaser ships and some MIRV EMG Pulsons.
It was clear that I had a win now. I just had to win it and retook systems from the Mecks with a vengeance! Tri's had been friendly but a couple instances of framing put an end to that although they never DOW'd. T270 and I am 1 vote shy of my GC win.
LOL a few turns later as I found out where the Mecklar fleet was. I'd left a capture BB guarding a planet with a BS. They had 14 BB. My capture ship took one of them but was destroyed before it could warp out. However, my BS was so stocked with high end goodies that it carved up the rest of their fleet. Game over now and the official win came T294 in GC with about 3/4 votes myself. In safe areas away from the front lines I made artificial planets and colonized everything. Androids were frequent as well. I had some Star Fortresses along the front lines but Mecks had nothing left so they saw no action.
Attacking a high teched world (like Psilons late game) when they had SF's and everything to shoot at you from the shielded planet incl. Converters can result in shocking losses. But none of that here with Psilons dead quickly.
Next game is same UniBal race and I started smack dab in the middle and right next to Orion. T75 and things aren't going well as I met a super Sakkra race and they are repulsive. I need ships and I need them soon.
OK T130pw in my next UniBal game. The HW provides 54 pp/t which pollutes to 31 pp/t or 36 rp/t. You can get off to a fast start noting the need to now tech colony bases.
Anyhow...Z-armor completed. Nuke 27 BB next turn (make Space Academy first when making BB's) AI's friendly and both repulsives (Bear and Lizard below me and they've fought a bit).
One more nice monster system to be mine. Nuke 27 BB with Zort will take it.
Game looks good.
Yep T150 and game looks good. Autolabs going in on my 15 colonies. Good relations and treaties with the 4 non-repulsives (haven't met the 5th). Fleet rating OK, tech rating OK. Pop leader. Soon to take my 4th monster system and this one is really good. Close to Humans and Birds so I hope it doesn't piss them off. AI races have had minor fights and a couple of planets have changed hands. Small Antaran attacks have been fended off twice. Thx..Missile Base that I traded for!
T170 now and the wonderful leader Commissioner Rocco (!!!) has arrived at Galileo (that 5 planet system with the now colonized Orion-like planet. I now have 4 planetary leaders and will bid farewell to Lydon as I don't need his megawealth and diplomacy seems fine. Things look great for me and I am terraforming and also cranking out BB's.
T176 and with decent GC my Capture 9 BB's could just manage to capture an Antaran FF. I got 3 and killed off the rest of their fleet with missiles after a while. 1 of 3 didn't explode so I now have X-armor, Particle Beam and Neutronium Bombs (trading the Bombs to AI's)
T190 and 6 Antaran DD attack. (Hmm they really do attack the human player a lot in ICE-X) and I capture 2 and one doesn't blow up. My big fleet of Particle Beam ships wrecks the other 4. Now Quantum Det. (trading it) and Multi Wave Jammer and the awesome Damper Field is mine.
T208pw in the very OP game. Orion falls to my 17 BB armada of ships with 7 Heavy Particle Beams. Why this weapon when the Guardian blocks its SP? Well it was the best weapon I had at the time. Then it was time to make many transports and down the wormhole my fleet goes, lead by Locknar, who just sat back and watched the destruction. Sakkra conquered fully T223.
Now next are the Bears and I think I can soon win if the GC vote comes up.
T231 and Bears gone and a couple turns back I just missed winning the vote. Coid attack (also Repulsive and along bottom edge into right corner, shouldn't take more than 10 turns. Am building some major planetary defense in key systems and keep some Ray 2 (Two Heavy Death Rays and many goodies) back in case I get backstabbed by a "friend" as nothing else can threaten my upcoming win.
T 245 and Coids conquered and I basically next turn it 'til T254 and my GC win as I am now super dominant.
Next game maybe I'll discuss in a new post. Anyhow it isn't a Kumbaya game and by T135 I was DOW'd twice and fighting two wars, fortunately near each other.
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neilkaz
King
I'm still playing quite a bit as this game is certainly superb now and a great challenge. I would lose that UniBal race game as there was too much attack and a 3rd AI jumped me. Resigned in the mid 160's turns. Next game I last longer but fleets of doom showed up for two enemies and I was losing planets right and left. Two more losses followed and finally I won a game from a great start with many good systems nearby and reasonably friendly AI's as well. Antaran attacks that I couldn't stop also contributed to these losses. I captured one of their FF's one game, but didn't get enough tech from scrapping it to save me as I had 3 AI's all over me.
I am doing better playing DemoLith and will post some details soon.
I am doing better playing DemoLith and will post some details soon.
Rocco.40
King
- Joined
- Mar 2, 2015
- Messages
- 652
This is now an option that can be set from MOO2 Launcher.
neilkaz
King
So to use the new patch and ICE 19 I need to install the updated launcher?
Rocco.40
King
- Joined
- Mar 2, 2015
- Messages
- 652
Yes, it's an all-in-one pack. So if you download 'Version 1.50.12', you get:
- updated MOO2 Launcher version 1.4
- updated MOO2 patch version 1.50.12
- updated mods 1.50 improved (the default in the Launcher), ICE 19 and Melee.
- updated mapmods.
Rocco.40
King
- Joined
- Mar 2, 2015
- Messages
- 652
here is the good old ice readme:
http://moo2mod.com/README_ICE.TXT
http://moo2mod.com/README_ICE.TXT
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