Noob post: So, Aliens. Leave 'em alone or kill 'em all?

Sherlock

Just one more turn...
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I get the impression you should a) never touch them or b) get a really serious army and kill them all.

I've had one fussing around near my city so I took a shot at it. And then all the ones on the map start killing my units.

Is there ever a time you get into a 'limited fight' with the aliens? Or is it 'once you've made that first shot they hate you forever'?

I'm guessing there's an affinity thing, yes? If you're going Harmony then never fight. If you're going Supremacy or Purity you fight to the death? Or can you leave them alone there?

Any comments on aliens welcome. They're a huge thing in this game and I don't have a clue how to deal with them.
 
Aliens start the game as Neutral to you. Any attacks that might occur from them come from Collosal units (worms) which destroy things just by moving, or by alien units killing civilian units because they wanted to move (I think this might or might not have been a coding issue). So workers/colonists should still be moved with caution if unescorted.

Early game it is best to leave them alone completely even if they might block your tiles in the capital. This is because if you attack them even once, then they see you as a threat and they can now start randomly attacking even if they are Green.
Early game you want to collect Resource Pods and to be able to perform excavations without the fear that your explorers get killed.

There is a way to get aliens to be Friendly to you, this is by hosting one of their nest inside your territory for a rather big number of turns. Around 50 turns I think. There is no real benefit in doing this though since they still exert Zone of Control and they still can block tiles from being improved just by standing in the way.

Aliens can be Angry with you and then they will attack more often but not always. And they can be Hostile and they will now try to do damage to your colony actively when they can. Even worse in this game aliens can destroy outposts and raze cities.
Special caution is needed especially for those factions that start on water since their cities are more vulnerable.

The alien mood vs you is not eternal. Their anger slowly fades each turn if you leave them alone and they will become Green (neutral) again, just not that same neutral like when you never attacked them.
There is a Wonder (Xenodrome) that can double the rate at which aliens can become Friendly or Neutral. This Wonder is not good though so I mention this just for the sake of mentioning it. It costs too much to be worth it.

There are 2 things that you can do to make fighting aliens easier:

- take 3 virtues in Might for a bonus combat strength against them and also a science boost when you kill them and pillage their nests
- have purity 2 which gives you another combat strength boost against them that can stack with the one from Might.

The best time to start attacking aliens and actively hunting their nests, might be after you have obtained what you wanted from exploration phase. Alien nests can give Alien Artifacts which are very important objects. Not important enough to search for them from the get go, but important enough to do this as soon as explorers finish their jobs. Alien Artifacts are limited in number just like all other artifacts. So it is a race to collect as many of them as you can.

- random tip: when killing a Siege Worm try to kill it on a tile without an improvement because an Alien Skeleton might spawn. Alien Skeletons are very valuable excavation sites that can yield powerful units like Drones (and other things) or affinity XP.

- random tip 2. Drones (alien units) can't pillage Alien Nests, unfortunately.

PS: Affinity does not matter with regards with aliens and how you deal with them, except obviously for the fact that when you are higher in affinity you have stronger units and aliens are a lesser threat than at the start of the game.

PS 2: I totally forgot about LEASHING. You can Leash Alien units with explorers if you have Alien Lifeforms technology. This is a valid strategy. You can even leash collosal units with lvl 9 harmony. I am not a harmony player but leashing alien units can be feasible even when going for other type of victory. It is a good way to get cheap cannon fodder.

I hope this helps.
 
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Aliens start the game as Neutral to you. Any attacks that might occur from them come from Collosal units (worms) which destroy things just by moving, or by alien units killing civilian units because they wanted to move (I think this might or might not have been a coding issue). So workers/colonists should still be moved with caution if unescorted.

Early game it is best to leave them alone completely even if they might block your tiles in the capital. This is because if you attack them even once, then they see you as a threat and they can now start randomly attacking even if they are Green.
Early game you want to collect Resource Pods and to be able to perform excavations without the fear that your explorers get killed.

There is a way to get aliens to be Friendly to you, this is by hosting one of their nest inside your territory for a rather big number of turns. Around 50 turns I think. There is no real benefit in doing this though since they still exert Zone of Control and they still can block tiles from being improved just by standing in the way.

Aliens can be Angry with you and then they will attack more often but not always. And they can be Hostile and they will now try to do damage to your colony actively when they can. Even worse in this game aliens can destroy outposts and raze cities.
Special caution is needed especially for those factions that start on water since their cities are more vulnerable.

The alien mood vs you is not eternal. Their anger slowly fades each turn if you leave them alone and they will become Green (neutral) again, just not that same neutral like when you never attacked them.
There is a Wonder (Xenodrome) that can double the rate at which aliens can become Friendly or Neutral. This Wonder is not good though so I mention this just for the sake of mentioning it. It costs too much to be worth it.

There are 2 things that you can do to make fighting aliens easier:

- take 3 virtues in Might for a bonus combat strength against them and also a science boost when you kill them and pillage their nests
- have purity 2 which gives you another combat strength boost against them that can stack with the one from Might.

The best time to start attacking aliens and actively hunting their nests, might be after you have obtained what you wanted from exploration phase. Alien nests can give Alien Artifacts which are very important objects. Not important enough to search for them from the get go, but important enough to do this as soon as explorers finish their jobs. Alien Artifacts are limited in number just like all other artifacts. So it is a race to collect as many of them as you can.

- random tip: when killing a Siege Worm try to kill it on a tile without an improvement because an Alien Skeleton might spawn. Alien Skeletons are very valuable excavation sites that can yield powerful units like Drones (and other things) or affinity XP.

- random tip 2. Drones (alien units) can't pillage Alien Nests, unfortunately.

PS: Affinity does not matter with regards with aliens and how you deal with them, except obviously for the fact that when you are higher in affinity you have stronger units and aliens are a lesser threat than at the start of the game.

PS 2: I totally forgot about LEASHING. You can Leash Alien units with explorers if you have Alien Lifeforms technology. This is a valid strategy. You can even leash collosal units with lvl 9 harmony. I am not a harmony player but leashing alien units can be feasible even when going for other type of victory. It is a good way to get cheap cannon fodder.

I hope this helps.


Huge help, thank you.

So do you ever just go to war with them and wipe them all (or most) out?
 
Huge help, thank you.

So do you ever just go to war with them and wipe them all (or most) out?

Welcome. Yes, I hunt them down, especially their nests, for their incredibly potent artifacts. However the first 50-60 turns I leave them alone completely because I focus hard on explorers. Exploration is a bit OP.... that's because of the stuff you can get from artifact perks... The rewards from the expeditions sites are too good to endanger by attacking aliens.

Also note that Alien Nests respawn over a number of turns, around 20 or so. They can be a good source of food, gold and even science (with Might 3 virtue).

For example of why I keep saying that exploration is OP, here is an example of what I got in this game that I am now playing publicly (this link if you want to check out https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/al-falah-apollo-standard-eta-vulpeculae.676284/#post-16259131 )

+50% worker speed / +25% spy speed / +50% strength to air units (includes Drones), and 3 range for air units / +100% defense against ranged for naval units (makes them borderline invincible, applies against air too), / HALF unhealth from population in ALL cities wonder that costs only 300 production, +50% bonus yields from internal trade routes (Building, costs 200).

If you attack aliens from the start I doubt you can get these bonuses consistently. It would be pretty much impossible to get away with it. Between racing the other factions for pods/expeditions, taking damage from miasma, it would be really a pain to deal with aliens which are attacking units actively.

Usually in any Standard game you can get about 20-35 artifacts depending on how hard you focus and a bit of luck. When focusing Artifacts, it might be a good idea to take Xenoarcheology quickly (+20% artifacts found). It costs 3 artifacts but it should yield them back in a reasonable amount of time if done early enough.
 
3 additional thoughts on top of Tiberiu's excellent replies:

1. In regards to alien aggression, the above only applies to BERT. In BE the aliens will attack you if you wander within 2 tiles of their nests regardless of their general standing towards you. FYI on this fundamental difference between the games in regards to alien psychology (or whatever you want to call it).
2. If and when I decide to start attacking aliens, I try to use green troops, as they then get their first two morale bonuses from this combat (as opposed to seasoned troops who won't get any combat XP for battling aliens).
3. For the Military Personality Traits if you choose the Gain Culture option, then you can get up to +12 culture for each alien killed. This approach can really expedite your Virtue gains, and is a really potent boost when combined with the Military Might virtues which give you science when killing aliens.

HTH,

D
 
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Agree with all the tips above.

Early game, leave them alone, since they are more powerful than any units that have not received an affinity buff. I usually wait until I get a (BERT) personality trait that gives me science for every unit killed in combat. I have lost an outpost to a really angry siege worm.

Mid-game, after some promotions, I will go after them and clear nests, as Tiberiu said. They are a decent source of experience for promoting troops. Once my territory is pretty clear of nests, I focus my military attention on the AI tribes.

Note that in the mid- to late-game, the AI start hunting aliens aggressively. All the corals are gone by turn 100 or so; the AI will send groups of naval forces quite a distance just to chase down a ripper or sea dragon. I never need to send a really serious army to kill them, because the AI do it for me.

I use leashing a bit, but not extensively. I love getting an alien drone so that I can send it to the polar regions or other unexplored areas to find the last few biome wonders, e.g., brain coral, giant fungi. My explorers tend to be pretty far from home, and leashed aliens can't "swim" like embarked units can. So if they're on another land mass, that's where they will stay.
 
We forgot to mention that the behaviour of aliens might differ slightly from the Biome of the Planet. Not extremely important factor but it's worth mentioning.
( pasted from an article, I think these numbers are correct )

Lush aliens spawn 50% more often/faster, but are 30% weaker
Arid aliens spawn 50% less often, but are 25% stronger
Fungal aliens heal 50% more from miasma, and are twice as likely to stay confined within miasma
Primordial aliens are 50% more sensitive to disposition changes, making them go hostile very easily
Frigid aliens all have one less move speed per turn (IIRC the aliens are stronger here too, as per https://civilization.fandom.com/wiki/Frigid_(CivBE) says)

So the biome type might play a small role in how we treat aliens in the sense that on a frigid world you might get away with trying to pillage nests a bit faster than normal. You might also want to try to exploit Lush world's faster respawn rate of nests in a scenario where you try to capitalize on gaining Science from that Might virtue.
 
Being friendly with aliens is generally the less optimal route and I wouldn't recommend it for new players, but I will do it when there is a good opportunity for a change of pace. A good opportunity is when a nest is very close to your capital or when there is one you don't mind planting your second city by. Buy the nest tile early on. Those 60 turns go by really fast in the early game and very slow in the mid to late game. Note I always play with the Frenzied Aliens option on. It feels like the right amount.

Pros:
You don't have to worry about them attacking you or eating your units at all.
You can freely explore where others can't including the densely packed alien nest areas.
If you are getting gang banged by the other civs, the aliens provide a nice distraction and buffer to any enemies.

Cons:
You lose out on a lot of science and culture depending on if you've chosen those bonuses per kill. Farming aliens is very profitable.
You lose out on the bonuses from destroying nests, including the artifacts, which is big, as has been noted.
They get in your way. Use the extra distance option of the fence if you plan to be friendly all game.
Ultimately, your friendship will be broken if you are going Harmony since the aliens turn on you because of your victory wonder regardless of how friendly they are beforehand.
 
Having multiple nests within city radius helps to get ally status quicker if I'm not mistaken. It is also a great opportunity for free strategic resources, because nests usually form above a strategic resource and you get those resources for free (without building an improvement) once you are allied with the aliens.

Once you are friendly with the aliens, you can shoot *some* of them without worry (for example for the "kill 10 aliens" quest). They won't become hostile over that anymore. Just don't overdo it, or you can suddenly lose access to your resources :)

In regards to the Xenodrome, this can be quite helpful when you are going for a transcendence victory. Once the mindflower blooms, all remaining aliens will become hostile (red) to you. If you have the Xenodrome, they will turn back to orange on the next turn however, and green on the turn after that. If you haven't bothered with the aliens, and there's still a number of them around your cities, this can help. Although I find that most of the time, the other factions tend to "clean up" aliens pretty effectively around your cities if you grant open borders. But in a land-locked situation, there may still be lots of aliens.

Addition: Btw. removing miasma also counts as aggressive action towards the aliens (probably less than killing them however). So if you remove a lot of that in your territory, be prepared to face the consequences.
 
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I get the impression you should a) never touch them or b) get a really serious army and kill them all.

I've had one fussing around near my city so I took a shot at it. And then all the ones on the map start killing my units.

Is there ever a time you get into a 'limited fight' with the aliens? Or is it 'once you've made that first shot they hate you forever'?

I'm guessing there's an affinity thing, yes? If you're going Harmony then never fight. If you're going Supremacy or Purity you fight to the death? Or can you leave them alone there?

Any comments on aliens welcome. They're a huge thing in this game and I don't have a clue how to deal with them.
I can offer some general comments on dealing with aliens in strategy games.

Diplomacy: In many strategy games, including those with alien factions, diplomacy can play a significant role. Sometimes, it's possible to establish peaceful relations with aliens through diplomatic actions, such as offering gifts or completing specific quests. However, this varies depending on the game mechanics and the specific alien faction.

Affinity: Some strategy games, particularly those set in a science fiction or futuristic context, have different affinity systems. These systems often provide players with distinct paths, such as Harmony, Supremacy, or Purity, which influence how they interact with aliens. Choosing a specific affinity may impact your ability to peacefully coexist with aliens or engage in combat.

Provocation: In many games, initiating aggression against aliens can lead to them becoming hostile towards you. Once you attack them or their units, they may consider you an enemy and respond aggressively. However, this, too, can vary depending on the game mechanics and the alien faction's behavior.

Strategies: Dealing with aliens effectively requires understanding their behavior and strengths. Some aliens might be passive and avoid conflict unless provoked, while others could be inherently aggressive. Learning their patterns, strengths, and weaknesses can help you devise appropriate strategies to deal with them, whether it involves combat or peaceful coexistence.
 
@TracyBowen Are you an AI? You seem to be offering advice that is not relevant to the game whose forum you're posting in.
 
I just want to test if GPT chat is working fine because I just tried GPT Chat. If something bothers you then I will delete the comment

Chat GPT is useless in general when it comes to providing reliable information on just about anything. It is simply a tool for promoting the various ideologies of its makers, through its output, and in that sense, it is working fine.
 
Chat GPT is useless in general when it comes to providing reliable information on just about anything. It is simply a tool for promoting the various ideologies of its makers, through its output, and in that sense, it is working fine.
Thank you so much for your advice and sorry for commenting on GPT chat
 
I just want to test if GPT chat is working fine because I just tried GPT Chat. If something bothers you then I will delete the comment
And so it begins. AI large language models intersecting with people in my favorite web community.
 
Right before our eyes... Certainly far more often than we would like to admit.
 
AI will be our downfall one day (if The Sun does not end the Electrical Age first, that is)
 
I can offer some general comments on dealing with aliens in strategy games.

Diplomacy: In many strategy games, including those with alien factions, diplomacy can play a significant role. Sometimes, it's possible to establish peaceful relations with aliens through diplomatic actions, such as offering gifts or completing specific quests. However, this varies depending on the game mechanics and the specific alien faction.

Affinity: Some strategy games, particularly those set in a science fiction or futuristic context, have different affinity systems. These systems often provide players with distinct paths, such as Harmony, Supremacy, or Purity, which influence how they interact with aliens. Choosing a specific affinity may impact your ability to peacefully coexist with aliens or engage in combat.

Provocation: In many games, initiating aggression against aliens can lead to them becoming hostile towards you. Once you attack them or their units, they may consider you an enemy and respond aggressively. However, this, too, can vary depending on the game mechanics and the alien faction's behavior.

Strategies: Dealing with aliens effectively requires understanding their behavior and strengths. Some aliens might be passive and avoid conflict unless provoked, while others could be inherently aggressive. Learning their patterns, strengths, and weaknesses can help you devise appropriate strategies to deal with them, whether it involves combat or peaceful coexistence.
I quite like how SMAC and the Civ2 ToT Sci Fi game handle these issues, myself.
 
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