Playstyles and Galaxy Settings

What are your favorite playstyles and do you have any suggestions for a challenging galaxy setting? In game like these I usually go for the Research rush but I decided to try something different.

I played a normal difficulty game with 15 normal enemies in an excessive galaxy. Most of the settings were untouched - so occasional, apart from habitable planets which I set to uncommon.I wanted to focus on trade and tourism as much as possible but found out that is pretty much just a waste. Trade routes in particular are absolutely useless. In my game I get about 12000 income of which 600 are from 13 trade routes. Trade routes start as low as 10/turn . Now the highest is at 64 which is not even from my designated trade capital because the age of the route playes a big role and the other is like 200 turns ahead. Another blatant design error is that they start from the destination of the shipyard you built it in. It is very annoying to set them up. Is a simple "Set trade route" too much to ask? Tourism is not that stunning either. I get about 1100. But you can see that as a small bonus compared to actual work you have to put out for trade.

What I found out that anomalies are way too overpowered. I basically had no research for the first 100 turns as I was starting with different stuff and just slowly setting them up, yet I was always on spot 1 in tech power. Every few turns I would get a 25% to the next lvl. Apparently the other races didn't use much survey modules. Now combine that with the occasional tech trade and I was miles ahead of everyone. I usually didn't even get stuff I wanted/needed because in my path I was ahead anyways. My suggestion here is to uncheck the tech trade and take a rarer anomaly setting.

So what are the playstyles you prefer or find interesting? Do you have feedback combined with used settings to make it somewhat challenging? And does someone know what the Game Difficulty changes apart from the AI strength? Because I can set them myself from beginner to gifted i.e or does anything else change?

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eviator

Join Date 08/2014

+62

I like to min/max my production and specialize planets, so I like medium maps. Bigger and micromanagement becomes a logistical nightmare. Pirates are also not fun to me because there is no benefit gained for fighting them. I set pirates to rare or off. Asteroids clutter the main map when zoomed out so I like to turn those off. Now that I think about it, does that eliminate Durantium? Speakng of which, I'm not big on constructor spam, so I'd prefer such resources turned down to uncommon or less. I think faster research and production would go well with my preferred setup, otherwise the game is over before any of my planets or ships are all that mature.

I'd also love to play an insane map just to experience the scale of it, but right now that would mean generalizing my planets due to micromanagement concerns, and that would bore me quickly.

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Franco fx

Join Date 04/2003

+59

Trade seemed a lot better in GCII per my recollection. For this reason I don't do a lot of trading. Tourist income is great and well worth pursuing.

There are some trade bonuses by building star bases along your trade routes but I have not gotten into building this up.

Anomalies are nice if you like the boost they give you. If you feel they are OP you can make them rare and even omit them, I think. I haven't heard much complaint about the anomalies so I guess the choice to make them rare works for those who are after the max challenge.

My current preferences are the big maps, normal difficulty, 8-9 AI, Occasional stars, common planets, occasional habitable, abundant anomalies, abundant resources. I enjoy building my empire on culture, military deterrent, wealth and diplomacy. Most of my wins are influence or diplomatic. I play the game for a casual distraction. I am not into an intense challenge.

If you are after the most challenging game out of the AI, you should try playing with abundant habitable planets. The AI thrives on colonizing and they will overwhelm you if you don't keep up. Setting anomalies and resources to rare also adds to the challenge. I am sure others will give you better hints on enhancing the challenge.

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Huge or bigger galaxy - spiral, abundant everything, suicidal difficulty and 8-20 major AI (8 on a huge, 20 on insane). Gives the AI lots of room to expand Oh, and conquest the only victory condition.

Normally I can still win the colony rush with the above, but current (gigantic, 10 AI) game I got boxed in midway along one of the spiral arms and only managed 33 planets. Best AI has 135. I'm at turn 99 with 43 planets now, and about to open a 2 front war to claim my rightful share of the galaxy. Well, it will probably be a 10 front war soon because everyone thinks I am "weak", "ripe for conquest", and "pursuing a tech victory". It's going to be brutal, for sure

Interestingly, the most powerful AI with 135 planets is a custom race I previously used - which has Patriotic ability. I diplo'd them into war with the Drengin and Krynn - and they are winning easily. Not having Patriotic is a real handicap on abundant larger maps - so I recommend creating all custom races for opponents with that ability if you intend to play that way.

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