Diplomacy rocks!

from Stardock Forums
I can't take credit for this little tip...but I don't remember the thread where I got this idea (I think it was mentioned by Sergey)

I started a new game: Civ name, First Galactic Bank

My objective: win with no war and no military...which was working great until I doscovered 41 Corvettes! I began on a tiny map, rare, with a vacant yellow star and a minor race in my sector. Settings on normal just to try it out...I'll try a harder setting later on. MY government: Populists. MY bonuses: MAX points in diplomacy and the rest on influence (though I should have taken an extra trade route if I could do it all over again)

So you want as much diplomacy as possible. Take your survey ship and scout out some races as soon as possible. Research the translator as fast as you can. Here's an example of what I did next:

Open relations menu and speak to whatever races you can:

"Hey I'll give you 100bc now if you give me 20bc for the next 20 months"

"Excellent deal!" says the stupid alien.

Then repeat until you have no money. The result is that you are now at 100% spending in the beginning of the game...but instead of going in the negative each month...at one point I was up over 140 PROFIT per month in my first year!!!

Now...way later in the game, I'm earning a profit of over 800 bc per month with spending still at 100%. I've done this effectively tripling my money by offering as much as 300bc for 1 month, and getting as much as 29bc for 30 months in return!!!

I'm a bank now!!! :CONGRAT:

I'm leading the tech race, trade goods, wonders, and thanks to my discovery of 41 corvettes, military as well! All you have to do is make sure that you have next to NO MONEY in your account, lend it out and get more in return. Anytime I have 100bc to spare, I'm tring to get rid of it.

Is this common for all you veteran players out there??? Is this common play style for everybody or did I stumble on something good?
391 views 7 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
I need to play a game or two quickly before the next update readjusts this. I have used populist + max diplomacy to great effect. 1400 bc income at 100%. It is great fun to win w/o fighting (this was my first time to do that). In all other games before GC, I always did military wins but the alternates in GC are also fun--I find the military victory the hardest one on large maps (only size that I have played) thus have never had one.
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
It works well on painful also but on crippling the best profit is about 10% and only for small amounts of money
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Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
That's wild! I'd not thought of doing that! I can't wait to give that a go this evening! :D Though, I think I'll do it on a smaller scale!
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
I'm just curious to know how much profit I can get my hands on in a "normal" game...

Normal being Federalist government with research, trade route, luck, social & military production, and extra research bonuses.

I don't remember ever taking a diplomacy bonus EVER. I think that extra 80% edge in the beginning of the game is crucial to having the trade screen turn GREEN.

I'm afraid this play style wouldn't work unless you go for ALL diplomacy...oh well.

Just another thing that you CAN'T do in MOO3



;p
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
I find this cheesy, but deals to extort money from aliens are commonplace at lower than crippling level. Don't get used to them if you want to play maso, though, as you'll have problems getting 10bc from the ai even for a star and all your techs.
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
Well, it does work even on a small scale. Unless you dedicate all your time and effort to diplomacy, you can't expect HUGE returns, but you can get several hundred a month...and every little bit helps. I wonder if doing this for a race that has cash flow/military troubles helps your relations? You are making money off of them, but in the short term you are helping them out at a loss!
Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top
Just an FYI...

In my current game (the same as listed above)

I'm curently swapping 1000 bc at a time for each race...but asking for 100bc for 14 to 31 months!

That's 3x profit from Yor and Drengin

It's twice my money from Altarian, and 1.5x my money from Torian (and Torian are Hostile towards me)

Government spending has never gone below 100%, and my monthly profit is 800bc per month average. Sometimes as much as 1,800bc when I'm trying hard enough.

Bottom line...I can never play anything less than crippling from here on out...time to move on to bigger and better wins.