In dire trouble

[giddion]

odomi
The planet they killed had only 3 population. I have seen Xeno pop rebuilds super fast, like the plague, so you need to refuel the transports.


As for how things are going, they have gotten worse in some for and better in others.

I am under constant invassion, and the Xeno are getting stronger. I had a very short respite of diplomatic tensions, and I mean short, less than 10 turns, and what this means is 1-2 positive and 1 negative thing happening. This allowed me to expand a few mines and factories, install some spice and grow my HABs. Also build 1 new boarding fighter. Moral was slowing improving throughout the empire. All whist constantly defending against an endless swarm.

But things got worse about 30 turns ago and have not improved, politics crumbled, and I have not been able to break it, my encomony crashed and was at -4.5K before breaking one of the negative affects, this allowed me to reduce the debt to 3K, but that was short lived it is back to -4K. Currently I have 1x Trade Alliance (looking good), 1x Spy Battle and 1x Duel of Assasins...
This helps me to earn between +7 and +30.
So, in about 100 turns I will have some cash to try and repair things.

Moral is my biggest issue, the political situation caused economic issues which lead to moral issues, which only compounded the economic issues.
The possitive, I am holding my own against a supierior army, by using the planets as cover, but the ships take me about 4 shots to destroy, so I think I am fighting a loosing battle.

I think I will quit and start again. This time expanding much slower from 3-6, but waiting much longer to the move from 6-9, maybe going 7,8,9 instead.


Don't get me wrong it has been fun, but I just cant catch a break, and with too many compounded issues I am too far behind my opponant now that it is not time to surrender.

I do wish that I had some sort of Hail Mary political reset, like martial law.

I mean, these people are all dieing and the governments cant find the common enemy, if they dont stop the internal fighting they will all die.

[eternalheathen]

Aaaaaaaand you've just chosen my next map/difficulty, this looks like bloody fun. Thanks for this post. Never quit, never surrender. Who knows what you might learn as your fledgling empire burns to ash. Personally, I'm curious to find out what happens if an entire faction is wiped out. The martial law idea sounds interesting, although it would need to have major impact on morale. My thought would be that all conflicts would be reset, for the cost of all morale dropping to 2.

[CdrPlatypus]

I think you need about double your upgrade amt in defense pts to be reliable

[tenbsmith]

Seems like you learned some stuff and maybe next time you'll get somewhat better rolls for politics--luck is a factor.

I think it best to avoid having more than one Treaty/Diplomatic Effort in the queue at a time. When Negative politics break, I just delete the old Treaty/Diplomatic Effort, and start a new one focusing on ending the Negative Politics.

Expanding in groups of three systems definitely helps minimize political conflict. If you do 7, 8, 9, I wouldn't wait too long between colonies.

[odomi]

Jul 22, 2015 23:36:01 GMT -5 giddion said:

odomi
The planet they killed had only 3 population. I have seen Xeno pop rebuilds super fast, like the plague, so you need to refuel the transports.

That is true. They repopulate about 1 per turn, sometimes more.
I do not invade unless I know for sure that I can purge the colony.

[giddion]

So, I started the map again, obviously I know the location of key planets now so I have a bit of an advantage. No need to explore as deep and hard, this reduces the effect of the stick in the hornets nest.

Some key points/mistakes from last game to this.

I never got the time to build exchange and palace and other similar buildings to produce sufficient TP/RP/etc this I think hurt my political influence the most.
So i have gone straight for exchange and palace early with the fdf next in line.
I slowed my expansion to 6 planets and staggered the colonisation by about +4 turns each, this allowed me to build a mine or 2 in between the expansion.
Exploration has been more positive things time around, but I have also been a lot more conservative.

I have had to defend once. I sit my ships behind planet, and even my his ships are right on my green boarder, I wait. The xeno generally just turn around and leave. They may not be able to detect my ships, looking to drawer me out to see where my ships are or something.
I was not able to secure certain key world's, but have the same major front of words as before, just not beyond the asteroid belt.

I must admit, I started this new game on hard instead. Wishing now, I went for crazy again. Because I feel I know where I went wrong.

[CdrPlatypus]

Jul 23, 2015 8:35:38 GMT -5 tenbsmith said:

I think it best to avoid having more than one Treaty/Diplomatic Effort in the queue at a time. When Negative politics break, I just delete the old Treaty/Diplomatic Effort, and start a new one focusing on ending the Negative Politics.

This is correct when you have more than one treaty in queue the EP is spent randomly. Put one in at a time and subsidize it if you can

[odomi]

Jul 24, 2015 9:32:24 GMT -5 CdrPlatypus said:

Jul 23, 2015 8:35:38 GMT -5 tenbsmith said:

I think it best to avoid having more than one Treaty/Diplomatic Effort in the queue at a time. When Negative politics break, I just delete the old Treaty/Diplomatic Effort, and start a new one focusing on ending the Negative Politics.

This is correct when you have more than one treaty in queue the EP is spent randomly. Put one in at a time and subsidize it if you can

maybe I should clarify some of my strategy when it comes to treaties.

I would use the word "diplomacy" for treaties being pursued.

If I need to get rid of a negative conflict, I delete all trade diplomacies(treaties on queue) to concentrate on that one treaty I need.

Now, why would I delete trade diplomacies on queue, because currently, you can treatiese diplomacies for free if your money is = or < 0. Or if your treasury have inadequate funding, it will just charge your account til it hits 0, so you get a discount.
Cory will fix this, but I don't know the details.

So why would I buy multiple trade diplomacies? Dice roll. If I don't have any treaties, I would buy 3. It will randomly gain EP, but for some reason, one would always get ahead and finish without having to allocate any points to others on queue. But remember, I paid for only 1 of them because I make sure that I have less than 100 in the bank before I buy any.

On early game, I do avoid doing this due to low EP output. I start doing this once I have my first 3 expansion and all colonies are doing well economically, where I will need some trade income boost.

Trade treaties have success chances of 50%, 75% and 90%. Sometimes the 50% is successful and sometimes, even the 90% fails.

Roll the Dice! That's just how I do it. Because with multiple things I have to do, I can't keep worrying about politics. If i get it, then I get it. If I don't, then I don't... what do I care, it's free anyway. hehe. That is about to change however, possibly on the next update.

But what if I already have 2 trade routes?
I still buy 3 or more at a time. However, this time I pay full price on mid to late game, because I have lots of money.

Why I still do it? again, to minimize micro-managing. If I buy multiple treaties, I just don't know which one will result on a 3rd trade route. For me, it's more exciting to watch which one will be successful rather than worrying if my sole current diplomacy will fail or succeed.

[odomi]

giddion

what factions are you using?

[elwoodps]

When playing Cadar, once I'm knocking down 300+ EP/turn (not so difficult on a huge map) and have a triple alliance going, I try to keep 3 "Military Alliance" treaties (which cost 300 EP each)in the queue at all times. That way one gets completed every turn, even if I forget to reload the queue for a turn or two, in the heat of combat. I've been able to keep triple alliances going on Hard for an awfully long time that way, and to me that's way worth the cost.

Kind of along the line of of what odomi about reducing micro-management (in a place that it doesn't buy me anything).

[CdrPlatypus]

I buy one diplomacy/treaty at a time subsidized to roll as quickly as possible

[tenbsmith]

I see what you're doing odomi. You're exploiting the free diplomatic efforts when you get the chance. I didn't understand that until now, clever.

I'm with CdrPlatypus, one diplomatic effort at time. Unless I get in a situation with near $0 Treasury, then I may consider odomi's approach.

BTW, when queuing up multiple diplomatic efforts, EP assignment is only semi-random. You can see more detail to this at the end of the first post in the Guide to Politics thread I started.
startradersrpg.proboards.com/thread/11991/4x-faction-politics-guide-draft
feel free to comment, suggest improvements, or ask questions.

[giddion]

Jul 24, 2015 13:29:10 GMT -5 odomi said:

giddion

what factions are you using?

Thulun Cadar Javat

[CdrPlatypus]

I hadn't thought of exploiting the no cost treaties when you're broke. Nice Meta game.

[giddion]

Jul 24, 2015 21:26:35 GMT -5 CdrPlatypus said:

I hadn't thought of exploiting the no cost treaties when you're broke. Nice Meta game.

Only way to play in the early game.