Hivers? In my galaxy? It’s more likely than you think.
They could have a relatively large but self contained empire in some quadrant of the map.
In the mop-up phase, you can research the technologies enabling enemy surrenders to speed things along.
Ah, funny you should mention that I was going down that research path on the races with an eye towards striking up a conversation but didn’t know if it would lead some place useful because you never know with diplomacy in a game whether it’ll actually work.
So are they willing to surrender potentially if you’re way stronger than they are? Or do you have to hunt them down to the last planet or ship before they’ll throw in the towel?
Oh they’ll absolutely surrender - but they have to know you are way stronger than them. If they don’t realise it, I usually reveal my map/planets to them first, and try again. It often changes their calculation.
Researched up the chain for the races to the point I can demand surrender. They’re all declining despite the fact none of them at this point have even one colony planet to their name.
Showed’em my colonies just to impress upon them how hopeless it is. No luck.
Nothing for it now but to play hide and seek with their remaining ships which strikes me as less than optimal because I’ve found I can be one planet away from them and not see them.
What I need is a tech that reveals the galaxy. I’ve played games with it and found it quite handy for this end phase mop up.
You showed them the carrot; start showing them the stick and that will begin to change minds. Oh, except for Zuul; they’ll never surrender.
Assuming you have deep scan sections researched, it might be useful to fling some cruiser-sized scouts about the place. The larger the base ship, the larger the sensor field. I would often put a deep scan module on a refinery ship with a bunch of point defense and a handful of long range weapons.
Thanks for the response! Great help.
Some of them are Zuul, so I’ll know they’re going to need to just die. A couple other hold outs are Liir, more puzzling why they’re not throwing in the towel yet.
Just looked at my research, I missed deep scanners, working that now to help with the hide and seek!
I’d always expected my endless training to defend The Empire would lead to my own glory, but in my autumn years I take great satisfaction in helping others find their own ;)
Ah, these are probably the two least likely to surrender. Zuul are… well, you know what the Zuul are. I don’t think they can surrender to non-Zuul (but I might be misremembering) since it would be weird to have Zuul around not eating the local population.
That Liir are interesting. They’re usually pretty peaceful so long as you don’t actively provoke them. If you do, they will decide you are Suul’ka and vow to destroy you or die trying. They will surrender, but you need to really demonstrate it’s hopeless. I’d keep asking after you win a major battle or take more planets. (Planets tend to surrender in the have of light bombing or an overwhelming fleet in orbit.)
The AI for all the races is quite markedly different; Tarka will respond better if you give them a bloody nose (to a point), Humans tend to be quite pragmatic, Hivers just kinda don’t care so long as they can expand - except they won’t work with other Hivers as easily (only one Queen!), Morrigi quite like peace (good for trade).
Thanks again for the input, the Tarkas were victorious. Once I figured out the scanner piece to locate where they were the rest was relatively easy, just keep taking out planets until they surrendered.
And with that I’m immediately starting up a new one. This time I do believe it’ll be the Morrigi.
Each race plays so differently it’s a unique challenge each time to figure out where your strengths and weaknesses are and that of your opponent races.
Puzzling that the secret sauce to the greatness of this game has been known for 15 years and still no one has yet replicated it.
What do you think the odds are I get entangled in a war or three in the near future?!
My illustrious empire of the birds are the red.
The birds really love trade - well worth clumping planets into one trade sector, even if the planets are a bit harsher than you’d settle with other races.
The hardest part with Morrigi is surviving the early days. Once you get trade online, your economy combined with good tech chances means you can crush the late game.
A three front war is probably fine, though the AI is at its worst when defending - you having to play defence is not ideal.
Thanks for the input, I’ll keep that trade piece in mind and make sure to get that going.
As for the multi front war, the yellow guys are the same race, is it possible diplomatically to keep them on side? I’ve allied with them and had them break it off once only to offer to be in an alliance again which is where we stand currently.
Morrigi love trade, and peace means trade. It’s usually pretty easy to keep Morrigi on-side, provided you don’t actively antagonise them (shooting up their ships or something).
(Unless there’s some secret diplomacy flags I don’t know about - it’s possible Morrigi are coded to dislike other Morrigi, but I don’t think so…)
Ah the Morrigi. “These stars are sacred, and they are mine.”
It occurs to me that probably the closest to following SotS is probably Stars in Shadow. It’s nowhere near as ‘big’ of a game, and it’s a very different feel (I think SotS is closer to MOO, while SiS closer to MOO2) but there’s a lot of racial character in both games that seems rare in others.
Yep, I think they did do alright on differentiation of the races in SiS but I bounced off the combat hard.
I really enjoy RotP and typically like turn based combat over real time so after this SotS campaign I guess it’s time to give SiS another go since it would appear I’m in some kind of space mood. ;)
It’s pretty simplistic. I’ve been tempted lately to start modding out some of my grievances, as all code is pretty exposed and designed for easy modding.
Well, gave it another go with same results. The combat and the art style just don’t work for me.
I found myself returning to SotS. While Dan’s play time shall remain unsurpassed for all time my meager time spent with SotS has it ranked in my book it as my favorite space game ever.
Thanks for the link!