As you likely know the Palaceans get to recruit and breed monsters, well Im on turn 120+ and have maybe 300 + monsters breeding at the rate of 70+, yes 70+!, every 4 turns this doesnt include a new spawned adult every time a planet reaches eco3 which is happening very fast, a new system with four-five potential planets (terraform, planet building) will upgrade to this status every 4-5 turns once the first planet is established, with multiple systems doing the same the entire galaxy is swamped (ha ha) with monsters... This means I dont have to build many ships and those I do are purely for bombing enemys out of existance so I can colonise their planets. Add to this that pop groth is also 5300%(one pop grow thevery turn any planet) yes that not a error, as well as planet engineering etc, typically any planet will terraform to swamp in one turn! so 4 turns to eco 3, planet construction may be a turn faster. planet constuction swamp eco2, colonise, eco3 = new adult monster. For info Initial setting was magistrate as it was a trial for the faction in the new dlc, in reality the palaceans have no real opposition, I think its maybe a bit overkill but will play again on a much harder setting, but suspect it may just take a little longer is all. Admiral Ironsides ace terraformer and monster breeder.
Additional to the above I also find that monsters turn up in the refit panel even though at this stage they cannot be refitted... would prefer seperate monster related info panel eg fleets, ships and refits seprate from the regular fleet , also they clutter up the leader choose ship panel again theres no option to mount your leader on a monster so whats the point, consider that by turn 157 I have 90 adults spawning every 4 turns, when battles happen the small fry just clutter up the battle field creating obsticals for the adult monsters so I scapped the lot, over 300+ on turn 135 and 100s more since its a lot of maintenance for literally no reward since they have no cull/scrap value. I have about 20 systems and the adult monsters are more or less equally spead amongst.
If I recall correctly the "Trouble with Tribbles" wasn't so much the little critters themselves, it was this Dr. McCoy-"Do you know what you get if you feed a tribble too much?" Capt. Kirk-"A fat tribble?" Dr. McCoy-"No. You get a bunch of hungry little tribbles." While there is no denying that the races in ISG, and particularly their relative evolution paths are not balanced, the point is that they're really not supposed to be. More than that, they don't need to be. One thing, (among many), that ISG does very well is allow the player to set numerous parameters and customize his/her experience and game universe. This is a huge plus as it lets the player play the way they want to play, not the way the developer thinks they should play. (Thanks to Keith in particular for this). However, there is a price to pay for such freedom. Do I need to point out what that price is? Well. I will anyway. Basically the price, (at least the big one), is that you can win this game before you play a single turn, and you do that at the screen where you set your parameters, (contingent on your skill level). Pointing out an amusing yet extreme situation as you describe in this thread must be taken in context. You consciously allowed this situation to exist, however that doesn't mean it shouldn't be allowed to exist. Let me offer a simpler example. A player sets his/her research rate at 200% along with the largest map available and ensures that good systems to colonize are available in the early game. That player then runs through the tech tree very fast as a consequence of these actions. Should that player then complain that the tech tree is too small? Before going further @Ironsides I want to make sure that you understand I am not putting you down or disparaging you in any way, I enjoyed reading your posts, I'm just offering some context and different perspective. You managed to create this incredible OP menagerie, the AI on the other hand will most likely not. I've encountered the Palacean early on, I've fought them when their fleets consisted mostly of Monsters. With Laser armed ships sporting some nukes I held my own, once my second generation ships were available, the monsters, (even in substantial numbers), were not a serious threat. At some point I stopped seeing them entirely as I presume they had all been killed. Again, it is an "extreme" situation you describe, and one that can, by choice, be rendered un-available by the player. The thing is, if a player has fun doing what you described, then by all means let them do it. If a player does not want this to occur, (even playing as the Palacean), that is very doable.
Since I wrote my original post I've played through two other games another as the palceans and the last as the Fed... For the first (of these two games) as Palacean, Settings were severe/viceroy but with equal bonuses for all set at 150%, however this gives the AI players still a significant starter bonus in pop and tech. Aggression and planets set at max. gigantic map. This shows the Palaceans overviw on turn 236/endgame: It can be seen from the history graph that they were not dominant in most areas untill around turn 120, this I think is because research was mostly into production-economy-technology-culture-terraforming-planet construction, with military considerations other then space stations secondary. Militarily I went for space stations, neutron guns, class III shields and flak cannons and polaris missiles and helium-3 enhancements. Pretty much side stepping more expensive research options to get to this where appropriate, at least untill the planet constuction goals were met. Colonisation and systems: Tax rate 0, for max production and morale. By endgame the palaceans had 23 systems (many still in development), only nine had less then three potential worlds, the emphasis here was on strategic importance (dominating regions of space) but primarily the number of potential worlds in those systems, with only one system with a single planet. Planet development, enhanced colonisation, all six Civil engineer slots as priority, culture perks for eco/terraforming, eco and then ship constuction slots as appropriate depending on the size of the worlds, initially crew experience was gained by other means. A significant number of support ships were also created, as many as ten at the homeworld with I initially then 3-5 for developing sytems/naval bases, as systems and civil engineering became reasonably developed some or all of these ships would move on to new systems if support points were tight or were no longer needed. Planet construction was made possible by building the galactic spaceport wonder. Home system developed. Core Systems surrounding home world, most only had the odd usefull planet (sometimes tiny) intially but planet construction changes that. Only the natural allies perk was used, this was most usefull for boosting fleet strength to put off potential aggression and used only for defence. as a result at no time did an AI nation threaten violence!. Keeping an eye on enemy fleet strength via the history graph helps here, balance of power seems to play a significant part in AI faction aggression. Around 90 monsters or so became available during the game many from exploration but mostly from raising worlds to eco3. Espionage, at some point the palaceans aquired some sigificant spy leaders, used for tech theft and influencing leaders etc, in the process causing quite a few wars by framing other nations repeatedly... with the required results, they pretty much ingnored the Palceans except to ask for treaties of one sort or another, so I took advantage of that with trade and tech but not mining or alliances as here dominating regions of space plays a part. Also gifts for factions that looked like they were on the brink of defeat, a brand new battleship etc... keeping the enemy at war with one another is a good option if you have suitable spy leaders, but these factions need to survive and cause a plausible threat to each other... the Moltar are ideal for this (Nova will work too) as they are quite tenacious in the end you may want to make them your allies before destroying the last faction as a reward for inadvertantly contributing to your victory. Galactic wonders were all built in the course of the game as well as all the empire bonus buildings. with an empasis on economy-tech-culture. Travel bettween systems by jumpgate not available due to a lack of dark matter. The game ends with only the Nova left and an election victory, allowing them to survive as they were instrumental in suppressing several other factions via the espionage etc framing option(used agaist all factions). Thats all on this game for the moment, next the Fed vs Palaceans and of course the rest of the galaxy...
Fed vs Palaceans and five others, game 1. Settings: Severe/Viceroy, 150% bonus for all factions including the Fed, max monsters/planets, aggression etc. Emphasis for the fed was production, technology, culture followed eventually by terraforming and planet construction, this would allow them to become dominant by rapidly constructing and colonising these new planets as you have none of the time spent terraforming, so systems were chosen with barren, asteroid and gas giants even if they only contained one tiny planet, a tiny would terraforms very quick so this is actually an aid if you follow this route. Size 7 worlds had civil engineering six constructed ASAP as this gives building bonuses to all other colonys and when a few are finished constuction can rapidly balloon, support ship were a priority in ship constuction and the military took second place as a result. So this was priority for the Sol system as it has a potential of 4 medium and 1 large worlds! First Contact with Palaceans turn 99 ship and monster(collected) south of Acrail: , By turn 99 the fed had researched terraforming, but not yet planet construction and would build the Galactic wonders for spaceport, nav archive, amusment park and industrial conglomerate by turn 141, there was no wars with the fed. Palacean reaction to the fed was friendly overall, they are at war with the Kaek and Moltar and collecting monsters from around the galaxy but were never a serious threat to the fed and actively sought an alliance which was refused. My sense was their belligerent nature made them unreliable as allies but I could be wrong. In any case eventually the Palaceans would be destroyed by the fed and an election victory would end the game. Fed vs Palaceans and 5 others Game 2. Settings. Fed set to Viceroy 125% all others Severe 150% otherwise as above. Possibly the best game I've had with ISG, it was certainly the most aggresive. Development went slow and by the time the fed met the Palaceans they were at a definate disadvantage and only stronger then the Moltar in fleet strength but not tech or anything else... The Moltar are neutral and made no aggresive moves however the Palceans almost immediatly declared war, terraforming is now on going on Mars and Venus has Civil Engineering 6, plus a 50% terraforming bonus perk. However the military is weak and the Fed is third in almost everything... By Turn 130 terraforming has finished on a number of worlds and the Fed has more or less stabilised an effective defence rebuffing all Palacean attacks, building new cruisers and advancing military tech, soon they will have bomb racks available! and be able to take the battle to the enemy. But still bottom of the list and only stronger fleetwise then the Moltar.. And still no planet construction. At this point the Fed could have used the Armistice ability but didnt... As the Sulak have also appeared as a threat (they have Battleships) but seem content to attack the Moltar. By turn 150 planet construction has been achieved and new Eco2 Rich+ Terran worlds are being created every turn, however only venus and earth have yet reached Civil Eng 6 though this will change rapidly in the next few turns, in essence you can say the turning point has been reached. Ship construction has switched to Venus a richer planet then earth and the fleet can now adequately defend the Empire and is actively on the offensive, Sol System is now Six Terran worlds, the fed has 4 systems/12 Terran Planets total. Finally the Palceans are asking for peace. Even though the Fed are low in tech and much else their now outpreforming all the others overall... As far as the Palaceans are concerned this is as far as they go as pretty soon their worlds will be a smoking ruin, this will lead to the destruction of the Kaek(who have aleady been defeated by them) and the sulak who have Titans! will be next to follow. Palacean anlaysis: They are very strong or at least initially, unfortunatly they seem to squander their advantage in attacking too many targets, something the AI seems to like doing for all races, but I think the game would be over quickly over if they conducted a deternined assault as a human player might. Ironsides... Hero of the Federation!... want to know more??
