Disharmony vs Base Game

[DaMan]

Okay, I have been reading most other players post about how odd the game seems to be overpowered on normal, for example. For me I want to clarify it is the Disharmony expansion giving me issues. The base game I have numerous hours of game time and I can do okay to actually win or at least compete.
I choose the Hiratio as one my first Disharmony factions and in a few turns my planets hate me and the computer has invaded almost all my star systems.
I have restarted numerous games and altered my play style, the same issue occurs. I get attacked by numerous AI fleets...on one play through I actually fended off one faction but I got bored with the constant combat.
Any tips on specfic race play styles to curb the AI? Doing military faction is a no brainer its trying other factions that are at a disadvantage that I am trying to achieve a win.

[Monki Bidniz]

I just upgraded and im terrible .... so now im really worried.

[ArchAngel]

Well I won with economy and science factions. Trick is to play on maps where you can hold chokes and as fast as possible get offer peace tech so you can start trade. You will have lots of dust and factions will like you and not attack you. Then be greedy and expand and expand until you got at least 5 good systems and most planets on them settled - remember more planets and population and you are stronger all together but it is a balance game between getting more science so you can research faster and other tech that you need to grow planets or get better ships. Then prepare your Missile or Beam weapon fleet with a hero for battle. Check out what kind of weapons is AI fielding and make ships to counter his weapons.

[BrigadierBill]

I've never had issues with disharmony, but I was already experienced in vanilla ES and have a tendency to just kill everyone so...

Try making a custom with the approval bonus, try keeping your taxes down, and only go for systems that are worthwhile in early game; you can blockade a system if you want it later, but don't expand too fast if you want your approval to stay up.

I'd say more but I don't really have much time right now to make an in depth how-to-play post for people new to disharmony or to ES. A few easy tips to make it easier though:

Play with as many planets and systems as possible, so you don't need to worry about bad starts. Try using a Spiral or Double Elliptical (my favorite personally) map; you won't worry so much about being pinned between 2 or 3 powers, although spiral of course forces everyone against whoever is doing best in the center (which was usually me, since I always played sophon affinity there...) Play with late-game buildup factions like the Amoeba and Sophons, and avoid Cravers, Hissho, and Automatons (who like rushing in early game). Be aggressive with your neighbors; anyone making an effort against you expanding should be counterattacked, and you should be able to build up 3 fleets (6-8 ships for early game) to hold any different flank.

[schoonhm]

battle are still not so impressive

[MTB-Fritz]

If you insist of playing on normal difficulty this is a strategy that works out for me.

- Try to uncover the other AIs as quickly as possible.
- Boost your trade tech and offer peace as fast as you can possible BEFORE your empire spheres are grinding at each other.
- use the additional income from trades to stabilize your economy quickly and start building a couple war fleets as reaction units.
- all this will not avoid war coming your way but you ll be better prepared

[DaMan]

So I tried some new maps altering the universe size/type. I added some more factions and cherry picked the nicer races. Within only a few turns the Sophons already had a ship fleet with a 700+ rating...and the United Empire attacked me without hesitation.
Seems the Harmony expansion needs some major tweeking. Ill try one more time but egads this is getting insane. When the AI can have numerous fleets and the best I can pump out is a 300 rated ship. All of this occurs in less than 20 turns.
I suppose I am missing some grand secret?

[Whyistheskyblue]

my question is how does the amoeba faction get up to 10,000 dust per turn.....

[MTB-Fritz]

depends on the turn and I can manage 190.000 dust per turn, you think 10k is a lot? The Amoeba especially are superb at dust grinding because they are masters of trade and their trade income can become quiet insane.

@DaMan

If you can manage a 300 MP ship then you could do a fleet with an MP of 1500. Sounds about all right. The AIs will always have fleets within a couple turns. They do that in order to protect themselves otherwise you could be lucky and "stumble" across another home world in your first turn, blockade it and kill the AI off without it having a fighting chance.

What you describe is not war. United Emppires attacking without question is rather a cold war status and if you linger around within their sphere of influence or orbit a system they want to have they gonna attack you in order to secure their interests. If you manage to come across their home planet they will attack you of course.

Also you ruin your own enjoyment by paying attention to stuff thats not really relevant at the start of the game.....like many others beside you.

Oh my god I am behind in score
How can the AI have a fleet by turn 5?
I just colonized my third system and the AI has half the galaxy conquered (over dramatization)
how can a peaceloving faction go to war so readily?

Trust me its OKAY to be behind in score, it doesnt say so much. If you do your things right you will pass the AI easily later on.
The AI having a fleet ready doesnt affect me at all, as long as I dont snoop around their turf they will leave me alone (until turn 45 or so)
All those bonuses the AI gets go a long way enabling it to expand much quicker then a human player but its not so bad
peaceloving doesnt mean not having any teeth or being unable to defend itself.

Military Power especially seems to be a magic cumber to newcomers. Heres an example.

I currently dominate the galaxy with fleets all looking the same (same set-up) and they have a MP value of 2900 out of the factory. The AIs use fleets with a MP score of 15.000-17.000.

So 2900 versus 17.000.

I dont pick any cards but auto-resolve everything and I dont lose any ships at all but wipe the enemy out every time.

DESIGN and Card picks......thats what important here. You ll get to it if you manage to stick around.

[MTB-Fritz]

You know.....I dont wanne say "you are new" or "maybe this isnt your game" but its really hard to help people out if all they do is moan about the same things over and over.

The game is too hard
The AI is too powerfull
etc etc

Do you know how often these topics come up? A lot of former threads have really nice discussions following with people explaining the finer points and putting things into perspective. In short......real HELP for you specifically.

Whenever I do just that and turn around there is another poster who doesnt bother to read existing threads but posts the same stuff I just answered.

So in short......

There are a lot of people who enjoy the game mechanics or even consider the game too easy on higher difficulties. The AI isnt much of a threat and most of the frustrating stuff has an easy explanation.

Do you REALLY think the game sucks/is unbalanced and all these people are delusional fanboys or MAYBE its you?

[Vahnkiljoy]

BTW fritz, you want to use COMMAS (,) for numbers in the thousands,millions, and whatnot, periods look strange and seems more like a decimal point than anything. :p

[MTB-Fritz]

I m used to using "." for me commas look strange but it might be a cultural thing :)

[DaMan]

@ Fritz

I re-read your post and a few others. It seems you understand and offer some advice, which I am trying to use. However, you come back later to post how frustrated you are that someone else might not exactly get the same outcome as you. Also, if my statements of the game seem to be whining then so be it wha wha. That wasn't my intent.
Just so it is understood. I did read other post. I did a search. Maybe I didn't find all the topics that were helpful. Maybe I have. Some parts of your last post wasn't necassary. I can understand people moan, whine, or complain when games aren't spoon feed or easily defeated.
If that was how I came across my bad. I should have made my comments more clear as an observation. For example, I don't understand the new mechanics and left it at that. And for you perhaps next time, direct people to the post with all this help or just not comment.

Furthermore, I still find the AI difficulty and how the AI behaves strange between ES and ES:D. They expand very fast and want to wage war as soon as possible. Maybe the best explantion is the difficulty levels are different. Normal would equal hard if I was playing endless space classic, as an example. Or perhaps the AI does need some tweeking. Not balancing because balance is bad. Perhaps, Disharmony mode isnt for me...
In conclusion, I will try easy and see if things work better until I get a better grasp of the Disharmony mechanics. I'll either figure this out, put it on easy for a bit, or swap back to classic.

@ Bill
Thanks for the tips. I have tried some of the advice and at this time It isn't working for me yet. Again, I am trying a specific race to win the game. In these style games, I would agree; I love to build my own race but for the expansion I wanted to try the Hiratio. I am still way behind on grasping the concepts for some reason. =)

[Zednaught]

Some advice, since I'm one who's finding the game to be pretty easy. At Normal difficulty, the effect of the AI's cumulative advantages is pretty small, so there's nothing that they're doing that you couldn't do yourself. I'll talk about what little military tips I've learned, since that seems to be the biggest problem (although i think the game is much less military-focused that people think, and developing your empire is more fundamental).

The AI is actually pretty mellow compared to other 4x games- very likely to accept a cease fire and less provoked by border tensions. If you're winning a war, they often give up whole systems.

The AI isn't particularly good at sieges, and the minimum time to beseige a planet gives you a lot of breathing room, so if you can't stop a fleet coming your way, retreat by all means. It takes a while before they get troops, which are the only way to end a siege quickly. So, don't give up! You have a lot of time to hide in your territory and build up a force before actually losing systems.

Get a military focused hero early on. You get tons of XP for battles, so winning just a few battles can make your fleet unstoppable.

Get the easy to reach techs that expand CP early on, as well as a tier 2 weapon tech. That'll set you up strongly for any early to mid-game conflict.

Don't confuse enemy siege strength with combat strength-I think that contributes to the myth of AI "doom fleets" on Normal and below.

Defensive modules can make a great difference, and even just a few of each type can greatly enhance survivability. To that end, don't go so deep in the military tech that you neglect to research new ship types.

In evaulating your opponent's fleet, look at both the type of weapon AND its range when considering what tactic to play. If it's firing outside its preferred range, it's much less effective.

[MTB-Fritz]

Also, if my statements of the game seem to be whining then so be it wha wha.

You are right my reply was a bit too harsh, I apologize for a moment of weakness. I am only human after all. Also I wonder if that second reply was directed at you or was a reaction to a post within this thread which is now deleted. I can see how that second reply is rather offensive so I d take it back or at least want to say no....I didnt meant you specifically but I cannot be sure anymore.

[DaMan]

It's okay, we all miss read or over do it on either side of communication. =D

@ Zed
I did find the AI couldnt take over my planet but being blockaded slowed that planet down. Then in less than 10 turns the AI finally brings in the proper ship to siege my planet. Just seems like a bad luck x4 game month for me ; ).

I do agree the new ship builing is very different. Maybe it is a portion of my issues since it has some new changes. Like range of the weapon etc.