Normal setting is way too easy and gifted is impossible for me

[ostrowanet]

Need help to set up right difficulty for myself.....I am fun of 4X space strategy games since MMO2. I really like galciv 3 but playing on normal I am bored to death- the universe is waiting for my takeover giving no chalenge whatsoever. I abandoned 2 normal games out of boredom.
I started multiple gifted games but I was overwhelmed easily by AI quite early in a game. Most of the time I had many overpowered civs declaring war against me at once.I had no chance. I started game when I put half civs on normal and half gifted- got crushed early too. I like playing big universe. I play only immense with 14-15 opponents and like it that way. I am looking for suggestioms so I can play this game and enjoy some challenge without being sooo overpowered.

[ElPrezCBF]

I think if you have mastered the basics, you'll probably want to play on genius or godlike. I'm not an expert but found that after surviving the first 100 turns or so, even gifted becomes rather boring and by 300 turns or so, I'm steamrolling everyone. The issue is that the AI doesn't know how to diversify its weapon types adequately and seems to pay little attention to ship defenses. In a game that focuses heavily on customization to win, the human player has a very, and I mean very, huge advantage over the AI.

I've only played on huge maps so far with 8 opponents. But I think why gifted feels impossible at first is because the AI is more likely to declare war on you when you are militarily weaker than the other race. If you start to produce a few armed fleets early on (no need for world conquering ships), the AI will respect you as quickly as it is ready to conquer you at least on gifted. The extra ships also need not be wasted. You can fit them with sensors to explore pirate anomalies and they indirectly also send a message to other races that you're not a pushover. To be fairly safe on gifted, you need to produce enough ships until the "ripe for conquest" diplomatic penalty disappears.

[Kitten Food]

Originally posted by Bar Bar Winks:

I think if you have mastered the basics, you'll probably want to play on genius or godlike. I'm not an expert but found that after surviving the first 100 turns or so, even gifted becomes rather boring and by 300 turns or so, I'm steamrolling everyone. The issue is that the AI doesn't know how to diversify its weapon types adequately and seems to pay little attention to ship defenses. In a game that focuses heavily on customization to win, the human player has a very, and I mean very, huge advantage over the AI.

I've only played on huge maps so far with 8 opponents. But I think why gifted feels impossible at first is because the AI is more likely to declare war on you when you are militarily weaker than the other race. If you start to produce a few armed fleets early on (no need for world conquering ships), the AI will respect you as quickly as it is ready to conquer you at least on gifted. The extra ships also need not be wasted. You can fit them with sensors to explore pirate anomalies and they indirectly also send a message to other races that you're not a pushover. To be fairly safe on gifted, you need to produce enough ships until the "ripe for conquest" diplomatic penalty disappears.

This is pretty solid advice. Anything above gifted is all about the first 100-200 turns being about solidifying your defenses and setting up your core colonies. Another thing that really gives humans a huge advantage (very huge) is using the governor control to specialize each planet. I have never had one game where I am not the leader in research, production and economic wealth regardless of bonuses or maluses. If you specialize planets and balance ship defenses, you will always be stronger than the AI, even if they build 100's of ships.

I was trying to find a good balance of difficulty as well. If your rig can support it, I would suggest playing on Huge or Immense maps with at least 15 factions with gifted AI. Personally I created additional factions based off the minor factions so there can be at least 18 opponents and disabled 'minors'. This allowed a much more varied galaxy and created different faction peaks in sectors since each faction seems to have points where they excel or begin to fail. The game is still pretty lackluster in its complexity since diplomacy needs to be vamped up big time, so adding factions is really the only way I can see adding more depth at the moment.

[ostrowanet]

Thanks for advice. Maybe I abandoned my games too quickly

[Jeruzalem]

im at 250 turns, and its pretty obvious im in deep ♥♥♥♥. my last game was agianst normal, went pretty good. not too much opposition and it was kinda easy since none of my fleets got dessimated.

however, im now playing on gifted, and damn, im at the bottom of the power struggle. im at 400 points, where 2 of the AI's are at 2000! i can never catch up to them. where ive just begun creating medium hulls, the ai's are already cruising around with top tech mediums.

[rhettrongun]

The other thing is the AI does not seem to build its fleets very intelligently. Give it 40 logistics and it will build fleets with 5-8 ships each, and not bother using techs like jamming, repair, etc... Give a human 40 logistics and they will probably throw together 12-18 ships, and include all the bells and whistles.

The main challenge I have is lasting past early game to get to the point where that aspect begins to actually matter enough to decide who has the advantage.

[ElPrezCBF]

Originally posted by rhettrongun:

The other thing is the AI does not seem to build its fleets very intelligently. Give it 40 logistics and it will build fleets with 5-8 ships each, and not bother using techs like jamming, repair, etc... Give a human 40 logistics and they will probably throw together 12-18 ships, and include all the bells and whistles.

The main challenge I have is lasting past early game to get to the point where that aspect begins to actually matter enough to decide who has the advantage.

I don't mind if the ai had fewer ships in its fleet if those were actually adequately armed and protected. If it also used carriers more often, it would also be a force multiplier as the carrier's ships count as part of the fleet during battle. I beat larger enemy fleets on many occasions simply because my hulls were bigger and better armed.

Lasting past the early game requires building enough ships until the ripe for conquest penalty disappears.

[rhettrongun]

Easier said than done depending on starting location, but sure, that's what it boils down to.

[ElPrezCBF]

Originally posted by rhettrongun:

Easier said than done depending on starting location, but sure, that's what it boils down to.

Are you playing godlike? Because it's indeed that simple on gifted and easier.

[Mr. Doctor]

Does gifted just boost their stats. I hate it when games have to resort to that because their AI is not up to the task. One of the reasons I got bored of Civ 5 was this

[Jonnson]

Immense map, abundant stars, abundant everything, All AI is godlike, 60 enemy AI, all minor races as well. to win: click next turn over and over while you social manufacture research until you have access to huge ships, build a huge ship, arm it, and then conquer the entire galaxy with it. There is no threat of your planets actually being attacked, ever in this game. none of the Ai can compete with a huge ship at any point in the game.

There is no game here, you are acting as though there is, just like most of us have done, here is the skinny on it man...they look powerful, they build lots of ships, but they do NOTHING worth doing. dont bother with starbases, shipyards, and space ships, your homeworld is safe from attack, indefinitly. So, start game, lay down some research buildings, destroy the starting shipyard and all starting ships, so that you dont draw any attention, by attention i mean a bunch of ships floating around in your space, doing nothing, but cluttering your vision up. Then just hit next turn until youve made it to huge ships, and yes you will be fine, noone will attack you, oh they will declare war, and they will send ships, but thats the end of their "attack" try and see)

[SubtleNoBee]

Originally posted by Jonnson:

Immense map, abundant stars, abundant everything, All AI is godlike, 60 enemy AI, all minor races as well. to win: click next turn over and over while you social manufacture research until you have access to huge ships, build a huge ship, arm it, and then conquer the entire galaxy with it. There is no threat of your planets actually being attacked, ever in this game. none of the Ai can compete with a huge ship at any point in the game.

There is no game here, you are acting as though there is, just like most of us have done, here is the skinny on it man...they look powerful, they build lots of ships, but they do NOTHING worth doing. dont bother with starbases, shipyards, and space ships, your homeworld is safe from attack, indefinitly. So, start game, lay down some research buildings, destroy the starting shipyard and all starting ships, so that you dont draw any attention, by attention i mean a bunch of ships floating around in your space, doing nothing, but cluttering your vision up. Then just hit next turn until youve made it to huge ships, and yes you will be fine, noone will attack you, oh they will declare war, and they will send ships, but thats the end of their "attack" try and see)

100% on the nose. This game has no challenge to it. AI is dumb. If you sit back on a single planet w/o ship yard why don't they invade and end you? I mean thats an ez 16+ world. Dumb AI and unfocused game.

I really wanted to like this game. But it's just all over the place and feels incomplete.

[Templar]

I find the game to be easy up to the genius level as long as you don't accept a crappy start (I.E. not right up against someone). After that the computer just cheats WAY too much and I just can't compete the computer is taking stuff close to me before I can get to it even though they are several little clusters away its just crazy. The people I've heard of beating on the max level just get lucky due to the computer player killing eachother it seems or by AI exploits as above.