Any tips for Hive mind - Devouring swarm games?

[Lepakko]

I just feel you get crush in early game. Everthing is fine and can win other empires by trying take them early 1vs1. But as soon as i take one out or try take the one out. Every other empires will attack you right a way a round you. Or build big alliance vs you. So it ends up 1vs3-5. I can maybe beat few armies and get some cruisers. But i will slowly lose because they are attack every where and slowly beat me with number. I like idea of everyone hates you and will try take you out early. But how can you not lose at early/mid game? They bonus for picking Devouring swarm feels really week. Any tips or tactics? I tryed be more passive and try grow big, but when ever my borders get near other. They soon start war and make alliance vs you.

Normal hive mind i had so much easier. You can control the wars more and dont get ganged up from start. I even try go attack one empire who was attacked by other. They made peace right a way and joined forces vs me. Even thought they where enemies few mins ago.

I have just played the game little over week. So im not expert.

Edit: As idea. Would it be better if you get that massive diplo -1000 penalty after you eat other population. So you get time maybe devouver 1 empire untill other start building alliance vs you. Now they form it as soon as you make contact. Before you had time secure power to hold 1vs3 situation.

[Ungenau84]

Escrito originalmente por Lepakko:

Edit: Oohh it seems you need extreme edaptive to be able colonize all. Mm.. that even bigger investment to have ability get all planets at start.

Why? Adaptive +10% and Hive mind +10%, at 40% you can colonize (so you can colonize everything exept tomb worlds or when they have some modifiers).

[Lepakko]

Escrito originalmente por Ungenau84:

Escrito originalmente por Lepakko:

Edit: Oohh it seems you need extreme edaptive to be able colonize all. Mm.. that even bigger investment to have ability get all planets at start.

Why? Adaptive +10% and Hive mind +10%, at 40% you can colonize (so you can colonize everything exept tomb worlds or when they have some modifiers).

I had few red planets when i took just 10%. With 20% i had all green beside tomb worlds. Do it matter what type of home world i picked? Continent and i think frozen planet was still red. I use desert planet as my home world.

Edit: I checked my current game. With basic hive mind Yellow planet with extreme adaptive are 40%. So it seems i got bug or something else is wrong. I dont use any mods and i use latest patch. With Basic adaptive i had 3 red planets after i i did my scouting. None where tomb world. I didnt even survey them so dont think they had any special things on them.

[Ungenau84]

From the wiki
"100% Habitability is ideal, but also extremely rare. Except for a species homeplanet and Trait pc gaia preference.png Gaia Worlds they have to be created for a large price, pregenerated or bought with traits.
80% Habitability is the default for all Planets with the same Climate as the species Homeworld. This is called Primary Habitability Category
60% Habitability is the default for all Planets that are in the Same Hydrosphere Group, but not of the not the exact same Climate as the Home Planet.
20% is the default for all Planets that can be picked as Homeworlds, but do not fall into one of the Higher Categories. This is the Tertiary Habitability
0% are Planets that are not normally Coloniseable and require extreme Stacking of Bonuses or Specialised Pops. The most common example is a Trait pc nuked preference.png Tomb World."

If you have red planets i bet they have a modifier - that you can't see if you would not Scout them, like "irradiated", "Tidal Locked" and so on.

But these are modifiers between -5% and -10% but as you can get at total of +20% through research, i would not pay the extra points for extreme adaptive.

[Leland Gaunt]

For the first time in my life i tried to be a good boy. So i started a swarm race: a seed collective of the great tree Yggdrasil. I wanted to make universe a peaceful, flourish place...
Atm i own half of the Galaxy and my collective hive mind devoured every race i have ever met. Everyone is in fear of me. I cannot upgrade a species yet so there is no chance of saving the other races.
Is there a way to live in peace with them?

[Lepakko]

Escrito originalmente por Ungenau84:

From the wiki
"100% Habitability is ideal, but also extremely rare. Except for a species homeplanet and Trait pc gaia preference.png Gaia Worlds they have to be created for a large price, pregenerated or bought with traits.
80% Habitability is the default for all Planets with the same Climate as the species Homeworld. This is called Primary Habitability Category
60% Habitability is the default for all Planets that are in the Same Hydrosphere Group, but not of the not the exact same Climate as the Home Planet.
20% is the default for all Planets that can be picked as Homeworlds, but do not fall into one of the Higher Categories. This is the Tertiary Habitability
0% are Planets that are not normally Coloniseable and require extreme Stacking of Bonuses or Specialised Pops. The most common example is a Trait pc nuked preference.png Tomb World."

If you have red planets i bet they have a modifier - that you can't see if you would not Scout them, like "irradiated", "Tidal Locked" and so on.

But these are modifiers between -5% and -10% but as you can get at total of +20% through research, i would not pay the extra points for extreme adaptive.

I finish my last game and now went for new test. Yeh again i got 3 red planets near my start with just 10% trait. But this time i went to survey them too. and all of them had modifier. It seems i have bad luck with my starting planet. So no bug here. Just unluck modifiers at my starts.

Went for normal hive mind game. Damn it was so easy. After you got past early game i just slowly took full map and killed the awakened fallen empire as soon as it popper. Didnt even pick devouring swarm at end. I felt +15% fleet cap was better at my late game than 10% hull hitpoints hp regen is so small. I was over my fleet cap at near 800 so took bigger fleet size.

[KalkiKrosah]

Old thread, sorry to necro, but I have some relevant experience with the early game issues you've been having. I noticed in the few games I played with ravenous hive that there were 2-3 under-developed pre-space civilizations nearby me. Just to test things out I sent over my fleet to bombard it and then dropped down some armies to take over the planet. I got the planet and then my food stores shot through the roof. I went from +3 to +55. My population exploded and I was able to fill out my planets very quickly. I found another pre-space age civilization and did the same to them. Population blew up even further.

With more bodies on the planets I was able to tech and gather resources more efficiently and when I waged war against the first space age neighbor I demolished them. I've been clean sweeping my way across the galaxy for about 25 years now and am now dealing with my food stores running low. But I'd rather have that problem than not being big enough to defend myself.