What do you actually do in the midgame?

[Ananym]

This comes up a lot for me. I get to midgame, I've probably won a war or two at this point, all territory has been taken, I'm pushing into 4 ascension perks... And then, what do I do?

My empire's in a steady state, I don't have any accessible enemies, I've finished all the dig and anomaly storylines. All my resources are capping out. I'm basically going to do nothing at all for another hundred years. Should I be starting wars with peaceful empires for the hell of it? How do you actually spend your time at that point of the game?

[Malvastor]

Build up like crazy, fight any wars you feel like fighting, and if you want to kick some hornets' nests open the L-Gates or piss off a Fallen Empire.

[Rock]

If you're not playing on Grand Admiral diff then start doing that. Other than that if you find yourself being in a strong position like that every time and you find yourself bored because of the lack of challenge you could also adjust the mid-end game start years to make things more chaotic. Or adjust other settings, like AI aggressiveness, making Crisis appear earlier and adjusting Crisis strength etc.

Playing non-meta builds also increases the challenge, not having optimal starting traits and origin for the Empire will slow you down a bit.

[Stormsong]

My game's timeline is 2250 mid, 2325 late, 2400 end -- I'm on Admiral non-scaling, not good enough for GA. I always seem to have something to do.

Early wars for territory or neutralizing a genocidal looney from 2200-2250ish, a Khan wakes up, or a young power bloc is beginning to form and decides you're in the way, or someone got the bright idea that the L-Gate was a good idea. Cleaning that up takes 20-30 years. ~40 years to streamline and bulk in preparation for the endgame. The Crisis itself is on 5x and takes about 50 years to quell, which leaves only a decade or so until time-declared victory.

Nothing crazy, I know most people on this forum tout GA, midgame 2225, endgame 2250 at 25x Crisis, but it's enough to be entertaining for me.

EDIT: Spelling.

[[OCe]Kagari]

For me the mid game is when Im just starting to declare war, before that I just engange in diplomacy while building my empire, I even go Grand Admiral non scaling with maximum advanced AI start just to prevent myself from diplovassalizing the AI or becoming a warmonger in the early game,

[Geoff]

Originally posted by Pseudonym:

This comes up a lot for me. I get to midgame, I've probably won a war or two at this point, all territory has been taken, I'm pushing into 4 ascension perks... And then, what do I do?

My empire's in a steady state, I don't have any accessible enemies, I've finished all the dig and anomaly storylines. All my resources are capping out. I'm basically going to do nothing at all for another hundred years. Should I be starting wars with peaceful empires for the hell of it? How do you actually spend your time at that point of the game?

For me it's generally a period of peaceful empire-building.

By the middle game I can usually fight a war without spending much attention on it. I've got a big fleet, it deters most aggression, it can break a Fallen Empire if it has to.

Right now I'm 3/4 into a middle game and trying to impose a series of neoliberal reforms on my economy (basically kicking everyone off the subsidies that kept the economy running through the early mid game). It's wrecking my economy while upsetting my pops (probably a lesson to be learned there), but it's a good opportunity to visit neglected planets and see how they're doing. Lots of happy specialists being kicked down into the underclass after the Regent's retinue passes through.

I've got a couple wars on the to-do list, just to clean up the map and unite the last little bits of humanity into a single Imperium. But it absolutely wouldn't be a fair fight and I've already got a little bit more to manage than I'd care to. I'm also overdue for splitting my empire into vassal states, but I'd like to get the planets sorted out first.

The crisis is set to 25x, all, so I'm expecting to see some of these little worlds get munched.

[Ogami]

Originally posted by Stormsong the Fallen:

My game's timeline is 2250 mid, 2325 late, 2400 end -- I'm on Admiral non-scaling, not good enough for GA. I always seem to have something to do.

This ^
Around 2400 my game is OVER. I either rule the galaxy or am so strong that nothing would be a challenge apart from artifiical crisis x 25 settings.
I never understood why the setting of the game has 2500 as default for MIDGAME start and 3000 for the late game.
Nobody i know ever plays that long, by 2300 or so you usually have everything explored and researched so what should you do for 700 more years?
Thats why i set midgame to start around 2280, late to 2350 and end to 2400.
And even with that i usually have to wait like 30+ years at the end with nothing to do.

[TehJumpingJawa]

I quit, uninstall, and come back 12m+ later.
After 7 years without improvement (arguably the game's actually got easier), you'd think I'd give up on it permanently.
Sunk cost fallacy I guess.

[Merlin Pharmakeus]

Originally posted by Ogami:

I never understood why the setting of the game has 2500 as default for MIDGAME start and 3000 for the late game.

default is 2300 -2400 -2500. 3000 seems like hell for you and your computer...
Victory is pointless it has 0 game mechanic, you can continue playing and still check score if disable.

You can reduce mid and late by half 2250-2300 as a base and adjust depending on other setting tech/trad cost etc...
Main issue is that some stuff are fixed fed exp (you are unlikely to see a level 5) and GC resolution speed. You can tweak those easily with a little mod.

Mid 2225 can be quite scary with 100k+ khan in GA. But becoming a vassal is not the end of the game and can set a new goal.

Other approach is to set the crisis very high but I find it extremely boring to repeat. It is just a check score and you can already tell 50-100 years before if you can beat a 25 crisis or not. You either delete their fleet before being touch or they delete yours. It is a tedious wack a mole for decades.

[corisai]

Originally posted by Merlin Pharmakeus:

You either delete their fleet before being touch or they delete yours. It is a tedious wack a mole for decades.

Actually you could have a pretty awesome long war even if you're under-tech for a victory by using mostly corvettes. But that require to have pretty good PC & indeed will be fun to do only once.

P.S. Rolling Ultima Vigil in your galaxy is a jackpot if you're going for x25 all crisis ;)

[Merlin Pharmakeus]

Originally posted by corisai:

Actually you could have a pretty awesome long war even if you're under-tech for a victory by using mostly corvettes.

Throw corvettes click reinforce throw corvettes click reinforce.... I see no fun here.

Late warfare is the worst part of the game. Massive blob of fleets with poor ui management.

The fleet manager become unrealiable, army reinforcement is pointless since it reset after each invasion, follow was bugged for months, follow doesn't bombard so again an half baked improvement. Colosus need precise click on system view. Managing AI planet mess Etc... etc... etc...

The best QOL is the aetherophasic engine.

[Mavkiel]

Mid game I tend to invade the L cluster. I usually then try and transfer my main population into that and create a vassal out of my old empire. -- More for rp reasons than anything else. Makes for a fun goal.

[corisai]

Originally posted by Merlin Pharmakeus:

Throw corvettes click reinforce throw corvettes click reinforce.... I see no fun here.

When you're undertech - you need to sacrifice some worlds in process and do you best trying to keep control over core systems. While you're a bit below your enemy war is actually pretty exciting and fun.

Originally posted by Merlin Pharmakeus:

Late warfare is the worst part of the game.

IMHO mostly because AI is not sniping human player core worlds even with access to JD. Most of single-player builds are extremely vulnerable to it.

[Malvastor]

Originally posted by corisai:

Originally posted by Merlin Pharmakeus:

Late warfare is the worst part of the game.

IMHO mostly because AI is not sniping human player core worlds even with access to JD. Most of single-player builds are extremely vulnerable to it.

Can't speak for anyone else- usually by midgame I've made sure that my core sector is well insulated. Anyone in jump drive range should either be a close friend, a subject, or gone.

Not that the AI really uses jump drives anyway, though.

[Merlin Pharmakeus]

Originally posted by corisai:

Originally posted by Merlin Pharmakeus:

Throw corvettes click reinforce throw corvettes click reinforce.... I see no fun here.

When you're undertech - you need to sacrifice some worlds in process and do you best trying to keep control over core systems. While you're a bit below your enemy war is actually pretty exciting and fun.

I was talking of 25 crisis, what you describe happen in every early war and yes it is the best to loose systems and take them later. But there is no such thing as undertech 25 crisis you can kill them or you die ... you don't waist your alloy throwing corvettes if they can't win. Especially with habitat rework no more ten habitat forteress per system to stall them.

Originally posted by corisai:

IMHO mostly because AI is not sniping human player core worlds even with access to JD. Most of single-player builds are extremely vulnerable to it.

JD in MP are ban or follow some rules otherwise it is pure chaos. AI can use JD it is rare but an awakened empire sniped collosus one of my ecu... It is not really fun because you can't do anything, there is no counter or warning of incoming jump. I see JD as a tool given to the player to speed up the game. Give it to a smart AI and you will have no chance to win. Like insane SC2 blink stalkers use from machine learning AI.

Even if AI become smarter managing 50 fleets like managing planets is hell in late game. You can ignore new planets later but you can't ignore your fleet ... Even the lead dev admitted that fleets need a rework.

But back to OP the best way to spice the game IMO it is to put threat earlier not wait for a big wall crisis when your game is already over. If the crisis is your main goal it also forces you to play optimally all the time which can become boring pretty fast.

[iFrame]

Mid game has always been the most boring part of my playthroughs. I usually fast forward mid game, with the occasional empire building.

That said its heavily dependent on your gameplay settings. I play on grand admiral and 10x crisis, 2250(mid) & 2300(end) so mid game has always been about building up and preparing for end game. Cant afford to war unless i have no choice or if theres a sector that i really need. A bit of diplomacy to prepare for end game threats. Some espionage to pass time. Also theres no longer any exploration to do and the game lacks a lot of mid game story content. Leviathans mostly get cleared out in early mid game. Mid game crisis are also weak as hell, they don't scale well with higher difficulties.