Culture + Trading Planets Exploit

from Stardock Forums
I hope no one has mentioned this yet. I've played several games now, mostly on Huge maps, so I've gotten the hang of GalCiv. What I noticed was how easy it was to obtain planets culturally. The simplest method is to build two or three starbases in the sector with defense and culture modules. In my current game, I didn't have to do that, since the Torians had colonized an entire sector right beside my Earth sector. Right now, its pretty early in the game, but with Earth generating huge amounts of influence (plus the 5 starbases I've built in the sector), the four systems in the Torian sector are regularly switching to my side.

I don't really need the planets, and if I later change my mind, they'll always change sides soon enough. So instead I'm trading or outright giving them away to the other races. I traded one system for all the Drengin's techs. A couple turns later, I give the same system to the Altarians to raise their disposition to me (since I'm Demonic). I even have the Yor and the Arceans as allies. I've given those four systems away countless times, with the AI never realizing that it's getting them over and over.

How to fix this? I'd recommend that you prevent systems that are bartered away from ever joining your race again due to culture. Alternatively, the AI could simply not accept systems in sectors which are overwhelmingly influenced by another's culture.

There are probably better methods of exploiting this, such as giving away a system in your Earth sector, especially when its still a young colony. That way, it lets the AI waste its time building up the colony while you'll reap the rewards.
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Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
On higher levels, the AI will build up their influence, and build resistance boosting buildings as well. Also, they will begin to notice your "buildup" of cultural addons, and demand that you give them the base, or go to war. I suggest playing at a higher level (AIs at Bright or Intelligent).

-Dave

~SDC~
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
I am in fact playing with all the races as Intelligent, with the exception of the Arceans as bright. I restarted several times until I had a very good starting position, with Earth a Class 20 planet. In all the games I've played, when I have built starbases in their sector, the AI has never demanded a starbase from me, and no matter what the AI builds, they'll never have any hope of counterbalancing the influence of multiple starbases. In this particular case, I haven't even built any starbases in the sector where the four systems lie. My five starbases lie in my Earth sector which is right beside it. That sector had over 20000 influence last time I checked, with about 2500 spilling over into the contested sector. I only have three sectors, with very good planets so that I could concentrate on building up a few systems rather than have a sprawling empire.

I don't usually care about war breaking out except if its early in the game, when I usually pay the Drengin off. Once I've built a bunch of Battle Hammers, the threat diminishes greatly because they'll just waste their Battleships attacking my systems. In the current game, I can always give them one of the systems that keeps switching and I could have peace immediately.
Sins of a Solar Empire II
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
With your tactics, playing the game like you do is one thing, but can you actually win such a game? Staying in the game and not losing it and actually winning it, is something completely different.

If so upload your tactics to the Metaverse so that the developers can use it to improve the AI.

Like Dave I had the impression from the gameplay examples Brad posted that the AI would react to influencial buildup by a human player. Are you sure you're playing the latest version with bonuspack installed?
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
I've certaining had AI players demand starbases from me because of the cultural influence. Feel free to ramp up the AI to genius if you're finding it a bit easy to make other empires defect! Also if you set your initial starting conditions by adding lots of points to influence it helps! Expect the AI's to get annoyed and attack though.

Paul.



~SDC~
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
hmmm...this seems like an fairly major exploit. i agree that the AI when trading should not accept, or at least attach little value to, planets that are overwhelmingly influenced by another culture.

also, it looks like the AI's reaction to "culture assaults" should be tweaked.

cheers

h
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
I have a strong feeling though that Executor is not running the latest version of GalCiv since other players are reporting such different findings.
Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top
I think Executor and Horatio bring up a good point, though. Perhaps, when an alien is offered a planet, they also look at the cultural influence of the offering race within that sector. If the planet will probably end up simply revolting back to the tradee, the alien will be more likly to reject the offer. I'll bring it up to Brad.

~SDC~