Game Pacing Thoughts

Here is the issue:

1.  The beginning of the game is extremely fun.  You're constantly thinking: what's the best method to get the most colonies? That's a challenge.

2.  When war begins, that part is fun too.  How do I not get owned by the AI on Suicidal?

However, there are two patches where the game gets EXTREMELY boring:

1.  The period BETWEEN the colony rush and the beginning of war.  Due to the way the pop mechanics work, you simply CANNOT invade your neighbors because your worlds don't have enough population and production.  The AI is in a similar bind.  In this period all you're doing (literally) is building factories/research buildings and constructors.  That's it.  You aren't doing anything else.  You CAN'T do anything else.  

2.  The period AFTER you've attained dominance.  There isn't a challenge anymore.  The rest is just mop up until the game officially says "you've won."  

The larger map, the more painful those two boring patches become.  So.... thoughts on dealing with this? 

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Reply #1 Top

Ooops.  Sorry for double post. Ignore this one.  

Reply #2 Top

Even during war, it can be painful to simply wait for population to regrow order to invade.  I think next game, I will build a bunch of tiny/small ships with one colony module (or troop module, whichever cheaper), to have stationed on each planet.  Each planet brings just 0.5 pop max, and rallies them for your big troop transports.  Then you wont take the larger pop hit on a single, or even just a few planets.  Birthing subsidies is great, but wow, to get more than 1.0 pop per turn on a planet, requires A LOT of manufacturing capability, which can really only be done on pure factory planets.

 

But, to answer your question, there is no answer.  You obviously don't enjoy empire building at all, just expansion.  I enjoy planetary management decisions as much as military decisions.  IMO there is more to the game than just "winning on suicidal".