In contrast, I have *never* seen the AI complain about starbases in sectors where it has no planets.

You'd think it would realize that four party palaces adjacent to its sector are much more of a threat than a shopping district within that sector.
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A question on a similar issue.

Do you guys think the AI knows when I stage my military ships in the sector adjacent to their system sectors?

I do that all the time and sometimes I get the message "I better deal with you before you deal with me". Does that mean they have detected my staging?

Talking about demanding cultural SBs, I'll always give them to the AI if they demand for it.

I would then buy it back from them with a few techs and they usually don't seem to demand the SB again.

I never thought of that!

As for your question. I've occasionally gotten threatening messages when I was doing a buildup. But I've never seen the AI actually do anything about it--it never recalled ships to reinforce, and it certainly never declared war unless I slipped up and left some ships in its sector. I don't think it ever even affected relations (though I could have missed that). So I guess in the end it doesn't matter whether it notices or not since it cannot respond effectively.
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I don't think so. I once got that message when I was just trying to have a military that might prevent the Altarians from attacking me. After investigation, I realized that if I built a military they'd attack. If I didn't, they wouldn't. It wasn't a question of ships being here or there. It was just the nasty aliens wanting to be the most powerful in the galaxy and acting paranoid on anyone whose military looked like it could outgrow theirs someday.

Hmm interesting, LDiCesare.

Well it would be good if the AI could somehow sense my staging. It is funny to see the AI send its entire fleet over to attack some minor when it is so obvious that I'm staging to invade them soon.

Good to see you still plugging away at Maso, LDiCesare. Good job with the Maso Medium win.

Wow, Masochistic life still survives outside the Fellowship!

Yeah, LDiCesare is one of the rare few who has continued with Maso. We have discussed about Maso strategies for many a month already.

LDiCesare,

Since Apolyton is dormant in Galciv already, why don't you join the Fellowship, we would love the add the wisdom of another Maso player to our ranks. You can always rejoin them if Apolyton decides to restart.

Of course I remember that he played Maso--he had some nice strategy posts. My surprise was that he was still playing, since everyone else seems to have quit. That "Masochistic strategies" thread is pretty dead after all, and the only discussion of maso that I ever see anywhere on the forum these days is between you and me in the Fellowship thread.
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Yeah, I need to post in the Maso Strats thread. Didn't contribute anything after starting that.

I have some points to make after finishing my last Maso Gigantic game.

Thanks for the responses to "can I build a culture base if a major and I share a sector?" I tried it today and they didn't respond when we shared a sector that I put a culturally heavy base in but that was only on painful - not crippling or maso. Ray's wisdom might keep me from losing a starbase. Also congrats to you who play on crippling or maso. I may get to crippling someday but on my large, painful game today, the Torians just about handed my head to me. LOL

Rick

~SDC~

I've not got too good handle on the SB demand algo as yet. Most times when I culture bomb, I'm the dominant power. Most times when I use culture SBs, I plant them with impunity in their home sectors. Most times they don't respond but I still get the occasional demand.

Well, not really. I do feel at home on poly. Admittedly, the most active thread over there is "why did you put galciv aside", but well, that's where the forum for developping my game is so I'll stick with Apolyton. I expect the Xpack to bring more life to the players.

Btw on maso, it is quite terrific to see the cultural influence of the ai. I recently settled planets 3 sectors away from the Altarians on a medium map, and a skull appeared there, even though there was another star of mine even farther. Of course, cultural starbases helped prevent flipping until I saw a transport full of aliens chime in...

No problems, LDiCesare. I do miss Ellestar's contributions to the forum.

Yeah, the 50% influence bonus is a killer on smaller maps.

That is a good point. You will want to build only so many starbases before you will have too many. I can only suggest that you build them and then work toward turning them into terror stars. Then you can move them around.

I just completed a game in which I ringed an opponent's home sector with star bases inside his boundaries, then started making the bases into culture bases (not Culture Terror Stars). His 3 systems in that sector started flipping to me every turn, so I kept giving them back to him through diplomacy.

Culture stacking can get quite insane, quite fast. If there was a way to post a screenshot, you could see that I've got him out-cultured 53,785,224 to 8,944. And I was nowhere near maxxed on starbases in the sector. It would be interesting to see just how high I could get it.

~SDC~

If you get the 'we have noticed the buildup in sector x, y' message, then you have been noticed. That always is the alien's sector.

The '....do you think you are playing against some computer game general?' message denotes a buildup outside of their sector (but in sensor range?).
Happened a few times when my fleet where just moving towards a further goal.

Both messages worsen relations. If you were at Hostile already, you might slip into war without realising it; the AI does not officialy declare war in this case. Nasty.

'We had better deal with you...'; I do not think this is related to a particular concentration of your fleet. Probably the AI deciding that you are the biggest threat in terms of winning the game and thus going after you.
Does not happen if the alien is much weaker (the other messages do).

von Schmidt