Every Turn Counts
I've provided a save from the very first turn of a Survival mode game. I was able to get 55 turns. Can you get further?
To try it out here is the save: https://drive.google.com/file/d/18RWubDhiDutHC96M-BrOyyY7f5NWyf8P/view?usp=share_link
Note #1: This is a multiplayer save (so we can try Survival mode) so it needs to go in your ..\Documents\My Games\GalCiv4\MPSaves\ directory. It also needs to be loaded as "Restore Session" on the Multiplayer screen.
Note #2: This save requires version 1.10!
What is Survival Mode?
Survival mode is a multiplayer mode where the human players are locked at war with all the AI players, and the AI players are all locked at peace with each other. The AI also gets increasing bonuses every turn. The AI will win, the only question is: how long will it take?
In this game I'm playing by myself, but the mode can also be used for multiple human players to see who can last the longest.
The Game
I've disabled Tech Trading and Tech Brokering. Since the AI players are locked at peace with each other and I'm locked at war with them, it didn't seem fair that they would also be able to trade techs with each other (since I'm at war with them I can't trade techs anyway). I've also increases the galaxy difficulty to Genius level. This is going to be a tough game.
I've decided to play as the Mimot to attempt to capitalize on their strengths, and I've lined up the worst villains in the galaxy to play against.
I don't want to give away to much from the game because I want everyone to see what they find - or don't find - on the map on their own. But, a few lessons I learned:
1. I really tried to make the most of each turn, rushing new core worlds and ships right away. The bulk of my money went to governors and rushed colony ships. I think this was a mistake because I had no money for commanders or rushed military ships once I had the capability o build decent ones.
2. I was hoping to lean into the Mimot's ability that grants 2 ships for every 1 they build. That ability is awesome for kicking out colony ships and quickly grabbing worlds. But the weakened HP of Mimot ships meant that I could never go nose to nose with other civilizations. Which was especially telling for things like the free ships from techs (which aren't doubled).
3. In this mode more than any other, it's a waste of resources to claim planets you can't hold. Core worlds were okay because they couldn't be attacked without transports. But without feeder world flowing into them, they were slow to grow. Taking colonies was just a waste of a colony ship after a few turns.
4. I killed the most enemy ships in this game from an unlikely source: my shipyards and starbases. My enemies threw big fleets against them, and suffered significant loses, but in the end they took them out and crippled me. If I'd known this, I would have made Military starbases instead of mining ones (which also would have made feeder colonies more viable).
I thought I would get a little more of an opportunity to rebuild based just on my core worlds, but the first enemy transport showed up on turn 44.
And by turn 55 I was done.
For anyone who plays the save, please let me know if you were able to get further than turn 55, and what tricks you used to do it.
I look forward to hearing from you.
________________________________________________________
Every Turn Counts
I've provided a save from the very first turn of a Survival mode game. I was able to get 55 turns. Can you get further?
To try it out here is the save: https://drive.google.com/file/d/18RWubDhiDutHC96M-BrOyyY7f5NWyf8P/view?usp=share_link
Note #1: This is a multiplayer save (so we can try Survival mode) so it needs to go in your ..\Documents\My Games\GalCiv4\MPSaves\ directory. It also needs to be loaded as "Restore Session" on the Multiplayer screen.
Note #2: This save requires version 1.10!
What is Survival Mode?
Survival mode is a multiplayer mode where the human players are locked at war with all the AI players, and the AI players are all locked at peace with each other. The AI also gets increasing bonuses every turn. The AI will win, the only question is: how long will it take?
In this game I'm playing by myself, but the mode can also be used for multiple human players to see who can last the longest.
The Game
I've disabled Tech Trading and Tech Brokering. Since the AI players are locked at peace with each other and I'm locked at war with them, it didn't seem fair that they would also be able to trade techs with each other (since I'm at war with them I can't trade techs anyway). I've also increases the galaxy difficulty to Genius level. This is going to be a tough game.
I've decided to play as the Mimot to attempt to capitalize on their strengths, and I've lined up the worst villains in the galaxy to play against.
I don't want to give away to much from the game because I want everyone to see what they find - or don't find - on the map on their own. But, a few lessons I learned:
1. I really tried to make the most of each turn, rushing new core worlds and ships right away. The bulk of my money went to governors and rushed colony ships. I think this was a mistake because I had no money for commanders or rushed military ships once I had the capability o build decent ones.
2. I was hoping to lean into the Mimot's ability that grants 2 ships for every 1 they build. That ability is awesome for kicking out colony ships and quickly grabbing worlds. But the weakened HP of Mimot ships meant that I could never go nose to nose with other civilizations. Which was especially telling for things like the free ships from techs (which aren't doubled).
3. In this mode more than any other, it's a waste of resources to claim planets you can't hold. Core worlds were okay because they couldn't be attacked without transports. But without feeder world flowing into them, they were slow to grow. Taking colonies was just a waste of a colony ship after a few turns.
4. I killed the most enemy ships in this game from an unlikely source: my shipyards and starbases. My enemies threw big fleets against them, and suffered significant loses, but in the end they took them out and crippled me. If I'd known this, I would have made Military starbases instead of mining ones (which also would have made feeder colonies more viable).
I thought I would get a little more of an opportunity to rebuild based just on my core worlds, but the first enemy transport showed up on turn 44.
And by turn 55 I was done.
For anyone who plays the save, please let me know if you were able to get further than turn 55, and what tricks you used to do it.
I look forward to hearing from you.
________________________________________________________
[confluence title=""]https://stardock.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/SUP/pages/1447493641/GalCiv+IV+Dev+Journal+Links[/confluence]