Horatio Hornblower

Join Date 03/2003

Minor Civ Toggle?

What do they really contribute, anyway?

I've found that aside from their humorous aspects (e.g. the Snathi), the minor civs really add nothing to the games I play. Basically, they're a source of easy money/tech via trading (their diplomacy generally sucks) and, once you get Planetary Invasion, an easy way to get a high grade planet with a bunch of nice improvements (like tech/mfg captials).

I'd love to have an option to turn them off, or even better, be able to set how many minors will appear. The game would definitely be more challenging without them, as the AIs can't exploit them to anywhere the same degree as a decent player.

Thoughts?

Cheers

h

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Voqar

Join Date 03/2003

+21

I'd have to somewhat agree...and the AIs will exploit them too...since I always see them taking out minors very early in my games. A minor is just a nicely developed PQ15 colony waiting to happen that's marginally more difficult to "colonize" for either me or an AI.

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Alstein

Join Date 07/2004

+55

Perhaps another option- allow minors to expand like majors?

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Then they wouldn't be minors at all!

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The minor civs -do- expand. It's just very unlikely.
In one of my game, the most powerful civilisation in the quartely report are listed as the "Alkalians". Yup, a minor civ is topping the charts.

Of course, I traded them most of my technology for a heavy dose of cash - just don't trade them any +diplomacy techs and let the money flow in. I thought it was harmless, seeing as how they would get conquered eventually but then... they started building gigantic fleets and were attacking everything in sight. Last I checked, they had 5 planets.

Something else that seems odd: Minor civs "Popping up" out of nowhere. In one such occurance, one sprang up and was quickly enslaved by another major race - 2 turns later, I learned I had inherited of a new planet due to cultural revolt. I didn't even know where the dang planet was!

I like the minor races but I agree, a way to turn them off would be great

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I don't know about turning them off... I'd rather turn them down with a rare-uncommon-common option like the other features!

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I love the minor races for alot of reasons.
-They add alot of flavor to the game
-There a good source of money
-Major civs like to declare war even if they're no where close to them, giving you a good reason to declare war on that civ.

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Minors also are happy to conquer enemy territory. I gifted one of my battleships to one of the minors who were having issues with the Torrians. Well a few months later, they had conquered one of the Torrian worlds, thus splitting their empire in 2. I was close with both the Torrians and the minor race, but I enjoyed watching the minors kill every Torrian ship that tried to cross the minor's space to get at the rest of their empire. Soon, my culture wiped out the seperate area and the Torrians dropped to last place. The minor race basically killed off the second most powerful empire on the map (and when the Torrians fell, they fell to their bestest buddies (who was also arming all of their enemies and who started the wars that klled them)--me).

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I personally think it'd be nice if you can set an option to allow them expand like the majors do.

It'd certainly make things more interesting at the very least.

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I personally think it'd be nice if you can set an option to allow them expand like the majors do.

It'd certainly make things more interesting at the very least.

They don't play by the same rules as the majors though (ie. influence, UP), so it would get pretty odd.

The minors created from civil wars apparently do act like major AI according to an answer I got in the IRC interview, so that would be interesting. I havn't seen such an event happen yet, though.

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well it seems that others have had significantly different experiences with minors that myself. anyway, i'm not saying i *dislike* the idea of minor civs, they do add some randomness and flavor to the game. It would be nice if they could defend their planets a little better, maybe build up some military starbases and whatnot, so that picking them off would not be so tempting and easy (on high AI levels at least).

Cheers

h

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Franco fx

Join Date 04/2003

+59

The minor known as the "I League" can get big and nasty. In one game they became the most powerful race in the end game and had numerous planets.

As a player that tends to play a more peaceful game I wouldn't mind having some control on the minors similar to the choices in Civ where you can have none or raging hordes. If they are going to be there I would like to see them a little more agressive. I can sometimes use a little prodding to get me in War mode so I can hone my military skills.

They should be like the pirates with more ships but without the killer hit points. Someone that will fire without warning at the drop of a hat and get my blood lust going.

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minor civs DO expand, I know of one that has 2-3 planets, and coincidently it is the alkalians. an option for minor civs might be nice

maybe if a minor civ became powerful enough they could join the united planets thing

also, you should be able to offer minor civs the ability to join your empire, kind of like a protectorate or something, or like on star trek. I've never seen a minor civ voluntarily join a major civ, but a minor civ should be able to join a major civ

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