Tech victory/Long game needs help

I went for a tech victory for the first time and ran into some really anoying things.

First - I wound up assimilating all my allies. I got tired of having to find someone new to trade with. I was playing on large with max AI players and only had two opponents by the end. My allies also kept giving their planets away to someone else but 20 to 30 turns later they were all mine anyway. Shouldn't your allies benefit from your influence unless they stop being allies?

Second - Is there anyway to build lower tech improvements? There is nothing worse than getting a class 26 planet with no industry on it so you either have to wait 100+ turns or spend 5k - 8k bc each turn just to do anything with the planet. It wouldn't be so bad if it were just 1 planet but it seems when 1 converts they all start to, so having 20 new planets becomes less enjoyable in a long game because it takes too long to do anything with them.

Third - Is it me or were the precursors a very slow race. It's only lucky to find a ranger in the first 20 turns unless you are playing defensively for some reason. In the last 150 turns I found 20 of these and didn't find much use for them besides sending them to a planet that didn't have a starport. Is there someway to outfit them with new engines? I haven't found a way to upgrade any of the core ships so any of my lucky finds have never made it to a battle before it was over unless it was already in the area.

Fourth - Are new anomalies supposed to pop up later in the game? I haven't seen the point in building the wonder that allows all your ships to survey because there isn't anything left to survey by the time you can build it. In fact, even playing with max anomilies and large universe it's very rare to find any once I can build faster and longer survey ships than my flag ship. Also, once you find a worm hole why do they dissapear and why can only your survey ships use them? It seems like they would be a very valuable thing to have control of. After the first few games I never use them because unless they send you to a place full of useful anomilies I'll miss out on the ones near me.

Fifth - Is there a bug in the military strength indicator?? The first time I went for an influence victory I had two opponents declare war on me because they thought they were more powerful. Their ships were so slow that by the time they got to me I had enough higher tech ships to decimate them both.

Sixth - Is their a way for your influence to flip a resource starbase? or anyway to take them without going to war? It never fails that anytime one of mine get taken out one of my allies gets there before me. It seems a shame to have to have to decimate someone you have been friends with for the whole game because of that.

After MOO 3 being one of the biggest dissapointments i've ever had since I started playing strategy games I'm glad this game came out. I really hope they tweak this enough to where i'll still be playing it by the time G Civ III comes out.

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1) I'm afraid they don't as written... but it does sort of make sense in both directions. They should, and should not benefit from your culture, depending on the circumstances.

2) I wish...

3) As far as I know, no one has found a way to upgrade these ships.

4) New anomalies are supposed to pop up later in the game, but due to a bug they don't.

5) Military strength is directly a factor of offense and defense values. It doesn't seem to take into account logistics, ground forces strength, over all tech level, weapons tech level, economic strength or anything else for that matter. I have had many a war declared on me where I most certainly had less overall offensive power. However, those fewer ships could decimate my opponent's ships with great ease...specially when considering logistics.

6) You can buy it from them in the diplomacy screen. However, expect to pay out the wazoo... I have yet to actually accomplish this.

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As regards 6.) above, during an influence game I commonly purchase any Influence starbases my opponents have produced. It extends my range, and also bolsters my influence in an area I might not normally reach. Quite a bit of fun.

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3. its not hard at all to upgrade the precursor ships, the rangers are huge hulls, as soon as you are able to make huge hull ships you can put whatever you want on it, then click the precursor, and hit the upgrade button and you can upgrade it to any type of huge hull design you have

6. i've managed to buy resources for as little as 2000 cash. i bought 5 in one turn through a combo of tech and money, not too hard

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Buying starbases depends a lot on who you're buying them from. In my last complete game, the Iconans had a couple resource starbases I wanted, but they weren't willing to give them to me for less than all my tech, all my trade goods, and about half a dozen ships. Not exactly a good idea, so I gave up and started trying to out-tech them so I had more to offer. A couple dozen turns later, however, I noticed that the starbases I was interested in had come under new management. Somehow, the Drengin had aquired them (threats? gifts? they were still fully upgraded, so they weren't destroyed and rebuilt). Since I had a better tech lead over the drengin than over the Iconans, I opened up a trade to see if I had enough yet. I added one of the starbases to their side of the trade, added two good techs to my side, and was about to click on more when I noticed it suddenly turned green. 6 techs and 1 trade good later, I was the proud owner of 4 new mining starbases (the Drengin owned two I didn't even see) for at least 1/4 of the price the Iconans would have asked for the same thing.

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I went for a tech victory for the first time and ran into some really anoying things ... I wound up assimilating all my allies

Not a bug or a fault of the game. Tech victory IS suppose to take forever, that's why the tech line all have research advances which you build to speed things up. You basically need to sacrificing any other tech tree to accomplish this. The trick is to outlast your opponent and stay alive cause and prevent the other races from winning by other ways, I find that an influence win is the quickest, then militray, then Alliance.

Shouldn't your allies benefit from your influence unless they stop being allies?

This is one of the main thing I don't like about the game. The ONLY reason to go for an alliance is when you are going for an Alliance win. There are minor benefits such as a slight improvement in diplomacy due to relationship, and that there is a chance they will attack your enemies.

They won't however protect your planets or starbase, share influence, tech or money etc Not much of an alliance huh? If you think about it, it does make sense as there is a conflict of interest. Everyone is trying to 'win', meaning an Alliance is just another means to an end.

Second - Is there anyway to build lower tech improvements?

For some reason I never thought about this. Good point though.

Third - Is it me or were the precursors a very slow race ... Is there someway to outfit them with new engines?

I wish. There is a way to 'completely' upgrade the whole thing if you have the huge hull technology. But depending on the other technologies you have, it will probably not have the same weapon/defence capability. It also takes ages to get the 'huge hull' research and cost a lot to upgrade, cause you are doing the whole thing on not just the engines.
I so wish...

Fourth - Are new anomalies supposed to pop up later in the game?

Yes, this one is a bug.

Fifth - Is there a bug in the military strength indicator?? ... Their ships were so slow that by the time they got to me I had enough higher tech ships to decimate them both.

Due to military value doesn't take anything into account. Currently, the ships the AI makes are slow cause they don't think engines are important. However, 1.1 is suppose to fixed this as shown by lots of thread on the beta.

Sixth - Is their a way for your influence to flip a resource starbase?

I don't like the idea of an influence flip of a starbase. Can you ever influence flip a influence starbase. Lots of issues. Influence flipping a planet makes sense because they have morale of the general people. I suppose starbases have morale but consider it should be run by the military and depending on the race, their upgrades, it wouldn't be very easy.

I was the proud owner of 4 new mining starbases (the Drengin owned two I didn't even see) for at least 1/4 of the price the Iconans would have asked for the same thing.

BTW, all due to diplomacy and alignment. Some races are very easy to exploit cause they have a low low diplomacy. The Dregins I find are easily fooled into thinking something is worth more/less. Likewise the Yor.

Edit: For the record I like to say this is one of the most un-user friendly forums I have ever used especially to quote and to edit... *mumble mumble* stupid html code...

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