Good, Evil or Neutral?

I prefer the neutral alignment because I can make an alliance virtually with everyone balancing useless events with good choices and the usefull events with evil ones.
Btw usually I play with the preset alignment of the alien races.

I often end up chaotic evil because I take the "best for my people" route. I always choose the good options when my own citizens are on the line, but when it comes to aliens or inferior species...screw 'em.

Darnit...now I wish there was an edit function. I was going to add that I used to always take the "good" route, pretty much for just roleplaying reasons. It fit what kindof empire I wanted.

I pick Good because I like having better relations with non-evil races. The only colonization events the evil choice temps me with are those nice PQ boosters:)

~SDC~

Whatever I decide at the beginning of the game, sometimes modified by my closest neighbor.

I never play neutral, though. Always good or evil.

~SDC~

I ALWAYS end up evil.I start the game thinking "Im gonna be good this time" but then some colononization random event comes along like the polar Ice cap one and I just cant do it.Whats the point of having a colony with -30% production?Then since I just went to the dark side I figure I might as well go all the way and I end up being demonic-drinking plague boils and watching animal fights.
It just seems too hard to get to good--It only takes 3 evil choices to go evil yet it takes 5 good choices just to get to (65)which is still neutral.
Oh-well

I usually wind up in the 40-60 range, often intending to go one path but getting all wishy-washy about some of the choices. I usually shoot for good but as noted it's pretty tough. I do know for certain that I don't like evil for 2 reasons:

- Sounds silly, but the music. Very repetitive and not as nice to listen to as the neutral/good music.

- Fundamentalists have popped up in most of my games and gutted the Evil races. I don't want to join them.

Evil. Not only is it more fun, but I tend to think that the techs are much better than the good ones.

Chaotic Good ---> Good.

Even with great advantages on the line for going evil, I find I just can't do it. I always push for "Saintly."

OTOH, I plan to start a game this weekend where, deliberately, no matter what's offered, I'll always choose the evil approach, just to see what happens. I'll go back to my regular game when my conscience kicks in.

~SDC~

I think good and evil are fairly well balanced. Evil is so tempting, but it gets very difficult to recruit allies and those Fundamentalists will pop up and kick your heinie. I usually go chaotic good, taking only the +PQ events.

One thing I never liked about the random events is that Good choices are ridiculously punitive. For instance, if I pay 600 BC to save my people from earthquakes then I should get something positive in return, say +10% morale for that planet. As it is 95% of all events are a total screw job for the good picks and Merry Christmas for the evil ones. And the poor neutrals just get left in the gray zone. And the good vs. evil techs are almost identical, which I don't much care for. I'd like to see the evil techs give one kind of advantage, the good another. The only outstanding tech Good has that I can think of offhand is hyperwarp and I just trade for that or grab it during peace negotiations, then I have the best of all worlds.

I tried being good, I really did.. I JUST LOVE BEING EVIL..

~SDC~

Never play the same way twice, varying the playing style makes for more fun. This goes for events, tactics, ability picks etc.

Neutral, unless I've got an advantage otherwise in the game. Then I go Good. Evil is *very* tempting sometimes but I just don't like the background music.

~SDC~

Varies, but usually neutral or evil. I like +PQ events. That, and the "good" UI is too bright. (Ahhh! It burns! The light burns!)

I haven't had the heart to go evil yet. I keep trying, but then I think, "That's 10 billion people getting killed!" or whatever. Even though they're just virtual people, I still have a hard time. I'm really gonna do it next game, though. Really I am.

RR

Almost finished a neutral game. It's a little.....flat. With no alignment techs to boost trade, moral and such. Dull, and hard to make ends meet.

That said, you can afford to make some evil choices during the morality events at the start to give you a boost, then later even it out with some good choices!

And, Riverunner.... I believe you. Really I do.

Honest.

Evil is cool, as you can get a great start. (How many times have I told you, people are a RENEWABLE resource!)

Good less cool. Just the penalties you get for making those choices... Ouch!

Good. Mix trade, engines and incredible armada to boot.
I would be evil except the good guys discriminate against evil. "Oh, You lack morals, lets limit your trade routes and attack your frieghters and other non-combatants, because we have morals" I mean they don't really try to keep the piece because I'm Evil and work towards diplomatic ends with universal peace, negotiating an end to any armed conflict and they're good and believe in erraticating all life in the galaxy. If you can't beat them, join em.

~SDC~

I wish I had an edit button

~SDC~

I usually end up where the random events take me. Sometimes good and sometimes evil. Only stayed neutral once.

I got nailed just a couple of hours ago when the UP voted to permanently limit my trade routes to 1 -right- after I finished up researching my +1 trade route and +10 trade profit techs, and had 7 trade routes active that were extremely profitable. I was less than amused.

BTW in the sticky bug thread at the top of the forum someone posted a fix for the event problem where +research events weren't working right, so all you evil-doers might want to check that out. You can finally actually get that +49% research bonus instead of just thinking you got it.

The tech part is a non-issue, you just trade for any tech the other alignment has that you want. I trade for hyperwarp every time. I think they should have it where aligned techs don't show up for trade with races that aren't of the proper alignment, as it is everyone can get everything (and usually do).

I'm not good at being evil. My last game (the one that the metaverse shows as 0 points but was actually 9784, more than all my other games put together) is listed as Pure Evil, but I was actually Pure Good for most of the game until I finished researching all the good and neutral techs, as there were no good races to buy them from (my random alignment generator has a love of evil). I then had to go pure evil in order to get the best of the evil techs, since the Pure Evil races had been conquered before they made it that far. And I did that without the repeated colonization trick, though I did have help from the creative pick

Most of the time I play good, though I don't hit pure good until late in the game, because I have a problem seriously screwing over my own people with a good choice that is of the "bend over so that we don't bother the other party at all" type choice when the neutral choice has a minimal impact on both parties. I'm most sensitive to that when it comes to negative PQ or morale adjustments on a planet that is already marginal to begin with, though I really hate getting a -38% PQ penalty on the only Class 26 planet I found in the game.

In fact, the only game I expressly set out to play evil in was the first time I played random alignments, and wound up with two pure evils, two chaotic evils, and one neutral. Realized that there really wasn't much of a payoff to playing good in that galaxy.

i tried to go evil in 2 games, i just couldnt do it. My ppl mean everything to me i have to learn to be heartless

I finally figured out that the good/neutral/evil choices change your alignment by a different amout each time, depending on what the bonus/penalty you get for each choice. So if the penalty is only say -4% research (bonus/penalties are random), your alignment won't change by very much. Some events are more drastic than others, and some events always only give +1 alignment for the good choice no matter what (usually the ones that don't have a penalty for good). So sometimes if I know the good choice is only going to give me +1 alignment, I'll go with the neutral instead. . .

I've yet to reach pure good status and believe me i've tried. Is there any other way except for the colonization/random events choices? Several games i've only chosen the 'good' options and i usually end up little over 70.
And i agree that alignment specific techs shouldn't be tradable.