Tips for Bright+

First the simple question. Nope, no new ships in 1.03.

What's your biggest problem on bright? Can't you keep up with the AI economically, military, socially, techwise?

Playing with the spending sliders is a big part of the key I discovered. Especially in the beginning of the game you have to take good care of them. You should produce as many colonyships (military spending) you can, as quickly as possible in the beginning.

After you've settled on the majority of planets that are within your reach, you should go for the planet quality improvements (social spending) soil enrichment and habitat improvement.

Don't overtax your people. Try to keep morale high so that your population can grow quickly.

This always gives me a pretty good start. I play at intelligent.

One final tip, if your starting position is really bad, you are screwed, so ctrl+n right in the beginning if you feel that you are in a very bad position on the map.

Note: this is how I play the game. There are probably lots of other ways to have a good (or even better start). But with these opening tactics I can survive on Intelligent. Not always win it, but at least I can put up a fight!

I just beat normal for the first time two nights ago. I switch to bright for the first time last night. My first game was going well, until the Arcean used my own cultural strategy against me before I could do it to him. (we were intertwined from the start). So I had a quick re-start. I won it on my 2nd try, but I did get a pretty good starting spot (without CTRL-N).

I switched from Medium to Large maps, and I find it makes it a lot easier. I find on smaller maps everything is a lot less forgiving if you make mistakes. I make a lot, because I'm impatient.

Although as LordTheRon states, if you point out what specifically you're having trouble with, it would be a lot easier to offer suggestions.

And again, if there's something specific...

One tip I can offer from personal experience - when you're starting to think you should start building some defensive ships "soon", start building them THEN. You may have already left it too late. I know I have.

Another tip would be to make good use of starbases. Not just to expand your cultural influence or add defensive strength to your ships but also to increase the military and social production of your colonies in the system. Even one fully decked out starbase can be useful. Not a game-winner, by any means, but at the higher levels you need to be taking advantages where you can.

~SDC~

One big tip for bright+ is to be a micro manager of your main sliders. Adjust your taxes to keep your morale on target (I keep mine at 75-80+ because you NEED high pop growth to compete) and adjust your research to just barely research your next tech.

I hate micromanaging as much as the next person... but one of the big things that the AI does at bright and higher is that it does exactly that, so you will fall consistently behind unless you copy them.

You'll also notice the AIs change their research strategy at higher levels, you might want to mimic them a bit, or at least the one that tends to be your biggest competitor. And just to mention, it's almost impossibly to completely out research the AI at higher levels, so you have to trade a bunch to keep up.

I'm on 1.02 and play with all races set to random alignment and to the 2nd highest level of intelligence.

So:

1) Morale bonuses are versatile. They allow you to raise taxes or boost your population. Try a populist government.

2) +1 speed really makes a big difference in the early game, and you need to build fast to get colonies. 10% morale for 1 pt is a bargain. +1 sensors is subtle but helpful. The rest in economy, because your production will probably be limited by your money for much of the game. Population doesn't win; production does. (The bonuses to military, social and research production appears to have a bug; avoid these).

3) Restart if you don't like your starting position. You don't need to own the game from the beginning, but if you're stuck with Earth at 16 and nowhere else to go, you might as well restart. I like to see a 2nd system I can colonize immediately, such that Earth plus that 2nd planet have pq >= 35.

4) Buy one or two colony ships (on slow pay) fast, setting military spending to 0. Then set it to 100% and crank out colony ships and 3-4 scouts. When you're done colonizing, switch to constructors.

5) Somewhere during the colonization process, maybe after you've sent out 5-6 ships, bring research online. I like to get Diplomacy fast, to get the 20% economy boost from changing governments. I hold off on Trade because I have no room to build freighters yet. Then I go for more propulsion (because speed is always great) up to impulse drive. Then get +20 pop growth from medical, then enough industrial to begin building a manufacturing capital. When I begin industrial research, I begin to do social production as well, starting with entertainment net and banking centers, then the 2 planet quality improvements.

6) During industry, I start getting nervous about defense. My response is to increase my research rate, and then research up through Shields. I don't bother building any Defenders. Instead, I shift Constructor construction to BattleAxes ASAP.

7) Trading techs is critical. I'll trade for cash or other techs.

8) Did I mention that speed is killer? My fast ships grab colony worlds from slow AI ships. I can shift defense to where it is needed, or focus an attack, bypassing enemy screens. Those free starfighters you get are useless- -until you can dart past enemy units to slay transports and freighters and then dart back out of range. Your survey ship travelling at 3 is worth 1.5 ordinary survey ships. And your damaged ships can run away. Initiative wins.

Anyway,

KenK

My main problem now is that my population falls way behind. I try kepping them above 80 moral but my population is never increasing fast enough. This is the main trouble I'm having in the jump from normal and bright.

Morale doesn't make a huge diffence in population growth if it's between 58-99. 100 Morale, on the other hand, means a large boost to pop. growth.

I've played a lot on genius+, and I don't usually worry too much about population growth. I worry more about grabbing enough systems, and the population thing will take care of itself over time.

One little tip that people overlook...build a transport or two, and use them to ship people from your overcrowded planets to the less crowded (or higher PQ) ones. You should try to keep your morale on your planets pretty even throughout your empire as much as possible. That way, you can crank the taxes until morale everywhere is in the low 60s if you need cash or drop taxes until they are all 100 if you need more people without wasting as much potential tax revenue as if you had a wide spread of morale between your worlds.

Za H posted a great reply on another thread regrading strategies for Masochistic games...I'd suggest checking it out. A very good walkthrough for the harder AI levels.

Although this transport idea is sound, my problems with population and morale start before I even have transports. Maybe I have to adjust my research goals. There's just too many things I want to get to in a hurry!

I find that most of the suggestion here work for me... but i do things slightly different:

1. colony phase - 45% military, 10% social, 45% reserach... crank colonies as fast as possible, colonize like all get out. usually i will also buy 3-4 colony ships to help for the fast initial boost. as soon as I meet others, sell technology (thus the high tech rate) the sale of tech to other races can net enough to boost production up 20/30% total or more. Also, I keep moral at 50

2. constructor phase. as soon as most of the planets are colonized, I switch all the colonies to constructors. change to 25/25/50 (research high), then reduce spending to get morale up to 90-95%. the up in morale will get my population growing fast. there is nothing like going from the lowest population to the highest.

3. battleship phase. because i tend to be low on defense, at some point someone wants to kill me. sure, i pay tribute for a long time (hopefully until i can get my population up), but that doesnt always work. when they declare war (usually right around the time battleship comes out), I change to 70-15-15 (military high) and change all production to battleships. if i can live until the first few come off the line, within 20-30 turns my fleet can mop up on the rest of the galaxy.

4. win. after my military is the tops, i tend to crank back to 10-40-50 or something like that and go for a win of any type.

I usually play on 4 brights and one normal (or just 5 brights on smaller maps - i hate the drengin and like to make them whipping posts) and i can usually win with this strategy on any map start. but i dont think this will work when the ai gets smarter...

ps. dr no chance, whats the name of the thread? thanks!

~SDC~

@ Friend Josh:

Name of the thread is New Masochistic Strategies? on the
GC Strategies section of the forum (click on the tab just below the Galactic Forum tab).

Za H makes a long post somewhere in that thread full of great advice.

I suggest, as others have said, boosting your millitary production at the start and grabbing as many planets as possible, and don't exclude 14 grade planets in a sector you own already due to influence, since they become 15 with just one improvement, although you can leave those for later thanks to the AI not getting them ever. Soil enrichment and Habitat Improvement should be the first two things you build. You should shoot for Battle Hammer tech ASAP, even with it being scaled back (or at least Battle Axe). You might want to build some Defenders on a smaller map if you are right next to the Drengin. You want to build constructers only after you grab as many planets as you can. You should limit trade to a few civs or one civ, usually a moderately poweful civ that will give you free ships if you get in trouble early. And try and make trade routes out of the way of your enemy's ships.

*goes to read Za H's thread*