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[darkrider2]

I've always been a fan of quality over quantity. But to do that it requires a lot of large components and a moderate to good tech level.

I'm also a fan of specializing each ship.

[EuchreJack]

I wonder if it'd be feasible to play the last surviving colony of an advanced empire, possibly one woken from some kind of hibernation sleep by an impertinent younger race. 1 million population or less but most/all tech researched. You'd likely have trouble crewing your ships but you'd need far less of them.

Interesting idea. You would want to utilize automated facilities as much as possible to mitigate the low workers, so automines/asteroid miners, fuel harvesting ships, maintainance ships, ship based terraformers and crank out engineering brigades to boost your construction ability instead of construction factories. You would almost certainly have to selectively switch off areas of production, with the 6 month wait when you shift back, in order to shift workers where they are needed.

Crewing ships wouldn't really be a problem. Trained crew produced by the military academies aren't linked to the population of the planet. In addition the slow construction rate due to low population would mean long periods between ships being launched to allow for trained crew to build up.

Low population won't stop your production/research just slow it down(a lot), which kind of fits with the idea that the younger races have to find and deal with you before your population grows and you are able to start really using your production capability. In the mean time your very few highly advanced ships should be able to take on entire taskgroups and possibly fleets of the younger races ships singlehandedly, which keeps it reasonably balanced.

I may try this out for my next game, and it gives me an excuse to do a non Sol start for once.

Even more interesting, place a lower tech race in the same system. Enslave them? Wipe them out and take the planet? Up to you. They woke you up after all.
[/quote]
If you want a real struggle, generate a starting NPR.  See, the starting NPR always starts out with the same tech as the player, but with a standard population of 500 million (unless you make it harder with higher difficulty).  Way to set things up like Orion vs. Antaran.  One lone Orion outpost versus the entire Antaran Empire!

(Well, not really.  The Antarans are already in the game as the Invaders.  But some of the MOO3 lore speaks of other super-advanced races.)

[forsaken1111]

That wouldn't really be a struggle, more of a slaughter. Same tech enemy but with 500x more population? You'd die.

[EuchreJack]

Nah, it would require the player to ally with every generated NPR and give them lots of tech.  Besides, NPRs aren't as good as the human player in utilizing there assets.  I think a player could win, provided they didn't meet the opposing NPR too soon.

Besides, the 500 to 1 ratio would decrease from day one.  In Aurora, population increase is based upon existing population, so a 1 million world will breed like rabbits, while a 500 million world will breed at a normal rate.

The 1 million population will probably double every other year until population 10 million is reached, then colonization can keep the extreme population growth going.

[forsaken1111]

I think even Aurora's AI could win with a 500x greater production capacity than you.

Consider that the starting scenario I proposed couldn't even adequately staff a single shipyard.

[Crustypeanut]

I wonder if it'd be feasible to play the last surviving colony of an advanced empire, possibly one woken from some kind of hibernation sleep by an impertinent younger race. 1 million population or less but most/all tech researched. You'd likely have trouble crewing your ships but you'd need far less of them.

I'm coming back to Aurora just to try this out.  Awesome idea..

However, for NPR's, I'm going to not have any starting NPR's, but instead have them with a very high spawn rate (upwards of 90%) and with a bonus to their populations. 

Gonna be lazy and use Humans though.. in the year 5000 AD. 

[forsaken1111]

The only problem I can see is that, as noted, generated NPRs would have the same technology level as you wouldn't they?

It might be better to 'pre-generate' 3-5 NPRs at whatever level you want them to be via SM use and then set up your own colony of supertech people.

[EuchreJack]

NPRs that generate in systems you explore are random in tech.  I think they can have up to your level, but usually they have far less. 

Only NPRs that start the game (via selecting number of starting NPRs) would have the same level as you guaranteed.

[Crustypeanut]

We will see..

[forsaken1111]

Ahh alright.

I'd say start the game with a moderate number of prebuilt ships that went into suspended animation with your small colony. Maybe a large defense station with several hangars which have general purpose ships docked inside. 1-2 cargo ships, colony ships, etc and a few small warships. The garrison and workforce of a small colony.

Even with 1 million population you'll have massive production issues for a long time, so you'll have to control your industrial sector very closely.

[Crustypeanut]

I'm starting out with one PDC that contains a massive hangar (10,000 tons), Barracks for 25 battalions, massive amounts of armor plating, and a number of sensors.  That one PDC's hangar will be the limit to what I'll be starting off with when it comes to ships.  I plan on having a pair of defensive ships in there to protect the planet.  No commercial ships for now.

As for starting buildings, we'll have 10 automated mines, 20 construction factories (undermanned), 1 fuel refinery, one deepspace tracking station, the shipyard, and one mass driver.

Starting population: 1 million

All technologies, EXCEPT biology/genetics.  As for researched modules and stuff, they'll have a limited number of extremely high-tech modules, and will have to research new ones in order to fill the empty spaces, even though the tech behind everything is still there.

[EuchreJack]

Seems I was a bit optimistic with population growth figures.  A population of 1 million will grow at 10%.

I actually messed up when I created my race, so they only started with 6000 tech points.  So instead of a super-technological race, I actually created a race that starts with less technology than some random generated NPRs.  Ah well, my 1 million race will strive to excellence anyways!

[Shooer]

You can SM more tech to your self, the starting OB and tech points are more of a guideline.  Also that high power NPR could turn out to be a big pacifist and want nothing more than to be your friend.

Since I am getting bored of my current game I'm going to start one of these as well.

[Crustypeanut]

Aye, I gave myself 0 starting tech points and just gave myself all the techs available You can go 'negative'.

[EuchreJack]

For some reason, my starting power doesn't start with fuel or industry.

While I generally frown on SM cheating, I may have to instant one of each.