Update : Renamed the thread to simple "bug reports" as alpha testing ended a long time ago.

I started a game of MOO to shake off some rust; it has been a while since I last played. Initial signs were very promising, with the only world in range turning out to be a fertile jungle 100. Scouts were sent out to check the region, and results were mixed: a line of three habitable worlds to the south were all 5 or 6 away, while the one range 4 world to the north was tundra. There was also a barren 5 to the northwest. Some potential useful real estate, but I was going to need range 5 plus some planetology to get it.

I did some normal early development, and then opened tech to see what my prospects were. Oh boy.... No early clean up techs. No range 5. No Controlled Barren. Not looking good. Terraforming+10 was something useful at least. I continued developing my two worlds and pushed to the next rungs of Planetology and Propulsion. No Controlled Tundra or Dead, and no Range 6. No access to more worlds until the third rung, and by now I was seeing Alkari ships to the northwest.

I was hoping for a simple, smooth game to get back into MOO. It doesn't look like that is going to happen. Also, this galaxy has Psilons, Klackons, and Humans out there somewhere. Fun fun. Welcome back to MOO, I guess?

The AI seems to really love magicians in city garrisons.
(Especially in the capitol city, but it seems that most cities will try to build a wizard tower and then churn out wizards until their garrison is full.)
It's a pretty good tactic.  Anything I attack with is going to get hit with a whole bunch of ranged magic damage before I even get a turn.

As a result I've been feeling like I have to play mostly sorcery, enough to get Magic Immunity.
That doesn't quite trivialize attacking cities, because the magicians can cast Dispel, but it makes it a whole lot easier.

(My current setup: 1 Life, 1 Nature, 7 Sorcery, 1 Chaos, 1 Death, Omnisicience, Specialist, Klackons.)

Is anyone else feeling this way?
How do you attack a city with nine magicians in it, if you don't have Magic Immunity or Invisibility?

I know Sapher had mentioned it but I finally tried it out last night and it was very satisfying!  Undead great lizard really stood out to me because it eliminates confusion as a weakness.  Got all sorts of good stuff, unicorns stone giants gargoyles, it you can get a stack of efreets you can have a 300+ mp extra casting pool for warp creature, not to mention warp lightning and all the other destructive fire stuff.  Here’s a build I’ve been having fun with:

2 nature
3 chaos
2 death

Sprites, warp creature, life drain fire bolt

Alchemy, conjurer, channeler, astrologer

Get a couple Nodes early and pump up magic power.  Channeler really helps as your conjured / undead army gets large and you get far away from home.

Gargoyles are fantastic for surviving and doing your warp creature thing, efreets absolutely outstanding.

Since what is to be PB53 has developed into an advanced start game, wanted to ask whether there is interest for a Medieval or Classical Era Teamer game. This would probably be played on a Donut or Inland Sea map (or, if we get really creative, a big and small like in pb45, with the north side on one team and the south on another, something like that).

If people prefer a 2v2v2v2 that is another option.

To clarify, the team games would use the actual team settings - shared research, map vision, etc.

A good option would be to pair novices with experiened players.

I've seen "Pink Dot" used so frequently for such a long time, such as this Cuban Isolationists thread from 2005. Is this the original? Or does the term go back even before Civ4's release?

Sorry if this is common knowledge, but I didn't find anything conclusive while searching.

On higher difficulties, it may not work - but what could be a good peaceful city strategy?
Halfling sorcery 8 books - sage, specialist, omniscient alchemy? Good for fast research, but little power in the meantime. 

I think omniscient/Cult Leader are really useful to achieve the desired aim. Then pick a race that can build everything. 
High Men or Halflings come to mind. THe good thing about High Men is: speedbuy religious buildings, much cheaper. 
How about: 
High men, Omniscient Cult Leader Alchemy sth else - 2 life, remainder chaos. 
This allows for: 
Heavenly Life - 5-6 power.
Magic Market - 8 power.
14 Power each city, cheap investment. 

High Men Omniscient Life only is not as good - you have more gold but with alchemy there is not so much scarcity. 

Wonder if High Men Life/Nature might be strong - omniscient does not give you power here, but instead increases your growth significantly.

Besides, Life/Chaos enables to to grab some resources (albeit not as efficiently as the speed resource grabbing builds).

I wonder what would be the best starting picks/strategy if only quick combat were allowed. Any hints? Of course you would have to take different strategies against raiders into account - you might lose battles you would win in real combat.

I liked Zitro's suggestion to shorten the distance between towns. How do yo implement it? Does the real time tweaker accomplish that? 
Thanks for any advice.

I've been experimenting with a new build (most of my retorts are the same, but the books were adjusted and inspired by Sapher)

2 nature
1 sorcery
2 chaos
1 life
2 death


picks: sprites, warp creature, life drain

alchemy, omniscient, astrologer

last retort archmage vs conjurer

archmage gives you higher casting skill so better in general, conjurer makes the units cheaper to summon and maintain.  Conjurer would help with the early game as well because I am mainly summoning sprites to hunt nodes and neutral cities.

I really wish I could add channeler into the build but I don't really want to give up anything else and it doesn't really help much in the early game, more of a longer term investment and especially once you crack myrror.

In my current game (3 chaos and archmage) I've been using a lot of fantastic creatures, on the other hand I am heavily casting in battles as well, so the extra skill helps.  I'm fighting a wizard with possession so it's really hard to make progress with normal units without getting losing a few units every battle, he also cast divine order so my summons and lightning bolts got really expensive, on the other hand stuff like heroism got cheaper but don't have bless or resist magic to help out with the resistance rolls.