A couple noob questions about colony ships

[dathon]

Don't get me started on the events... I am definitely NOT a fan of them!

IIRC, bad events have a higher probability of hitting the person in the lead, though I can't remember how that is determined. I'd need my MOO strat guide for the exact mechanics, and that's at home, so somebody else will have to be more specific

All events are announced, regardless of contact.

BTW, you can turn events off in the game by holding down the ALT key and typing "events." This is, of course, not allowed and considered cheating for Imperium or SG games. But I do this almost all the time in personal games.

dathon

[haphazard1]

Thanks for the info, dathon! Very helpful, especially knowing that all events are announced. At least the AI empires were not getting positive events of which I was not aware.

I will keep the "turn off" in mind, although as you say it is part of the game for Imperia and SGs.

I was the leader in planets and population for much of the game, so if those are the criteria it makes a bit more sense that I was hit with 5 of 6 total events. Still very frustrating, though. Especially that quake hitting the same world which got mineral depletion. My best planet other than my homeworld (largest base size and habitable) becomes poor, and then has a huge number of existing factories destroyed. What should have been a jewel of my empire became little more than a staging base for colonists and invasion forces.

[Sullla]

dathon - we will be playing with events set to "Off" for Imperium Eleven. Events are now an option to be turned on or off for each Imperia.

Sullla

[sargon0]

Actually, I came up with this on my own awhile back using a spreadsheet program that somebody else (sargon?) had written.

Now you can't blame me for all the spreadsheets! Selentine posted a ship design spreadsheet here http://www.realmsbeyond.net/forums/showthread.php?t=79 which was probably the source. I never posted my effort which I prefer - yes, you guessed right I did design my own.

Oh, and it's only 2 RP to open a tech field (or 7 RP for 3 fields at once).

[dathon]

we will be playing with events set to "Off" for Imperium Eleven. Events are now an option to be turned on or off for each Imperia.

:2dance: :kisskiss: :hat:



dathon

[sargon0]

Haphazard1: According to the game guide, good events tend to favor players with the lowest gross production that turn, while bad events tend to befall those possessing the game's leading economies. The ratio is squared so if you have twice the economy of another then you are 4 times more likely to suffer a bad random event. No player with 4 or fewer planets is subject to any random event occurrences.

After turn 50 the random event probability increases 1% per turn on Simple, 1.33% on Easy, 1.5% on Average, 1.6% on Hard, 2% on Impossible then resets after an occurrence. This means events happen on average every 25-30 turns on impossible level. Getting multiple bad events on the same planet is just bad luck though!

[haphazard1]

Many thanks for the detailed info, sargon0! Very helpful to know.

It sounds like the first event (plague on my second world) was truly just bad luck -- at that point there were 3 AIs with at least as much power as I had.

But after I solved my LR colony/range issue and colonized that additional chunk of planets, I pulled ahead and became the most powerful, and the odds for the bad events to hit me went way up. Still frustrating, but at least I can know that it wasn't just abyssmal luck. It's a deliberate mechanism to level the competing empires a bit.

I still find it curious that there were 6 negative events and 0 positive events during the game. Could this be related to the good events favoring the smaller economies, but no events affecting empires with less than 4 planets? The Bulrathi were a OPE for most of the game, and the Psilons were stuck with 2 until they reached range 7 and managed to grab several hostile planets in the far north. Maybe if the weakest empires have less than 4 planets, the good events just do not happen?

[dathon]

I still find it curious that there were 6 negative events and 0 positive events during the game. Could this be related to the good events favoring the smaller economies, but no events affecting empires with less than 4 planets?

Yes, but most of it is sheer probability. There are only 4 positive events that I can remember (planet rich, planet fertile, derelict, merchant), while there are at least 10 bad (plague, planet poor, industrial accident, computer virus, leader assassination, quake, rebellion, ameoba, comet, nova, and I'm sure I'm forgetting something)

If I'm interpreting sargon's post correctly, the weakest economy on the map has a straight up chance of good vs bad; everybody else gets their odds skewed by how much bigger they are compared to the weakest. What I don't know off the top of my head is if there are two checks (good/bad, then event afterwards) or one check (check each of the 14 events, and skew the probability of the bad events higher based on economy). Assuming it's the latter, the weakest economy will only have a 4/14 (28.5%) chance of a good event; everybody else will have dramatically lower. A race twice as big as the weakest would have 4/44, or just over 9%.

Oh, and game complete on Imperium 10 My result was interesting.

dathon

[sargon0]

The 15th event is pirates which affects trade from all players so could be good or bad.

My guess is one check but the recipient will be skewed for good or bad events. So imagine 5 players with 5 or more planets, one with a small economy, three with economies twice that size and one with an economy 3 times that size. When an event is triggered:

Good event - chance is 4/15 or 26.7%
One small empire (size 1) has 9/22 or 40.9% chance of being selected
Three medium empires (size 2) have 4/22 or 18.2% chance each
One large empire (size 3) has 1/22 or 4.5% chance

Bad event - chance is 10/15 or 66.7%
One small empire (size 1) has 1/22 or 4.5% chance of being selected
Three medium empires (size 2) have 4/22 or 18.2% chance each
One large empire (size 3) has 9/22 or 40.9% chance

Pirates affects a random planet (except Orion while Guardian there). [EDIT] I have heard of Pirates at Orion with Guardian so this could be a manual error or more likely a bug.

If this is correct, you could get a good event when large but don't count on it.

[RefSteel]

...Pirates affects a random planet (except Orion while Guardian there).

I could swear I've seen the Pirate event at Orion while the Guardian is present, with an effect that amounts to, "All trade effectively ceases for the remainder of the game (or until you take Orion...)." Could be wrong about this, though.