Poor AI starts

[Nelphine]

I've just started playing MoO1 for the first time in.. decades. (I'm an avid MoO2 and MoM (using seravy's CoM mod) player - the only reason I haven't also played MoO1 was sheer time restraints, despite loving it as well).

I've lurked in this forum for years, reading reports and imperiums and OSGs, so I wanted to ask.

How common is it for AI to have awful starts?

My recent game, I had a gorgeous start (at least 1/4 of the Large galaxy was in my backyard, despite 5 AI) because Meklon had only 2 nearby planets: Ursa and Orion. So the Bulrathi expanded like crazy, and the Meklar could do nothing until they allied, and even then, the Bulrathi just swallowed any planets they tried to expand to.

And in my previous game, Cryslon, Sssla, and Nazin were also in a trio, all within 3 (or maybe 4?) parsecs of each other, and with only 1 or 2 other planets within 4 of any of the 3 AI homeworlds.

Edit: also where are the rules on what tech you can find from an artifacts world? I got stinger missiles which seemed absurdly good, and I never needed another weapon to maintain space superiority.

Edit2: never mind, found it, under the entry for 'how to kill the guardian' it mentioned that artifacts world's give random tech up to 10 levels higher than your current tech.
So I found one artifacts world with fusion bomb (level 9) and then found stingers missiles (level 18) despite not actually researching anything past 3-5.
So very rare occurrence, but I see why I was confused by rules of other games.

[haphazard1]

People have occasionally gotten truly ridiculous tech from artifacts worlds, if they are somewhere remote so they do not get explored until later in the game. Usually someone scouts them early enough that the tech is no more than maybe in the teens to low twenties at most.

On AI starts, I believe there are rules about how close the AI home worlds can be to one another or to Orion. But sometimes you do see AI home worlds close enough together to cramp the expansion of one or both races. The AIs get colony ships automatically, rather than building them, so losing one to early contact or to Orion is not quite as crippling to them as it would be to a human player. But it can still have a big effect sometimes.

[Bionic Commando]

I usually play 5/Imp/Medium which usually has the effect of at least 1 1PE. Just won a game where Sakkra and Bulrathi were right next to each other in the NW corner. The Bulrathi were 1PE and also got hit with the environmental event. Ouch!

But the counter point of AI crowding is that means the other empires are likely to have lots of room to expand. In the above game, the Silicoids, Humans, and Psilons all had plenty of free territory which made the game a fun challenge. I've also seen games like Nelphine mentioned where 3 empires start within 4-5 parsecs, but have been able to expand in separate directions. It'd be fun to play around with the galaxy creator in a project like 1oom to ensure more fair starts.

[Nelphine]

Thanks for the replies!

You mentioned 1oom - I've read about it and looked at the site, but I can't really figure out what it actually does - is it the next unofficial patch past 1.4? Just a reskinning? A mod? 

I couldn't figure out what it offered or why I would use it instead of 1.4, without actually downloading it and trying it.

[Bionic Commando]

Thanks for the replies!

You mentioned 1oom - I've read about it and looked at the site, but I can't really figure out what it actually does - is it the next unofficial patch past 1.4? Just a reskinning? A mod? 

I couldn't figure out what it offered or why I would use it instead of 1.4, without actually downloading it and trying it.

Basically the project creator reimplemented the core logic of MOO. He created some interesting flags to run the game in slightly different variants and rules. I've never played it using 1oom, although I do look at the source code from time to time to get an idea for how particular mechanics are actually implemented (as opposed to the OSG or manual's description).

[Nelphine]

Thought I'd try my hand at impossible large, since I've had some (very lucky) successful hard games.

Psilons have 9 colonies... several turns before I colonize my 4th planet (I'm Klackons). Psilons have 17 colonies before I have 10 (and I actually have a great backyard all to myself!).

I get up to my 11 planets I can get safely (4 more hostiles in my area for later), and first council vote, 3 people vote for Psilons, in addition to the Psilons having 15 of the 31 votes themselves, game over (I was second though! I had 7 votes!). Wheeee! Impossible indeed!

I'm also pretty sure I couldn't have gone to war with the Meklar (the only race I'd met besides Psilons) let alone looked angrily at the Psilons.

[haphazard1]

Runaway Psilons are very tough to deal with, or even just impossible some times. When they get that many worlds that early, their research will just explode past everyone else in the galaxy. Not much to be done except bow before your new galactic overlords.