new and I have never won a game except spaceship

Can't beat the AI? Is it too tame? Discuss the best strategies!
XYZ
Elite
Posts: 432
Joined: Fri Jan 31, 2014 12:00 pm

Re: new and I have never won a game except spaceship

Post by XYZ »

Perhaps you should try to play on the metaserver versus human players. They are far from easier than the Ai but they will in most cases gladly help you. They will give you hints, tricks and tactics. AI dosen't do that. It's a shaping process...
Jim-11
Posts: 46
Joined: Sun Feb 24, 2013 1:28 pm

Re: new and I have never won a game except spaceship

Post by Jim-11 »

Anastasya, I think you are too focused on growth and building, so that you do not get science advancements as quickly as you need. Balance is essential in Freeciv, and that includes balancing growth with science. My game plan focuses much more on science:

http://forum.freeciv.org/f/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=192

Anther area that needs balance is growth versus production versus happy. I use the governor on cities of size 2 or larger to convert some growth into science. I also limit the size of my cities to a maximum of 8 (so no need for aquaduct) until I get railroads, and use the resources for production instead of growth.

Your games should be at the Easy level until you tire of winning all the time. When your game becomes difficult, reload an earlier saved game and do something different. The experience you gain from trying different approaches will help you to progress through the hard level. Have fun.
Anastasya
Posts: 6
Joined: Fri Apr 01, 2016 8:16 am

Re: new and I have never won a game except spaceship

Post by Anastasya »

I found out how to win. I start with a certain number of science improvements, and put it to around 5000 to improve any further. That makes it hard to gain science. Starting with equal islands, with one or two opponents. then i work toward getting boats to get to local islands so i can gain more cities there. then i do science to get library, so i can gain quicker to more improvements. usually then i need to get oracle for the discontent.

Also, i have noticed that for novice level of enemy, he does not get any irrigation at cities far from shore, when i set it to low water on land, where there is no or few rivers.

one big problem: after a while, the "bulbs" needed for upkeep is more than all the bulbs i can make, so i cannot improve any more, and the game stalls. (by stall i mean that i can keep on playing but can make no improvements.) and i lose science improvements. is there any answer to this, so that no upkeep is needed? and which science improvements cause how much upkeep requirements. i am disappointed thast the rules are very incomplete, and do not specify everything needed.

also, when starting the game with all science already discovered, the enemy does not utilize the very best fighting units, giving me an advantage. also, when starting with everything already discovered, i get all wonders immediately, buying them with the extra money i start the game with.

one thing i liked alot was when i saw enemy ai sending out boats to populate other islands. he did this very fast. so i went back some turns, reloading, and started game building battleships immediately on shore cities, building those shore cities first. then take those ships to his island and sink all of his ships carrying settlers. then the other islands are free for me to populate.

i tend to try to change the landforms to grassland, and farm everything, and railroad everything. except for special resource tiles, which i try to maximize.

where in the rulebook does it tell how much of what kind of production does each kind of tile produce. now if for example i see silk tiles, i simply change it to grassland and irrigate.

thank you for the encouragement!

i still have no idea what "shields" are or what they do.

how can i stop the discontent from having many cities? i have had near 100 cities, with total population of 500 million. but it makes discontent a difficult problem.
Drachefly
Posts: 13
Joined: Mon May 30, 2016 12:25 pm

Re: new and I have never won a game except spaceship

Post by Drachefly »

Shields are the physical production - the stuff you're building, like units and buildings and wonders.

You started with a very odd situation - extremely high technology level, science upkeep (I've never played a variant with science upkeep), and yet no cities to support the upkeep. No wonder things are all weird.

To view what a tile can produce, click on it while holding alt (or option on mac).

100 cities is a lot of cities. Rules have been put in place to discourage making that many.
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