I have had a great experience playing the Galactics and am (finally!) beating up the computer after a slow start. The AI IS more difficult, with all their free SE bonuses. It's really demoralizing to infiltrate someone's datalinks and see that they're paying only 4 minerals per row. Human players can't get that even with +6 Industry! Must be that Transcend level takes off 3-4 minerals per row (I can never remember exactly which one it is) directly instead of indirectly through SE, and thus with the built-in +2 or 3 industry AI bonus, they get down to 4 per row. It would be really scary if the AI managed a +5 on the SE scale and got down to 1-2 minerals per row!!
I missed most of the early secret projects (but not the Transmitter Trials - I *think* it's more important than the datalinks give it credit for! It seemed to give me +50% more minerals at every base instead of just 2, making its cheap price a real bargain!), but luckily the first rival that I obliterated (Syndicate) had a few choice SPs, namely the HGP and DF (WP in normal AC). It took quite awhile to beat them down to size - those great colorful worm things are really tough to take out, with all their special abilities! I ended up using some amplified scout artillery to soften them up, and purple artillery to weaken everything else (amplified and purple together are waaay too expensive, though I did make 1 of those!). The problem with the worms is they have EMC for rovers and tanks, AAA for copters and noodles, and if you send in a plain amplified scout infantry, their fungal sentinals will utterly destroy you. I ended up killing the worm with a purple infantry after getting it down to half power with artillery.
I didn't really notice any difference in sea bases - I think there's an extra mineral on bases and mineral bonuses, making them a bit more hospitible, but that's a general change and not just for sea. I didn't notice any difference in mining platforms (except that their so expensive!), maybe it's because I haven't researched the tech that gives +1 minerals on mining platforms. But I'm about 50-60% down the tech tree...
Speaking of tech, I "meandered" towards tree farms(a looong path there!). I just can't resist tree farms
. Also, like in normal AC, Hybrid Forest is available near Tree Farm, so I got that right away. The +1 energy in forest really helps out! I forget where crawlers were in the scheme of things, tangled somewhere in the tech "shrubbery". Many techs are prerequisites for 4 others, and there are so many different paths down the tree (things were fairly connected in normal AC). So, in my case, I got Tree Farms and Hybrid Forests long before basic facilities like Command Centers.
Another neat quirk was that Recycling Tanks aren't available for awhile (available right before Tree Farms, I think). Pressure Domes, however, are available from the start. So, if you really want those extra resources, you have to work harder and pay more minerals!! Being a fan of all things having to do with resources, I went for them right away
.
In SE, there's a lot more going on!! Instead of just having 3 affects (except for future societies) like in AC, every SE choice has 4! It's a lot easier to get the +2 Economy, and there are a few ways to go about doing it. There are also some nice Industry bonuses there. I was pretty powerful as Galactics with +5 industry (+2 from my faction bonus) and +1 energy per square!! I took a hit to research, but my faction bonus (80% cost of research) took care of that. I had nice police, so that cancelled out Galactics's extra drones. I think I got the equivilent of the AV, giving me the +1 police. With that I had double police effect! 3 double effect militia infantry/fungal militia/organic milita took care of a lot of drones!!
Population booming is more difficult to get to, it seems. I haven't seen a + Growth yet except from the Citizens choice, but that seems to put you there if you have children's creches everywhere. The only problem is all of its nasty side effects!
I'll have to check exactly what SE settings I used - something like Intolerence/Laissez-Faire/Green or Controlled/Default. I haven't gone through the Military/Macroeconomic tech branches yet, so I don't have a choice I like yet for Production.
Z
. Glad you like it though.
