Multiplayer: Let AI Live?

[Helium Pond]

So, I gathered from reading various posts that the general consensus is, one ought to completely exterminate the AI factions in a multiplayer game, there's no advantage in letting them live. Is that really how most of y'all play? It seems to me that having a slave faction would still be useful, even in MP.


Never Saying Die,
---H--P---

[Garth Vader]

In my 2 player MP games I let them live. I don't give them tech though.

[mark13]

Usually I will let the University or Morganites submit, because of their quick research discovery rate. They can be very useful gaining techs for you, especially if they are discovering at their usual rate (tech per 7 turns-ish). Otherwise, though, there is not really much advantage, as having a slave faction is not nearly as useful as owning the land yourself, unless you are having severe drone riot problems.

Also, if the slave faction has SPs in their bases, I will obviously conquer them. If the base is liely to grow to a fair size I would conquer it also.

But usually, it depends how many techs they have, and how useful they would become.

[Basil]

Three major considerations are the difficulty level of the game, the size of the world, and how well the faction relates to me vs. how well it relates to my opponent. On a normal-sized world with Thinker difficulty I'd probably conquer most AI factions; I can have lots of bases because without running into inefficiency drones and land is at a premium. On a huge world at Transcend I'd keep factions that are inclined towards me alive, because there's more space than I can use and the trade can be very useful.