I have nothing about a "claim that the OPs intention was not the same as yours" (its likely true, as if i had the same intention id made such thread already). I just pointed that stuff like speed, efficiency, quality were already stated in OP, its not something that was added later or so. Ofc its up to you to feel intention that after OP directly used words "Best race setup" for topic, then used expressions like "best picks to succeed" "can quickly end up dominating the game" and "from a fairly early point in play" while describing his own example he actually meant "go tell me any random stuff about moo2 you can manage, everything will fit here". Just its not really helpful, as its too easy to feel anything you like such way every given time.

And im not very sure, what did you meant bout quoting that formal question? Without it OP would just share a some own thoughts, without formally inviting for a discussion, thats all.

Fight it out in a round of MoO2 multi-player instead of here!

In a single player game, the best is of course the one you enjoy playing.

It will serve way less educational purpose; its explanation, not "fight".

Thats essentially misleading. But of course player could stick to "what suit him best, no matter what else do exist". But, in this case, that player shouldnt get an idea to ask something about strategy (as he doesnt care about outside world, only that he's already "enjoy playing" do matter for them); nor get the idea to share own info with others (as he should expect from them what they doesnt care about outside world too, only that they are already "enjoy playing" do matter for him). Problem essentially arrives when you mix the 2, and jump into certain discussion about something only to share something on a ground of "but i like it" instead of actual theme.

Suppose there is a thread about "Best football teams of season 2000-2001".
Unless its clearly stated otherwise in thread, and deriving from the topic, to contribute something to it, user have to share some info about some football team that has been actually best in something in that season. Definition can be broad, actually even different sports possible here (unless its clarified inside), and "best" could be diverse too, could be "top of table of country X" or "most goals scored in season" etc.
But its of no contribution to come there and write "for me the best always is FC YYY, its my home team and im follow it, i dont care how they do perform, they are always best for me and this season too, despite they got demoted ". Surely for this guy it could be true, but allowing such stuff in thread named "Best football teams of season 2000-2001" will essentially turn it into "Any random football teams of season 2000-2001" thus into some junk chatterbin. As it will imply that some personal non-grounded feelings of some guy is equal for some actual info on a theme for others to read, as it takes a space in thread. That is essentially egocentric and wastage of time for other users.

Its essentially weird to share blatantly banal stuff like "the best is what one is enjoyng", as not only its not always true, but if you really guided by it you dont have to interfere at all.

But guys, you're overlooking the fact that MoO2 is inferior to MoO1 and you're wasting your time arguing about it : )

Have you tried out Ray Fowlers Remnants of the Precursors?
Its literally a 1:1 remake of MoO1 with improved Ui, and optional enhancements,
number of systems is only limited by the amount of ram in your computer.
Atm at alpha 4, running rather stable and in case of occasional crash using the last save solves the issue in 99%,
only several races and manual ship combat are still missing.
In case find discussion and links at reddit.com/r/rotp/

I think it was like 22 years age when i played master of Orion 2 put These positive picks are very top notch:

Creative (8)
Subterranean (6)
Unification (6)

Cost : 20

The negatives:

Cost: - 10

Low-G World (-5) can be undone later with some Kind of gravity Generator
Spying (-3) with the creative Talent you get some techs to easily negate this
Ground Combat (-2) also with creative Talent you get upgrade techs from the creative Talent which you would normally not take when you have to choose 1

I think thats it …

Ah on unification if forgot you would loose the morale Bonus so it's decent but not so powerful; the production Bonus clearly better than Food production Bonus mid to late game, Food production in the beginning.

Creative and subterranean are always great

my fav sewt up is creative, fantatic traders and psi, - take neg on weak, bad spy and and bad ground combat.
You gwet all tech, make more money and can mental control early game. I start off making a few ships and takeing the near4est enemy.

Last time I played for a good bit, I discovered I enjoyed a lot to have as high Ground Combat bonus as possible (so yes, Heavy-G world too), and board enemy ships whenever I can. And I put negatives on Ship Attack by considering that by the time I will do much fighting it would be far outweigh by technological superiority. With some minimization I put Assault Shuttles on frigates, and that was my main attack weapon taking enemy Titans. Soon pretty much over 3/4 of my fleet was consisting of captured ships. Too bad game doesn't allow to update/upgrade captured ships and the AI is such a shitty ship designer, but then such strategy would be even much more op as it already is.

Creative is convenient, but far too overrated.

Subterranean, yeah, there's little reason not to take it.

P.S. I also always put negatives on population growth, not because it doesn't matter (although it isn't that much penalty over the long run), but just for the fun of it.

Except nothing of it fit the actual thread name using word best (best mean best, not "thing i like(d)" or "thing i use(d)"). To make things worse, actually HG Ground Combat race is indeed the best race on setting of 1-1 small average tech vs AI, but post is ridiculously misleading about it and talking about titans and assault unicorns stuff instead.

Lol. Relax dude, you don't own the forum, nor even are the topic starter. As clearly stated it's "best" for a specific type of fun.

Lol. Relax dude, you don't own the forum, nor even are the topic starter.

For a second part of message its more complicated tho. But i guess you will get no problem with providing some valid quote about mentioned "as clearly stated it's "best" for a specific type of fun", so it solvable.

This is my usual setup. I can reliably win most games I play with this and am rarely forced to restart.

Penalties:

- 50% population growth (4 picks): This is rarely a problem and can even be beneficial in the early game, as it prevents population growth from outpacing your food supply. There are multiple techs that can offset the penalty, the most convenient of which is probably cloning center, which is available relatively early in the game and will always add 100k population per turn (except in rare circumstances), so any colony that builds one will get at least one unit of population every ten turns. You can always build housing, too.

- .5 BC (4 picks): This can be problematic in the early game when your resources are limited, but numerous factors can help to offset it. Setting your tax rate at 20% and keeping it there throughout the game is a perfectly reasonable strategy, and picking up megawealths and/or gold/gem special planets is always a nice boost. Also mitigated by planetary stock exchange and galactic currency exchange, which are the only techs in their fields. If you have a halfway decent empire, you should almost never dip into the red; if you have a good empire, you'll be raking in tons of money by the endgame.

Picks:

- Telepathy (6 picks): Telepathy is a racial trait that borders upon game-breaking. The ability to instantly take over a colony in almost every case without engaging in ground combat allows you to expand your empire quickly and easily, particularly in the early game. You'll only ever need to build transports if you're up against the Elerians or if you really want a colony occupied by a telepathic leader. The diplomacy and spying bonuses are just icing on the cake.

- Unification (6 picks): Enhanced farming and production. Eliminates morale penalties as well as morale structures, so you don't have to waste time either researching or building them. Assimilation rates are poor, but telepathy makes this a moot point; mind control instantly assimilates enemy populations, even when you invade with troops!

- Subterranean (6 picks): This is a guilty pleasure. Once I started playing as a subterranean race, I got spoiled and never wanted to go back. Doubling your planetary population gives you more of almost everything: more workers to produce, more scientists to research, more citizens to tax and to generate revenue. Everything is researched and constructed more quickly, and techs that work based on planetary population are more effective. Huge planets, after being terraformed, have a base population limit of 32, which can be increased even further by techs like biospheres and advanced city planning. Rich planets become industrial powerhouses; poor or low-gravity planets with good environments become farming worlds that can feed half of your empire.

No, 30. It is 32 with biospheres.

Cutting other lame stuff (like using a horrible negative picks and mentioned problem to even win an AI sometimes) from you aside: do you really precisely mean if this quoted part "im a lamer, i like it and i dont want to learn how to play this game?", or you believe its supposed to means sometrhing else?