Posted April 23, 2018
Despite this game being rather old and known, curiously enough, talks about Hi Scores in it still appear time from time, so i decided to make them stop.
Surely its widely known long ago what highest hi_score is 32767, to achieve it just repeatedly make a system gifts to AI, then recapture planets back, and get a points for an event of capture colonists (turning all not good planets into larges using stellar in process as bonus). But suddenly i realize what i cant actually recall playing for score. Partially it could be attributed to supposedly Diplomacy involving in process. If you play moo2 using Diplomacy not for testing some stuff, but to actually achieve something in game - you are horrible lamer, you know. It just like using of cheat codes (if you play moo2 using cheat codes not for testing some stuff, but to actually achieve something in game - you are horrible lamer, you know). [If you planning to use the aforementioned pair further - you could become hopeless lamer, beware.] So i just decided to actually try to run it, without Diplomacy ofc, just to see the amount good player should get there. It was surprisingly even more easier than i thought (i even didnt used a single Scientist in a whole game). In attachment there is a score screen-shot + 2 saves (in a zip archive, rename saves.bmp to saves.zip and extract), one is leading to that result screen, other is earlier, so its possible to play for higher score.
Edit: http://s000.tinyupload.com/?file_id=07794372409494172113 have some easy farmable save without any other needs to do.
note 1: played in 1.50.9.classicX3, so while its possible to load a final save and win a game for same score in pre-1.50 game, meaningful playing of earlier save in pre-1.50 is impossible, due to save format differences.
note 2: unlike my other runs i did some reloads there, not "what if" ones, but merely "i forget\didnt noticed it" ones. still technically its not a valid result (the whole point here is about "there is no meaningful valid result there" anyway).
note 3: played in 1.50, because pre-1.50 is simply better. it have some (very few) problems ill mention below, but i will not be able to play it in 1.40 without build queues anyway (and i would have to load some tens times more even if i would been able to).
note 4: settings was classic, its not about "getting something not possible in vanilla game using modding" at all.
note 5: i did some initial reloads to achieve a good start here. but comparing to, say, playing for turns importance of start quality is nearly nothing here (surely youll need at least one subterranean ai race still)
Quick description: due to way hi_scores calculating, easier to play on Advanced tech. As no Diplomacy is used, no reason not to take repulsive.
To make a score farm without using diplomacy gifts:
1. do not quick kill all the races, ideally grab some good race like Silikoids or Sakkra, then take Orion and about half of galaxy, while leaving some high-pop races to live.
2. without diplomacy we cant just give a tech to AI, but eventually they should take some of needed techs from us. So dont use defensive spies, and try to not run into having them via eliminating some player too early. Edit: Successful rebellions cannot bring tech, so try not to rely on it.
3. try to avoid too good ground combat techs, like Powered Armor (surely likely youll get it from AI later still).
4. capture low-pop races (Bulrathi probably should be fine to stay), let high-pop ones develop large planets (~30 pop).
5. capture high-pop races too, leaving planets smaller than medium and toxics intact.
On a large-pop worlds do not:
a. unload transports
b. build Alien Control Center
c. build any Barracks
note 6: due to classical bug, or weird designers decision, rebellions ended in a defender victory never cause defender's marine (tanks, battleoids) amount to decrease, unlike a non-rebellion ground battle.
[example 1: defender have 4 marines and 1 tank on a planet, attacker use 2 transports (8 marines); in battle 4 defending marines and 8 attacker marines are killed; defender won a battle, and have 0 marines and 1 tank left (technically some 3-rd player can land a troops same turn there, and have only 1 tank as defender.
example 2: defender have 8 marines and 1 tank on a planet, attacker have 30 rebels; in battle 8 defending marines and 30 rebels are killed; defender won a battle, and have 8 marines and 1 tank left (as if battle doesnt happens at all)]
While fixing it will only make a describing farming even more easy, still worthy to note what beside aforementioned farming its possibly exploitable to grab a techs from AI, while beside those options its could be quite dangerous to player. With large planets rebellions are happening quite often, but because they doesnt decrease defenders amount if failed, they failed too often, even if happens in quick succession.
6. Tech for Stellar, and Stellar all bad colonies you can (small planets unlikely to succes in revolt, so dont capture them if they have a good planet in same system), terraform and fill all your planets to cap using sub+tol or sub+aqua or sub+gaia_transformation. Build Barracks and Control only on planets already unable to revolt. Keep large ones to revolt repeatedly, till you become bored. (in this run i played very slow and suboptimal, so it took whooping 280 turns from Advanced, could be way faster. but it too boring and tiresome for me to do properly now, despite all the 1.50 beauty. 25 colonists travel limit kick badly there)
note 7: sixth ship slot in 1.50 is still buggy - dont let ships amount reach 500.
note 8: in pre-1.50 due to bug player could fit 42 pop (and more if you wanted to crash) on any planet regardless of type and size, so technically it could be even more easy there, if one doesnt mind some bug abusing.
7. Win a game by simultaneous attack on a last AI planet and Antarans. Just retreat from Antares if you get a battle there as first one and try next turn. In this save it took me 5 turns to get battles in order (so Antarans have a small fleet already). Alternatively you can attack on a vote turn (i will not) and score both.
Initially i planned to fill all planets to max, then check a score for fun, then try to farm to negative score, thus 2 saves. But it happend what pure farming part is already not needed, as it wraps already. I didnt used alt+scor to make it more thrilling.
note 9: alt+scor(e) cheat is affected to classic bug, and could provide wrong results.
So, as conclusion its worthy to mention what the max possible score achievable in classic is -1 (aka 65535) or 19275 "pre-modified" points (alternatively its -1 aka 65535 "pre-modified" points, but it will not require a weak race, as modifier will not matter), so i did already above half-maximum with one try. Keeping doing rebellion farming should have it reachable (while surely some really bad sequence of rolls could eventually stop it).
note 10: due to 1.50 bug the score in save is different from classic (loading a save in pre-1.50 will not help to notice it). while Time bonus is 160 points more (should be 955 instead of 1155), Colonists Captured bonus is 302 points smaller (should be 1509 instead of 1207), so actual result should be 142 points more (9968 instead of 9826) {yes, fall short of 10k,}.
As reminder, dont use a Diplomacy when you play moo2 unless you testing stuff. Its not needed even to score farming, its just a cheat, but its worse, as you may not treat yourself as a cheater while doing it. And it will halt your progress as a player eventually (while you'd honestly will think otherwise). Also dont play for score, its silly. Play for turns, its 63 for Huge8 from Prewarp and 18 for Small8 from Average for me (without save\loads ofc, saves had to be used wisely too) {ill mention even faster TAS run https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tqp1FVbQSU of some guy on YT, via repeatedly playing on a same map and learning needed random outcomes and how to affect them he did cut it under 60 (just its a shame he have no views there, while beside Rocco and him i guess there is no one decent player on YT, and watching lamers playing will not make you better (verified by numerous watchers of those lamers, as they cant really play too in result))}.
xstra
note 11: game treats event of building of Core Waste Dump weird: it destroy cleaning buildings (Processor and Renewer) on that planet. but it do it some unique way, selling them for full price. while idea of reducing micromanagement is somewhat fine (while player cant just sell them for achieving same result (unless some additional pollution managing included)), selling it for full price making it too good (as its already a player-friendly stuff), for example when Unification player capture a colony with some Morale buildings - they are destroyed and sold only for half-price, as usual with dismantling of a building (while still offering a bonus of destroying buildings above usual limit to do so).
note 12: a bug about player's income exist both in classic and 1.50: income is capped at usual 32767. but, cap appear pre-maintenance. so, player cant earn more than 32767, but can have to pay more in theory, even up to being unable to. its easy to notice in save, as rising tax will not increase income amount. the way it calculated it could result in weird case of player getting negative income while having a seemingly positive balance.
[example: player have 200 identical colonies, each add 200 income and have 180 maintenance, so 20 net income each (and visuals in a colony will tell that). but instead of expected +4000 bc, player will have -3233 bc. things could get worse if you add ships etc into account.]
Surely its widely known long ago what highest hi_score is 32767, to achieve it just repeatedly make a system gifts to AI, then recapture planets back, and get a points for an event of capture colonists (turning all not good planets into larges using stellar in process as bonus). But suddenly i realize what i cant actually recall playing for score. Partially it could be attributed to supposedly Diplomacy involving in process. If you play moo2 using Diplomacy not for testing some stuff, but to actually achieve something in game - you are horrible lamer, you know. It just like using of cheat codes (if you play moo2 using cheat codes not for testing some stuff, but to actually achieve something in game - you are horrible lamer, you know). [If you planning to use the aforementioned pair further - you could become hopeless lamer, beware.] So i just decided to actually try to run it, without Diplomacy ofc, just to see the amount good player should get there. It was surprisingly even more easier than i thought (i even didnt used a single Scientist in a whole game). In attachment there is a score screen-shot + 2 saves (in a zip archive, rename saves.bmp to saves.zip and extract), one is leading to that result screen, other is earlier, so its possible to play for higher score.
Edit: http://s000.tinyupload.com/?file_id=07794372409494172113 have some easy farmable save without any other needs to do.
note 1: played in 1.50.9.classicX3, so while its possible to load a final save and win a game for same score in pre-1.50 game, meaningful playing of earlier save in pre-1.50 is impossible, due to save format differences.
note 2: unlike my other runs i did some reloads there, not "what if" ones, but merely "i forget\didnt noticed it" ones. still technically its not a valid result (the whole point here is about "there is no meaningful valid result there" anyway).
note 3: played in 1.50, because pre-1.50 is simply better. it have some (very few) problems ill mention below, but i will not be able to play it in 1.40 without build queues anyway (and i would have to load some tens times more even if i would been able to).
note 4: settings was classic, its not about "getting something not possible in vanilla game using modding" at all.
note 5: i did some initial reloads to achieve a good start here. but comparing to, say, playing for turns importance of start quality is nearly nothing here (surely youll need at least one subterranean ai race still)
Quick description: due to way hi_scores calculating, easier to play on Advanced tech. As no Diplomacy is used, no reason not to take repulsive.
To make a score farm without using diplomacy gifts:
1. do not quick kill all the races, ideally grab some good race like Silikoids or Sakkra, then take Orion and about half of galaxy, while leaving some high-pop races to live.
2. without diplomacy we cant just give a tech to AI, but eventually they should take some of needed techs from us. So dont use defensive spies, and try to not run into having them via eliminating some player too early. Edit: Successful rebellions cannot bring tech, so try not to rely on it.
3. try to avoid too good ground combat techs, like Powered Armor (surely likely youll get it from AI later still).
4. capture low-pop races (Bulrathi probably should be fine to stay), let high-pop ones develop large planets (~30 pop).
5. capture high-pop races too, leaving planets smaller than medium and toxics intact.
On a large-pop worlds do not:
a. unload transports
b. build Alien Control Center
c. build any Barracks
note 6: due to classical bug, or weird designers decision, rebellions ended in a defender victory never cause defender's marine (tanks, battleoids) amount to decrease, unlike a non-rebellion ground battle.
[example 1: defender have 4 marines and 1 tank on a planet, attacker use 2 transports (8 marines); in battle 4 defending marines and 8 attacker marines are killed; defender won a battle, and have 0 marines and 1 tank left (technically some 3-rd player can land a troops same turn there, and have only 1 tank as defender.
example 2: defender have 8 marines and 1 tank on a planet, attacker have 30 rebels; in battle 8 defending marines and 30 rebels are killed; defender won a battle, and have 8 marines and 1 tank left (as if battle doesnt happens at all)]
While fixing it will only make a describing farming even more easy, still worthy to note what beside aforementioned farming its possibly exploitable to grab a techs from AI, while beside those options its could be quite dangerous to player. With large planets rebellions are happening quite often, but because they doesnt decrease defenders amount if failed, they failed too often, even if happens in quick succession.
6. Tech for Stellar, and Stellar all bad colonies you can (small planets unlikely to succes in revolt, so dont capture them if they have a good planet in same system), terraform and fill all your planets to cap using sub+tol or sub+aqua or sub+gaia_transformation. Build Barracks and Control only on planets already unable to revolt. Keep large ones to revolt repeatedly, till you become bored. (in this run i played very slow and suboptimal, so it took whooping 280 turns from Advanced, could be way faster. but it too boring and tiresome for me to do properly now, despite all the 1.50 beauty. 25 colonists travel limit kick badly there)
note 7: sixth ship slot in 1.50 is still buggy - dont let ships amount reach 500.
note 8: in pre-1.50 due to bug player could fit 42 pop (and more if you wanted to crash) on any planet regardless of type and size, so technically it could be even more easy there, if one doesnt mind some bug abusing.
7. Win a game by simultaneous attack on a last AI planet and Antarans. Just retreat from Antares if you get a battle there as first one and try next turn. In this save it took me 5 turns to get battles in order (so Antarans have a small fleet already). Alternatively you can attack on a vote turn (i will not) and score both.
Initially i planned to fill all planets to max, then check a score for fun, then try to farm to negative score, thus 2 saves. But it happend what pure farming part is already not needed, as it wraps already. I didnt used alt+scor to make it more thrilling.
note 9: alt+scor(e) cheat is affected to classic bug, and could provide wrong results.
So, as conclusion its worthy to mention what the max possible score achievable in classic is -1 (aka 65535) or 19275 "pre-modified" points (alternatively its -1 aka 65535 "pre-modified" points, but it will not require a weak race, as modifier will not matter), so i did already above half-maximum with one try. Keeping doing rebellion farming should have it reachable (while surely some really bad sequence of rolls could eventually stop it).
note 10: due to 1.50 bug the score in save is different from classic (loading a save in pre-1.50 will not help to notice it). while Time bonus is 160 points more (should be 955 instead of 1155), Colonists Captured bonus is 302 points smaller (should be 1509 instead of 1207), so actual result should be 142 points more (9968 instead of 9826) {yes, fall short of 10k,}.
As reminder, dont use a Diplomacy when you play moo2 unless you testing stuff. Its not needed even to score farming, its just a cheat, but its worse, as you may not treat yourself as a cheater while doing it. And it will halt your progress as a player eventually (while you'd honestly will think otherwise). Also dont play for score, its silly. Play for turns, its 63 for Huge8 from Prewarp and 18 for Small8 from Average for me (without save\loads ofc, saves had to be used wisely too) {ill mention even faster TAS run https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tqp1FVbQSU of some guy on YT, via repeatedly playing on a same map and learning needed random outcomes and how to affect them he did cut it under 60 (just its a shame he have no views there, while beside Rocco and him i guess there is no one decent player on YT, and watching lamers playing will not make you better (verified by numerous watchers of those lamers, as they cant really play too in result))}.
xstra
note 11: game treats event of building of Core Waste Dump weird: it destroy cleaning buildings (Processor and Renewer) on that planet. but it do it some unique way, selling them for full price. while idea of reducing micromanagement is somewhat fine (while player cant just sell them for achieving same result (unless some additional pollution managing included)), selling it for full price making it too good (as its already a player-friendly stuff), for example when Unification player capture a colony with some Morale buildings - they are destroyed and sold only for half-price, as usual with dismantling of a building (while still offering a bonus of destroying buildings above usual limit to do so).
note 12: a bug about player's income exist both in classic and 1.50: income is capped at usual 32767. but, cap appear pre-maintenance. so, player cant earn more than 32767, but can have to pay more in theory, even up to being unable to. its easy to notice in save, as rising tax will not increase income amount. the way it calculated it could result in weird case of player getting negative income while having a seemingly positive balance.
[example: player have 200 identical colonies, each add 200 income and have 180 maintenance, so 20 net income each (and visuals in a colony will tell that). but instead of expected +4000 bc, player will have -3233 bc. things could get worse if you add ships etc into account.]
Post edited April 24, 2018 by DarzaR