Proposed House Rules

Hey All:

As discussed in various recent threads there are various OP exploits available to defeat the AI without much trouble even on Godlike (granted I’ve played a lot of Gal Civ 3 games now).  Hence it’s time to consider and test some house rules with the goal to have the most fun game possible.  House rules are not unusual in 4X games (although ideally the developer considers what can be done to minimise the need for at least some of them as many represent not just exploits but OP exploits) and I’m interested in the constructive thoughts of others in the community in formulating them.

Again, for the various community members here that are notoriously overly defensive, I will reiterate the intent isn’t to bash or brag, it’s to discuss house rules and maximise fun.  If you don't believe Godlike can be defeated without cheating (sigh) that is a different topic and not the purpose of this thread.

Before going through the proposed house rules I do have some personal preferences.  AI bonuses are of course normal in 4X games (% to manufacturing, research and economy) but I’m not a fan of AI bonuses that make it feel like the AI is playing a totally different game.  So the ideal is for House Rules that will work at about Genius difficulty.  Huge maps are my preference, I prefer the largest maps possible but at this stage I don’t find maps any larger than this fun at least until the micromanagement and automation issues are resolved.  I really enjoy playing a Custom race, so don’t want to have to sacrifice that feature (and ideally don't want to sacrifice any feature entirely).

1. The main area which I find OP to exploit is diplomacy.  In recent games I’ve had Alliances in place with all or most AI early which essentially allows you to totally control the game and make victory a formality, so Alliances are banned.  I’ve also bribed the AI to declare war on each other (malevolent races will declare war for a measly 3,000 credits) to soften each other up, so that interaction is banned.  Free Trade Agreements can be used to readily farm cash and technology from the AI so need to be banned.  I think Open Borders and Non-Aggression Pacts are okay to use though.  Selling resources and technology can be abused very easily, and as I would prefer not to turn trading off entirely, I’m thinking a limit of 1 item per diplomatic interaction (the OP exploitation primarily comes from trading large volumes) i.e. 1 unit of 1 resource.
2. I enjoy exploration so tend to play with a lot of Anomalies.  Unfortunately, the AI doesn’t explore Precursor Artifacts or Ship Graveyards at all and I’m far more aggressive with Artifacts (which are important as they sometimes provide free technology) so unfortunately I don’t see any choice other than to set Anomalies to around Uncommon.
3. I tend to be much more aggressive than the AI in exploring and getting Starbases up for Precursor Relics, particularly around the edges of the map.  I also had an event in my last game where many new relics appeared which led to some astronomical bonuses, so again while I prefer not to turn off, thinking they should be Uncommon.
4. Resources I’ll use early game (e.g. Durantium Drivers) to get pretty powerful and relatively low cost early game fleets up i.e. all using resources.  To prevent such a large advantage over the AI, thinking they should also be Uncommon.
5. I plan to turn Pirates Off as they are easy to avoid while the AI often loses ships to them.
6. The Bureau of Labour is banned as it leads to production, research and economy that the AI can’t seem to use or match.
7. To prevent a runaway Research victory that would still be possible I’m considering setting to Very Slow.

Your thoughts?