Haha.. didnt get until now that you can convert constructors to colony ships... nice find. (albeit cheaty)

Mars no longer has a colonization event, that applies to all colonizable planets in starting systems.

I do think colonizer should not grant free shipyards. And the Benevolent trait Prolific should be changed to grant say extra 50% pop of what the colony ship has when colonizing, rather than a flat +5 bp. The same goes for the racial ability.

Not really, they have zero population when upgraded, it's the Benevolent trait Prolific that's causing the problem.

It's things like this, and the great many linear stacking bonuses, that make GC3 a non-starter for any kind of MP that isn't just teams; GC3 ceases to be a 4X game with any sense of narrative and instead becomes a 1X (eXploit) game. 

It's at time like these where I find myself disagreeing with SD's take on the importance of balancing.  Yes, exploits will always creep through to release and will require hammering down thereafter but even some of the basics in GC3 are dubious, e.g., no limit on linear bonus stacking.  Yes, you too can have a fleet filled with super-dense micro-carriers that can see for hundreds of hexes and pretty much teleport limitless quantities of machinegun missile-firing fighters around the map with impunity; all will crumble beneath your feet.  (Unless you're playing against other Humans, in which case let the best eXploit win!) 

Most games tend to fall apart at the seams in their later stages, and 4X games do tend to suffer from this more than many other types of game, but GC3 starts to unpick itself at the mid-point, with obvious weaknesses exploitable right from the very beginning.  If this kind of thing isn't desireable then the devs still have a lot of work to do on the fundamentals with GC3; however, if this is what the devs aimed for -- to be honest GC2 was riddled with game-breaky exploits* so perhaps the writing was already on the wall -- then maybe these aren't the droids that I'm looking for and I should indeed move along.  ...With a heavy sigh.  ...And a forlorn face.

* Interestingly, some of those were latterly fixed only to make an unwelcome return in their original dubious state in GC3.

217 colonies by turn 35 - Gigantic, spiral, abundant everything, suicidal, 10 AI.

Yep, there are much worse exploits than the above posts suggest.

Can confirm, atleast on challenging. The start was more or less balanced. I didn't use any obvious exploits like turning 3 constructers into colonizers just making the colonizer a bit cheaper. They managed to sneak in two planets in my ZoC. It took over a hundred turns to flip them, I think they had the trait unwavering. Anyways after all that time they were still only like 4 buildings on the planet. I have never seen the A.I. doing something useful with their fleet. Maybe on higher difficulties?

Since we're officially grousing, the "upgrade" mechanic in GC3 is so gamey and broken as to be considered entirely an exploit. It's impossible to balance and it completely obliterates immersion.

"Upgrading" a ship should mean stationing it at a shipyard and using the planet's production to pay for the "upgraded" parts.

the "dense" trait is probably not a bad pick for such a strategy. i think dense alone is enough to put a colony module on a tiny hull. may also require the cheap "transport specialization" tech that reduces size of colnies, troop pods, carrier bays etc. since you're playing with the colonizer trait that gives you a free "rush" building on each colony, you might as well put the colony at 100% research during that turn and get a few points of research for free - so it shouldn't be hard to get the tech and then spam tiny colony ships at ~40 production each (at least for short range colonization like filling up extra planets nearby while your real colony ships fly to planets that are further away)

the game's full of strategies like that, though. i guess it's up to the user how much sillyness they want to use. not really sure i like that kind of game design. i don't do multiplayer - if i were interested in MP, i would have shelved the game already - but i also don't like games where you have to restrict yourself heavily in single player or play a completely asymmetric game vs. a superbuffed AI that gets huge bonuses and superpowers to make the game challenging.

It's seemingly not balanced against anything sensible, least of all MP (which is pretty much busted from any perspective).  If it were balanced against SP, as you seem to indicate it might be, then the AI would be able to make use of the many exploits this game currently has available.  Not once have I seen the AI let rip with super-dense micro-carriers that teleport endless missile fighters around the galaxy at will.  Actually I've not seen it make even passable use of any of the more basic linear stacking bonuses^HeXploits - not one. 

Just exactly what is this game balanced against?  You can't just lob all manner of crazy ideas into a game and call it 'done' because you want to give players the choice to play the game however they want to; that's what modding is meant to be - a window to make the game crazy, not a tool by which most mods you currently see are actually pulling back most of the stuff that makes GC3 pretty bloody stupid in the mid to late game (and at least a couple of things that make the game silly from Turn 1).

I still get defeated by the AI on Normal. Perhaps you guys constantly reload or are using some other exploit that you happen not to mention?

You must be doing something wrong, maybe describe your first 20 turns , what is your usual setup?

Just use the strategy described above.  Custom your civilization with Colonizer super trait.  Easy mode.  Get Benevolent Level 3 Prolific.  Win.  

Quoting Magnumaniac,

reply 7

217 colonies by turn 35 - Gigantic, spiral, abundant everything, suicidal, 10 AI.

Yep, there are much worse exploits than the above posts suggest.

For that you need use debug console (click  ` ) then " help " (all commend) and it's cheat but you can alway use console command "fow" and you see full map and don't get "cheater".

Tactic for that colony... need to try this but not better put 1 shipyard near 3 planet and put 5 sponsor, then spam colony ship. What you govern % look?

On my insane map i got 91 turn, 46 colony and 4 shipyard produce 4 colony per turn (14,98 move and 235 range) challenge difficult and got 454 power second got 212. Only military, treasure, tourist got 2-5 place. Colony spam tactic on insane map is OP. I can produce my best ship 1 per turn (91 turn).