Hey, I really like the concept of the conservative isolationist state. But I am not sure how to play like this, I mean what should I do in general? How should I behave?
Tips for playing an isolationist empire?
- Thread starter Gwynblade
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Good point, but I forgot to mention that I always play a xenophobic empire
In that case i'd suggest you also make your neighbours pay for it.Good point, but I forgot to mention that I always play a xenophobic empire
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I played a game as a xenophobe once. It wasn't easy. Everyone thinks you are out to get them before you even make a move.
I kept to myself and grew as much as possible, but my neighbors hated me. One attacked without provocation, a xenophile at that (not even an alien lover would accept me). I repelled them and claimed one of their worlds, for breathing room, of course. But they kept rioting and blowing up buildings. Do I have to kill you all?, I said. After they tried to rebel, I'd had enough. I wiped them all out.
That only made my neighbors hate me even more. They kept coming at me and I would take their worlds and punish them all for their indecency. Eventually I was forced to preemptively attack every empire in turn. And when the remaining races banded together in a federation against me, it was too late. They had created a monster and I cleansed the galaxy of every other being. Suffer not the Alien, indeed. (Achievement gained)
I kept to myself and grew as much as possible, but my neighbors hated me. One attacked without provocation, a xenophile at that (not even an alien lover would accept me). I repelled them and claimed one of their worlds, for breathing room, of course. But they kept rioting and blowing up buildings. Do I have to kill you all?, I said. After they tried to rebel, I'd had enough. I wiped them all out.
That only made my neighbors hate me even more. They kept coming at me and I would take their worlds and punish them all for their indecency. Eventually I was forced to preemptively attack every empire in turn. And when the remaining races banded together in a federation against me, it was too late. They had created a monster and I cleansed the galaxy of every other being. Suffer not the Alien, indeed. (Achievement gained)
It will depend on your ethics, but since you said you always play xenophobe that will limit it. You may have a hard time allying other empires, so your initial decisions upon contact are important. Sign non-aggression pacts to build trust, if possible. Since you are playing isolationist, you at least won't be getting huge diplomatic purge penalties from conquering.
Expansion will be critical in the early game. Take up as much territory as possible and keep growing. You will need to build a big enough fleet to defend yourself from federations and other groups as you reach the middle game. Personally, I play hyperlane only games so this gives a strategic element allowing me to block off areas of the galaxy for later colonization.
You will also run across primitives as you grow. You can invade them, but this will give you a diplomatic penalty with some empires. Better to covertly infiltrate species that have good traits and then use them to colonize planets you cannot. While they will generally receive a happiness penalty due to xenophobic rule, if you keep those pops together on their own planets with no other species they will not receive adjacent happiness penalties. You can usually keep them happy this way with a monument to purity or other building depending on your ethics.
I think the isolationist/hyper aggro style is probably one of the harder ways to play. Every time I try it, I end up in the same position - the galaxy unites against me. gg. I suppose it's heavily based on rapid expansion in the early game, so that you can have the economic base to outproduce your first target.
The thing is - if you attack too soon, you won't have the strength to take them on, given the spaceports basically prevent early rushes. If you leave it too long, they end up in defensive pacts, and you're boned. It's definitely challenging.
The thing is - if you attack too soon, you won't have the strength to take them on, given the spaceports basically prevent early rushes. If you leave it too long, they end up in defensive pacts, and you're boned. It's definitely challenging.
If you wanna play an isolationist as of right now, get AlphaAsh's suite of mods then sit back, colonise every asteroid, moon and barren world you can, get orbitals, turtle like hell. The very profesional ISS Doomsday Weapons is nice too for a sit back and turtle in a corner play style.
Isolationism is by definition not the same thing as "Hyper Aggro", though- isolationism implies that once your territory solidifies, you don't really expand it at all. You stick to yourself, tech up, and optimize.
Which is fine, but if you don't continue to expand you'll get left in the dust economically. Now that looks like it might change a bit in 1.5, there seems to be some desire to let us go 'tall', to somewhat compete with 'wide' empires.. which again, is fine.. but I feel as though wide empires will/should always have an advantage over tall ones.
just my 0.02
That's the cost of not expanding aggressively, yes. Still a viable way to play.