Re: The neutral challenge
Here are my rules for the Neutral Challenge, based on learnings from my game so far:
The Neutral Challenge is a set of house rules for playing an SE4 scenario in which the human
player is a minor power trying to win against AI empires that have huge head starts. The
basic assumption is that your race is initially unaware of the existence of intelligent life
other than itself, or of what warp points are or how to use them. They remain unaware of
these things until "activated" by an AI empire entering their home system and creating First
Contact. Assume for the purpose of the game that warp points only work through some
deliberate interaction with a ship’s engines, and if you don’t know how to do it then you
can’t "warp". Your race therefore cannot do anything it would not logically do in
isolation. Even in isolation, however, the central government of your race would maintain
armed forces in order to prevent colony worlds within the system from seceding, etc... but
would not stockpile defenses against an imaginary alien threat.
The rules:
1) You cannot use a race having the "Ancient" trait. It is also suggested that you start
over if your home system is in a far corner of the galaxy, as it may take forever for the
AI's to find ad activate you.
2) "Full Activation" occurs when any alien vessel enters a system of your empire and
initiates First Contact. At that point, all restrictions are lifted and you may play
normally.
3) Your race is initially at a state of "Inactivation".
4) While in the state of Inactivation, you must play according to the following
restrictions:
a) No exploring warp points. The AI ministers which would do this automatically must not
be turned on.
b) The total number of units that you have, whether in space, as planetary cargo or as
cargo on ships, cannot exceed the current total cargo capacity of all your planets added
together, plus 1 remote mining satellite per asteroid belt or uncolonized planet. Improved
remote mining satellites can be built in excess of this limit for the purpose of replacing
old ones which are deployed, but the old ones must be brought back to a shipyard and
scrapped as soon as possible.
c) You cannot give any ship or fleet a sector as a destination, unless it contains a planet
or asteroids, unless if it contains a storm and your ship has a storm-destroying component
you wish to use on the storm, or if it contains a star and you are building a ring- or
-sphere world there. You have no reason to go to or hang about in warp point sectors or
empty space, if you are not expecting company.
d) Satellites can only be deployed at colony planets, except for the remote mining
satellites per "b" of this rule.
e) Bases may only be built in sectors containing colony planets, with an exception for
remote mining bases. A remote mining base must use 50% or more of its volume for remote
mining components, and can be built in any asteroid or planet sector, but only 1 per such
sector.
f) You cannot mothball any ship or base.
g) You cannot research any tech which grants only components for opening/closing warp
points or destroying stars, unless they lead to other techs which grant other components
that you are allowed to use. If you discover any such components under that exception, or
via colonizing artifact planets, you still may not build any ships mounting such systems.
Remember - you don't know what a warp point is yet, and why would you destroy your own star?
5) "Full exploitation" of a system is defined as having colonized every planet for which
you have the necessary tech, and having the maximum possible population and number of
facilities on each colony. Once you have fully exploited your home system, your race can
somehow "accidentally" discover warp points. However, your race is still ruled by a very
conservative regime and will only explore one warp point at a time, and will stop exploring
as soon as it finds a system with colonizable planets until that system is also fully
exploited. This state is called "Limited Activivation".
6) Under Limited Activation, the restrictions of #4 still apply with the following addition
and/or changes:
a) You may now move to and warp through warp points, but only to explore the warp point as
allowed in this rule, or to move around between explored systems.
b) You may select one warp point to explore at a time. The selection must be a warp point
in your your home system if possible. If they are all explored, it must be a warp point in
a system one warp point away from your home system. If they are all explored, it must be a
warp point in a system two systems from your home system, etc...
c) If, upon exploring any warp point, you find a system not containing any alien colonies,
ships, units, etc... you must immediately claim that system. If the newly claimed system
contains any habitable planets, you must then fully exploit that system before you can
explore another warp point.
d) Your unit limit is now increased sufficiently to allow one recon satellite per explored
system in which you have neither a colony or a remote mining base.
e) You may now research and build warp point opening and closing components, but you may
not close any warp point that you have not yet explored, or open any warp point to an
unexpored system unless you have explored all systems that you can reach via the existing
warp points.
f) All systems claimed under "c" of this rule count thereafter as "a system of your empire"
for purposes of causing full activation under rule #2. In other words, if aliens enter
them, or you come back to them and find aliens in them, you are fully activated.
g) If, upon exploring any warp point, you find a system not containing any alien colonies,
ships, units, etc... you are Fully Activated and all restrictions are limited.
7) OPTIONAL (harder) Ignore "G" in Rule #6. If, during exploration under Limited
Activation, you enter any system containing alien ships, colonies or units, you then move to
a state of "Defensive Activation". Defensive Activation is also invoked if your exploring
fleet hits mines, whether or not they survive and whether or not they swept any of the
mines. The system containing the mined sector counts as a system containing enemy units.
Under "Defensive Activation", your race's leadership wants to pursue an "ostrich" stategy -
ignore the aliens and hope they go away. You are still not taking a rational approach to
the galaxy (kind of like an SE4 neutral). You must immediately withdraw the exploring
ship(s) back through the warp point by which they entered the system with the alien
presence. Under Defensive Activation, all the restrictions of Limited Activation apply with
the following modifications:
a) You cannot again transit any warp point which you know through exploration, or believe
by looking at the warp lines on the galaxy map, leads to a system in which you found an
alien presence during initial exploration. You may continue to explore other warp points as
in Limited Activation.
b) You may not send any Messages to the race(s) you encountered, not even replies to their
Messages.
c) You may now station fleets, build bases or deploy units in the sectors of your systems
which contain the warp points that you cannot transit under "a" of this rule. Mines &
satellites deployed in such sectors do not count toward your unit limit. You still cannot
fortify the unexplored warp points that you believe lead to unexplored systems, or which
connect the systems that you have claimed.
d) You may use warp point closing components to close the warp points that you are allowed
to fortify.
d) If aliens enter your claimed system via one of the warp points you have fortified per
"c" of this rule, and do not survive either the transit (because of your mines) or the
immediate battle with your other defenses in that sector, full activation does not occur.
For this reason, you may wish not to excercise your option under "c" of this rule to fortify
your end of the warp point, or under "d" to close it, so as to expedite Full Activation.
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