Complete and total stalemate, nothing changing

[paeniteoazrael]

So this is my first game of TLF, and I have reached a point where I am steadily getting more and more annoyed.

Time went on and I eventually formed a federation out of the Skylaxians, Peltians, Boarines, and Thoraxians. They were all at war with the Burlust and Acutians for basically ever, and although I eventually backdoored the Acutians into the Federation after a long, grueling process involving the Boarines and Skylaxians, they immediately left because they felt betrayed (b***h you just got here, how the hell do you feel betrayed?!).

Now, it's 3085 and this war with the Burlust started back in 3025 or so. It's been a while. They were getting pounded on their home world for a while, and eventually for some crazy reason attacked the Evucks who lost their home world instantaneously even after I helped eliminate the Burlust armada, and then promptly populated the world with 88 b Burlusts (they're like fraking locusts). This brought their ground power up to 12 T because hug the rest of the universe.

But even that is well beyond overkill, as their homeworld, with a measly 1 b pop and 145 b military power has never come close to falling. Even with overwhelming military force in the atmosphere. Even now, when the entire federation is one short leap away from the ultimate technologies since they all share everything ever thanks to a nice complex web of love and mutual hate.

Basically, I'm really irritated because nothing I do so much as tilts the situation either way. Nothing. It has reached an equilibrium that cannot be unbalanced. No race can build outposts, since the Burlust send an armada instantly, and either destroy or take it over. No race lands troops, because the Burlust military effort is just fast enough to keep anyone from having just enough military power to land troops, and the Federation has reached the maximum number of armadas that can be sustained. There is eternal war and jack all I can think to do about it.


Does anyone have any advice, short of altering the hell out of the files to give someone a stupid amount of troops on one of these godforsaken planets?

[x4000]

What version of the game are you playing on?  A savegame of your situation would be interesting for balance purposes, because we have just made a number of shifts in the balance area.

Ideas for ways to mess with the Burlusts:

1. Sabotage their key military-boost-granting buildings at their planets, to help get them softened up for attack.

2. Get the Peltians to launch their suicide-pods at them.

3. Focus on ground troop tech upgrades for the various races in the federation, so that once the Burlust armadas are defeated you can sweep in.  It sounds like right now the Burlusts have all the tools.

4. Get the Acutians to do nasty things to them like dropping poison on them.  If the Evucks were still alive you could have gotten them to send a disease.  You can also get the Acutians to send a planetcracker at the Burlusts if you get really desperate.  Although, nevermind, I see those guys are dead.

5. The Thoraxians actually get stronger and stronger with time, and if you give them some tech upgrades on their ground power, they can beat the Burlusts to a pulp.  Having the Thoraxians in the federation can be a big deal, because they are the strongest ground power if you build them up.

6. The Skylaxians are where it's at when it comes to tech, with the Evucks behind them a bit.  Since you have the Skylaxians, you can focus on getting them lots of science techs, then get focused toward God Mote or Time Travel.  Once the federation has either of those, it's all over for the Burlusts; you'll roll them incredibly fast.

7. Alternatively, if you focus on space power and can basically keep federation fleets in orbit around the Burlust planets at all times, you can bomb the heck out of them.  You may need to sabotage some bomb shelters on the side to help with that.  And the Skylaxians and Andors are honorable and won't bomb, so the Skylaxians are useless to you there.  But you can use them to research tech and then gift it to the other races.  And the Skylaxians have no problems shooting down anything the Burlusts launch, heh.  The Peltians are particularly adept at bombing the heck out of things from orbit, so getting them to be at war with the Burlusts while having fleets in orbit will quickly dwindle the population count on the Burlusts planet.  And create an opening for the Thoraxian swarm, potentially.

There are a variety of other things you can do as well, but those are probably the most promising things.

Hope that helps!

[FortunaDraken]

Definitely get the tech that gives you a million credits every month, sometimes when things end up in a stalemate, it can be a life changer. Sabotage the heck out of everything, ESPECIALLY the Plantery Ion Cannons and the Bomb Shelters, then anything that ups ship-building speed. If the Burlusts RCIs are positive, sit there for awhile and make them negative, the higher the death count the better.

It's definitely annoying to have to deal with the Burlust last, but if you can constantly sabotage everything they have, kill their armadas on your own and let the other races bombard them, they should eventually fall. The last two techs for ultimate cash and ultimate ground army power will do wonders towards killing the Burlust.

[paeniteoazrael]

So, everybody in the federation now has every technology I can give them, and I spend the 20 months required to blow up all of the defensive buildings on the Burlust worlds, and kill their armadas, and still nothing. They just rebuild everything in the time that it takes for my saboteurs to work...

EDIT: Also I'm playing the most recent form of the game, 1.6002

[x4000]

1.603 is coming out in just a couple of moments -- if you have a savegame that you can upload where you're still having the problem in that version, please do let me know!

There are still a few new tools that I want to add for your use as a player that would be useful in these situations, but my hope is that you'll be able to break their back with the changes in this one anyway: http://arcengames.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=The_Last_Federation_Post-1.0_Release_Notes#Version_1.603

[paeniteoazrael]

Oh hey, yeah, I saw the changes you implemented. I eventually surmounted it when the Burlusts got a bad drug researching event on their conquered Evucks home world and died off to the point that the Evucks revolted and took back their world. In like ten days the Burlust home world was taken over thanks to all the fresh armadas and troops transferred from the eternal war on Chi.

Things either seem to be a total stalemate, or over in days regarding wars. It's interesting.