right. in that particuliar game, I had by chance&luck the best possible starting position for the ferengi ever to be so the game is a good example to show how to exert the pursuit of full domination over the other races because of that advantage in the beginning. when you check up on those other races you see their systems are tech-wise way behind and way not as completely "build-out" as mine. It's no big problem now to declare war on all of them and quick-kill them if you feel like that
. But this is just because the starting advantage was that big. In a usual game, you don't have this "win-by-all-out-war"-chance.
First you should build up to 10 research labs on ferenginar (since you can build them in 1 turn). by "up to" I mean you have 10 pieces in the end, i.e. you build 6 or 7 of it at the beginning. btw. always try to arrange build orders that way, that you only need 1 or 2 turns for building to be built. When upgrading, always have enough latinum at hand to rush-buy it! Also, never build too many surplus factories, farms, mines and all that. it's like in botf, you loose too much time when trying to upgrade those. always upgrade as soon as you have the latinum to buy.
Also, don't forget to buy some colony ships within the turns and expand your area by fast-building new colonies. don't terraform all planets, only those below 8 terraform points and when otherwise no titanium resource is on the other planets (like mostly on class O planets). then quick-buy a space dock and send out your scout(s) to get in contact with "new customers"
. Always try to get trade treaties with them but beware of bad-tempered minors, you just waste you initial money on them. save them for later on when you have lots of latinum surplus. It's important therefore to increase you overall range by colonizing and building space docks in order to find initially friendly races because you get trade with them at no cost and that latinum is worth A LOT!
Also, don't spend too much money after you got trade. try getting the franchise office running and enjoy your flood of money
. trade routes slowly increase your relationship with the minors so eventually friendship, affiliation, etc. comes nearly all by itself. getting minors is best around turn 50-60 (if you are lucky, but then refuse membership, if the system has 50+ population, cause they are more worthy "built-out" later on) and after turn 100 (then the chances are high they got level 3-4-5 buildings ). in short words save the big vulcan system for turn 110 and you will have something like in my game with the J'Lani in turn 111 (that system is one hell of a killer system ). have a look at that game cdrwolfe linked above!
when dealing with minors, try to give them "big money" (i.e. 500 and 1000+ latinum later on). It impresses them much more than 250 gifts
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if the AI seems illogical on treaties, well, that is kinda clear if you consider the effect of intel. if espionage was successful the turn after they offered friendship and it showed you are weak on military level but not weak on economic level, then the AI mostly (feds are an exception here) at once declares war on you to get you while you're weak and that way not able to build up fleets with your relatively strong economy! see, it's tactics
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btw. it's no shame to play on BABY. Since then you play against a totally uncheating AI which obeys the same rules as you do. cdrwolfe is right, on other levels the AI is getting some bonusses on resource production but that's all. granted, having more latinum kinda boosts your influence on minor races since you can give them more gifts which is btw. exactly why the AI empires are so "strong"
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btw. if you feel like the game needs another gameplay (i noticed some issues too, for example why does the space dock costs 0 titanium, is it built up of wood? that way, one has to add titanium via the system trade menu to the system which takes additional 2 turns. that again slows the rush-expansion a bit down. also we desperately need maintenance costs, but therefore the AI isn't ready yet since it cannot handle those costs yet), feel free to adapt the data files with the editors but rest assured once the maintenance costs are in place, the game gets a lot more playable at turns later than 200 when you have (no longer so) big fleets.
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