Contact victory

[yanner39]

Is there a way to speed things up? I tried increasing my energy per turn but it doesn't.

In my current game as Elodie, Apollo, quick speed, I activated the Beacon and had 20 turns to go, 80% complete. Kozlov and the KP built the Mind Flower a few turns later, maybe 5 turns later. They were at 75% complete.

I had like 2 turns to go and the KP won! WTF!

If nothing can be done, then the contact VC is the stupidest thing.

 

[m15a]

No. That's part of the risk. You have to build it early enough that no one can win before the 20 turns (30 on standard) is up. Or stop the others from winning somehow.

 

[yanner39]

Then it's stupid. For example, when I won the purity victory, I built my 4 settlements close to my territory, built roads/magrails to them, etc. I could control how fast I won.

You would think that by increasing the energy output, that would increase the time.

Just dumb, Firaxis.

 

[aguliondew]

Once the beacon if activated build a army and deal with it .

Spoiler :

This is how I deal with the AI during end game.

Spoiler :

20 turns to destroy their mind flowers. I did it in 15 .

Moderator Action: Spoiler tags added to both images. Please use these when posting wide images.

 

[DST1348]

Then it's stupid. For example, when I won the purity victory, I built my 4 settlements close to my territory, built roads/magrails to them, etc. I could control how fast I won.

You would think that by increasing the energy output, that would increase the time.

I agree. With other Affinity victories you have some control on how to speed it up. I also think that by increasing the energy per turn you should be able to speed up the time. After all, all excess energy is spent/wasted on powering the signal.

 

[Nemenoob]

How u speed promised land up?

 

[Xenotitan]

I don't think you can speed promised land up past 20 turns, but if you have mag rails and phasal teleporters in place you can settle each earthling the turn after they come out of the gate.

I agree that the excess energy -> 0 mechanic is stupid. Especially since I hear the beacon sets energy per turn to 0, so it actually boosts you if you are losing energy! Contact victory has a shorter tech route so it does need to have some delays built in such as waiting for the satellite to do its thing and waiting for the beacon's 30 turns. I don't know if the time required is balanced though. (Assuming no fragments from ruins!)

 

[Cai30]

Transcendence can be sped up with buildings made in advance, even to one turn if done right.

Supremacy can be reduced to 10 turns through use of high powered units.

Promised Land can be reduced to 20 or 21 turns. (Theoretically 20, but 21 is my best achieved.)

Contact is 30 turns.

I can see contact being the longest and unmodifiable due to it being affinity agnostic and it can be done quite early with pregenitor ruins if lucky.

The major problem is the possibility of 1 turn transcendence victories, since it would only provide one turn of warning to destroy the mind flower, which is impossible to deal with unless one is already invading. The only counter to it I can see right now is to apply pressure the moment a human player hits harmony 13 or before. The others take more time and give everyone a chance to stop a player from winning.

 

[aguliondew]

Do you know how massive the Ai empire would have to be for a 1 turn mind flower victory? The lowest I could get my mind flower to was 15 turns with 7 cities. For the AI to get a 1 turn mind flower they would need 20 or so cities with mind stems xeno sanctuaries.

 

[Xenotitan]

The 1 turn mindflower requires 15 cities I think (standard speed). And the 2 buildings in each, of course. People are going to know you're a threat at 15 cities. Still, I find it interesting that it is the only victory that can be sped up so much. I wonder if the other victories should be modified similarly by removing limits on # of units through the gate each turn. Maybe increase the requirements to make up for that.

 

[joncnunn]

I hear the beacon sets energy per turn to 0, so it actually boosts you if you are losing energy!

Since this exploit benefits the player, I expect the first balance patch will remove this ability, probably by auto turning off the beacon if excess energy isn't positive while continuing to suck all your energy if you have a large surplus.

 

[Xenotitan]

I don't think they ever fixed settler production preventing starvation for Civ V. It's still in BE! Also, there's a lot of bigger issues for them to be focusing on before they get to this. I wouldn't be surprised if it gets patched, but probably not in the first patch.

 

[aguliondew]

I would prefer that contact decreases energy by X amount per turn and your energy rate reduces the time it takes to finish. Still Interresting to terrascape everything once the beacon is running.

 

[AlaskA]

Transcendence can be sped up with buildings made in advance, even to one turn if done right.

Supremacy can be reduced to 10 turns through use of high powered units.

Promised Land can be reduced to 20 or 21 turns. (Theoretically 20, but 21 is my best achieved.)

Contact is 30 turns.

I can see contact being the longest and unmodifiable due to it being affinity agnostic and it can be done quite early with pregenitor ruins if lucky.

The major problem is the possibility of 1 turn transcendence victories, since it would only provide one turn of warning to destroy the mind flower, which is impossible to deal with unless one is already invading. The only counter to it I can see right now is to apply pressure the moment a human player hits harmony 13 or before. The others take more time and give everyone a chance to stop a player from winning.

One game i got both signals under t20. Win under t100 after few reloads. Now always turn off this type of victory. Dominating very easy too. A little fun still from other types.

 

[xamlop]

Contact victory is the fastest and easisest you can do with Elodie or the slavs (or with lucky progenitor ruins) in the current state of the game, you can get to the necessary techs 10 times faster than any other type of victory, so I think it's a good thing that it's slightly longer to finish.

 

[War_Pig]

Contact victory is the fastest and easisest you can do with Elodie or the slavs (or with lucky progenitor ruins) in the current state of the game, you can get to the necessary techs 10 times faster than any other type of victory, so I think it's a good thing that it's slightly longer to finish.

quoted for truth

 

[alpaca]

Do you know how massive the Ai empire would have to be for a 1 turn mind flower victory? The lowest I could get my mind flower to was 15 turns with 7 cities. For the AI to get a 1 turn mind flower they would need 20 or so cities with mind stems xeno sanctuaries.

I routinely have more than 20 cities on standard size. Getting the mindflower down to 0 should not be that hard if you go wide. Granted, the AI usually sucks ball at conquering and is much worse at exploiting stuff like that than the player.

Funnily, Africa had the Beacon up and running around turn 145 in my current game (standard speed, Apollo). They probably found a signal in a ruin or two, but it was still impressive, coming from the AI. Of course, their army was crap and they couldn't withstand my phasal transporter ninja CNDRs aided by judicious use of Orbital Lasers. Forced me to tank my trade income to go whack-a-mole on their beacon, though, since they were my main trade partner.

 

[Fabio1701]

contact should be the economic victory, the time it takes should be directly related to the energy you pump in. I am flabbergasted that this wasnt thought of when they thought, 'lets just take all the excess enegry, whether it's 1 or 1000 a turn!"

 

[player1 fanatic]

Maybe they thought it would be too easy that way?
I routinely have over 15000 energy in my end games, and income over 500/turn.