How many bases maximum?

[Jolly Rogerer]

Hello all,

I'm undertaking a fool's errand in trying to run up a high score, and I'm wondering how many bases you are limited to. I remember it being something like either 256 or 512, but I'm hoping someone knows for sure, as I'm approaching the lower figure.

This game is a goal of mine years in the making based on some discussions I had with Dilithium Dad. The game is played on his "Ultimate Builder's Map", which is a slightly modified huge map of Planet. No score modifiers are allowed (no iron man score bonus or abundant native life), and the time limit is 200 years (thank god!). I'm 148 years in, and it takes a whole session to play just one turn! Difficulty is Transcend. As this was originally a builder's challenge, you have to gift captured bases back to the AI players (though you can give them to a "friendly" faction. Also you are not allowed to eradicate either enemy bases or factions.

Unfortunately the scoring forces you to mainly go for population, as the other score factors can't hold a candle to pop. So I'm raising land and laying down bases like there is no tomorrow. I'm using 2 spacing, which gives about 7-8 workable tiles per base. With all tiles eventually turned into condenser / farm / soil enrichers each base laid down soon enough should reach a pop of 50+. So my score is mainly limited by how many bases I can get before about 2250 or so, and hence the question. Any comments / suggestions are welcome, and thanks in advance.

 

[Petek]

Maximum # of bases in a game is 512.

 

[vyeh]

Hello all,

I'm undertaking a fool's errand in trying to run up a high score, and I'm wondering how many bases you are limited to. I remember it being something like either 256 or 512, but I'm hoping someone knows for sure, as I'm approaching the lower figure.

Maximum # of bases in a game is 512.

Petek is correct. I actually tested it in the scenario editor. When you try to construct the 513th base, nothing happens and the colony pod remains active.

This game is a goal of mine years in the making based on some discussions I had with Dilithium Dad. The game is played on his "Ultimate Builder's Map", which is a slightly modified huge map of Planet. No score modifiers are allowed (no iron man score bonus or abundant native life), and the time limit is 200 years (thank god!). I'm 148 years in, and it takes a whole session to play just one turn! Difficulty is Transcend. As this was originally a builder's challenge, you have to gift captured bases back to the AI players (though you can give them to a "friendly" faction. Also you are not allowed to eradicate either enemy bases or factions.

Unfortunately the scoring forces you to mainly go for population, as the other score factors can't hold a candle to pop. So I'm raising land and laying down bases like there is no tomorrow. I'm using 2 spacing, which gives about 7-8 workable tiles per base. With all tiles eventually turned into condenser / farm / soil enrichers each base laid down soon enough should reach a pop of 50+. So my score is mainly limited by how many bases I can get before about 2250 or so, and hence the question. Any comments / suggestions are welcome, and thanks in advance.

Each workable tile can generate 6 nutrients (assuming no bonuses and no monsoon jungle). Base square is 3, assuming recycling tanks.Note that the maximum population of a base is 127, so you could boost the bases that have already reached the maximum for the worked tiles by sending out gravship crawlers (or using a massive former army to put mag rails everywhere). There isn't anything in the rules about taking over tiles in the AI's base radius, is there?

 

[Jolly Rogerer]

Maximum # of bases in a game is 512.

Thanks, I was worried I was going to go over 256. Actually it's a mixed blessing, at this rate a turn will take a week by the time I finish.

 

[Jolly Rogerer]

Petek is correct. I actually tested it in the scenario editor. When you try to construct the 513th base, nothing happens and the colony pod remains active.

Nice that it doesn't crash the game.

Each workable tile can generate 6 nutrients (assuming no bonuses and no monsoon jungle). Base square is 3, assuming recycling tanks.Note that the maximum population of a base is 127, so you could boost the bases that have already reached the maximum for the worked tiles by sending out gravship crawlers (or using a massive former army to put mag rails everywhere). There isn't anything in the rules about taking over tiles in the AI's base radius, is there?

Yes, I'm going to convert all my old crawlers to drop crawlers to mine the fungus on the south pole for nuts. The problem is mostly one of time rather than nutrients. Every base will grow from now until 2301 non-stop. So the more bases, the more score. I chose smaller bases because there simply isn't enough time to warrant giving them more space. Those which are in existence from a few turns from now will grow to the maximum size indicated by their worked tiles (and larger older bases will be bigger and will require additional nuts, but this won't be a problem). Bases placed later will still provide a lot of growth, and can "donate" some of their tiles to keep the older bases growing if necessary.

All in all I'm pretty satisfied that this was the right base spacing to use for this strategy, though perhaps a micro base (4 tiles, 3 workable) strategy and massive crawling would have been viable as well. I might be closing in on 512 bases rather than 256 (twice the growth!), but I'd be really pressed to find the nuts. Besides my build queues would be spending a lot of time building crawlers and colony pods rather than formers, so there is a trade off. Of course I'd have more build queues, but a lot fewer minerals. Perhaps later I'll space my bases closer together to take advantage of the greater growth potential, as there won't be enough time to grow them to 51 anyway. All they really need is a hab complex and a hab dome, and with my SPs and Nessus stations they will produce at least 10 minerals a turn from the beginning even without a single mineral gained from the map.

Right now I'm running 100% cash, as I have about 2 underdeveloped bases for every developed base, and I'm rushing every facility. Techs only bring in 10 victory points each, so it's better to concentrate on expansion. Eventually I'll be swimming in cash as my expansion inevitably slows in relation to the growth of my economic base. Then it will be 100% Labs. I bet that the change will occur in one turn, suddenly I'll realize that I have more in the bank than I spent last turn and that will be it.

I've stolen a few base tiles from the AI, though I tend to try and keep a tile of ocean between me and anyone that I don't have as pets. I've been pushing up against the AI, lowering the terrain on their continent into the ocean, and then moving my continent into the space . I plant fungus in the sea tiles between us, which they usually won't / can't work and which provides me 3/4/5 when I work it. I also grabbed the last largish empty bit of land in the south with drop colony pods and am busy moving in formers to expand it with about 30 infantry drop transports to carry them. Psi gates are too slow, but I'll use them too when I have time to build them.

One thing nice about this game is that I rarely tarry in the late game, so a lot of this stuff is sort of unfamiliar to me and therefore kind of cool. I can't remember when getting the Manifold Harmonics actually had broad implications for my economy. The same with the SP that ends drone rioting, that really helped out with new bases in particular. The two SPs that give free mineral multipliers likewise get those new bases producing quickly.

I'll keep you posted here as things develop. It will be weeks before this game is finished at the current rate, and I might take an evening off and do a One City Challenge for a change of pace at some point.

 

[Jolly Rogerer]

Well I've completed my first One City Challenge by transcendence in 2230. It was quite easy. I played University, Transcend difficulty on a huge map, and had a nice little starting area near Miriam and Morgan. Was able to stay at peace until the last 30 turns or so of the game. I just built crawlers and forest for most of the game. Built the Merchant Exchange and the Weather Paradigm, the two +100% Labs SPs, the Network Backbone, Cloning Vats and a couple other SPs.

I bee-lined crawlers, restrictions, Hybrid Forests, the two +100 Lab SPs, then fusion. I only had two formers for a very long time, and did little forming to my base tiles, preferring to block access to my island by crawling energy from forest along the entire coastline. The biggest threat was Lal, who started in the Monsoon Jungle area. If he'd managed to snag the Empath Guild he may well have won the game by votes. A reminder to me to grab that one for denial purposes. A very satisfying game all in all.

 

[Jolly Rogerer]

Update:

Had to abandon my quest due to the year failing to increment bug. I've seen this bug before, but don't remember if anyone knew how to avoid it or not.