In depth strategy discussions

[Buster's Uncle]

Threshold To Transcendence.

I don't do it as much anymore, but for years I liked to run out the clock for several hundred superfluous turns, trying to beat my previous high score in SP. That informs what little I have to say on strategy.

 

[vyeh]

I don't see anything in the manual or in the alphax.txt that would explain why there is no sea level rise after TTT.

 

[Buster's Uncle]

I always assumed that the logic was that Planet was in control of factors like that after being enlightened by all that human knowlege...

When you control some so much of a planet's surface that way, there's a lot you can do with your own reflectivity or something.

 

[Russia4Life]

I look at fungal pops as an instant 160 to 300 energy credits, I absolutely love em. Even with a negative planet rating My special designed resonance empath song units pwn the whole stack usually in 1 battle.

As for the sea levels stopping rising, I have never noticed that before.

When ever we get around to playing a game vyeh I will show you my offensive terraforming method with the pirates..

 

[Buster's Uncle]

I am shocked to have told you two something new. Geek points!

Any other questions about SMAC strategy, gentlemen? I've spent a lot of time playing. I don't tend to do things half-way.



Actually, and this is strategy-related, has anyone thought of writing up a strategy cheat/exploit guide for beginners, like the strategy guides that are around? A strategy the SMAC community needs to consider is how to attract new players. Now is the time; we don't know that the game will stay available on sale forever.

 

[vyeh]

The guide at Firaxis is good for beginners (funny I don't have permission to access the official site from the SMAC page at Firaxis so I can't provide a link right now)

Anyway go to this page:

http://www.firaxis.com/games/game_detail.php?gameid=7

Then official site, then strategy.

 

[Buster's Uncle]

The official site button gave me the 'no permission' problem...

 

[vyeh]

for years I liked to run out the clock for several hundred superfluous turns, trying to beat my previous high score in SP.

Did you end up with all land, covered in farm/SE/condensors, with everything crawled and 128 transcendi in every city spaced with minimal overlap?

 

[Buster's Uncle]

No, covered in fungus- and I only maxed out the population for Gaia's Landing, the headquarters, because of the efficiency bonus. That way, once I had all the nutrients I needed, the rest of the crawlers were crawling energy for the headquarters with no waste. Other bases got four crawling for energy, partly in case of a nutrient random event; then I could switch them over to a couple of soil enrichers w/condensors on nutrient bonus squares for ten years. I always go for tightly-fitted but rarely overlapping bases. I'm a builder.

You'd never really thought of me as someone who'd actually played the game a lot, had you?

 

[vyeh]

I know you played the game. My pattern basically had minimal overlap but no squares that were not in a radius of a base.

 

[vyeh]

Copters are considered a game breaker. Like rovers and hovertanks, copters can attack multiple times. A favorite tactic in the late game is chop and drop.

Use a copter to eliminate all of the defenders of a base. Then drop a garrison into the empty base to occupy it.

 

[vyeh]

From this post and the following post:

Despite what is depicted in the little movie of the Citizen Defense Force, it always irked me that Defence Perimeter doesn't help your base units when defending against indigenous lifeforms. (it's not listed where the unit bonuses are displayed).
Does someone knows why?

probably a balancing issue. Perimeter defenses giving a bonus vs psi units would make psi almost completely useless - and make the hive even more broken than it already is.

p. 102 of the manual states

normal weapon and defense strengths are completely irrelevant to psi combat

Clearly, a perimeter defense (and a tachyon field) are considered "defense." I have checked with the scenario editor and a unit inside a base attacked by a mind worm does receive the +25% base defense bonus, a +25% sensor bonus (if one is within 2 squares of the base) and a +25% geosynchronous survey pod bonus (if one has been built inside the base).

 

[Vishniac]

Question:
if you have infiltrated a faction (or are planetary governor, or have Empath Guild), is it possible to know, WITHOUT OPENING THE COMMLINK, which are the relationships of that faction with the others?
Sometimes you just don't want to open the commlink for fear of blackmail or extortion.

I have searched but found nothing.
There could be a cool new feature to develop by the programming guys: an heptagon with the seven faction leader icons at the corners and lines of different colors binding them to one another:
- none: unknown
- green: pact
- yellow: treaty
- white: truce
- red: vendetta

 

[bdanv]

you have to open the commlink but instead of left-click use the right click menu to see the faction profile. you should find there the diplo status of each infiltrated faction

 

[Vishniac]

Wow! Thanks a lot!

Another mystery solved after ten years;; you Guys never cease to amaze me with your knowledge of details.

 

[bdanv]

you're welcome

 

[Aria]

Hi Ho.

I performed a search for "Strategy" looking for an appropriate thread to post some tips, and this one came up. If anyone knows of specific threads on strategy for specific factions (Gaians and Planet Cult in particular), I would greatly appreciate the link.

Anywho, I agree with Russia4Life's comment about late game fungal blooms... they're basically a cash cow that gives approximately 2000 energy credits for each stack of 30 or so mind worms killed.

Playing as the Gaians with a +6 Planet rating, I found that placing at least 2 Elite Psi Hovertank with anti-grav struts (5 movement/attacks) and the SAM ability (for Locusts) in each city producing eco-damage more than adequately provides protection against mind worms. I found it curious, though, that a land-based unit can defeat an entire stack with just one successful attack while a copter must defeat one at a time.

I remember years ago on at least two occasions (playing the Gaians) where I attacked a Demon Fungal Tower with one of my own Demon Boil mind worms and captured the entire stack of approx. 25 Demon Boil mind worms that shared the same space. The tower remained until I destroyed it the next turn. Has anyone else experienced anything similar, since I have not been able to recreate this feat since.

On a separate note, a strategy I use whenever I discover an Ogre is to use it to investigate Unity pods in the hope of getting the clone effect. It would be accompanied by one of my mind worms set to Designated Defender in case it produced native mind worms (which would wander off without attacking). In one game, I had managed to collect 9 Mark I Ogres within 30 turns, and 3 Mark II Ogres by mid game. Still have yet in over 10 years of playing to find a Mark III, though.

 

[GooglyBoogly]

I remember reading another thread discudding the ogres, and apparently, MKII and mkIII's have a tech requirement that a different faction must have hit - which would explain why you don't see them very often - the ai is decimated before they tech that far.