OCC Preliminary Thoughts (Mainly Virtues)

[KrikkitTwo]

KrikkenTwo, how do we defend outposts from SiegeWorms. That's a general Question, not against your point per se.

basically settle it and hope a Siege worm doesn't attack it (they only move 1)

Purity level 1 explorers also works (I think they should be changed to: Alien attacks cause Explorers to withdraw to the nearest unoccupied tile without taking damage)

 

[OldEarthRelic]

basically settle it and hope a Siege worm doesn't attack it (they only move 1)

Purity level 1 explorers also works (I think they should be changed to: Alien attacks cause Explorers to withdraw to the nearest unoccupied tile without taking damage)

If it takes 15 turns to settle an outpost (+ the time to build the ultrasonic fence), the first option is a big gamble.

If you take Purity Level 1, 15 turns for an explorer seems a high opportunity cost. Although it may stop the AI from attacking you, since they would have to DOW, which they wouldn't if just attacking the outpost.

 

[Castar]

I think Polystralia might be a decent pick for an OCC. 2 extra trade routes is huge when you only have one city. I just played an OCC with Hutama, and the extra trade routes helped a ton. Early on, they allowed me to connect to stations for extra production (to get those wonders out pronto), while still getting some big science and energy from the extra international trade routes. Later, two extra international trade routes meant an extra ~20 science and energy per turn. For a good part of the mid game, the science generated by trade was about equal to the science generated by my one city.

In general, I think an OCC (or tall, in general) is very viable. I didn't play particularly well (and had a terrible starting position), but only noticed a bit of slowdown during the midgame (when going for the first outer-edge techs) compared to my "normal" plays so far. Prioritizing the extra science from academies virtue might be crucial, as that is the point my high population kicked science generation into higher gear.

Terrain maximization will be key when going OCC/tall. Avoid a coastal city unless you fear your trade partners may be overseas (non-protean world). Coasts get a quick early boost but then never improve again. More importantly, your coastal tiles will constantly be blocked by nearby krakens/sea dragons.
The techs that boost farms may be worth gunning for, escpecially if you get the farm boosting wonder, though the +production and +science ones are quite far out. Academies are key. Terrascapes aren't really worth it, unless we can somehow shoehorn that last Prosperity-tree virtue in there relatively quickly (probably at the expense of Industry). Otherwise trade routes, farms, academies (which also get +1 culture from tech) and the occasional mine are just better/cheaper.

 

[Sprenk]

Yeah, OCC looks surprisingly doable, despite the lack of % buikldings. I agree that Hutama's +2 trade routes are a great UA for OCC. For my first BE game, I actually started a OCC game with Elodie (albeit only on Gemini level) just to see what would happen, and my science rate held up, despite clunking around a lot with the unfamiliar mechanics. Once I'm beating Apollo consistently, I'll go back and try OCC again.

 

[Acken]

There will be not that much to do in your capital if you play OCC. I'd suggest going Might and Knowledge and kill people or be ready to stop their victory atempts. Might will help you with affinity and get extra science cleaning the aliens and the science bonus toward affinity techs coupled with knowledge leaf bonus.

I don't see any point in the other 2 trees for OCC. Prosperity has only the 10% food which is a weak bonus and the free worker which is nice but you probably should just make one if necessary and start with the free one. Industry mostly helps wider empire through gold and production. You won't make big amounts of gold on OCC.

 

[kingsbury]

Without a national college wonder or anything similar, and without massive disadvantages for going wide, OCC doesn't seem like it is something that you would try in Beyond Earth for any reason other than to just try winning with one city.

Civ 5 at release was all about going wide until they started to tweak the policy tree and add national wonders.

 

[Acken]

Without a national college wonder or anything similar, and without massive disadvantages for going wide, OCC doesn't seem like it is something that you would try in Beyond Earth for any reason other than to just try winning with one city.

Civ 5 at release was all about going wide until they started to tweak the policy tree and add national wonders.

The challenge is the point yes.

 

[kingsbury]

The challenge is the point yes.

Yes, but in Civ 5 building only one city was often the best course of action for a large part of the game.

 

[Acken]

Huh... no it really wasn't (BNW)

I don't know who told you that, expanding twice before T60 is a very common strategy.

 

[kingsbury]

Huh... no it really wasn't (BNW)

I don't know who told you that, expanding twice before T60 is a very common strategy.

I've won an incredible amount of domination games on deity as Mongolia or England by only building one city. You simply aren't going to get the production or early science needed to build a massive army by turn 100-120 unless you spawned in a resource rich area that allows you to expand peacefully for a lot of turns.

The AI on the highest difficulty setting also has a tendency to rush, and if you spend 60 turns building workers and settlers you will be caught in the cold when you get rushed by 10 units.

 

[Acken]

It being a possible strat with an OP UU for domination isn't the same thing as it being "often the best course of action."

You're even free to prove it beats other players times on the current Mongolia challenge on deity Pangea:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=534611

This is getting offtopic though.

 

[Zet]

I've already won an OOC with Franco-Iberia. Apollo difficulty, Contact victory around turn 275 with standard settings on a protean map. It might be possible much earlier. I'm trying other victories now, and Contact seems easier than the others.

What I've learned is that you need a lot of food to grow your city without internal trade routes, so get those wonders (4 weather controllers might also do the job). Academies with the virtue to increase their science yield are pretty useful. Contact victory also needs a lot of production in the end.

Regarding coastal starts, they're not bad at all if you can enhance the water tiles with weather controllers.

Regarding factions, Franco-Iberia is good, but not that much better. ARC, SF, and Polystralia all seem viable for OCC.

 

[kingsbury]

It being a possible strat with an OP UU for domination isn't the same thing as it being "often the best course of action."

It is more than just a "possible strategy", it is my preferred course of action on deity/pangea in civ 5.

Now for a full game going OCC, that is slightly different as the advantages diminish somewhat over the course of a game.

 

[Sprenk]

I've already won an OOC with Franco-Iberia. Apollo difficulty, Contact victory around turn 275 with standard settings on a protean map.

Grats!

 

[dwarfling]

I'd love to do OCC, but with my closest neighbor(s) usually hellbent into my destruction and without an actual OCC option to tick, I usually end up taking an enemy capital in the early game and since you get no options to raze that...

 

[Sprenk]

I'd love to do OCC, but with my closest neighbor(s) usually hellbent into my destruction and without an actual OCC option to tick, I usually end up taking an enemy capital in the early game and since you get no options to raze that...

Oh, I'd count that as OCC. Don't keep the city, though, burn it down, selling a building off each turn as you do so. Or better yet, sell it off to another faction. I think that counts.