SS- Launch Timing

[R]

When is the best timing to launch the spaceship in order to get the highest score?

Do you really get more score if it lands at AC early in history, or is it better to time the launch so it lands just before retirement at 2020?
An early launch only seems to matter if you barely can beat the other civs, or?

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...............(R)
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[This message has been edited by R (edited March 30, 2001).]

 

[TTG]

Later is always better

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[GenghisK]

Later is always better

Not sure. Why? To let you Civ grow larger?

And R, I think retirement is in 2100. Not in 2020. In fact, there's no really best date to launch. Note that the later the more likely the other computer civ will launch theirs, so...
In fact, I always launch it about 1970s in chieftain mode and 2005 in emperor mode. Kindly note the following tips:
_ don't loose your capital city after launch, for your SS will be destroyed.
_ to get the highest score, the best way is conquer the world. But if you're like me, a pacifist, the SS score doesn't really matter, since it has a maximum value (140 or something like that? Don't remember) BUT it's more important to own ALL the wonder. So seize the enemy cities which have built wonder.
_ last important tip. Remember your launch date and the estimated arrival date. When you have only 1 year left before SS arrival at Alpha Centauri, go into luxuries menu. Put Science and tax to 0% and maximum (100%) to luxuries. Then, you can start next and final turn (when SS arrives and the game ends, which implies scoring computation).
Why put 100% on luxuries? The higher that rate, the maximum of your citizen will be happy. And you know that each happy citizen = 1 point, each normal citizen = 0 and each unpleased people = -1... Your score will be all the more greater that your civ is large with many people happy.

Ok, anything else to ask?

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Genghis K.

 

[TTG]

Thankyou Genghis Kahn for your insightful but wrong suggestions.

To put the record straight...

The year of retirement depends on the difficulty level. If you play on emperor, then the game ends in 2010. The 2100 is in chieftan, I think.

The best way to get a high score is to conquer the world, but keep one enemy city alive so the game doesn't end. Keep the city like a "pet". Block it up with military units and don't let it expand in any way. Now you are free to colonize the world... Cover it with giant cities, get hundreds of future techs, launch a space ship, etc etc. I usually let it conquer the world just to see what my score would have been and then go back to my last save and do this. The score difference is usually about 1000 points.

For example, on an emperor game where conquering the world would have got you 1500 points (depends on how early you conquer the world), that's 150%. Keep playing, however, and earn 2500 points, or 250%. That's a substantial difference.

Further, there is an even better way to get high scores. Follow the instructions on my cheat page to increase the difficulty level beyond pre-programmed levels. This makes the game a lot harder (as hard as you want!) but has the bonus of also increasing your score. I have scored over 350% just for conquering the world on difficulty emperor+2, so there's lots of possibility here for getting huge scores.

The last point you made is actually a good one. Doing this 100% luxuries thing can also push your cities over the edge, into "We love the president" days, which rapidly increase population growth.

`

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[R]

Thanks GenghisK and TTG for your tips.

I always do the pet city thing myself, but I never thought about putting the luxrate to 100% the last turn...


I experimented a little with the luxury rate earlier in a game. Usually I never have the president's days going until democracy. I tried to put up the luxury rate a little in my monarchy government, and use it together with hanging gardens. I set the rate just enough so they would celebrate me in the cities with a lot of trade. Because they get the same resources as in democracy then, it boosted the trade enough to actually give more trade to tax&research than before I raised the lux-rate. That's good.

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...................................(R)

 

[GenghisK]

I experimented a little with the luxury rate earlier in a game. Usually I never have the president's days going until democracy.

I ALWAYS play with democracy (nothing else, my conscience is clean

) and I've never ever got problem to put my cities going on President's day. With a bank and/or marketplace, perhaps 10 or 20% luxury and cure for cancer, it's too easy to get people love their president.

Don't understand. But to keep to 1 people growth rate during that period is another story. A challenge.

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Genghis K.

 

[TTG]

You really should learn to use some of the other governments, GK. For war, despotism is ideal. For war in modern times, use republic. For maximizing research and development, as well as high score, use democracy. Monarchy is less useful, perhaps in times where a balance of constant war and development is necessary. Communism, is of course just a more advanced substitute for monarchy later in the game.

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[R]

I'm talking about an early stage of the game. Of course democracy is the best when you're big and bad and advanced.

Always democracy, GenghisK? If the Egyptians freely and randomly suddenly get their pyramids before you build it, it takes a looong time before you develop democracy.

Don't you ever use any of the other goverment types before that? I usually change to monarchy when a bunch of cities has growed up a little, around 6. That makes them produce better and grow faster.

I think communism is good when you're all over the map with your cities, and still conquering the last enemies. It keeps the corruption allright in the distant areas, and nobody cares if I have my forces out raving.

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...................................(R)

 

[TTG]

Democracy is not as hard to get as you think. The one that takes the longest to get is communism. Democracy takes literacy and philosphy. So all you need is:

Ceremonial Burial
Alphabet
Writing
Code of Laws
Mysticism
Literacy
Philosophy
Democracy
(only 8 techs on fast-track)

Actually, it's a false advantage with communism. It's definitely better than monarchy, but if you compare incomes with democracy, or even republic for that matter. The truth is, the equalization doesn't do much except bring down the income at your most central (usually largest) cities in order to increase the income at your most obscure (usually smallest) cites. This is rarely worth it, unless your central cities are small but you just conquered someone else's big cities. Even then, it's better to move your capital than take on communism.

Democracy, on the other hand, eliminates ALL corruption, not just spreading it around. And republic and democracy both have increased trade on all squares, so even for republic that bonus is better than the stupid corruption thing on communism, even in the worst of cases... The only circumstance where I would prefer communism over republic is if you are at war and are unable to manage the unhappy people that result from the military units out there... even then I'd say find some way to manage it (women's suffrage, cure for cancer, shakespeare's theatre, etc) then go to that stupid government.

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[GenghisK]

Ceremonial Burial
Alphabet
Writing
Code of Laws
Mysticism
Literacy
Philosophy
Democracy
(only 8 techs on fast-track)

Granted but if it's not the fastest way to get Democracy. Republic is much easier to get so I think the best is to reseach Republic first, then do revolution and switch on it. Now, it's better and FASTER to have Democracy. If you try to access democracy directly, during this period you'll still remain in a despotism government. Not good, not good...

And to be honnest, TTG, I used to play with communism all the time but it's not interesting, at least for me, since I'm a pacifist. So to also reply to you suggestion, I don't think I'd try anything else than democracy. Since I never go on a long and bloody war, so it's all right. I'm always doing the Alpha Centauri race. And even at war, I always have enough money to buy enemy units. So if they're bought far from any of your cities, it would belong to none of your towns, so no support needed, no unhappy, etc. Sometimes, life is wonderful, isn't it?

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Genghis K.

 

[TTG]

I wasn't actually suggesting that you get democracy as soon as possible, just illustrating that it IS fairly easy to get it, and doesn't take forever.

Now you say you have been succesful in smaller wars with using just democracy or republic, I'm not arguing with that. Still, I doubt you have been as succesful as you could have been. Wars can be very swift if you do them right

. It's possible to conquer the world very early in the game (before 1AD, every time!), keep a pet civ around and still beat the Alpha Centauri race. There's no way you can beat that kind of score with other civs clogging up the landscape.

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[GenghisK]

Perhaps you're right, TTG. I'll try your advice... Thanks a lot.

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Genghis K.
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