Talk to me about the space race

[MinnesotaRuss]

I am now at the point where I can build a spacepaort. It seems I can build more than one of them. Please, someone, explain exactly what is necessary to get a spaceship launched.
In previous civs, it was explained quite clearly: 1 of this, 2 of this, and 3 or more of that. So where can I find the necessary parts to get that victory? And how long does it take for the ship to arrive? Can I find out if any of my opponents are active in the space program?

 

[Martin_K]

space victory has 3 stages:
- launch satellite
- land on the moon
- launch mars colony

the items required for the 3 stages are built as city projects. only a city with a spaceport can build them.

the satellite and moon landing only require 1 project, the mars colony is split into 3 different projects, so it can be useful to have more than 1 spaceport city (so you can work on the 3 different parts at the same time rather than in sequence).

victory is instant as soon as you finish all 3 mars colony pieces.

the victory condition panel shows the progress of your rivals.

 

[Victoria]

I would have one spaceport that should be being fed by many internal trade routes to provide over 100 production ideally.

It is possible to finish more than one project at one spaceport in the same turn using great people to boost the production. If enough production is pumped in in one turn the first project will finish and you have to wait a turn unless you use a worker to chop a tree or dig some stone which will trigger the next project in the same turn.

Getting the great people to do this is a risk but you can overcome this by having a large saving of gold and complete the Big Ben wonder which doubles your treasury. You can then have maybe 30K + which should be enough to buy the GP you need.

Roberto Goddard (GE) +20% toward Space race projects (And Rocketry Eureka)
Stephanie Kwolek (GS) +100% toward space race projects
Carl Sagan (GS) +3000 Prod to space race projects
Sergei Korolev (GE)+1500 prod to space race projects
Wernher von Braun (GE) +100% toward space race project

So getting the money the science and the industrialization in place in huge amounts is important.
This is more advanced play though.

 

[Disgustipated]

I prefer to build a space port in 2 cities. Ideally your 2 highest production cities. The highest production city should build the launch Earth satellite and Moon Landing. And that city should also build the first Mars mission part that you research. The second part that you research can be built by your 2nd city, and by the time you research your 3rd Mars mission part, your first city should be about done. Of course if you do manage to snag most of those Great People listed above you can get by with just 1 spaceport. On the lower or middle difficulty levels you can easily get by without any great people and just build the parts.

Keep in mind city projects are at the very bottom of the city build list, so make sure to scroll all the way down so you can build your space ship parts. It can be easy to miss.

You can view opponents progress in the victory screen in the science victory tab. There should be 3 icons. and if I recall correctly you can hover the mouse pointer over the icons to get even more info. Those icons will fill when opponent AI's complete part of the project.

You don't have to wait for the ship to arrive. Once you build your last part you win the game.

 

[DCGolliher]

It almost goes without saying---have a buffed Spy protecting your Spaceport.

 

[Felis Renidens]

And another one or two to sabotage the opponents space ports and industry.

 

[Victoria]

... Only if they are winning, I like to see their pitiful attempt next to mine

 

[ShinigamiKenji]

To finish up, here are the technologies that unlocks Space Race projects:

• Rocketry (Atomic Era): Unlocks Spaceports and Earth Sattelite project
• Satellites (Information Era): Unlocks Moon Landing project
• Robotics (Information Era): Unlock Mars Habitation project
• Nanotechnology(Information Era): Unlocks Mars Hydroponics project
• Nuclear Fusion: Unlocks Mars Reactor project