I am currently playing ARC, try it few times, but seems to can't figure out the optimum path. I played on moderate (1 step higher than mercury). Should I try to rush Spy agency? Is there a preferred affinity for ARC? Do I have to concern about my score comparing to the others. I dk but my score will always either be the third or fourth. When to build a new city as an ARC. What should I more focus on early/mid/late game?
Whats the optimum build/research for ARC
- Thread starter alex33331
- Start date
Early on ARC should do what every other sponsor does: Get new cities up and trade routes going. Going down prosperity to the free settler is quite helpful in this regard. Pioneering will let you make trade routes and the ultrasonic fence building in ecology has a quest that makes trade routes alien proof. Exploring enough to connect your trade routes to other cities is important, as well as making sure your land routes have a path clear of miasma. Plopping down a lot of cities may give you a lot of negative health, but don't worry too much about this in the early game as long as you can stay above -20. Once you have a few internal trade routes giving your capital production and a few external trade routes giving you science, then you can easily get computing researched and the spy agency built in a reasonable time.
With your spy agency I would focus on stealing science and techs. The more aggressive spy agency options can be difficult to pull off. Some people who go for a domination victory like to try to coup capitals, but this can become impossible if the AI builds a surveillance web there. Stealing science or techs is simpler so I recommend you stick to that.
There's a couple of buildings in the communications tech that give quests for extra covert agents, so that is also worth picking up.
There's two supremacy buildings, Gel Cradle and Feedsite Hub, that have quests for an extra covert agent. So Supremacy is a good choice for ARC.
With your spy agency I would focus on stealing science and techs. The more aggressive spy agency options can be difficult to pull off. Some people who go for a domination victory like to try to coup capitals, but this can become impossible if the AI builds a surveillance web there. Stealing science or techs is simpler so I recommend you stick to that.
There's a couple of buildings in the communications tech that give quests for extra covert agents, so that is also worth picking up.
There's two supremacy buildings, Gel Cradle and Feedsite Hub, that have quests for an extra covert agent. So Supremacy is a good choice for ARC.
I've rushed Spy Agency before, but I think you're better off overall if you grab Robotics first and build Autoplants while researching Computing. After that I like to grab Communications to build a Command Center, as the building quest gives an additional covert agent. As Xenotitan says, stealing science is probably the best use of your covert actions: It gives you 25% of the cost of whatever you're researching when the action completes. With that in mind, after Communications I like to make sure I have a line to an outer ring tech that I'll want so I can dump stolen science into it. If you're going Supremacy, this might be Artificial Intelligence to get to Hypercomputing. Social Dynamics and Bioengineering are also good ones to shoot for. If you're planning a Domination game, you could do worse than getting Fabrication to get access to Cybernetics for Orbital Lasers and Phasal Transporters.
Not only are the more difficult covert actions harder to pull off, they also aren't very useful aside from Coup'ing capitals. Recruiting Defectors can be useful if you just can't find time to build/buy your own units, but if that's the case you've probably got economic problems. And the level four intrigue options only hurt the AI, and only in that one city, which just isn't a good return on your time investment.
Score isn't terribly important (I don't even pay attention to it in single player games), but if you're consistently behind the computer you may be playing inefficiently. Score is based off of a lot of factors, but population and territorial control factor in largely, so you may not be expanding enough. Like Xenotitan, I enjoy the free Colonist from Prosperity for jump starting my expansion, but if I'm not going that route, I'll usually hard build a Colonist after setting up a trade depot (in case a station I don't want to lose pops up nearby). After that, I like to expand by rush-buying a Colonist whenever I have enough energy, which keeps my existing cities growing and building other things.
Not only are the more difficult covert actions harder to pull off, they also aren't very useful aside from Coup'ing capitals. Recruiting Defectors can be useful if you just can't find time to build/buy your own units, but if that's the case you've probably got economic problems. And the level four intrigue options only hurt the AI, and only in that one city, which just isn't a good return on your time investment.
Score isn't terribly important (I don't even pay attention to it in single player games), but if you're consistently behind the computer you may be playing inefficiently. Score is based off of a lot of factors, but population and territorial control factor in largely, so you may not be expanding enough. Like Xenotitan, I enjoy the free Colonist from Prosperity for jump starting my expansion, but if I'm not going that route, I'll usually hard build a Colonist after setting up a trade depot (in case a station I don't want to lose pops up nearby). After that, I like to expand by rush-buying a Colonist whenever I have enough energy, which keeps my existing cities growing and building other things.
KingCraig
Chieftain
I'm playing ARC now for the first time, and I'm learning about FOCUS. Stealing techs is fun (I was grabbing some really expensive T3 techs in the early game), but they can also send you off in directions you weren't planning for. I stole a Purity affinity tech that bumped me up from Purity 2 up to 5 in one turn, while I was trying to go Supremacy. Then my next quest reward automatically gave the affinity points to Purity. Now I'm like, 4-Harmony, 7-Purity and 5-Supremacy. And my next door neighbor (with whom I have very lucrative trades) is 10-Harmony. If I'm going to win this, I'll either have to go 100% Purity and build the Exodus as fast as I can, or throw diplomacy to the wind and hit this trading partner of mine before she finishes Mind Flower.
For virtues, I went with Might to grab the +40 buff to intrigue, to stack with ARC's +25 buff. But I haven't found the rest of the Might virtues very helpful compared to Prosperity and Industry, which would have helped me grow my cities and economy (which are kind of hurting).
Long story short, better to steal beakers than techs if you want to stay focused on one win condition (at least early game).
For virtues, I went with Might to grab the +40 buff to intrigue, to stack with ARC's +25 buff. But I haven't found the rest of the Might virtues very helpful compared to Prosperity and Industry, which would have helped me grow my cities and economy (which are kind of hurting).
Long story short, better to steal beakers than techs if you want to stay focused on one win condition (at least early game).
KingCraig
Chieftain
The other thing I'm trying to do with ARC is avoid going Domination too quickly. I want my neighbors to have lots of cities to spy on so I can move around and steal tech!
Going 3 into prosperity for the free settler is easily the best use of your first 3 virtues.
Also, if you stick to stealing science and tech the +40% intrigue won't actually do a lot because you can quickly get enough intrigue to do those options anyway. Once you can do the options you want the extra intrigue doesn't do anything for you. Might isn't the easiest tree to play and you seem to still be learning the game so I'd go with one of the other trees.
Also, if you stick to stealing science and tech the +40% intrigue won't actually do a lot because you can quickly get enough intrigue to do those options anyway. Once you can do the options you want the extra intrigue doesn't do anything for you. Might isn't the easiest tree to play and you seem to still be learning the game so I'd go with one of the other trees.
KingCraig
Chieftain
My experience on this last game has led me to agree with you. I was all excited about having +65% stacked buff on my operatives, but I could have used other virtues to help my base city yields in so many other ways by skipping the Might tree. Now my growth and production are low. So is my beaker count, but the stealing balances that out.
weregamer
Gandhi of the Mongols
Might is a very useful tree, but the + to intrigue is too expensive (you have to take a negative-value option to get to it - why on not-Earth would I want to be stuck with an AI's poor choice of outpost location instead of nuking it and building the right one?)
The real meat of Might in the early game is the science from killing aliens and nests (which you'll have to do anyway); the real meat in the late game (unless your map is way rich in the resource(s) you need) is the bonus strategic resources, and the bonus tile yields on them.
I think the high value of Prosperity around this board is related to the drive to beeline/abuse trade. When trade gets nerfed, Prosperity will probably become an underperformer compared to Knowledge.
The real meat of Might in the early game is the science from killing aliens and nests (which you'll have to do anyway); the real meat in the late game (unless your map is way rich in the resource(s) you need) is the bonus strategic resources, and the bonus tile yields on them.
I think the high value of Prosperity around this board is related to the drive to beeline/abuse trade. When trade gets nerfed, Prosperity will probably become an underperformer compared to Knowledge.
DarkestOnion
Prince
- Joined
- Jul 27, 2014
- Messages
- 533
Try going Might for extra intrigue from operations, pursue Purity Affinity 4, and get 2-3 Battlesuits with 3-4 Artillery online as soon as possible. This will discourage any AI DoW's and allow you to build infrastructure and pursue whichever Victory Condition you wish.
Agreed that Prosperity is valued for early TR spam.
Disagree that Knowledge is what will replace it. 2d best is clearly Industry - there's too many culture-focused virtues in Knowledge, and spending 3 virtues to get more culture leaves you with nothing. Unless you're Elodie, then it's like 1/3 of a free tech.
Also, when trade gets nerfed in the patch, expect unhealth to get more punishing. Knowledge's first virtue is only useful when healthy, and while every tree has a health buff, Knowledge's buff is the weakest until the late game. Knowledge is a tree that works much better in the late game, when you're already healthy and have large developed cities.
Anomandaris
Chieftain
- Joined
- Nov 19, 2014
- Messages
- 47
Yeah, pretty impossible to predict. In the beginning it seemed most natural to me to go deep prosperity followed by knowledge, however later on I found out that I get best results with going prosperity until free colonist, then industry up to magnasati (or whatever it was), then going might for domination or knowledge for everything else. I never get significant problems with health (meaning below -20) until I start conquering cities and once the war machine is rolling, health is even more irrelevant. Of course, this is largely due to the style I like to play, which is heavy tech-ing and expansion/development. That is just my kind of game 
Going for early aggression, I can see prosperity being taken as a second tree (with might first), to offset the extreme negative health you can get by taking cities (until they burn down if you do not annex). Even then industry is superior IMO, though.
Back on topic:
I think ARC is optimally played just like every other sponsor. Go wide, spam cities, abuse trade. If you want to role play and over-utilize the bonus, you can go Knowledge after free colonist to get spies a bit quicker. The extra intrigue from might is useless, by the time you can realistically get it your spies will probably already have gotten the target cities above 1 intrigue so they can start stealing. Faster repositioning if something happens to the spy/city is just not worth the virtues you are investing.
Going for early aggression, I can see prosperity being taken as a second tree (with might first), to offset the extreme negative health you can get by taking cities (until they burn down if you do not annex). Even then industry is superior IMO, though.Back on topic:
I think ARC is optimally played just like every other sponsor. Go wide, spam cities, abuse trade. If you want to role play and over-utilize the bonus, you can go Knowledge after free colonist to get spies a bit quicker. The extra intrigue from might is useless, by the time you can realistically get it your spies will probably already have gotten the target cities above 1 intrigue so they can start stealing. Faster repositioning if something happens to the spy/city is just not worth the virtues you are investing.
Agreed. I suppose I should have said, "Assuming no other major changes to the Virtues" or something. But I'd expect tweaks, not wholesale revisions, and 80-90% of each tree will stay the same. And while Firaxis specified some changes to Might, I doubt that Knowledge and Industry will be changed much.
