Announcement

**Angelscream** · March 19, 2001, 21:53

Hi Laurie

Normally, and I have a valid reason for saying normally, you must build a spaceship once you get the required technologies, and the game will tell you when you get the required techs. (I dont want to give too much away)
Once you build and later launch your spaceship, again the game will guide you through that too, you will land on Centarus some turns later, the second map in the upper right hand window that should be blacked out in your current situation. The Aliens will be there as a purple civilization.

However, sometimes the game screws up and the purple civs which should be humans turn themselves into the aliens on earth. This actually happened to me in an Original game of all things. But that is the exception rather than the rule.

Hope I was a little bit of help to u!

OH, and if you haven't done so already, please vote for ToT in the voting section near the bottom of this forum's page. It is called MGE vs ToT. It only takes a minute to vote, and I will GREATLY appreciate it, as ToT only needs 4 more votes to take the lead from the evil MGE

as always,

Holla Eazy Baby

------------------
"Be yourself, by yourself, stay away from me. A lesson learned in life, known from the dawn of time."
- Pantera, Datalinks
[This message has been edited by Angelscream (edited March 19, 2001).]

**Laurie** · March 19, 2001, 22:52

Thanks for the reply. I don't think I will ever get the technology for space travel... it tales me forever to get to that stage, and by then I am running into financial problems!

Any tips? :-)

Laurie

(Oh. and I did go vote!)
[This message has been edited by Laurie (edited March 19, 2001).]

**Angelscream** · March 19, 2001, 23:48

Thanks for voting for ToT! You have done a wonderful thing, and set an example for Test of Time lovers everywhere. It is because of intelligent people like you that Test of Time WILL defeat Multiplayer Gold Edition (A stupid title in my opinion)

But enough of the MGE bashing, I think I can help you, but you may need to start a new game, but maybie not.

What follows is a basic strategy that I use, adopted and evolved from playing civ from when it was an MSDOS program (and who says you have to use 'a' instead of 'an' in front of a consonant. I just did it!)
Also from experience adopted from Alpha Centauri, a damn good game in it's own right.

Anyway, when building cities, place them 3 squares apart, and be sure to develop the land in every usable square. You can fit more cities in a smaller space, which means more money and science flow, and a better defence policy if you are attacked. 10 cities are better than say 4 if u need a quick military.

Monarchy followed by Communism are the 2 governments I use most. Communism is fabulous because of the lack of corruption, citizen control, and ease of waging wars. The other gov's are good, but usually require experience using that particular govt to be used properly. Democracy/Fundamentalism, for example are 2 good combo govt's, one at peace, the other for war, but it takes practice to perfect this, plus if you dont have the Statue of Liberty, changing govt's will become a pain in the arse. Just stick to Monarchy, then Commie as soon as you can get it.

Build cheap, cheap, cheap. If a temple is quicker to build than a marketplace, but you dont immediately need that temple, build it anyway! You will save time later when all of your cities start revolting. Eventually you will be on a serious roll, and your economy and science rate will be superior to your opponents. Just build the cheapest things first, and don't stop until you build every single thing in every single city.

Here's where the problems hit tho. The computer will immediately recognize you as a threat, and gang up on you. There are 2 solutions to this. Kill em, or pay em off. Either way a war will slow you down from reaching Centarus, but I usually end up killing em just for the pure sadistic pleasure I get out of it.

If you are all alone tho, or are not afraid of attack and safe, switch to democracy and watch your science rate go thru the friggin' roof, especially with all the cities you will have building them only 3 squares apart. Watch out for angry citizens tho, but if you build temples, colloseums (sp?), cathedrals, and police stations u will have no problem with them.

Wonders are a sticky situation. I honestly don't build em. I capture em.

Anyway that's usually a good start, feel free to change and evolve this little tactic of mine at your leasure. This is not the best strategy to use by any degree, but it is extreamly similar to the tactic used by professionals who wrote the SMAC strategy guide, and should get you to Centarus, especially on the easy levels.

Oh, and I almost forgot...

Holla Eazy Baby
------------------
"Be yourself, by yourself, stay away from me. A lesson learned in life, known from the dawn of time."
- Pantera, Datalinks
[This message has been edited by Angelscream because he is a horrible speller (edited March 19, 2001).]
[This message has been edited by Angelscream (edited March 19, 2001).]

**Six Thousand Year Old Man** · March 20, 2001, 00:23

quote:

Originally posted by Laurie on 03-19-2001 09:52 PM

Any tips? :-)

Well, if you find yourself running out of $$ late in the game, there's 2 basic ways to go. If you like being in a democracy or republic, build caravans. Late in the game, trade between 2 large cities will net a big initial reward plus some additional trade arrows per turn. Trade with a foreign city, or sending a commodity to a city that demands it, will get even better returns. If you have 10-20 trade routes set up, the result can be an extra 100-300 gold /turn, easy.

The other option (if you are more the warmongering type) is to switch into fundamentalism and, if you don't have them already, start building temples/cathedrals/colosseums. Each of these produce a 'tithe' that's paid into your treasury each turn.

Finally, you can sell off certain improvements you don't need anymore... example would be superhighways if you decided to switch to fundamentalism for good, or aqueduct/sewer stystem if the city is maxed out in size (no more extra food being produced).

Sorry if those ideas are obvious... but you did say you were a newbie! Enjoy your Civving!

STYOM

**Hasdrubal** · March 20, 2001, 10:29

Do make sure that you have the patch installed, or you will never get to AC at all.
(There is this 'little' bug in the game...)

**wittlich** · March 20, 2001, 15:32

To increase money flow:
On your city screen you will notice your people out in the "fields" working on food/shield production. You do know that if you click on one of those people in the field, they will turn into an entertainer in your city. Now click on the entertainer, he will then change to a tax collector (more money collected) or if you click on him yet again, he will turn into a scientist (more science output from the city). This is all basic city management, but like you said, "you don't have a manual," so you may not have known.

**crashmon28** · March 20, 2001, 15:47

Hi Laurie,

Just a point on when you start to Build your spaceship (when you get the techs, and of course I'm assuming that you've installed the patch). This won't be a problem as your playing on the easist level, however make sure that your the first to land on AC. On all the Extended games I've played (and I have the patch), only the Civ that lands first will get colonists on AC (I think there is a topic on this in the TOT forums). If you are not first you won't get colonists.

This is not a major hassle, as you still can reserch Ultrastring theory when a landing takes place, so you'll soon be able to build transporters and get to AC that way.

Hope this helps

------------------
Crash...

**Laurie** · March 20, 2001, 20:02

Sorry, disregard that. I found the patches ("clever girl!")... thanks all for the advice.

Laurie

eau crap, could someone point me at the patch? please? I don't know about that one...

Laurie

quote:

Originally posted by Hasdrubal on 03-20-2001 09:29 AM
Do make sure that you have the patch installed, or you will never get to AC at all.
(There is this 'little' bug in the game...)

[This message has been edited by Laurie (edited March 20, 2001).]

**Laurie** · March 20, 2001, 20:08

DUH!!! I did not know. I knew about the entertainer thing, because it suggests that you do that when people start being revolting. I did not know about the tax collector etc. I think I have inadvertently done this though, because I noticed the little Elvis (hehe) turn into this skinny mean lookin guy (tax collector, right) when I tried to toggle the Elvis nback to a normal citizen (my reasoning being that if I fixed the revolt, I could put that person back to work in the fields!). So thanks.

By the way, the reason I am manual-less is legit... I bought the game shrinkwrapped in a nice box, but sold as "classic" software, and quite cheap. When I opened the nice box, there was nothing inside but the CD. If I hadn't played the DOS version years ago, I wouldn't have had any idea.

Thanks for the help, very much appreciated.

Laurie

quote:

Originally posted by wittlich on 03-20-2001 02:32 PM
To increase money flow:
On your city screen you will notice your people out in the "fields" working on food/shield production. You do know that if you click on one of those people in the field, they will turn into an entertainer in your city. Now click on the entertainer, he will then change to a tax collector (more money collected) or if you click on him yet again, he will turn into a scientist (more science output from the city). This is all basic city management, but like you said, "you don't have a manual," so you may not have known.

Announcement

Where are the Aliens? (Newbie)

Where are the Aliens? (Newbie)

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment