Finished my first OCC

[Vev]

After managing 100+ cities I decided to give OCC a go.

Setting:

Transcend
Custom Huge Map
every option at middle, e.g. avg land size, erosion, moisture, fungus, etc

All victory available
no pods

Custom Faction:
No Social bonus or negative
Have 'TECH, 1' as starting tech
No SE restriction

Opponents:
Uni
Cycon
Peacekeepers
Drones
Believers
Morgan

Whee I transcended in 2313
I was largely ignored, although later in the game I heard around 5 PB explosions.

After a slow start, I flew away after nabbing Supercollider and Theory of Everything.

Learnt that Echelon Mirrors does not work outside your territory.

[spartak]

Nice one, well done.

[Vev]

I had fun making a a plateau. Now if I know beforehand that echelon mirror only work within your territory, I would not have extended my plateau so far away from my city.

[Mead]

Originally posted by Vev
I had fun making a a plateau. Now if I know beforehand that echelon mirror only work within your territory, I would not have extended my plateau so far away from my city.

I have done OCC a couple of times. Yes it's fun and requires lot less management. It is nice have to worry about 1 build que verses 100+.

When I did do OCC I would try to make myself an island and try to ensure that there was no land on the island that was not my territory. This was because I was afraid that a friendly faction would decide to build a city on the 'free' space and begin to encrouch on my territory.

I would make a nice energy park, but work work to ensure that I did not make any new land that would be outside my control.


Mead

[Lazerus]

Put the Hive in next time and turn steal tech when conquer base on. Damn that really increases the difficulty.

[Jamski]

Now try without using a custom faction

-Jam

[Vev]

I am thinking of playing the Hive. That will be a very different game.

I choose a custom faction that has no specialties to provide a middle ground game. Some factions are more suited for OCC like the Uni and peacekeepers.

But if I try using faction more suited for momentum play in OCC that would be very interesting.

[Pandir]

I did a Hive OCC, was a pain because everyone hated me for being the weakest and/or my social engineering choices.

[Lazerus]

yeah the only ally you can really rely on is the Conc, if they dislike you for some reason then you're screwed. That is unless the aliens are playing.
The Cult and Gaians are easier to play with then Pk's and Uni btw.
Just played a game on large, very easy if you get a small island to yourself, try playing it on standard or even small, it becomes fiendishly impossible if Yang, Miriam and Santi are all present
Yang's killed me three times on small maps

[tonic]

Any success in OCC is laudable!

I only play SMAC and find it quite a challenge to complete an OCC game on a small-to--medium map if my city is close to a momentum-type tribe having to postpone the crucial tech path for defence.

[Ecthy]

I've tried OCC in SMAC several times and always failed utterly

You just get crushed easily, and your research tends to be laughable compared to the other factions...

[Pandir]

Yeah keeping up in research is always the big problem in the ones I have done. Gets to the point were I was glad to be getting a tech ever 8 turns. :P

[Vev]

But those multipliers sure help.

[Ecthy]

What multipliers....?

8 turns per tech sounds cool enough. Not quite as good as 8 techs per turn though

[wrg]

I assume the "multipliers" mentioned are facilities and projects that multiply tech production. Of course, since in any OCC game one effectively follows the Super Science City centralized research approach, the facilities and projects that boost research (or anything else) in one city are very useful.

I recently finished a Thinker OCC (not quite up to mature, Transcend play yet) and, after spending a while with techs taking more than 10 years each, came up to speed after building the Supercollider and Theory of Everything. In the end, with a decent little energy park, I reached slightly better than 2 turns / tech, and came from behind to a decided superiority over the AIs. So I can definitely vouch for the effectiveness of the research projects in OCC.

I agree with some other posters that OCC can be difficult. My finally mighty city started out small and weak, constrained by nutrient and habitation requirements. In the attempt just before that one, I'd actually been wiped out by Morgan, of all people. In order not to repeat it, I had to settle for some unpleasant diplomatic compromises, and postpone some infrastructure projects for player and mindworm security. One city that produces 60+ mins a turn can really get a lot of pops.