How to Achieve Fast Ascent Victory?

[Tenchusatsu]

OK, all you experts who can win by Ascent SMAC and SMAX on Transcend difficulty in under 100 turns. I'd like some general tips on how to achieve that, i.e. which early SP's to build, how many cities you need, which faction, SE choices, terraforming strategies, and how to deal with pesky warmongers for neighbors.

[Chowlett]

I think the record is about 74 turns. There's a guide floating around the boards, by Velocyrix IIRC. The basic strategy is to go Spartan or Gaian on a tiny map and conquer everyone ASAP. Then use them all as your tech and money sources.

[mark13]

Not quite 100 turns, but I transcended in 2206 on a tiny map....it basically involves (as the Spartans) beelinging for impact rovers, enslaving (but not destroying) the other factions, and slamming tech through the roof. Oh yeah, and you have to keep the global economy steady....most of your energy income will be from commerce in the latter stages of the game.

[big_canuk]

IIRC, another maybe even faster way to go is UoP, and constantly give everything you have to all factions. Make treaties, but not pacts. Try to keep the peace. Trade like crazy. Build only WP, ME, SC, and ToE, plus maybe one or two more.

Maintain as neutral SE settings as possible. Get mega income from trade, and mega techs from trading.

I haven't tried the above yet. My record is conquest in 2199, tiny map, Usurpers, all hardest settings.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Original incredible record was by Zsozso by about 2176 IIRC. Dee as described above.

Record was shaved a bit later by David Byron using easiest setting smaller than a tiny world and ICS like mad using Morgan. David was able to take advantage of pumping out pods without base disbandment at easiest setting.

Og


Apologies Zso it was 2172 (and am still in awe of that feat )
[This message has been edited by Ogie Oglethorpe (edited March 02, 2001).]

[Skanderbeg]

Oh, I would like to know about Your fastest ascendence with BLIND RESEARCH
on transcendent level!

My best is 2370, but in this game a runaway Domai build the Voice and I cashed in my crawlers.

My fastest "non-parasitic" ascendent in blind research was 2387.

"Steelborn, Starborn"

[zsozso]

There is an old thread describing my game when I transcended in 2172 with Gaians: http://apolyton.net/forums/Forum12/HTML/000517.html

Anybody tried SMACX for fast transcend ? I guess with smart choice of opponents it could be made even faster than SMAC (despite the extra techs)

[hellrazor]

I recently broke my own record by transcending with Morgan using SMAX at 2328. I used my normal settings: huge map, tech stag, high natives, pods on, transcend level. I got lucky in getting a lot of artifacts early on. I then got green and wealth SC choices very quickly, and for most of the rest of the game I ran Demo/Green/Wealth with my research set at 90%. I got all the income I needed from mindworms and racked up tons of artifacts...I think I got 25-30 advances from artifacts...used up every network node until I got the Universal Translator. I also had pacts with all the human factions so that was a ton of commerce income. I also got really lucky with my starting position and had the Monsoon Jungle nearby. I don't know if I'll be able to beat that with my current settings.

[TigToad]

I strongly suggest anyone who has an interest to check out that old Zso thread... I took up that challenge and tried a couple dozen games.. I think my best transcend was about 98-102 years. Gaians worked well, but I had better luck with the Spartans.. as for secret projects, you don't build any. It is also important to know which techs you do not HAVE to research to transcend. (there are quite a few, I forget the key tech, but there is one tech if you don't research it, you never get the other options)

Tig

[Tenchusatsu]

Thank you everyone for your replies. Using everyone's advice, I achieved Transcendence w/ the Spartans on a Tiny Planet at year 2232. I know I can do better, but I forgot to disable all victory conditions except Transcendence, so I had to leave one faction (Data Angels) alone with a treaty.

Next time, I'll try with the Gaians and make it before 2200.

[RedFred]

Skanderberg, I am with you, buddy. While zsozso's feat was simply amazing, I am more interested in fast transcends on regular-sized maps - and no using the AI factions as tech slaves! 2287 is my record with directed research, using the Hive. I have yet to crack 2300 with double blind research, but I'm getting very close.

[It'sLikeThat]

i guess saving the game before you pop pods with your transports and before you cash in the artifact is not considered a strategy..

[RedFred]

Yessss!

I finally beat 2300 double blind with 'that crazy Gaian witch'. It was a SMAC Classic game on regular size random map. Transcend level. Ironman style but not Ironman on because of crashes. In the early game I occasionally traded for tech, but I never used submissives as tech slaves by letting them have tech parity with me. No crawler upgrades.

Just to throw in an additional challenge, I played Time Warp so I only got one early SP. Playing the whole game without either of the two big drone reducing SPs (HGP & VW) wasn't as bad as I thought. Transcended in 2293. I should have gotten there one year earlier but I didn't go for wide scale cashing in of crawlers. Saved game available upon request.

I guesstimate that SMAC is about 10-15 turns quicker at these settings over SMACX. The energy maintenance cost bug is probably not as significant as the somewhat smaller tech tree. You tend to hit tree farms quite a bit quicker and you have less tech to plow through at the end. For a while I went with multiple science cities, but now I am back to using one. Getting to the tech a turn level as quickly as possible is much more important than hitting three techs a turn right before Transcendant Thought #1.