Council Votes

[RichardY]

Does anyone know if there is a formula for calculating the number of Council Votes? I can't find any reference in the mannual. If there is already a thread posted on the forum please advise me.

In my current game I have nearly 70% of the votes despite the fact I am behind Yang in all aspects. I am playing as PK and have the Empath Guild and would like to increase my votes without attacking him. I am still a long way off Clinical Imortatility.
(The other factions have either been eliminated or are too small to worry about).

Any help/advice would be appreciated.

[Clear Skies]

There's no set number of council votes. Every faction just gets more and more as they expand & grow.
If you have the latest patches they should tell you both your own number of votes (on the bottom of the commlink menu) and those of your opponents (check their profiles from right-clicking on their name in the commlink menu).
Anyway, why are you so worried? Isn't 70% of the votes enough? Lal always gets a pretty massive percentage of the votes in any case, due to his 'expertise in political manoeuvring' (my backside - the guy was Chief of Surgery! Since when do surgeons get trained in political manoeuvring?) Also, it's not just the two SPs that double your vote. There are some techs and stuff too - don't ask me which exact ones or I'll start to whimper.
Anyway, 70% is easily enough. Vote yourself a diplomatic victory! Either that or defend your cities REALLY well and Yang won't stand a chance next time he attacks!
70% will win you Planetary Governor more easily than Margaret Thatcher used to win elections, and is enough to vote yourself ruler of Planet - with a little help from your friends in the other factions!
You haven't committed any atrocities against Yang, now, have you?

[RedFred]

Get big. Very big. Then you will have all the votes you need.

It is strictly based on population. I believe that you can go around and add up all the numbers on your cities to work out your votes prior to the modifiers. The modifiers (PK, and the 2 SPs) you seem to have a good handle on.

Conversely, nervegassing Yang will reduce his votes a bunch. ::evil grin::

Edit: It looks like I have cross-posted with somebody. He is quite right that having a running vote total makes the formula for calculating votes almost redundant.

[Method]

Re: Council Votes

Originally posted by RichardY
Does anyone know if there is a formula for calculating the number of Council Votes?

there isn't one. for every unit of pop u have you get 1 vote(plus sp's etc)

[RichardY]

Thanks for your comments. I have checked my game and it is 1 vote per person as you suggested (with bonuses for PK and SP).
I still haven't got to the necessary 75% for Supreme Leader - my war with Yang is a stalemate at present. If I manage it, it will be my first victory at Transend Level hence my concern.

[knowhow2]

RichY,

You do know that it takes more than 75 %of the votes to win a diplomatic victory. You also need the other factions NOT to defy you. If that happens (if they defy you, ou'll have to win the victory through conquest or something else).

,,,,,,

[Solver]

1 pop unit = 1 vote. Higher if you are Lal. If you have Empath Guild, +50%.

[Clear Skies]

OK, the way I see it, you have several options:

1. Pop boom. Get as big a Growth rating as you can, found bases all over the place, crawl nutrients to them, build Condensers, get Golden Ages, everything. This way, your population will increase, getting you a greater share of the votes.

2. Use Probe Teams (preferably algorithmically enhanced if you have SMAC) to buy off some of Yang's bases - using Total Thought Control, obviously. It's a good idea to only do 2 or 3 bases, otherwise you stand a pretty big chance of getting caught! This has the double effect of taking away Yang's population while also increasing your own.

3. Get some pet factions (submissives or similar) to vote your way in Council. They'll help boost your vote total.

4. OK, so how much don't you want a war with Yang? If you really really don't, try trading techs or money for Yang's bases, or even swapping some of your really small ones for Yang's massive bases (this is actually regarded as a bit of a cheat - the AI is really dumb about baseswapping). If you don't mind a war with him, just capture some of his bases, then talk Truce (you might have to cede a fair bit of stuff though!) If you want a war with him (and let's be honest, with the Hive, who doesn't ) then just use Probe Teams and Genetic Atrocities or Viruses or whatever they are, or if you're feeling especially daring use a Planet Buster to knock out his biggest bases!

[RichardY]

Thanks for the advice. At the moment Yang's main bases are on a different continent. I did manage to capture one city on his main continent using aircraft and drop troops and sent a supply of troops ready to launch an offensive but he sent in lots of probes and bought it back - bang went my attack force! (I had put some of my own probes but he had more).

The Spartans have already surrendered to me but they only have 9 votes. The Gaians and University were eliminated by Yang early so the only other faction to consider is Morgan. At present I am at peace with them but they only have about 4 bases so it should not be too difficult to launch a surprise attack on them. That might give me enough votes.

I am a bit concerned about the fact that other factions might continue to oppose me even if I get 75% of the vote. I have read this in the manual but it has never happened to me in a game. Does anyone have any experience of this?

Anyway I'm going back to attack Morgan.

[theohall]

A slightly related question: Does Lal get the 50% bonus with the Empath Guild in addition to his faction bonus? That would be huge for those population vote issues.

[RedFred]

You betcha.

[knowhow2]

richY,

the funny thing is that the other factions usually defies me when attempting dimplomatic victory. I think in all my SP (50 or so)games I only managed to win 4 dimplomatic vitories.

A tip would be to stay in right side (=don't kick them to much while they're donw, just enough ) and stay noble. And another thing, even if the are sybmissive to you (after surrender) they still can defy you. I don't know if this i true everywhere but Santiago and Morgan have a bigger tendency to defy when shooting for Supreme Leader, don't ask me why. Ohh.... never never nervegas or PB anyone. Well, at least not those that you think will live that long to tell.

[Fistleaf]

I have never been opposed for Diplomatic victory before. I believe if you do not commit atrocities, you should have no problem winning. I still think Diplomatic victory is the easiest way to win: even if you are moderate in power, you can win it by bribing the smaller factions with significant number of votes.

[Solver]

I always can bribe/get votes. But my mortal enemy will always defy the will of Council.

[RichardY]

I haven't been able to post during the last few days because of problems with my Internet connection but after my last post I loaded my game intending to declare war on Morgan. As soon as I contacted them they offered me a Pact which I agreed to. I then bribed them to vote for me as Supreme Leader which they agreed to in exchange for 2 Techs. I called a vote and was duly elected. Although Yang voted against me he did not oppose and I won the game! (my first ever victory at Transcend!)

Technlolgy-wise I was way behind Yang as I still had a best attack of 6 and Yang was attacking with 10 and had Fusion Power so I was quite relieved.

I think in my next game I will play as Yang as he always seems to be very strong.