help a newbie out

[Caedfel]

it is inefficient to have every base get every base facility. For instance, why would you need to research airbase in a base that is usually researching secret progects and such? Also i think the more units you garrison, the more energy they expend just sitting there, tho I'm not exactly sure how that works, so the less you have garrisoned, the more efficient you are (so garrison like one unit in a base if it is in the middle of your empire for instance. Ideally you should have 1 or 2 bases specifically made for building units - constantly churning out the base versions (tip courtesy of Kirnwaffen of the chassis units for home defense at first, and then for specialization later on when you start to conquer. I'd have this base by the coast so you can build sea units as well. I'd also make a base specifically designed to make money - a cash cow, that's what the minerals to energy thing does, it lets you get energy out of the minerals the base is harvesting, but not using beause they arent optimized to produce units.

the only problem with this in multi-player especially I imagine, is that an opposing team can send in a probe squad, infiltrate your datalinks, and find which bases do what = dangerous information in the wrong hands.

There are so many things that I'm learning right now. Like the combat bonuses based on the terrain = advanced tactical opportunities - this game gets deeper and deeper every second

[Avenoct]

Great Newbie discussion, and don't be worried about being new... everyone here was at one point or another. Personally I did what you're doing...I asked a LOT of questions and thought hard about the answers....then one day I heard about this great thing and this great person. Who was that you ask? Why, Velociryx of course! So I found that by following a maddeningly long series of searches and links I could find theHoly of Holies, Velociryx's Strategy Guide, or the Bible of Smac . Everything changed from that day, and not all for the better! Vel's guide is so complete that if you truly digest it you skip over a large part of the learning curve and learn things you might not have ever discovered about TBS strategy.

O.k., that said, I really think that the questions asked in this thread are great. They are specific and clearly don't indicate that you just want to Win at ANY Cost which is tantamount to only wanting to do a crossword puzzle if you have the answer key. Bah!

Unfortunately, there isn't a lot you can do to alleviate micromanagement.

Um...Kirnwaffen, you spelled that incorrectly, that's "Fortunately"!

But seriously, micromanagement is a pain sometimes. I don't know that there is a solution, a meta-strategy of playing games with less micromanagement, because the games where every 'lab' and every mineral count are the most interesting, and they also encourage the most micromanagement. If you play far below your skill level (or have mastered the game), sure, it's less micromanagement, but it's less fun, and certainly less challenging.

Nonetheless, there are some things you can do. As Yavoon pointed out, playing on smaller maps alleviates the late game crunch. You'll find that a lot of us play on the biggest maps possible however, as big == more opportunities for strategy. Build Queues work like a charm and they certainly help. Conquest takes more micromanagement than building, counter-intuitively. As Kass mentions, learning the 'hot-keys' is invaluable, but learn at the pace that allows you to maintain focus on your game.

Listen to Kirnwaffen:

5. Learn to love micromanaging if you're going to get into multiplayer. The really good players (of which I am not one) are really good in part due to their attention to detail.

Think about it: If you want to go low-attention-span, high-adrenilin, play RTS games or FPS games (Real Time Strategy ===bah on them!, and First Person Shooters, the bane one strategists...o.k., I play them too... ) Now that you're back from you're adrenilin rush, how about a cappuccino and a smooth game of SMAC?

I finally realized, after getting into another large game, that the pace of the game slows down because there are just more things to move, both on the computer and player side.

True.

Now to the game:

and all I need to do now is formulate a strategy for victory

O.K., that's a problem I'm familiar with. You have to understand that Smac is raw competition. Imagine 7 people playing Sim City and whoever had the most money at the end of 3 hours got to live. If you let them, the AI will win the game. But what's more difficult is finding a way for YOU to win the game. It comes down to a race, like the Sim City example. If you don't accomplish one of the victories in X years, you lose the race. Granted, certain victories are harder than others, so its great fun to play the same faction from the same starting position and aim at each of the victories in turn. The order I reccomend you try is:

Conquest: Go out there and make every other faction pledge allegiance to you...no, you don't have to usually kill all of them, just keep your reputation noble (a long story) and take over factions one at a time, putting on the brakes when they say "O.K. Provost Cadfael, you're the man, I surrender, please don't spank me further, just let me be your slave". You are required to smile at this point and say "Got 'ya sucka" and move on to the next faction. You'll automatically win when all are destroyed or submissive to you.

Transcendence: Probably the easiest overall win, march through the tech-tree and build the Ascent to Transcendence (remember, someone needs to build the voice of planet first).

Diplomatic: Bah! It can be great fun if you get into the role-playing side of things...just try to elect yourself supreme leader every 20 years and you'll see how this goes...this is an easy win for anyone who knows ICS and/or pop-booming.

Economic: O.K. this one's tough, and that doesn't mean it's fun! You must buy out all the factions. How are you going to achieve that?

Now if you think about all these victories you'll see that your goal isn't to survive, it's to dominate the other factions in one way or the other. The first thing you should aim for is dominating in tech. If you can consistently stay ahead of the other factons you've mastered the game for that level. As a side effect, you'll win the game, whatever victory condidtion. Take a look at the nuts and bolts of the game and know that the two most powerful units in the game are
The Former and the Crawler The Former and the Crawler

O.K., nuff for now.

-S-

[knowhow2]

Originally posted by civcop
Okay, I read posts here about 50 crawlers, tech every 2 turns, having a science base, etc. and I get confused (though that comes naturally to me).

Well this one is actually for SP mostly and some raising for AtT MP games. I gather that AtT victories is somewhat rare in MP resolutions. But then again I haven't played long enough to win any games so I really don't know.

How do you select which base will work as a science base? And shouldn't it be one built pretty early in the game? Do I look for a base site with two energy resource squares within 2 squares? Do I simply build solar collectors all around it?

Science Base should be your HQ because of efficiency, either the HQ you have from the beginning or build the HQ to that Science City later on. If you build a Science City from the premisses of ME, SC & TE then you should make whatever city with the ME the science city and build the HQ there.

And if I spent the time to build 50 crawlers my base would get overrun.

Well you shouldn't start building a Science City until you are somewhat secured behind a wall of bases with the sool purpose of defending against invaders. Once that wal have been established - shouldn't need more than 2-3 bases in the early stages, 4-5 in the middle and 6-8 in the latter stages. The rest of the bases can be devoted into building crawlers for the science base. First each base builds enough crawlers for collection of mineral so that it can build One crawler each turn then devote them entirely to make crawlers for the science city. Shouldn't take more than 20-30 turns to make 50 crawlers for 10 or so bases.

And as for tech every turn or two, the closest I've come to accomplishing that was with the University. I was getting a tech about every 4 turns, I think.

Try the ME, SC & TE in the same base with lots of crawlers

hope that helped. - knowhow2