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Well, I've finally started tackling the early transcend game, and I've found it to be a whole lot harder than thinker, due to the gruelling drone caps, combined with aggressive and industry boosted AI neighbors. I play on a large, rainy, random map, which means I'm very likely to start out uncomfortably close to a neighboring faction or two. Here are some of my observations:
Unless you start out with Centauri Ecology, you can forget about any pre-determined base-grid. The likelihood that your base sites will be confounded by rocky, fungus squares is bordering on certainty.
I seem to only be able to place 6 bases before my first bureaucracy warning, and placement of my 7 base triggers both the warning and the drone. I was operating on the presumption that b-drones appear only _after_ the warning.
My neighbors all have itchy trigger fingers. This is likely aggravated by my tendency to expand thin, but my neighbors invariably refuse to do anything but shake me down for tech and cash. I've tried appeasing them, but they never agree to a treaty.
There no longer appears to be enough cash to go around. When I was playing on Thinker, I could rely on some additional energy per base, which is now tied up in doctors. This is making the rush building of tanks and commons very difficult.
The AI is much more prompt in initiating SPs. I've already empirically proven that once the AI starts a project, its completion is merely a countdown that cannot be averted, save by the conquest of the base in which it is being built. With my other developmental woes, I'm having trouble beating the AI even to the first SP.
I'll be attaching a few games this evening to illustrate some of my points, but I'd like to start a new thread discussing Transcend Builder Strategy in close quarters.
Unless you start out with Centauri Ecology, you can forget about any pre-determined base-grid. The likelihood that your base sites will be confounded by rocky, fungus squares is bordering on certainty.
I seem to only be able to place 6 bases before my first bureaucracy warning, and placement of my 7 base triggers both the warning and the drone. I was operating on the presumption that b-drones appear only _after_ the warning.
My neighbors all have itchy trigger fingers. This is likely aggravated by my tendency to expand thin, but my neighbors invariably refuse to do anything but shake me down for tech and cash. I've tried appeasing them, but they never agree to a treaty.
There no longer appears to be enough cash to go around. When I was playing on Thinker, I could rely on some additional energy per base, which is now tied up in doctors. This is making the rush building of tanks and commons very difficult.
The AI is much more prompt in initiating SPs. I've already empirically proven that once the AI starts a project, its completion is merely a countdown that cannot be averted, save by the conquest of the base in which it is being built. With my other developmental woes, I'm having trouble beating the AI even to the first SP.
I'll be attaching a few games this evening to illustrate some of my points, but I'd like to start a new thread discussing Transcend Builder Strategy in close quarters.
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