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Super-Transcend Levels
My philosophy is that there are so many possible advantages that one can give the AI, and so many handicaps you can give the human, that it must be possible for everybody to find a challenge even if they find transcend level too easy. I have been working on play-balancing a set of beefed-up AI factions to play against, and generally tweaking things to help the AI. I hereby present my favorite way of playing.
First the settings. I use the Alien Crossfire world with standard rules. I made one change to alphax.txt: I make Industrial Automation of pre-requisite of mines. This makes the AI build forests instead in the early game.
I personally find the Monsoon Jungle the most unbalancing aspect of the game, so I make my own maps and delete it. You might not know how to do this (it is not obvious) so here is an explanation: Go into the scenario editor, and you will see that first of all you can edit the map world parameters from there. I choose all standard parameters except ocean coverage which I set low, because the AI plays badly when it needs to get across water. I then hit the fast generate random map button (button 0) and keep going until I see a map that looks like it has the outlines that I like (I look for one with interesting continents that are all connected, even if by threads). When I get a map that looks good, I find the Monsoon jungle. You need to get the cursor on it, then go to the "remove landmark" menu item, and remove it. If you don't have your cursor on it, you can't remove it. I save a few maps like this. Don't worry, you'll never remember what you saw.
(I also change the islands parameter in alphax.txt to "9" from "36", to reduce the number of islands in the maps, but you can get good maps without doing this.) I think it is much more satisfying to play on good maps.
OK, now for the beefed-up factions. Remember these are for the AI to play, not you! I tried to keep each faction true to the philosophy of the original SMAC 7, and I play-tested them against each other to make sure they were balanced. You may not know how to do this either, so here is an explanation:
Start a game, with the first faction on the list. Make the first move for your faction, but don't hit the make move button (I presume you use the option of hitting this button before you move--if you don't start using it now.) Open the scenario editor. Go to the switch sides menu item and switch to another faction. When it asks, answer you want to let the computer play for you. The screen will go dark. Light it again using the reveal map menu item. Hit "Move complete" and then just hit return at every announcement. You can watch the AI play itself. And make sure your preferences are set for fast movement for all moves. Very instructive if you want to improve or balance the AI, but kind of disillusioning if you think the ordinary factions are any challenge.
This is getting long, so I will post the
factions in a new message.
<font size=1 face=Arial color=444444>[This message has been edited by jed (edited May 13, 2000).]</font>
<font size=1 face=Arial color=444444>[This message has been edited by jed (edited May 13, 2000).]</font>
First the settings. I use the Alien Crossfire world with standard rules. I made one change to alphax.txt: I make Industrial Automation of pre-requisite of mines. This makes the AI build forests instead in the early game.
I personally find the Monsoon Jungle the most unbalancing aspect of the game, so I make my own maps and delete it. You might not know how to do this (it is not obvious) so here is an explanation: Go into the scenario editor, and you will see that first of all you can edit the map world parameters from there. I choose all standard parameters except ocean coverage which I set low, because the AI plays badly when it needs to get across water. I then hit the fast generate random map button (button 0) and keep going until I see a map that looks like it has the outlines that I like (I look for one with interesting continents that are all connected, even if by threads). When I get a map that looks good, I find the Monsoon jungle. You need to get the cursor on it, then go to the "remove landmark" menu item, and remove it. If you don't have your cursor on it, you can't remove it. I save a few maps like this. Don't worry, you'll never remember what you saw.
(I also change the islands parameter in alphax.txt to "9" from "36", to reduce the number of islands in the maps, but you can get good maps without doing this.) I think it is much more satisfying to play on good maps.
OK, now for the beefed-up factions. Remember these are for the AI to play, not you! I tried to keep each faction true to the philosophy of the original SMAC 7, and I play-tested them against each other to make sure they were balanced. You may not know how to do this either, so here is an explanation:
Start a game, with the first faction on the list. Make the first move for your faction, but don't hit the make move button (I presume you use the option of hitting this button before you move--if you don't start using it now.) Open the scenario editor. Go to the switch sides menu item and switch to another faction. When it asks, answer you want to let the computer play for you. The screen will go dark. Light it again using the reveal map menu item. Hit "Move complete" and then just hit return at every announcement. You can watch the AI play itself. And make sure your preferences are set for fast movement for all moves. Very instructive if you want to improve or balance the AI, but kind of disillusioning if you think the ordinary factions are any challenge.
This is getting long, so I will post the
factions in a new message.
<font size=1 face=Arial color=444444>[This message has been edited by jed (edited May 13, 2000).]</font>
<font size=1 face=Arial color=444444>[This message has been edited by jed (edited May 13, 2000).]</font>
. So far I've only had time to try watching the AI play against itself... that was an education.
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