Well, I began a Transcend game last night (left Ironman off for a change, because my intent was to fiddle around with the armored probe team thing, and I thought it'd be convenient to NOT get kicked out of the game for saving...lol). Anyway....I got....distracted, but it's such a good map that I could not resist:
It's a shade past 2200 right now (2207 if memory serves), I'm on a really big continent, sharing a small portion of it with Morgan (who has all of five bases). We fought a brief and unfortuate war in the 2145-2150 timeframe (okay, so it wasn't much of a war....I popped a pod, got a unity rover, explored til I found him, he told me that Chiron wasn't big enough for both of us, so I killed two colony pods and he ZOC-trapped my rover (pinned him to the coast) and killed him.....a few turns later, he sauntered a laser rover to my border and I gave him fifty credits to go away. A few turns later (right after I switched to Market), we signed a treaty and have been on friendly terms since.
I'm pursuing a classic ICS-Builder approach, with bases evenly spaced 3-squares apart. I've got an impressive list of SP's under my belt....the only three I've missed so far have been the Weather Paradigm (DRAT!), the Merchant Exchange (Yawn), and the Empath Guild (DOUBLE DRAT!).....other than that, I've snagged them all....VW, Command Nexus, Planetary Transit, Neural Amp., Genome, Maritime Control Center....it's been an amazing game thus far!
As mentioned, I had the good fortune to begin the game on a VERY big continent (25 bases so far, and I STILL have plenty of room for future growth before taking to the sea), and when I found Morgan, I directed my expansion efforts that direction to choke him off. Eventually I'll buy four of his bases out from under him, but for now he's okay.
My army consists of Clean Trance Scouts (1 per base), and each base has a former and a sea former (or two formers, if the base is not coastal), who are all busily scurrying around....terraforming. The effect of this (I have not yet switched to Dem, 'cause I'm still founding bases) is that none of my bases have to pay any support cost at all, which has speeded the development of my infrastructure.
Additionally, my build order has been somewhat changed for most recent bases. I am now doing this....mostly, because the empire has gotten big enough that I can afford it:
Base Build
Rush a Former
Rush a Trained Scout
Upgrade Trained Scout to Clean Trance
Begin work on Pressure Dome (Skipping Rec. Tanks)
Second Former or Rec. Commons, whichever is most needed.
Save for the most recently founded bases, the vast majority have everything up to treefarms and are currently working on Hybrid Forests. I saved the game just before I make the changes necessary for a boom. I'm already unsurpassed, and leading the field in population, and when the boom hits, I'll be so far ahead of the pack it won't even be funny....well, actually it will, but....hehehe...
All that to say that this is probably the most efficient game I have played to date.....it is true that I've played other games where I've been able to build my treefarms earlier than I did in this instance, but mostly, I am referring to scale....and in this game, having 25 reasonably well developed bases in just over a hundred years, and prepping for a population boom which will nearly triple my population.....a stunning position indeed.
Save at 2207(?) available if you want it, and I'll prolly save every 10-20 turns from here out.....
-=Vel=-
It's a shade past 2200 right now (2207 if memory serves), I'm on a really big continent, sharing a small portion of it with Morgan (who has all of five bases). We fought a brief and unfortuate war in the 2145-2150 timeframe (okay, so it wasn't much of a war....I popped a pod, got a unity rover, explored til I found him, he told me that Chiron wasn't big enough for both of us, so I killed two colony pods and he ZOC-trapped my rover (pinned him to the coast) and killed him.....a few turns later, he sauntered a laser rover to my border and I gave him fifty credits to go away. A few turns later (right after I switched to Market), we signed a treaty and have been on friendly terms since.
I'm pursuing a classic ICS-Builder approach, with bases evenly spaced 3-squares apart. I've got an impressive list of SP's under my belt....the only three I've missed so far have been the Weather Paradigm (DRAT!), the Merchant Exchange (Yawn), and the Empath Guild (DOUBLE DRAT!).....other than that, I've snagged them all....VW, Command Nexus, Planetary Transit, Neural Amp., Genome, Maritime Control Center....it's been an amazing game thus far!
As mentioned, I had the good fortune to begin the game on a VERY big continent (25 bases so far, and I STILL have plenty of room for future growth before taking to the sea), and when I found Morgan, I directed my expansion efforts that direction to choke him off. Eventually I'll buy four of his bases out from under him, but for now he's okay.
My army consists of Clean Trance Scouts (1 per base), and each base has a former and a sea former (or two formers, if the base is not coastal), who are all busily scurrying around....terraforming. The effect of this (I have not yet switched to Dem, 'cause I'm still founding bases) is that none of my bases have to pay any support cost at all, which has speeded the development of my infrastructure.
Additionally, my build order has been somewhat changed for most recent bases. I am now doing this....mostly, because the empire has gotten big enough that I can afford it:
Base Build
Rush a Former
Rush a Trained Scout
Upgrade Trained Scout to Clean Trance
Begin work on Pressure Dome (Skipping Rec. Tanks)
Second Former or Rec. Commons, whichever is most needed.
Save for the most recently founded bases, the vast majority have everything up to treefarms and are currently working on Hybrid Forests. I saved the game just before I make the changes necessary for a boom. I'm already unsurpassed, and leading the field in population, and when the boom hits, I'll be so far ahead of the pack it won't even be funny....well, actually it will, but....hehehe...
All that to say that this is probably the most efficient game I have played to date.....it is true that I've played other games where I've been able to build my treefarms earlier than I did in this instance, but mostly, I am referring to scale....and in this game, having 25 reasonably well developed bases in just over a hundred years, and prepping for a population boom which will nearly triple my population.....a stunning position indeed.
Save at 2207(?) available if you want it, and I'll prolly save every 10-20 turns from here out.....
-=Vel=-
Comment