Comments, Questions, and an Inaguration...

[Barinthus]

I remember when I started to participate in those forums, I thought to myself "Holy Smokes, those guys are hardcore!" and I felt way out of my league. Threads on combat and numerical factors affecting the combat itself was too much for this player who simply just point and shout 'Chaaaarrrggeeeee!'

[Starfarer]

*Grins, sketches a quick $4700t to those who prefer the Angels*

Oh, don't get me wrong, guys... every faction has their good points. Except Miriam. Sorry, but a bunch of screaming bloody fanatics who think it's better to turn the entire planet into an Amish paradise simple doesn't appeal to me... *L*

I'm almost exclusively Builder. or hybrid. My approach to war is "an ounce of prevention is worth fifteen Missile Rovers". I do wish the computer AI was smarter about diplomacy (I'm sorry, I don't care how nuts you are, if I'm encamped around you in every direction, have three times your military, and tell you you'd best let me in on your research knowledge lest I kill you, you do it if you don't want to die. The computer invariably dies if they don't have the same SE choices as me.) But in any case. I've learned that my favorite tactics in war are very simple.

Outclass the opponent so utterly that they're begging for you to go away... with two or three units at most.

It's darn difficult to stop three Elite 6-4-2 rovers when the best available tech to the enemy gives them Impact weapons. Or, more likely in my games, I've got 12-6-2 rovers when they've got, at best, the Gatling Lasers.

early-game wars are no chalenge for me... All I have to do is keep an eye out and take out their units with either rovers or upgraded garrison infantry. Middle game is the hardest part for me, just because everyone else is usually somewhere NEAR me on tech until I make a friend.

But I classify "end game" as being anytime after I attain complete tech superiority to the poin t where nobody could catch uyp even if I stopped all lab research entirely.

Which is why, I, like I said, upped my normal difficulty level. And I must admit, I did learn a lot from lurking here before i posted. *L* Most of the tactics I learned here I probably will never use, because I simply see no point in creating an energy park so expansive I learn every tech in one to two turns max... it'd take forever and I could've won by then. *L*

But other commonly accepted tactics, expanding insanely at the beginning for example, is something I learned here and use now. I used to only expand when my first base waas secure, and it always turned out the computer got more space than I did.

But then, they always started a war so I always took THEIR land, so it rarely mattered.

Slowly, but steadily, I'm getting better and better. I prefer not to challenge others in multiplayer until I can be assured of at the very least holding my own.

In any case, it's my pleasure to be a part of this board... I hope my viewpoint provides older, more experienced players with new ideas. After all, that's what I'm here for... to contribute. *L*

Ta.

[Illuminatus]

Welcome Starfarer!

[Frankychan]

Originally posted by DataAeolus
I remember when I started to participate in those forums, I thought to myself "Holy Smokes, those guys are hardcore!" and I felt way out of my league. Threads on combat and numerical factors affecting the combat itself was too much for this player who simply just point and shout 'Chaaaarrrggeeeee!'

Yup, that's me! ROFL. I have learned some valuable strategies here....but I'm still trying to figure out how to force a Pop boom....(despite reading Velocrix ((sp?)) article.

(sorry if I butchered his name!)

[Frankychan]

Starfarer,

Once again, welcome aboard Apolyton. A good place to go despite its reputation is the Off-Topic board. There are a lot of people there with a whole bunch of opinions and philosophical views. I've learned a great deal going there....and probably pissed a few others off with my own statements.

Oh well, good to see another face.

[Bella Hella]

starfarer, you sound like me! i like the angels, too, and it looks like we employ many of the same tactics. it's all about what you personally enjoy getting out of a game, but i found that moving up to higher difficulty levels gave me the challenge i was looking for, and made the game more fun for me. i used to think trancend was utterly impossible, but can handle it pretty well now.

re: miriam and the other faction who you enjoy less, have you ever tried to "role-play" as these factions? that can be really fun, too, and adds an interesting dimension. i used to pretty much play the same way with each faction, until i decided to really BE a spartan. survival of the fittest? okie dokie, then. it was really satisfying to build my military up and systematicaly eliminate the weaker factions simply for being weak. similarly, with the hive, i have fun building tons and tons of bases and ruthlessly crushing anyone who stands in my way. and i definitely consider it pretty cool to terraform nothing but forests as the gaians, and take the eco-wimp thing to heart.

i'm not much for mathematics, either; i just try to figure out what works the best. but this game has so much to offer to a variety of players, whether you're the "crush the opposition" type, the "peaceful and nice-looking builder" type, the "i've calculated the most effective strategy" type, etc.

[Adalbertus]

Welcome!

You can try to play this game as a mathematical thing but it's a hell more difficult than chess to do so
Some posters here really tried to get the mathematics of the game - Ecodamage formula, and most important, turn advantage.

About your tactical comments:
- I think the most important advance I made was the fixed base spacing, which I usually exploit in a way "you'll find the next base site in two turns or quit". Other people see it as a challenge to continue.
- The second most important thing was to realize the bureaucracy limit and to wait until I was ready to make the next step. Which means, on a huge map I only found nine bases and then I focus on SP's - of course all of the "first five" which is to me WP, HGP, ME, VW, and CN. In a few games, I managed to get all of them, mostly as the Drones, despite of their horrible research.
-There is a way to get up a very efficient land-based energy park in reasonable time, but you'll certainly want to figure it out by yourself (Hint: Answer the two questions: How to raise land as fast as efficiently as possible, and how to place energy-producing facilities in the best way.)
- About the military side: Most builder and hybrid-style first try to defend their bases until they get Air Power, MMI, and perhaps clean reactors. When you've got this, planet is yours, military wise. Unfortunately, AI is that lousy.

[Starfarer]

*coughs* Have I mentioned yet that I never bother witht eh bueracracy limit? I'veactually never paid attentiont o it. Not because I don't understand what it means... but rather, because I honestly don't care.

Let's face it, the advantages of so thoroughly outclassing your opponents in tech even with a penalty to research because you've got so many bases and so much energy even only at 40% research allocation to research outweigh the additional drones and occasional loss of a facility due to lack of cash.

At least, to me. I'm sure players would kick my arse because of it, but so far, I've never lost anything critical, and I'm usually so far ahead of the game facility-wise that I can rebuild it easily anyway.

Actually there are a lot of things I never worried about.

*L* And for the record, yeah... i've tried roleplaying. I just... well, prefer not to, as the Believers. I'm so far to the other end of the spectrum as Miriam and her brainwashed moronic folowers are that it's ANNOYING to get into her head...

But it makes for a good shoot-'em-up game every now and then.

In any case, thank you all for the generous greetings. It's good to know there are still places online with a suitable dearth of flamewars.

Ta!

[Adalbertus]

I started to worry about bureaucracy limit when I completely blocked myself in civ 2 after happily expanding and not knowing the intricacies of ICS. It took ages until I had something of a research rate again.
In the later game, there is no more problem for me, because I'm using close base packing with crawler/specialist approach.

[Shai-Hulud]

Welcome Starfarer.

Many of you early strategies certainly bring back some memories. I didn't do much research on "how-to-maximize-efficiency" when I started playing the game. I enjoyed builder more than conqueror and I never considered bureaucracy limits to be a problem.

I remember my first game was at the easiest level and second on Transcend. It took me very little time to beat the Transcend. Never the less I was VERY surprised when I first entered these forums. Strategies I learned here were far too refined and sophisticated for me to learn on my own...it was a real revolution in playing style.

But I've still found many of my old tactics useful...when refined a bit And, It was nice to get polite and intelligent feedback even though I was obviously inferior in my methods