Happy!!!!!

[Kuciwalker]

I just bought SMAC two days ago, and I just won the first game I played! Even more, it was thru a diplomatic victory! I became the Supreme Chancellor or whatever it's called.

[RedFred]

Way to go, Sky.

My first game, over two years ago, was less successful. The advertising for SMAC really tried hard to promote the autogoverner and the autoformer features. So naturally, I made extensive use of both in my first game.

The other incredibly stupid thing I did was to play the game without any clue about eco-damage. I finally twigged when the sea levels started to rise, submerging units and cities and the volcanoes started to erupt. I was actually still ahead in the powerchart when I decided to abandon the game and try another one after I had read up on ecodamage.

[Cybergod]

(old grandpa voice): I remmember ma first SMAC game a long time ago (LOL)...

Jokes... In my first game I allied with Deidre and I absolutely hated Free Market (now I can't do without it) and I won Transcendence victory straight away. OK, not straight way, in 2495, citizen level, just before the limit (how pathetic it seeems now ), as UoP, and left loads of 0-1-1 terraformers running around useless on automatic (how frustratic that was later). But now I know better, much better...

PS. Never won a Transcendence victory since...

[RedFred]

Cybergod, not so pathetic. You won and you also had over 100 years to spare. The ending game dates given on p. 143 of the SMAC manual are all 100 years out.

[The Commodore]

Heh...my first game was a sucess. I've been playing Civ senice I was five, so I just dived right in. I was Santigo. Won by Diplo victory. I was terrified of the SE -es, so I just went Fundy/Knol.

I still have a warm fuzzy over that game...

[Sindai]

Let's see....I think I first played the SMAX demo, limited to 2200 I think. On my VERY first game I played as the Gaians and followed every single little tool-tip thingy that popped up. I didn't even know the meaning of the words "social engineering."

The demo was actually great fun as it was limited to small maps, where ya gotta make good use of what you got, and the only SMAX factinos included (replacing the Peacekeepers and someone else) were the Pirates and Caretakers, who always beat out all the other AIs on the power charts. Playing as a "normal" human factio nwas quite fun, since when dealing with only one alien you had to be very careful to create an alliance with the other humans against Hminee.

I think I eventually made it my goal to actually win a game in the allotted time. Ther only way to do it was, of course, conquest. And I think it took me a dozen or so tries with the Gaiains before I could get the sea-tech quickly enough to wipe out the pirates just a couple of years before time ran out....

[bondetamp]

I didn't win my first game as I had every victory option turned off.

------------------
-bondetamp
--
When you have shot and killed a man you have in some measure clarified your attitude toward him. You have given a definite answer to a definite problem. For better or worse you have acted decisively. In a way, the next move is up to him.
-- R. A. Lafferty

[Skanderbeg]

Yeah, the first SMAC game long ago - what a mess.

I played it on the lowest difficulty level, with the Believers (that 25% attack bonus attrackted me), with formers on auto but without governors.
And I played nearly in the dark, because I hadn't discovered the gamma correction (no word of it in the manual, that was a thing that made SMAC a bad game for me for a long time until I discovered it by accident )
And I stupidly thought, the SE choices were the better, the more they were on the right side of the SE screen, so I ran fundy/green/wealth, what was, by accident, not the worst choice for Miriam
And of course, I had not the slightest idea, what crawlers were good for. I discovered it in a later game, when I build one, moved it into the field and opend the "actions"-menue.

Because of the low difficulty level, and because I used my strategies from civ II, it was an easy conquer victory . Even with Miriam, I ran away in tech and crushed the others with better weapons and attack bonus.

I had never won through ascendent to transcendence before I changed to play transcendence difficulty level. If I won on the lower levels, then by conquer or be being elected planetary governer.

[optimus2861]

I won my first game by diplomatic, too . Lal, third difficulty level (Talent?), I was able to vote myself Supreme Leader because I had the Empath Guild. I think I had 538 votes all by myself . I wanted to win by Transcendance, but the game had gotten boring by that point, so I decided to deep-six it and move up a level.

I've since won Transcendance with Zak and Dee, Conquest with Yang (ye gads, what a powerhouse -- PS/Planned/Knowledge after Fusion Power, and those Engineers just rake in the bucks and techs while the Police, Support, and Industry bonuses give you an army second to none), and Economic with Morgan (lamest victory -- noone even tried to attack me after I started to corner the market. Stupid AI ). All at Librarian.

I've got two games ongoing at Thinker (one's going so-so, the other's ), but haven't played them in so long I doubt I'll finish them.

[Iskandar Reza]

My first victory was (when was SMAC first released?) i don't remember when, but I was playing Zak, Citizen, huge map, plenty of water, plenty of erosion, plenty of rain, and plenty of native life (didn't know what that was, since it's my first game) and I won by trancedence (didn't realise it, since I thought the A2Trancendence was just another secret project). Heheh, kind of funny the first game, if you recall about it.

My latest victory was trancendence with Roze, on random map, normal planet, blind research using Roze's default prefs, standard rules. I started on a small continent with garland crater, and spent the first 75 years subduing Domai who was also on it. The aliens were on a continent not to far away, but they were concentrating their fire on Sven, so I had a lot of time by myself(and pet Domai). It was my greatest personal victory!

Now, I'm trying the same settings with Sven, and like in the game with Roze, the aliens are giving me, Svensgaard a hard time. I hate these aliens!!!! Arghhhh!

[Cybergod]

quote: Originally posted by RedFred on 04-09-2001 06:19 PM Cybergod, not so pathetic. You won and you also had over 100 years to spare. The ending game dates given on p. 143 of the SMAC manual are all 100 years out.

Whoops! Oh then it was 2595 since I remember killing myself to rush the AtT before the retirement year (why couldn't they find another name for this, its kinda 'old' ). And it was the lowest difficulty level.

[Sindai]

quote: Originally posted by Cybergod on 04-11-2001 03:31 PM Whoops! Oh then it was 2595 since I remember killing myself to rush the AtT before the retirement year (why couldn't they find another name for this, its kinda 'old' ). And it was the lowest difficulty level.

Wait, are you sure that the error was with your memory, and not the manuel? Do you remember getting the "20 Years Until Retirement" warning pop-up?

[Kuciwalker]

I was the University. I've had Civ2 for over a year now, and I always read straight through the manual before I play a new game, so I'm not as much of a newbie as others were.

[Cybergod]

quote: Originally posted by Sindai on 04-11-2001 04:41 PM Wait, are you sure that the error was with your memory, and not the manuel? Do you remember getting the "20 Years Until Retirement" warning pop-up?

Yes I certainly remember just dying to finish before the retirement year (I HAD the little window pop-up). Let me see what did I do to the qoute above .

[Kinjiru]

Ah... the first SMAC game...

I played the demo the day it came out. Well, very late that night because I downloaded it and my connection kept dropping half way through (which was coincidentaly the same day I discovered download utilities that let you resume a dropped DL!).

I was playing Yang and it took me 20 turns just to get over the coolness factor and actually start thinking about what I was doing. Also, it took me five turns before I stopped playing and spent the next hour searching for a way to make the screen halfway usable (Gamma Correction). By turn 60 the game was over. I was building so many units that I could not support them and my cash flow was extremely negative.

Second through sixth games were progressively better. I was hell-bent on military conquest with Yang within the 100 turn limit. Still kept losing though.

Game seven, my room suddenly filled with golden light, angels started to sing all around me, my sould cried out with the very joy of life. For I, had discovered the utility of the crawler!

Game eight, turn 80, had finally completed the production of my massive (and completely crawler supported) military. Turn 83, Lal and Miriam fall down before me begging for their lives; I spend the next 10 minutes trying uselessly to scrape Pravin's skin off the bottom of my boot. Turn 89, the gaians get torched. Turn 91, Morgan submits to me. Turn 92, I annex the University of Planet. Turn 99, Corazon, mi Corazon, is gracious enough to leave her bases almost totally undefended and I win the game!