control

[tictoc]

Probably been asked before, but i don't fancy trawling through over 3000 search topics containing the word 'control'. How much do you actually control in a game of smac/x, is it just diplomacy, building etc. Is it a mixture of some and not others, do you restrict bases and concentrate on the military, or the other way around just to keep tabs on everything, or are you a total control freak.

regards tic

[SPasmofiT]

If you don't do everything yourself in a MP game, you'll loose for sure...

[yavoon]

everything until its downhill to victory. and even then sometimes everything if I might not finish faster than my friends.

no point in playing a strategy game halfass if u axe me

[Killjoy]

Maintain control of everything! Don't automate anything, especially your terraformers.

And 'sack' the Govenors. They are absolutely useless.

Cheers

[Basilisk]

Originally posted by Killjoy
Maintain control of everything! Don't automate anything, especially your terraformers.

I usually automate my formers as it is such a huge job looking after them... At first I use 'Auto-Improve Base' tehn take control once that is finished.

[MariOne]

I NEVER automated anything myself (yes, and I LIKE MMment), but from the other's reports it looks like watching what automated units will do is as much entertaining, it's the comic break in the great saga, a game in the game...

But for MP there are two points that strrengthen each other in favor of doing it all by yourself.
Not only, as all the others pointed out, decisions taken by the AI for you will not be on par with the management of your human opponents -
But in pbemm you are lucky if you get one turn everyday, usually you get 2-3 a week. So, when you have to play one single turn per session, if you don't dedicate to manage your faction, what will you do? You should have time enough to look into your bunch of bases on your own, and make sure taht they are all geered up to support at best your ambitious strategic goals, without wastes and inefficiencies. So that you don't see a governor producing a silksteel chaos amphibious rover prototype in 37 turns when you have no ships and just needed a cheap expendable impact chopper on the fly....

[Clear Skies]

I use Governors when my empire gets too big - almost always set to 'Build'. It's blind production - amusing occasionally, useful occasionally, and annoying occasionally. I often turn them off into the later stages of the game, maybe setting everything to 'stockpile energy', because otherwise they end up producing scores of native lifeforms - even if I set them not to!