MB's Rules for more competitive SP-Gameplay

[Main_Brain]

This should ensure to make SP Games a lil' Harder.
As every Smac/X Gamer has mastered the Secrets of Rushing/Crawling/etc. it seems to be needed to make the game more competitive thus More Fun :=)

Rule No1) Small-Medium Map
Bigger Maps favour Human Players as the AI cant trade Techs thus falls behind a Human Player who generally pumps more Research over Time. The other FAvours are pretty obvious:
A Human w/o Threat nearby will spend much less on military unlike teh AI, no costly skirmishes, no Probes etc.

Rule No2) DataPods? ONLY at Landing Site!
Every Human tends to grab most of these EastereggGoodehuts making Game much easier.

Rule No3) Crawlers? A bIG NoNO!
Ai doesnt use Crawlers so a Human puts himself easily ahead production/Energy-wise. AI doesnt- so do neither.

Rule No4) Centauri Ecology? Give it away!
Give every Ai demanding it Ecology.. In Fact even if they dont want gift it! :=)

Now you are ~at the Same level as Ai Mineralwise
(you propably did a lil' more Terrorforming) ..
Rule No5) Plant 1-2 Forest right when you meet a AI Player. On the Border I mean.. soon it will spread helping him out.

Rule No6) Social Engineering 50-0-50
Only One Rule to be applied here .. never change the Energy Allocation. This makes FM kinda hard which is good for AI

?

[Googlie]

One other suggestion:

Undertake not to build the HSA, and add this line to your #UNITS list in alpha.txt and alphax.txt (and remember to increase the #units by one as well):

Foil Probe, Cruiser, Probe Team, Scout, 11, 0, 0, DocInit, -1, 00000000000000000000000000

You'll be amazed at the number of foil probes the AI builds.

I've lost techs to probes and bases to mind contol, even when I've had double probe defenses (the AI is good at sending two or three foil probes to your bases, the first one taking out your probe defense and the second and third stealing techs or energy/mind controlling/crippling research)

G.

[Maniac]

Rule No1) Small-Medium Map

Why not take it to the extreme right away?
Two of the most fun and tense games I ever played was with the Pirates on tiny 70-90% waterworlds, forcing the AI to go naval early on and encroach on your territory to keep expanding, making them declare Vendetta at you several at a time. I took the Believers, Hive, Spartans, Cult, Usurpers and Caretakers as opponents.

[Main_Brain]

because on Tiny I loose

I agree with Googlie but didnt find the Thread where it was mentioned before

[Capt Dizle]

Originally posted by Googlie
One other suggestion:

Undertake not to build the HSA, and add this line to your #UNITS list in alpha.txt and alphax.txt (and remember to increase the #units by one as well):

Foil Probe, Cruiser, Probe Team, Scout, 11, 0, 0, DocInit, -1, 00000000000000000000000000

You'll be amazed at the number of foil probes the AI builds.

I've lost techs to probes and bases to mind contol, even when I've had double probe defenses (the AI is good at sending two or three foil probes to your bases, the first one taking out your probe defense and the second and third stealing techs or energy/mind controlling/crippling research)

G.

googs, why don't we get with some of the vets and devise an ultimate SP challenge using an altered alphatxt.

We can come up with a ton of things to make an interesting game if we try. But I must ask, if the AI will build the crusier probe why oh why won't they build crawlers?

[Lazerus]

I've recently tried the no formers game with sparse cloud cover. I played against spartans,aki,uni,morgan, data angels and drones since the map was suggested at normal size.
Aki and the Uni were miles ahead of me (as hive) for best part of it until i literally flooded the map with crawlers and turned Hive into a big pig of a super science base to try catch up, by the time i got near uni he'd built hunter seeker (urgh! ) and aki declared war on me as soon as i opened comm .. strange as shes usually friendly.

Anyways spartans wiped out data angels and morgan, uni wiped out drones. Uni and Aki teamed up against me, i managed to steal fusion from aki and took to the skies in style (was getting all sp's at this stage due to having 50 crawlers sitting in Hive just rushing it) and now the game is over as i've reduced all 3 remaining AI's to 1 base, its a transcend victory only so i want some1 to talk to :P

I think this would be far tougher on a smaller map where my crawlers would have been vulnerable to enemy aircraft and rovers, also i think i got lucky my getting a big continent to myself with just 2 small landbridges to the others (all my land was arid and mostly flat though, they got monsoon jungle!).

Was really weird being Yang and having over 2000 (currently 6000) energy credits for most of the game aswell with me switching most people to talents since most buildings were of little use.

[Main_Brain]

mhh I made a Scenario Domai-Yang once w/o any Water and that seemed to help the AI too.
But then I prebuild&formed some Terrain for good ol Yang..
Where does the AI better? One Large Chunk of Land or Archipel?

[Googlie]

Originally posted by jimmytrick
But I must ask, if the AI will build the crusier probe why oh why won't they build crawlers?

That I don't know. Even when I create a game scenario where the AI starts with oodles of crawlers, unless I make them game objectives, and set them to lurk for 300 years, the AI just uses them to explore, prototype and rush build. I tried gifting a dozen to a pactmate once, and within 3 turns they were all gone.

It's one of the weakest parts of the AI programming (although given the right map, Morgan will sometimes build a few, as will Domai)

But these sea probes are another thing entirely (I guess 'cos the AI sees lotsa probes as a strategy - cf the scenario faction strategy tweaks - whereas lotsa crawlers just don't make it above their horizon)

And I agree that we could come up with a common set of alterations to the alphax.txt that would make the game much more compelling for the vets that are still around. e.g. I play my single-player games now with a different rulesset where probe foils and trawlers are predesigned (and Domai has built some trawlers!!)

I also have left the CF at MMI, but put nanometullargy as the prereq for the CA. Also, I have set nervegas back to Retroviral Engineering - consistent with gene warfare, which seems appropriate. If I am playing a game with the aliens, I'll set it to Sing Mech, so that I can start producing nervegas pods at the time that the aliens can start on their subspace generators - i've had a couple of doozie games with a race to knock their bases back down as they were a-building)

And tinkered with some of the attack/defense bonuses to favor the units that the AI seems to build and that I ignore

G.

[johndmuller]

Isn't it possible to just make the crawlers a lot more expensive and/or later in the game?

Playing with an agreed upon collection of improved settings sounds like a great idea, although the agreeing might be elusive.

[Main_Brain]

I doubt that would help JohnD. Crawlers would still be extremly effective and AI still wont use 'em ;=).
But of course its about having Fun with the Game so if you prefer to still use your Crawlers just at a later Point and with more Production effort I recommend it .

I cannot force you nor do I want you to implent All Things mentioned Pick those which appeal to be Good Ideas. :=)
I use them all and as soon as I get some Time I'll edit my Alpha.txt some more
Nevertheless in my Opinion crawling is a real GAmekiller..
Of course ou could always restrict yourself at say only X Crawlers per Base or such. ?

[Sarxis]

Originally posted by johndmuller
Isn't it possible to just make the crawlers a lot more expensive and/or later in the game?

Playing with an agreed upon collection of improved settings sounds like a great idea, although the agreeing might be elusive.

I'd say the agreeing would be impossible, and is one reason why I don't play MP anymore.

I couldn't bring myself back down to the base rules-set.