Hendrick's Bane

[Capt Dizle]

googs,

I don't see that it makes much difference as its designed to be played as a University game. At least not insofar as to making me start over. If you would like to correct my error and post it it would be great.

I am not very experienced with the editor. I will claim credit for remembering to force the difficulty level to avoid the oh, its only 24 credits to switch SE problem.

Perhaps however you feel that the problem is so significant as to invalidate my effort please explain more.

One thing pointing to a restart is that by failing to reset the tech I created a situation in which the University has no choice of tech. The free tech was Planetary Networks. I didn't mind this so I just played on without realizing how it would affect the other factions. I have invested too much time in the game to turn back really.

jt

[Capt Dizle]

Originally posted by Googlie
Hmm - what am I havering about?

The faction is still the Uni, but the starting units are homed to Morgan Industries (another way of getting a free scout?) That's what threw me

G.

shiver me timbers, yer right! me scout tis indeed supported by Morgan! LMAO. I still ain't starting over....

[Capt Dizle]

Originally posted by jimmytrick


shiver me timbers, yer right! me scout tis indeed supported by Morgan! LMAO. I still ain't starting over....

Edit: to point to my edit in my third post ^

[Hendrik]

originally posted by jimmytrick
I hate corporate pigs.

he he he
The UofP is a great faction, don't get me wrong, but they cannot equal the sheer moolah producing power of Morgan as a pure builder.

Zack has to choose between utilizing technology now and expanding... rapid tech too early can't be utilized effectively without slowing down your growth later in the game (IE not enough bases). Archaic was ahead of me in energy and labs production by year 75, but by year 92 we were about tied in labs and energy production.

In one MP game I started on a small island away from the other players and was able to focus on really intensive infrastructure in those bases, and I had enough energy to corner the market by 2175. I was so far away from everyone else that I had airpower by the time their navy shows up in force... Morgan can be great for energy market wins like that, his commerce rating is godly in FM/wealth

[Capt Dizle]

Its not over till the fat lady sings and I haven't see Miriam yet pal.

[Capt Dizle]

One of the problems at this stage of the game is fear, fear that you won't get the secret projects you must have. There is a great temptation to overproduce crawlers or stockpile energy so that you can quickly grab the projects.

This often leads to failure to build the infrastructure that you need later. The result can be a stunted position from which it takes many turns to rebound.

I was therefore very tempted to build the Empath Guild as my second project so that I could see the progress of the other factions as they begin the SP building phase. This might allow me to pace my project building to stay just ahead of the AI. Alas, I did not have the stones to do it in the end. Several factions were building the WP; I felt I had to get it safely out of the way. It was built in 2160.

This brought good news and bad news. As a result of the build two AI factions switched off SP building, which is a good thing to see. The bad news is that Lal switched to the Planetary Transit System and with his reduced cost will be there in 23 turns. That's bad because he is essentially prebuilding the EG or ME in the event I build PTS. He can just switch off. Or go to the VW because I gave him the tech!

The PTS always seems to butcher my pace. I hate that project with a vengeance but I feel that I am going to try to get it and the other three must have projects. The PTS is the only one of the group that is not required so I may be about to blunder.

During this short ten-turn segment I concentrated, playing hard, trying to use wise rush buys on crawlers and formers to narrow the gap with Hendrick. I am foresting like mad. I am not altogether disappointed with the result but as I look up the hill Morgan is still ahead.

Getting the energy restrictions lifted was a benchmark moment. Also had an earthquake in 2158 that messed up a few high nutrient future base sites. And Lal has built a stupid sea base to the southeast that I wish he hadn't.

Status Report: MY 2160 of the Beer Run

15 Bases
28 Population
7 Commerce
2 Secret Projects: Weather Paradigm and Human Genome
17 Technologies discovered
SE: Demo/Free Market/Wealth
Allocation: 50-0-50

Infrastructure:
4 Tanks
15 Nodes

Research Status:
Cost 787
Acquired 471
Per Turn 129.6
Discoveries in 7 with Centauri Med in 3.

Income 61
Expenses 0
Net +61 per turn

Units:
Formers 25
Scouts 1
Colony Pods 0
Transport Foils 1
Supply Crawlers 22
Probe Teams 1
Artifacts 3
Unity Rover 1
Scout Chopper 1
Ogre 1
Mining Laser 1

For comparison here are the Morgan/Hendrick stats at the same year.


Status Report: MY 2160 of Morgan Builder

20 Bases
30 Population
4 Commerce
2 Secret Projects: Weather Paradigm and Human Genome (I think)
14 Technologies discovered
SE: Free Market/Wealth
Allocation: 50-0-50

Infrastructure:
13 Tanks
3 Commons
4 Nodes

Research Status:
Cost 647
Acquired 44
Per Turn 108
Discoveries in 6 with Ecological Engineering in 6.

Income 81
Expenses 13
Net +68 per turn

Units:
Formers 26
Scouts 2
Synth Sentinel 1
Colony Pods 2
Transport Foils 0
Supply Crawlers 15
Probe Teams 0
Artifacts 3
Unity Rover 1

I am sure that Hendrick would have explored the wreckage by this point and assume that he cashed in the units for minerals. Perhaps not.

*edit to include income info

[Capt Dizle]

Status Update MY 2171

Morgan Builder	Mission Year 2171	University beer run
Hendrick	Player	jimmytrick
24	Bases	19
71	Population	55
7	Commerce Rate	5
5	Commerce Income	8
Total: 4 Human Genome Project, Weather Paradigm, Planetary Energy Grid, Planetary Transit System	Secret Projects	Total : 5 Human Genome Project, Merchant Exchange, Planetary Transit System, Virtual World , Weather Paradigm
16	Technologies Discovered	19
819	Research Cost	891
53	Accumulated Research	759
174	Labs per Turn	211.2
5 turns	Tech Rate	5 turns
Secrets of the Human Brain in 3 turns	Tech Goal	Neural Grafting in 1 turn
Free Market/Wealth	Social Engineering	Demo/Free Market/Wealth
101	Energy	27
50-0-50	Energy Allocation	50-0-50
188	Gross Income	108
-31	Maintenance	-3
157	Net Income	105
3 Children's Crèche, 21 Recycling Tanks, 11 Recreation Commons, 10 Network Nodes	Infrastructure	13 Recycling Tanks, 19 Network Nodes, 1 Tree Farm
3 Scouts, 1 Unity Rover, 1 Synthmetal Sentinel	Land Units	2 Battle Ogres, 1 Mining Laser,  1 Unity Rover, 2 Scouts, 1 Trance Synthmetal Garrison, 1 Synthmetal Garrison
--	Naval Units	--
--	Air Units	1 Scout Chopper
35 Formers, 30 Supply Crawlers, 3 Alien Artifacts, 1 Colony Pod	Non Combat Units	33 Formers, 29 Crawlers, 3 Probe Teams, 5 Alien Artifacts, 2 Transport Foils, 1 Sea Former
74	Total Units	82
Pact: None Treaty: Lal Truce: Santiago Vendetta: None	Politics	Pact: Lal Treaty: None Truce: None Vendetta: Yang & Santiago

[Capt Dizle]

Can someone tell me how to eliminate that space at the top of my stupid table?

[Capt Dizle]

During the 2160-71 time period I concentrated on getting the secret projects I needed in place. Unfortunately I completely blundered by forgeting the PEG. Oh well. Its still available so I'll research in that direction. I tend to think in terms of SMAC not SMACX when picking techs.

Morgan is still well ahead on bases, pop, energy production and base facilities.

A Hive scout showed up on the flats and I told Yang to bugger off when he attempted to extort tech from me. This worked out in one sense, my original probe team was "beamed over" by a pod to a location near one of Yang's bases and I stole Doc:Loyalty.

Otherwise the only event of note was the appearance of a Spartan transport with a scout patrol that is currently hovering off my coast. I can only wonder what else is headed my way.

I need to put in the infrastructure to begin the vertical ascent but it's going to take some time. The only advantage I can see that might help me pull even with Hendrick is the hab limits.

I will build the Empath Guild in 2172. Perhaps I can gain some advantage from that. Terraforming is going well, starting some boreholes.

Playing as hard as I can here, advice from University fans would be more than welcome. The next comparison will be with Hendrick's 2181 save.

jt


ps. I did decide to build the ME in a coastal base rather than in the headquarters base. I am looking to set up the SSC there so that I can trawl in energy as well as harvest an energy park. It is also located nearer the flats.

Hendrick I hope you stumbled somewhere.

[Archaic]

If you want to eliminate the space, just eliminate every single space between your tags in the HTML. The code will look absolutly ugly, but it'll work properly. vB finds it hard to wrap itself around the concept of non-breaking spaces.

EDIT: The best advice I could give without yet having been able to play from the save would be to ignore the ME initially. EG costs the same, and it's certainly not hard to get the tech necessary for it by the time you start to crank out the early game projects. ME only really comes into its own if you're working all those squares, and really, you'll get better profits by getting commerce coming in than from the +1 per tile from the ME, especially in the late game when you're only working 2 tiles a base anyway.

[Hendrik]

Nice work JT, the VW is pretty amazing for the university... you can get by without even having to build recreation commons in the early years! 140 mineral's worth of maintenence free facilities per new base isn't bad at all...

[Mongoose]

Originally posted by Archaic
...ME only really comes into its own if you're working all those squares, and really, you'll get better profits by getting commerce coming in than from the +1 per tile from the ME, especially in the late game when you're only working 2 tiles a base anyway.

(emphasis added)


This is erroneous. ME benefit applies to every energy crawler or trawler working from the ME base. Assuming your late game SE provides +2 ECONOMY, the ME increases raw energy yield from all trawlers by about 25%. (About, because the percentage increase for trawled energy special tiles is less.) Depending on the amount and type of land energy crawling you're doing, the ME benefit can range from 20% - 30% of all crawled energy. Presuming this challlenge is going to involve the establishment of a SSC with beaucoup crawled and trawled energy, the ME benefit in the late game, when research costs are so great, is too significant to ignore.

[Archaic]

Ah, a good point. I almost never establish a true SSC, though I'd of course try and pile all the SSC projects on top of each other if possible.

[Capt Dizle]

Archaic, just for clarification, are you saying I have to compress all the html including the table tags themselves? I still can't correct that glitch and I have eliminated all spaces except those within the table.

[Archaic]

Yes, that's exactly what you've got to do. All the HTML code needs to be on one "line". Any non-breaking spaces (The linebreaks are your main problem) will screw it up. You might want to get rid of everything besides the code inside the table tag too.