The First Space Odyssey Challenge

[SilverDragon]

I've tried that, but the AIs are more aggressive to you, and you can't get many gifts.

[Adam Smith]

Oldman:
I will e-mail it tonight if I get a chance. What version, etc do you have? Are you playing this as a game or scenario?

[Tom DeMille]

Well, my OCC+ game is going very well. I founded 4 cities, with the 3 extra ones maxing out at a pop of 6 (they each have a temple and colosseum, and are supporting a settler and an engineer each). I never really had time to develop them any more than this, because the Super Science City had a voracious appetite for caravans. They each set up three trade routes, although the bonuses were quite small (around 50), so it was almost not worth bothering.

The AIs were very friendly. I had only 2 alliances after making contact with everyone, but over the course of the game I managed to ally with everyone. Not a lot of gifts for me - mostly 50 gold here and there.

The small science output from the 3 extra cities has made a big difference. Right at the beginning, of course, the extra couple of beakers was very welcome. But I also found that after building a superhighway in my SSC, I got discoveries every turn, all the way through to Space Flight. The arrival of computers kept the rate up at one per turn even after flight elliminated the colossus bonus.

I thought early on that I would build Hoover dam and SETI, but didn't bother in the end. The 3 extra cities were just too small to make it worthwhile. Besides, my science far outpaced my money/production. I was busy building freight in my 3 extra cities while ramping up my SSC production to 80. Space Flight came so fast that I ended up using every single freight to build Appollo. I just didn't have the money to build a spaceship part in each of my cities every turn.

So, its 1360 and my spaceship is half complete. Superconductor research will be done next turn, and I expect a pre 1500 launch. I will probably go with the 15-1-1-1-1-1 ship. I have only 250 gold in the bank right now, so getting the modules out the door will be a struggle.

I'll let you know how it turns out.

[Aurelius]

Hi John,

I've tried downloading the .sav from several posts. I keep getting that funny ascii in various forms of CIVILIZE. The last time I had this problem I was downloading from Paul's OCC page. When he made it a zip file, all was well. I want to try out the challenge. Can you email me a copy of the .sav? aurelius@farmhand.com , Thanks

[John-SJ]

Seems like a few people now have had trouble downloading Adam's SOC1 save game file. So, I have added a liink to my first post, you can now download SOC1 either the original savegame or the savegame in a zip file. Hope this helps.

John-SJ

[SilverDragon]

I've downloaded it, and I'm playing tom-style. By the way, tom, are you using the 2 gold 1 iron site for your ssc? I am.

[Tom DeMille]

Yeah, the 2 gold, iron (and silk from the grassland corner) is my SSC.

I finished this game today. Got a 1500 launch (I founded a 5th city in 1480 with one of my engineers so I could rushbuild my last 5 structurals). After beating up on the AI for 36 years, my intrepid pioneers landed on AC in 1536.

[John-SJ]

Well, I played perfectionist with 7 cities. Rome was my SSC with 2 gold, 1 Iron. I guess some of you transformed the 4th special corner and got Silk? Oh well, that idea never occurred to me.

The game went fairly well until I got industrialization, then my 3 alliances were dissolved within 3 turns (talk about a jelous AI?). Then I was a war with 2 within another several turns. From there things went downhill, including the loss of 1 frontier city before I was able to adequately reinforce it.

Bottom line, I landed in 1968.

John-SJ

edit: (added) Say, is there enough interest in SOC to continue the challenge? I thought the first game was pretty good, should we start another?


[This message has been edited by John-SJ (edited June 11, 2000).]

[Smash]

yes.I would play another.Next time,I will play with multiple cities.If Arii can land 1075 or whatever(Although I don't now he managed a 1400 beaker SSC in Commie with at least 1 food route) then maybe I can manage pre 1700.

[Paul]

I would definately be interested in an other SOC game. You could make this a regular thing like the OCC fortnights, but since these games would take longer to play you could consider making it a monthly event.