New June Single-Player Challenge

[Jamski]

Jamski - do you want me to make a smac version - maybe a similar "Expoliter" bloc of the Uni, Hive and Morgan, opposed by a "Fanatics" bloc of Sparta, Gians and Believers, with you as the Peacekeepers doing the exit thing and trying to build Utopia free from these pressures?

Why not, eh? I like a good scrap I think the aim must be to stay neutral somehow while the AI throws its resources into warfare with each other... right?

-Jam

[FlameFlash]

Very interesting... I'll have to keep an eye out and try this out... be great for my time without an ISP once I move.

[Googlie]

Betwixt & Between

SMAC version found here

You are Lal, escaped from the 2 bickering power blocs that have emerged - the Exploiters (Morgan, Zak and Yang) and the Fanatics (Miriam, Dee and Santiago)

In escaping, you have made implacable enemies of Deirdre and Morgan, some of whose followers you had to kill to escape.

Play on

[Jamski]

File doesnt exist

-Jam

[Googlie]

Yeah - try again - I had an illegal character in the name. I've rectified that now

G.

[Darsnan]

Originally posted by GeoModder
Well, if I work fast enough then I might be able to release something for a July challenge.

My advice would be to take your time and do it right. My first Challenge ("King of the Hill") took 4 months for me to construct. This may be extreme, but it gave me time to experiment and learn the process of building PBEM's/ SP Challenges (which was one of my goals), as well as come up with my own unique twists to the game (like Sea Monoliths and sinking the Unity wreckage!) I would also get a Veteran to playtest your "beta" game for you, and to provide valuable feedback as to what they think the strengths and weaknesses are in your Challenge. Regardless, great initiative on your part, and I look forward to your Challenge when it does come out!


D

[Darsnan]

Originally posted by Googlie
when he (Yang) started with the choppers, that was enlightening. he actually teamed attack chopopers with interceptor aircraft so that I had to take out the latter before I could get to the chopper (but thank goodness it's vulnerable to small arms fire from the ground)

I knocked them out the sky by the skads, but they just kept coming!

I thought that I had the answer when he started threatening Planetbusters - I simply put up a few ODP's. But like Darsnan found, he could outbuild me and shot mine down as soon as they were deployed. What an epic space battle that must have been!!

In my rendition I actually knocked out the Uni Base building Planet's first PB, but at great cost. However I was defenseless to stop the Hive building their own PB's, and couldn't keep anything in the sky!?! Absolutely amazing!

I played Gaia as a builder - big mistake.

I played Gaia as an aggresor and believe I had better luck than you did. I plan on attacking the same way with your updated released version! A little knowledge should take me a long way, uuhhhhh, right Googlie?

I was too inflexible regarding SE choices. I knew Yang hated DEM, but was too stubborn to change after I'd gone to DEM. If I'd gone with the flow and changed to POLICE - or even FUNDY, he would have stayed cosy with me (we were pacted for 50 or so turns). And Zak never really liked my running wealth either - (you can tell from this that I ran DEM/GREEN/WEALTH)

I ran Dem/Planned/Wealth and made everyone mad at me, as well....



D

[Chaos Theory]

The SMAX challenge doesn't seem too hard. I played Dee as a builder, going for Frontier/Planned/Wealth and then Dem/Planned/Wealth. I actually spaced my bases rather widely, on average 2 tiles between bases, but more in bad terrain. It's about 2213 and I have about 25 bases, most of which are size 14. I missed all of the early SPs but the WP, no thanks to the boosted AI

I cozied up to Aki as soon as I made contact, and traded for many crucial techs, including Fusion Power, so now I make about 1500 energy per turn and can't spend it all. My tech rate has been 3-4 turns per tech for a while. Yang is about 10 years from completing his first planet buster, but his nearest base is still well out of range of me. Even so, I'll try to erect a barricade of units to keep PBs away from important bases.

I'm about to get the Cloning Vats, at which point I'll end up in Dem/Green/Knowledge, filling in any unused land and spreading across the seas.

The whole game, I've hardly attacked anyone, and I've never had hostile troops on my territory. Even though Yang has planes, he can't reach me. All in all, I've been sloppy and I'm starting to blow past the computer anyway. I'll see if anything really changes in the next 10-20 turns, but the turns also take forever now...

[Illuminatus]

What have you exactly done to AI Googlie? It managed to outsmart me actually with probes. I sided with Zak and Aki. My faction was second on planet, lagging in almost everything, but things were looking good even as I built only six SPs. I had HGP, EG, CDF, NA, PTS. Yang dominated in every area, but I turned his tech advance through *cough* borrowing *cough* technologies from his bases. I was just close to reasearching MMI, and I haven`t suffered any attacks at all, when all from a sudden, 10+ Hive probes appear from fungus on far eastern side (Yang grabed XD ), It managed to mindcontrol two newly built bases, destroy probe defences in two more and subvert them. Next turn I managed to retake two of bases and destroy all probe teams (or so I thought) using my airforce, when next turn more probes came from fungus, subverting three more bases after destroying more probe defences, along with taking all nearby units! I recaptured those bases too, but then 15+ more probes came from fungus and resubverted them. By now half of my airforce was gone,.. and two or three noodles I sent to destroy probes sucessfully blocked terrain, thus preventing any more probes from coming. But meanwhile Hive built a seabase, and transferred 10+noodles and interceptors there and destroyed blocking units. Five more probes then arrived (nexus now showed that Yang still had 32 probes active - with 70 lost and it was MY 2187! ) and they subverted another base. By now, I obliterated eastern bases, getting sanctions and losing comemrce income. I managed to destroy Hive airstrip (with newly prototyped Hive PB)nad get rid of the probes by dispatching mindworms to patrol there, but cost was too much for me. Drones/Hive have succesfully taken half of CyCon bases simultanously with this, Hive built Ascetic Virtues, CDA and was nearing to complete Cyborg Factory. Now I am defending CyCon with forces taht were supposed to take Roze out, and Hive is still sending constant waves of probes, which now get promptly destroyed in fungus. I must say this is a good scenario, but Hive is still far too powerfull in contrast to eastern coalition. Is there a land connection with Hive continent (that would explain sudden probe wave)?

[Jamski]

Thanks Googski I'll try this on the holiday tommorrow.

-Jam

[Googlie]

This game (scenario) has constantly surprised me in its 2 versions (playing as the Gaians in smax and as the PK's in smac)

Yes, the Hive is linked to you, but 50 tiles away, through a series of bottlenecks and fungus choke points. But I set the Hive strategy to focus on land and sea (not air) and didn't give him a proclivity to probes (but to colony pods, formers and crawlers, trying to turn him into a builder)

His pactmate, Domai, should have been the one strutting probes around the map (as well as all 3 research factions), so I'm surprised to see so many come from the Hive. And Morgan and Domai should be the ones with the airforce.

In my playtests as well as actual games I, too, lost bases repeatedly to probes - especially later in the game when in 2 turns one of my pactmates went from pact to treaty to frigid and turned on me. I was so trusting (I'd forgotten how I'd set up the AI's diiplomacy and strategy that it took me completely by surprise!!)

It'll be interesting to see how Chaos Theory has fared in the 50 years from 2213 onwards

G.

[Chaos Theory]

It turns out that it was actually 2217 that I described. Now it's about 2233 (these turns take forever...) and I've solidified my lead.

I recently got Digital Sentience and am now getting about 2 techs per 3 turns. It turns out that Planned is still better than Green because:
1. I got the Longevity Vaccine
2. I don't need +9 effic
3. Industry is still good, though much less so now
4. I already have +3 planet with Cybernetic

Other SPs I've gotten that I can remember:
CBA (Huge! Yang basically can't attack an established base with air, and he can't drop!)
Cyborg Factory
Network Backbone
Nano Factory
Univ Translator
Neural Amp
Pholus Mutagen
Weather Paradigm (Also huge, but it cost me the PTS)

I started sprawling across the planet with sea pods and drop colony pods. I basically claimed the southern third of the map, except for directly beneath Yang's core. Some of my bases were on land, fairly near his bases. In time, some probes and shard rovers came for them, and I've lost about 4 of those bases. On the other hand, I've drawn all of Yang's land army into striking range of my aircraft, and I'm tearing it apart. To summarize, he's capturing meaningless bases at considerable cost, and the core of my empire is unviolated.

Domai signed a treaty with me after I started killing his defensive units. Roze attacked me briefly but now has pledged truce. Aki has been a loyal pactmate all game, and now I'm using her bases to strike at Yang's sea bases in the north. Zak has had a treaty with me all game, but has never been very friendly. Yang hates me and always will because I had some fun during sunspots . Morgan doesn't like me, but can't reach me.

Zak has a PB, Yang keeps switching bases producing PBs, so he never completes one, and Domai is working on a PB. It would be nice if the AI would PB one of my peripheral bases, so their nice submissive pacts would break up.

My infrastructure is strong, and I'm 2-3 turns away from Hab Domes. Once I get that, my bases all boom to the 40s and the game ends quickly with my transcendence. Fungus is already producing 2-1-1 and will get better when I grab some secrets tech, followed by the Manifold Harmonics.

[Chaos Theory]

Victory in 2246, by Transcendence!

Attached are three saves, 2245, and the other two years I posted about, 2217 and 2235.

Odd characteristics of my game:
Almost no choppers. Hostile cities were generally fairly distant, and when they were in the sea I had trouble dropping in. Furthermore, most units I attacked were strong enough that I couldn't have attacked more than two or three times anyway.
I never raised land. If I had I probably would have done better, but it seemed like more of a challenge not to.
The AI never made any satellites, despite having the tech.
I had no SSC. The AI grabbed the Supercollider and the ToE, and I never cared to make an energy park.

I don't often get this far in the game, and I noticed some odd things I haven't seen mentioned here:
The Bulk Matter Transmitter gives +50% minerals instead of +2 minerals. This caused some ugly pops
You can cause an ally's air defense to scramble, then cancel the attack when asked if you would like to declare vendetta
Deep radar detects units in fungus, but only at a range of one tile
Capturing an entire pop of a dozen mindworms is nice
Clinical Immortality seems to give two talents instead of one
Cities can be "washed": they lose ~half their population and gain a pressure dome, but remain above water
Washed tiles can end up higher than unwashed tiles
If you end turn with aircraft in the air that should crash, they will crash at the start of the year, not at the end of your turn

[Snowflake]

Well I played 15 years and about 3/4 of the pod I poped I got my scout cloned. So I've got a rather big army with no support cost. But I realized that I forgot to change SE allocation so I had to start again.

And this time about 3/4 of the pod I popped I got a monolith. It's kind of strange isn't it how the pods are all the same kind?

I'm now at 2137 also I think. Got IA couple years ago, have 10 bases. Didn't want to check how large the map is to decide the first buro limit. And now I got a buro drone before I'm ready. But the terrain is so nice that it is hard to resist expand more. Popped a transport and found Aki. She wanted my IA for mob. How unrealistic is she! And I lost two nice worms when attacking fungus towers. (Haven't really played SMAX much before, not used to all those spore launchers and fungal towers.) Still bottom of the power graph. Drones' already built ME and at least three other SPS are currently being built. Which SP do you guys think I should go first? WP or HGP? I'm thinking HGP first since my terraforming is kind of ok right now. Pretty sure I'll still be able to get WP.

[Googlie]

Chaos Theory - Congrats!!

While the current version that's uploaded is a little more difficult (based on Darsnan's feedback) it's still quite an achievement. I know I got my butt royally kicked in my early playtests with that version.

I see from your units that you're a big user of soporific gas noodles. Do you find them effective? (I ask 'cos I recall a post or two saying that the -2 morale didn't work and I don't remember seeing it ever addressed in a patch)

G.