Another round of SMAC, another round of questions

[ESpark]

Hey folks. Some questions, since I'm playing SMAC (not SMAX) again. Trying to play in the Difficulties I've Always Been Afraid Of*, so I figure I should know the answers.

1) Supply Crawlers. I know they're good. I use em. However, I'm thinking I'm using them in a not-quite-efficent way. See, I've mainly used them when I have squares with a high amount of 1 resouce - a rocky mine, a high solar, a farm with a nutrient, etc. On one hand, I like doing this - I get the Chunk O Stuff, and can put a worker on another cell. On the other hand, though, I'm losing a mineral or something, since the crawler can only grab 1 thing at a time.

2) The next one ties into the first one, actually - I place my bases pretty roughly, usually dependant on bonus squares nearby. Is it wiser to put bases so that they access bonus squares, or use the most land possible?

3) What is your typical plan, early in a game, when a nearby faction puts a base in a legal area - say, a no-mans land between your territory and theirs - that pushes their General Territory deeply into yours? Later on, it wouldn't be as much of a problem, but early on, its very annoying.

4) How do you deal with Former Lock? Former Lock is is when you've got an impressive fleet of formers, and you've got a whole Not A Fricking Lot do to with them. I find myself having turns take double the time to go through, cuz half of it is "move former over here, move former over here, move former over here, move them all back, repeat".

5) Tying into #4 - should one start (as soon as possible) with Rover Formers, or wait until Normer Formers get to be too slow?


* Also known as "something above Specialist".

[Enigma_Nova]

Re: Another round of SMAC, another round of questions

Originally posted by ESpark
1) Supply Crawlers. I know they're good. I use em. However, I'm thinking I'm using them in a not-quite-efficent way. See, I've mainly used them when I have squares with a high amount of 1 resouce - a rocky mine, a high solar, a farm with a nutrient, etc. On one hand, I like doing this - I get the Chunk O Stuff, and can put a worker on another cell. On the other hand, though, I'm losing a mineral or something, since the crawler can only grab 1 thing at a time.

Crawl the Nutrients, use that to get a population, and use the population to work tiles.
It's the age-old 'Condensor Borehole' strategy.

Is it wiser to put bases so that they access bonus squares, or use the most land possible?

It's unlikely that you'll use more than 11 squares per base.
Spam 'em near the bonuses.

What is your typical plan, early in a game, when a nearby faction puts a base in a legal area - say, a no-mans land between your territory and theirs - that pushes their General Territory deeply into yours?

In a PBEM - Probe rape.
In Single player - Probe rape then conquer.

How do you deal with Former Lock? Former Lock is is when you've got an impressive fleet of formers, and you've got a whole Not A Fricking Lot do to with them.

Raise terrain and produce colony pods to plant on it.
Magtubes, Boreholes and FarmCondensors can take a bit of time - but once that's done, raise a crapload of terrain.
You might want to build a lot of Echelons and Solars to make an 'energy park', too.

5) Tying into #4 - should one start (as soon as possible) with Rover Formers, or wait until Normer Formers get to be too slow?

Build both.
Rovers for roads, Normals for everything else.

[ESpark]

Re: Re: Another round of SMAC, another round of questions

In Single player - Probe rape then conquer.

I said early game - when conquering is not an option, because you don't even have enough formers yet.

[smacksim]

Enjoy the game at your own pace. Once you exploit the 'best' strategies, the game is less interesting, even at transcend. So maybe you don't really want answers to your questions.... just my 2 cents.

Here are more answers anyways:

You'll find that a lot of players don't build rover formers until fusion power b/c they are pretty expensive. Also make them all clean with an upgrade when you get to Clean reactors.

Expert players tend to place their bases almost as close as possible, even a mere 2 tiles away from each other. They handle this by crawling everything except boreholes, which are laid in a grid. It's ICS, and it's a bit boring, but it's a very effective strategy. Use this to push back the borders of your enemies. Use base trading to get the bases that annoy you from your pact mates. Crawl everywhere in the early game. Forests are 2 minerals and help clear away fungus. Crawl and work the forest. Get minerals up to 16-18 per base to induce a fungal pop or two, which allows clean-min facilities to increase the clean-min limit. Formers should have plenty to do with condenser and borehole making, if you are researching to the three restriction lifting techs.

-S

[Enigma_Nova]

You can always push their borders back.
I tend to attack a forward-pushing enemy ASAP, since they won't push me again, and my standing army will make the other factions think twice about threatening me.

[Zeiter]

Yeah, like Smacksim said, I almost think you'd have more fun if you just learned naturally, getting your butt kicked a few times as you progress, but fighting some really close games. Because after you figure out all of the tricks and strategies, SP becomes A LOT less enjoyable. As you get better at the game, it inevitably becomes more about optimization, calculation, and micromanaging, and less about creativity and improvisation.

I mean, sure, you could becomes a crawler whore like the rest of us, and a probe-raper, and an uber-ICS-er, and they would all improve your ability to beat the AI, even on transcend, but I think it might be less fun.

It is kinda like believing in Santa Claus. You start out believing in him, and things just seem a lot more magical and fun. Then some kid tells you that there is no Santa Claus (crawlers and ICS) and, although now you know the truth, things just aren't the same anymore.

Oh, and since you've been playing on specialist, there are some things that might surprise you at first:

*Drones get MUCH more difficult to quell the higher the level.
*Switching SE settings cost money, so choose carefully
*Prototypes cost 50% more, so remember this when you see an enemy wave approaching and you need to get that prototype finished ASAP.
*There are retooling fees when you switch production at the higher levels.
*The AIs get insane handicaps, like +3 growth, research, and industry at transcend level.

Just spend a little more thought planning ahead than you are used to, and you'll be fine. If an early belligerent AI faction comes a-knockin' with impact rovers, you'll have to give in to their demands for a while, which you probably aren't used to doing.

As for the uber-strategy stuff, I think you'd have much more fun if you just figured that stuff out for yourself.

Good luck!

[Enigma_Nova]

Cut the heartfelt reply and face up to the facts.
Some people like to 0wn, and 0wning they shall do.

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?postid=3102740#post3102740

You can watch an open-information PBEM, read up on tactics, or even join a team of strategy expert and learn.