ICS kind of...It works!!

[Chaos Theory]

Way to go, though the pattern seems too rigid. Did you need to delay base placement to keep the closest packing?

[Chaunk]

Much looser base-space-space-base ICS using the peacenik faction from Aldebran. This isn't ICS Hive style though as I'm building facilities a plenty. I'd say it's still ICS though as expansion is still sleazing along. Note that I also haven't got crawlers yet, or advanced terraforming techniques. it's 2181... Argh! There's only one AI close to me in power though, who's resides in the jungle.

[fender]

Well, that's why I called mine ICS "kind of", 'cause it's nothing compared to that Morgan pix. Now that is ICS!

Congrats

[Whoha]

Originally posted by Chaos Theory
Way to go, though the pattern seems too rigid. Did you need to delay base placement to keep the closest packing?

only if I got lazy, most of the time I skip to the next spot on the grid and plop the city there if there was fungus/rocky in the way.

Also I need a way to get rid of those monliths, 2 of them are blocking boreholes, 1 is blocking a city site, and 2 are blocking nut/condensor farms.

[Chaos Theory]

Monoliths have a chance to vanish when you upgrade units at them. Just keep funnelling military units through.

[Commy]

ICS=Insane City Spacing

I'd have to say, while maybe not the most realistic, it looks pretty cool and on the verge of perfectness. But of course, it would never work on Civ. IMO, a certain specialist should be made that operates the the crawler, so basically, you would lose a potential worker or other specialist for every crawler. I find it would balance the game more, and it would prevent ICSing, so that all players would have to play like the stupid AI and wouldn't have as good of a human advantage over the AI...

But just my opinion...

[Whoha]

That would be no problem, see all those size 20 cities I have there, each 1 has 3 nut crawlers, and 1 guy working a bore hole, so 16 specialists and 4 workers.

[Commy]

But you would have 3 less specialists beside crawlers, and for smaller bases, and for the beginning of the game, the effect of ICSing would be hindered, not by much, but still by some. Three less workers is roughly 15% less energy, assuming that all bases are pop twenty. And since most of them aren't, instead getting all the techs in the year 2250, you''ll be looking at a Transcend victory in at least 2300...

[Whoha]

At the beginning of the game it would just be 1 less.

[Commy]

But one less in a pop 3,4, or even 5 base is a much worse percentage than 3 out of twenty...

[Khaela]

While at the topic of ICS, what improvements do you usually build in all of these bases?

[Whoha]

It depends. there are stages:

Pre-orbital spaceflight: Rec tanks,preserves(if you got a pop),perimeter.

After orbital space flight:
Network nodes,Research hospitals,GeneJack Factories, pretty much anything that increases labs,econ,production. Don't need drone control at all since every city is pretty much a specialist city.

When soil enrichers are in place: hab complexes.

When i'm in the state i'm in in that picture: Everything that needs to be built.

Originally posted by Commy
But one less in a pop 3,4, or even 5 base is a much worse percentage than 3 out of twenty...

Size 6 bases get crawlers generally. No point in building 1 for a size 3 or 4.
1/6 or 3/20, its about the same. But I wouldnt use crawlers for the size 6 since the square is in the base radius and I could just work it. That would kill early use of crawlers.

[dfy]

There are some things about ICS I don't understand. (I'm a newbie to SMACX.)

How do you get your minerals? In those base-square-base ICS, every base has a borehole (6 nuts, 6 mins) and two farm-condenser-crawler-squares (only nuts). So you have only 6 mins per turn? Seems quite low to me.

Pre-orbital spaceflight: Rec tanks,preserves(if you got a pop),perimeter.

After orbital space flight:
Network nodes,Research hospitals,GeneJack Factories, pretty much anything that increases labs,econ,production. Don't need drone control at all since every city is pretty much a specialist city.

And children's creches, too, no? So everything you build before pre-orbital spaceflight is rec tanks, preserves, perimeter, creches, former, 2 crawlers, and whrn you're done with that, you just keep on building colony pods?

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Whoha
It depends. there are stages:

Pre-orbital spaceflight: Rec tanks,preserves(if you got a pop),perimeter.

Why perimeters-- I almost never build these except in a vulnerable base. The bases deep in an ICS heartland seem like poor candidates to need a perimeter defense. If the enemy gets there, you are already shafted

[Whoha]

Because I was still working on ICS then. Now i'm trying out building all the lab and econ enhancers.