Best settings and oppponents for challenge in SMACX?

[DilithiumDad]

Here's my choice. I'd like to hear others.

Settings
1. High cloud cover (this really helps the AI with its poor terraforming ability).
2. Normal or high water cover (helps Pirates)
3. Normal or high native life (adds challenge)
4. Spoils of War --On (helps aggressive AI)

Opponents
1. The Aliens --Very powerful and designed to played by the AI. An extra challenge because you cannot just take over their bases --really slows your momentum.
2. Pirates --Very strong and wily played by AI. Makes you think twice before going to sea, which is otherwise a sage place to get nutrients and energy. Also, they tend to side with the Aliens against the human player, so Pirates plus Aliens are one nasty package to overcome!
3. Hive --For some reason, the AI tends to do this faction better than any other.
4. Miriam or Santiago --Either way, they are tough fighters.
5. Drones --Weak at first, then watch out. The AI does fairly well with them.

For my own faction, I chose from the weakest in the SMACX world --Peacekeepers, Cult or Morgan.

There are other factions that are great when a human plays them but weak as AI --this includes the research factions (U of P, Consciousness and Morgan). I won't use them as opponents as they are too easy.

[Dis]

peacekeepers aren't weak! I use them all the time.

I disagree about miriam and santiago. Santiaog can be strong in the early game, but peters out. Same with the believers.

I agree with your other choices. AI is very good with the hive and drones. Pirates can be threatening, but their cities are easily conquered. Their needlejets are their main threat. But they can never follow up with land troops. So it's an annoyance at best.

[Darsnan]

Re: Best settings and oppponents for challenge in SMACX?

Originally posted by DilithiumDad
Here's my choice. I'd like to hear others.

Settings
1. High cloud cover (this really helps the AI with its poor terraforming ability).
2. Normal or high water cover (helps Pirates)
3. Normal or high native life (adds challenge)
4. Spoils of War --On (helps aggressive AI)

Opponents
1. The Aliens --Very powerful and designed to played by the AI. An extra challenge because you cannot just take over their bases --really slows your momentum.

3. Hive --For some reason, the AI tends to do this faction better than any other.


For my own faction, I chose from the weakest in the SMACX world --Peacekeepers, Cult or Morgan.

I'd also add lots of land to the map settings - the more AI's coming at you (from various directions) at once, the more exhilerating the experience of trying to fend them off!

I almost exclusively play with the Aliens as part of the AI's. I've recently been experimenting with the Aliens, and giving them the free nerve gas ability with the discovery of HEC.

Hive is also always an AI mainstay - GREAT AI Faction!

Otherwise, for the most part, the other AI's just aren't nearly as competitive IMO.

As far as the Faction I play: I typically choose Gaians or PK's.


Finally, this is one of the reasons I generate my SP Challenges: I am always tinkering with ways to make the AI's play more competively, and the best of these scenarios (IMO) I then share with everyone else.


D

[Blake]

I also strongly advocate making a flat world, like High Erosion, 30% water. The erosion actually makes more sea than the %age suggests.

One of the most important things in AI terraforming decision making is altitude, if it's low altitude solars look no good so it plants forest instead. It actually barely cares about wetness (that arid tile would be a great place for a farm/mine! *sigh*), you can crank up the rainfall to improve early growth, or leave it low for nice harsh settings. So make a flat map and the AI will plant forest!

Especially good if you give the AI (or everyone) a free formers unit, this is nearly essential if you go for "harsh world" settings otherwise Miriam will badly embarass herself.

[DilithiumDad]

Interesting point about high erosion setting! I will have to try that with dense cloud setting.

Peacekeepers are very strong in SMAC, and OK in SMACX. Not so overpowered as to make things easy. I find the U of P with their free Network Nodes to be overpowered in SMACX.

[Ka Plewy]

Re: Best settings and oppponents for challenge in SMACX?

Originally posted by DilithiumDad
For my own faction, I chose from the weakest in the SMACX world --Peacekeepers, Cult or Morgan.

I play SMAC, so I can't speak to the Cult. Morgan and Peacekeepers are not weak for the player. Morgan is played poorly by the AI, although, there have been times when he's done pretty well, that is the exception not the rule.
AI plays LAL quite well usually.
AS a player LAL is great since you're almost guaranteed HGP. Combined with the 1 talent, ICS is a dream.

The AI tends to play Sparta poorly; but I have trouble with Sparta, too.

[GeoModder]

Spartan efficiency depends on the size of the map. I've seen them more then once overrun the Hive (both as AI's) on my smal map of Chiron.

[Quezacotl06]

Spartans would do good with +1 or +2 research. Since they have things slowly made, they might as well be even stronger, right?

[DilithiumDad]

Fun to try

Here's an eye-opening exercise to try. Play as usual until your might bar is #1 and at least twice as high as your nearest competitor. Now, instead of romping ediously to victory, activate the scenario editor. It will warn you that using the Scenario Editor in a game is cheating but that's OK --you are cheating to make it harder! Now, switch views to the WEAKEST faction and take them over. Now the challenge is to take the weakest faction and win! It's doable!

What I found in SMAC was that the weakest faction was almost always Miriam or Santiago. And they had researched weapons up to Impact but never researched Centauri Ecology!

So taking over the weakest faction is a bit like starting over. Another ploy is to gift Centauri Ecology to the weak factions.

[Blake]

Yeah the good old switching sides challenge is great fun. Typically you can get atleast 3 switches in, one of my very first SS challenges I started as santiago, built a nice empire, moved to morgan who was pissing away his life in the Monsoon Jungle (Morgan AI can screw up anything ), quickly ICS'd Morgan through the jungle to #1, moved onto Miriam (or was it Dawn?), pacted with Morgan and soon got her/it to #1 through military might mostly, some shred trading acquiring the two MMI SP's. You can pretty much keep switching sides until transcendence but I usually lose interest before that.

It's pretty cool looking at the power graphs, you can pretty easily tell when you take over a faction then when the AI takes it back. In particular the graph really jumps when you take over, get heaps of cash from loans, rush crawlers and treefarms everywhere and get the factions economy booming.

[DilithiumDad]

Actually the greatest challenge is facing the mega-faction monster you created. Your former faction continues to dominate under AI control.

What makes the whole thing possible is that the AI factions have pity on you when you are last in the power spectrum (especially Lal, Didi, Domai and Roze). This is another refreshing aspect of the switching sides scenario --finding the AI to be friendly and generous for once!

[Flubber]

Originally posted by DilithiumDad
Actually the greatest challenge is facing the mega-faction monster you created. Your former faction continues to dominate under AI control.

What makes the whole thing possible is that the AI factions have pity on you when you are last in the power spectrum (especially Lal, Didi, Domai and Roze). This is another refreshing aspect of the switching sides scenario --finding the AI to be friendly and generous for once!

All true-- It is a fun challenge to switch sides-- I would simply switch as soon as each faction became number one OR at some predetermined year.

It would be funny though to take over a "weakest " faction and then get pleasantly suprised that they have 1500 energy credits and 6 unused colony pods. You look so weak that the AI trip over each other to give you tech and the growth can be explosive

[Dis]

Re: Fun to try

Originally posted by DilithiumDad
Here's an eye-opening exercise to try. Play as usual until your might bar is #1 and at least twice as high as your nearest competitor. Now, instead of romping ediously to victory, activate the scenario editor. It will warn you that using the Scenario Editor in a game is cheating but that's OK --you are cheating to make it harder! Now, switch views to the WEAKEST faction and take them over. Now the challenge is to take the weakest faction and win! It's doable!

What I found in SMAC was that the weakest faction was almost always Miriam or Santiago. And they had researched weapons up to Impact but never researched Centauri Ecology!

So taking over the weakest faction is a bit like starting over. Another ploy is to gift Centauri Ecology to the weak factions.

yeah I always felt terraformers should never require a tech. These should be free to everyone at the start.

[Dis]

Originally posted by DilithiumDad
Actually the greatest challenge is facing the mega-faction monster you created. Your former faction continues to dominate under AI control.

What makes the whole thing possible is that the AI factions have pity on you when you are last in the power spectrum (especially Lal, Didi, Domai and Roze). This is another refreshing aspect of the switching sides scenario --finding the AI to be friendly and generous for once!

wow, I'm going to have to try this now. I didn't think they could be generous. I'm used to games like civ3- where if you are weak- the ai is belligerant and will attack you.

[Blake]

It might be something to do with buying votes, like the UN on earth any crummy little country gets one whole vote, just like a superpower. Conquering the faction destroys their vote, befriending them gets you two votes for your cause. Or prehaps the AI just don't think about it much =)

I find the monster AI's aren't a huge threat, even if you can't befriend them they'll only be able to mount an invasion on you if they're your neighbour, but you can almost guarantee they'll assimilate their neighbours in short order. So an even more challenging challenge can be to prevent any eliminations, whenever a faction looks like they might be in danger of becoming extinct, switch to them and (try to) keep them in the game.