Easiest level

[paramir]

This may seem funny to some of you but I play on the easiest level. It's not that I can't beat the AI on transcend, I just finished a game at the level squeaking out a win, but I just enjoy citizen more.
Am I alone?

[reznod]

No, but than again I am not very good either. I can't beat the AI on the third level. Every tactic that I use against them I always seem to be obliterated within about 50 turns. As such I have not even tried to go to transcend.

[Senethro]

Paramir: No, can't say I've ever felt the need to go back to an easier difficulty level since beating Transcend for the first time. I find Transcend easy enough as it is. Its been a while since I've been beaten as any faction thats not the Pirates. The pirates are a real achilles heel of mine.

reznod: Have you read around a little? I'd only played Civ3 for a few months before being introduced to Alpha but I was onto Librarian difficutly level by my 6th game. Do you want to send me some save games of an attempt at Transcend from every 10 years?

[Ecthy]

I play Thinker.

[Senethro]

Whats the difference between thinker/transcend? 1min and one nut from every row for the AI?

[Lord Nword]

For my games where I terraform the world, I often play easiest diff, so that I have absolutely no problems

I swear, once I actually finishe terraforming planet, I will start playing transcend and with much less terraforming.

[livid imp]

To be honest, the AI in the game is soooooo inept, transcend is quite easy. Even if you don't get the early "game breaker" SPs like HGP/WP/VW/PTS, all it will do is slow down the inevitable. Although I do admit, if I am trying something specific, I'll play on Thinker just to make sure the AI stays out of my way.

[binTravkin]

If there were a diff level I'd enjoy it were double transcend or something around that, but I'd rather make it on my own, by tweaking the "faction.txt" so that the AIs become quite more powerful.

[binTravkin]

Also blind research is just so much more fun than directed!

[Senethro]

Well, I'm cooking up a scenario right now which seems to be reliably getting the AI to build well from the beginning without the use of bonus satellites or energy parks. After a bit more tweaking I'm hoping to let people take a go at it.

[binTravkin]

Well, I'm cooking up a scenario right now which seems to be reliably getting the AI to build well from the beginning without the use of bonus satellites or energy parks. After a bit more tweaking I'm hoping to let people take a go at it.

A checkerboard of to-do (just in case you forgot/didn't know about something):

1.{faction}.txt
a) agresiveness (aim for lower)
b) priorities (explore is a good choice - many CPs)
c) social settings (you might not wan't to fiddle with these, otherwise players will need to swap files)
d) social agenda (very useful if you know howto make max out of it, if you want I can give some hints.)

2.WorldBuilder - have you gotten SmackSims WorldBuilder mod? It does wonders with AI.

3.Special units at Aphax.txt like probe defenders and probe foils.

[Flubber]

transcend all the way for me . . I get confused on lower levels and do things like quell drones that would not appear or save up more cash than I need for a very beneficial SE switch

Originally posted by livid imp
To be honest, the AI in the game is soooooo inept, transcend is quite easy. Even if you don't get the early "game breaker" SPs like HGP/WP/VW/PTS, all it will do is slow down the inevitable. Although I do admit, if I am trying something specific, I'll play on Thinker just to make sure the AI stays out of my way.

I like your quotation marks as I would dispute that ANY of those can be game breakers. In a PBEM they get shared and against the AI it just doesn't matter.

I'm actually of the view that there is no single SP that is so super crucial. I think that many people overemphasize their importance. Don't get me wrong, tehre are many SPs that I find very beneficial but I would consider an inability to cope, if I don't get a desired SP to be a defect in my game. In a PBEM you have to figure that your opposition is going to pick up some of these good SPs. If they don't , you really need to find better opponents

[Alex]

Been a while since I last played on the easiest level. I remember it was during a rainy afternoon and I just wanted to have some quick fun. But the thing I missed the most was the need to build prototypes. You don't have to build them in the 'citizen' level.

[Commy]

Definitely Transcend...and I'm not even that good...I build what, like 6 bases, and sit there and just do absolutely nothing...if I'm bored, I might just kill everyone with probe teams...mind control a base, then obliterate it...mind control another base...

On serious games, I don't do atrocities...but I'm telling you, SMAC can be a great tool for anger management, ADD, ADHD, drug abuse...except that it addicts you in the process...

[joncnunn]

To maximize your speed of advancement in SMAC, I highly recommend not getting locked into any single faction, and instead play different ones. I can't tell you the number of times I'd played one faction and got an idea on how to play that other that was giving me trouble. And nothing exposes the weak points of the faction that in AI hands was giving you trouble more than playing that faction yourself.

Another strange thing I discovered was that for me Transcedni level was easier than Thinker. I then discovered it was in part due to a bug that cut my maintance costs.

I also note that the AI has much more problems in resource poor enviorments than humans do.

For a kick, try playing Gaia on a max water + max fungus + arid + flat planet. Piece of cake! And a scoring bonsus for choosing max fungus to boot!

On having trouble playing the Pirates, I think that's the one faction I'd have trouble with. [I don't have the expansion] My own strategy envolves for any civ getting the The Weather Project, never founding any ocean cities, but enlarging my own land mass. Land bases are so much easier to defend than ocean. In fact when I'm conquering as soon as I have a submissive pact partner, they get granted the sea ones.