Customizing a good and long game! Help

[Kataphraktoi]

so basicly you said that you were playing weakers-than-yourself but in a game vs the betters you would have hard time,thus invalidating your own argument of uni power.

reminds me of a history [chanell] special on bullet proof armour that concludes with ''although weapons technology constantly advances and bullet proof substances today will be peirceable tomorow'' or along those lines

[although i am certainl] the university is the strongest faction. thats why i let everyone pick first in Felixcactus

[binTravkin]

Well, yeah, a controversial post.
But I think it's very easy to achieve massive tech lead with Uni even when playing against equals, given some map settings and some luck.
If you manage to get up to HSA first and build it, you're away as Fusion is almost your next tech and you can smash anyone who tries to kill your HSA.

[Archaic]

I can certainly attest to the power of Uni. I find that if the Uni gets the VW, and the Uni player is at least equal to everyone else, than the Uni player is likely to end up as king of the hill for the vast majority of the game, provided they play their cards right. I've been in situations where I've had Enviro Econ. before anyone else even had Ind. Auto., and it honestly doesn't take much at all to show someone how to do that consistantly.

[binTravkin]

Hence your challenge call on me?

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Archaic
I can certainly attest to the power of Uni. I find that if the Uni gets the VW, and the Uni player is at least equal to everyone else, than the Uni player is likely to end up as king of the hill for the vast majority of the game, provided they play their cards right. I've been in situations where I've had Enviro Econ. before anyone else even had Ind. Auto., and it honestly doesn't take much at all to show someone how to do that consistantly.

I agree and I don't since tech is probably the most important yet most fleeting advantage in a game. Even if a uni player can tech 50% faster than any individual opponent, smart multiplayers will team up to leapfrog up the tech tree. The result in any game where players can meet or communicate early can be that the uni doesn't achieve any significant tech advantage.

That is the big downside of the uni. Even in a game where co-op victory is turned off, it may be that say a good Hive and a good Morgan player will see the benefit of co-operating tech-wise for a time to prevent runaway uni victory. The result can often be that they BEAT the uni to some key techs and get the associate SPs.

If a faction like the Drones or Hive are anywhere near tech parity with the Uni, IMHO the uni is in big trouble.

I'll repeat it. I agree that tech adbvantage is huge. Having it can provide a winning advantage. But it is the most fleeting of edges against determined and smart opposition. If opponents can negate your tech edge, then what advantage exactly does the UNi have ??

[Kataphraktoi]

what if the uni is working with say a morgan on tech deals to go faster?

i dont think the uni are good becasue they are far ahead in tech.my own experiance indicates they dont keep far ahead unless with mondo effort. but getting the good techs like MMI before they have defences or etc,can be quite descisive,which is what i think of. picking up the cloudbase and then owning with copters

with other factions like drones,believers ill get stuck trying to get to techs i needed yesterday. although i can only speak from SP experiance and the few mp games im in

[Senethro]

Does anyone think its time for another thread discussing how the factions rank?

[Chaos Theory]

The Uni is really scary with the VW because they can ICS with impunity. The research bonus is gravy.

[Senethro]

The uni only needs to get just a little bit lucky to get the PTS and VW. At that point they'll probably get the PEG too and from there on its like shooting fish in a barrel.

I suppose that the production of 20 crawlers in a short timespace would temporarily put them at having less developed infrastructure and military but the extra resource gathering would surely make up for it fast.

[Kataphraktoi]

the PTS AND the VW? thats some luck there

reminds me of a uni game in in where i have all those SP's(like 10) except ME and WP that was a heck of alot of luck sebed had

[Chaos Theory]

If the Uni is only interested in the PTS and VW, and is willing to make some sacrifices, unless some other player is gunning for one of those SPs (usually the PTS), the Uni has a good shot. Expansion can be curtailed, crawlers can all be sacrificed, terraforming can be delayed, military can be neglected, all for the massive advantage of being able to plop down size 3 drone-free bases.

[Kataphraktoi]

ill have to consider trying for that in the future.it does sound reasonable. i suppose morgan would be the primary competitor for PTS

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Cataphract887
what if the uni is working with say a morgan on tech deals to go faster?

Then quite likely one of them will win the game because both will get so far ahead of the others

One Pbem I played was like that-- Two good researchers teamed up for Co-op victory. I teamed up with the other player but when I saw my tech rate was soemthing like 8 times his, I knew I was in trouble

[Flubber]

I agree that the university can be scary good-- I rank them among the best/strongest factions . . . but I stick by my point that a tech lead is the most fleeting of advantages. Probe action or trading can wipe out most all of your tech advantage quite quickly. If you haven't translated a tech lead into a lead in development or lasting advantages (SPs) the uni can have troubles

I would also say that the discussion here seems to be focused on builder style maps and assumes unimpeded growth. The sacrifice everything to get PTS/VW and then explode will work most of the time on larger maps, but if you are next to a well-played Spartan, watch out. I understand that the ACDG demonstrates how a good researcher (Morgan) can have problems against an early militaristic strike

[Chaos Theory]

The catch here is that if the Uni succeeds at going for VW/PTS, it very likely wins. If a momentum faction foils the Uni, the Uni loses, of course, but the momentum faction may not gain much, leaving them behind all the other players.