NooB queries

[Drakan]

Cataphract: well I trascended on Librarian year 2471. Next game will be on Thinker and following that I'll attempt Transcend.

I hope I have time for all this before Civ IV comes out !

[Senethro]

By the way Drakan, how much did that tutorial help you? See anything of interest to you there?

[Kataphraktoi]

one thing that iircmay not get into the details of,is to beeline for indutrial automation and also grab centauri ecology and build forests,and crawlers like mad. get the WP and spam boreholes out in 1x1 placing and you can even start taking on boosted ai's

[Kataphraktoi]

although it isnt a good idea generally to plan on getting SP's as when you cant get them,you cant play right

[BlackCat]

Originally posted by Cataphract887


play your first game on transcend. i struggled to achieve a peacefull tie and after that game,won every single vs AI game ever. its my philosophy to always take things at the hardest and then its all easy from there

I thought that too - then I got Incubation, The Wilderness Missions. I haven't yet figured out to win that on the strongest level without cheating .

[Drakan]

Yup, thanks. The WP is the first SP I go for. I'm playing with Lal. Tried to pop-boom with the University but it was near impossible, or at least I lack the skill to do it on librarian without falling behind.

I skimmed through it Senethro, thanks alot. I read Primas´ and Vels 4.0 (excellent strategy book I must say, probably the best guide I've read) and also articles on the Civilization Gaming Network and threads here.

It's a lot of info to digest I need some time.

But this game has just joined CivIII in my most-cherished.

It's a shame that Civ IV and RTW:BI will take-up my time. Wish I'd played this game earlier on. A real classic.

Thanks for the feedback lads.

[Senethro]

Ummmm? You're going to have to explain how you fall behind by pop-booming. Pop-booming is standard procedure for many factions using a non-ICS layout. Those who don't use it are the ones who fall behind.

Forest + Tree farms + creche + demo/planned. All good things that I would normally build on their own, how can you fall behind with them all together?

[Koriand'r]

perhaps he didnt use psych and had too many drones,or any of a bunch of reasons you would automaticly do,while for a new player may not be so obvoius

[Drakan]

Well comparing with CivIII (which is what I know) Lal would be the equivalent of an agricultural civilization.

it is very easy to build colony pods and make cities grow whereas with Zharkov I found it was more difficult for me to quickly send out colony pods and reach an acceptable size in the cities. I did play with the SE from turn one as I do in C3 with the tax/luxury slider for MM. Setting psych high at the beginning to REX and then decrease it and allocate more to science later on.

I just found it easier to use the Peacekeepers, they sort of complemented better my fast strategy growth than the University. I know none of them have a penalty on growth nor a bonus but I found it somehow easier with them. Don't ask me why. But I reached the +6 growth easier with Lal than with Zharkov.

I'm probably missing something here explainning it to you, I've only played like five SMAX games or so and only two until the end.

[Senethro]

Will the forum agree with me that 90% of SMAX games never see any energy put into psych?

I suspect the growth difference was due to rainy terrain/nutrient bonuses than any property of the PKs/Uni. THis is why CMNs have to balance PBEM games for rainy squares and pods.

One thing I didn't find immediately obvious in SMAX was the extent to which building a defender slows you down. Unless its a border base, just build a scout with your 10 free minerals. (Or even hurry a former and build the scout second) These scouts are also cheap to upgrade to Police scout (Tech Intellectual integrity comes with non-lethal methods special ability. The scout will now quell two units when acting as police in a base)

If you want, we can exchange early save games although I know some people relish the solving of the mystery of how to play smax on their own.

[Mart]

Originally posted by Senethro
Will the forum agree with me that 90% of SMAX games never see any energy put into psych?

In my case I use psych whenever I need to avoid doctors. Sometimes I allow a few doctors, but overall I prefer workers for their nutrients and minerals, while it is worth of lost economy income due to psych allocation.

I remember though, that initially I avoided psych allocation. Also a lot of new players, as I noticed prefer to avoid psych in most of cases, when more efficient would be give it like 10-30%.

[BlackCat]

Can't remember that I have ever spend energy on psych (thats a lie, but that was before I knew better ) - balancing research/energy close to zero gives in the long run the best result.

[Kataphraktoi]

psych rox
but 100% psych blackcat? i dunno about that. psych has limits per worker. 1000 psych isnt more effective than 20 or so relative to base size



yall seem to be not talking about crawlers much cant boom with crawlered condensers(well maybe but )

[Kinjiru]

I usually put my psych at 10% fairly early on and lock it. I move the other two back and forth quite a lot, but tend to leave the psych sitting there at 10%. Probably a bad habit, but it worked well in my early matches, so I have stuck with it.

As for building a defender with your 10 free mins... WWVD? Have an 'extra' unit hanging close for defensive purposes (if you are at all worried), and use your free mins to get the Tanks up and running. And remember to rush buy when you are 2 turns away (which is often after two turns). THEN you can build a defender there (or a former, even better!).

How do you get that 'extra' unit to protect your brand-new base? A couple ways... worm-captures are great, as the units are usually classes as independant - same principle on pod-popped units. Otherwise, whichever base(s) you are using to produce your colony pods, will often have a turn or two where they are going to have enough minerals to produce the pod, but not enough population (either absolutely because the base went back down to size 1 and hasn't gotten back to size three yet, or relatively, because you would like the base to jump to the next pop level (whatever that may be) before you take it down again with the new pod).

Now the amatuer will simply take the "Delay building pod" option. This is wasteful. Instead, the more experienced player will realize the situation when beginning to create the new pod and will simply set the base on 'econ' mode and generate a few extra credits. A better option, IMHO, is to spend that turn or two making and 'extra' defensive unit that can protect newly established bases, or simply play sentry duty, or go worm-hunting.

[Flubber]

Originally posted by mart7x5
I remember though, that initially I avoided psych allocation. Also a lot of new players, as I noticed prefer to avoid psych in most of cases, when more efficient would be give it like 10-30%.

I'm hardly new and I rarely use ANY psych allocation


Of course it is situation and faction dependent

Hive-- almost never unless I can somehow get golden ages

Morgan -- much more frequently for the GA effect

The rest-- rarely for drone control-- pretty much only when I am switching into FM and will have widespread drone problems so I use it as a crutch until I can switch to specialists or get better facilities up

Oh and I do fiddle with the labs/econ sliders a fair bit. For instance it can be quite effective to empahsize cash for a few turns and then rushbuild dozens of lab enhancing facilities to coincide with your swicth back to a labs focus