Newbie Questions

[BlackCat]

Originally posted by Petek


Blackcat,

The problem is not the speed of the link. Evidently, Gamefaqs doesn't accept links to their site. Click on your own link to see the problem.

The workaround is to right-click on the link and select Copy Shortcut. Then paste the link directly into your browser's address field.

When I use Exploder I get the message you say, but firefox just go to the site without problems. Could of course be that I get the one I fetched to verify it was the right one .

Oh, and thanks for reminding me about the Topped thread about it I knew it but had forgotten it was there.

How come topped thread always are ignored ? Especially those named READ ME, FAQ and "COMMON QUESTIONS and THEIR ANSWERS"

[Lazerus]

...Well, that really makes me feel good, knowing I was steamrollered by "one of the worst Factions" when I was playing Lal.

Play her on transcend level where the AI gets an inherent +5 industry bonus or thereabouts now thats nasty if you start close by and have to put up with 20 recon rovers by 2130. Needless to say however the great Chairman soon defends his people and impales her head on a pike for such warmongering !


The biggest mistake i see new players make is wasting time building facilities that will give little reward. Ask yourself is it really worth spending 20 turns building that energy bank just for a 50% bonus on 4 income ? You could quite easily build a new base in half that time which will give you the same cash + labs + more minerals.

[Littiz]

Upon the discovery of Pre-Sentient Algorithms, the Data Angels get a covert ops centre in each base, increasing their base probe by 2. Added to their intrinsic +2, this gives +4. Problem is, the game doesn't recognise this as +4 - any probe value above +3 is considered 0 by the game. In fact, in SP, they need to run knowledge to get any advantages from probes at all! Of course, in MP, this is largely a moot point, as other players will respect your probe rating and not try to mind-control anything in the way the AI would.

Found this in that page about SE settings.
Is it maybe an old issue, or is it a still existant bug (after the XP compatibility patch) that will prevent me to ever try the Angels?

[GeoModder]

It is still an existing bug, but it shouldn't prevent you from ever trying the faction... if you know how to play, that is.

[Blake]

Miriam Guide: "Putting the "Fun" in Fundie"

Miriam has some strengths... well +2 support and starting with Social Pysch are the main ones that matter. But one of Miriam's greatest strengths is a lack of weaknesses, Miriam can be very flexible with social engineering, she can run FM and pop-boom. And has those nifty combat/probe benefits ofcourse.

So try this strategy out, it actually starts out as a builder strategy.

First a couple of notes: make sure to be founding heaps of bases pretty close together, you want about 10 bases at a minimum.
Build lots of formers, atleast 1 or 2 per base. Never automate them. Plant lots of forest.

Start by researching Cent.Eco, then Ind.Base then Ind.Econ, immediately switch to Free Market (your tech rate will jump massively).

Now get Ethical Calculus and run Demo.

This is quite a nice SE combo for Miriam. You can continue to found bases flat-out because you aren't in negative support, you can also bump up research to 70% thanks to the +2 effic from demo.

Now get Info.Nets and Plan.Nets then Ind.Auto. Run wealth.

This might sound extreme but I recomend sticking with free market/wealth for the rest of the game, it'll give you heaps of cash to fuel your probes and also a very respectable research rate. (besides, running FM all game is educational!)

When you go to war, switch from Demo to Fundie, this negates the morale penalty of wealth and you can churn out high morale units. Your units also become immune to mind control. Pretty nice eh? And you can switch back to Demo anytime you want.

Now, to handle the drones from Free Market you have to remember that you're an evil pyscho from hell. Build punishment spheres in a few bases on the fringe of your empire and have the punished bases home your armies. When you capture enemy bases, rushbuy a punishment sphere ASAP (you'll have plenty of cash for this from Free Market+Wealth). The infidels must be punished! Anyway rehome your armies to the captured bases and as your frontline rolls forward you can allow the original "punished" bases to join the ranks of your research bases, just build rec commons and holo theatre and sell the punishment sphere. You should aim to get Elite Units via the Command Center+Bioenhancment combo, either build trained shell units or use a monolith (the monolith is prefered ofcourse but you don't always get one...).

Don't go on a warpath until you have the bioenhancment centers and punishment spheres in place, but do build plenty of probes and if anyone attacks just probe their units. And probe-rape them for all their tech too (a nice thing about playing as Miriam is you don't have to worry about probe-immune units, so you really can rely on your probes).

You should try to mass-pact at the start, the commerce income helps a lot. Morgan makes a good game-long partner. Most the other factions can be pacted with for a while. Especially Lal, that poor confused freedom lover, he'll be so chummy while you're running Demo, then *wham* Miriam's severe bipolar disorder kicks in and you switch to Fundie pump out a zillion elite units and overrun Lal with a horde of bible thumpers. Then he sees the light, surrenders and all is good again.

This strategy also works great for Morgan, including the going on a warpath stuff. Fundie is the best way to whip Morganites into fighting shape and the probe bonus is pure gravy.

[Blake]

Found this in that page about SE settings.
Is it maybe an old issue, or is it a still existant bug (after the XP compatibility patch) that will prevent me to ever try the Angels?

The angels are my favorite faction in spite of the bug. I'm not even convinced it is a bug, they are hackers not zealouts, they aren't immune to being bribed.
A really nice thing about the Angels is their SE is pretty much a blank slate - there are no penalties that matter! The Angels can be played as Builder, Hybrid or Momentum - probes work great with any strategy and the -25% probe costs is neat!
The BEST thing about the angels is you start with Plan.Nets! You can build probes right away, you can run Planned as soon as you scrounge up the cash, you can start on the Virtual World really early. You're already halfway to Ind.Auto. You can research Impact Rovers at least as quickly as average and have probes to go along with the rover rush! However you look at it starting with Plan.Nets is a huge boon! The benefits gets even huger on larger maps and with blind or doubleblind research.

The Angels are a joy to play whatever your play style may be.

[Chaos Theory]

The probe bug is definitely a bug:
+4 probe is as good as 0 probe, which is worse than +2 probe. This means if the Angels run Knowledge (instead of other Values), their bases are harder to mind control than if they don't. If the Angels run Fundie (and not Knowledge), their units are easier to mind control.

I never got the impression that units and bases were bribed with energy credits. Rather, certain enemy individuals may receive bribes, and many friendly individuals and companies would receive payment for expensive super-spy equipment and the like.

[Littiz]

Well, if it made it thus far, it must be a pretty damn hard-coded bug..

@Blake: you've convinced me, I'll try the angels when I'll finish my current game with Aki Zeta
Then again, maybe that bug is even less important if you get the Hunter Seeker Algorithm, right?
(or maybe I'm just confusing things)

[Blake]

The bug has no effect on offensive probing as far as I know, for example your probes train as elite just fine, it just makes you more vunerable to *being* mindcontrolled.

It has very little effect since you normally want to build zillions of probes as the angels thus enemy probes have trouble getting through the defensive probes (you want to do this anyway to protect tech). I'm not sure if I've ever had one of my bases mind controlled as Angels, simply because I have probes in my bases.

It's also effective to train armored probes as Angels since it's so darn easy to get them elite (and you can run wealth at the same time), probes can't be mind controlled regardless.

[binTravkin]

Thanks for trying, but links to gamefaqs don't work.

It does for me and the gamefaq page accepts the link.
If it does not work for several tries, copy the content of the address bar just after calling the link and transform it so that there's no apolyton domain in it.