Your most satisfying game setup?

[Kataphraktoi]

someone always figures out loopholes in the defenses I've set up for the AI's

been playing with smacks worldbuilder edits on large size,all standard 30-50% land lately. either univ or drones(my new )

[Littiz]

Originally posted by Darsnan


Most of the SP Challenges I've posted over at CGN have been Conquest Only on Huge maps. Problem here ends up being that someone always figures out loopholes in the defenses I've set up for the AI's. Although I am getting better at assisting the AI's, why the Humans in all of their nefarious ways always seem to be one step ahead of me!


D

Uh? More info about your work appreciated
I'm still quite a newbie (about to try my first game on transcend...), and I never modified the game of course...

[Darsnan]

Originally posted by Littiz


Uh? More info about your work appreciated
I'm still quite a newbie (about to try my first game on transcend...), and I never modified the game of course...

There are quite a few SMAX SP Challenges over in CGN's General/ Help/ Strategy section . Just download the files attached in the threads and then play.


D

[Googlie]

Most of the time now when I start an SP game, I'm going to play "switch"

That is, start with any faction, play it for a set number of turns (when i started this style, I'd play for 100, then later I dropped it to 75 - my current one is 50) then after that set number of turns, check who's the weakest faction, and open the scenario editor and switch control to that faction. Play it for the same # turns, then repeat.

By 2300, you've now changed to your fifth faction, and have 4 pretty strong AI factions to contend with (ie, the 4 that you built up)

It's actually neat to see what the AI can do with a gifted strong faction, where you have built tree farms, hybrid forests, et al for them. They can present quite a formidable challenge to a transcendence victory

But ..... as the AI never upgrades then cashes in crawlers to complete an SP, it takes a lot of discipline for me not to do it either (else why even bother playing the game - if it's a quick romp to victory that you're after, just customize an uberfaction and destroy everything in your path - or edit the energy reserves to give yourself 100000, or whatever)

But if upon leaving control of a faction you use the governor feature on a few of its bases and check the "governor can hurry" tab, it will use unimproved crawlers to rush SPs and prototypes

But truth be told, the AI really doesn't know what to do with crawlers. I saw one where I had left them about 2 dozen use them as scout explorers!!

But for me, the "switch" games comes closest to playing against human opponents (which in a way you are, as you're playing against yourself)

Oh - 256 x 256 maps, largely islands, tech stagnation, blind research, transcend level, abundant native life, random factions

[nhs_boy]

I think I'm going to have to try that one... It sounds like a good way to get factions with the right 'flavour' as well - by building the 'faction-appropriate' secret projects for each one.

[Marid Audran]

Usually I play on a large or standard map. Huge is a bit much for me, and smaller than standard is quite cramped, more like a moon colony then the feel of an alien world.

I vary between directed and blind research. The later definitely requires more finesse, however directed research allows the AI to bee-line as well. Yang looooves to get Doctrine:AP as soon as possible, and you can count on Santiago bee-lining for Gatling rover terrorism, and so forth.

All Victory conditions w/Do or Die. I hate "second wind" rebirths with factions when they have a snowball's chance in hell of making a dent in the rest of the game.

Maybe 20% of the time w/time warp enabled, as it really does ensure a more balanced late opening/early mid-game to ensue. The results with a just-add-water empire as envisioned by the AI is an interesting challenging. More often than not your real opponent is the lack of foresight in how your factional paradigm is constructed!

Factions I will vary, sans the progenitors of course. The human SMAX factions I've modified to some extent (rebalancing), thus I give 'em as fair a shake as the original SMAC ones. Under normal circumstances I don't play the Hive because they are too powerful, a no-brainer momentum faction with too many advantages w/the efficiency immune perk. I feel they are meant to be played by the AI and feared for it, at least in the early game. Similarly I abstain from the University because they are too powerful a builder faction. Sure the extra drones are grating and bases are vulnerable to probe-rape but the free nodes and research boon more than compensate for this. Just tech tech tech your way to domination, even with a substandard start. Hybrid, Builder, Momentum, whatever you want.

In game I forbid myself from crawling resources, ever. The AI never does this, so neither should the player. This is a "broken" element about SMAC which I feel the human player is honor-bound not to abuse in the interests of a sporting game. I do use crawlers to complete prototypes and SPs, (since the AI does as well) but I never upgrade crawlers. I don't use the stockpile energy exploit or SE brown-nosing exploits or things of a similar nature either.

I also use a modified alphax.txt ruleset, having rejuggled a few of the techs in regard to what facilities/SPs/weapon/armor values they represent, as well as tweaked a few SP costs, and a couple of permenant custom factions to replace the progenitors. All this in the name of balance and I think I've succeeded, after many a test run. SP remains an interesting engagement for me, personally, especially if you role-play a little with yourself.