question

[BlackCat]

Originally posted by d=me
Is the university one of those factions? And how come factions function differently? Which faction has a linera research/income relation? When I move the slider to like 80 percent research the research is slower than 50 percent and I get less money.

Nope, Uni isn't one of them. Aki and gaians are pretty close to it. It all depends upon their SE settings. This is the beaty of SMAC/X - you have to thnk, consider your options, set your limits and play You can do it so many ways that noone can actually give the answer how to play it "correctly".

[BlackCat]

Originally posted by Kataphraktoi


Tempting, but you probably mean a 2cp start,not on jungle...and no pod reloading that would be rough

Well, I'm no chicken so those times I have tried, it hs been on 256x320 maps with max water - who said it should be easy ?

[d=me]

How important is the merchant exchange? If I'm certain to get it should I go for it or build base facilities like childrens chreche and recreation commons and more advanced stuff like the research hospital?

[Kataphraktoi]

Originally posted by BlackCat


Well, I'm no chicken so those times I have tried, it hs been on 256x320 maps with max water - who said it should be easy ?

Heh that sounds kinda nasty.maybe ill give it a shot myself

probably fail miserably

[PJayTycy]

Originally posted by d=me
What about that unit out of base thing? If you are at war then most of your units will be outside.

Before you start the war, go out of free market. When not at war, you don't need military units out of your territory.

Crawlers, formers, probes, transports,... don't count as military unit.

Air units without the "attack needlejets in flight" special abillity DO generate drones even if they are in your territory though.

How important is the merchant exchange? If I'm certain to get it should I go for it or build base facilities like childrens chreche and recreation commons and more advanced stuff like the research hospital?

recreation commons are better than the merchant exchange.
childrens creches are better than the merchant exchange.
research hospitals are way too expensive to build.

Only build the facilities you REALLY need (ie: recr commons only if you expect drone problems). Whenever you don't really need something, build a crawler. In the beginning of the game, don't bother with facilities. Build colony pods at the same speed as your bases are growing (plan your colony pod to complete on the turn after your population grows from 1 to 2). New bases will often have the production finished sooner than the growth due to the 10 free minerals. In that case build a former first.

Notice however, playing on easy is different than playing on transcend (and everyone except you is playing on transcend here). The "optimal number of bases" in Velocyrix' guide are for the transcend level. After so many cities, even your first citizen is a drone on transcend level. That's why recreation commons are necessary there. On easy level though, you don't have to care about drones in size-2 bases, so you can forget the recreation commons and build a former instead with the first free 10 minerals (try to rush the former the first turn, it should cost you about 25 ecs). If you start building a colony pod after that, your population and production will likely be finished at about the same time. (This is necessary because a colony pod will reduce one of your population).

[Kirov]

Originally posted by PJayTycy

Before you start the war, go out of free market. When not at war, you don't need military units out of your territory.

I'd rather say, learn to conduct war when at FM ASAP. The simplest way it to build a base (coastal in you plan naval forces), make its only citizen a doctor, rehome some crawlers there and get them to harvest minerals. Then you can rehome there as many units as its industry output (crawlers!) allows. Don't worry if its unit screen will indicate 30+ pacifist drones - if your only citizen is a doctor, no riots will occur.

Other ways include Punishment Spheres or simply taking care of your Psych output (when playing PKs for example).

recreation commons are better than the merchant exchange.
childrens creches are better than the merchant exchange.
research hospitals are way too expensive to build.

Only build the facilities you REALLY need (ie: recr commons only if you expect drone problems). Whenever you don't really need something, build a crawler. In the beginning of the game, don't bother with facilities. Build colony pods at the same speed as your bases are growing (plan your colony pod to complete on the turn after your population grows from 1 to 2). New bases will often have the production finished sooner than the growth due to the 10 free minerals. In that case build a former first.

I wouldn't agree with that. Don't present constant bonehead ICS with 150+ bases as the ultimate strategy. Keeping your eyes open works in SMAX much better than "always do that and that". Not to mention that constant ICS, if it was truly the only reasonable strategy, would sway a lot of players away from SMAX, placing it way below Civ 3.

[d=me]

recreation commons are better than the merchant exchange.
childrens creches are better than the merchant exchange.
research hospitals are way too expensive to build.

On free market I need the recreation commons right?

I gave that SP to morgan. I built a crawler, recreation commons and a research hospital instead of it. I got every other SP except for that. It's ok that I let it go right?

And at war I need to go out of free market right? So what other choices is better for it?

[d=me]

http://apolyton.net/upload/view.php?file=43865_UniversitySave.SAV

Now that people have declared war on me, should I turn off free market and wealth? And what to do next? I didn't research so many weapons tech.

[Kataphraktoi]

What are the spartans going to do to you? who cares that they declare war? continue on as normal, and dont make those miltary boats.

Your individual bases are now up to standards. now you just need more of those bases,like you have there. you could put maybe 2 bases on your homeland, and start raising land for more bases. use packs of 2-4 formers for that,and keep making boreholes with 6 formers or so.you still need at least 4 formers per city on that map

but your play looks alot better now.

[Kataphraktoi]

Oh-and dont put your research rate up quite so high. I know everyone was railing on it, maybe too much, but you cant rush without cash and will actualy go slower. for your spot at the moment i would use a 40\0\60. i assume by the way you have cash,though, you had it focused on cash. which is good,as long as you know what you want here.

at that rate you are losing EC for a small 2-3 turn boost to your research speed

[d=me]

Originally posted by Kataphraktoi
What are the spartans going to do to you? who cares that they declare war? continue on as normal, and dont make those miltary boats.

Your individual bases are now up to standards. now you just need more of those bases,like you have there. you could put maybe 2 bases on your homeland, and start raising land for more bases. use packs of 2-4 formers for that,and keep making boreholes with 6 formers or so.you still need at least 4 formers per city on that map

but your play looks alot better now.

I already built a lot of them already. They are clean units though. So instead of them what should I build? Formers and crawlers? And the spartans land unexpectedly because my boats can't leave base for patrol because of the free market. They took out one of my formers before I was able to kill the boat and the units. And then the base had a drone riot for the next turn. And what happens if the spartans come in with their boats bombarding me?

Oh-and dont put your research rate up quite so high. I know everyone was railing on it, maybe too much, but you cant rush without cash and will actualy go slower. for your spot at the moment i would use a 40\0\60. i assume by the way you have cash,though, you had it focused on cash. which is good,as long as you know what you want here.

Now I don't know what to head for research anymore. I got IA and the restriction lifting techs. I'm kind of still primitive on the weapons.

[Kataphraktoi]

One more thing- i raised 500 EC just by selling all my techs to morgan. This is a great way to increase your cash in a singeplayer game, and hastens you along. note that morgan is research adaptive economics a tech that gives you an awesome SP, my favourite SP actualy.switch otkrieta discovery to building a foil probe(with no bonuses,as plain as possible,can be made in 1 turn) and head it for MorganLand, then steal it ASAP.

[Kataphraktoi]

I already built a lot of them already. They are clean units though. So instead of them what should I build? Formers and crawlers? And the spartans land unexpectedly because my boats can't leave base for patrol because of the free market. They took out one of my formers before I was able to kill the boat and the units. And then the base had a drone riot for the next turn. And what happens if the spartans come in with their boats bombarding me?

You misunderstand. build 4 per base,at LEAST. you MUST HAVE formers. understand that with clean formers, you CANNOT have to many of them. i issualy build even more than normal if i get the WP just because its so awesome a bonus.

Now I don't know what to head for research anymore. I got IA and the restriction lifting techs. I'm kind of still primitive on the weapons.

Head for MMI or Fusion [power]

[Kataphraktoi]

And what happens if the spartans come in with their boats bombarding me?

Head for Doctrine:Air Power and build SAM jets. With missles, they have enough punch to win even vs plasma armour boats. And if you want to make sure, you could add X to them SAM dosnt make unhappiness, when in base,and when they go out for a mission just make most of the base specialists for a single turn

[d=me]

http://apolyton.net/upload/view.php?file=43865_UniversitySave.SAV

This is what's happening now. I already have many foil probes. I'll add more formers in. You want them to raise land right? What are sam jets? I don't have synth fossil fuels yet.

I have some SPs that I want to get in the future. Should I pass on them?