First Trancendence Loss

[Ned]

I play a lot of Alpha Centauri X. Never, not once, have I lost a game where the AI beat me to trancendence. That is, until last week. (BTW, the video when you lose is quite amuzing.) It built the final SP two turns after I completed the Voice SP. How? It had at least one base with 1000 accumulated minerals and that's all it took to complete the Ascent. I could not complete the Ascent myself as I was completely exhausted of funds just trying to keep up with winning faction.

The faction that beat me was a custom faction I created from the Gaians. I called them the Treehuggers.

The first paragraph of the faction definition is set forth below, modified to make the faction a bit less powerful. The faction that beat me had two, not one, FUNGMINERALS. The key to this faction is the reliance on fungus from the beginning as a sourse of food, minerals and energy. At the end, when tech bonuses are added, each fungus square can produce 5 or 6 food, mineral and energy each. In the hands of the AI, this will allow them bases that can produce 200+ minerals per turn. I have never seen that in any AI faction until these TreeHuggers.

Not the starting tech, Ecological Engineering, allows the planting of fungus from the start. It's a fun faction to play and a worthy opponent.

";
; Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri
; Faction Editor
;

#TREEHUG
Treehuggers, The Green, Ecofreaks, F, 2, Daffy, F, -1, 0, 0, 0, 1,
TECH, EcoEng, PENALTY, Democratic, SOCIAL, ++EFFIC, SOCIAL, +PLANET, FUNGNUTRIENT, 3, FUNGMINERALS, 1, FUNGENERGY, 1,
Economics, Green, PLANET,
Economics, Free Market, nil,
Huggers, Huggers
Lindly, Scott, Lindly's Rest
Lady, beautiful, tree-crazy, ecologically sensitive, eco-daft,
Nature Loony
preserve Planet's native life
to guard, understand, and preserve Planet's native life
stamping out all legitimate sentient development of this planet
stamping out all legitimate sentient development of this planet
cripple any and all efforts toward sentient progress on this world
dancing naked through the trees
dancing naked through the trees
spouting tree-crazy prattle
tree-crazy prattle, M1
environmental initiatives, M2
pagan rituals, M2
ecology tax, M1
preserving and cataloguing Planet's native life
my Environmental Police
the Planetary Ecology Code"

[vyeh]

(1) This thread belongs in the AC Creation forum.

(2) With 200+ mins/turn, what were the ecology implications? While fungal blooms are not a problem for Treehuggers, did they have to fight off a lot of mind worms? Were there sea level rises?

(3) I would guess that with FUNGNUTRIENT, 3 (and the increases they get acquiring the Centauri techs), the Treehuggers grew very fast and that is how they got the technology to transcend at the same time you did.

[Ned]

Yeah, they grew like weeds and were very strong from the get go. They were competing for SPs and Governerships from the beginning. But note the penalty on Democracy. This slows their growth to just "natural" growth, allowing other factions to keep pace with pop booms.

Naturally, with all that power, there were continuous problems with global warming as the Treehuggers had pop after pop. When I inspected their lands near the end of the game, it was all fungus. I am sure that it was not planted as I have never seen the AI plant fungus.

As to the worms, well this is a "green' faction. I am sure they had no real problem with the worms and capture many.

[Darsnan]

Originally posted by Ned
Naturally, with all that power, there were continuous problems with global warming as the Treehuggers had pop after pop. When I inspected their lands near the end of the game, it was all fungus. I am sure that it was not planted as I have never seen the AI plant fungus.

The AI planting fungus in my SP Challenge "Eye of the Beholder". Looks like my "Autochthone" are very similar to your Treehuggers, Ned.


D

[Ned]

Originally posted by Darsnan


The AI planting fungus in my SP Challenge "Eye of the Beholder". Looks like my "Autochthone" are very similar to your Treehuggers, Ned.


D

I stand corrected.

The next time I play against the Treehuggers, I will check just what they are planting.

[BlackCat]

Hello Ned, nice to see you again stirring up things

These treehuggers seems interesting since they may be the powerhouses I miss in my games. I usually starts on a small island in a very wet world, but there are not much resistance.

[Ned]

The Treehuggers are monsterous in most games when they have two fungus minerals. With only one, they are about the same as the other factions with the exception of very high initial growth.