Defending with Gaians

[CEO Aaron]

The Pacekeepers, my allies and continent parters, became really annoying at the late game. Cancell our pact, push me to give them knowledge, and ultimately ask me for 1600 credits or...

And that's what I'm on about. No matter how nicely you play with the AI, they WILL turn on you. It's not a matter of if, but of when. Your job is to make sure that when it happens, you're ready to stomp them flat and take their bases, adding them to the serene beauty that is the Gaian Empire.

[Flubber]

Originally posted by CEO Aaron


And that's what I'm on about. No matter how nicely you play with the AI, they WILL turn on you. It's not a matter of if, but of when. Your job is to make sure that when it happens, you're ready to stomp them flat and take their bases, adding them to the serene beauty that is the Gaian Empire.

QUOTED FOR TRUTH

[Hydro]

Some AIs turn faster than others. Aggressive AIs (Santiago, Hive, Believers) are totally untrustworthy. Erratic faction (Uni, PKs) are only a bit less so, and will go south pretty fast if you run social engineering (SE) that they dislike. The more passive AIs (Gaians, Morgan, Cyborgs) can be cultivated and be friendly for the game if you keep SE that is at least neutral, but if you have an antagonistic SE (say, you’re running free market with Gaian allies) then be prepared for fireworks.

That said, I have had luck with bribes. In one memorable multiplayer game as the Hive I was able to keep the Gaians and PKs as my allies for almost the whole game. The key is to get them early, try to avoid SEs they hate, have no contested borders that are a source of conflict, bribe them shamelessly, and be the enemy of a faction that is attacking them. Good ‘ol Lal was even willing to overlook my Hivean police state for suitable…compensation.

Hydro

[JMO707]

CEO Aaron, I think that you are correct. I should assume that at the long term, the objetive of the AI is to win, like mine, and I have to say that I never ever ever saw an AI trying to win, lets say, diplomaticaly.

About the crawlers thing: its truth that it must be important, but I really dont use them too much. Just create some at the beggining and eventualy send them to hurry some secret project, but really dont know how to use them intensively.

Another new stuff Im starting to try on my new game (in wich, at difference with the last one, I cleared all the fungus I could and try to not rely on native life, but in good and few designs) is to bring factions together against 1 or 2 others. I discovered that an ally can declare peace with is neighbor with a some tratatives with both of them, and eventually that let them with more resources to fight those who I want they fight (in this case, the friggin Usurpers and Caretakers. How I hate them... ¬¬)

[Petek]

Originally posted by JMO707
About the crawlers thing: its truth that it must be important, but I really dont use them too much. Just create some at the beggining and eventualy send them to hurry some secret project, but really dont know how to use them intensively.

Look at this page for a nice article about crawlers, plus other interesting write ups.

[CEO Aaron]

You'll find that intensive crawler use will really amp up your game, so much so that there's a sizable contingent of players who think they're unbalanced in their power. I'm not one of those people, since crawlers are easily griefed, accessible to every faction, and still require extensive terraforming to deploy profitably.

They do open up some interesting strategies in the early-mid game, however. My standard crawler use these days is to collect nutrients from farm/condenser squares. I find that one or two crawlers per base doing this frees up your workers to collect more forests/boreholes/etc, or for use as specialists. I then focus on grabbing SPs and gearing up for a big population boom.

[Flubber]

Originally posted by JMO707


About the crawlers thing: its truth that it must be important, but I really dont use them too much. Just create some at the beggining and eventualy send them to hurry some secret project, but really dont know how to use them intensively.

Learning to use crawlers correctly will bring about the single greatest improvement in your game . . . more than any other tip we could give you

The AI has no clue and you will rapidly find that using crawlers, the AI will soon cease to be a challenge in regular games and you begin to play scenarios and challenges to actually face a real test

My advice is pretty simple-- Beeline to ind auto and the BUILD crawlers. then build some more

[Xian]

The particular strategy of crawler pumping from your headquarters base (preferably with the Merchant Exchange) is MOST useful with the gains on green, because of the extremely high efficiency. If theres one faction you'd be REALLY missing out by ignoring crawlers its the Gains.

[Verrucosus]

On the other hand, the headquarters never suffers from inefficiency, so that trick is even more helpful for factions with a bigger efficiency problem at the fringe bases than the Gaians.

Many players consider crawlers to be too powerful and they probably are, but they are a part of the game and I cannot bring myself to ignore them. Also, I usually play with blind research and when I pick my research priorities by roleplaying, it can take a long time before I'm able to build the first crawler. The later they come the less unbalancing they are.

Verrucosus

[JMO707]

Im with desires to play with persons now that I finished the last game.

Any PBEM to come? =P

[Verrucosus]

You should make another post on the multiplayer subforum to get more attention. I've never done PBEM myself (it's too hard for me to know in advance when I will have time to play to be a reliable participant), but I understand it's quite an experience. For learning more about the game, succession games are also good, but I don't think there is one at the moment.

Verrucosus

[CEO Aaron]

Originally posted by Xian
The particular strategy of crawler pumping from your headquarters base (preferably with the Merchant Exchange) is MOST useful with the gains on green, because of the extremely high efficiency. If theres one faction you'd be REALLY missing out by ignoring crawlers its the Gains.

Ok, this is a new term for me. What's crawler pumping? Are you talking about using the crawler features to ferry nutrients (or whatever) to another base?

[Darrell01]

I'd imagine crawler pumping is a derivative of the phrase "pumping out ", as in, "I was pumping lead into that wormdog!" So pumping out crawlers every turn or 2 turns and drawing in energy would be that post's meaning. Indeed, making your capital a super science city is powerful or moving your capital to one with lots of energy.

Welcome to the forums. One of the best ways to get information about how to play is to read our posts and ask questions. You can click on our profile link and then search for all posts by that user, for instance, CEO Aaron or Flubber.

There are many ways to improve your game. Crawlers are huge improvements. Terraforming with boreholes and condenser farms and throwing crawlers on them is one of the main strategies. Essentially you are freeing up your populace to become specialists or to get more of whatever resource you need. A great example of this is to put a crawler on a tile that is rocky, road, arid, and mined. This will send 4 minerals to the crawler's home base, or if it is independant, the closest base. This ends up being like an extra population for the base that doesn't riot. Its very powerful if executed correctly. Anyway, there are extensive posts on the subject.

[Xian]

Originally posted by CEO Aaron


Ok, this is a new term for me. What's crawler pumping? Are you talking about using the crawler features to ferry nutrients (or whatever) to another base?

Yep, making a crawler literally every other available slot from the time of the discovery of IA from your headquarters and then sending them to energy parks which you use extra terraformers to make.

[CEO Aaron]

Ah. Different Terminology for the same old tactic. Got it. I thought you were perhaps using the crawler's ability to permanently ferry a certain amount of nuts/mins/nrg to another base each turn, instead of just crawling map squares for resources.

Yes, many folks like to exploit the energy park, though I've found that in practice, building and maintaing a park is really a trick for expediting the conclusion of a game you've already won, rather than pulling ahead in a game that's still in contention.

Early on, you're going to want to use your crawler output to do three pivotal things:

1) Crawl forests and rocky mineral mines to boost your industrial output.
2) Crawl nutrients to supplement growth. It's worth noting that condenser/farms can bypass nutrient harvesting restrictions if you can build them before you discover gene splicing (a'la Weather Paradigm).
3) Rush secret projects. Focusing your early base's production power to grab SPs before your rivals gives great long-term return on investment.