Ascent to transcendence bug?

[Noesis]

Hey all,

I just finished playing my first full game with Peace keepers on Transcend; or so I thought. I want to beat the game by ascending to transcendence. Unfortunately I can't research the secret project. The Gains completed the "voice of planet" and supposedly then every faction can pursue the ascent. Yet, I am not getting the option to begin the project. None of my cities can build it.

I have 40,000 credits in the bank just waiting to dump on the project to beat the game and I cant get the project. lame.

[Verrucosus]

Hello Noesis,

I haven't had a transcendence victory in a long time, but I believe that apart from the Voice of Planet, there is also a tech requirement (Transcendent Thought or something like that). Did you research all the technologies?

If you are just a few turns away from researching the final techs, you should be fine. The Gaians probably won't have enough crawlers or cash to rush the Ascent and they are not that fond of SE choices with industry bonuses either.

I hope you will enjoy your first transcendence victory on transcend. Even if you lose to someone else, you'll get a fun movie and a very nice final interlude.

Verrucosus

[Noesis]

Im on like Transcendent thought 6. My understanding is that this is just an iterative thing demonstrating you have researched all the techs.

[Petek]

Is any faction building the Ascent? If not, perhaps this victory condition was disabled. You can check this by starting a new game and looking at the default victory conditions. Every so often someone reports this problem and there is no explanation for the cause.

Petek

[Noesis]

I started a new game and Transcendent victory was enabled by default.

This brings up another good point. Whenever I play I also have allow cooperative victory and diplomatic victory. Yet nearly any game I play I have issues with my Pact Brothers suddenly turning against me because I get too powerful. I think this is kind of silly considering co-op victory is enabled.

[Petek]

OK, try this: Open the game that has the problem. Activate the Scenario Editor (Ctrl + K). Open the Menu and select SCENARIO. Select Edit Custom Rules. Is Higher Goal: Allow Victory by Transcendence X'ed? If not, that's the problem. Otherwise, I don't know.

Petek

[Noesis]

Wow, thanks Petek.

Ya, I went into the scenario editor and ALL of the victory conditions were turned off... This might also explain why my Pact Brothers leave me all the time, because co-op victory is disabled.

So I turned on "victory by transcendence" and promptly bought the entire secret project to complete the game only to be called a cheater! lol.

[Petek]

Glad you solved the problem. The same "glitch" has been reported at least twice in the past. No one has ever figured out why it happens.

Petek

[Illuminatus]

Are AI pact brothers really likely to abandon you if the cooperative victory if turned off?

[Noesis]

All I know is that they abandon me regularly at Thinker - Transcend if you get too powerful. They go to "Treaty" status from Pact.

I haven't tested it to see if they do it because co-op victory is turned off or not as I just found out today that the game was doing that without my permission!

[Gremnon]

I don't bother with pacts very often because it's usually just offered to get my to help them kill off someone else, then they turn on me instead.
Unless it's someone like the morgans, who use me as a meat-sheild - everyone he had a vendetta with attacks me instead.

[CEO Aaron]

If you don't have pressing need to destroy them, get pacted. It's only more resources for you, and while it's also more resources for the AI, it's unlikely to use them as efficiently as you will.

Yes, once you get past a certain point on the powergraph, the AI factions will stop being your buddy, unless you make efforts to keep them happy, such as running compatible SE choices and giving money or techs. Just like in real life America uses foreign aid to influence foreign policy, so must a successful Chironian leader.

[Noesis]

Ya,

I always choose Green, Democratic, Cybernetic (without penalty).

Gaian's dont attack me even if they ditch my pact.

[Zeiter]

I've found that it's quite possible to keep pactmates until the end of the game if cooperative victory is enabled, even on transcend.

The key things to do are:
*End a war between pactmates of yours as soon as possible. Otherwise, they will make you choose one or the other at some point.
*Having a common enemy helps a lot. If possible, let that common enemy persist, until the very end, even if that enemy only has like one base that is getting constantly bombarded by your artillery.
*Trade techs for money as often as possible. I know that goes against the grain for most people, but it works! And you can always use the money (even little transactions of 50 or 100 ec's speed up development quite a lot!) Of course, if they are vital techs that your pactmate could use against you in an imminent war, then don't, but otherwise, even if the trade seems unfair on the surface, you're still better off making the trade in the long run (especially considering that they are bound to get the technology from someone somehow at some point, so why not get some money and loyalty from them in the process?)
*Maintain probe teams in all your bases. That's one of the most common ways that pacts end, when your stupid pactmate tries to probe tech from you, and you just can't bring yourself not to end the pact. Get the HSA, and problem solved.
*Build up military power to match your tech power. If possible, station a few long-term units along the border with your pactmate. This actually works. I was once about to go to war against a decent-strength adversary (although it was clearly going to be a bloodbath), and I was building up about 25 units along a border, and right before I was going to start the war, the faction tuns magnanimous and wants to be my pact mate and starts giving me all these units and doing all these deals with me. I kept about 15 units along that border for the rest of the game, and I never had any problems from that pactmate.