New player, advice needed.

[Morgan Everett]

Elok, your input is priceless. Thank you very much.

I didn't realize Free Market was so crippling. I even thought the penalty to Planet was a good thing!

So basically I should just go with Wealth and pick what instead of Free Market?

Also, I will remind you that I also consider playing the Free Drones. Do you have any other useful advice about them?

[Elok]

Mind you, I said militarily crippling. FM's police rating will not only keep you from suppressing riots, you won't even be able to take troops out of their cities without causing additional dissent. It basically turns you into a pacifist society. But lots of folks switch to free market in peacetime, when it's not so important to be able to field an army, then switch over to planned or green for war. Or to pop-boom up to their current limit, then switch back. Morgan's biggest advantage, IMO, is that he can get to +2 energy with wealth instead of FM. So he can fight and still keep the mad cash flowing in. The morale loss from wealth is manageable.

As to what to use instead, I guess that depends on your circumstances. Green's growth penalty won't matter much with Morgan's strict population caps, and the boost to efficiency will make your spread-out cities happy. Planned will be less useful, for the same reasons, but I could picture Planned plus Wealth making for some dirt-cheap production. Or just run FM and Wealth in peacetime and rack up the cash until someone picks a fight. Then send in probes to steal their soldiers or pay them off, whichever is easier. Honestly, I'd try everything and see what works for you. Advice from others can only take you so far, and a lot of the fun is in learning what strategy you like for yourself. As long as you start at a lower difficulty, you can make plenty of mistakes and still survive.

I've never played as the Drones--I don't have the expansion, just the original seven factions. I'm also far from an expert at SMAC, and I haven't played in ages, so don't take my words as gospel. Presently someone will come along and tell you everything I've told you is wrong.

[Lord Avalon]

When I play Morgan, I switch to Free Market when I discover the tech. +2 Economy is worth the penalties: you're going from +1 Energy per base to +1 Energy per square and +1 Commerce. The latter isn't that important right away, but the former meaning you grow and get extra EC for rushing is. With the free 10 minerals for a new base, you can rush a former right away. When Recycling Tanks reach 10, rush that (unless I need to switch to Wealth). If you need to fight, that extra cash can uprgrade your 1-1-x unit to something better at the front.

To me the Police penalty is more bothersome, as I like to explore, and that limits me to independent units or probe teams - well, and transports, too. But that's not so bad playing on a huge or large map - if you can expand your borders. The biggest pain is when a neighboring faction pushes your borders back, and suddenly you have a military unit that's now outside your territory, and it's in fungus and takes more time to get back inside. As for drone riots, build Rec Commons. And early on, you're trying to expand, so bases don't get too big. Then you've got the lower pop limit before Hab Complex, and you can build Virtual World, so Network Nodes act as Hologram Theaters.

As for the Planet penalty, meh. Eventually you'll get trance. And so much energy makes it worth it. Fungal pops are annoying, but increase a base's clean mineral limit, and I send extra formers to go clean it up.

[BlackCat]

Well, at first I created an account just so I could ask a few questions about the game. Then I realized the community was made of nice decent folks which led me to want to stay for a while longer.

Consequently, I figured I might as well create a nickname I actually like. I won't be using the other account from now on.

Speaking of which, is there a way to terminate the old account?

You should have PM'ed a moderator and asked for a name change - that is done routinely. Having two accounts you probably need some sweet talking to get your accounts merged - probably something like talking Miriam out of religion

Maybe you should spend some time reading here

[Morgan Everett]

If I get +3 to Efficiency, is it enough to avoid losses of energy if I make tons of small bases to benefit from a +3 economy?

[Morgan Everett]

You should have PM'ed a moderator and asked for a name change - that is done routinely. Having two accounts you probably need some sweet talking to get your accounts merged - probably something like talking Miriam out of religion

Maybe you should spend some time reading here

I'm sorry, I had no idea this was possible.

[Lorizael]

I'm sorry, I had no idea this was possible.

Don't worry about it. It's not really a big deal. Your old account can be shut down and we'll all pretend this never happened.

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

We really like having you around, BTW, Morgan.

[Lord Avalon]

If I get +3 to Efficiency, is it enough to avoid losses of energy if I make tons of small bases to benefit from a +3 economy?

Just what do you mean by "tons"? I don't worry that much about Efficiency for Morgan. I don't even switch to Democracy while expanding, because I really want those free minerals (until a time when I have "enough" formers and some free production capacity to build a garrison unit to rehome in the new base). If I see a base with a penalty, I build a Children's Creche. If you're really bothered that you're not raking in as much cash as possible with Free Market & Wealth, then Democracy gives you +2 Efficiency. Green gives another +2, but what good is being more efficient if your EC/turn drops? (At least I think it would.)

Of course, maybe you want to go invade somebody, so that's a reason not to be in Free Market.

[Elok]

See? Very next post disagreed with me

Experiment, mon ami. See what works. +3 to efficiency is actually pretty sweet, but whether it will work or not depends on how far you expand.

[Morgan Everett]

Thanks guys.

By 'tons of' I meant bases of size four with as less space as possible between them along with thermal boreholes and condensers, so I have massive amounts of energy to allocate.

If I understand correctly, the more bases I have and they more inefficient they'll be, also if a base is far from my headquarters then it will be even more inefficient. Correct?

[Lord Avalon]

You need to learn the bureaucracy limit for the difficulty and size of map you're playing. Expand to that many bases and then prepare for the next expansion.

Yes, distance is a factor, but Children's Creches offset that penalty. If you're playing on a really big map, eventually you'll have (conquer) bases that are too far away for even a Creche to make profitable, but those bases will just be focused on producing stuff, not economy or labs.

Personally, I wouldn't worry too much about advanced terraforming early on. You can't take full advantage due to resource restrictions, and they take a really long time. I recommend doing basic terraforming (and not doing much more than you can work), and doing some for new bases so they get a head start.

[551262]

Although I've said it before, I'll say it again, you would gain much insight by playing the other factions a bit once you get a handle on the game. Each has peculiar nuances that can train you for specifics, such as how to properly Golden Age - pop boom, which you need to know how to do with Morgan because he can't run Planned. And the easiest faction to get every base into a golden age is -- yes, Lal. He can pop boom the normal way, which is more than 2 extra nutrients/turn coming in the door, Democracy, Planned and a Children's Creche. But if you practice golden age pop booming with him it will substantially benefit your Morganite leanings because pop booming is critical to putting your faction might on the fast-track. First learn the conventional method so you know how it works, then work on the GA method until you've perfected it. A large part of successful pop-booming is timing and setup.

He's also a really good faction to learn ICS (Infinite City Sprawl) which a Morganite usually depends on heavily because of his size 4 base problem. Spread yourself over your area, sort out future drone problems, hit your pop boom, and you should be in the stratosphere. Specialists work wonders in this model, especially once you get Engineers.

[Morgan Everett]

No way I'm playing Lal, I hate everything about this guy.

That being said, I'm not against trying out the Spartans. Some of you have expressed it was a good choice for a beginner.

By the way, does +2 in Morale serve only defense of both defense and attack?

In the Alpha Centauri Wiki there are no mentions of an attack bonus like Miriam for the Spartans.

[Elok]

The Spartans can pop-boom reasonably well, yes. Their police rating helps a bit there. I would also suggest Deirdre; she's not as straightforward as Lal, but her penalties are relatively mild and manageable IMO. Morale affects both offense and defense. Plus it boosts psi combat (where Miriam is weak, because of her Planet penalty), and if you get a unit up to elite, it gets an extra movement point, so your infantry move as fast as rovers.

EDIT: If you try each of the original seven, you'll get a feel for managing pretty much every aspect of the game. Zak will teach you about handling drones, Yang will show you how to budget, etc.