New guy, help!

[Dhard]

So, I am just starting to play this game. I have read many of these posts. and have learned a ton. But, I am a visual learner, and reading text does not quite click. So, I was wondering if anyone has a youtube(or something similar) instructional video from an expert player. What is on there now, are people who have no clue how to play this game. I would love to see how an expert thinks. Thanks in advance.

[Dhard]

Ok, so I see a bunch of people have looked at this post and have said nothing. Even if someone tells me to get lost, that would be more appreciated than being ignored.

[Dhard]

Ok, if I did something that was against the etiquette of this forum, can some one please educate me?

[Aeson]

You haven't done anything wrong. It's just a very quiet forum these days. I don't know of any good SMAC instructional videos, though there may be some. Most of us learned to play SMAC long before there was a YouTube.

[Dhard]

Thank you for the reply. If I may, I will try another tactic. I have been trying out the ICS builder early game, with Morgan. I am making many mistakes, but I do not know what. I think it has something to do with the timing. I do not know when to build what, or when to switch from forests to farms/condensers and boreholes. Then, there is the drone problem. It may be do to the fact that I am going beyond the first bureaucracy warning. But, then again, I really have no clue. So, with these specific questions to be answered, I hope that I will get more of a response. If not, I will change tactics again.

[Petek]

Hi Dhard,

I don't usually play as Morgan, so I don't have any tips for how to play him. You might check out Vel's Gude though. He gives some specific tips for Morgan. Apolyton member CEO Aaron specializes in playing Morgan and had posted lots of advice here on how to do so. However, I'm having trouble searching for his posts at the moment. Perhaps he'll show up and offer some advice. Morgan is usually considered to be one of the more difficult factions to play. You also should look at the SMAC Academy. Some of its articles contain useful advice. Drone control is a complex subject. In the early game, just convert citizens to doctors. Build Rec Commons and, if possible, the Human Genome Project and the Virtual World. Both of those Secret Projects will help to keep your drones under control. Hope this helps.

[Dhard]

Petek, thank you for the info. However, I have read Vel's guide extensively, read the articles the academy provides(as well as the forum posts on each article), the drone problem hits well before I even think about getting any SP's, have read everything I can find that CEO Aaron has posted, and I understand that Morgan is the trickiest to play. But, I figure, if I can figure him out, then the rest will be cake. I guess, what I am asking for is to watch, when a player such as yourself, decides to do whatever it is you do. I have enjoyed your posts for quite some time, learned a lot from you, and was hoping to learn a bit more. If you could record a video playing a quick game, it surely will help more than just me. I realize I am asking for much more than I am entitled. But, you get nothing you don't ask for.

[Petek]

Sorry, but I don't know how to record a game and have no desire to learn how to do so. Some questions:

1. Do you play SMAC or SMAX?
2. What difficulty level?
3. Blind or directed research?
4. Map size?
5. Do you run Free Market when able to do so?

[Dhard]

1. I play SMAX
2. Transcend
3. Directed
4. Standard
5. I have tried them all. With FM, I do a 40% econ, 50% labs, 10% psych

[Petek]

You might be able to increase Psych to 20% while decreasing Econ to 30% and still show a profit (while running Free Market). That should help with your drones. Also, Morgan doesn't have to run FM, since merely running Wealth gives him +2 Econ, with all the attendant advantages and none of the FM disadvantages. You also should be beelining for Industrial Automation, not only for Crawlers and Wealth, but also for Hab Complexes. I'm not sure how many other tips I can provide, since you already seem to know a lot about the game. Do you understand how ecodamage works and how to control it? I play almost exclusively on maps much larger than huge, so the strategies that I employ may not be suitable for smaller maps. (In fact, almost any strategy works on such big maps since the AI doesn't adapt its play.)

I'd be glad to try and answer specific questions.

[Dhard]

I tried all of the economies, but since I am beelining for IA, the first I get is FM. I prefer Green, to help control growth, when I get democracy. The problem I have is when I am using the ICS strategy, I get to 6 bases(the first bureaucracy warning) in a hurry, and have come no where near to filling up even a small continent. So, my timing on when I go from the RT-colony pod build order, to a more infrastructure-centric build order, is off. So, I don't know how to continue my thin expansion, and combat drones. As far as ecodamage goes, I am not having an issue with that. I do know how to increase the limit, too.The real issue is the thin expansion problem. Any suggestions will be attempted.

P.S. Thank you for responding, period. I was hoping to have all of the big names I have studied here would jump all over this, but so far, you and Aeson, are the only ones who have appeared. I wanted you to know that I appreciate it.

[Petek]

You can always increase the bureaucracy limit by increasing your efficiency (run Demo and/or Green). At +2 eff., the base limit increases to 9 and at +4 it's 12.

[gwillybj]

Two excellent resources I know of are Vel's strategy guides and (since you play Morgan) CEO Aaron's brain.
http://apolyton.net/showthread.php/7...de-Version-2-0 is Vel's SMAC guide. He did a SMAX guide, too, but I don't know where to find it.

[Dhard]

Petek, My main drone issue occurs before I get to ethical calculus, so democracy is not accessible at that point, nor is green, or knowledge(but I would not run it even if I could). The ability to increase my efficiency is just not available. I assume this is some kind of timing issue, that I need to stop expanding for a few turns to build some infrastructure. But, this leads to me losing my turn advantage, I think.

gwillybj, I have read Vel's guide. Both of them, actually. I would love to pick CEO Aaron's brain. Honestly, this thread was to get his attention. I mean no offense to Aeson, Petek, or yourself, but everyone seems to agree that he is the Morgan authority. So, if you have a way of getting him here, that would be amazing.

[Dhard]

Since it has been more than 2 days since my last post, I am going to try to get some attention. Unfortunately, I am not the youngest in my family, and am not used to throwing a tantrum to get it. So, please, bear with me. WAAAAAAAH, CEO Aaron, HELP!