alpha centarui terraforming

[Stormbringer]

whats the bonus for aquifiers?

Bonus energy from hydroelectricity.

Plus they improve the moisture content increasing food production in the surrounding squares. Not entirely as good as condensors but worthwhile.

[Stormbringer]

Build the best level of argiculture you can in non-rocky squares, shift wind and rain patterns to your advantage with condensors and raise/lower terrain.

Also add Solar collectors grouped around an Echelon mirror in all the non-rocky squares.

Eradicate fungus when ever possible and build boreholes on rocky squares you can and mine where you can't build a borehole.

Drill to aquifers at the tops of hills, preferably where you can divert it down a valley to a base.

That's a pretty good guide to developing a continent.

Oh, and if you can build sensors on every other square just outside your base radius, it helps to up the defense. Then just plant a lot of forest outside, it gives a small defensive bonus and helps prevent eco-damage.

ye gods. I was thinking I was doing pretty good with forests spreading naturally, me planting farms/condensors, the occasional mine or borehole, and maglines everywhere.

That's my over all plans, it doesn't usually come to total fruition at my smaller bases.

[Archaic`]

so, just boreholes, mines, and forests?

are radar stations and bunkers worth while?

I build a lot of farms. The agriculutural improvement give you a bonus to food production which can really help.

In the early game, sure, but come Tree Farms (And Hybrids) and they're practically useless beyond squares you'll be developing to Farm/Enricher/Condensor and crawling for Nuts.

[Stofsk]

*snip*

Can you make a screenshot of your base's layout? Just to give me a visual idea of where you set them up and how it looks.

[Enforcer Talen]

how would I do that? Ive got a continent Id love to share.

[The Cleric]

PrntScr button. Paste into Paint, save, host, and post.

[Enforcer Talen]

wheres the printscr button?

[Stormbringer]

upper right.

[Enforcer Talen]

. . . where.

[Stofsk]

Look real hard at your keyboard.

[Archaic`]

*snip*

Can you make a screenshot of your base's layout? Just to give me a visual idea of where you set them up and how it looks.

Sure thing. This one's a bit old, but I deleted most of my old save games from my HDD ages ago, so I had to pull down this old terraforming comparison game I posted at Civgaming. If you want the save, just tell me where to email it.

Screenshot

[CaptainChewbacca]

*snip*

Can you make a screenshot of your base's layout? Just to give me a visual idea of where you set them up and how it looks.

Sure thing. This one's a bit old, but I deleted most of my old save games from my HDD ages ago, so I had to pull down this old terraforming comparison game I posted at Civgaming. If you want the save, just tell me where to email it.

Screenshot

How...do...you...do that?

[Archaic`]

...what, Ascend in 2214 on Transcend Difficulty you mean? Or is it the 10000 credits a turn? (Actually, that one's only because of the 100% in Economy. I'd finished researching all the techs a few turns previous, so I needed the cash)

It's not all that hard really, once you learn the basics. Crawlers, crawlers and more crawlers. They're really the most broken unit in the game. Once you know how to use them properly, it really becomes all too easy. To the point of where many MP games are decided by who can launch suicide attack Choppers (With their wonderful ability to attack many times in one turn) at the enemy's Crawlers.
EDIT: Speaking of which, maybe I should've posted a picture of an earlier turn, if I wanted to show just how much I rely on Crawlers. By this turn, I've already used most of the Crawlers to rush the final projects.

In any case, like I said before, this game's old. I'm a lot better than that now...and there's a lot of people out there who can easily trounce me too. If you think this is extreme as far as base placement goes, you should see some of the other games out there on 'Poly recently. I don't even know how they can manage having bases packed more densely than this.

[Stofsk]

Can you make a screenshot of your base's layout? Just to give me a visual idea of where you set them up and how it looks.

Sure thing...

Dear god! That's obscene!

How...do...you...do that?

Archaic` worships the devil. It's the only rational explanation.

[Archaic`]

Can you make a screenshot of your base's layout? Just to give me a visual idea of where you set them up and how it looks.

Sure thing...

Dear god! That's obscene!

I'll take that as a compliment.

Archaic` worships the devil. It's the only rational explanation.

That reminds me...
*Makes a mental note to ask an Admin around here to fix up the mistype in his s/n one of these days*

[StarshipTitanic]

Why so few roads? Doesn't that make it hard to move units from one side to the other?

[Enforcer Talen]

what, thats a real date? jesus h christ. .

I was feeling cocky for transcending on thinker level in 2363, as well as getting 4k gold a round.

plz, details on your strategy.

[Archaic`]

Why so few roads? Doesn't that make it hard to move units from one side to the other?

I was focusing my efforts more towards raising land, since the start in that game was on a rather small island. About 1/3 of the bases I built were on that reclaimed land.

Still though, I probably wouldn't have done more than simply upgrade those roads to Mags anyway. So long as the bases are connected to the bases at its N/S/E/W compass points, there's not that much use for more.

what, thats a real date? jesus h christ. .

I was feeling cocky for transcending on thinker level in 2363, as well as getting 4k gold a round.

plz, details on your strategy.

Well, I'll try, but forgive me if I start to ramble. My strategy's not anything that special really. A better teacher would be Vel's guide, if you can find a version of that lying around somewhere (I have a copy of the V3, but since he actually went and got the subsequent version published, I probably shouldn't be flinging it around), or even better, just read the Apolyton or Civgaming Forums, or the Civgaming SMAC Adacamy pages.

Anyway...Beeline for Industrial Automation (Going into Free Market ASAP), then Tree Farms (Going into a 40/20/40 allocation sometime around here, along with going into Democracy and building CC's, to get a permanent Pop Boom in all bases that maintain their Golden Ages), then MMI (Picking up the Planetary Energy Grid from Adaptic Economics, and Genejacks from Retroviral Engineering along the way). After that, work your way to Sats, picking up Hybrid Forests if you haven't already, making sure to build the Cloudbase Acadamy and using Drop Pods to send Colony Pods further and further afield. Build 16 Food Sats ASAP, and continue your development, building every facility as it becomes available.

As far as base production goes, besides 2 formers (1 as the first build, one after the first Colony Pod) and however many Colony Pods (Usually at least 2 from each base in the beginning), the bases don't produce many more units unless I come under attack or lose my independant units (Starting scouts and discovered rovers/foils), with the exception of occasional foil probe teams, and of course the massive numbers of Crawlers (Which are more an investment on infrastructure than a unit really).

In that game above, my crawlers were pulling minerals and nuts the entire game, but really, you'd be better off switching most of those minerals to energy following Genejacks, or even after Tree Farms if your economy is well enough developed.

In Diplomacy, I find it pays off to be a nice guy, but it's not absolutly necessary. That game doesn't really show it, but the commerce levels I tend to reach thesedays are considered freakishly high by the other players at Apolyton, and most people would probably build a lot more military (The "George Bush Jr." style I've heard it called), increasing their empire by conquest rather than simply building more bases. In any case, the drawbacks with my method (It needing a lot of tech trading for starters, since that can disrupt beelines and increase tech costs)can be a little hard to manage, so you might be better off going for the military approach, especially if you want to play MP. "Chop & Drop" is the standard strategy, and nothing's really nerfed that for years outside of people modding the game rules for the matches to prevent it.

[Enforcer Talen]

I dotn have the expansion pack. is cloudbase absolutely necessary?

I started playing smac with massive conquests, but am looking more into 10 or so cities with lots of terraforming. more fun that way.

my strategy looks similar to yours, but no crawlers. I get freemarket, human genome, weather paradigm, the 4-1-2 rovers, hab complexes, needlejets, hab domes, cloning bays, and voice of planet.

can the two strategies be weaved together? I dont have a tech chart on hand.

in my last game, I had enough colony pods to take the continent, and 2-3 formers per. boreholes, forests, tree farms, and hybrid forests were fun. do boreholes need to be on rocky terrian?

do I need planned economy for permenant popboom? I prefer playing morgan. . .

on transcend, are the computer players always so hostile? I can never manage a trade pact with them till I conquer them.

when were you producing crawlers?

[Archaic`]

I dotn have the expansion pack. is cloudbase absolutely necessary?

No, it just helps a lot. Instead, you'd just have to rush an Aerospace Complex fairly early in each new city's life after you get Sats.

I started playing smac with massive conquests, but am looking more into 10 or so cities with lots of terraforming. more fun that way.

my strategy looks similar to yours, but no crawlers. I get freemarket, human genome, weather paradigm, the 4-1-2 rovers, hab complexes, needlejets, hab domes, cloning bays, and voice of planet.

can the two strategies be weaved together? I dont have a tech chart on hand.

I don't see why not, though I'm not sure what the result would be. Was that your order of beelines? Seems rather late to be getting Industrial Automation, when the Wealth SE choice is so useful, not to mention Crawlers. Unless you're playing a Momentum game, getting to Impact Rovers first isn't so important.

in my last game, I had enough colony pods to take the continent, and 2-3 formers per. boreholes, forests, tree farms, and hybrid forests were fun. do boreholes need to be on rocky terrian?

Nope. They can go anywhere that doesn't have too high an elevation compared to its neighbouring tiles. Just lower land once on any tile to make it suitable for a Borehole, if you get the "cannot build borehole" message.

do I need planned economy for permenant popboom? I prefer playing morgan. . .

Ah...that might be a problem. Have you installed the XP compatability patch? Without that, there's a bug in regular SMAC that prevents pop booming with Golden Ages like I did in my strategy.

on transcend, are the computer players always so hostile? I can never manage a trade pact with them till I conquer them.

Well, they're certainly more agressive than they are in the lower difficulty settings, but it's far from impossible to get them to deal nicely with you. Of course, since a lot of that is based on the power graph, I suspect they're looking at you as much easier pickings than they generally look at me, which would make a lot of difference. Though then again, I tend to fix my treaties with them all at the first contact, then just work towards maintaining those throughout the game, which is a lot easier than trying to establish one later on, when they've already had a long time to start resenting your power or SE choices.

when were you producing crawlers?

From as soon as I got Industrial Automation, which is generally around 2115.

[Enforcer Talen]

I dotn have the expansion pack. is cloudbase absolutely necessary?

No, it just helps a lot. Instead, you'd just have to rush an Aerospace Complex fairly early in each new city's life after you get Sats.

I started playing smac with massive conquests, but am looking more into 10 or so cities with lots of terraforming. more fun that way.

my strategy looks similar to yours, but no crawlers. I get freemarket, human genome, weather paradigm, the 4-1-2 rovers, hab complexes, needlejets, hab domes, cloning bays, and voice of planet.

can the two strategies be weaved together? I dont have a tech chart on hand.

I don't see why not, though I'm not sure what the result would be. Was that your order of beelines? Seems rather late to be getting Industrial Automation, when the Wealth SE choice is so useful, not to mention Crawlers. Unless you're playing a Momentum game, getting to Impact Rovers first isn't so important.

in my last game, I had enough colony pods to take the continent, and 2-3 formers per. boreholes, forests, tree farms, and hybrid forests were fun. do boreholes need to be on rocky terrian?

Nope. They can go anywhere that doesn't have too high an elevation compared to its neighbouring tiles. Just lower land once on any tile to make it suitable for a Borehole, if you get the "cannot build borehole" message.

do I need planned economy for permenant popboom? I prefer playing morgan. . .

Ah...that might be a problem. Have you installed the XP compatability patch? Without that, there's a bug in regular SMAC that prevents pop booming with Golden Ages like I did in my strategy.

on transcend, are the computer players always so hostile? I can never manage a trade pact with them till I conquer them.

Well, they're certainly more agressive than they are in the lower difficulty settings, but it's far from impossible to get them to deal nicely with you. Of course, since a lot of that is based on the power graph, I suspect they're looking at you as much easier pickings than they generally look at me, which would make a lot of difference. Though then again, I tend to fix my treaties with them all at the first contact, then just work towards maintaining those throughout the game, which is a lot easier than trying to establish one later on, when they've already had a long time to start resenting your power or SE choices.

when were you producing crawlers?

From as soon as I got Industrial Automation, which is generally around 2115.

I get rovers as a prep against invasion. I hate building a neat little nation and being overwhelmed by fundies.

the aerospace complexes are to launch sattelites? they take a v lengthy time to build.

havent loaded any patches yet. do I need to?

for treaties, they are seething when we meet. and demanding stuff. I dont think I ever drop below 3rd most powerful, but still.

whats the limit on population? I was hoping to get pop99 in one of my games in one city, using nutriet sattelites and cloning bays, but it plateaued at 40.

[Archaic`]

I get rovers as a prep against invasion. I hate building a neat little nation and being overwhelmed by fundies.

What map size do you play? If it's huge, don't worry about it. I don't even build garrisons unless attacked, and I manage just fine. You will too.

the aerospace complexes are to launch sattelites? they take a v lengthy time to build.

Which is why you rush build. They're not to launch Sats though in those outlying bases, they're simply to get the maximum benifit from them. Without an Aerospace Complex, you only get 1/2 rounded down of the benifit you could be recieving.

havent loaded any patches yet. do I need to?

YES. If you don't already have it, get the V4 patch, then the XP Compatability update.

for treaties, they are seething when we meet. and demanding stuff. I dont think I ever drop below 3rd most powerful, but still.

You might be meeting them much later than I do (I tend to get the Empath Guild and meet most of them early that way), which would make things difficult. The fact you're not in the "unsurpassed" slot from the beginning right through to the end would also play a large part I suspect. The AI only suck up to the #1 and #2 players really.

whats the limit on population? I was hoping to get pop99 in one of my games in one city, using nutriet sattelites and cloning bays, but it plateaued at 40.

The limit for pop in one base is 127. Don't go above that whatever you do, or it'll wrap around and go back to 1. You need Crawlers to get that high obviously. To be honest though, such a high pop in one base is all but useless, except maybe in a SSC with all the one base projects loaded on, or in a OCC game.

[Spyder]

Ah, damnit. Now I want to play SMAC again. Hmm... to install SMACX or not to install SMACX...

[Archaic`]

Install SMAX, along with the XP Compatability patch. Even if you don't use it eventually, you want it for the bug fixes for SMAC at the very least.

[Enforcer Talen]

where do I find the patches?

I prefer large games, tho tiny maps and no water make for amusing stories.

empath guild is among my top 3 favorite projects. I just need to research faster to get it.