alpha centauri

Enforcer Talen · Post by **Enforcer Talen** » 2003-07-07 01:10am

I had all my cities build habs and research facilities, and when I learned how to make cloning bays, I had most everyone stockpile and rushed it in 5 turns. now most of my cities are in the 7-10 range, and as I doubled trade, earning 20 or so commerce points. my strategy is flipping between max wealth and fastest research, so that I can learn about projects quickly, then rush build them. its working moderately well, though Im having to fight off increasingly numerious invasions of believers and mindworms with my helicopters.

I hope to get transcendence by 2050 - 28 turns. I havent cracked eudammonia yet, so I dunno.

my wish is that the believers make a truce for that time - Id give them a tech or two if they did. the sky high commerce would be more then worth it.

Enforcer Talen · Post by **Enforcer Talen** » 2003-07-07 02:58pm

all this production caused a brief global warming, so I rushed built domes in every city. it wasnt a worry, tho, cuz I later launched a solar shade, and began the creation of an UBER-CONTINENT!!

fun times. over the next 40 turns, every island connected.

so I was off building lots of little wonders and labs and things, and I made a truce with the believers. I didnt expect it to last long, so I also built two fusion bombs, and held them next to their best cities.

in the meantime, I build my super science city. population 13, network node, fusion lab, biology lab, nanohospital, quantom lab, research hospital, network backbone, supercollider, and theory of everything. all of these were made under 5 turns each, and this city earns me 650 research a turn. this gives me a new discovery *every* turn.

sometime after I build my ssc, I had it built whatever was left - which included aerospace complex. when I checked the city afterwards, I saw 2 new buildings, and my reaction was: oooooo.

since I didnt need to build any more research buildings anywhere, I had them all switch to aerospace, and I began my vast expansion into space. within 10 turns, I was chomping out half a dozen sattelites a year. last I checked, I had over 70, and Im sure its higher by now.

space elevator just added to the yummy goodness.

oh, and believers landed troops, and I rearanged my garrisons in preperation. they declared war some turns later, and destroyed some roads. I called sparta and un, both my slaves, and they agreed to cancel the un charter. I then lob two fusion bombs at believers, taking out their highest population centers and a wonder.

they are unhappy.

I also put all of 10% of my national effort into attacking them - one city makes worms of chiron. I brought up one garrison air unit, and have begun my way into believer territory. Ive taken 4 cities, and Im barely trying.

I also have one city building a singularity bomb every 6 turns. the first one went to the believers best territory, their conquered university lands.

they lost 30 population with that one.

so Im merrily skipping along, slaughtering beleivers on a grandscale (I hope to top a million soon), purging the infidels with the holy power of the atom - and almost my entire industry is pumping sattelites into space, or building hab centers, to go above population 13. Im earning 200 gold a turn, and building any wonder I like in under 5 turns. I research once a turn, and fast approaching is transcendece.

the year is 2374.

Enforcer Talen · Post by **Enforcer Talen** » 2003-07-07 06:30pm

over the course of the next six turns, I learned the transcedence tech, and got my sattelite count up to 110. all of my cities are 15+, and I finished age vaccine, bulk matter transmitter, self aware colony, telepathic matrix, and singularity inducter. I also took another 3 believer cities, and gave all 7 of them to the u.n. my commerce is some cities is near 60.

the places that werent building wonders stockpiled, or spwanred demon boils to fight off incursions of the planet. havent lost a city. with the matrix I have no drone riots, so I have put my economy at 100% taxes - I still learn every 5 turns, with no percentage in it. I currently have 11000 gold and bought voice of planet in one turn. I earn 4000 a turn.

I also launched another singularity at the oldest believer cities, killing 5 of them. believers are now in 3rd of 4th place, and un smells blood in the water.

when my turn starts up again, I shall start transcedence, and spend 15000 if I have to to get it in one turn. in my last transcendece game, I got it for 10000, so Im not too worried. my one complaint is that it freezes during the believers turn. Im trying to figure out whats wrong.

Enforcer Talen · Post by **Enforcer Talen** » 2003-07-08 12:43pm

<fly>help meeee </fly>

I havent spilled anything, downloaded anything, unplugged anything, Ive cleared out old saved files for space, and I dont register a virus.

any suggestions?

StarshipTitanic · Post by **StarshipTitanic** » 2003-07-08 01:17pm

copy the savegame and reinstall. If it doesn't work, the save got corrupted.

Enforcer Talen · Post by **Enforcer Talen** » 2003-07-08 07:18pm

oh dear.

Enforcer Talen · Post by **Enforcer Talen** » 2003-07-09 12:37am

nope, didnt work.

cool file tho. I should send it to you.

Enforcer Talen · Post by **Enforcer Talen** » 2003-07-09 11:45pm

Gothic J's Transcendent guide to Alpha Centauri, acting as Morgan.

I am unsure this will provide any vast insights to those who have played
habitually in the past, but it may add a few small ideas - or, perhaps,
teach someone who is just opening the cd case. Ive been playing fanatically
for some weeks now, and have found some rather useful concepts.

To play Morgan, of course, is to generally hold to a course of peace,
briefly interspersed by lightning strokes of war, in under some twenty
turns. This is caused by the incredibly useful bonuses of trade, which
only occur during peace.

If you wish to play a game of war for the majority of the game, play as
hive or believers - Morgan's bonuses, while useful in war, are not designed
for them. They are instead designed for the long peace, with a score or more
cities, each with burgeoning population.

As we look to Morgan's statistics, we find that he starts with 100 additional
credits, and that he can make a great deal of wealth quickly, and fortunes
can be conjured when allies are found. So what must be done for your own
sucess is to find allies - and for this, colony pods must be generated.

I generally find that cities are to be produced as quickly as possible,
with your first two cities making a garrison unit and pod. After this,
rushed built recycling tanks are mandatory. A few bonus resources in the
early game can have a great deal of difference, allowing more buildings
and units to be produced.

At this point, one should have three or four cities, guarded, with scouts
exploring about and activating unity pods. I personally reload the autosave
until I find something worthwhile. As this goes on, formers follow in their
wake. Generally, I order a former to build a road between cities (ctrl r)
until I have roads everywhere - then I automate them. As new cities appear
I extend the roads.

After your first cities build recycling tanks, have them build secret projects
- it scarcely matters which ones, as long as you keep the enemy from getting
them. Morgan is delightful for making a project monopoly - every game I play
now, I have 25-30 secret projects at the end. Some of these, of course,
are gained by conquest.

As your cities expand outwards, I recommend energy banks and network nodes,
after tanks, pods, and formers have been constructed. During this time, you
generally find a rival. As reputation has little importance in this game,
I make a treaty and gain trade, or just keep a quiet truce. A switch
from studying build to conquest is necessary.

Depending on the size of the map, one can find a rival when you each only
have 3 cities, or when you each have 10 - in the first case, you want to know
laser rovers: 2:1:2 - in the second, you'll want 4:2:1s. The reason for this
is time available for the conquest.

As you switch research, you'll also want all your cities, except the ones
making secret projects, to form your rovers - a strong advance force
can generally cripple an equal foe. At all times during the game, you will
want to spend 90% of your income on rushing projects, and putting all
possible effort into research while maintaining an income.

If your first contact is u.n, green, or university, I suggest attacking until
they beg to serve you. Accept, but only after you've taken any cities of
theirs that have produced projects. If instead they are hive or spartan,
one may want to exterminate them - if they are believers, you will *certainly*
want to exterminate them.

Continuing your expansion, you'll want to buy or threaten your way through the
rest of their cities, except one. This early in the game, you need as much
territory and population as possible. During the peace, I recommend democratic
green knowledge, though knowledge is often exchanged for wealth - sometimes
wealth learns faster. During war times, switch democratic to police state,
unless your sure your drones wont be a problem.

Moving right along - if you are the sole commander of your continent, talk
to your contacts and get world maps. Also, trade tech of the same level as often
as possible - this allows more projects to be procured. If you are not sole
commander, make it so.

Your next step will to make yourself council chairman - the increase in trade
is worth any price. Buy votes if you have to. Then, you will have to find
a trading partner. Using your new found maps, you will look for the three that
generally war with you - beleivers, hive, or spartans - and, if you are not at
war already, attack.

Conquering their islands is a relatively easy affair, particularly if you have
8:1:2 rovers backed by flight. I reccomend swarms of aircraft to clear enemy
garrisons, with rovers or paratroopers to claim the cities at speed - landing a
large force is an extensive affair, and sometimes simply not possible.

If you can produce Hives of Charon, you can do without a landing force altogether.
Helicopters are also extremely useful as a second wave - with low range, they
cannot attack across oceans, but once a beachhead is established, they can hit
a city nearby repeatedly in a turn.

Now for the fun bit - in the territories you take over, away from your home
continent, give away free to your loyal slave allies. This will bring your trade
up to astonishing levels. Be sure to keep any cities that have wonders - there
is no need for an ally to have them.

About this time, half the players have been eliminated. Gaining the vote for
doubling trade is quite easy, and then your cities will truly glitter. Your
next objective, after shutting down the warmachine (disbanding most troops,
having cities stop making troops, researching build), will be to make sure
hab complexes are made in all cities. This goes with the project cloning bay -
having effective trade and population boom means you can triple your population
across the board. Increasing psych rate is also recommended.

A personal hobby of mine is to find the city with the most research, and put
all research related buildings in it - supercollider, network backbone, planetary
datalinks, theory of everything, biology lab, fusion lab, nanohospital, network
node, quantum lab, and research hospital. With the income you will be getting
at this time, its relatively easy to build each of them in 2-4 turns.

If you are at war, its not really profitable to send out grand armies any more.
I generally ask my allies to disband the u.n. charter and I launch 2 or 3
singularity missiles. That tends to quiet down the enemy - asking an ally to finish
them off works as well.

Make sure the missiles are clean, however. We do not wish to offend the plants.

The super science city, listed above, generally brings your research to a discovery
every 2-3 turns, and you want to hasten it. Building labs in all cities works
for a while, but I find its rather hard to build all of them - its an extensive list,
as seen above.

Instead, I begin a massive invasion of space - build an aerospace complex in every
major city, and then have all of them make sky hydroponics, nessus mining stations,
orbital power transmitters, and a dozen or so defense pods. Its unlikely your enemies
will have the resources to launch nukes, but one never knows. Once your industry
gets going, half a dozen new orbitals a turn is not unlikely.

And then your cities will truly boom. Space Elevator is a must.

Around this time, as every city sends up orbitals, you will want to make larger
garrisons - the plants will be getting fiesty. Also, if you havent already, switch
to cybernetic or eudaemonic - it will add to your growth.

It will be around the end phases of the game when you make Telepathic Matrix -
learning as quickly as you do, its almost certain you'll have several projects
building at once - have your fastest producer put Voice of Planet in its queue,
and when the Matrix is complete, put luxuries into money. When you learn
Voice of Planet, put all sciences in it as well.

Due to the simply horrendous amounts of plants that begin to attack at this time,
you'll want to finish transcendence as quickly as possible. Its also good for bonus
points. So put all your cities not making wonders into stockpiling. In my current
game, I have population 500, most cities at +60 trade, with 100% in economy.
This means Im earning 5000 energy a turn, and still researching 1 discovery in 5 turns.
Its quite easy to get into the 10,000 range with this strategy.

Then you rush built voice of planet, have it start transcedence, and rush built it
as well. It will cost a dozen thousand, roughly, which wont be a problem.

And then, victoly.

gravity · Post by **gravity** » 2003-07-13 10:49am

The best terrain improvement for most tiles is Forest. Once you get the forest-boosting structure in your bases, they are pretty much perfect, though in the early game you'll need to use supply crawlers (and maybe 1 or 2 farms) to get enough food.
Also, supply crawlers are probably the single most useful unit in the game (other than maybe formers). Make a lot and get them to bring back minerals (particularly from Boreholes, which can be built outside your city radii in order to avoid pollution), boosting your bases' production massively.

gravity · Post by **gravity** » 2003-07-13 11:05am

Also, once you have built Children's Creches's in most of your cities, you can switch to Democratic and Plannet for a few turns, getting +6 growth and undergoing a population boom, where your cities will grow by 1 each turn as long as there is excess food. This works best when you have forests in most city squares, as well as tree farms in your bases. This can easily catapult you ahead of all the AI factions even on Transcend. It's easiest to do with the Peacekeepers, as they have a higher population limit before needing hab complexes.

Enforcer Talen · Post by **Enforcer Talen** » 2003-07-17 03:32am

how does that compare to cloning bays?

hm.

so I started a thinker game, the level below transcend. average map, cuz my comp isnt the best, and spazzed out on large. morgan, again.

Im on a major continent, un to the north, sparta to the south. I spread out quickly, planting 3 or 4 cities by 2030. my roads start connecting, and at one point in the game, I had my rover at the u.n's ungaurded city. I was tempted to wipe them out, but I decided trade was more important. so I have a peace treaty, and have been trading for sometime.

in the meantime, Ive been paying off sparta not to attack. they started as unsurpassed, and I ph34r3d. but as the game went along, they went to anemic - I got a map of their's, and they had two cities to my 5. I kept producing colony pods, and sparta kept probing my border - had 2 colony pods in my territory, and a rover outside my base.

so, I slaughtered them all.

they didnt do much for some 20 turns, and I built up 5 wonders - which would have been completed before the turn of the century, giving me an unassailable advantage. but during those 20 turns, sparta build 4-2-1s, two of them, and headed into my territory. Im losing cities at an alarming rate, cuz my defenders are 1-2-1.

I have a winner here, but I need to tweak it some. I think I shall reload some 10 turns before, and research military, as well as build 2 less wonders. rush build some 4-2-1s, knock out sparta, and continue as usual.

Archaic` · Post by **Archaic`** » 2003-07-17 06:46am

Enforcer Talen wrote:how does that compare to cloning bays?

You can do it reasonably early in the game for starters, impossible for the Vats.

Slartibartfast · Post by **Slartibartfast** » 2003-07-17 06:41pm

Unlike Civilization, there are actual BORDERS in this game. Use them (bitch to your enemies every time they cross them). Other than that, just find a style that you like - expansion, conquest, whatever. Just having very few large cities doesn't pay. And always make a shitload of caravans (don't remember what they're called) to help build "wonders". If a city doesn't have anything to produce, just stockpile caravans until you get that discovery for a new wonder. Some times I have a dozen or so caravans ready and I make a wonder in a single turn

Enforcer Talen · Post by **Enforcer Talen** » 2003-07-17 08:56pm

there are caravans in alpha

me, I just make pacts, large profts, and rush build projects.

Vendetta · Post by **Vendetta** » 2003-07-17 09:13pm

I never nuke wonders.

Never I tell you.

If, by some unhappy chance the enemy manage to build one, I'll charge in a ninja-grade probe team or several and buy their entire city from them.

Slartibartfast · Post by **Slartibartfast** » 2003-07-17 11:55pm

Enforcer Talen wrote:there are caravans in alpha

me, I just make pacts, large profts, and rush build projects.

I think they're called "freighters"...

Enforcer Talen · Post by **Enforcer Talen** » 2003-07-18 02:21am

dont think Ive seen them.

Ive decided Im going to restart, with a quick early conquest in mind. sparta is annoying me. and u.n. keeps sending spies.

mental note - no more then half your cities make wonders at a time.

gravity · Post by **gravity** » 2003-07-19 10:19am

Slartibartfast wrote:
Enforcer Talen wrote:there are caravans in alpha

me, I just make pacts, large profts, and rush build projects.
I think they're called "freighters"...

Supply Crawlers, which are, as I said, probably the most useful unit in the game besides Formers.

Enforcer Talen · Post by **Enforcer Talen** » 2003-07-21 02:43am

how you think recycling tanks would work irl?

SirNitram · Post by **SirNitram** » 2003-07-21 02:50am

Enforcer Talen wrote:how you think recycling tanks would work irl?

Thermal Depolymerization, I'd guess.

Enforcer Talen · Post by **Enforcer Talen** » 2003-07-21 04:56am

which means?

and, how would they help a city?

SirNitram · Post by **SirNitram** » 2003-07-21 01:42pm

Enforcer Talen wrote:which means?

and, how would they help a city?

It's a method that breaks down almost all kinds of waste into oil and industrial products. V. useful.

Enforcer Talen · Post by **Enforcer Talen** » 2003-09-03 10:59am

Enforcer Talen wrote:dont think Ive seen them.

Ive decided Im going to restart, with a quick early conquest in mind. sparta is annoying me. and u.n. keeps sending spies.

mental note - no more then half your cities make wonders at a time.

so I restarted, same map, me on a large continent with un to the north and sparta to the south. I start with 2 colony pods and a scout 1-1-1.

in one of the funniest beginning rounds Ive ever played, I found a resource pod right outside my starting point. my scout activated it, and I got a scout rover. 1-1-2. I sent him sprinting up north, found the u.n. capital emptied, and promptly rolled in. un falls, 7 turns after opening.

I sent the rover south, hoping for a similar slice with sparta, as I sprout another city and order 2 colony pods built. sparta has a strong garrison, so I trade some tech, move my rover 4 spaces away, and build another 2 cities, both close to sparta. they challenged me on it, I said go to hell, and they declared war. they were trapped on a penninsula with only one city, and I had 4, so they made no attacks as I built up my rovers. I sent 3 in as soon as I had them, 2-2-1s, and sparta fell.

I had a grand sigh of relief, having conquered my continent, beginning a road network, dismantling my military. then a gaian trooper walked outside one of my major cities and declared war. I went

anyway, I killed him, and as gaia is on another continent, Im not having much trouble. I have a much higher war tech then she does, even if she does have 2x the population. so at the moment Im fighting off hordes of worms and sending out colony pods. the yr is 2075 and I have two nation kills and one secret project - human genome.

next goal - green economy. the plants are far too hostile for my taste during free market.

Embracer Of Darkness · Post by **Embracer Of Darkness** » 2003-09-03 11:53am

Talen, It was cool to see this thread again.

On the social engineering stuff, I tend to go for green police-state ASAP.

Enforcer Talen · Post by **Enforcer Talen** » 2003-09-03 08:38pm

=^_^= I like this thread.

and I go green police state only during a long war, which is infrequent. most wars last 20- turns.

at the moment, Im in the yr 2215, 8 cities, population 2-4 each. Im using a freemarket democratic wealth at the moment, which is nice, but I keep getting mauled by worm things. its keeping me in stasis as I replace my garrisons, and the other nations are expanding. I've killed 2 empires, but they havent had any wars at all, so have had time for domestic expansion.

my hope is to get green policy soon. then I can make peace with gaia (I have a truce) and possibly get the number for university. I need trade to thrive, and the little bugs will stop attacking me. feels a little uncomfy at the moment though.

apparently gaia and university are both on my continent - its shaped like an 'n', me on left leg, they on right, and worms on the bridge. they have higher miltech, too, so I cant attack them just yet.

amusing thing - beleivers and hive is on the same continent, each with 40+ troop icons. I cant wait for htem to go to war.