29-04-2004 01:13									#31
	Support Apolyton or Terrorists Win

Probably by far the easiest way to win, and my personal favorite, is economic. All you have to do is stockpile cash. Free market, and the planet is yours.

	29-04-2004 01:32									#32
	Increase Your PM Length

No way, diplomatic is by far the easiest. Just bribe them with tech to vote for you. I use diplomatic when I get tried of a game and want to end it in one turn.

	29-04-2004 05:44									#33
	Increase Your PM Length

Hey Livid, in which difficult you can bribe the AI with techs to make then vote for you for Diplomatic Victory? I think I have a lot to learn about diplomatic victory, because in transcend level the computer insists that "that matter is far too importante for me to change my opinion", no matter how many techs and / or EC´s I give to then!! oh go to hell that aI!

	29-04-2004 11:24									#34
	Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations

the computer never votes for me. But I'm stingy with my techs, and they seem to remember this.

	29-04-2004 11:30									#35
	Support Apolyton or Terrorists Win

Launch your fungal missiles Lady Hong!

Teach them that the Gaians aren't so pacifist as everyone thinks they are!

	29-04-2004 21:34									#36
	Full PM-box? Change here!

quote: Originally posted by Cosmic Hey Livid, in which difficult you can bribe the AI with techs to make then vote for you for Diplomatic Victory?

I most often play Thinker, but I have done diplomatic victories at Transcend as well. It usually involves 3 good techs, so you need to have a tech edge over the AI. Other tricks to diplomatic victory are give the AI all kind of goodies to pact with you. Then they will (usually) vote for you without bribes at the voting table. If you are afraid the AI will trade one of your tech away, then hold the bride off for the voting table and offer the techs at the same time to all. As usual, SE choices will have a lot to do with the AI voting for you. Pick SE that will put you in favor with the AI opponents which have the most votes and run for 10+ more years to give the AI time to warm up to you. And of course, more agressive factions will tend to never vote for you, but you dont need them all, just 75% of the votes.
You can also use ec to bride for votes, but the AI's demands just seems to scale with the amount of ec you have (one of my biggest irritations with AC) so bringing huge amount of cash to the table just means everyone will want more, so don't bother.
I admit, this is a lot harder to pull off in Transcend, but then again everything is harder to pull off in Transcend.

	30-04-2004 00:15									#37
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization: The Boardgame

quote: Originally posted by Frankychan Launch your fungal missiles Lady Hong! Teach them that the Gaians aren't so pacifist as everyone thinks they are!

You are in wrong faction Franky. You should come to us. There is a true Gaian spirit there.

	30-04-2004 04:29									#38
	Get a bigger avatar today!

I wonder if this poll result has changed with time. There seem to be very few momentum players playing SMAX now, whereas a few years ago there were many more. Certainly militaristically, chop and drop was invented ages ago, yet there seem to have been very few modifications/alterations to that, or indeed new strategies.

I wonder if SMAX MP is weaker for their loss. Perhaps they all got bored and went to play quake. Or I could be completely wrong...

C

	30-04-2004 04:59									#39
	Got spare money?

Funny, I got bored with FPSs and came back to SMAX.

Most of your war gamers probably did move on to other games with a more war focus. The people that stayed would likely have a more builder focus. There is no other game out there that emphises the builder side that way SMAX does. If all you are concerned with is fighting without having to think about crawlers, unit design or social engineering, you probably left for Civ3 long ago.

If you want to see more development on the military side, turn off the other victory conditions in MP games. Force a military solution.

	30-04-2004 05:49									#40
	Suffering from ads?

In MP SMAX, having a modest military is a great way to build. One 3 player game in particular, I was Zak and started with 1 human and 2 computer neighbors. I took advantage of my tech lead to steamroll my comp neighbors (Santiago and Yang) and then forced my human neighbor to give me some tech to help me jump right back into building. I maintained a military edge on him, ensuring my securiity, and ended up claiming every important late-game SP against two human opponents.

	30-04-2004 06:35									#41
	Inflate your Upload Space

Hey Livid thanks for the hints, I´ll make more efforts to put then in practice (because actually when the computer doesnt vote for me I just go there and buy the world or build the Ascent to Transcendence, to show my vengeance!)

	30-04-2004 14:54									#42
	Enter the AD-FREE zone

quote: I wonder if this poll result has changed with time. There seem to be very few momentum players playing SMAX now, whereas a few years ago there were many more. Certainly militaristically, chop and drop was invented ages ago, yet there seem to have been very few modifications/alterations to that, or indeed new strategies. I wonder if SMAX MP is weaker for their loss. Perhaps they all got bored and went to play quake. Or I could be completely wrong...

Chaunk!
Youre completely wrong!
SMAX offers much more adrenaline than Quake as it has way more opportunities!

And about that builder/momentum thing - If I play SP or MP TCP/IP I choose Momentum/Hybrid quite often, depending on my mood..
But PBEM kills that momentum mood!
Instead, I can think much more on build and research orders..
If fighting there's not much to think - few crawlers, chaos copter or whatever and gogogo! It relies more on instinct than building..

Who cares,Chaunk come in ICQ, search for binTravkin, schedule a game with me and see a REEEL Momentum!

	01-05-2004 01:33									#43
	Avatar Enlargement: We've got the solution

I'd love to, but alas, I haven't time to do an IP game. And in SP, I almost always play a momentum faction, purely because I build a lot. It increases the challenge...

Hows about a head to head PBEM to show me REEEL momentum? They have a completely different feel to a larger MP game... We could even do two, one momentum vs builder, the other builder vs momentum (If that makes sence?) Up for the challenge?

C

	02-05-2004 23:18									#44
	Lose 30 kilos (of popups)

well I just discovered momentum recently when I played the believers. Very powerful faction (although they can be dependant on having someone like the University start next to them). Starting next to the hive isn't all that useful.

But this isn't really a war game, I still think it is possibly the best builder TBS game created. Other games like civ3 you just can't win without going to war. Even at the low levels (with the possible exception of chieftan). But this game you can win without ever going to war- although I haven't tested that at thinker and transcend levels. I usually get in at least 1 major war.

So depending on which faction I play, I can play either way. And often times I play as a hybrid.

	03-05-2004 01:20									#45
	Avatar Enlargement: We've got the solution

I agree with you, Dissident, SMAC is the best game for war strategies AND build strategies. In games like colonization, civilization, call to power etc its not possible to win using money or voting, and yes, its possible to win in SMAC without even going in one single war, because I only play that way so its my personal example. I just build my way sharing technologies and money to prevent war, going for a transcendence or economic or diplomatic victory, and I only play in transcendence level.

	05-05-2004 02:28									#46
	Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations: Deluxe Edition

The "magic" of SMAC(X) is that there is ALWAYS something you can build that makes you more money.

There is never a time when military spending is "gravy", like in Civ 1, where a huge army was merely a by-product of having built everything else.

Building a huge army in SMAC(X) means making sacrifices, paying a real opportunity cost, which good players always try to recoup by having some kind of plan for their troops (conquest, pod-popping, etc.) Its cost makes the "huge army" itself is a malleable concept: the player who can do more with less gains a clear advantage.

Conversely, the availability of profit-enhancing items might lead one astray; the building of troops cannot be an afterthought. Fungus trawling, pod-popping, self-defense, and good old-fashioned conquering don't happen by themselves, no matter how many bases have Tree Farms.

The constant competition from all quarters for scarce resources, all the way up to the A to T, and the number of ways to build (Demo / Planned / Wealth vs. Demo / FM / Knowledge vs. Demo / Green / Wealth + psych, for instance) is what makes this game so hard to put down.

	10-05-2004 05:59									#47
	Get a bigger avatar today!

yeah, SMAX really broke the mold for TBS games. It's a shame they never beefed it up and modded it to play as civ on earth (16 civs, with the SE and faction elements would have meant civ2 with worthwhile alliances! )