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Googlie
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Commanding Officer, CRYPTEIA
Apr 1999
time: 21:36
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On the Horns of a Dilemma
The UNS Unity has broken up, and the colonists have landed. But very early on you realize that Planet is endangered.
Two power blocs have emerged:
- the Exploiters, led by CEO Morgan and including his cronies Chairman Yang and Foreman Domai. Their agenda is to create industrial might and wealth at the expense, if necessary, of a seemingly defenceless Planet,
and
- the Researchers, led by Acadamician Zakharov, and including his acolytes Roze and Aki-Zeta 5. Their agenda is to ruthlessly pursue the advance of knowledge through research, and Planet be damned.
Disgusted, you (Lady Deirdre Skye), with a handful of followers escape these two horrific visions of the future and find a distant landmass to settle on, and there found your own faction, styled The Stepdaughters of Gaia
You assembled enough followers and materiel to form 3 colony convoys, and have commissioned 3 scout patrol units. The sole terraformer (that was included in the Unity's cargo) and its crew has also defected with you. Unfortunately, the transport that moved you here was lost during one of Chiron's punishing storms as you were disembarking.
Unfortunately, in escaping, you killed a couple of other factions' followers, so you know that the Drones and the Angels will be out to get you when they find you. But you do have some potential allies still in the other camps.
You summon your chief advisors, and esconsed in your Colony Pod, examine the situation and decide how to make your moves here
Transcend level, large map about 60% water, all victory conditions activated, directed research, no spoils of war (that's the CyCon's unique ability), random events allowed, Ironman on (to make it more of a hassle to just reload when you pop that sixpack of mindworms)
Enjoy
Googlie
Last edited by Googlie on 28-05-2004 at 09:14
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anarchie
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I played for 15 turns, amassing over 300 energy credits, two unity rovers, six mind worms, and the commlink frequency for CEO Morgan, who looked suspiciously like Roze. Also, all my units and bases look like they belong to Miriam. o_O
Other than that, the starting continent seems too good to be true...
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Flubber
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With a view of the Rockies
Aug 2000
time: 22:36
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quote:
Originally posted by anarchie
Other than that, the starting continent seems too good to be true... |
Well -- you know what they say if things seem too good to be true-- chances are that Googlie has given the AI even better land position than you have so watch out
( I only wish I had the time to try this)
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Googlie
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Commanding Officer, CRYPTEIA
Apr 1999
time: 21:36
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Ah, yes - heavily disguised AI !!!
But seriously, that's an unfortunate feature of smax - the faction graphics load in the order of the last game you saved (see your alphacentauri.ini file)
You can manually edit that .ini file, or to get the correct graphics, just start a game with these seven factions, save it (call it "rubbish", or something) and exit. Now load the challenge game. The factions will now have the correct graphics.
And, yes, the start position is juicy. But believe me, you'll need all the help you can get.
G.
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Googlie
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Commanding Officer, CRYPTEIA
Apr 1999
time: 21:36
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Right - but not so severe as atrocity - just revenge and betrayal. Nice terrain for everyone, and some energy boosts for the AI so that they'll build some decent energy enhancing facilities (they do!!)
Trouble with master-slave is that the slave gives the master the techs, but unlike humans, the master rarely reciprocates. So each power bloc is a submissive triangle - and yes, they do share techs and co-ordinate research.
Darsnan playtested it for me as well, and in his game old Yang turned on his pactmate Domai (I'm guessing Domai switched to Dem, and that was too much for Yang) and reduced him to 1 base. Darsnan has a fascinating save around 2295 where he is producing 884 techs per turn (tech every 5 years) while Yang is at 1789 per, with a tech every 2 years And Y has 2524 council votes to Darsnan's 633.
D is still finishing that playtest, and I'm interested to see how it turns out
(Here's the upper end of Yang's Security Nexus - Graviton weaponed quantum powered choppers and drop troops !! Look more at what he's lost than what he has to see how strong he was
http://apolyton.net/upload/view.php?file=517_nexus.gif
And, yes, Darsnan is in Vendetta with Yang
G.
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Googlie
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Commanding Officer, CRYPTEIA
Apr 1999
time: 21:36
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LOL - I picked the losing side
Roleplaying a little, I just couldn't, as the Gaians, align with the Exploiters, so eventually i was drawn into the conflict as an ally of the Uni/Cycon axis (Roze steadfastly refused to talk to me, but at least she tolerated me)
Sure, Yang did have quantum powered weapons almost as soon as I got Ind Auto, but they were subvertible (and reverse engineerable), so I managed to get Neutronium armored ECMAAA defenders before I even had researched silksteel alloys
But when he started with the choppers, that was enlightening. he actually teamed attack chopopers with interceptor aircraft so that I had to take out the latter before I could get to the chopper (but thank goodness it's vulnerable to small arms fire from the ground)
I thought that I had the answer when he started threatening Planetbusters - I simply put up a few ODP's. But like Darsnan found, he could outbuild me and shot mine down as soon as they were deployed. What an epic space battle that must have been!!
Then came the coup de grace - 3 singularity PB's in the same turn, and I was toast. I had some nine or ten Interceptor choppers recuperating at an aerospace just behind the front line, and that was what he targetted (He was Governor, so knew exactly where to strike)
Land erupted, seas rushed in, and suddenly I had no defenses to speak of. Was reduced to six bases and then Yang called for the el-supremo vote, and won easily, supported as he was by Domai and Morgan.
So what lessons did I learn:
The Uni/Cycon/Angels troika were crappy (and I've amended the scenario somewhat to give greater parity between the 2 blocs - the revised .sav is now the one that you'll download)
I played Gaia as a builder - big mistake. Couldn't compete with either bloc (maybe a less fungus-rich planet and play as the PK's instead of the Gaians, perhaps - that might be an interesting challenge too)
I was too inflexible regarding SE choices. I knew Yang hated DEM, but was too stubborn to change after I'd gone to DEM. If I'd gone with the flow and changed to POLICE - or even FUNDY, he would have stayed cosy with me (we were pacted for 50 or so turns). And Zak never really liked my running wealth either - (you can tell from this that I ran DEM/GREEN/WEALTH)
Ah well, I might have another run at it.
Jamski - do you want me to make a smac version - maybe a similar "Expoliter" bloc of the Uni, Hive and Morgan, opposed by a "Fanatics" bloc of Sparta, Gians and Believers, with you as the Peacekeepers doing the exit thing and trying to build Utopia free from these pressures?
G.
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anarchie
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Just where the heck did Yang get 0-pulse armor??
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anarchie
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It was Firefox's image auto-sizing which just happened to transform that '8' to a '0'. Good times.
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Googlie
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Commanding Officer, CRYPTEIA
Apr 1999
time: 21:36
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Betwixt & Between
SMAC version found here
You are Lal, escaped from the 2 bickering power blocs that have emerged - the Exploiters (Morgan, Zak and Yang) and the Fanatics (Miriam, Dee and Santiago)
In escaping, you have made implacable enemies of Deirdre and Morgan, some of whose followers you had to kill to escape.
Play on
Last edited by Googlie on 28-05-2004 at 20:44
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Darsnan
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New Syracuse, Beta Prime
Dec 2001
time: 00:36
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quote:
Originally posted by Googlie
when he (Yang) started with the choppers, that was enlightening. he actually teamed attack chopopers with interceptor aircraft so that I had to take out the latter before I could get to the chopper (but thank goodness it's vulnerable to small arms fire from the ground) |
I knocked them out the sky by the skads, but they just kept coming!
quote:
I thought that I had the answer when he started threatening Planetbusters - I simply put up a few ODP's. But like Darsnan found, he could outbuild me and shot mine down as soon as they were deployed. What an epic space battle that must have been!! |
In my rendition I actually knocked out the Uni Base building Planet's first PB, but at great cost. However I was defenseless to stop the Hive building their own PB's, and couldn't keep anything in the sky!?! Absolutely amazing!
quote:
I played Gaia as a builder - big mistake. |
I played Gaia as an aggresor and believe I had better luck than you did. I plan on attacking the same way with your updated released version! A little knowledge should take me a long way, uuhhhhh, right Googlie? 
quote:
I was too inflexible regarding SE choices. I knew Yang hated DEM, but was too stubborn to change after I'd gone to DEM. If I'd gone with the flow and changed to POLICE - or even FUNDY, he would have stayed cosy with me (we were pacted for 50 or so turns). And Zak never really liked my running wealth either - (you can tell from this that I ran DEM/GREEN/WEALTH) |
I ran Dem/Planned/Wealth and made everyone mad at me, as well....
D
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Chaos Theory
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Missouri / Misery; CC
Oct 2002
time: 04:36
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The SMAX challenge doesn't seem too hard. I played Dee as a builder, going for Frontier/Planned/Wealth and then Dem/Planned/Wealth. I actually spaced my bases rather widely, on average 2 tiles between bases, but more in bad terrain. It's about 2213 and I have about 25 bases, most of which are size 14. I missed all of the early SPs but the WP, no thanks to the boosted AI 
I cozied up to Aki as soon as I made contact, and traded for many crucial techs, including Fusion Power, so now I make about 1500 energy per turn and can't spend it all. My tech rate has been 3-4 turns per tech for a while. Yang is about 10 years from completing his first planet buster, but his nearest base is still well out of range of me. Even so, I'll try to erect a barricade of units to keep PBs away from important bases.
I'm about to get the Cloning Vats, at which point I'll end up in Dem/Green/Knowledge, filling in any unused land and spreading across the seas.
The whole game, I've hardly attacked anyone, and I've never had hostile troops on my territory. Even though Yang has planes, he can't reach me. All in all, I've been sloppy and I'm starting to blow past the computer anyway. I'll see if anything really changes in the next 10-20 turns, but the turns also take forever now...
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Illuminatus
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Salvaging Unity Fusion Core
Jul 2003
time: 06:36
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 What have you exactly done to AI Googlie? It managed to outsmart me actually with probes. I sided with Zak and Aki. My faction was second on planet, lagging in almost everything, but things were looking good even as I built only six SPs. I had HGP, EG, CDF, NA, PTS. Yang dominated in every area, but I turned his tech advance through *cough* borrowing *cough* technologies from his bases. I was just close to reasearching MMI, and I haven`t suffered any attacks at all, when all from a sudden, 10+ Hive probes appear from fungus on far eastern side (Yang grabed XD  ), It managed to mindcontrol two newly built bases, destroy probe defences in two more and subvert them. Next turn I managed to retake two of bases and destroy all probe teams (or so I thought) using my airforce, when next turn more probes came from fungus, subverting three more bases after destroying more probe defences, along with taking all nearby units! I recaptured those bases too, but then 15+ more probes came from fungus and resubverted them. By now half of my airforce was gone,.. and two or three noodles I sent to destroy probes sucessfully blocked terrain, thus preventing any more probes from coming. But meanwhile Hive built a seabase, and transferred 10+noodles and interceptors there and destroyed blocking units. Five more probes then arrived (nexus now showed that Yang still had 32 probes active - with 70 lost and it was MY 2187! ) and they subverted another base. By now, I obliterated eastern bases, getting sanctions and losing comemrce income. I managed to destroy Hive airstrip (with newly prototyped Hive PB)nad get rid of the probes by dispatching mindworms to patrol there, but cost was too much for me. Drones/Hive have succesfully taken half of CyCon bases simultanously with this, Hive built Ascetic Virtues, CDA and was nearing to complete Cyborg Factory. Now I am defending CyCon with forces taht were supposed to take Roze out, and Hive is still sending constant waves of probes, which now get promptly destroyed in fungus. I must say this is a good scenario, but Hive is still far too powerfull in contrast to eastern coalition. Is there a land connection with Hive continent (that would explain sudden probe wave)?
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Googlie
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Commanding Officer, CRYPTEIA
Apr 1999
time: 21:36
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This game (scenario) has constantly surprised me in its 2 versions (playing as the Gaians in smax and as the PK's in smac)
Yes, the Hive is linked to you, but 50 tiles away, through a series of bottlenecks and fungus choke points. But I set the Hive strategy to focus on land and sea (not air) and didn't give him a proclivity to probes (but to colony pods, formers and crawlers, trying to turn him into a builder)
His pactmate, Domai, should have been the one strutting probes around the map (as well as all 3 research factions), so I'm surprised to see so many come from the Hive. And Morgan and Domai should be the ones with the airforce.
In my playtests as well as actual games I, too, lost bases repeatedly to probes - especially later in the game when in 2 turns one of my pactmates went from pact to treaty to frigid and turned on me. I was so trusting (I'd forgotten how I'd set up the AI's diiplomacy and strategy that it took me completely by surprise!!)
It'll be interesting to see how Chaos Theory has fared in the 50 years from 2213 onwards
G.
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Chaos Theory
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Missouri / Misery; CC
Oct 2002
time: 04:36
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It turns out that it was actually 2217 that I described. Now it's about 2233 (these turns take forever...) and I've solidified my lead.
I recently got Digital Sentience and am now getting about 2 techs per 3 turns. It turns out that Planned is still better than Green because:
1. I got the Longevity Vaccine
2. I don't need +9 effic
3. Industry is still good, though much less so now
4. I already have +3 planet with Cybernetic
Other SPs I've gotten that I can remember:
CBA (Huge! Yang basically can't attack an established base with air, and he can't drop!)
Cyborg Factory
Network Backbone
Nano Factory
Univ Translator
Neural Amp
Pholus Mutagen
Weather Paradigm (Also huge, but it cost me the PTS)
I started sprawling across the planet with sea pods and drop colony pods. I basically claimed the southern third of the map, except for directly beneath Yang's core. Some of my bases were on land, fairly near his bases. In time, some probes and shard rovers came for them, and I've lost about 4 of those bases. On the other hand, I've drawn all of Yang's land army into striking range of my aircraft, and I'm tearing it apart. To summarize, he's capturing meaningless bases at considerable cost, and the core of my empire is unviolated.
Domai signed a treaty with me after I started killing his defensive units. Roze attacked me briefly but now has pledged truce. Aki has been a loyal pactmate all game, and now I'm using her bases to strike at Yang's sea bases in the north. Zak has had a treaty with me all game, but has never been very friendly. Yang hates me and always will because I had some fun during sunspots . Morgan doesn't like me, but can't reach me.
Zak has a PB, Yang keeps switching bases producing PBs, so he never completes one, and Domai is working on a PB. It would be nice if the AI would PB one of my peripheral bases, so their nice submissive pacts would break up.
My infrastructure is strong, and I'm 2-3 turns away from Hab Domes. Once I get that, my bases all boom to the 40s and the game ends quickly with my transcendence. Fungus is already producing 2-1-1 and will get better when I grab some secrets tech, followed by the Manifold Harmonics.
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Chaos Theory
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Missouri / Misery; CC
Oct 2002
time: 04:36
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Victory in 2246, by Transcendence!
Attached are three saves, 2245, and the other two years I posted about, 2217 and 2235.
Odd characteristics of my game:
Almost no choppers. Hostile cities were generally fairly distant, and when they were in the sea I had trouble dropping in. Furthermore, most units I attacked were strong enough that I couldn't have attacked more than two or three times anyway.
I never raised land. If I had I probably would have done better, but it seemed like more of a challenge not to.
The AI never made any satellites, despite having the tech.
I had no SSC. The AI grabbed the Supercollider and the ToE, and I never cared to make an energy park.
I don't often get this far in the game, and I noticed some odd things I haven't seen mentioned here:
The Bulk Matter Transmitter gives +50% minerals instead of +2 minerals. This caused some ugly pops
You can cause an ally's air defense to scramble, then cancel the attack when asked if you would like to declare vendetta
Deep radar detects units in fungus, but only at a range of one tile
Capturing an entire pop of a dozen mindworms is nice
Clinical Immortality seems to give two talents instead of one
Cities can be "washed": they lose ~half their population and gain a pressure dome, but remain above water
Washed tiles can end up higher than unwashed tiles
If you end turn with aircraft in the air that should crash, they will crash at the start of the year, not at the end of your turn
 Attachment: ct_june_challenge.zip
This has been downloaded 6 time(s).
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27-05-2004 22:36
someone tell the newbie about faction order in the Alpha Centauri.ini file.
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