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Earl Grey
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(This topic is aimed at single player transcend level SMAC.)
What research goals do you consider important at different stages of the game?
I gather that the following is quite common:
Industrial Automation followed by Fusion Power and then Advanced Ecological Engineering, but what is next on the list?
Perhaps the three above aren't even on your list of prioritized research goals?
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Stormwatcher
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IMHO I prefer the orbital installations like Hydroponic lab and Orbital energy transmitter
to the superformer, so I choose Adv Space might (gives me PBs on the way!)
May give a little less resources than terraforming into infinity, but my resources are out of harm's way instead of being bombed by attackers. But I would like to hear what other players think about that.
It's mandatory of course to make sure you're the only faction with orbital installations then. Should be possible in most SP games, if Yang is not too fast :-)
I agree with the other two research goals nevertheless.
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Senethro
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Mind machine interface anyone?
I often find myself going for Adaptive Economics so I claim the PEG soon after IA and the initial SP rush.
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Dis
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Las Vegas, Nevada
Feb 2000
time: 21:26
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I don't know all the tech names, so bare with me.
Secrets of the human brain (if I play a faction that has any chance of getting it), Centauri Ecology, Industrial Automation, The tech that gives Virtual World, Doctrine: Air Power, I then try to clean up any of those techs that allow 3+ resources per square if I don't have them all by this point (I usually do). Then I go for Cloning Vats to keep it out of the hands of the AI. Then I go for flachette defense systems, then orbital defense pods (the ai's often build nukes, I need protection), and then I got for telepathic matrix so I can really exploit the cloning vats.
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Earl Grey
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If I go for Secrets of the Human Brain in order to get the free tech it typically delays Industrial Automation by 5-10 years. IMHO it's not worth the delay.
The Cloning Vats take precedence over Fusion Power and Super Former?
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baygator IV
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sheffield
Feb 2005
time: 05:26
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IMHO, the 3+ resource techs (gene splicling, environ. economics & eco. engineering) are very handy as is planetary economics (the Hybrid Forest one).
Fusion power too, but this one is almost a given.
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Flubber
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With a view of the Rockies
Aug 2000
time: 22:26
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sikander's list although in certain circumstances I go to nonlinear maths or doc flex .
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Flubber
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With a view of the Rockies
Aug 2000
time: 22:26
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quote:
Originally posted by Clear Skies
I have a dreadful tendency to shoot straight for Centauri Empathy (after a shot at SotHB, obviously), then backtrack for Adaptive Ec, and then shoot for Pre-Sent and Fusion. After that my choices often depend on what I can trade, barter, bully or steal from the other factions - and on what I can't, as well (e.g. during a secret project race). |
While I can see the value of centauri emp. - I have never understood people's desire to get SOTHB. yes being first there gets you an additional tech but for me its at the cost of going up a branch of the tree I don't want in the early game
** Note I have also been known to be peeved if a pod pop gives me a tech. I hate gaining ANY off-beeline tech as it slows subsequent research VERY MUCH. Getting an unwanted tech can slow ind auto by 10 years!!!! Plus the AI tends to research all across the tech tree so it is an easy matter to steal or trade for the etchs I value less
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CEO Aaron
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Everything has its price. Even you.
Aug 2002
time: 05:26
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My early tech goals vary widely by faction, since each faction has its own particular strengths and weaknesses that I wish to exploit. For police-happy factions like Sparta and Yang, I want Doctrine: Loyalty. For builder factions, I want Free Market and Wealth. For the green factions, Centauri Empathy. And all my factions want Centauri Ecology, Biogenics and Industrial Automation fairly early.
After my early tech goals are established, I usually stop thinking about tech for a while to focus on snapping up early SP's, and for a while, my tech goals are driven solely by the desire to build as many of these as I can. Once all the early SP's are accounted for, it's time to start planning for the midgame. At this point, I'll be either teching toward Environmental Economics, for tree farms and a Pop-boom. Usually I can grab Clean Reactors concurrently, and switch all my garrisons and formers to clean power. Once my Pop boom is complete, I'll go toward fusion power and retroviral engineering, for a revolution in energy and mineral production.
At this point, I aim my tech sights on Advanced Spaceflight. With resource satellites, I can send my production through the stratosphere, and seed bases virtually everywhere.
You'll note at no point do I really prioritize weapon techs. This is really because it's far too easy to swipe an encroaching unit and reverse engineer their weapons, or gain parity in weapon technology through judicious use of probe teams, and once I have technological parity, my superior production should overwhelm all proffered resistance.
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Sikander
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Boulder, Colorado, United Snakes of America
Jan 2000
time: 22:26
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quote:
Originally posted by Chaos Theory
As Yang, I favor rushing for Industrial Automation, primarily for the SE settings. Police + Planned + Wealth yields the following appealing SE category effects:
+3 growth
+2 police
+2 support
+3 industry
-1 econ (almost the same as 0 econ)
-2 morale
0 planet
0 effic
0 probe
0 research
Once here, research proceeds as quickly as for the Gaians, or any other faction that can't reach +2 econ. Furthermore, probes and crawlers are available to close the gap. |
Yang also really benefits from the use of specialists, which you can spam like crazy once you have crawlers hauling nutrients. You can try to GA pop boom (can be difficult without Hybrid Forests or the HGP), or pod boom by simply using half of your bases to build colony pods and donating the proceeds to the other half of your bases. Once your donor bases get down to 1-2 population you can build a colony pod about every third turn in them (assuming you have crawled minerals to about 16 or so). Turn all of those specialists into librarians, and you'll have a respectable tech rate in short order.
Once your recipient bases are up to snuff you can begin to build up your donor bases by again using half to build up the other half.
If you use the stockpile energy bug to your advantage, Yang will always have tons of cash available, as he cranks out crawlers like nobodies business.
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d=me
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I always try to the the hard to get discover techs like pre sentient alogrithms. and build the hunter seeker thing.
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Flubber
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With a view of the Rockies
Aug 2000
time: 22:26
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quote:
Originally posted by Dissident
my last game I built the hunter seeker. I have never seen the AI build so many probes. If you ask me the AI builds too many probes.
They had so many, they couldn't do anything. So they would repeatedly infiltrate my datalinks, even though they already had infiltration. |
I think a given AI faction will just get stuck on somethink it wants to build a lot of-- My last game, I was the Morganites and my Believer enemies were building dozens of (6)-1-1 Missile artillery. Not that anything they built would make a difference but what exactly is the use of dozens and dozens of slow artillery pieces against an enemy that is choppering you to death
I actually got very bored with the game since NONE of the AI even got fusion before I transcended (probably because the Believers were the big power) with Zak taken out and Lal decimated
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05-02-2005 15:27
), I'd go for CentEcol - DocFlex - PlaNets, and then depending on whether I'm interested in a military adventure either Nonlinear Mathematics or Intellectual Integrity.
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