16-05-2003 21:05									#1
	Initial Colonizing Increase the size of your Attachments

Does anyone else save the game on the first turn, explore around to find the juicy planets, then restart and voila you know where to go?

I know its a cheese-strat, but why not right? The comp knows where to go....

	17-05-2003 00:12									#2
	Got spare money?

Sometimes the good planets aren't all around the yellow stars and that's all the AI knows up front. I'm not above cheese moves at times but I usually lock in at the start of the game and play until my wife turns the PC off or I fall asleep on the keyboard. No time to reload.

	17-05-2003 01:42									#3
	Lose 30 kilos (of popups)

No, never done that. There is built in cheese anyway. CTR-N. If I don't like my starting position, just do that and it resets the galaxy. I usually stick out a start though because what fun is it to have a great start every game?

	17-05-2003 19:49									#4
	colonizing Suffering from ads?

Its a pain in the ass when you find a planet with a natural 26 that was very close to you but you scouted the wrong way and lost it to some race 2 or 3 sectors away.

I cant handle that, time to restart and make that planet blue!

	18-05-2003 23:15									#5
	Support Apolyton, buy Alpha Centauri

If that makes the game more fun for you, then enjoy it.
However, I usually prefer to let the chips fall where they may.


(usually)

	23-05-2003 20:46									#6
	Support Apolyton, buy Call to Power 2

Build more scouts. That's what they are there for. Scouting.

You want to know where the resources are anyway.

	23-05-2003 22:04									#7
	Tired of ads?

Yes, scouts are key.

At each new planet I build a scout first (until I have about 5), which then make b-lines for planets. Later they survey the galaxy. Their final mission is to park at likely hotspots to see what is going on - fore warned is fore armed.

	23-05-2003 22:49									#8
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

I usually play small boards so I can usually get by with the single scout I start with. Besides, drones are cheaper to build and deploy.

	28-05-2003 00:57									#9
	Re: colonizing Enter the AD-FREE zone

quote: Originally posted by casualGOD Its a pain in the ass when you find a planet with a natural 26 that was very close to you but you scouted the wrong way and lost it to some race 2 or 3 sectors away. I cant handle that, time to restart and make that planet blue!

I don't bother, but initially set spending to 100%, taxes to 45%, Military to 100%, forget social, forget research, and crank out scouts. After I've got 4-6 depending on what looks interesting, I go to 50% mil, 50% reseach, and research Propulsion -> Cold Fusion -> Impulse to get a speed advantage.

Then, if you don't mind offending the neighbors , you can fast track to transports, and let the other guys do the colonizing for you - if they're close, they often send undermanned colony ships and don't have any military presence for several turns.

Another way is just to customize the humans for +1 or +2 initial speed.

	29-05-2003 05:35									#10
	Re: colonizing Increase Your PM Length

quote: Originally posted by casualGOD Its a pain in the ass when you find a planet with a natural 26 that was very close to you but you scouted the wrong way and lost it to some race 2 or 3 sectors away. I cant handle that, time to restart and make that planet blue!

I know what you mean, but I like to play the game and consider such a loss as bad luck.

I mean in a game that simulates exploring space I (usually) like to keep it as is and chalk missed planets up to the "uncertainty of exploring space" and go from there...

It adds to the whole atmosphere and strategy of the game.

But, I agree, seeing all the stars on the map and having to decide which way to go is frustrating, especially when you realize you went the wrong way.

But, at the same time, it makes the game interesting.

	29-05-2003 07:56									#11
	Browse Apolyton AD-FREE

quote: Originally posted by Harry Seldon Sometimes the good planets aren't all around the yellow stars and that's all the AI knows up front.

I thought only up to pq 14 planets orbitted nonyellow stars?

	29-05-2003 20:06									#12
	Tired of ads?

I found good quality planets around nonyellows.

	30-05-2003 07:29									#13
	Suffering from ads?

Since we're on this subject, I just started a Medium, Crippling game that is SO good it's not even fair. But it's perfectly legit. After playing around for a bit, it turns out it's even better than I first thought.

Is there any way I can post this starting position save game? Here's what we're talking: Earth is PQ19. 4 squares away is a PQ26, in a star system where ALL FIVE of the planets are habitable: 26, 17, 16, 15, 15. I won't even give away the rest, since it would be a spoiler.

	30-05-2003 07:49									#14
	Inflate your Upload Space

I think I figured it out. Anyone who wants a good Medium, Crippling starting position check this out.

http://apolyton.net/upload/files/te...artkickbutt.zip

	30-05-2003 18:46									#15
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization 2

You hype it up so well I may have to take a look this weekend. I hope my 450 can handle your medium map

	30-05-2003 20:41									#16
	Help yourself to an AD-FREE life

There is one catch to it: there's no nearby Minor Civ. That's starting to hurt in 1.0.4.

	31-05-2003 18:50									#17
	Put an end to popups!

Just reporting I've had good results colonizing 13-14 level planets that are close to the home planet. They upgrade decently. Close by might be more important than high level. Also, at lower difficulty anyway, you can sell tech to lagging civs and minor races at a pace that more or less pays your full research bill.

	31-05-2003 20:25									#18
	Inflate your Upload Space

I feel the map is a bit too random, so initial map layout makes initial colonizing a matter of luck. I don't like to restart or Ctrl-N, would hate to save and restart after knowing the map, so I'd like to be able to lower the randomness of the map.

	01-06-2003 07:37									#19
	Support Apolyton, buy GURPS/ Alpha Centauri

I'm winning Crippling consistently now (1.04), and I think colonizing 13's is a bad idea. 14's, though, I've found are pretty good for farming population, to feed your transports. That way you can leave your real planets alone.

13's and 14's both are probably good for culture-flipping, though. You can develop to 15 and sell it a couple times, if you're pretty sure you can flip it back quickly. I've haven't found that incredibly profitable in 1.0.4--looks like if you have a starbase in the sector, maybe the AI won't want it at all.

On the other hand, colonizing 13's & 14's in your neighbors' star systems to culture flip them is good. The Genius/Incredible AI recognizes culture attacks with starbases, and will declare war on you. But if you take a planet first, maybe he won't; especially if you can flip the sector ownership.

Looks like the trick with selling a PQ15 planet, declaring war and invading, and stealing a tech still works. But you can't steal Battleship/Dreadnaught anymore in 1.0.4.

	02-06-2003 18:25									#20
	Increase Your PM Length

I've found colonizing the sub-15 planets allows you to control population growth on your core planets and keeps approval rate over 50 without focusing so much on low taxes and "happiness" social improvements. As pointed out, you can then use the pop on the low rated planets as invasion forces later.

	02-06-2003 19:56									#21
	Support Apolyton

Yeah, the key to farming population on enhanced 14's is realizing there's a 200million/turn cap on population growth. (although with some of the later-game Pop+10 techs I question that) If you have 5 planets, you're never going to grow by more than 1 billion/turn no matter what you do. The 14's let you increase that, at an upfront cost.

	15-06-2003 00:13									#22
	Tired of ads?

I usually start the game, then just stare at the screen because I have no clue what to do..:-)

	18-06-2003 17:24									#23
	Put an end to popups!

quote: Originally posted by Zootx99 I usually start the game, then just stare at the screen because I have no clue what to do..:-)

Thanks Zoot. You just made me spit coffee all over my monitor!