Morganic builder strategy

Hendrik · January 23, 2003, 19:02

I have had the save files for my fast transcend attempt posted for a while, but I haven't had any descriptions. Here is the typed description of what happens.

Huge map, 50-70% water, directed research, pod seeding and random events enabled. Standard SMAC-7 factions, transcend difficulty. All victory conditions enabled.

I will be posting the saves in packets.

Year 1:
I started on a large continent, with a river right next to where my colony pods landed. I plan on founding both of my first bases along the river, to boost energy production and make movement easier.

Year 6
First new tech, biogenetics researched, recycling tanks rush bought into both bases. Beelining for industrial auto, will pick up centauri ecology along the way.

Year 16
Running FM, have 3 bases, and I am making 3 more pods, rush buying them when necessary. Researching centauri ecology

Year 26
Researching industrial auto, will get it in 6 years. 6 bases founded, first terraformers under construction at HQ base

Year 32
Ind auto! Switching to simple/FM/wealth. 9 bases total, tech every 5 turns, 35 EC per turn. Researching Social Psych

Year 42
Made contact with Lal, treated with him, traded for applied physics. 12 bases total, several are cranking out crawlers. Researched Progenitor Psych, researching ethical calculus

Year 52
First SP, human genome, complete! 17 bases total, first network nodes being rush bought into high energy production bases. Tech every 7, 63 EC per year. Researching gene splicing.

Hendrik · January 23, 2003, 19:03

Year 60
WP complete. 20 bases total. Researched adaptive econ, Researching ecological engineering. Tech every 6, 68 EC per turn.

Year 66
Planetary energy grid complete! Energy income almost doubles to 120 per turn. Researched ecological engineering, environmental economics in 6 turns

Year 71
Planetary transit system complete! Between this and enviro econ tech jumps to one every 5, energy at 157 a turn. Researching secrets of the human brain, aiming for empath guild, planetary governorship, and tech trading with other factions. Expansion phase complete, 23 bases total. Fringe bases working on recycling tanks, rec commons, formers and crawlers, core bases building tree farms.

Year 77
Lal had tech I wanted and wouldn’t trade for it, so I probed one of his bases on my continent, then mind controlled it. I recently switched to demo so he truced back with me.
Tech every 5, 192 EC per turn, centauri empathy in 3 turns. First thermal borehole completed near Morgan Industries, crawlers switch from minerals to food to make up for the food deficiency.

Year 81
Researched Centauri empathy, empath guild complete! Elected myself governor, I have 121 votes, nearest competitor (Deidre) has 48. Tech goes up to one every 4 turns, energy at 257 per turn. I traded for high energy chemistry and cyberethics. Researching Neural grafting. Merchant exchange built at Morgan Interstellar, headquarters relocated there (it is closer to the center of my empire). Treatied with Miriam and Zack.

Year 88
Still installing infrastructure, a little more than half of my bases have tree farms. Researching bioengineering. Tech every 4, 302 EC per turn. Built planetary datalinks. Miriam offered me a pact to fight Deidre, Miriam has a lot of bases so I will benefit quite a bit from the commerce, I accept.

Hendrik · January 23, 2003, 19:08

Year 91
Built virtual world, tree farms being installed in last remaining bases without them. Beginning specialist induced pop boom at three most developed bases. Traded for doc loyalty, researching intellectual integrity. Tech every 4 years, 356 EC per turn. My terraformers have installed a bunch of boreholes, boosting energy and infrastructure development.

Year 97
Pop booming infrastructure complete in all bases, begin energy allocation induced golden age pop boom, at 40/20/40. Ascetic virtues completes next turn, highly developed bases working on hybrid forests. Tech every 4, 327 EC per turn. Researching adaptive doctrine, heading towards fusion.

Year 101
All infrastructure other than hybrid forests complete in all but 2 bases. Bases continue to grow under golden age pop boom. Zack beat me to the longevity vaccine, not a hugely important SP since I run FM for most of the game. Tech every 4, 542 EC per turn. Researching superconductor, I cached in several alien artifacts and got optical computers from the datalinks.

Year 104
Zack declares vendetta, pop booming continues, hybrid forests installed in 14 out of 23 bases. Tech every 3/ 713 credits per year. Researching pre-sentient algorithms.

Hendrik · January 23, 2003, 19:13

Year 108
Fusion researched! All non doctor specialists switch to engineers, fusion labs hurried into all bases with 10 minerals. Golden age pop boom completes next turn, as all bases will reach size 13. Researching MMI, tech every 2. Tech every three, 1356 EC per turn. Terraforming of base radii complete, thermal boreholes in every available location.

Year 109
Golden age pop boom ends, 50/50 energy allocation used. Tech every 2, 1859 EC per turn. Still researching MMI

Year 113
Orbital spaceflight researched, researching advanced spaceflight. Switched to 100% labs allocation. Tech cost is 4050, I make 3750 labs per turn.

Year 116
13 orbital power transmitters in orbit, running 10% econ 90% labs, tech every turn/332 EC per turn. Researching centauri genetics, constructing an energy park.

Hendrik · January 23, 2003, 19:15

And that’s it! I build the supercollider in my HQ base, and rehome all the old crawlers I had at my old bases to the HQ, then put them on the energy park. In the late game I put a priority on getting hab domes, cybernetic SE, transcendii, and the cloning vats. I was up to 2.5 techs per turn by the time I transcended in 2236.

I didn't look very aggressively for artifacts in the late game, and I got tired of the micromanagement and just hit "turn complete" the last few turns. I might have been able to shave a few turns off this by going artifact hunting and using my crawlers more effectively.

Capt Dizle · January 26, 2003, 16:03

Hendrick,

Nice energy park. Why did you not build the Theory of Everything?

Hendrik · January 26, 2003, 16:22

I was originally planning on buidling the ToE at a 2nd base, in order to not have too much tech overflow from my main SSC.

This never happened because I got bored of building the energy park... for the last 4 or 5 years I just hit turn complete without moving any units. So my 2nd science city just didn't get started at all.

If this "huge map fast transcend challenge" stuff becomes competitive I might reload some of the earlier saves and try to trim some time off of transcendance, but I don't think that is very likely.

Archaic · January 27, 2003, 09:53

Just from the sounds of things there, I'm going to have to go back and try mine all over again. I keep pace for a while, but once you go your energy park active, you just shot past me like there was no tomorrow.

Xian · January 30, 2003, 22:02

You are a god

*applause*

Bkeela · January 31, 2003, 09:17

When I tried to load the saved file to have a look, it said something like 'cannot load multiplayer password protected'

What's the point of password protecting something you wish people to view? Or have I done something wrong? [Using SMAC original by the way].

Bkeela.

Archaic · January 31, 2003, 09:27

Open it in SMAX. He might have used the original 7 factions, but it's not the original game

Hendrik · January 31, 2003, 10:22

I just love the planetary energy grid too much to play the original SMAC

Method · January 31, 2003, 10:46

great SP, but i always forget to research Adaptive economics because of the crappy techs leading up to it

vitamin j · February 1, 2003, 02:08

Hendrik, you have blown my mind. I've been really working on my SP game lately - as Deirdre. Looks like it's back to the drawing board...

Capt Dizle · February 1, 2003, 02:18

He played a great game didn't he. I doubt Mongoose or Mose could have done better and believe me, that's high praise.

Hendrik · February 1, 2003, 18:32

Thanks jimmytrick, I appreciate it doubly so coming from you. I originally started this whole thing just to get more interest going for Morgan as opposed to the UofP... I am sure that when a better player starts refining my strategy or inventing new strategies that we will see even faster transcend dates.

SP playing skills don't translate too well into MP games... it is really going to hurt fighting the Spartans in fundy when I have -3 morale SE

Lazerus · February 8, 2003, 11:00

So thats what an energy park is supposed to look like

i never had enough mirrors, and drop crawlers ... why didn't i ever try that (too busy with clean choppers i suppose).
Annoying how morgan and zak can do with 20 bases what yang needs 40 to do, ah well conquering is still alot more fun

I can't remember what my best transcend is since my hard drive got wiped and i lost my best save

i remember it was fairly fast (by yang standards) but not through building, just kicking every1 else to submissive and literally having the whole map full of bases