Ljosalfar IN SPACE!: Bobchillingworth hugs a fungus

[Bobchillingworth]

Meanwhile: In the incredibly bland world of Josie and the Pussycats-

[Bobchillingworth]

So. Gaia's Stepdaughters. Looks like I am the Eco Faction of the game. Space Elves.


I really do not have much clue as to what I am doing, so bear with me this game as I stumble along. Apologies in advance if any of this is obvious or blatantly wrong for any SMAC veterans reading along.


As far as I can discern, my faction revolves almost entirely around interacting with the "barbarians" and this game's version of the AC. First, I get combat bonuses against the Planet's native lifeforms. That's cool, since it doesn't sound like I can ever make peace with them (might be wrong about this though). I also have a number of buildings which give me brownie points with the Planet itself, which seems to mostly translate to getting special advantages as the AC-esque "Blooming" counter rises. I suppose it's akin to the Sheaim's advantages with Planar Gates. You can get a unique victory condition (Transcendence) by being on good terms with the Planet with the AC hits 100, which seems to be what my faction is naturally set to pursue. Oh, and I get woodsman promotions for free, not sure why that matters though, since from what very little I have seen so far Forests are really rare (if present at all).



I don't know much about my opponents either.


Selrahc's faction looks like techers; 20% beaker bonus, but not much else going for them.

Nic's faction are clearly builders; they essentially have both Philo and Industrious traits, but they suffer a massive WW burden.

Sareln's faction are I think just a warrior civ with religious trappings; combat bonuses tied to who worships what faith.

Mist's faction are the Zerg; double production on spam units.



I guess that's about it. To make up for the lack of pictures, please enjoy this context-free image of Superboy murdering his parents:

[Bobchillingworth]

It begins:





I really dislike the art from early Firaxis games, but Lady Deedee is okay in my book






My capital. I forgot to take a picture of my start before I settled My settler-equivalent was 1W where I built my base.

I had to go into the 'Pedia several times to figure out what all of the different pretty things meant- it looks like the blue rocks are just a straight generic +2 production boost to any tile, and the green and red springy DNA things give +2 food when I build a particular improvement on them (which everyone can do right out of the gate). I know that three saucers are goody huts.

So, overall it's a food-poor but production-heavy start. The "Beginner's Guide" section of the 'Pedia assures me that city growth isn't actually critical in this mod; it makes the Planet angry at you, and if you end up with starving citizens you have to pay a heavy Space Tax. So I'll work the Blue Rocks to start, even though it'll take forever to reach size 2 that way.






Sent starting solider north to scout, nothing too interesting. Will now head SE.





My first build. Considered going worker-first, but the only thing I can improve right now is the DNA, and I think I might be better off just working Blue Rocks at least until I get in more worker techs. The Lab provides +2 Planet Happy per turn, plus I'll be able to assign the free specialist my HQ gives me as a person who gives another +3 planet happy and +1 espionage. Might as well start accumulating those points now!



About those points- here's the Transcendence Victory I mentioned in my previous post:





Sadly the tech I'll probably need to research arrives really late in the tree:





Hmm.


Okay, so I still get to pick what my flatbed truck turns into. I can choose a worker unit, rover scout, or a scout boat. Worker would be good, except again I can only build a single improvement at the moment (I think). Rover is appealing, but the terrain looks really rough and so I think the 2 movement will be wasted. I could just build a cheap infantry unit instead.





So I went with the boat- I'm hoping I'll be able to steal a bunch of water huts, if everyone else went rover or worker.



One last picture:





A couple things of note here. First, I selected "Ultraponics" as my first tech- it is difficult to tell, but I think this will enable me to build a few +1 food structures on some of my many hills. I'll start a worker after my building completes.

I am also already reaping the bonuses from my special relationship with the Planet, namely a free +2 culture at my capital. Borders expand next turn, three pods will pop. Cool =)

[Commodore]

We welcome you, earthdeidre and earthwheat and earthtree as honored guests, for you add great power to our ancient song--planetfungus and planetworm and planetmind sing and play here, and you are welcome among us.

[Bigger]

lol, I'm so confused. Is this a SMAC supermod?

Anyway, assuming it plays like smac, dierdre will be great fun. send out plenty of Scouts to capture mind worms as soon as you're able. Then send the capture mind worms out into the fungus to attack more mind worms. Native mind worms do not attack other native mind worms (including ones you captured), so you will always get the psi attack bonus, and you can accumulate tons of cash, and 5-6 captured mind worms quite easily (maybe more once you switch to green economy) - and if you're lucky to find an opponent with fungus next to his basis it makes for a very easy early game rush.

Thats SMAC, anyway. I've never seen this game at all, I don't know how it differs .

[Bobchillingworth]

Interesting, thanks for the tips! I do know that I can eventually use my own Mindworms this game, but I don't think I can just have scouting units capture them early on. I probably need an advanced technology or something.



Turn 2:






Three pods popped, giving me a second Unity Foil (scout boat), a Unity Rover with +60% strength, and a free tech:





Tech unlocks a building which provides +1 happy and some specialist slots, as well as a civic which works like Theocracy but with an additional culture bonus.


I changed my capital to start constructing a worker- reason being, I wasn't sure whether my + Planet points can accumulate or whether they instead work like happy face or health. So producing a building which gave me even more of a Planet bonus would have been silly, if I couldn't stack them.

As it turns out, they do stack- I now am getting +6 culture per turn in my capital, thanks to Planet bonuses. But I'll stick with the worker anyway, just because I really probably ought to start working improved tiles more quickly.



Played a SP game (went random, rolled Hive) on Emperor, stopped wen I was clearly winning. I ran a windmills + algae farms econ in that game, worked fairly well. Hive gets production bonuses though, so I may end up with some mines here.

[Bigger]

fyi, in SMAC anyway, the first mind worm you attack you will capture 100% of the time.

However, I'm starting realize this is not SMAC w/ diff graphics, but a new game, so my advice might be pointless. Can you post a pic of the available civics screen?

[Bobchillingworth]

Yeah, it certainly doesn't work that way here. Combat with Mind Worms is to the death.



Turn 3:




Advanced an era thanks to my pod tech.




Apparently the Unity used up an entire escape pod to protect a handful of credits. Good to know someone up there had their priorities in order.




Demographics- looks like I have gotten lucky with pod placement and/or results. Two players still haven't settled yet, and they really should soon. My start is poor, maybe really poor, but this mod has like two dozen unique terrain improvements you can build, and adding food / production / commerce to any given tile seems relatively straightforward.



Civics screen, per request:






I also have to note here that the mod team deserves major kudos for the terrain graphics- they really are amazingly varied and very impressively detailed.


I also totally dig the basic scout unit model




Looks a lot like one of the Stalkers from Shadow of Chernobyl

[Bigger]

yeah, ok. from the looks of things this mod is much more civ 4 than it is SMAC, so ignore my advice . It does look like great fun, though.

[Bobchillingworth]

Hrmm. Played some SP, and realized that I couldn't spam greenhouses everywhere... could have sworn I did that in a different SP game I played until about turn 100. In that game I must have had the right terrain for it- made a WB sim with a couple examples of the sort of land I have in this game, and Ultraponics will be completely useless for me



So I'll have to switch tech when I get the next turn. I'm thinking that the windmills tech sounds best, I'm pretty much limited to either mills or mines for my hills (at least for the next 50 turns), and I would rather have the commerce from mills, plus mines make the Planet angry with you.