1 planet down, 1 to go. Grand Antichrist of the UN, Nicolae Carpathia, has arrived!

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Hopefully the second time I run this stupid gimmick it'll be funny!

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Thoughts later.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

How do we begin?

I can safely say I'm not very good at SMAC. Yes, I can beat Transcend, but by all accounts, Transcend is Easy. Maniac, the guy who made Planetfall, from a reading of his old strategy guides and demogames, is extremely good at this game. I think he knows his SMAC mechanics. His Civ4 mechanics, I have no idea on, but he's probably competent.

So let's start talking about PF by looking at its fundementals: the land.

There are four parameters when talking about land. In SMAC, the parameters were independent of one another. Hence, you could have arid rolling terrain, which was 0/1/0, or arid flat terrain at 0/0/0, or rainy rolling terrain at 2/1/0. PF's resembles Civ4's terrain.

The first parameter is the moisture level of a tile. This simply corresponded to the base food production of a tiled. Here, we have 4, the most important ones are Moist, which are base 1/1, and Rainy, which are base 2/0. So plains and grasslands, in other words. The others are Arid and Polar, which are both 0/1 (though they can turn into 1/1 tiles when you're running the Biodomed ecology civic).

The next parameter is rockiness. This is like a hill in Civ4, with -1/+1 on tiles. Simple. These tiles also give a +1 hammer to mines or +1 commerce boost to windmills.

The third parameter is incredibly clever and interesting. Here, they try to simulate SMAC's ability to simulate elevation. It's much simpler here, and I think it's better for it. There are 3 generic levels, Lowland, Highland, and Ridges, each corresponding to different heights above sea level. Highland and Ridges both give +1 to windmills and solar collectors. However, the most interesting thing about ridges is that you can't move from a ridge to a lowland! You can only do so from a ridge to a highland and only then lowland. This creates some cool tactical possibilities. Let's call them, Low, High, and Ridge terrain from now on.

The final one is terrain features. The most common is Xenofungus. Unlike in SMAC, Xenofungus will not override the underlying terrain's base yields, but instead is unworkable until you've researched the Xenobiology tech (which is a cheap tier 1 tech). It also has 2 interesting effects. Like Jungle, XF gives +0.5 unhealth (Bad). However, they also give +0.5 planet favour (Good, you don't want the planet getting pissy at you and ruining you with fungal blooms and worm pops). You can also plant forests

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Next, let's talk about tile improvements and planet favour.

I've been doing some research on the game, and there are generally two ecological paradigms pertaining to what tile improvements to aim for. The "Terraformed" and "Hybrid" civics will basically inform what you aim for. Terraformed civic increases 'former improvement rate, and speeds the growth of +1F Farms to +2F Outposts/Settlements, and +3F Edens. The Terraformed ideology is that we can transform the barren, hostile Planet into a new home for humanity, the current resident be damned. Players following a Terraformed ideology will be able to build large highly productive bases, but have continuous problems with worm attacks and fungal blooms. They will build planet angering improvements such as farms and mines.

The Hybrid civic gives +1 unhealth to cities. However, they also give +1H to XF tiles, and here's the kicker, give -10% City Number Maintenance per fungus tile in the base radius. They Hybrid ideology accepts that humans and Planet must live side-by-side. They pay for this with smaller, less productive cities. Therefore, the Hybrid paradigm is built around spamming lots of cheap, low maintenance cities. In addition, high planet favour gives free culture, meaning you get cheap border pops. High planet favour is gained by +favour resources, and having low population in your bases (easy, with the low food surpluses).

The way I understand it, Hybrid players claim alot of land quickly, but Terraformed players build a smaller number of extremely large and productive bases.

Therefore, for the early game, there are -favour and neutral tile improvements.

Field Lab:
A neutral improvement. A generic improvement used for a variety of resource specials. Available from Turn 0, but don't necessarily give you access to the resource until you research another tech. I have a DNA and a Radiofungus resource, which will be getting Field Labs.

Greenhouse:
+1F. It's weak, but it's a neutral improvement.

Mine:
+1H. One quirk is that it can be built on any tile. However, it receives another +1H on rocky tiles, meaning you want to restrict them on those tiles. They are a -0.5 planet favour tile.

Farm:
+1F, but grows over time. Another planet anger tile.

One quirk of planet anger is that it rounds down, meaning you can have an odd number of mines + farms, without hitting the next threshold of planet anger.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

So what do I do? I get +100% GPP, +50% Wonder Production, and +1 free specialist/base. The former two tell me to build a small number of large cities. The latter tells me to spam lots of cities. The free specialist isn't great until you have some specialist slots down, though.

I have 2 fungus tiles in my capital's BFC, which pushes me towards a terraform strategy. I have alot of high food rainy tiles, which again pushes me towards a specialist strategy. Currently, I have Rare Tropical DNA, which turns into a 5/0/0 tile with a Field Lab. I have 2 Mineral Bonuses. One is on a rocky tile, which turns into a 1/5 tile with a mine. The other is on a flat rainy XF, which is 2/2/1I have a 2/0/2 river energy bonus, though it would be 2/0/3 without a jungle. Finally, I have some Radiotrophic Fungus. Which would become a 2/0/4 tile with a field lab, though I'll need Xenobiology to work it.

So what do I do? I have a choice between Xenobiology or Centauri Geology. XB unlocks 2 special tiles, one of which is a commerce resource. CG gives me Mines, and the Unity Mining Laser wonder. I want both, but in which order? Going XB gives me 2/2/1 and 2/0/4 tiles, CG gives me an awesome 1/5 tile.

Okay, I've decided on XB. I can grow to Size 4, and work those 4 tiles while pumping Colony Pods and 'formers. Here goes. It would suck if I lose the UML, as I already have 7 rocky tiles to mine. But I'm not going to have a great many of the Mines for a long time. And while the UML is great, I'm more interested in getting Soil Enrichment up and the Unity Hydroponics Bay. Check this out: Free Hydro Plant in all cities, Provides irrigation to every tile, and enables all Ecology Civics. These 2 wonders look really interesting.

And in order to get Soil Enrichment, I'll need some kind of commerce resource. Hence Xenobiology. End turn.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Holy crap, it turns out the fungus boosted my planet rating enough that my borders expanded. Even better, it popped a Materials Supply Pod from a hut!

Maybe I should switch to Centauri Geology now, rush the UML, and use it to get a sick 1/6 tile?

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Something else I'm trying to grasp my head around: how am I going to pop my borders?

My HQ automatically generates +2 culture.

Other sources are the Command Centre (+1), Perimeter Defence (+1).

Culture is also obtained from the Edenism religion. This is an alternative to getting culture from a high planet favour, which itself gives culture.

Finally, I can construct buildings that enable Psych Chaplains, which are basically artist specialists. These would be Parks and Recreation Commons. These are enabled by Terraforming (fairly expensive, and redundant if I can land the Unity Hydroponics Bay) or Social Psych (fairly cheap, and Rec Commons are cheap happiness buildings anyway).

[Bigger]

command center and perimeter defense give you culture? That is very strange, since they are both military buildings.

[Mardoc]

command center and perimeter defense give you culture? That is very strange, since they are both military buildings.

Of course, it's not *called* culture, and its effect is to give you control over an area; seems plausible to come from military.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

It's actually Psych. There was no culture mechanic in base SMAC, though you still had borders spontaneously generated from your bases.

Psych in SMAC was basically happiness. Here, somehow it morphed into culture, and is one of the few things I don't really like about the mod. I actually like the feel of the mod a lot more. In SMAC, the world felt brown and lifeless and empty, very Red mars inspired. Worms were invisible, and land felt very samey. Either everything got forested, or everything got coated with a geometric pattern of farms/condensors/boreholes. Tailoring your strategy to your land was the best thing about Civ4. Plus, there is a huge variety of different resources to compete for. I like that.

Onto the report.

I spotted a hut! After grabbing it, my Scout patrol will move west to scout out the river.

My capital. I actually made a mistake 2 turns ago, I should have moved my supply pod 7 instead of 8. Because it turns out they can upgrade into a 'former from any tile in your base radius. Hence, my 'former had to spend a tile labbing the Radiofungus, and that will delay labbing the DNA.

DNA are great food tiles. And apparently, Bob has a ton of those. Those are the best starts. Plus, Bob has the ability to easily offset the ecodamage from population. Uh oh.

Once I grow, I'm going to stay max commerce and work the 2/0/2 energy bonus.

Another quirk I've recently noticed, it turns out you don't need to sink a tile into a wonder before you can rush it with a materials supply pod. Noice!

Finally, settings.