MY first OCC attempt

[cbn]

I had won OCC games in CIV2 but couldn't recall ever doing it in SMAX. I chose the Univesity on a large (randomly generated) world with all other settings medium and with random opponents(playing transcend level).

The start was ok with a mineral special and a 2 square river in sight so I moved my CPs to a coastal spot on the river. Centauri ecology was the first choice and my thinking was that on a large map I should have some time to develop. Wrong !!!

I met a Free Drone unit only 4 squares from my base in 2109. I then meet a Hive unit in 2112. Lastly, I get to see a Gaian base be established across the ocean square but in my base radius. So much for space to develop on a large map !! It appears that 3 other factions had a start position within 10 squares of me. So, I gave in to all demands for many, many years to keep some peace. The other factions BTW are the Conciousness, Data angels and MARR.

I ascertained that my peninsula was about 6 squares wide in the direction of Yang/Domai (south) with a big 3 square wide dogleg northeast. Tha Gaians are on a large island just to my North. Startegy was simple, Ind auto, -- crawl energy until I could get to hab complexes and then crawl nuts to boom and then go back to energy. Buy peace at all costs.

Well it was working fairly well since no one wanted to war with me until Yang suddenly got uppity and wiped out about 6 crawlers in a suprise attack. I jumped from FM to Green and smacked out a few planes to deal with him. I actually had two bases for a fraction of a turn as I probed away the Hive base between myself and the rest of the Hive empire and gave it to the Gaians.

Currently it is 2286 and I have pacts with the Gaians and Consciousness and a treaty with the data Angels, all of whom have empires in excess of a dozen bases. The Hive is an enemy (with about 30+ bases), has eradicated Domai, and is currently munching through the Angels and intermittently plinking my formers/improvements . Marr is an enemy but other than a couple of naval attacks has been very quiet.

My base at 2286 is a size 14 with 2 excess nuts, 42 minerals beyond support requirements and 184 energy (energy would be much higher but Yang JUST killed 5 sea trawlers -- bye bye 25 energy). My base has all the bells and whistles up to fusion labs and my SPs are the merchant exchange, Supercollider and the theory of Everything. I am running Demo/Green/Knowledge and that results at 100% Labs in 2604 research points per turn. Up until last turn when I lost the trawlers I was achieving a tech a turn for the last 3 turns but now tech cost is over 2700 .

My military includes: 1 chaos Sam artillery (damages locusts like crazy), 1 clean chaos helicopter interceptor ( the 5 needles that killed my trawlers are now dead LOL), a bunch of clean needlejets, 6 formers (4 land, 2 sea), and one ship.


The only problem that won't go away is Yang. His continual sniping at my crawlers and formers has already cost me a bunch. He has about 4 bases that can reach my base radii with air power. I have avoided the problem somewhat by developing new tidal harnesses out of his air range but I hate looking at those old tidal harnesses and not being able to use them.

My plan now is to churn out a trawler every turn and watch 5 new energy go through the amazing effects of a base with all facilities. The Gaians seem to be fighting the Hive to a standstill in the base I gifted them so the main military threat is from Hive airpower. My other big fear is a PB as I can see that the Consciousness is already building one. My beeline now is to try to get ODPs as soon as possible. I figure if I can avoid getting busted I should be able to transcend around 2340 or so.


If I were to play this map again I know that I would not have developed a tidal harness field in range of the Hive. Even though I kill every needle that takes out a trawler, I have lost 11 trawlers thus far. That 55 basic energy would have me easily at a tech a turn ( consider that 184 turns into 2604 lab points). I over-estimated my ability to keep the peace with Yang by giving him stuff. Once he declared war , he would not desist no matter what I offered.

Lessons I have learned

1. Watch those SE allocations-- Everything beyond the tech cost is lost so watch that

2. The centre of the map is a tough place to OCC-- It would be much easier in a quiet fringe place -- Dead center you are trying to defend possible attacks from all points on the compass.

3. You can generate obscene amounts of cash and have no use for it at present

4. There are really not enough Drone-control facilities LOL- it is not really worthwhile to build the Drone control SPs so at size 14 I just live with a couple of specialists whenever psych allocation is 0

5. If its not considered a cheat in OCC, it would probably be worthwhile to go cash crazy for a turn or two to probe away some more Hive bases. If I had taken just 3 more and gifted them to the Gaians, I would not have to lose resources in this war.-- Is it considered ok to mind-control a base in OCC??

6. The build queue is precious. No matter how many minerals or energy you have, you can at most build one thing per turn.


Whether I win this one or not I know that I will try this again. I am already thinking that if I did not have to waste time with war, changed my beelines a bit, used Golden ages better and gifted more tech to my friends, I would have transcended already rather than facing a still-uncertain situation. Any thoughts ??

[death_head]

I was just wondering what OCC means. Enlighten me please...

-the Acronym-deficient Death_head

[Wiglaf]

Good looking game . It seems you started off in a pretty tight spot. Normally I get a much more protected area.

Whenever I play OCC (which lately hasn't been too often ), I generally don't mind control, as it seems against the principle of the game. If it's officially allowed or not I don't know.

Keep us updated!

[Wiglaf]

death_head, it stands for One City Challange.

Basically, you can only build one city. It's pretty tough stuff

Try it sometime and tell us about your game.

[death_head]

Ooh, that sounds like fun...but what happens if you play as the Data Angels? Are mind controls off limits?

[cbn]

The mind control question was one I have as well. I'm betting that there are at least 2 flavors of OCC

1. You can mind control or capture bases as long as you give them away on the same turn-- in this style you would never gain labs or anything other than from your one base

2. A more pure version in which you can NEVER have more than one base-- this would be hard if someone just won't stop attacking and they have bases nearby.

It would be am important strtaegy question since the benefits of handing 2 to 3 bases to the Gaians would have been immense. Just a bit more of a buffer and I would not have had to waste any time building any kind of military

[Velociryx]

Here's the synopsis in brief:

"One City Challenge"
Basic: (which is actually a two city challenge...or could be!)
1. You can't build any colony pods. (You can use your colony pod to found a new base at the beginning of the game.)

2. You must abandon conquered bases either by starving, turning over to friends or obliterating. (I've never quite come to grips with how the whole starving thing works....'s always seemed easier to just turn them over to a friend).

3. You must win by Ascent to Transcendence.

4. You must build at least 16 secret projects.

5. You may only build native military units and units without weapon(armor allowed).

6. You must choose the difficulty level higher than Librarian.

7. You can keep whatever you find in the unity pods.

Advanced Challenge(changes to basic challenge):
1. You must disband your initial colony pod immediately--IIRC, rather than disbanding the 2nd pod, you could simply add it to your OCC-base's population.

5. You can only build units with armor and no weapon.

7. You must disband any units you found in the unity pods.

Ultimate Challenge:
1. You can only build one base, disband any colony pod at start (no adding to your initial Pop).

2. Abandon any conquered base by starving, obliterating, or giving away (must be done on the same turn as the base is conquered)

3. You must win by Ascent to Transcendence.

4. Blind Research.

5. You may not build any units with weapon, armor, and psi-ability. You can only bribe enemy units.

6. You must disband any units found in unity pods(including transport foils)

7. You must build at least 16 secret projects.

8. You must play at transcend level.

9. You will play on the "Planet" map.

[cbn]

Looking at the lists provided by Vel it is apparent that bribery is the way to go toward protecting yourself. IT appears that mind controlling bases is ok if you give them away. Looking at the lists, my game does not qualify as a challenge since I did build some military with weapons. Although in retrospect, I should have probed the bases and given them away to eliminate the military threat rather than engaging in an attempt at defense of my crawlers. Also the gaians have started gifting me units so it would not be so hard to not be allowed to build units.

I confess that I am suprised that you must build 16 SPs in the basic challenge (hmmm-- I have 3-- are there 13 left ?). I guess my attempt is just an One City game and does not qualify as a challenge

I am intrigued by this type of play and after I finish this one I will have to give the Ultimate Challenge a whirl. Given the rules, it strikes me that it is a probers game. Are you allowed to accept gifted military from pactmates ?

[Velociryx]

It's been a while since I did my challenge game, so I'm kinda going from memory, but I believe that any gifted units must be shipped home (use the goto command) and disbanded upon arrival, thus limiting you to anything you can catch (Green) or capture (Probe).

Also, there was a discussion about not allowing any upgrades to captured units, but it never became a part of the official challenge....sheesh, it's tough enough as it is!

So, the essence of the ulitmate challenge is: Transcend blindly, without ever building (or accepting as gifts) any combat or garrison units. Probing and upgrading from there is okay, but keep in mind that a stacked attack will be impossible to deal with unless you already have at least one captured unit (so you can kill the first and probe the second).

Other stuff I remember:
1) The crawler is your best friend
2) The probe team is your second best friend
3) Give in to every demand made of you, even if it ticks you off
4) Save your money, and probe with a vengeance when sunspot activity disrupts communications.
5) Total Mind Control solves numerous problems
6) Play the metagame and your chances more than double
7) Once you get the tech lead, it's easy to build 16+ projects (I think I had 24?)

-=Vel=-
PS: I found these and copy/pasted....I don't think the Map of Planet was a requirement when I did mine, either....and btw, excellent work, on your first attempt! Regardless of the exact settings used, it's a tough challenge!

[Wiglaf]

Thanks for clearing that up, Vel, I'm sure somewhere along the line I broke a few of those rules myself

I haven't posted here in a few months, so sorry about any ignorance -- how's the guide coming?

[Panzer]

Bump!

[Flubber]

Bumped since it contains old OCC info


Note this was my thread-- I used to be cbn before I moved and became Flubber

[Ouro_827]

Another really stupid question... what's the metagame?

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Ouro_827
Another really stupid question... what's the metagame?

If you read Vel's strategy guide, its a term he uses a fair bit-- To me its always meant the bigger diplomacy and relationship between the factions aspect of the game. IN an OCC diplomacy can be key and if you can get a large and powerful friend that you can keep happy, you go a long way toward an easy victory

[livid imp]

Originally posted by Ouro_827
Another really stupid question... what's the metagame?

The "metagame" is the basic skeleton of the game. The raw numbers that equate to victory. The emphasis on turn advanage is the metagame. Strip away all the graphics and story and you are left with a pile of numbers to compare to each other.

[Commy]

Feel free to disagree, but stockpile energy, probe teams, and missiles can protect you from almost anything, and don't forget Flechettes and Orbital defense pods, or you just might find a nuke knocking on your door.

Personally, I have done an OCC game on Transcend. With a hybrid forest and no crawlers or satellites, I was making 103 energy per turn, with 50% economy. So it was very easy to hurry garrison and missiles as well as subvert enemy units to use as kamikazes.

[GeoModder]

I disagree (with human opponent), those missiles won't do you much good once your opponent has Aerospace Complexes, Flechettes and Orbital Defenses + a nice number of probes (not toe mention that +2 probe facility)

[Commy]

If you're doing an OCC game, definitely play angels or morgans. Money and probe teams is all you can use when 20 of Marr's 4-3r-1s are sitting there waiting for you to get your death sentence by researching progenitor pysch, assuming Marr is that patient.