The Best cost-efficient SE for an optimal overall strategy

[Mr. President]

Once I get my Social Engineering screen the way I like it, I never change it. My ideal would be Democracy, Free Market, Knowledge, Thought Control. Democracy and Knowledge boost efficiency, so that all the money you make from the Free Market isn't lost. Thought Control partially eases the pain of -5 Police, and I don't give a damn about the Locusts of Chiron. Unfortunately, I rarely get to use this because I play as the Gaians a lot, but I just finished a game on Talent as the Spartans using this setup. (That's just one reason I'm looking forward to getting Alien Crossfire so I can play as the Pirates, who are political atheists like me. ) I built forests and tree farms and hologram theaters to try and deal with the negatives of Free Market, but there were still demon boil Locusts of Chiron besieging my capital when I built the Voice of Planet...But that's another story.

By the way, what the heck is GA? Everyone keeps talking about "Wealth plus GA, Wealth plus GA", so I was wondering what on Alpha Centauri it is.

[Alinestra Covelia]

I'm guessing it's a Golden Age, although this is more from hearsay than personal experience. My chosen faction doesn't often get those.

[Ned]

Yeah, GA is Golden Age. You need to get half (up to a limit I believe) of your people as talents and the other half as contents or specialists. You then get +1 economy, +1 commerce and +2 growth. If this is combined with Wealth, you get +2 econ and +1 industry. The effects are obviosly better than Free Market alone in terms of income and production. One can then run Green for high efficiency for even more income and a pod popping strategy.

Think about it.

Ned

[johndmuller]

By way of a (significant if you don't already know it) nitpick, the Golden Ages operate on an individual base level, not your entire faction, so that the requirements and bonuses apply or don't apply to each base seperately.

I also think (nitpickingly) that a GA can occur while there are still drones present so long as there are also extra talents to cancel them out (leaving you with a net 50% talents or more). I think that it is possible to have such a configuration, unless it related to that semi bug where the resource screen shows drones and the psych screen doesn't.

[cousLee]

Hmm, Hive-PS this Hive-PS that, Hive is one of the two SMAC factions that can't pop-boom. It has +1 growth inhearant, but can't use Demo (has +2 growth). If planned + CC thats only 5 growth. It takes 6 to pop boom. And the boom bonus with golden age does not work on the Hive. This was fixed in SMACX, but I heard that any interceptor activity causes a crash in smacx, and has not been patched (I won't buy smacx). Euda can net you +2 growth, but my games always end long before that becomes an option.

Now The Believers make great use of PS. I bee-line for it right after I try and get SotHB first (which I do get on occasion). With the +4 support right off the bat, you can single garrison with 4 formers per base, and be disbanding the done with fleet before fusion power. 1-1t-1 at first, then 1-1-1 police. build unit-RT-former x4, colony pods as needed to keep the base size 2-3 (2 if good minerals). Build a rec commons when you want to go to a size 3+. Fundy is nice when you go to war, so your units/bases can't be subverted. But for the most part, I leave it on PS.

I am lost with the Morganites. Playing them feels like putting your shoes on the wrong feet. imho.

Could care less about the rest of them. I have a SP PK game going right now trying to develope a strategy for them. I have been playing samc for years, and always avoided playing the PK. I liked kicking the PK AI arse too much. Lal, the man we love to hate. I am using Demo-Planned-Knowledge. I lead in projects, and produce Commando troops out of the box. I have Morgan as submissive and vendetta against everyone else.

[Ned]

John, Yes of course GA works base by base. However, with the rule that 1/2 your population has to be talents and the amount of Psych available is limited to your population times two, you get the very strange phenomenon that one cannot get bases with odd number of citizens into GA at all unless one has the HGP (or later, Clinical Immortatity or a Paradise Garden). However, you still have to have no drones.

Also, since the use of psych, facilities, SPs, and police go in I believe that order, if you have any superdrones, the base cannot be brought into GA regardless. Superdrones are created as addition drones after all your citizens are drones (before compensation, that is).

[RedFred]

I often find myself nodding in agreement with Dilithium Dad's posts. But I was surprised by his heavy use of Planned. I have been using it strictly as an early SE setting for enhanced production, or when I am in pop boom mode. But I am a long time SP guy and still quite new to MP. And I am learning the hard way how important pop growth and pop booming can be. So I will have to consider using Planned more in the future.

Usually I am running FM or Green instead. All the "neutral econ" factions need FM to nab the +1 energy per worked tile. But Green can often net you more cash particularly early in the game or if you don't have a lot of trade happening. Your cash flow will be lumpy instead of smooth, but the added bonus is all the free native units.

I tend toward building rather than crushing, so I don't do a lot of PS (except with the Hive) or Power for that matter. Fundy gets used even less. I only seem to resort to it when faced with widescale probe problems.

Another thing which surprises me is how specialised most players are in terms of faction selection. I will happily play any of the 14 in SP and I love the random faction games. I am only tempted to restart if I get the Aliens or Miriam.

Am I the only one who considers alternative SE settings based on diplomatic reasons? I realise that this is less of an issue in MP. But in SP conflicting with your next door neighbour who is way ahead of you on the might chart is very risky. The OCC and the Peace challenge both really make you think about the diplomatic consequences of your SE choices.

[edit: annoying blunder removed]

[WhiteElephants]

I thought D-Dad was pretty straight with his post.

Usually I am running FM or Green instead. All the "neutral econ" factions need FM to nab the +1 energy per worked tile. But Green can often net you more cash particularly early in the game or if you don't have a lot of trade happening.

This hasn't been my experience. I tend to net more energy with green in the late game when my empire is large and sprawled out across the map. In the early game I tend to earn more from free market simply because my empire isn't large enough to lose a lot of energy to inefficency.

I suppose "early" in the game is relative, but I was thinking pre-Doctrine: Air Power, or even pre-restrictions lifting.

[Basil]

Originally posted by cousLee
And the boom bonus with golden age does not work on the Hive. This was fixed in SMACX, but I heard that any interceptor activity causes a crash in smacx, and has not been patched (I won't buy smacx).

No, that's a false rumour. Interceptor activity can cause crashes in SMAC/X (particularly if you are playing a large game while running other applications), but it does not normally cause crashes.

The main consideration for me in choosing between the two is that the maintainance bug got fixed in SMACX but not in any of the patches for SMAC. (The maintenance bug causes your maintainance costs to be lower if you play at the highest 2 difficulty levels.)