Secret projects early in the game

Gnool · August 12, 2002, 04:03

How early should be go for secret projects (if at all)? And which one(s) should we go for? I think that going for the Human Genome Project and the Command Nexus would be good, and maybe the Weather Paradigm while we're at it.

Pandemoniak · August 12, 2002, 04:07

The Weather Paradigm is a must have.

Gnool, i see the New Soviet Union in your signature, when do you join the CCCP ?

Mr. President · August 12, 2002, 04:19

Weather Paradigm, Merchant Exchange . . . perhaps Command Nexus?

Gnool · August 12, 2002, 04:46

The "New Soviet Union" is a sort of joke website my friend made up. He wants to remake the Soviet Union in Australia

I read the CCCP charter yesterday and I think that I didn't like it because it's inflexible (like every other political party in this demo game)

For example, I think that if it's needed we should be able to switch to a Police State. I'll go have another read of the CCCP & reconsider joining if you want

Lemmy · August 12, 2002, 05:16

weather paradigm, command nexus, and the virtual world are good SP's, but they shouldn't slow down our growth too much.

Quote:

I read the CCCP charter yesterday and I think that I didn't like it because it's inflexible (like every other political party in this demo game) For example, I think that if it's needed we should be able to switch to a Police State. I'll go have another read of the CCCP & reconsider joining if you want

you might want to consider joining a smaller party, where you can be part of making the policy, like the SSK.
In fact the SSK does not rule out any SE choice, or any other course of action, we simply have goals that we want to accomplish through any means necessary.

Gnool · August 12, 2002, 05:38

Ah well, I caved in and joined the CCCP

. (Back to the topic...) Yes, Virtual World good

Nubclear · August 12, 2002, 06:07

Quote:

Originally posted by Gnool
Ah well, I caved in and joined the CCCP

. (Back to the topic...) Yes, Virtual World good

Good for you!

And it may be just me, but I like Empath Guild....Get commlinks, but mainly get more votes! and with our already double votes....

Wojit · August 12, 2002, 06:39

I love my early wonders. Hell, I think we should go for them once we get 3 or 4 extra cities, as long as we're not under attack. Some of those things, like The Weather Paradigm, add up to a huge bonus by the endgame.

Gnool · August 12, 2002, 08:04

I like the Empath Guild as well. Generally when I play I build at least 4 or 5 bases before I start with secret projects, and then I normally build one project at a time (unless it doesn't interfere with expansion).

Crisler · August 12, 2002, 08:45

In a manner a agree with what Wojit said. I feel we should optimize a couple of cities to produce secret projects. Then we can use them for that purpose when the other cities are working on infrastructure or military.

However I also feel we need to keep these wonders spread out. By doing so we make it impossible for an enemy to take all of them.

E.L. Crisler
First Commissioner

DeathByTheSword · August 12, 2002, 14:33

weather paragram and HGP are cool!

Method · August 12, 2002, 16:18

all of them.

my first base: former, pod, scout, WP (finished around 2150)

second base: former pod, scout HGP (finished around 2160)

then once i have these 2, the rest are easy

i tend to miss the command nexus and merchant exchange, but conquer them later.

does it prevent early growth? not as much as missing the WP.

Vlad Antlerkov · August 12, 2002, 19:06

-- Weather Paradigm, for better formers.
-- Human Genome Project, to increase our edge in happiness.
-- Empath Guild, for more votes (very useful in any instance) and for every communications freq.
-- Virtual World, mainly to increase our edge in happiness, but also to see the University retch.

-- Citizens' Defense Force, for obvious reasons.
-- Probably optional: Planetary Transit System. Aside from giving new bases a big leg up, it helps with elections. (More citizens means more votes.)

Gnool: As we're playing the Peacekeepers, Police State is impossible.

Method · August 12, 2002, 19:49

oh wait, i forgot. if we get the ascentic virtues, we can grow to size 11 (

) without hab complexes!

Vlad Antlerkov · August 12, 2002, 19:52

Yeah, but we won't be getting it for a while.

Maybe in the thread on mid-game projects?

Still, size 11 bases without habs is impressive, considering that we'd also be getting +1 police with it, which is helpful in itself. I'll advocate building it as soon as it becomes available. Maybe a Planetary Economics beeline (we'll get all the resource-collection techs along the way)...?

Zakharov VII · August 12, 2002, 21:07

Weather Paradigm is good, but for a while now (very little to do with the challenge, very much because I wanted to be a lazy terraformer) I've restricted myself to forest only, no crawlers, and things still go smoothly (and of course I made very little effort for the WP). Human Genome (very important, especially for those parties against Free Market), Virtual World (very important if we have tons of bases), and Merchant Exchange (especially important if we can still maintain a tech lead even with all this role-playing...I do love those tech doublers) are my favorites, then. Slightly later the Empath Guild is fun, to practically ensure becoming the governer and selling all the commlinks is great

.

I've actually played very few Transcend non-forest games, so I really don't love the WP as everyone else does

. The Planetary Transit System is another one I don't like, because so much expansion goes on before it's available (let alone built). The Command Nexus I let Yang (or someone else) get, I don't go to war much and if that morale is going to make a difference between being conquered and surviving, I've misplayed. Still, since we're putting so much effort into this game, we'll need to deal with any mistakes, not pray they never happen.

Similarly for Citizen's Defense Force. I usually get that right after Tree Farms (Integrity is a prerequisite for Planetary Economics - Hybrid Forests), when I'm just finishing up expansion. If I'm in a big war now, I'll have Perimiter Defenses up where they're needed already, and if I'm not, I'll have time to put them in my outer bases, if I ever put them in at all (call me sloppy, but if they ever get built, it's usually when there's some Chaos Infantry knocking on my door. It's rushbuilt and I quickly upgrade my Police Infantry inside to something decent).

So I like starting ME first at the home base after 3-4 bases are out there (building Recycling Tanks first), then after the next wave (6-7 bases, maybe, I don't count), my second best gets a Recycling Tank and starts HGP. All artifacts go towards building one of the projects (depends on my mood which one), hopefully I can finish one, maybe build Creche/Rec Commons, and go to VW. Same for the other when it finishes, going towards EG. Then it's a long way for the next good SPs (next one I have to have is Ascetic Virtues, which is where I go right towards anyways), so by then I try to have a big enough tech/production lead.

Z

gopher · August 12, 2002, 21:10

WP is a must, and PTS too (but that is usually not a really early one). Definatly Emp Guild to to tech trading, and with Lal's (sorry, mean Crisler/Current Alpha Talent) extra 50% votes, that is a shoe in for PlanetGov.

Method · August 12, 2002, 21:34

Quote:

Originally posted by Vlad Antlerkov
Yeah, but we won't be getting it for a while.

Maybe in the thread on mid-game projects?

oh sorry

. in SMAX planetary economics is a level 4 tech, in SMAC its level 6. (thus hybrid forests before tree farms

)

Gnool · August 12, 2002, 23:43

I don't usually find the need to get the planetary transit system, because by the time it comes to build that I've expanded as much as I can (or want to).

Quote:

Gnool: As we're playing the Peacekeepers, Police State is impossible.

I know this now, but thanks anyway

Vlad Antlerkov · August 14, 2002, 09:14

TKG:

It's less nonsensical than some stuff in the tech tree in Civ II-- namely, banking can be researched before mathematics

And alphabet is a preq for writing when, historically, writing came a few thousand years before the alphabet (no biggie to fix, just flip the advance names).

Main_Brain · August 14, 2002, 10:08

Thou should not forget that the EmpathGuild also tends to bring in quite some techs..
Its good when ur the only one with the CommFreq of the Islandbased University

But
WP
&HGP first