Oddest/Hardest Game

Chowlett · February 6, 2000, 07:56

Is the one I'm currently playing - on both counts!

On a huge planet, almost all the land was concentrated into one huge continent which ran W-E, then turns N-S. I (as the Peacekeepers) started exactly on the elbow, and exploration discovered the Hive to my west, the Gaians to the south.
Unfortunately, piecing together what happened retrospectively, all 7 factions started on this one continent - Uni and Morgan west of Hive, Spartans and Believers south of Gaians. The Hive and the Spartans were in all out nastiness mode, and by about 2250-2300 had eradicated all other factions.

So here am I, squashed between the 2 most powerful factions, each with about twice my land area. Then the Hive attack me, I take a base, and trade it back for peace. Then the spartans attack me - I manage to take quite a large number of her bases, and am proceeding merrily southwards. Then the Hive, who have been moving through my territory unstopped (mainly because I'm unable to) decide to suddenly attack me. Small problem, though, in the shape of the "defense gap" - the Hive have Shard (A13), while I have Silksteel (D4). They're now about to take the Human Genome, The Virtual World, and the Weather Paradigm. I could be in trouble here.

BustaMike · February 7, 2000, 03:17

PLANETBUSTER!!!!!!!!!!

KABOOM, no more Hive

Else you just need to counter attack. I've found that 2 rovers and a monolith can take out an infinate number of AI troops.

Aredhran · February 7, 2000, 04:25

...until the monolith is spent

SailorUranus · February 7, 2000, 06:07

Easy, just use what I'll call the "Unit Steal Dirty Trick".

Step 1, get a probe team.
Step 2, make sure there is at least one empty slot in the unit workshop.
Step 3, steal any of Yang's advanced units.
Step 4, open the unit workshop. You'll notice the unit you just stolen is now available in the workshop and already prototyped. Change the whatever you want, but don't change anything if you don't have its required tech unless you really want to (i.e. putting lighter weapons on defensive units or light armor on speeders).

Chowlett · February 7, 2000, 10:05

Well, that would work, except that I got the project the Hive are stealing wrong. It is, instead, WP, Citizen's defense force and Hunter-Seeker! Ashamed to say, I couldn't face that - I reloaded from earlier and am now making Photon/Wave, and next Probability Machanics, my next two advances. Let's do some upgrading, guys.

Oh, and SailorUranus, I have as good weapon techs as the Hive. The problem is that Advanced spaceflight was researched well before anyone had (or indeed has) Photon/Wave machanics. Really, I should be playing with SNAC - that fixes the defense gap.

Vi Vicdi · February 7, 2000, 22:01

A true Ironman only reloads when TerranX crashes ...

Chowlett · February 8, 2000, 15:15

Who's playing ironman?

I may start sometime soon, though. Apart from this game, I rarely reload.

Master Marcus · February 9, 2000, 20:28

I ALWAYS play ironman. I'm a perfectionnist, I want to be in control of every anal aspect of my empire ( sole exception: auto tubes ) even if this means 20 minutes per turn: playing ironman is essential then.

Oddest game? see "total destruction of all your bases" in AC-Help.

Lord Maxwell · February 10, 2000, 02:23

20 minutes per turn... *smile* I know those turns... (I gave up on trying Byrons moss strat when the turns started taking more than an hour. Gotta draw a line in the sand eventually.)
Well, I play iron man because I like racking up a big fat score.

Vi Vicdi · February 11, 2000, 00:17

The day TerranX stops crashing I will gladly play Ironman. Until then I'll just visualize my score x2 and pat myself on the back for shrewdly not bowing to the demands of ego and instead following the advice IT professionals have been dispensing for years: "Save early, save often."

And yes, I know about the autosave, which in the later years just isn't good enough. I don't want to spend 20 minutes watching terraformers creep their way across the map a second time because TerranX crashed some time after they did it the first. (Oh, by the way, units move faster if you scroll the map to the extreme edge before sending the move order.)

David Byron · February 11, 2000, 21:59

LOL. 20 minutes

GeneralTacticus · July 20, 2002, 03:17

Quote:

...until the monolith is spent

AFAIK, monoliths don't vanish unless you use them for upgrading morale, not just repair.

Archaic · July 20, 2002, 03:24

Oo

One does wonder why you're replying to a topic from 2000.

GeneralTacticus · July 20, 2002, 03:37

I didn't even notice the date.

Archaic · July 20, 2002, 05:41

Wouldn't the fact it would have had to have been on the last few pages been a good hint?

Mr. President · July 20, 2002, 06:26

There's another primeval thread that someone replied to on the front page now, I believe it's the Ogie Oglethorpe one.

Pandemoniak · July 20, 2002, 14:49

I always play as an Ironman.

Method · July 20, 2002, 15:24

me too

the question still remains about the bump of the 2 year old thread

Pandemoniak · July 20, 2002, 17:08

Oops.

Anyway, I cant reload Year 2000, I am an Ironman.

spartak · July 21, 2002, 10:26

Hmm. Always woth a re-read of an old thread..

Sikander · July 22, 2002, 20:36

Wow a blast from the past there. Some SMAC legends posted on this thread, guys who were experts when I was just starting out.

Lucidor · July 23, 2002, 04:52

Quote:

Originally posted by Pandemoniak
Oops.

Anyway, I cant reload Year 2000, I am an Ironman.

What is "ironman"? A special code of conduct?

//Irritatingly nosy newbie...

Mr. President · July 23, 2002, 06:00

Ironman is an option that you can enable at the beginning of the game, which means that when you save, you must exit the game. It makes it harder to go back and fix mistakes. It also doubles your final score, which is why it's popular.

MariOne · July 23, 2002, 06:44

It's the most stupid and farcical option, imho.

As if it effectively could guarantee that a score was obtained without reloads...

Actually, under Ironman, when you save you *just* have to launch the game again.
Ok, this takes up, how much, 10? 30 seconds?
It's a bit more slow and annoying, but it won't deter at all any reload from someone who's determined to reload (=cheat...).

A more concrete effect would be that even when you reload an Ironman savefile, you get the same outcomes from combat, pods, etc..., as opposite to the randomness of normal settings.
This can be circumvented too, at the cost of a bit more effort:
you first reSAVE, and then you reload.
Each time you resave the same file, the Ironman outcomes will be scrambled, and you practically get randomness again.

Thus, if someone boasts that his result was obtained under Ironman, this does NOT exclude at all that he didn't reload to achieve his record: it only shows that he might be manic enough to bear with *some delay* to "fix" his result...
The player's word, i.e. the honor system, will be the only guarantee for his results, and that does NOT need any frigging Ironman setting, which indeed doubles the score with no merit at all, making it cumbersome to properly compare...

Is ther really someone who seriously expects to compare an Ironman score with a normal one, believing that it's actaully worth double than the normal????
You just get the hassle to manually HALVE the Ironman score, in order to compare it with others!...

Quote:

Originally posted by Master Marcus
I ALWAYS play ironman. I'm a perfectionnist, I want to be in control of every anal aspect of my empire ( sole exception: auto tubes ) even if this means 20 minutes per turn: playing ironman is essential then.

At the light of the above considerations, the quoted statement is utterly meaningless, a total nonsense...

Lucidor · July 23, 2002, 09:06

Quote:

Originally posted by MariOne Is ther really someone who seriously expects to compare an Ironman score with a normal one, believing that it's actaully worth double than the normal????
You just get the hassle to manually HALVE the Ironman score, in order to compare it with others!...

Indeed, honour is the only way to go. I think that the double score is a bit weird, also.

Thanks for the reply Re. Ironman.

Chowlett · July 23, 2002, 10:37

Good lord! I'd forgotten I'd started a thread!

Pandemoniak · July 24, 2002, 07:09

Hell.
All your tricks to cheat with the Ironman enabled and randomness combats, etc... seem far more complex that just playing a normal, fair, Ironman game.

About the +100% score, I agree it is quite nonsense. But there must be a benefit for being honest, I think -- even if the best benefit is to finish the game honestly. Damn, I was so proud when I first finished the game in Transcend with Ironman option !!

spartak · July 24, 2002, 15:16

You may be an ironman, but are you the HARDMAN?

MariOne · July 25, 2002, 11:13

Pandemoniak, playing a normal, fair, GAME is not less rewarding or honorable than playing a normal, fair, Ironman game.

The ONLY point of Ironman indeed, was giving a "patent of honesty" to the game.
As a matter of fact, cheating with Ironman is equally possible, only a bit slower and annoying.

Boasting that you played an "Ironman game" just supposedly means "I have not cheated".
Well, it does NOT work that way.

IF you want to cheat, ther's no Ironman stopping you. An Ironman cheater is just a bit more manic and devious enough to take on the tedious tasks to be able to boast a hollow, undeserved Ironman tag.

IF you don't want to cheat in the first place, then you don't need no friggin Ironman.

Boasting the Ironman brand does NOT show you as a honest player!!! It shows you are a WEAK player, who needs a very thin Ironman barrier to keep yourself from cheating at the frist occasion (and also that you're not even purposeful enough in your cheating intention that a modest Ironman delay can stop you... too weak to keep from cheating, too weak to cheat with determination... bleah!).

In fact, Ironman players are WORSE and less honorable players than normal players, imho.

A much better player is one who tells you "I've not cheated" and you feel you can trust his word.

You should be proud of beginning a game telling yourself "this game I won't reload" and you win by keeping to that propositon. Forget Ironman.

Pandemoniak · July 25, 2002, 13:45

Quote:

Boasting the Ironman brand does NOT show you as a honest player!!! It shows you are a WEAK player, who needs a very thin Ironman barrier to keep yourself from cheating at the frist occasion (and also that you're not even purposeful enough in your cheating intention that a modest Ironman delay can stop you... too weak to keep from cheating, too weak to cheat with determination... bleah!).

It indeed doesnt show you're a honest player, but it doesnt show either that you are a weak player.

Anyway, I agree with you for the rest of your post, but I dont know why, I feel like you were quite angry when you wrote it...

_______________________
I've not cheated