What was your most enjoyable game of Smac?

Geardy · September 2, 2000, 09:36

I just finished playing another long game of Alpha Centauri. This game was unbeatable. I produced Lady Deirdres’ evil twin sister Queen Carsy. Changed some of the settings and played her against Deirdre, Morgan, Peacekeepers, University, Consciousness and Data Angles. Heavy into Military and making money. I won everything. All Techs, All Secret Projects. Ended up amassing a grand total of 46,550 energy credits. Nothing was unattainable in this game, I dominated in all categories. Never once had to conquer another faction, they were scared to death to try anything. Interesting game indeed.

Chowlett · September 2, 2000, 10:04

What are the stats of the "Evil Dierdre" faction?

Provost Harrison · September 3, 2000, 19:46

Hey, I've had a great game as Morgan once, had everything. Nearly 1.9 million energy credits, and Morgan Industries was pumping out nearly 10000 lab points per turn at size 92!!! Pretty good game!

Helium Pond · September 4, 2000, 02:16

Hm. It sounds like the definition of an enjoyable game being developed in this thread is one where you win massively by huge amounts. I think most people in these forums would call an enjoyable game one in which they just barely win.

utopia · September 4, 2000, 13:39

Yes, how boring a game must be when you are winning by enormous margins. A challenging game is the best game.

Misotu · September 4, 2000, 17:15

Without a doubt, my most enjoyable and challenging games have been those I've played in the tournament moderated by Tau Ceti here. If you haven't tried multi-player yet, give it a whirl ... it's completely different from SP. You can check out the game threads on the Multiplaying board - some of them are quite entertaining

WhiteElephants · September 4, 2000, 19:31

I've gotta agree with Helium Pond and Misotu. Multiplayer is great because I'm not running everyone over and those darned humans can be so willy! Looking forward to the next turn guys.

Simpson II · September 4, 2000, 20:00

I have to agree with Misotu about MP. Great games are easy to come by; I could break the Smac high-score next week if I wanted to. Anyone could.

But I've got a 1v1 going with Paul at the moment, and that is a fantastic game. It is just past 2200, and he is miles ahead of me! This looks like being my first ever Smac defeat, and I'm loving every turn. My tournament games are not so advanced, but eventually the faster ones will become very interesting indeed.

Smac SP is awful because it just isn't possible to loose.. however mediocre a game you play, you will beat the AI. In MP you live by your wits, always playing as hard as you can.

Try it.

Ogie Oglethorpe · September 5, 2000, 14:15

While I agree that MP has it's own unique flavor and is richly rewarding there have been a few SP games that I found immmensely fun.

A few that occur to me.

1) Attempted fastest transcend game as Spartans (never even got close to Zsozso or David Byron's mark. Couldn't break the 2200 mark.

2) Finished the no conquering base buidler game in HUge tech stag blind research game as Miriam

3) Finshed the no former challenge game as a builder using Gaians. Loads of fun.

All in all tho' it takes extra restrictions in order to make the game more challenging. Ohh well, it's still fun even in SP mode.

stuntman19 · September 6, 2000, 17:52

O squared

Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't Z's fastest record attained with the use of base trading and other methods
considered cheats by most diehard smacers?

Simpson II · September 6, 2000, 18:42

Stuntman19,

The base-trading done in the fast-transcend games was done in order to even out the number of AI bases and to make sure the human had bases close at hand after the conquest games, not to give the human a huge advantage over the AI. Given that the AIs were all submissives and Zsozso could have demanded their bases be gifted to him, it could hardly be considered unfair.
And anyway, the fast-transcend challenge is to transcend ASAP without actually cheating, i.e. no reloads or use of the scenario editor. He could hardly be cheating us honest Smacers if those are the standards of the challenge, and the same for everyone.

Ogie,

Er, how do you win a transcendent victory (builder style, yes?) as the Gaians without using formers? Surely you could never get the nutrients together? Or was the map just one big, white blob of crawlers?

I never got into the fast-transcend challenge. I'm always vaguely depressed at the end of a game, and I got that feeling whenever I conquered the world.. I never seemed to get back the enthusiasm to take it one stage further. OCC was kind of fun the first few times, but too easy - I beat my fastest transcend record in my first OCC game. Maybe I'll try the Miriam challenge.

Ogie Oglethorpe · September 6, 2000, 23:39

Stunt 19,

Z's fastest transcend employed base gifting not necessarily trading in order to even out bases amongst submissives. So the old "I'll trade you a crappy size 2 base for your size 20 base with 3 Sp's" tactic was not applied. Most of what I recall Zso doing was completely above board unless you count base gifting as a dubious practice.

Simpson II,

No formers was a hoot. I'll see if I can bump the thread over in the strat section. At the end I tired of the game so opted for a conquer finish, If I had the patience I could have transcended probably 5-7 turns later.

Og

stuntman19 · September 7, 2000, 09:47

Thanx for the clarification fellas. It was not my intent to diminish the record, as it is an amazing accomplishment at that early a date. I guess I have always self imposed these rules for my SP to make it a little more challenging.

1)No base trading, gifting or receiving
2)Must disband any gifted military units immediately

I do concur that if everyone has same options open its an incredible record that will probably stand for awhile.

mark13 · September 9, 2000, 15:00

I always find the best games are those in which you can't declare war until, say, 2200. This makes it impossible for you to totally overrun a faction early on and end up with two big chunks of land instead of one. This is quite easily achieved in any normal game as the AI pays so little attention to military forces that you can take an entire faction over with two 4-1-2 units quite easily, thus ending up with a game in which you have a massive advantage and romping to a conquer victory by 2250.

Although it is still not impossible to romp through another faction's territory, it becomes much harder to achieve, due to the outbreak of defensive structures, such as Perimeter Defenses and the like.

Also, some of the most enjoyable games have been those in which I have given my faction a slight disadvantage, maybe a negative social engineering value or two.

telepath · September 12, 2000, 08:06

My most enjoyable game was when I was launching a massive amphibius assault on an entrenched Hive. The Hive was way more powerful than I was, so I had to go by superior tech and morale (I was Spartans in a tech-stag game. The first time I've ever described Chaos weapons as superior :-). The fight went on for something like 70-80 turns. Before and after that is sort of a blur. Anyway, It ended by my nervegasing of one of the three last remaining Hive bases, and their subsequent surrender.

------------------
Exit light, enter night.

Provost Harrison · September 12, 2000, 08:15

Surrendered after nervegas? Are you sure?

XWaste · September 12, 2000, 18:04

My first ever conquest victory with the Spartans will always remain in my memeory. It was only on thinker level, and I was trying hard to fight my natural builder istincts, but I made gradual progress. Eventually I had military superiority, and it was only a matter of time...something I had very little of. Miriam was the only defiant faction left, and had quite a sizeable territory. I was taking multiple bases a turn but was quickly reaching the 'ol 2500 mark with no capitulation. Come turn 2499 I was taking base after base, and still no surrender. With only a few units left to move I resigned myself to failure when...you guessed it, with about my second to last unit to move I captured that city which finally forced her surrender, and I won a conquest victory.

Most of you have probaly forgotten when a normal game was still hard...I'm still having trouble at transcend level.

Eurhetemec · September 14, 2000, 23:57

Yes, some of us still have *some* difficult with the SP game at the highest levels, though not to the point of losing, but still. I can remember clearly, however, when the lower settings were a challenge too, especially for people like me, who play "by the seat of their pants", as opposed to by complex formalized strategies (I still refuse to read SMAC FAQs and guides, excpet for specific info) and "role-play" their factions a bit rather than playing to win (which is, of course, more sensible, but less fun for us).

Anyway, the most tremendously fun game must have been the one where I took Morgan, more as a joke than anything else (no idea on difficultly, likely middle-high), and also because I was bored with the others (had had a long Yang-playing stint), and only then found out that he was "awesome" if played right, as I had cash rolling in, almost everyone alive was my friend, and I could buy practically every project straight off. It was a shock after Yang's frugal existance. I won by transcend with the highest score I ever achieved without trying to (nothing massive, but you can ALWAYS get a higher score if you try!), and quickly and easily too.

Now, though, tight games ARE the most fun, I even sabotage myself occasionally, by donating techs to the enemy or the like, and then starting the war up again. Still, this almost backfired in an incredibly tight game where Yang dominated a while back, where I beat him to transcend by one narrow turn (I completely didn't see his transcend coming, as he was at war at the time, only noticed it with a few turns to spare, and not huge amount of cash, and I couldn't nuke him for various reasons).

Misotu · September 16, 2000, 15:11

Hey Eurhetemec, I'm with you on this I'm afraid. I play by the seat of the pants too - I print off all the strategy guides like a good girl but, um, I just can't get round to reading them

Playing to a formula is not the way to have fun. It may be the way to win, but it's really not the way to have fun. For anyone who wants a good game against a human player, you should be aware that the tourny includes games at different levels. The rarest players (according to the CMN) are those who want games at Transcend level. This might come as a surprise to people who are intimidated by the thought of an organised tourny. DON'T BE! There are loads of players taking part who are in it for the fun, and playing at the level that's comfortable for them. Give it a try. You might find it hard to go back to SP.