My new top score, yeehaw!

Guynemer · March 18, 2003, 14:04

I know it won't compare to all the masters here, but I'm pickled tink over my new top score, 597%, a Gaian diplomatic victory on transcend.

Hadn't played in quite a while, 'til I stumbled into this forum by accident and started reading, which got that damned SMAC monkey on my back again...

Static Universe · March 18, 2003, 14:28

Quote:

Originally posted by Guynemer
I know it won't compare to all the masters here, but I'm pickled tink over my new top score, 597%, a Gaian diplomatic victory on transcend.

Hadn't played in quite a while, 'til I stumbled into this forum by accident and started reading, which got that damned SMAC monkey on my back again...

Congratulations!

I stopped going for the high score thing long ago because the micromanagement drove me crazy. I got addicted to going "one more turn, one more turn" after the Cloning Vats to get all those population points.

Massive SMAC burnout.

Flubber · March 18, 2003, 16:38

Quote:

Originally posted by Static23

Congratulations!

I stopped going for the high score thing long ago because the micromanagement drove me crazy. I got addicted to going "one more turn, one more turn" after the Cloning Vats to get all those population points.

Massive SMAC burnout.

I agree completely. The one more turn syndrome gets insane with increased population points and the extra points for tech ( with 3 or 4 techs a turn coming in a turn.) I simply got tired of building bases in EVERY available square when the combination of food sats, the CBA and the Cloning Vats meant that everything was booming. Once hab restrictions are gone, the bases just get to obscene sizes and transcendii rake in the benefits.

I'm happy guynemer achieved a new milestone but very few players attempt to beat high scores due to the tedium of growing to superlarge sizes.

Static Universe · March 18, 2003, 17:05

Yeah, the game sort of loses all it's fun when each turn takes 30 minutes and your only opponent left is Chairman Yang off in some isolated seabase trying to build a Planet Buster with no minerals.

Lazerus · March 18, 2003, 19:39

My last opponent is usually aki or lal, either out of kindness or because i just enjoy using fungal missiles every turn

The score limits at 999% right ??

Lefty Scaevola · March 18, 2003, 20:59

Nope, I have seen results in the 2000s%.

Gorat · March 18, 2003, 22:46

2000%?! Must of been really milking the game.

Mine is over 1000% (not much over). 12,000 score or so (and that was kind of milking it).

I always play iron man/transcend, helps some of course.

Gnool · March 19, 2003, 02:41

I haven't played SMAC in ages, most of the time I didn't go for a high score, I just conquered everyone

.

Frankychan · March 19, 2003, 03:21

I was proud with my 39%

I usually go for conquest victory...it's more fun.

gwillybj · March 19, 2003, 04:16

Is it heresy to say I couldn't care less about score or rating?

Please be assured I mean no disrespect whatsoever to anyone who tries various ways to obtain high scores and ratings. I always read with great interest accounts of players' exploits.

It's all good

Static Universe · March 19, 2003, 06:45

Quote:

Originally posted by Gorat
2000%?! Must of been really milking the game.

Mine is over 1000% (not much over). 12,000 score or so (and that was kind of milking it).

I always play iron man/transcend, helps some of course.

Oddly enough, the highest score in my Hall of fame is 1002%, although I know I had a few scores higher than that before I had to reinstall the game.

There's a sequence of scores in my Hall of Fame, all from the same game, where I conquered the last enemy base every turn to see the change in score. Finally, I got bored and transcended (then went to sleep I imagine

)

Type	Score	Percent	Year
Transcend	6320	592%	MY 2384
Conquer	4940	463%	MY 2381
Conquer	4789	448%	MY 2380
Conquer	4651	436%	MY 2379

This was non-Ironman, at least half the territory taken up by submissive factions, and no attempts at optimisation on my part.

You can really see what a difference one turn makes in the final score, and how easy it is to get sucked in to going one more turn when you start considering score, long after you can achieve victory by any other method.

Lefty Scaevola · March 19, 2003, 12:42

Quote:

Originally posted by Gorat
2000%?! Must of been really milking the game.

Yeah, that would be 508 bases (averaging 50 to 60 citzens), with 5 submissive and 1 allied other factions one base each (to trad with your super science base) rolling up the transcendent thought, saving all you alien artifact to the 2nd to last turn to cash in, and transecending on the last turn (2499 or 2599 depending or difficulty level)

Mr. President · March 20, 2003, 00:09

My best score is only around 175%-ish. But that's because I avoid most micro-management tasks.

Guynemer · March 20, 2003, 00:34

Egads, who would want to milk the game when it could be won? Sounds incredibly tedious... as soon as I had the votes for a diplo victory, I went for it.

Strange thing about those votes... I conquered about 14 of Yang's 20 bases before he submitted; in the process, I freed both Lal and Roze from his capital, gaining two more vassal states (one of which has 2x votes... handy). I still didn't have the votes, and wouldn't for quite a while. I started invading Miriam, who had been sniping at my frontier and ocean bases for quite some time. After taking only five of her 30 or so bases, she submitted. I'd never seen such a quick surrender, in all my years of SMAC. Now with 4 vassal states, Miriam with around 100 votes, I had just enough votes to triple the combined total of Zakharov and Dawn...

Very fun game, trailed for the opening half, quite substantially in parts, missed many a SP I usually make a beeline for. Can't believe Miriam gave up so easily... at the very least, she could have probed her bases back (I missed HSA), and offensively, she wasn't too far behind in tech, using Tachyon while I had Shard... hell, given her attack bonus, she was still ahead of me.

CreepyD · March 20, 2003, 11:50

I never try to do all that end game rubbish.. once u have won, u have won so just win the damn game

I always win it asap, unless im nearing transcendance when i will go for that.
best so far is 347% with userpers (3470 score too)

once u get into just playing to score high, the game gets incredibly boring imo, its much more fun just going as fast as pos and trying to beat ur own scores that way

Kaptain Ken · March 25, 2003, 18:40

If you are a builder or a perfectionist, you play longer to achieve your goals, and yes it can get boring in the late game, but its still fun.

gwillybj · March 26, 2003, 04:09

It ain't over 'til Planet sings

mox · March 26, 2003, 10:19

Hey Guynemer, a fellow Michigander? I'm up in Saginaw...

Guynemer · March 26, 2003, 12:02

It's wonderful that you can admit that.

Flubber · March 26, 2003, 17:16

In SP I often just don't bother to finish the game at all. If I am 5 times as big as everyone else combined and have a huge tech lead, secure probe defense and a secure military situation, whats the point? Playing on would just kill a bunc of hours for very little enjoymenyt

Static Universe · March 26, 2003, 18:59

Oh, I don't know. It can get pretty boring sometimes, but I quite enjoy mopping up the AI players at end of game. Especially when they've been mouthing off and posturing the whole game.

Hendrik · March 26, 2003, 19:00

Mox I grew up in Midland, Michigan. My mom and dad both worked in Saginaw, I went there occaisionally.

CEO Aaron · March 26, 2003, 19:02

I'm with Flubber on this one. I only play my single player games to the point at which my victory is assured. For the longest time I had never won the game by transcendence, and simply opted for political victory on the few times I had finished. If I get a game that stays interesting high enough on the tech tree, I might go for the Transcend win, but mostly I park the game once I'm in a secure position and start over.

I've been reading some of the challenge ideas with interest, I like the idea of switching factions midgame to the weakest, then building them up.

Flubber · March 27, 2003, 02:19

Quote:

Originally posted by CEO Aaron .

I've been reading some of the challenge ideas with interest, I like the idea of switching factions midgame to the weakest, then building them up.

I did that one a couple of months ago-- it was a lot of fun and I can really recommend it For a real challenge, pick an initial faction that you are very good with. That means a real monster empire to try to overcome later

CEO Aaron · March 28, 2003, 01:20

Well, I started out Morgan, against the other standard SMAC factions. I built them up for 100 years, then switched over to the last place faction, and of course, it had to be the Spartans (my least favorite of the original 7). Not only did these clowns have only 3 bases, but they had 4 colony pods just parked in the middle of nowhere. To make matters worse, they hadn't even discovered centauri ecology, so no formers.

I don't know whether I'm going to be able to turn things around, to be honest, Morgan's snapping up tech and SP's at an alarming rate, and everyone else seems intent on crushing me like the insignificant bug I am.

Flubber · March 28, 2003, 08:58

Quote:

Originally posted by CEO Aaron
Well, I started out Morgan, against the other standard SMAC factions. I built them up for 100 years, then switched over to the last place faction, and of course, it had to be the Spartans (my least favorite of the original 7). Not only did these clowns have only 3 bases, but they had 4 colony pods just parked in the middle of nowhere. To make matters worse, they hadn't even discovered centauri ecology, so no formers.

I don't know whether I'm going to be able to turn things around, to be honest, Morgan's snapping up tech and SP's at an alarming rate, and everyone else seems intent on crushing me like the insignificant bug I am.

We never said it would be easy. When I did it last, I think I inherited factions with populations less than 10 at each the 100 and 150 year switch. It takes great flexibility in playstyle. You may be used to a tech lead and crushing everyone but in this type of game you may have to use a lot more diplomacy

CEO Aaron · March 28, 2003, 12:22

Well, since my last post, my situation has improved somewhat. Morgan came to my rescue by building the Empath Guild and convening the planetary council. Once I had some other factions' comlink frequencies I was able to dial up Zak and trade a few techs to him. Once I had gatling technology and clean reactors under my belt, I was able to roll out a sizable force of clean gatling rovers, and clean Miriam off my left flank. Unfortunately, Yang appears to have discovered air-power, and has overrun Believer positions to my north, and is now razing my modest crawler fleet up there, as well as any expeditionary forces I manage to send there. I secured a ceasefire with Mimi to consolidate my gains, and my plan at this point is to dig in and wait out the Hive bombardment until I can get either AAA (my next tech) or Air power myself.

Meanwhile, Morgan is running gangbusters, having picked up the Cloudbase Academy and the Cyborg Factory in addition to just about every other SP discovered so far. Its not so much that I'm used to having the tech lead, I've played plenty of games as the Believers, I'm just not used to having NO secret projects. If I do wind up turning this around, the only way I'm going to be back in the driver's seat is to raze Morgan's continent and transfer my capital.

Fazdaar · March 28, 2003, 16:19

On the topic of high scores, does the difficutly affect your score?

Static Universe · March 28, 2003, 16:42

Quote:

Originally posted by Fazdaar
On the topic of high scores, does the difficutly affect your score?

IIRC, difficulty level has no direct affect on the final score.

From GameSpot:

Quote:

Scoring
Your Alpha Centauri score is calculated as follows:
1. One point for each citizen of each base.
2. If you have won a diplomatic or economic victory, score:
(a) One point for each citizen of a pact brother's base.
(b) Half a point for each citizen of any other faction's base.
3. Half a point for each citizen of a surrendered base.
4. One point for each unit of commerce your bases are receiving.
5. One point for each technology discovered.
6. Ten points for each transcendence thought advance.
7. 25 points for each secret project.
8. A victory bonus if you have won the game.

Flubber · March 28, 2003, 19:19

ceoaaron

I never sweat the Projects when playing against the AI . . I want then but it does not bother me if I miss a few--If I get tech parity with a reasonable size empire, I know I can conquer what I need