Universal Translater - Does anyone really use it for other than the 2 free techs?

Mead · September 10, 2003, 22:39

In just about all of my SP SMAC games I usually build the Universal Translator. One because I can - Two, because it gives me two free techs. I know it also allows you to cash an unlimited number of Alien Artifacts at that base, but I cannot recall using it for that purpose.

Does it have another feature I am overlooking?

Please note that usually:

- I usually play as Zak, so I get a free NN at every base; and
- I usually play on a huge map so that the base that I would choose for the UT is usually a decently sized base from an area that is already well developed (makes it easy to build the SP quickly) with any pods in the area near the UT base already harvested so any AA obtained from a pod is usually very far away from the UT base.
- Usually, I am, I guess what is called a sprawler. I build a lot of bases and ignore any and all bureaucracy warnings. In many games, after the computer starts labeling all my new bases University (or Sparta - whatever) 58 I have to start making up my own names.

In the times I am fortunate enough to get an AA, and I am playing a faction other than University, I am more than willing to rush build a NN in the closest base to cash the AA for tech. (Maybe if a game lasts long enough I will place a PSI gate in the UT base so I can quickly move found AA's to it from other bases with PSI gates; although it would seem easier just to rush a NN in the closest base to the new found AA.)

I can understand UT might useful to cash AAs for tech if you had a game where you were greatly limited in the number of bases you could build but otherwise I do not see the value of UT (other than the two free techs).

Please let me know if the Universal Translator has some other special ability that that I am unaware of. If it does not, it has to be one of the weakest, if not the weakest, SP.

Mead

P.S.

Usually, if you are able to build the UT before your opponents, it means you are have already won the game, but are still hanging around to have the ability to end it.

CEO Aaron · September 10, 2003, 23:58

If you give me an unlimited number of Alien Artifacts, I'll be sure and use the UT. Seriously, I've never seen more AAs in a game than I had already built nodes. Of course, I use the early nodes for SPs, not tech, since tech is not typically where I'm lacking.

I can see a situation where you're having a tight transcendence race, and the extra techs from UT can give you the edge, but by and large, the game should be lost and won at that point.

RedFred · September 11, 2003, 01:03

The UT is perfect for the OCC. Anybody who hasn't tried some form of One City Challenge, I say go for it. You are in for a really fun and quick game.

Pandir · September 11, 2003, 01:17

I have used it to cash in multiple alien artifacts.

Hydro · September 11, 2003, 11:18

My Gaians frequently get more artifacts than they know what to do with. IoDs and mindworms trolling unoccupied islands provides lots of AAs, in my experience. Early AAs are used for SPs (never prototypes), and the rest linked with nodes. I rarely build more than 20 or so bases, and AAs tend to build up. In this case it is easier to build the UT than new bases with nodes, especially after mag tubes (resulting in a horde of tech advances in one turn).

joncnunn · September 11, 2003, 11:58

UT arrives so late that I have always almost finished finding all the pods (that the AI didn't get to first), and what few artificats I get afterwords can easily be given to seperate bases with Network Nodes.

Lefty Scaevola · September 11, 2003, 12:04

I save my AA until late in the game when tech cost is higher, and cash them all at once.

Alinestra Covelia · September 11, 2003, 12:29

Put it earlier in the tech tree and it's much more fun. I put it as early as Optical Computers, and it can make a real difference.

Mead · September 11, 2003, 19:59

One nice thing about the Universal Translator that I like that I forgot to mention.

It does have a cool movie.

It may be one of the weakest SP, but it has one of the best movies.

It compares very well with some of the other SP movies that I think rate well:

NanoFactory, Ascetic Virtues, and Telepathic Matrix.

Mead

Curiosity · September 12, 2003, 18:52

It's remarkably useful in OCC.

gwillybj · September 13, 2003, 02:50

Quote:

Mead wrote:
Universal Translator - Does anyone really use it for other than the 2 free techs?
In just about all of my SP SMAC games I usually build the Universal Translator. One because I can - Two, because it gives me two free techs. I know it also allows you to cash an unlimited number of Alien Artifacts at that base, but I cannot recall using it for that purpose.
Does it have another feature I am overlooking?

Nope, that's all it's for: (A) 2 free techs and (B) unlinked Alien Artifacts. If I need or want (A) and/or I have or anticipate (B), I'll be sure to get the Universal Translator built ASAP.

Maniac · September 13, 2003, 08:58

Sure, it may not be so ground breaking as other SPs, but I don't see any reason not to build it, at least if upgrading crawlers is allowed. By the time you can build it, research costs are probably in the thousands. But upgrading a crawler to hurry the SP only costs a few 100s of credits. So you're making a definite profit of a few thousand credits. I wouldn't just throw that away.

bondetamp · September 13, 2003, 10:20

I generally play with just 3-5 bases to save me from the scourge of micro management. UT is very useful to me.

Adalbertus · September 14, 2003, 15:55

@ Curiosity

I usually end up with more bases than tech's. When I build UT, it's already that late in the game that I don't really need any more techs (the last one I *need* is Supertensile Solids for Hab Domes.

joncnunn · September 15, 2003, 17:09

Myself, the last tech I need is Centuari Genetics.
(LOCUSTS!)

Mead · September 22, 2003, 14:33

Quote:

Originally posted by RedFred
The UT is perfect for the OCC. Anybody who hasn't tried some form of One City Challenge, I say go for it. You are in for a really fun and quick game.

Based upon your suggestion I tried my first couple of games (both as Gaian) at OCC. It was fun.

I lost the first one (first game I lost in SMAC in a long time). I guess it did not help much having Sparta as a close neighbor. Although I tried to be nice to her, I was too close and she must have found it better to just kill me.

The second I won.
It was easier since I was out of the way in the bottom left corner of the map (huge). Morgan was my nearest neighbor and all the less pleasant factions (Hive, Miriam, Sparta) were very far away.

I did not build the UT. I was too far behind tech-wise to be able to do it.

During the game I made my area an island, kept out of the way of the fights between the big factions. Allowed Sparta, Hive, and Miriam declare Vendetta on me so I could keep in good graces with Lal (ran and kept Demo as soon as I could).

I made a nice energy park on my island (even enlarging the island in the process, but not enough to connect me to other lands or to have any part of my island not within by base boundary line - to keep my allies from deciding to make a base there).

I upgraded to clean reactors as soon as possible. Usually, when I play using the huge map and 50+bases I do not bother much with clean units except for the clean police units.

I had a large number of crawlers working my energy park (which BTW had roads to them) and when it looked like Lal was getting close to being able to build VoP I started building upgraded crawlers and kept them in garrison.

I only had to take one base. This was a Spartan sea base that Santiago made too close to me and started to use to pick off my crawlers. I took it with a combo chopper/locusts attack and then turned it over to my best buddy (at least until near the end of the game, when a few turns after he broke the pact with me, Powerful Beyond Belief Lal told me to declare Vendetta on him or I would go down) Morgan.

Once Lal built the VoP I rush built the Ascent to Trans (I brought all the crawlers home and cashed them in along with the upgraded ones that were in garrison). It and ME, were the only two SPs I built. Even if I could have built the UT I would not have been able to use it to cash AAs because I had only one AA. I built up the land around my base so much that my base became landlocked. With no operating transports I had no chance of getting any more AAs.

It was a thrilling game. The very real possibility of losing made it exciting. Thanks.

Mead