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This is literally my favorite video game ever made. I remember playing the demo from a PC Gamer demo disc 14 years ago. Every time I play the game again, I discover something new. It's just that great. While I've never played a multiplayer game, I've noticed a lot of amusing things playing against the (easily abused) AI. Most notably that Morgan is the one faction that actually doesn't want to touch Free Market economics at all, and that if you ever manage to keep up on tech with Miriam, you will never lose a war. That +25% offense bonus can be pretty drat unfair. Also, in the BE thread everyone was posting up their favorite quotes, with a noticeable bias for all the gloom and darkness that permeates the game's tone. So I'm gonna provide some contrast and link my favorite secret project video which has a quote that's actually pretty uplifting: The Cloudbase Academy posted:In one dimension, I found existence. In two, I find life. But in three, I find freedom.
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Jun 17, 2014 19:56
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| # ¿ Apr 24, 2024 05:24 |
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I find Weather Paradigm and Cloudbase Academy to be the two most important projects when I play. Aerospace complexes are just so much more powerful than the other morale buildings, it's not even funny. Human Genome project is also pretty important if I can squeeze it in the early game. It's nice in that it prevents you from getting drone riots the moment you hit population 4 (or heaven forbid population 2, if you're playingon transcend difficulty).
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Jun 18, 2014 03:24
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Cythereal posted:I find the Virtual World better than the HGP, though if I can I like to get both. Network nodes are usually one of the first things I build in any situation and Zakharov gets them for free, so making them do double duty for drone control is always welcome. Virtual World is a great project, don't get me wrong, but it requires Planetary Networks which is sadly not on the tech tree path to Environmental Economics. And let's face it, if you're not going straight for Tree Farms, you'd better have declared war on somebody in the first 20 turns. Actually, speaking of research, was the game meant to be played with Blind Research on? It really does fit thematically and it's on by default, but at the same time it makes the mid-game a hell of a mess to get through (I sadly have memorized the first 3 or 4 tiers of tech to the point where I can pinpoint my techs even while blind).
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Jun 18, 2014 04:50
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I prefer to play SMAX with SMAC factions, just so there's some way of dealing with the Hunter-Seeker Algorithm short of a planet buster.
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Jun 18, 2014 21:58
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Fister Roboto posted:One of my favorite little things about this game is how each faction has one social policy that they can't select, and how all the rest are fair game, and you can end up with interesting combinations that seem almost antithetical to that faction, but not as much as their forbidden policy. Like, the Hive can have a free market economy, or the Morganites can be diligent caretakers of the planet, or the Gaians can have a ruthless fascist dictatorship with eyes for world domination. I think the pinnacle of irony is that Morgan is actually better off not using Free Market. The penalties to planet and police are pretty damning. On the other hand, if he just uses Wealth (since +2 econ is really all you need) and then uses Green and Democratic to jack his efficiency, his energy output skyrockets.
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Jun 19, 2014 02:49
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Better yet, a faction full of Believing cyborgs. Oh, who am I kidding, no game with Miriam ever lasts that long.
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Jun 19, 2014 03:07
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I just started a game where I was Deidre and landed right next to the Monsoon Jungle. Excited at how easy it the early game would be (since forests still get +1 nutrients from the jungle), I explored it fully. One of the data pods triggered an earthquake, created a mountain, and destroyed half the drat jungle. 
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Jun 19, 2014 17:07
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I wish this game didn't gently caress up with screenshots, because I just had a game where Lal got the Empath Guild, won a war on his continent, and then voted himself in as supreme leader. Speaking of, is there any way to get a "real" diplomatic victory on higher difficulties? The AI is so aggressive, that every time I've been voted in as supreme leader, it was with a coalition of factions who had previously surrendered to me anyway.
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Jun 19, 2014 20:35
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I think, in theory, the reason why defense scales so poorly is because there's so many stackable defense bonuses. Base, perimeter, tachyon, AAA, aerospace complex, trance etc. It doesn't really shake out, but it's not hard to see what they were aiming for.
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Jun 19, 2014 23:13
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raven4267 posted:A lot of people don't like Miriam(which I completely understand), but she is actually really fun to play, as well as extremely powerful if she is played right. The trick with her is that you need to be very active with your probe teams to keep up on tech, especially during the early game. I don't even really bother building any labs until the mid game or later with her, it saves a bunch of money. I think Miriam gets a disproportional amount of dislike because, internet demographics being what they are, a lot of people love playing University and Believers are diametrically opposed to them. I personally think she has the most interesting set of advantages and disadvantages and, if you want to play a conquer-heavy game, is strictly better than Santiago. Any time I'm Believers and start next to University, I immediately declare war, get them to surrender, and then use them as my tech farm and watch the rest of the world crumble before my 25% offense bonus. e: Holy poo poo, I forgot that transcend difficulty made literally every single one of your citizens drones. That's a giant step up from thinker difficulty. inthesto fucked around with this message at 03:22 on Jun 20, 2014 |
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Jun 20, 2014 02:52
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Tomn posted:Say, does anyone know if the interludes in the game differ in any significant way based on who you picked? I always wondered what the Transcendence victory looked like as Miriam. They're exactly the same, except a bunch of names get swapped around. For example, the name of the promising scientist who links with the first human-bred mind worm will change depending on the faction, but the rest of the text won't.
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Jun 22, 2014 22:48
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At a glance, Pilgramge and Industries look like they're a cut better than the rest, and House looks like it starts with one foot in the grave.
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Jun 26, 2014 22:39
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One of the important things about Tree Farms is that Environmental Economics picks up Industrial Economics in its path (hello free market!) and isn't far off from Industrial Automation. If you start relatively isolated or have cowed neighbors, then it's the quickest and easiest path to explode your economy and keep permanent golden age.
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Aug 8, 2014 07:13
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I just turn off Free Market during wartime.
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Aug 11, 2014 15:48
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I always find running Free Market with Morgan is just more trouble than it's worth. It's so much simpler to run wealth. Combined with Human Genome and his low population caps, it's extremely easy to keep Morgan in permanent golden age without much cost.
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Aug 11, 2014 22:16
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Zakharov generates extra drones for a reason. Something tells me he's not afraid to perform human experiments and kick the subjects to the curve when it's over. Really, in the SMAC canon, everyone is some kind of psychopath except for maybe Deidre (and that's only because she hid it) and Lal (who's still a total weirdo about his dead wife).
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Aug 15, 2014 04:15
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ducttape posted:It was just a single trilogy, written by Michael Ely, and a comic book. The books were 'Centauri Dawn', 'Dragon Sun', and 'Twilight of the Mind', the comic was 'Alpha Centauri: Power of the Mindworms' by Rafael Kayanan. How good are these novels? On a scale from Baldur's Gate to... uh poo poo, have there ever been any good video game novelizations?
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Aug 15, 2014 22:28
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| # ¿ Apr 24, 2024 05:24 |
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If you're worried an LP being "too small" to merit its own thread, you can always make it a "let's all play" thread where readers can contribute whatever the hell they want. I know I'd be down for doing a couple of doofy gimmicks for it.
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Aug 15, 2014 22:58
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