posted 02-23-99 05:58 AM ET            

Spoils off is a different way of playing, maybe more challenging.
For what it's worth one could also play with Tech Stagnation; if he feels he can outtech opponents, his edge would be longer-lasting.
Blind on makes also things more difficult, but in a random way; so, where's the skill and personal choice?

Guess I would play SMAC for the next 50 years w/out those options as well.

posted 02-23-99 06:20 AM ET         

Blind on

posted 02-23-99 01:08 PM ET            

Spoils make life much too easy for the militaristic factions -- after getting lasers, they can essentially set science to zero and capture everything from other cities. Miriam, Santiago, and Yang are already obnoxious enough.

posted 02-23-99 02:05 PM ET            

Blind off (sometimes on). Even with the focus thing it is just too frustrating sometimes when your researchers REFUSE to get Industrial Automation (a critical tech for us poor Morganites). I admit that it is kind of fun though, so sometimes I turn it on. Maybe for other factions it isn't as bad ... or maybe I haven't gotten good enough at using the focus thing yet.

A half-and-half approach would be AWESOME! You choose one tech, and then the next is random. If that were an option I would use it everytime. That would seem to be the most realistic. Afterall, if I call my researchers and say that I want a solution to my habitation problem then I bloody well want a solution to my habitation problem and not something else.

posted 02-23-99 03:06 PM ET            

Having blind on IS rolling dice but, as others have stated, it creates a lot more diversity in the game as opposed to the very classic predictable progress of tech that would be there otherwise. That stated, however, I have to agree with what somebody stated earlier that playing blind research with Morgan is VERY tough!

posted 02-23-99 04:52 PM ET            

Good point, Dredd: In my idea for spoils, add "city size" to the mix.

Isle: "Blind on, because I like diversified factions, if blind is on, you usely gets all the low one before the high ones, with it off you have can have much more interesting combinations."

Wouldn't it be the opposite? Instead of everybody having the same crappy low-level techs, now people can each pursue different paths to high-level techs. I take the techs needed for ecological engineering & enviornmental economics while my pact brother gets superstring theory and doctrine: air power. Much more efficient that way.

I can see putting it in for want of a greater challenege, it's just the "more diversity" argument that doesn't fly with me.

posted 02-24-99 05:39 PM ET            

Spoils ON is my preference ... it is nice to be able to get something when I take over a city.

NOTE: I am not that good a player ... I have TONS of fun though ... so Spoils On is just adding to my fun (I don't take over that many cities!).

posted 02-26-99 01:21 AM ET            

As for Blind Research, I've got it On over here; it forces me to adapt and do my best to use whatever techs I have acquired to my advantage. In addition, I'd not be surprised if it'll spice up multi-player (haven't had the chance to try it yet). In Civ 2, people did tend to aim for e.g. Monarchy, move straight to Philosophy etc, which IMHO turned kind of repetetive after a couple of sessions.

posted 02-26-99 02:09 AM ET            

Spoils are extremely annoying: if an AI happens to capture one of your weak cities, they can choose your best tech straight away, which would've normally taken many turns for them to research themselves.

I agree with the last poster's comments that it should be like MOO2's tech capture system: you would be very unlikely to capture a tech from a small city, but from a large, highly developed city you should get one or more techs. Also, they should be given to you randomly (as in MOO2).

posted 02-26-99 02:57 AM ET         

Blind on

posted 02-26-99 02:51 PM ET            

More realistic than being certain of getting any spare tec the enemys have. Would be on if I could make it random say

Nmb techs more * city size / number

where you could set the number in start up this would be a % chance if you go over 100% you start adding extrwa techs.

Blind on.

posted 02-26-99 06:36 PM ET            

What it should be - taking a city should result in a random tech advance, not the outright acquisition of the technology.

Ex: You conquer a Spartan city early on, they have Laser and another which you don't have. One of the two techs is randomly chosen and the cost of discovery of that particular tech is reduced by half.

The idea being that while conquering a city you were able to download some files, capture a research facility, interrogate a scientists, etc. and this has provided you with a leg up in the discover of a particular technolgy.

Leave it on or off. Adjust your strategy resultingly.

Blind tech:

What it is: As said before, one of the single greatest additions to the game.

I don't always like it either but it forces one adapt their strategy much as one does with regard to their terrain.

Summary:

Spoils - on or off
Blind tech - what, you afraid I'll get it first - you should be

posted 03-01-99 04:12 AM ET            

Really agree with SnowFire (02-23-99 post)

Good Ideas:
Spoil depends on
- base size
- buildigns/units related to new techs actually present
- partial reward (lab points bonus as with energy bonus)

As for Blind ON, I didn't test it thoroughly:
at which moment are the new techs randomly chosen?
I mean, can you know what you'll get when the researchers start a new one, or do you get the surprise only when they're finished?
In the first case, does Shift+R work as well, like directed research?
Could be made that you know where the Res is heading when it's about halfway, and there you could try to redirect it (always randomly) at the usual cost.
After all, if you ask for Build knowledge hoping for Hab Dome, when the research is well underway you should be able to get advancement report, and tell to your scientists, 'hell, no, that's interesting, but I was looking for something more urgent, try to focus more on say, Super Tensile Solids!'.
One thing I HATED the couple of times I tried it, was that often you had to stick in the same field for more than one discovery.
It should ABSOLUTELY be made that each time you can reassign priotities!
It would be even more interesting if you could allot precisely your resources and efforts, %wise, in the four fields.

posted 03-03-99 10:54 AM ET            

They gotta be, its the only fair thing. If you sac a city you have free roam of all the libraries and research facilities. However, I find from my experience playing, whenever i attack another city I usually have an overwhelming tech Advance to start with

Blind On

Mainly because of the nature of these Techs, Cyberethics?, Polymorphic Software?, Secret of the Human Mind?, unlike Civ where you at KNEW what Archery was all about by just the name of the tech, in SMAC we've got all this ambivalent futuristic crap (no offencse) that frankly means nothing. Yeah I could use the flow chart, but I don't have 12sq' of wall space free! So Just keep your advance rate set high and the path you want set right, and your golden. But if and when I learn all/most of the Techs then I'll switch to Blind off.

posted 03-03-99 12:30 PM ET         

Rules suggestion:
If I could write the rules to this game, I'd have an option where instead of getting the new tech from the city, you simply gained Research Points by conquering the city. The number of Research Points gained could be based on both how far advanced the faction whose base you conquered is ahead of you AND the facilities at the base.

Blind OFF
Again, I'm an old Civ player. I like knowing what I'm researching. I.E., I need that Hab Complex so lets go research it. Don't even talk to me about talking to Mindworms until we have room for people to live.

posted 03-03-99 02:03 PM ET         

Blind research off (I like being in control of which techs I research, one at a time). There are times in the game where you might need to switch from say... build to conquest because an aggressive war-mongering faction decided to take its hostilities out on you. Blind research doesn't afford you this capability as effectivly as picking the techs on your own.

To each their own though.

posted 03-03-99 02:25 PM ET            

I'm sort of ambivalent about spoils but I have it on because I feel there should be some reward for taking a city. Following this thread, I agree that the best tech available is to much of a reward every time and I admit I like the MOO2 approach (even though I keep getting those **** escape pods ) of getting something random. Also, I like the idea mentioned earlier that would limit the tech level to the city size. In civ2 I hated it when I started a new city only to have it surprised and have someone else suddenly get armour when all they had was muskets.

I leave blind research on to make the game more of a 'play with what you're dealt' type of game. This way I play the game and don't go on autopilot for research like I do in civ2.

posted 03-03-99 02:33 PM ET            

Blind on

As someone else already pointed out; capturing a city is nice enough; giving a free tech with it seems a bit much. Besides, there are better ways of extracting technology from your enemies (probe teams).