posted 03-12-99 05:24 AM ET        

I had finished playing Transcend as Gaia. Got a Trancend victory in MY2287. So, I feel quite familiar with the game.

The most impressive feeling on Civ2 was that they put most of the game rules on txt files. I never really messed much with it, except when trying that WWII scenerio. I disabled the railroad because it seemed funny I take turns to bring plance from Berlin to Urals while just an instant to bring in the heavy artilerry.

Now, I come from south india where the world domination theory is not well established. Of course, you don't have to be realistic while playing a game. Still, i just want to give some background so you would understand what game I would really like to play. For a more familiar background, I think you could imagine Poland or Israel.

What I mean is, I prefer to have some area, develop it and defend what is mine, while not interested in taking what is others. I know it may sound stupid - where is the victory condition?

That is the problem. I couldn't think of a victory condition suitable for what I would want to play. Also, I would like to modify some game rules. (Brian/Sid's making of those text files appreciated.)

For example, here are the stories which I would like to be unfold in the game (I would use Poland for example, since it would be easy for those populating this forum to understand):
1.Here I sit with my less than top-end tech and this (spartans) russians want to carve me up. (Maybe I am Gaia and Spartans are my neighbours) How do I get my neighbours to help me get rid of this threat, without really needing to destroy this spartan menace?
2. As I had said earliear, I am not really sure what I would give as a victory condition in this scenerio. Probably just to survive in the top 3 by the year xxxx.

Then to edit this rules file:
1. Disable mag tubes. They don't make sense to what I have in my mind. Maybe just make the road = 4x per turn. Then the hovers can go 12 spaces on road. Seems reasonable.

2. Disable planet busters. Nukes make sense to America, Russia, China with huge lands but the Slovaks won't have much to talk if just one H-Bomb fell on them. Anyway, even gamewise, you would see the Hive use just one PB, got vendetta from everyone else, and go down. The human player would make sure he blasts everybody down once he started on PB warfare. Anyway, I feel it so disheartening since so many turns are needed to build all those facilities in a city. (In fact, SMAC, like Civ2, limits production on a turn basis. Even with a million energy at hand, if you have 1 city, then you would make only 1 unit a turn. So, I feel even more upset with this PB stuff. Call me a Wimp Warrior.)

Maybe edit the faction files. Since they are so poor at teraforming, they go down in the endgame. Maybe something can be done to deal with this.

Modify this research thing so you get an even-spaced research. As of now, I get 1 tech/15 turns in beginning, maybe takes 20 turns in middle (MY2170), then at end, it is just 3 or even 2 turns. It means all those goody-goody techs are not really appreciated by me.

Disable some Special project. The cloning Vats and others that the AI seems unable to use properly.

Somewhere in the forum, there is a discussion on how the AI, while better, is making stupid battle decisions because of the complexity in weapons. Maybe disable some weapon systems? After all, I just want a 'tech increases troop effectiveness' thing. It doesn't matter if there are just infantries and no special ability at all. There are many posts here about how to trick the AI to build some unit types and then attack with specially tailored units. The day of a REAL CLEVER AI is long off but I also don't want to handicap myself simply to make battles tough. Maybe it would be better to leave only the units that the AI can properly use.

There are many things that come to my mind. Even what I wrote above, I could have written in more details. Still, I hope there are some people out there who has a Polan/Japan/Israel type of background to help me.

I need the help because
1. Better ideas than mine.
2. I don't want to do something that will end up destroying gameplay. Sure, I can test a dozen times but maybe someone else can see straight away the undesirable effects of the modifications I am thinking about.
3.I am not bad with computers but not really an expert on A.I. and also the underlying game algoritms. (or something.)

posted 03-17-99 12:47 PM ET         

As for the other comments, I often find turning over a few units to a pact brother/ally. They will be grateful and you don't need to bother with the combat.