long end game, and general observations

  Alpha Centauri Forums
  The Game
  long end game, and general observations

profile | register | prefs | faq | search

Author Topic:   long end game, and general observations

Hammer posted 03-17-99 03:48 PM ET
Well I'm just finishing my 4th complete game, and it has been a quite a long game.
First thing I notice is that on the higher difficulty levels Planet loves to attack the daylights out of you near the end. I had previously played on lower difficulty levels and not understood what some people were saying on this board about that. Jesus, now I understand completely. I am playing on the level before Transendent. I have never seen so many monster boils and locusts in my life. Hundreds upon hundreds of them. It sometimes takes between 20 and 30 minutes to begin a new turn as the worms and locusts have an unproductive go at my crawlers. I had a single crawler kill 20 boils as they threw themselves against it in vain. Does that make any sense?? And I have been very eco-kind. I only have 4 boreholes total, maybe 2 condensers and 2 mirrors. Forrest everywhere. Hmmmm. Furthermore, I have units deep in the heart of UoP and Spartan territory and Planet does is not bothering them. Why not?? Why just me? Although I understand the point of this in the plot... I believe it has been overdone and could be scaled back a bit. Thank god choppers can attack multiple times a turn, or I'd be 80 years old by the time this game was over.
Second thing that jumps out for me is I could not avoid war. I have been at war with Spartans since day one, and UoP since mid game. I am easily twice both of their size put together. I don't get it. They are losing by going fighting a war they cannot win. I would have loved to leave them both alone, and been left alone. They are too stupid to understand that while they throw their cheap units at mine, they are not building infrastructure and falling futher and further behind. Especially as I lay waste to their cities terraforming and leave in my wake barren land and watch their cities shrink to size 2... too fun and funny.
Third, pact mates can be complete assholes. I saved Morgan from certain death early in the game. Now in the late game, he is colonizing sea bases overlapping my best coast bases. What a jerk. I have seen this happen too many times. Next time it's death, I'm sick of it. I have yet to see the value of small Pact mates in any game, they all annoy the crap out of me. Only if a faction is powerful enough to bother an enemy will I engage in a pact from now on. The littles ones are like fleas man... anoying.
Fourth, I have begun to learn the art of terraforming as an offensive/destructive tool. I have wasted several of UoP's biggest coast cities by raising land, they shrink like something in cold water LOL. I have also sunk about 5 Spartan cities after removing their pressure domes with probe teams. Brilliant.
I love this game, but the endgame is even more tedious than Civ2. The best weapons come so late in the game you may never even build them. And why the AI is willing to participate in a war of attrition *it cannot win* on the path to losing like a weak schoolgirl is beyond me. Firaxis has done a great job with some elmements of this game - it is highly enjoyable - but I am left wanting for earlier tech, less city improvements (all i ever do is build, build, build, 5 turns for this, 8 turns for that, 6 turns for the other... jesus. I also want availability of high end weapons slightly earlier in the tech tree. By the time gravships are available, it's a fairly moot point.
One last thing, when sea levels started to rise we launched the solar shade. Unfortunately, it could not keep up with the level of the sea rising - does this make sense?? I had read where someone else said the solar shade was TOO GOOD and lowered the sea too much. Ugh, I was suprised to see the reverse happen.
Enough rambling... any thoughts from anyone?
-=Hammer
Hammer posted 03-17-99 03:53 PM ET
oh, I forgot to mention I played as Dierdre, and was Democratic/Green/Knowledge as soon as each was available, and went to Econ 40, Psych 20, Labs 40 about mid game.
This game is too addictive and I'm going to get fired for playing it too much LMAO.
-=Hammer
agoraphobe posted 03-17-99 04:57 PM ET
You need to build Voice of Planet and begin the "Transcend sequence" (whatever _that_ is, I still don't know!), aiming for a Transcend victory, obviously (it's basically building the Civ2 spaceship, SMAC style).
The mindworm mobs will magically vanish because they've supposed to suddenly perceive the "usefullness" of keeping the alien hominid invaders around - no misanthropes they. But, yeah, I was pretty flabbergasted the first time around, thinking "gee, is this the endgame?". No, you'll emerge more powerful than ever with the worms on your side - youll be planting fungus like crazy!
Next time, don't ever sit around and wait for the mindworms to attack you - think of all the money you're missing out on! Crank out some high-morale, high-Psi attack units and earn thousands of energy credits! In addition, in my last game, I switched from Free Market to Green and captured an 8+ stack of mature-to-demon boil worms!
So it really ain't all that bad.
Hammer posted 03-17-99 05:09 PM ET
agrophobe, thanks.
I'm a bit confused by your post though. I have just build the "Ascent" SP and that's when the massive groups of boils started. They were there before mind you, but now there are about 4 giant stacks every turn. I don't believe that starting the ascendence stops them... does it??
I am green as green can be - including being Deirdre - but I cannot capture nor kill a "stack". It's always one at a time, ad nauseam.
Yes the money is good Good enough to buy any SP I want that's left. However, each new turn takes *minimum* 20 minutes - that's two hours to play 6 turns... This I do not like. Maybe I'll try turning on fast battle resolution or something... that might help??
How do you capture a whole stack?? It never seems to happen for me.
-=Hammer
Koo posted 03-17-99 05:15 PM ET
1. You can't capture stacks of mindworms, but you can capture a loaded Isle of the Deep, which is pretty cool.
2. You can't capture mindworms in endgame, because they themselves are transcending.
3. I totally agree with your complaint about the tech being useless at the end -- I haven't had any fun with gravships, because by that point: (a) I've usually wiped the AI militarily; and (b) as you noted, turns take 20 minutes and I'm too tired to go for conquest, so I either Ascend or get voted Supreme Leader.
Robo posted 03-20-99 09:43 PM ET
Well, I _have_ captured stacks of mindworms a couple of times. The last game I reached Transendance and I didn't get any huge Mind Worm attacks towards the end though I did play with the Rare native life setting and built only one or two mineral increasing facilities total; I did have one borehole per city. Oh, and Free Market is hell on your Eco values, get away from it towards the end!
To close this thread, click here (moderator or admin only).


Hop to:

Contact Us | Alpha Centauri Home

Powered by: Ultimate Bulletin Board, Version 5.18
© Madrona Park, Inc., 1998.

Author	Topic: long end game, and general observations
Hammer	posted 03-17-99 03:48 PM ET Well I'm just finishing my 4th complete game, and it has been a quite a long game. First thing I notice is that on the higher difficulty levels Planet loves to attack the daylights out of you near the end. I had previously played on lower difficulty levels and not understood what some people were saying on this board about that. Jesus, now I understand completely. I am playing on the level before Transendent. I have never seen so many monster boils and locusts in my life. Hundreds upon hundreds of them. It sometimes takes between 20 and 30 minutes to begin a new turn as the worms and locusts have an unproductive go at my crawlers. I had a single crawler kill 20 boils as they threw themselves against it in vain. Does that make any sense?? And I have been very eco-kind. I only have 4 boreholes total, maybe 2 condensers and 2 mirrors. Forrest everywhere. Hmmmm. Furthermore, I have units deep in the heart of UoP and Spartan territory and Planet does is not bothering them. Why not?? Why just me? Although I understand the point of this in the plot... I believe it has been overdone and could be scaled back a bit. Thank god choppers can attack multiple times a turn, or I'd be 80 years old by the time this game was over. Second thing that jumps out for me is I could not avoid war. I have been at war with Spartans since day one, and UoP since mid game. I am easily twice both of their size put together. I don't get it. They are losing by going fighting a war they cannot win. I would have loved to leave them both alone, and been left alone. They are too stupid to understand that while they throw their cheap units at mine, they are not building infrastructure and falling futher and further behind. Especially as I lay waste to their cities terraforming and leave in my wake barren land and watch their cities shrink to size 2... too fun and funny. Third, pact mates can be complete assholes. I saved Morgan from certain death early in the game. Now in the late game, he is colonizing sea bases overlapping my best coast bases. What a jerk. I have seen this happen too many times. Next time it's death, I'm sick of it. I have yet to see the value of small Pact mates in any game, they all annoy the crap out of me. Only if a faction is powerful enough to bother an enemy will I engage in a pact from now on. The littles ones are like fleas man... anoying. Fourth, I have begun to learn the art of terraforming as an offensive/destructive tool. I have wasted several of UoP's biggest coast cities by raising land, they shrink like something in cold water LOL. I have also sunk about 5 Spartan cities after removing their pressure domes with probe teams. Brilliant. I love this game, but the endgame is even more tedious than Civ2. The best weapons come so late in the game you may never even build them. And why the AI is willing to participate in a war of attrition it cannot win on the path to losing like a weak schoolgirl is beyond me. Firaxis has done a great job with some elmements of this game - it is highly enjoyable - but I am left wanting for earlier tech, less city improvements (all i ever do is build, build, build, 5 turns for this, 8 turns for that, 6 turns for the other... jesus. I also want availability of high end weapons slightly earlier in the tech tree. By the time gravships are available, it's a fairly moot point. One last thing, when sea levels started to rise we launched the solar shade. Unfortunately, it could not keep up with the level of the sea rising - does this make sense?? I had read where someone else said the solar shade was TOO GOOD and lowered the sea too much. Ugh, I was suprised to see the reverse happen. Enough rambling... any thoughts from anyone? -=Hammer
Hammer	posted 03-17-99 03:53 PM ET oh, I forgot to mention I played as Dierdre, and was Democratic/Green/Knowledge as soon as each was available, and went to Econ 40, Psych 20, Labs 40 about mid game. This game is too addictive and I'm going to get fired for playing it too much LMAO. -=Hammer
agoraphobe	posted 03-17-99 04:57 PM ET You need to build Voice of Planet and begin the "Transcend sequence" (whatever _that_ is, I still don't know!), aiming for a Transcend victory, obviously (it's basically building the Civ2 spaceship, SMAC style). The mindworm mobs will magically vanish because they've supposed to suddenly perceive the "usefullness" of keeping the alien hominid invaders around - no misanthropes they. But, yeah, I was pretty flabbergasted the first time around, thinking "gee, is this the endgame?". No, you'll emerge more powerful than ever with the worms on your side - youll be planting fungus like crazy! Next time, don't ever sit around and wait for the mindworms to attack you - think of all the money you're missing out on! Crank out some high-morale, high-Psi attack units and earn thousands of energy credits! In addition, in my last game, I switched from Free Market to Green and captured an 8+ stack of mature-to-demon boil worms! So it really ain't all that bad.
Hammer	posted 03-17-99 05:09 PM ET agrophobe, thanks. I'm a bit confused by your post though. I have just build the "Ascent" SP and that's when the massive groups of boils started. They were there before mind you, but now there are about 4 giant stacks every turn. I don't believe that starting the ascendence stops them... does it?? I am green as green can be - including being Deirdre - but I cannot capture nor kill a "stack". It's always one at a time, ad nauseam. Yes the money is good Good enough to buy any SP I want that's left. However, each new turn takes minimum 20 minutes - that's two hours to play 6 turns... This I do not like. Maybe I'll try turning on fast battle resolution or something... that might help?? How do you capture a whole stack?? It never seems to happen for me. -=Hammer
Koo	posted 03-17-99 05:15 PM ET 1. You can't capture stacks of mindworms, but you can capture a loaded Isle of the Deep, which is pretty cool. 2. You can't capture mindworms in endgame, because they themselves are transcending. 3. I totally agree with your complaint about the tech being useless at the end -- I haven't had any fun with gravships, because by that point: (a) I've usually wiped the AI militarily; and (b) as you noted, turns take 20 minutes and I'm too tired to go for conquest, so I either Ascend or get voted Supreme Leader.
Robo	posted 03-20-99 09:43 PM ET Well, I _have_ captured stacks of mindworms a couple of times. The last game I reached Transendance and I didn't get any huge Mind Worm attacks towards the end though I did play with the Rare native life setting and built only one or two mineral increasing facilities total; I did have one borehole per city. Oh, and Free Market is hell on your Eco values, get away from it towards the end!