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Author Topic:   UoP, whats the big deal?

High Priest posted 05-14-99 07:26 PM ET
I have tried to play the University, but it seems that most of my games, I end up getting stunned by the drones, and as a result, often have a lower tech rating than many others. I know UoP has alway(at least that I've seen) gotten the top votes. Just check the "New Favorite Factions" thread, or any game site poll. I was curious what the method for so much success could be?
Any suggestions?
High Priest
Plato90s posted 05-14-99 08:13 PM ET
The key to playing the UoP at Transcend level is not try to be #1 in technology.
The main benefit of having +2 research is the ability to do two things:
1) Get to Particle Impacter early. This is the most decisive early weapon and it'll help in the first couple wars.
2) Keep up with the pack in research while you pump out military units.
The most precarious time for the UoP is the intermediate period between the first set of wars that crop up as soon as you meet your neighbors and when you get into the high tech weapons.
You need to keep a large standing army to discourage your enemies and to expand aggressively to establish a base of support with small bases. With +2 research, you can set labs at 40% and still pump up your military strength.
Once you get Hab Complex and Tree Farm, the UoP will start its ascent to dominance.
High Priest posted 05-14-99 10:41 PM ET
OK,
So what do you reccomend for SPs(usually can only grab a couple if lucky), SE, and the best way of fighting drones.
Thanx a million!
High Priest
Koshko posted 05-14-99 11:55 PM ET
I've won on Transcend with the UoP leading tech all of the way.
Musts,
Virtual World; Human Genome Project; Ascetic Virtues; Hunter-Seeker; the Matrix; as always the Cloning Vats
If all possible,
Weather Para; Xeno Dome; Citizens Defense and Command Center (instant protection)
Others build if possible but get the Musts first.

Koshko posted 05-15-99 01:03 AM ET
Truthfully, I can't help on the SPs any better because I usually have a vast majority of the projects anyway.
Human Genome + Rec Commons + Virtual World = minimal drone problems until Hab Complex. I'll forego growing beyond 7 until I can build a Research Hospitol and Tree Farm. By them I was running good enough where I could get away with 20% Psyche. By the end I had to have 60% Psyche and 20% Lab and 20% Ecomony, but I was still producing 1 tech a turn or two.
My preferred SE for UoP,
At first, Demo/Green/Research
During war switch to either Police State or Power
Later, Demo/Green/Power/Cyber or Eudo
Plato90s posted 05-15-99 11:25 AM ET
The really vital SPs for the UoP are:
Weather Paradigm - you need infrastructure quickly and WP is the best way to get that.
Virtual World - This is the SP tailor-made for the UoP. UoP already have the nodes and have the most problems with drones.
Obviously, you always want to build the Merchant Exchange/Supecollider/Theory of Everything combo if possible, but it's not a necessity.
Citizen's Defense Force is also a high priority thing. You don't need Command Nexus as badly since you will probably be pumping out units from your core cities, but UoP needs to build a Rec. Common fast and there's no time to build Perimeter defense as well before enemies come knocking.
Alkis posted 05-15-99 11:50 AM ET
Plato90s offered his strategy, of playing UoP as a military faction. I play in a much different fashion but I think his strategy is interesting and in some occasions (when surrounded by many angry neighbours for instance) the only one.
You see, the UoP is a very flexible race allowing you many possible options, can use free market, can use Demo/Planned for pop. booms, can even use Power or Wealth. The only thing it cannot use is Fundamentalism, a choice which is not popular and helpfull anyway. The way I play, depending on the map etc, is to combine many important little things in one super strategy.
1.Use free market early. You are the best research race, get free market early and use it! Ok, I know this isn't easy, but with practice you can do it and it is very beneficiall to both your research and your money. Please note that even as the Uop you don't have more drones when your bases are below size 4. Around M.Y. 2130 you should be ready. From then on (supposing you already have 4 bases) each time you build a new one you also send a scout patrol there, home-city it and start building recreation commons immediately. With free market your second citizen will be a drone, so you have to take care of that.
2.Build the Human Genome as your first project. Then you will be allowed to have bases the size of 2 before unrest and without recreation commons. Have another base start the Virtual World. Actually I built these two Secret Projects in all of my last 12 games (I failed only once, missed the VW because the AI cheated badly). One Project I really want is the Weather Paradigm but it's too hard, for me at least, to build it. I managed to have all three in only one game (in about 12 tries). I played more games on TI but it was before I discovered the power of early free market.
3.Go for Environmental Economics. This will remove the energy restrictions and also give you tree farm and terraform up/down. Before that you will not be recieving all the energy the +1 each square gives you. But my suggestion is not to wait till Environ. Ec. to use free market. I think you can have this tech at about M.Y. 2170 (2161 my best score).
4.Your next goal should be to build children creches everywhere and switch to Demo/Planned to boom your pop. You can also allocate some % to Psych. From then on your research, your income and your production (because of the many citizens) really rocks. When you reach the pop limit you can switch back to free market but keep Democracy because you need the extra efficiency now.
5.Another thing that I found helpfull, don't build many bases. The game penalizes you with additional drones when you have many bases, so for a time at least, play with 6-9 bases.
6.There are many more things, scouting, managing diplomacy, manipulating your neighbours, using supply crawlers, using probe teams etc but if someone uses my strategy his technology will really be unsurpassed.
Example: In my last game, I was building the Ascend to Trans. and the second best faction was researching orbital spaceflight. No chance to be nuked when no one has even researched planet busters.
High Priest posted 05-16-99 05:10 PM ET
All right,
thanx, Alkis, Plato, and Koshko, I'll definately try your strategies.
PS: Alkis, what difficulty level were you talking about(I'm talking about Transcend)?
High Priest
Alkis posted 05-16-99 07:14 PM ET
Transcend ironman. I have some saves if you are interested but not many, maybe one from each game (I don't finish a game in one session, I still need to sleep). I know, you could better understand my strategy if I had succesive saves but since it was ironman I don't. It would be nice if the game had a detailed replay. (just joking...)
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Author	Topic: UoP, whats the big deal?
High Priest	posted 05-14-99 07:26 PM ET I have tried to play the University, but it seems that most of my games, I end up getting stunned by the drones, and as a result, often have a lower tech rating than many others. I know UoP has alway(at least that I've seen) gotten the top votes. Just check the "New Favorite Factions" thread, or any game site poll. I was curious what the method for so much success could be? Any suggestions? High Priest
Plato90s	posted 05-14-99 08:13 PM ET The key to playing the UoP at Transcend level is not try to be #1 in technology. The main benefit of having +2 research is the ability to do two things: 1) Get to Particle Impacter early. This is the most decisive early weapon and it'll help in the first couple wars. 2) Keep up with the pack in research while you pump out military units. The most precarious time for the UoP is the intermediate period between the first set of wars that crop up as soon as you meet your neighbors and when you get into the high tech weapons. You need to keep a large standing army to discourage your enemies and to expand aggressively to establish a base of support with small bases. With +2 research, you can set labs at 40% and still pump up your military strength. Once you get Hab Complex and Tree Farm, the UoP will start its ascent to dominance.
High Priest	posted 05-14-99 10:41 PM ET OK, So what do you reccomend for SPs(usually can only grab a couple if lucky), SE, and the best way of fighting drones. Thanx a million! High Priest
Koshko	posted 05-14-99 11:55 PM ET I've won on Transcend with the UoP leading tech all of the way. Musts, Virtual World; Human Genome Project; Ascetic Virtues; Hunter-Seeker; the Matrix; as always the Cloning Vats If all possible, Weather Para; Xeno Dome; Citizens Defense and Command Center (instant protection) Others build if possible but get the Musts first.
Koshko	posted 05-15-99 01:03 AM ET Truthfully, I can't help on the SPs any better because I usually have a vast majority of the projects anyway. Human Genome + Rec Commons + Virtual World = minimal drone problems until Hab Complex. I'll forego growing beyond 7 until I can build a Research Hospitol and Tree Farm. By them I was running good enough where I could get away with 20% Psyche. By the end I had to have 60% Psyche and 20% Lab and 20% Ecomony, but I was still producing 1 tech a turn or two. My preferred SE for UoP, At first, Demo/Green/Research During war switch to either Police State or Power Later, Demo/Green/Power/Cyber or Eudo
Plato90s	posted 05-15-99 11:25 AM ET The really vital SPs for the UoP are: Weather Paradigm - you need infrastructure quickly and WP is the best way to get that. Virtual World - This is the SP tailor-made for the UoP. UoP already have the nodes and have the most problems with drones. Obviously, you always want to build the Merchant Exchange/Supecollider/Theory of Everything combo if possible, but it's not a necessity. Citizen's Defense Force is also a high priority thing. You don't need Command Nexus as badly since you will probably be pumping out units from your core cities, but UoP needs to build a Rec. Common fast and there's no time to build Perimeter defense as well before enemies come knocking.
Alkis	posted 05-15-99 11:50 AM ET Plato90s offered his strategy, of playing UoP as a military faction. I play in a much different fashion but I think his strategy is interesting and in some occasions (when surrounded by many angry neighbours for instance) the only one. You see, the UoP is a very flexible race allowing you many possible options, can use free market, can use Demo/Planned for pop. booms, can even use Power or Wealth. The only thing it cannot use is Fundamentalism, a choice which is not popular and helpfull anyway. The way I play, depending on the map etc, is to combine many important little things in one super strategy. 1.Use free market early. You are the best research race, get free market early and use it! Ok, I know this isn't easy, but with practice you can do it and it is very beneficiall to both your research and your money. Please note that even as the Uop you don't have more drones when your bases are below size 4. Around M.Y. 2130 you should be ready. From then on (supposing you already have 4 bases) each time you build a new one you also send a scout patrol there, home-city it and start building recreation commons immediately. With free market your second citizen will be a drone, so you have to take care of that. 2.Build the Human Genome as your first project. Then you will be allowed to have bases the size of 2 before unrest and without recreation commons. Have another base start the Virtual World. Actually I built these two Secret Projects in all of my last 12 games (I failed only once, missed the VW because the AI cheated badly). One Project I really want is the Weather Paradigm but it's too hard, for me at least, to build it. I managed to have all three in only one game (in about 12 tries). I played more games on TI but it was before I discovered the power of early free market. 3.Go for Environmental Economics. This will remove the energy restrictions and also give you tree farm and terraform up/down. Before that you will not be recieving all the energy the +1 each square gives you. But my suggestion is not to wait till Environ. Ec. to use free market. I think you can have this tech at about M.Y. 2170 (2161 my best score). 4.Your next goal should be to build children creches everywhere and switch to Demo/Planned to boom your pop. You can also allocate some % to Psych. From then on your research, your income and your production (because of the many citizens) really rocks. When you reach the pop limit you can switch back to free market but keep Democracy because you need the extra efficiency now. 5.Another thing that I found helpfull, don't build many bases. The game penalizes you with additional drones when you have many bases, so for a time at least, play with 6-9 bases. 6.There are many more things, scouting, managing diplomacy, manipulating your neighbours, using supply crawlers, using probe teams etc but if someone uses my strategy his technology will really be unsurpassed. Example: In my last game, I was building the Ascend to Trans. and the second best faction was researching orbital spaceflight. No chance to be nuked when no one has even researched planet busters.
High Priest	posted 05-16-99 05:10 PM ET All right, thanx, Alkis, Plato, and Koshko, I'll definately try your strategies. PS: Alkis, what difficulty level were you talking about(I'm talking about Transcend)? High Priest
Alkis	posted 05-16-99 07:14 PM ET Transcend ironman. I have some saves if you are interested but not many, maybe one from each game (I don't finish a game in one session, I still need to sleep). I know, you could better understand my strategy if I had succesive saves but since it was ironman I don't. It would be nice if the game had a detailed replay. (just joking...)