posted 06-13-99 09:37 AM ET        

I play blind on because it varies gameplay. I would like to hear from others on this subject.

posted 06-13-99 10:10 AM ET            

I normally play with blind on in SP games, when I play SP games, since it is more realistic and gives more variation.

posted 06-13-99 11:58 AM ET            

As usual the issue is: FUN. Opinions vary.
To get fun, many think that your skills have to be put to test, or that you prove that you mastered the strategic overall design and can pick the most suitable goals (mid & long term) in any variable circumstances you may face.
Now, to show that you logic is superior, you'd like Blind OFF, as well as random events [Pagan].
But your skill can be displayed also in responding to Godzilla plowing (ploughing?sp?) in your SimCity, or to face a nasty random event here in our game. Or to prove that you can get to your goal with what you have at hand: "what? I lost my lighter! Darn! How can I lit my fag now? hmm.. let's see... stones->sparks... rub some sticks... I'd better go and find a stove-burner!"

Maybe that way you get more fun, as long as you don't expect it to reflect the exact ranking of the contenders, since they might not find balanced difficulties

Actually, I'm naturally inclined to Blind OFF, but I now play equally both options, and Blind Research is a nice challenge too, methinks it requires a DEEPER knowledge of the tech tree.

talked enough, thanx 4 patience

posted 06-13-99 12:37 PM ET         

It gives a greater feel.

posted 06-13-99 11:32 PM ET            

With it off, I feel more like I am playing Civ under a mod pack than SMAC. Especially when those red shield mindworms dump off an IoD and head for a city. Go figure.

posted 06-14-99 04:18 AM ET            

Speaking of PBEM, Blind ON can be really tough if you're not lucky... WHAT ? MOBILITY ? I WANT ECOLOGY, NO USE FOR FREAKIN' ROVERS NOW !

posted 06-14-99 11:22 AM ET         

the point made that in real life researchers know what they are researching is only valid the first game you play. After that you know the fast track to Green Democracy or airpower which may be several stages up the tech tree.

posted 06-14-99 07:42 PM ET            

On 13
Off 9

posted 06-15-99 03:34 AM ET         

googlie - you wrote:"the point made that in real life researchers know what they are researching is only valid the first game you play. After that you know the fast track to Green Democracy or airpower which may be several stages up the tech tree."
You are right, but that won't work if Firaxis will write a more interrelated "discoveries tree" and will change the lab rules as I propose (you search in ALL four fields at same time, putting different effort - percent - but losing efficence if you concentrate too much effort into a single branch). If you CAN'T draw a real shortcut to major enhancement, you can't manage to hurry a research path too unrealistically fast (or, at least, so quick that spoil the game).

posted 06-15-99 11:09 AM ET            

Mconstant=E/(c^2) idea should be pushed to what was adopted in "Stars!". There you had 6 fields and you didn't direct your research to a particular knowledge, but to a field in itself, and what you obtained was a level advance in that field.
You gained the ability to build a given item (rather than "discover" it) when you reached the required LEVEL in MORE than 1 field (say, to get to the ability of building ramscoop interstellar engines, you had to reach level 6 in "Propulsion", level 3 in "Energy" and level 2 in "Electronics", [just an example, not actual values]).
You still had to understand research priorities, but you could throw away an overwhelming entangled tech-tree, the prerequisites were in knowledge levels, not in specific techs.
You had a "Generalized research" racial ability, that allowed you to earn each turn the average research set aside in each field from all races (including yours).
And a "Bleeding Edge" optional racial ability (penality, you gained customization points to use in other bounses), that forced you to pay 50% more an item if you didn't get yet 1 level upper in each of the required fields.
Here we could make it even more flexible allowing to split research in more than one field at the same time.

I still insist that both settings now have their peculiar taste and interest.
"...far to easy to concentrate on crucial techs and follow a single optimal strategy..."? Well, optimal strategIES are different depending on different game settings, factions, and INDIVIDUAL players. So it's still very interesting confronting YOUR optimal strategy with YOUR OPPONENTS' ones.
Here I'm opposing to Aredhran: I prefer

Blind ON in SP
Blind OFF in MP

posted 06-16-99 08:27 AM ET            

I've still got lot more to give to
(and to take from) SMAC, but I plan this summe to take it out of the drawer and begin participate in some Hosted game.
I guess you could be one to gimme some hints by that time.

posted 06-16-99 10:48 AM ET         

I think that I read somewhere (Gamespot?) that the programmers gave only a 2 level diff in the blind tech option, so that the choices the AI made for you could never be a level 3 vs a level 7, for instance. But even then, leapfrogging happens

But doesn't that happen with tech trade as well. You get a B5 tech gift from Morgan as a pactbro' who says "guard it well" - and you haven't even got B2 yet. How?

On balance, tho, I do think that blind on makes the game harder (certainly at transcend IMO)

posted 06-18-99 05:03 PM ET            

guess I really messed up the score ...

posted 06-18-99 05:43 PM ET            

I've had SMAC turn around under Blind On and give me a D3, D5 and D7... all before any D2 (I think it was the D tree. I remembered how weird that looked at the time.) But I found that tends to be linked to Artifact Linking. An Artifact yeild tech X#. Now, i have the Pre-reqs for X#+1, so its what pops up next. I don't like to play with Pods On, so no one has Artifacts to link. Ergo, no grand hopping up the Tech tree. I can guide development quite well, although I can't guarantee what I will get next.

Also, the number of fields of interest that you have selected tend to affect whether you can hop up as well. Single minded and No-minded pursuit of a field is when I have seen the tech hopping. Split interest, and I have to get the pre-reqs first (with Artifacting). Select all, and you tend to just walk the techs.

posted 07-01-99 12:35 PM ET         

Off sends me down a pre-determined early game course, which for me makes the game easier.