posted 04-07-99 03:06 PM ET        

Then someone on the forum mentioned playing on a 200x200 map, also a pointer to SimMars (http://www.simmars.com) by someone else. This got me thinking, what would it take to fix the early rush problem, and create a sim-like scenario?

Not much, as it turns out. Without further ado, I present you "Sid Meier's SimPlanet", a turn-based simulation game that you don't have to pay any extra if you've already got SMAC.

The basic idea is really simple: play on as big a map as possible. I'll go through some of the subtleties here.

* Generate a custome-sized map of 256x256.
The number 256x256, came from the in-game popup, is the supposedly theoretic limit of the path-finding algorithm. So you probably shouldn't go above that.

* 30-50% ocean (the smallest).

The fractal map generator seems to break down at this level (256x256). In the half dozen or so of my attempts, if I choose the ocean coverage to be any higher, I always get an archipalogo-type map, with small patchs of land here and there.

* Weak erosion force.

The same reason as above. With mountainous terrains, you are more likely to get large continental masses.

* Turn OFF Iron-Man option.

With such size of a map, crashes may be inevitable. You want to leave the option open to go back 15 turns to work around a bug.

Other options you can choose however you like. Abundant native lifeform would make it more like an alien planet. Dense cloud cover would make early growth easier.

Ok, a 256x256 may sound like a lot. Actually it is. That's 65,536 tiles, 8 times the size of a huge map! Say you have 50% ocean, and on average a city takes 50 tiles, you still can build around 100 land cities for each faction before you run out of space. Hopefully that'll fix the "rush" mentality. The idea here is to give you the realistic feeling that you've just landed on this immense planet (Chiron is bigger than Earth according to the manual), you struggle to survive, explore, colonize and restore communication with your former colleagues, or go to war with them if you so choose. In another word, SMAC becomes a cross between a turn-based strategy game and a true simulation.

You may be thinking to yourself now, "Gosh, this needs a Super Computer to run." Well, I started such a monster on my home pc last night, my faithful home-grown AMD K6-2 300 with 128MB PC100 SDRAM and a Matrox G200 8MB. The map took about a minute or two to generate. The turns took a little longer than usual, but nothing unbearable. The only big slowdowns are when you pop a unity pod that triggers an earthquake or a new river, the game would freeze for a while to caculate how to change the land. Other than that, everything runs smoothly. I am about 100 turns into the game now. Man, I was totally immersed.

Give it a try if you have the computing power. You'll never look SMAC the same again.

posted 04-07-99 03:12 PM ET            

I have given this a try. I still have the early rush problem. Reason? I still have at least ONE neighbor within 10 tiles of me. If they are seperated from me by water, no problem. The computer has a former build a land bridge so that it can roll over my poor Morganites. (That land bridge technique is pretty cool when no one has yet reached a level 3 tech... and I have the WP, not they!)

But I have whined enough about SMACs wanton disregard for faction seeding... If you can get lucky enough to have to find the other factions, enjoy. I'd like to have a map/game I could say the same.

posted 04-07-99 04:50 PM ET            

If you played on a 256x256 map and still got rolled over in the early years, maybe you were just unlucky.

Try to use the options I suggested. If you can get several large continents, there is a much better chance for undisturbed early development. Dense cloud cover may also help, since more rainy squares means more places to seed colonies, thus more dispersed they are likely to be.