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Author Topic:   How do you get really big cities?

Ed posted 04-18-99 12:45 PM ET
I've only just got this great game and have only played it once. When I read some of this pages, people speak of cities of 40+, when I struggle to get ones of 20+. How do you get these huge cities?
Alphaman posted 04-18-99 12:46 PM ET
im wondering that myself
ApcJK posted 04-18-99 01:43 PM ET
I haven't had them myself, but I think I know how to get them as soon as I get hab domes. Sky hydroponics and supply crawlers... And don't do as I did, I hadn't known there were soil enrichers until lately.
Also, I'm not sure but fungus may be good for it. I haven't tried though.
Koshko posted 04-18-99 10:42 PM ET
I've never gotten 40+, but I have got to around 37. I like to Forest everything. Once you build the Hybrid Forest, you'll be bringing in 3 Nutrients per square. Kelp on Ocean will give 3 Nutrient per square as well. If all squares have Hybrided Forest, you'll be producing 3*20 Nutrients (plus the base square) which is 60 Nutrients there. This in itself will give a population of at least 30. Throw in some Sky Hydro Labs (+1 Nutrient w/ Aerospace), and you'll get past 40.
Fungus would work well with the Gaians due to their +1 Nutrient per Fungus square.
The key to this is Cloning Vats (probably the best nontranscendance Project). This will up your cities one pop pt per turn.
Mortis posted 04-18-99 10:45 PM ET
With enough Sky Hydrophonics labs and the Cloning Vats you can easly have any sized city you want... It's the drones that are the problem.
But I assume that when you cross the 20 (the max number of people on the land) barrier, the extra "thinkers" will help combat the drones.
With the colning vats you city grows ever turn (provided there is sufficient nutrients and hab facilites) so it's not so hard to get huge metropolices going.
Plato90s posted 04-19-99 02:40 AM ET
Once you have the Telepathic Matrix, drones have absolutely no meaning since your cities never go into a drone riot. All those police penalties also become absolutely meaningless.
With Cloning Vat and Telepathic Matrix, you can grow cities as long as there is food available. By adding Hydroponic Sky Labs, the cities can grow enormous. Use supply crawlers to supplement the Sky Labs.
woodelf posted 04-19-99 05:33 AM ET
Do everything listed above and then hold the enemy up and play SIM-Centauri. In my games by the time I reach 20+ cities the game could be over diplomatically or through conquest. Only when I did the Ascendence did I play long enough to see these monstrous cities.
Cameleon posted 04-19-99 11:25 AM ET
Before you can build the hydroponics thingies, you can also use supply crawlers to get more nutrients for your cities.
Ambro2000 posted 04-20-99 08:15 AM ET
I currently have a city size 64 and still growing at TrancendLevel (or whatever it's called)
It's in the Moonsonjungle with rather rainy terrain. I have 8 supply crawlers supporting it and 15+ Sky hydroponics. try building some waterbased supply crawlers and look for a nutrient resource square, plant kelpfarm and whola .
Note: It's a good idea to give your supply crawler some type off prodection since the AI likes to take them out.
It's not a good idea to have a city this size because of the eco-damage though........believe me.
<B>Ambro2000</B>
Ed posted 04-23-99 02:24 PM ET
Thanks to all who replied. I'll try some of these!
Corvus Corax posted 04-23-99 03:49 PM ET
Cloning Vats + Tele Matrix = forget about the drones & wait til your cities get so big that all the tiles are in use. After that, you get 1 transcendent per tile. Also vitally important: lots & lots of hydro satellites & very extensive terraforming: no woods, raise land as far as possible, build overlapping sensor arrays etc. That way, them 45+ cities just come rolling in My largest one so far: 64.
JT 3 posted 04-23-99 04:27 PM ET
Notice that little sign on the left that says, "HTML is OFF".
Cyggy posted 04-28-99 03:55 PM ET
What do Supply crawlers used for? I thought they were just to carry supplies from city to city...
(I'm at work and don't have the manual handy)
Cyggy
Goobmeister posted 04-28-99 04:18 PM ET
Plant a supply crawler on a square that is rocky and has a mineral bonus and a road, usually a +7 mineral square but nothing else right? Well the supply crawler will automatically send those minerals back to what ever city evryturn and you are notusing a pop unit to work the terrain.
Supply crawlers can only supply one type of resource at a time on an unworked square so they are best for squares that have predominantly one type of resource.
Goob
Victor posted 04-28-99 04:27 PM ET
On a flat/hilly square: Condenser + soil enricher. 6 food with no specials in the square! Add nutrients and a monsoon forest...
Al Gore Rythm posted 04-28-99 10:42 PM ET
Hmm, I've gotten some cities past the 20 mark.
I myself think Tele Matrix takes too long, and there's a chance I won't get it. I prefer to just do things the good old fashioned way and stick them drones into the Punishment Sphere
If I get the Tele Matrix later I scrap them, but the Pun-Sphere isn't really that bad.
Cloning Vats isn't nessecary. Just kick into Democracy/Planned (unless you're Morgan or Yang, in which case you can't) and build a Children's Creche and viola, instant pop boom.
mviertel posted 04-29-99 08:20 AM ET
Actually, do supply units (crawler, foils etc) need support? In that case it would probably be usefull to construct clean units?
Earwicker posted 04-29-99 08:47 AM ET
No, the beauty of them is that they don't require support. Early in the game, they are like bonus population, pouring resources into a base to help it grow, construct, or pump out labs/$$.
Natguy posted 05-01-99 05:20 PM ET
Can you have multiple supply crawlers on one square? i've never used them, so i don't know. (My current biggest is 14, so I should probably start) :O
Muad Dib posted 05-01-99 07:21 PM ET
Only a single supply crawler per square.
Don't forget and create sea supply crawlers as well. Not bad, as you can upgrade the sqaures as they are working.
David Johnson posted 05-04-99 12:47 AM ET
Getting a very large city is easy. I just spent a few minutes raising a level 14 city to level 109 by simply adding a colony pod from a bunch of other cities. I presume there's no limit to this so you could keep going until the game starts complaining. I'd guess a level in the 100,000's would be as high as it would get more or less. I think the graphics are the first to break down. At level 109 the "deficit food" line is heading off the screen [at *this* size city don't worry about feeding the population; you can easily replace 1 pop per turn] and there seems to be something wrong with the system for changing the occupation of the specialists. I suppose if you like feeding your citizens you could have made an equal number of crawlers but ading the extra population is a great deal faster than waiting all those turns for Cloning Vats to do the same thing for you [and you'd never reach it by simply accumulating food].
Cameleon posted 05-04-99 09:49 AM ET
I've been playing a cool game with Morgan. I played on the second lowest level, very large map, rare native life, everything to make me happy. I just wanted to see how big, rich etc. I could get. But when most of my cities (about 40 I think) were about size 40, had all facilities, and I had all the wonders, planet came in with a vengeance. Most of the squares around my cities were red with blood and mind worms, locusts were swarming and my cities with sometimes only one defender couln't hold up very well. I could have survived (I could build everything I wanted in one turn) but it wasn't fun anymore, so I build voice and ascent in one turn each. I did have 200.000 or so energy credits though. Fun game...
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Author	Topic: How do you get really big cities?
Ed	posted 04-18-99 12:45 PM ET I've only just got this great game and have only played it once. When I read some of this pages, people speak of cities of 40+, when I struggle to get ones of 20+. How do you get these huge cities?
Alphaman	posted 04-18-99 12:46 PM ET im wondering that myself
ApcJK	posted 04-18-99 01:43 PM ET I haven't had them myself, but I think I know how to get them as soon as I get hab domes. Sky hydroponics and supply crawlers... And don't do as I did, I hadn't known there were soil enrichers until lately. Also, I'm not sure but fungus may be good for it. I haven't tried though.
Koshko	posted 04-18-99 10:42 PM ET I've never gotten 40+, but I have got to around 37. I like to Forest everything. Once you build the Hybrid Forest, you'll be bringing in 3 Nutrients per square. Kelp on Ocean will give 3 Nutrient per square as well. If all squares have Hybrided Forest, you'll be producing 3*20 Nutrients (plus the base square) which is 60 Nutrients there. This in itself will give a population of at least 30. Throw in some Sky Hydro Labs (+1 Nutrient w/ Aerospace), and you'll get past 40. Fungus would work well with the Gaians due to their +1 Nutrient per Fungus square. The key to this is Cloning Vats (probably the best nontranscendance Project). This will up your cities one pop pt per turn.
Mortis	posted 04-18-99 10:45 PM ET With enough Sky Hydrophonics labs and the Cloning Vats you can easly have any sized city you want... It's the drones that are the problem. But I assume that when you cross the 20 (the max number of people on the land) barrier, the extra "thinkers" will help combat the drones. With the colning vats you city grows ever turn (provided there is sufficient nutrients and hab facilites) so it's not so hard to get huge metropolices going.
Plato90s	posted 04-19-99 02:40 AM ET Once you have the Telepathic Matrix, drones have absolutely no meaning since your cities never go into a drone riot. All those police penalties also become absolutely meaningless. With Cloning Vat and Telepathic Matrix, you can grow cities as long as there is food available. By adding Hydroponic Sky Labs, the cities can grow enormous. Use supply crawlers to supplement the Sky Labs.
woodelf	posted 04-19-99 05:33 AM ET Do everything listed above and then hold the enemy up and play SIM-Centauri. In my games by the time I reach 20+ cities the game could be over diplomatically or through conquest. Only when I did the Ascendence did I play long enough to see these monstrous cities.
Cameleon	posted 04-19-99 11:25 AM ET Before you can build the hydroponics thingies, you can also use supply crawlers to get more nutrients for your cities.
Ambro2000	posted 04-20-99 08:15 AM ET I currently have a city size 64 and still growing at TrancendLevel (or whatever it's called) It's in the Moonsonjungle with rather rainy terrain. I have 8 supply crawlers supporting it and 15+ Sky hydroponics. try building some waterbased supply crawlers and look for a nutrient resource square, plant kelpfarm and whola . Note: It's a good idea to give your supply crawler some type off prodection since the AI likes to take them out. It's not a good idea to have a city this size because of the eco-damage though........believe me. <B>Ambro2000</B>
Ed	posted 04-23-99 02:24 PM ET Thanks to all who replied. I'll try some of these!
Corvus Corax	posted 04-23-99 03:49 PM ET Cloning Vats + Tele Matrix = forget about the drones & wait til your cities get so big that all the tiles are in use. After that, you get 1 transcendent per tile. Also vitally important: lots & lots of hydro satellites & very extensive terraforming: no woods, raise land as far as possible, build overlapping sensor arrays etc. That way, them 45+ cities just come rolling in My largest one so far: 64.
JT 3	posted 04-23-99 04:27 PM ET Notice that little sign on the left that says, "HTML is OFF".
Cyggy	posted 04-28-99 03:55 PM ET What do Supply crawlers used for? I thought they were just to carry supplies from city to city... (I'm at work and don't have the manual handy) Cyggy
Goobmeister	posted 04-28-99 04:18 PM ET Plant a supply crawler on a square that is rocky and has a mineral bonus and a road, usually a +7 mineral square but nothing else right? Well the supply crawler will automatically send those minerals back to what ever city evryturn and you are notusing a pop unit to work the terrain. Supply crawlers can only supply one type of resource at a time on an unworked square so they are best for squares that have predominantly one type of resource. Goob
Victor	posted 04-28-99 04:27 PM ET On a flat/hilly square: Condenser + soil enricher. 6 food with no specials in the square! Add nutrients and a monsoon forest...
Al Gore Rythm	posted 04-28-99 10:42 PM ET Hmm, I've gotten some cities past the 20 mark. I myself think Tele Matrix takes too long, and there's a chance I won't get it. I prefer to just do things the good old fashioned way and stick them drones into the Punishment Sphere If I get the Tele Matrix later I scrap them, but the Pun-Sphere isn't really that bad. Cloning Vats isn't nessecary. Just kick into Democracy/Planned (unless you're Morgan or Yang, in which case you can't) and build a Children's Creche and viola, instant pop boom.
mviertel	posted 04-29-99 08:20 AM ET Actually, do supply units (crawler, foils etc) need support? In that case it would probably be usefull to construct clean units?
Earwicker	posted 04-29-99 08:47 AM ET No, the beauty of them is that they don't require support. Early in the game, they are like bonus population, pouring resources into a base to help it grow, construct, or pump out labs/$$.
Natguy	posted 05-01-99 05:20 PM ET Can you have multiple supply crawlers on one square? i've never used them, so i don't know. (My current biggest is 14, so I should probably start) :O
Muad Dib	posted 05-01-99 07:21 PM ET Only a single supply crawler per square. Don't forget and create sea supply crawlers as well. Not bad, as you can upgrade the sqaures as they are working.
David Johnson	posted 05-04-99 12:47 AM ET Getting a very large city is easy. I just spent a few minutes raising a level 14 city to level 109 by simply adding a colony pod from a bunch of other cities. I presume there's no limit to this so you could keep going until the game starts complaining. I'd guess a level in the 100,000's would be as high as it would get more or less. I think the graphics are the first to break down. At level 109 the "deficit food" line is heading off the screen [at this size city don't worry about feeding the population; you can easily replace 1 pop per turn] and there seems to be something wrong with the system for changing the occupation of the specialists. I suppose if you like feeding your citizens you could have made an equal number of crawlers but ading the extra population is a great deal faster than waiting all those turns for Cloning Vats to do the same thing for you [and you'd never reach it by simply accumulating food].
Cameleon	posted 05-04-99 09:49 AM ET I've been playing a cool game with Morgan. I played on the second lowest level, very large map, rare native life, everything to make me happy. I just wanted to see how big, rich etc. I could get. But when most of my cities (about 40 I think) were about size 40, had all facilities, and I had all the wonders, planet came in with a vengeance. Most of the squares around my cities were red with blood and mind worms, locusts were swarming and my cities with sometimes only one defender couln't hold up very well. I could have survived (I could build everything I wanted in one turn) but it wasn't fun anymore, so I build voice and ascent in one turn each. I did have 200.000 or so energy credits though. Fun game...