posted 06-28-99 03:19 AM ET            

wen the ai has 50 bases thay can make 30 times as many unit a tern as you. ther wold be no way to win unles you did so within minets.

posted 06-28-99 12:57 PM ET            

I haven't tried it with SMAC, or seen too much discussion, but some of the things that would make it more challenging in SMAC would be:
* fungus hampering movement of early-game pod-poppers
* no caravans for huge $$ and (more important) science boost
* hab dome for very large bases comes very late
* drones: Shakespeare's theater solved that problem and was available pretty early in the game, whereas the telepathic matrix takes a long time to reach.

Making it easier would be
* supply crawlers (even relatively small bases can have great energy and minerals)
* you don't have to sacrifice population to build formers like you did with engineers

posted 06-28-99 06:18 PM ET         

It's a great discipline for bettering your skills at the game.

It's been won several times, but the best was Velociryx's Transcendent, Ironman, blind research, huge Planet, no offensive units allowed where he Transcended. At the victory year he had something like 57 crawlers for his one base, and it was defended solely by a mindworm.

Others have posted similarly awesome results.

Research is slow early on - you have to beg, borow or steal it, which puts a premium on diplomace. You can't afford to be in a war. But once you get your crawlers going, you'll soon overtake the opposition.

posted 06-29-99 04:23 PM ET            

I have been playing the single city games for a bit now. I play at Transcend/Ironman though I believe Blind Research helps the human more than hinders them. I would agree that the challenge is great for building your SMAC skills. For what it is worth here are my observations.

1. Diplomacy. Diplomacy, diplomacy...... umm and then some more diplomacy. The sad fact is that you WILL be behind in research. The key is to gain some allies and buy/beg/borrow it. Don't steal. You need your allies because you can't really fight a war.

2. Supply crawlers. These are the key to your game. Bet that you must get to these. With supply crawlers you can pull in huge amounts of resources. I regularly push my production right to the point of eco-damage and pull back 2 Min. from that point. All other crawlers get energy, or once I have the hab dome food.

3. I recommend the forest strategy.

4. Ignore many SPs, you don't need them. Why build the Virtual World when you can instead build a holograph theater? You get the picture.

5. While you can not compete viably on the military front you do need some defenders. Somehow the A(non)I flags you if you have less than 3-4 offensive units. At that weak a level everyone hates you. This is soo frustrating to be in. Build a few offensive units and suddenly it is all peaches and cream again.

Well that is all for now. Fare well.

posted 06-30-99 01:51 AM ET         

I agree 100%. I should have qualified "steal" to be "steal and frame"

My tactic is also forest and crawlers, sea crawlers too if my one base is a coastal one.

You won't need to build any SPs that have multiple base applications (The Command Nexus, The Citizens' Defense Force, The Planetary Transit System, The Cyborg Factory, The Network Backbone, The Singularity Inductor, The Cloning Vats, The Bulk Matter Transmitter, The Network Backbone), nor probably any that give a lab bonus (cos you will not be depending on your own research, but others) or mineral bonus ('cos you'll be using crsawlers like crazy, plus nessus mines. The Merchant Exchange is good too.

Really, for me, there are precious few SP's that I would worry if I didn't have them. These would be:

The Merchant Exchange, as noted plus the Empath Guild (altho these two are usually available at the same time, and with one base it's hard)
The Neural Amplifier and the Dream Twister
Maybe the Nano Factory, the Living Refinery and the Self Aware Colony
The Space Elevator (to launch all those sats at half cost)
The Ascent.

What's your list Absimiliard?

posted 06-30-99 11:52 AM ET            

Aff, forest and crawlers. Definately. Further I almost always make certain I get a sea-coast. I am a firm believer in making ONE sea-former and spreading tidal harnesses everywhere in sight and sucking 3 energy out of them forever. (4 if you are golden/wealth or FM, and 5 if you add Merchant Exchange on to it!)

Hmmmm, special projects that I like in single city games. . . . . hmmm..... Well I like the Merchant Exchange for the extra energy. Particularly nice is that the +1 energy applies to supply crawlers as well. I am a big fan of the Weather Controller since I usually lay huge amounts of roads/forests/tidal harnesses. I do like the Network Backbone since it does good things to Cybernetic as an SE choice, I also like the boost to research. I also am fond of the Nano Factory. I would add the HSK and Planetary Datalinks to the list.

In fact I would say that the Datalinks are a crucial SP for single-city games. I am becoming convinced over time that spending my cash/political capital to get tech is so totally inferior to gaining it from the datalinks that I always push to own them.

I am fond of the research boosters if I can get them. I find that in the end-game I can keep up in the tech race if I have traded enough to be 'in the field'. Enough supply crawlers can give me incredible energy coming in and boosting my research can make me viable as a tech contestant.

Lastly I have to amend my statement about never fighting. I recently tangled with a Miriam on the ascent. Despite the fact that she beat me to air-power I trashed her. I held her off long enough to come back. By the end I was taking her down with clean assault choppers and SEAL Team Rovers (1-1-2 Amphib/Drop). Went pretty well all in all.