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Author Topic:   Baby You Can Pop My Pod

ErisDiscordia5 posted 07-12-99 12:30 PM ET
Now that I've got your attention...
What are your favorite tactics (mainly in Thinker/Transcend) for pod popping? Please divide your answers into early game/midgame/late game.
My thoughts:
Early game: Scout Patrols are good, if you have units to spare then 2 patrols is better until the pod start sprouting multiple worms -- then only 4-6 patrols would be safe, forget that.
Late early game: I've never done it, but trance trained scouts would be ideal. Since I tend to play democratic, I often use transport plus 2 probe teams -- these can pop coastal pods and run away if the result is bad.
Mid-game: If there is production to spare (I suppose I should be liberal here), I like gun foils, or better yet trance trained gun foils. In FM, I suggest Trance Synthmetal Skimship (or Destroyer) supplies.
Trance armored transports with diplomats, er, probe teams, might also be quite efficient.
Late Mid Game: Empath Trained Gun Foils; Rover+Helicopter (never tried the latter but it sounds good)
Late Game: I keep restarting after NanoMetallurgy to learn the factions better, so I don't know :-)
Sinapus posted 07-12-99 01:19 PM ET
If you mean when I can resist the temptation to save the game before popping the pod?
(Getting off that bad habit but I do have relapses..)
I tend to pop the ones in the base radius early on, then I tend to mass a small force around each pod and pop it, leaving the rest of the forces around to nail any mindworms that pop out.
When I get a Green economy I start using captured mindworms. Hm. I guess I could also start building a few mindworms here and there and use them to pop the pods in fungus.
Series II posted 07-12-99 02:10 PM ET
Early game: scout rovers
Mid game: scout rovers with drop pods
Late Game scout rovers with drop pods
Who cares if they survive or not, just take a mind worm with you so that I can use that money to buy another scout.
Anytime in the game: mind worms
Sea: cheap transports - if they die to bad, if they find a artifact great.
Maitreia posted 07-12-99 03:12 PM ET
Hiya folks!
My pod-pooping strategies...
(1) Early game... I think I read somewhere here on this forum that pods never contain mindworms if they are popped within a base radius. So... I almost always plop a base down first prior to opening any new pods. I also set the production of the nearest base to something really juicy, just in case it's a "materials" pod. But pods that are close to enemy boundaries get popped right away, typically I'll have a few scout patrols or maybe a unity rover running around. Doesn't really matter.
(2) Mid-game. Well, I try to pop sea pods only with transports... since it's the only way your going to be getting any alien artifacts. It isn't really necessary to protect your transports from isles of the deep, because you can just be careful and hit the pods so you'll have movement left to run away in case isles have infested the pods. Popping pods in fungus, well, you just have to pop them and hope for the best.
(3) Late game. Popping pods late game is pretty fun and a nice diversion away from what for me is usually a very tedious endgame. Since by now you're probably at war with one or more factions (at least ) you'll have to protect your trance cruiser transport with a 1-best-6 AAA/trance destroyer (set as desig. defender). If you are lucky enough to find an alien artifact you'll want to protect it, any time you can get a free tech it's worth it. You might want to bring along a psi hovertank (1-1-3 empath/trance) or psi rover if there are pods on islands. As noted above when making a beach landing, no matter what the terrain is, it only costs you one move so if you land your rover/tank directly on a pod off of your ship, so if you discover mindworms, you can simply hop back on the ship, no worries.
(4) End game. Well, in my current game, playing the PK scenario submitted by ARES 7 (?), there are a whole bunch of pods lying along the "south pole", you know, the vertical line of tiles located on the bottom of the map. Since I just got the tech for orbital insertions my plan is to take a few drop psi hovertanks (or I might have to use an empath/AAA tank... Miriam's in the area), a drop colony pod, and a drop transport (? - never made one of these before) to the area. I'll set up a base somewhere safe, then hopefully pick up a few artifacts, then take them backt to this base for shipping (via/drop transport) back to awaiting network nodes on the mainland. I'll probably have to rush a transport down there as well. This is the only fun thing happening right now in this game, otherwise it's pretty tedious. But I'm trying to get a high score entered on aceplayer's site, so I'm going to tough it out.

My two cents on the matter!

Maitreia
absimiliard posted 07-12-99 04:31 PM ET
I am inclined to pop land pods with whatever is around. Scouts are cheap and I do not care if I lose them. This is true for all phases of the game.
Sea pods I pop almost exclusively with Isles. I will not pop them without transport capability, since that would deny me the alien artifacts. Normal transports are unacceptable since they are slow and fragile. Isles on the other hand are harder to kill. They heal quickly and fully. They move without penalty through fungus. (insert your own reason why Isles are best here.)
So that is my strategy. Have fun all.
-absimiliard
Sinapus posted 07-12-99 05:58 PM ET
Also, I tend to put empath song on my pod poppers. Then, (if I get neural grafting) I'll put empath/trance.
Then I assemble a unit of mindworms and rovers and send them to pop each pod one by one. So if I end up with a huge number of mindworms swarming out of the pod I can cash in. ;-)
Krushala posted 07-12-99 06:14 PM ET
I don't do pod popping anymore. I just set unity pods to landing sites only. I find I'm the only one exploring and benefitting putting me so far ahead it's no point playing the end game. Especially when I cash like 10 to 15 artifacts with the univeral translator. I used to use unity rovers though. If I hit a mind worm I can either attack or retreat. I used a combo between transports and attack ships for sea pods.
Drago Sinio posted 07-12-99 06:16 PM ET
Two things to add:
#1 I always try to get the SP that gives your sea units extra moves, because its a real advantage when pod popping, simply because with more moves you get there quicker, and can get bring the artifacts home faster too. Also you can run like hell from any unfreindly forces, and they cannot catch you.
#2 When playing on a planet with lotsa land mass, towards the end of the game I use needle jet colony pods, so that I get a higher score due to more population, and if there is an artifact I can hook it up to a network node on the spot ( I like to play as UoP, this another UoP advantage).
Koshko posted 07-12-99 09:58 PM ET
I load and reload excessively. I'll admit it. I've done this 'technique' for many yrs. I think that's why they stuck in that increased loading time in v4.
I use whatever is around except for artifacts (they have a tendency to vanish). It's usually a captured independant Mind Worm or Rover or Foil. In the later going, I'll build a special Transport or two solely for this purpose.
Krushala posted 07-12-99 10:08 PM ET
yeah its a bad habit. I don't play ironman because of crashes. I have a tendencey to reload if it's close to a base. I don't mind losing units but bases are hard to lose to a random encounter. This why I turned pods off.
darkmolar posted 07-13-99 02:52 PM ET
One thing I've found when popping sea pods is that you need a vehicle capable of transporting objects. If you use something else, then you can't get the alien artifacts.
Earwicker posted 07-13-99 04:58 PM ET
Drago's right about how pod-popping is one of the key benefits of the Maritime Control Center. For this reason (and many others), I find the Xeno Dome very valuable.
Isle are my favorite for the sea pod popping patrol, since they have good movement thru fungus and can carry/attack. Mindworms are great for popping land pods, since native life tends to leave them alone.
bjfrank posted 07-17-99 06:14 AM ET
Thousands of strageties, but one missing. I don't reload, that's no fun. But I can make pods always positiv! How? No cheating, just build a city next to a pod. If you the open it, you alway get a positiv result, no mindworms, no fungus blossoms. The only partially negative is an earthquake. For pods within the city aerea but two fields away, you can get mindworms, but no fungus blossom, which I think is the worst case.
Sector7G posted 07-17-99 05:16 PM ET
Pray to the SMAC gods for a favorable result and if you dont get it...shhh <wispers> dont tell anyone I said this but, r e l o a d

(in civ2 when I pop a hut with a settler I never got a bad result...does the same thing happen with colony pods ? )
Krushala posted 07-17-99 05:27 PM ET
I have popped pods with colony pods. I don't remember getting any bad results. I don't do it often though. I do get mindworms a lot from going into fungus with colony pods.
Sector7G posted 07-19-99 01:26 AM ET
OK don't try the colony pod thing...trust me
Rex Little posted 07-19-99 11:46 AM ET
One thing I learned the hard way: don't use an alien artifact to pop a pod. I had one completely disappear.
Series II posted 07-19-99 12:33 PM ET
There is some rules that say something about there not being mindworms in pods that are within a certain radius of a base, or maybe within a certain radius of your landing site.
Plato90s posted 07-19-99 03:39 PM ET
If you pop an pod with an alien artifact and the pod causes another alien artifact to appear, then both pods go "poof" and disappears. Strange, huh?
I've also had it happen when two pods being guarded by the same unit overlapped and then disappeared.
Series II posted 07-20-99 08:26 AM ET
MIND WORMS!!!!!!!!!!!!
I started a Gaian game a few days ago and last night the UOP and Believers (we all share a land mass) declared war on me. I sent a few mind worms up to their area to try and harass them. I was hopelessly out numbered so I changed my strategy. I started popping pods near their cities and units with my worms. YOU NEVER GET A BAD RESULT!
Worms, energy credits, materials to finish a facility are all wonderful in these circumstances. Alien artifacts, resources and rivers really are not that useful and It was really sad to see my brand new Unity chopper run out of gas (I was more than 32 squares from one of my cities).
The results were most wonderful. I popped more than 70 mind worms from pods near their area. The new worms did not attack my worms, but did destroy about 10 of their units and 2 of their cities.
I also popped all the pods between my territory and their territory. The worms from these pods just stayed where they were. They acted like land mines when the UOP forces moved toward my cities.
This strategy gave me time to build a probe unit in all my front cities and to research air power (before them). Now I am ready for a war on MY terms.
Series II posted 07-20-99 10:47 AM ET
And another thing...........
Once I get a truce with the UOP I can send my Mind Worms held in resereve through the 'Wild Mind Worm Mine Field' to my captured UOP cities and not be attacket by the wild mind worms.
Mind worms can create a sizeable army Wild Mind Worm Army to attack enemy cities and can create a line of Wild Mind Worm defense between you and an emeny faction that you share a land mass with.
OASN (On A Side Note) Probe units can mind control other factions Alien Artifacts. I never knew that until last night.
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Author	Topic: Baby You Can Pop My Pod
ErisDiscordia5	posted 07-12-99 12:30 PM ET Now that I've got your attention... What are your favorite tactics (mainly in Thinker/Transcend) for pod popping? Please divide your answers into early game/midgame/late game. My thoughts: Early game: Scout Patrols are good, if you have units to spare then 2 patrols is better until the pod start sprouting multiple worms -- then only 4-6 patrols would be safe, forget that. Late early game: I've never done it, but trance trained scouts would be ideal. Since I tend to play democratic, I often use transport plus 2 probe teams -- these can pop coastal pods and run away if the result is bad. Mid-game: If there is production to spare (I suppose I should be liberal here), I like gun foils, or better yet trance trained gun foils. In FM, I suggest Trance Synthmetal Skimship (or Destroyer) supplies. Trance armored transports with diplomats, er, probe teams, might also be quite efficient. Late Mid Game: Empath Trained Gun Foils; Rover+Helicopter (never tried the latter but it sounds good) Late Game: I keep restarting after NanoMetallurgy to learn the factions better, so I don't know :-)
Sinapus	posted 07-12-99 01:19 PM ET If you mean when I can resist the temptation to save the game before popping the pod? (Getting off that bad habit but I do have relapses..) I tend to pop the ones in the base radius early on, then I tend to mass a small force around each pod and pop it, leaving the rest of the forces around to nail any mindworms that pop out. When I get a Green economy I start using captured mindworms. Hm. I guess I could also start building a few mindworms here and there and use them to pop the pods in fungus.
Series II	posted 07-12-99 02:10 PM ET Early game: scout rovers Mid game: scout rovers with drop pods Late Game scout rovers with drop pods Who cares if they survive or not, just take a mind worm with you so that I can use that money to buy another scout. Anytime in the game: mind worms Sea: cheap transports - if they die to bad, if they find a artifact great.
Maitreia	posted 07-12-99 03:12 PM ET Hiya folks! My pod-pooping strategies... (1) Early game... I think I read somewhere here on this forum that pods never contain mindworms if they are popped within a base radius. So... I almost always plop a base down first prior to opening any new pods. I also set the production of the nearest base to something really juicy, just in case it's a "materials" pod. But pods that are close to enemy boundaries get popped right away, typically I'll have a few scout patrols or maybe a unity rover running around. Doesn't really matter. (2) Mid-game. Well, I try to pop sea pods only with transports... since it's the only way your going to be getting any alien artifacts. It isn't really necessary to protect your transports from isles of the deep, because you can just be careful and hit the pods so you'll have movement left to run away in case isles have infested the pods. Popping pods in fungus, well, you just have to pop them and hope for the best. (3) Late game. Popping pods late game is pretty fun and a nice diversion away from what for me is usually a very tedious endgame. Since by now you're probably at war with one or more factions (at least ) you'll have to protect your trance cruiser transport with a 1-best-6 AAA/trance destroyer (set as desig. defender). If you are lucky enough to find an alien artifact you'll want to protect it, any time you can get a free tech it's worth it. You might want to bring along a psi hovertank (1-1-3 empath/trance) or psi rover if there are pods on islands. As noted above when making a beach landing, no matter what the terrain is, it only costs you one move so if you land your rover/tank directly on a pod off of your ship, so if you discover mindworms, you can simply hop back on the ship, no worries. (4) End game. Well, in my current game, playing the PK scenario submitted by ARES 7 (?), there are a whole bunch of pods lying along the "south pole", you know, the vertical line of tiles located on the bottom of the map. Since I just got the tech for orbital insertions my plan is to take a few drop psi hovertanks (or I might have to use an empath/AAA tank... Miriam's in the area), a drop colony pod, and a drop transport (? - never made one of these before) to the area. I'll set up a base somewhere safe, then hopefully pick up a few artifacts, then take them backt to this base for shipping (via/drop transport) back to awaiting network nodes on the mainland. I'll probably have to rush a transport down there as well. This is the only fun thing happening right now in this game, otherwise it's pretty tedious. But I'm trying to get a high score entered on aceplayer's site, so I'm going to tough it out. My two cents on the matter! Maitreia
absimiliard	posted 07-12-99 04:31 PM ET I am inclined to pop land pods with whatever is around. Scouts are cheap and I do not care if I lose them. This is true for all phases of the game. Sea pods I pop almost exclusively with Isles. I will not pop them without transport capability, since that would deny me the alien artifacts. Normal transports are unacceptable since they are slow and fragile. Isles on the other hand are harder to kill. They heal quickly and fully. They move without penalty through fungus. (insert your own reason why Isles are best here.) So that is my strategy. Have fun all. -absimiliard
Sinapus	posted 07-12-99 05:58 PM ET Also, I tend to put empath song on my pod poppers. Then, (if I get neural grafting) I'll put empath/trance. Then I assemble a unit of mindworms and rovers and send them to pop each pod one by one. So if I end up with a huge number of mindworms swarming out of the pod I can cash in. ;-)
Krushala	posted 07-12-99 06:14 PM ET I don't do pod popping anymore. I just set unity pods to landing sites only. I find I'm the only one exploring and benefitting putting me so far ahead it's no point playing the end game. Especially when I cash like 10 to 15 artifacts with the univeral translator. I used to use unity rovers though. If I hit a mind worm I can either attack or retreat. I used a combo between transports and attack ships for sea pods.
Drago Sinio	posted 07-12-99 06:16 PM ET Two things to add: #1 I always try to get the SP that gives your sea units extra moves, because its a real advantage when pod popping, simply because with more moves you get there quicker, and can get bring the artifacts home faster too. Also you can run like hell from any unfreindly forces, and they cannot catch you. #2 When playing on a planet with lotsa land mass, towards the end of the game I use needle jet colony pods, so that I get a higher score due to more population, and if there is an artifact I can hook it up to a network node on the spot ( I like to play as UoP, this another UoP advantage).
Koshko	posted 07-12-99 09:58 PM ET I load and reload excessively. I'll admit it. I've done this 'technique' for many yrs. I think that's why they stuck in that increased loading time in v4. I use whatever is around except for artifacts (they have a tendency to vanish). It's usually a captured independant Mind Worm or Rover or Foil. In the later going, I'll build a special Transport or two solely for this purpose.
Krushala	posted 07-12-99 10:08 PM ET yeah its a bad habit. I don't play ironman because of crashes. I have a tendencey to reload if it's close to a base. I don't mind losing units but bases are hard to lose to a random encounter. This why I turned pods off.
darkmolar	posted 07-13-99 02:52 PM ET One thing I've found when popping sea pods is that you need a vehicle capable of transporting objects. If you use something else, then you can't get the alien artifacts.
Earwicker	posted 07-13-99 04:58 PM ET Drago's right about how pod-popping is one of the key benefits of the Maritime Control Center. For this reason (and many others), I find the Xeno Dome very valuable. Isle are my favorite for the sea pod popping patrol, since they have good movement thru fungus and can carry/attack. Mindworms are great for popping land pods, since native life tends to leave them alone.
bjfrank	posted 07-17-99 06:14 AM ET Thousands of strageties, but one missing. I don't reload, that's no fun. But I can make pods always positiv! How? No cheating, just build a city next to a pod. If you the open it, you alway get a positiv result, no mindworms, no fungus blossoms. The only partially negative is an earthquake. For pods within the city aerea but two fields away, you can get mindworms, but no fungus blossom, which I think is the worst case.
Sector7G	posted 07-17-99 05:16 PM ET Pray to the SMAC gods for a favorable result and if you dont get it...shhh <wispers> dont tell anyone I said this but, r e l o a d (in civ2 when I pop a hut with a settler I never got a bad result...does the same thing happen with colony pods ? )
Krushala	posted 07-17-99 05:27 PM ET I have popped pods with colony pods. I don't remember getting any bad results. I don't do it often though. I do get mindworms a lot from going into fungus with colony pods.
Sector7G	posted 07-19-99 01:26 AM ET OK don't try the colony pod thing...trust me
Rex Little	posted 07-19-99 11:46 AM ET One thing I learned the hard way: don't use an alien artifact to pop a pod. I had one completely disappear.
Series II	posted 07-19-99 12:33 PM ET There is some rules that say something about there not being mindworms in pods that are within a certain radius of a base, or maybe within a certain radius of your landing site.
Plato90s	posted 07-19-99 03:39 PM ET If you pop an pod with an alien artifact and the pod causes another alien artifact to appear, then both pods go "poof" and disappears. Strange, huh? I've also had it happen when two pods being guarded by the same unit overlapped and then disappeared.
Series II	posted 07-20-99 08:26 AM ET MIND WORMS!!!!!!!!!!!! I started a Gaian game a few days ago and last night the UOP and Believers (we all share a land mass) declared war on me. I sent a few mind worms up to their area to try and harass them. I was hopelessly out numbered so I changed my strategy. I started popping pods near their cities and units with my worms. YOU NEVER GET A BAD RESULT! Worms, energy credits, materials to finish a facility are all wonderful in these circumstances. Alien artifacts, resources and rivers really are not that useful and It was really sad to see my brand new Unity chopper run out of gas (I was more than 32 squares from one of my cities). The results were most wonderful. I popped more than 70 mind worms from pods near their area. The new worms did not attack my worms, but did destroy about 10 of their units and 2 of their cities. I also popped all the pods between my territory and their territory. The worms from these pods just stayed where they were. They acted like land mines when the UOP forces moved toward my cities. This strategy gave me time to build a probe unit in all my front cities and to research air power (before them). Now I am ready for a war on MY terms.
Series II	posted 07-20-99 10:47 AM ET And another thing........... Once I get a truce with the UOP I can send my Mind Worms held in resereve through the 'Wild Mind Worm Mine Field' to my captured UOP cities and not be attacket by the wild mind worms. Mind worms can create a sizeable army Wild Mind Worm Army to attack enemy cities and can create a line of Wild Mind Worm defense between you and an emeny faction that you share a land mass with. OASN (On A Side Note) Probe units can mind control other factions Alien Artifacts. I never knew that until last night.