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Author Topic:   May Madness -- Words of Wisdom?

tfs99 posted 05-06-99 02:09 AM ET
May Madness SMACers,
Hope the games are going well. Just wanted to pass along some short "words of wisdom". For those of you who already know this stuff, I apologize in advance for insulting your intelligence.
For those of you new to online SMAC MP games (and perhaps for some who aren't), please be aware that SMAC allows you to do quite a bit of stuff while your opponent(s) are actively taking their turn.
This includes:
1) Messing up (ur, I mean, with) your Social Engineering
2) Changing build orders
3) Setting up production queues
4) Dreaming up the ultimate unit with the Design Workshop
5) Diplomacy with AI (and even human) factions
Sometimes this can greatly speed up online play, allowing the "micromanagers" (and what true SMACer isn't one) time to leisurely fiddle with infrastructure issues, while making the most of your "active" time to move your units.
And if you ever get into a game where time limits are on, trust me, you'll want to cultivate your skill in "offline" micromanagement.
Who knows? Sometime you may run into an unscrupulous host who will set Time Limits to Strict when their war with you didn't turn out exactly as planned. (This actually happened to me once! It was a short game, but probably my most satisfiying victory. )
Hope you are enjoying your games. And ...
SMAC n ... Ted S.

Nell_Smith posted 05-06-99 10:51 PM ET
Ted:
Yep it's a great idea to do stuff like designing units, changing base production, hurrying production and so on during your opponent's turn... but there are two caveats that I've come across:
1. If you're still in the design workshop, base ops screen or whatever when your opponent's turn ends, the game will just pause until you come out of whatever admin screen you're in. This can be frustrating for the other player, who won't know what the delay is.
2. If you're using time limits, which can be quite good (so long as they're not set too low, or else on a slow PC that takes a while to redraw graphics, you can sometimes not even get a chance to move all your units before the timer runs out), bear in mind that if you contact the other human player via the Commlink, this will take time out of their turn. I didn't realise this until it happened to me... I was having a nice chat with my opponent, when I realised that my time had gone down to 7 seconds and I hadn't moved a single unit!
This Challenge thing is loads of fun.
Cheers,
Nell
cousLee posted 05-08-99 05:40 PM ET
more wisdom:
Don't mess with the Believers. mwahahahaha
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Author	Topic: May Madness -- Words of Wisdom?
tfs99	posted 05-06-99 02:09 AM ET May Madness SMACers, Hope the games are going well. Just wanted to pass along some short "words of wisdom". For those of you who already know this stuff, I apologize in advance for insulting your intelligence. For those of you new to online SMAC MP games (and perhaps for some who aren't), please be aware that SMAC allows you to do quite a bit of stuff while your opponent(s) are actively taking their turn. This includes: 1) Messing up (ur, I mean, with) your Social Engineering 2) Changing build orders 3) Setting up production queues 4) Dreaming up the ultimate unit with the Design Workshop 5) Diplomacy with AI (and even human) factions Sometimes this can greatly speed up online play, allowing the "micromanagers" (and what true SMACer isn't one) time to leisurely fiddle with infrastructure issues, while making the most of your "active" time to move your units. And if you ever get into a game where time limits are on, trust me, you'll want to cultivate your skill in "offline" micromanagement. Who knows? Sometime you may run into an unscrupulous host who will set Time Limits to Strict when their war with you didn't turn out exactly as planned. (This actually happened to me once! It was a short game, but probably my most satisfiying victory. ) Hope you are enjoying your games. And ... SMAC n ... Ted S.
Nell_Smith	posted 05-06-99 10:51 PM ET Ted: Yep it's a great idea to do stuff like designing units, changing base production, hurrying production and so on during your opponent's turn... but there are two caveats that I've come across: 1. If you're still in the design workshop, base ops screen or whatever when your opponent's turn ends, the game will just pause until you come out of whatever admin screen you're in. This can be frustrating for the other player, who won't know what the delay is. 2. If you're using time limits, which can be quite good (so long as they're not set too low, or else on a slow PC that takes a while to redraw graphics, you can sometimes not even get a chance to move all your units before the timer runs out), bear in mind that if you contact the other human player via the Commlink, this will take time out of their turn. I didn't realise this until it happened to me... I was having a nice chat with my opponent, when I realised that my time had gone down to 7 seconds and I hadn't moved a single unit! This Challenge thing is loads of fun. Cheers, Nell
cousLee	posted 05-08-99 05:40 PM ET more wisdom: Don't mess with the Believers. mwahahahaha