Gaian Luck - December 2014 GotM scenario for Gaians

[Mart]

 

Gaian Luck

by Mart

Shortly after planetfall, you could review reports about surrounding terrain. There is abundant plant life, fertile soil, rivers and sea coast. Not only you grabbed with Deirdre more landing pods from U.N.S. Unity, but also will be able to establish a colony in a very good location.
Other mission officers could not be reached by radio. They have either equipment malfunction or they did not survive this emergency landing. While regretting loss of life, you are not that worried about getting all those wrong ideas for future of this human colony out of your way.
Just last corrections on the tabview and report will be ready for Lady Deirdre Sky. Living these past days in almost constantly moving escape pods has become unbearable to large portion of the crew. Decisions needed to be made.

This is vanila SMAC game. No expansion!

This GotM has completed. You can submit your score only for consolation standings.

- - - = = = * * * = = = - - -

Standings:

Place	Medal	Player	MY	Score
1		Kirov	2215	3428
2		Vishniac	2267	2728
3		SWJ06	2346	3370

Congratulations to the medalists!

- - - = = = * * * = = = - - -
Installation:
Unzip the folder "gotm-2014-gaian-luck" to the "scenarios" folder inside the game folder.
Play:
Start SMAC game, choose:
Scenario > Play scenario -> and find the folder as described above. Select "Deirdre-2101.Sc" file.

About game settings:
Standard size map.
Dense cloud cover (more rainy conditions).
Abundant planet life (mindworms).
Transcendence - the only victory condition enabled.
No restart of eliminated factions.
Random events are ON.
Librarian difficulty

How quickly can you transcend? To complete this scenario discover all technologies and complete Ascent to Transcendence Secret Project in the smallest possible number of turns.
In case of a tie, Victory Points will decide the winner.
Save and submit your game the turn before completion of the Ascent to Transcendence SP.
Attach your save here in this thread.
Deadline: March 31, 2015
After this date, you can submit your game for consolation standings.

For After Actions Reports, please use the appropriate section of the forum:
Link to AAR section
Please remember before March 31, 2015 to write spoiler warning to players, who are going to play this scenario. They should not read such AAR before submitting.

Good 'Gaian' luck!

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As submission saved games appear in this thread, please, do not view/open them before you submitted your game, or we are past the deadline. Thank you!

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Stockpile energy in building queue - allowed

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Consolation standings (continuous):

Place	Player	MY	Score
1	Kirov	2215	3428
2	Vishniac	2267	2728
3	SWJ06	2346	3370

Congratulations to the medalists!
=======
Submissions:

Player	MY	Score
Vishniac	2267	2728
Kirov	2215	3428
SWJ06	2346	3370

[Vishniac]

A bland scenario. Pure SMAC then. No changes.
I guess all surprises would come from the map.

Is it possible to play it with Yitzi's patch?

[Mart]

It is SMAC, I guess a modified terran.exe would not change a lot, but kyrub changes (?) would make AI more competitive.

I think it is ok to use modified terran.exe, if someone wishes so.
(SMAC has terran.exe; SMAX has terranx.exe)

[Vishniac]

That's ok. I think I have all vanilla installed.
It's been some time since I played last time and there are all kinds of SMAC saved files on my desktop. Hard to figure but it works (version 5.0).

I am looking forward to see what you put for us. I start.
REPORTING, LADY! 

[Kirov]

Downloaded. Can we use the stockpile energy thing? I assume we can, like we do in most MP games.

[Buster's Uncle]

Naturally, there's going to be a badge for the winner...

Suggestions for what the badge would look like are welcome, as it's a pain making something look like anything at 20x, and I'm fresh out of ideas.

[Vishniac]

Jeeez, it was tedious to death!
I probably could have scrapped a good number of turns but it would have been more micromanagement.
Ok, here it is: MY-2276

[Mart]

And playing an AAR game:
Link

[Dio]

I am not used to playing on Librarian and I am also used to having drone riots occur if your bases exceed size 1 without a military/police unit inside it.

[Vishniac]

Improved by 10 turns.
Probably my last attempt.

[Buster's Uncle]

I do not understand why we're not getting more submissions on this - yes, this is vanilla and not too difficult (it makes for variety from the last scenario) and therefore, not especially aimed at our core audience, who tend to prefer kick-your-butt challenges, but   -- it's a scenario.  Give it a quick whirl, submit a save, and encourage us to keep going and kick yer butt next time.

[Mart]

The deadline is still more than 2 months, maybe this.
And what may be a factor too, is that such scenarios tend to be micromanagement nightmares. Some players start and do not go to the end.
I remember... Ultimate Builder Challenge? We played several years ago as GotM. Huge Planet map, starting from Isle of Deianira. I remember fighting with one of the factions took me a lot of time. And after two months, I still had the game unfinished.
This one has smaller map, and since it is very easy, one can run it on "cruise control." Still, going through the whole tech tree takes time.
For the AAR, I'm still before MY 2200.

However, we could start another GotM before the deadline for this one.

[Flux]

Naturally, there's going to be a badge for the winner...

Suggestions for what the badge would look like are welcome, as it's a pain making something look like anything at 20x, and I'm fresh out of ideas.

If you want, I could try to make it.
EDIT: I got nothin'.

[Kirov]

Transcendence in 2215. Probably could be cut down by several decades with a micro to end all micros. Crucial mistakes were made as I'm not used to microing on this scale anymore*.

(click to show/hide)

I disbanded most formers towards the final SP, but had 56 of them just a few turns before. Maybe not a world record, but still a lot in my opinion.

I'd like to spice it up with some challenge, the AI could as well not exist here. However, I liked it to play the game until the end for a change. It must have been years since the last time I did the Flowering! 

Will comment on the actual gameplay soon.

[Buster's Uncle]

I'd like to thank Vish and Kirov for their support, and note that it says "MVP" under Mart's username because he has been a real asset to our community for a few months now, in a number of ways.

We've got a lot of time before our deadline for this scenario, so keep those save submissions rolling in.  My latest thinking about the badge for the winner is a little Deirdre head, a little Gaian logo, or a four-leaf clover; I favor the last, but am open to suggestions.