I'd appreciate if people could share examples of ICS.

[Yitzi]

One of my main goals in the modded game I'm planning is to eliminate ICS (we all agree that such will make for a better game), so in order to do that most effectively I'd like to get to see some actual examples of ICS so I can figure out what's going on and how to weaken it.  So if anyone has games (SP or MP, doesn't matter, though for MP I might need the password) with ICS, I'd appreciate if they could upload them so I can see them.  Thanks.

[Buster's Uncle]

...I could hook you up with some old saves, but I cheat like a mother in SP -- would that foul your results?

[Yitzi]

...I could hook you up with some old saves, but I cheat like a mother in SP -- would that foul your results?

Depends what sort of cheat...how about you give me those saves, tell me how you cheat, and then I'll take that into account.

[GRD55]

What is ICS? I've seen it mentioned in a couple of threads and always have no idea what they're talking about?

[Buster's Uncle]

Infinite City Sprawl.  Building as many bases as possible as fast as possible.  Filling up all the map you can.

[Yitzi]

So anyway, if you could find those old saves, I'd appreciate it.

[Buster's Uncle]

See if you can do anything with this.  When I started looking, finding something with no custom faction turned out to be a challenge.  I haven't been playing much for quite a while now, so it's tough to remember any details about an old save - I certainly used the four-point-patrol/elite cheat, almost certainly the build queue rollover cheat, and - more than I can remember.  I really doubt my cheat games are going to do you any good.  Sorry.

[Yitzi]

See if you can do anything with this.  When I started looking, finding something with no custom faction turned out to be a challenge.  I haven't been playing much for quite a while now, so it's tough to remember any details about an old save - I certainly used the four-point-patrol/elite cheat, almost certainly the build queue rollover cheat, and - more than I can remember.  I really doubt my cheat games are going to do you any good.  Sorry.

Even stuff with custom factions will be somewhat useful.  And the cheats you mentioned are unlikely to mess things up too much.

However, the game you linked does not appear to be ICS; while you definitely had a lot of bases, that was because you had a lot of territory; the density of bases per territory was actually fairly low.

Of the two definitions in the ICS entry in the Planetary Datalinks, I'm looking more for examples of #2 (as without #2, #1 is pretty harmless if your territory is limited.)

[Buster's Uncle]

Well now, that IS a problem.  I'm a builder and like to space my bases out pretty carefully.  I don't have any true crammed-together ICS to show.

[Yitzi]

Well now, that IS a problem.  I'm a builder and like to space my bases out pretty carefully.  I don't have any true crammed-together ICS to show.

Have you seen it done (as a builder, I know how it works for momentum players)?  Even if you could just tell me what terraforming and base facilities it's associated with that would be a big help.

[Buster's Uncle]

...Morgan and Yang do it a lot, of course -Yang, far more sucessfully- but I can't say I've ever paid any attention to how they do things differently when they ICS. 

I guess what you need is some MPlayers to speak up.  This thread has some discussion of ICS.  Kirov and Earthmichael could definitely tell you some stuff.  Sorry to be so useless.

[Yitzi]

...Morgan and Yang do it a lot, of course -Yang, far more sucessfully- but I can't say I've ever paid any attention to how they do things differently when they ICS. 

Actually, while ICS is definitely Yang's best Momentum strategy, it seems that he might actually do fairly well as a builder without it.  After all, he gets -1 energy per base, so fewer and larger bases means that's less of a hit.

I guess what you need is some MPlayers to speak up.  This thread has some discussion of ICS.  Kirov and Earthmichael could definitely tell you some stuff.  Sorry to be so useless.

Thanks.

[Petek]

Not a save game, but this screenshot is a good example of ICS:

http://apolyton.net/upload/view/11127_IcsUni3.jpg

[Yitzi]

Not a save game, but this screenshot is a good example of ICS:

http://apolyton.net/upload/view/11127_IcsUni3.jpg

Thanks.  Any idea what facilities those bases have?  (I notice a lot are building centauri preserves.)

And that sort of ICS will be a definite no-go in what I'm planning.  (6 boreholes in a single base radius for that many bases will, by the midgame (40-ish techs), translate to roughly 5-6 fungal pops per turn under optimal conditions (Green/low difficulty/low native life), which is not a good way to have a viable terraforming-dependent empire.  And of course I'll be nerfing crawlers and condensers.)

[Petek]

No idea what was built in the bases (was not my game). The screenshot is from an old thread on Apolyton. AFAIK, the save game was never posted.

ETA: Looking again at the screenshot, facility maintenance is only -3EC/turn. Aside from free Network Nodes (and possibly other free facilities from SPs), it appears that most bases have no other facilities.