I've played this game on and off since it came out decades ago and it is still just as enjoyable as ever

did you doomstack deathspheres?

>>2170746
needlejets and locusts

playing Gaia and sending out wave after wave of Mind Worms to crush Sister Miriam

playing Believers and sending out wave after wave of Belivers to crush the worm slut

>>2171014
>>2171021
ladies! don't fight! there's plenty of space in the feeding bay

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reading the wiki when suddenly

>>2171021
Someone compared Miriam to Putin and this concept lives rent-free in my mind

>supposed religious heavyweight, last bastion of Christianity, but in practice just uses it to fool rubes foreign and domestic for blind support
>supposed military heavyweight, but the doctrine ends up boiling down to sending meatwave after meatwave
>basically an inferior version of some Chinese guy

>>2171200
Miriam's AI is different than Miriam in lore. And that's not to defend her ideology in particular, but rather all of the leaders are quite intelligent and respectable while the game mechanics treat the Believers in very unfair ways. Like how nobody gives a fuck about Fundamentalist ethics except her, so she will inevitably go to war with everyone simply because "other player fundamentalist = false".

>>2171212
To add: how I'd fix this in some sort of SMAC2 is to separate religion from social engineering entirely and let each faction develop their own faith, and Miriam would naturally get the most bonuses associated with this.
It's her whole deal, but it leaves her faction orphaned due to zero representation.

>>2171200
>>2171212
>>2171214
Miriam was in the game as an expy of the SNL "church lady". This game came put when the "New Atheists"/"Brights" were picking up steam and thought of themselves very highly. Late 90s/Early 2000s, unironically wore Spaghetti Monster Shirts, bought The God Delusion/liked Dawkins, went onto campuses to insult preachers, etc. They expect that you think the Miriam obnoxious caricature is tasteful and "a real problem in the real world, and the obvious villain of this game". She spends the game being an irritant and impeding the noble, atheist "science" factions (which the Brights consider one and the same)

>>2171231
No, I strongly disagree with that. Miriam's lore and quotes portray her as an intelligent person - maybe even the most intelligent person because she alone criticizes some of the more dystopian secret projects and technologies - the actual problem is the game mechanics treat her as the Civ archetype equivalent of Montezuma.

>>2171231
nerds who played the game at the time (and redditors to this day) definitely read all this into her, but I agree with the other anon that she wasn't written as such and was actually pretty well fleshed out by Brian Reynolds.

is there any Deirdre Skye x Mindworms smut? asking for a friend

>>2171238
>Miriam's lore and quotes portray her as an intelligent person
All of her lore portrays her as a religious nut. She demands blind faith and preaches against the kind of critical thinking associated with technological development because it threatens her power.

Her character is intelligent only in the way that a charismatic demagogue is intelligent because she can convince a whole faction to follow her. I guess she's also intelligent enough to be pragmatic, because while her faction gets penalized in research (because she's loudly preaching against it) she's very good at stealing it from others because she still needs it as much as everyone else. The game mechanics seem perfectly in line with her characterization; a bullshitter whose quotes are made to sound convincing enough to keep the drones in line but won't stand up to scrutiny. If you think she's the most intelligent person in that world based on her quotes, you might be playing devil's advocate too much.

>>2171231
>>2171376
It's quite obvious she's just an atheists caricature, Inherit The Wind (a complete misrepresentation of William Jennings Bryan and the entire Scopes trial as an evolutionist aesop) all over again. It's just a product of its time.

>>2171376
*Yes, that is how she is portrayed

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>>2171376
None of her quotes are even about religion, they're all about the danger of various technologies.

>>2171245
Deirdre Skye x Santiago scissoring art, hopefully. Beastiality, gross.

>>2171231
this guy never read the books...

>>2171245
no

>>2171376
this is just not true. miriam is a chemist and one of the few people on the Unity who actually give a damn about ethics. When Captain Garland got shot, she was the only one speaking for the crew - Yang was outright suggesting to murder them all. If there's a stupidest person in the franchise award, it belongs squarely to Santiago.

Santiago always seemed like the odd one out to me, every other faction leader can be traced to a significant strain of thought when the game came out late 90s. I guess she's supposed to be a survivalist? Really wooden characterization compared to all the others, no depth to her

>>2171435
Santiago is another leader with an orphaned ideology. 90's era survivalism was indeed a thing, and mostly revolved around conspiracy theories about the government and NWO. But Santiago ends up as just generic militarism with no particular rhyme or reason besides "muh survival of the fittest". She's not fascist, nor is she a Heinleinian citizen soldier democracy.

>>2171435
>>2171437
in the books she's a downright fucking moron. she's directly responsible for the unity exploding.
because of her "survivalism".

>>2171441
>not even head of security, that honor goes to Yang
>not even a general, just a colonel

>>2171430
Are the books any good, and available in audio book form?

>>2171466
They suck desu.

>>2171463
she's a paramilitary 'colonel'. she's not even a real colonel

>>2171487
fuck off idiot, they rule>>2171466
>>2171466
google it

>>2171489
Kiss a toad, they suck dick

>>2171499
Words words words
Fuck off band-kid

>>2171231
>noble, atheist "science" factions
This is one thing that always bothered me about the 1990s/2000s designs for a lot of media, I always wanted a techno-religious faction and very few games would let me indulge in it, most putting them opposed to each other. About the only time in the Civ series I remember being able to vaguely go that route was with Persia in Civ3, who had religious and scientific as their faction traits.

Even Stellaris makes Spiritualism and technological development through materialism opposed ethics, so the same line of thought is still going on even if it's losing traction.

>>2170746
The fuck is a deathsphere? Is that what gravships are called? I usually prefer hovertanks since they have 3 attacks with elite rank and can drop pod from far away.

But if you need to just wipe someone out fast Needlejets with nerve gas are great and can be used against anything without collateral damage unlike nukes.

>>2171692
helicopters are bretty good as well, especially for harassing

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>>2171231
Interesting thought, but Miriam isn't megalomaniac. Totalitarian shitholes are just using religion as a facade for controlling the population.

>>2171688
40k Imperium is as techno-religious as it gets, but even there real science is at odds with religious practices and tech-priests practicing scientific method are branded heretics.
I think the new Leagues of Votann actually worship their AI though.

>>2171437
>nor is she a Heinleinian citizen soldier democracy
There's one Spartan quote that always reminds me of the scene in Starship Troopers where the guy gets a knife put through his hand during training

>He held his arm too stiffly, and so was thrown back repeatedly, until at last I seized his forearm and snapped it back against itself. His training suffered while the arm healed, of course, but I felt this was a lesson he must learn early, and well.

>>2171692
>The fuck is a deathsphere
pretty sure it's one of the generated names for gravship designs

>>2171245
https://limewire.com/d/uKKDr#FW8LO0Jm7v

>>2172144
use catbox.moe

Can anyone explain in depth Yang's philosophy?

>>2172323
collectivism over individualism to 11

>>2172323
the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few

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>>2172323
Collectivist spiritualism. Achieve zen while working 20 hours per day, sleep in communal pods and eat the flesh of your grandmother, and dream of hijacking Planet's hivemind to ensure immortality.

Is nerve stapping a good idea late game?

>>2172323
Being based.

>>2172365
Nerve stapling is situational. Normally, you'd want to solve whatever public order problem is going on, and usually that's easy enough to do or you should never get into a situation where it is unsolvable. You are partially shooting yourself in the foot by nerve stapling, as if I remember correctly it guts a city's science output and I think other things as well.
Saying that, enemy cities? Solar flares? Nerve staple away.

>>2171688
Sins of Solar Empire? THE MOTHERFUCKING ADVENT?

Eve Online? Amarr?

Dunno what you were smoking...

>>2172390
To be fair, Amarr were an unapologetic "evil" faction (In the context of the real-life time period, fanatically religious slaving despots were seen as the worst possible outcome for a nation) for a lot of EVE's early years, it wasn't until around 2007-2008 CCP did a 180 and tried to make the four all be different shades of grey. That's how you got things like the dark underside of Gallente's political system or Minmatar's tribal warfare.

>>2170480
When I first played this game at 10 or 11 I thought that Yang was a disembodied head bionically attached to some sort of mechanical flying unit. I just kind of accepted it was a thing without thinking about it for years, only later did I look at it and realize it's just an oversized collar looking like a miner.

>>2172374
Surprisingly competent reply considering where we are. Unironically good job anon.

>it guts a city's science output and I think other things as well
Yes. It also gives a penalty to defence on that base for probe ops.

>>2172527
Lol

>>2171692
I... I'm pretty sure I played this game at some point and I have no idea what you're talking about. Time to reinstall I guess

>>2173270
Needlejets are the jets of the game. Very effective, first one to get them is usually going to be the big dog. Anon also mentioned Hovertanks, which are essentially the upgrade to Speeders, and the best ground-exclusive attack vehicle. When he said he didn't know what Deathspheres are, those are Gravships, the final vehicle type unlocked by Graviton Theory (Explore 13). They are basically the best "ground-type" vehicle in the game because they use flying rules (e.g. they can cross ocean as though it's open terrain, but don't have a fuel limit). All of the most expensive, stupidly-overpowered vehicles you usually make at the end of the game tend to be Deathspheres of some kind.

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>start new game as Free Drones
>get bullied mercilessly by pirates and aliens for decades
>cuck to their demands just to survive
>200 years later picrel
We have no compassion and we ask no compassion from you. When our turn comes, we shall not make excuses for the terror.

>>2173325
How the fuck did you play SMACX? Are you still on Windows 10? I upgraded to 11 years ago and unfortunately it looks like the newest updates are totally incompatible with the game in some way.

>>2173370
Allegedly this mod is required
https://github.com/induktio/thinker/

>>2173370
wine64 on Debian trixie

>>2173325
I have no idea how you managed to lose early game vs them. With that industry bonus you should've drowned them in rovers.

>>2173276
Based. Gravships with clean reactors are the missile rover of lategame.

>>2173548
I spawned close to the Caretakers and they absolutely destroyed me with their 6-3-1 starting units until I researched the ability to talk to them. after that they were actually really chill - gave me plenty of tech for free. I will kill them last

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>>2173550
Ouch.

>discount yang

>>2173619
'blue-sky' makes so much more sense now.

>>2173548
I never really saw the point of gravships. At the point you can afford to spam them armored, you've probably won. If you can't armor them then jets + tanks are better.

>>2173325
update: the caretakers stabbed me in the back and stole a bunch of tech. now the usurpers are my best friends

>>2173370
https://github.com/DrazharLn/pracx

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dammit I wish I could get into it but the interface is just too rough for me - moving around and all that is a pain. and before you say anything I'll have (You) know that I'm in my mid 30s. are there any mods or anything to tighten up the controls? trust me - I want to like this game.

>>2173990
Extremely mobile across all terrain while being able to capture bases unlike copters or jets. Sucks they have a weakness to air superiority tho.

>>2174050
I first got into AC almost in my 30s, so you have no excuse. Just learn common hotkeys for infrastructure and basic actions.

>>2174038 provides additional overlays and whatnot but there is no way around hotkeys.

>>2174096
thank you

>>2174050
>select with left mouse button
>hold left mouse button to move
>find everything else in the right click menu or use the hotkeys
if this is rough you must be comatose

>>2174175
Worse. He's awake enough to post here.

>>2174050
>what? i have to press F for farm and M for mine? I'm going INSAAAAAANNNEEE

>>2174050
This video has some tips:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HLF5B9FEYU

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why could they never surpass the first SMAC?

>>2170480
I BELIEVE

>notice I can ask the data'jaks to vote for me as supreme ruler, with only the cyberneticists as the third human faction
>think that "aw sweet I can win the game"
>game informs me that I must wipe out the alien scum first
so close yet so far. also maybe I should give up thought control since these irrational w*men don't seem to like it

>>2179350
Maybe you should ask the cyborgs to graft you a pair of balls so you can take care of those ayys

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>behind in tech and population
>Yang declares war on me
>manage to hold him off with navy and some needlejets parked in a strategically placed airbase I built on an islet next to his continent
>start terraforming a bunch of emtpy space in advance while I build a batch of colony pods to pop boom and double my empire
>finally get everything set up around my new bases and start pop booming
>get all of them to population 7
>power graph spikes above everyone else's (screenshot was taken at this point)
>switch back to Planned + Knowledge, get shard weapons tech while Yang still has chaos
>decide to take advantage of my now doubled industrial capacity and tech lead over Yang
>build a few dozen shard amphibious invaders and shard battery artillery
>invade and easily crush units, taking over 3 of his bases including one with The Virtual World that he conquered from Zakharov
>he starts building dozens of probe teams
>I build a few of my own quickly in each of the conquered bases
>he sends waves of them at each of the bases and despite perimeter defense + sensor arrays + higher morale, my probe units start dropping like flies
>he uses mind control to retake all bases AND MY UNITS INSIDE THEM
>taunts me
>is now building shard units of his own
>my power graph nosedives

I'm seriously considering ragequitting (again) right now bros, I want to cry

>>2179461
What difficulty you playing at sister?

>>2179461
>picks a fight with yang gang
>becomes part of it
the goals of the group and of the greater race are transcendent, and to embrace them is the achieve enlightenment

>>2179461
That's why you hold back and play carefully until you build the hunter seeker algorithm, and only then unleash a blitzkrieg across the entire planet

>>2172323
Buddhist legalism
You are a cog in the machine that is the state, accept that you are a cog and are going to be treated as such. Overcome the suffering associated with being a cog by becoming master of your internal mind. Become zen, achieve oneness with the whole of the State and People, rejoice in a life of little material substance by becoming a thing which transcends its physical shell's demands.

>>2182404
Gotta love believers and how easy they get that for free.

>>2171231
That's cool Miriam. I'm still going to nuke you.

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>My gift to industry is the wage worker, or Wagie. Specially designed for labor, the Wagie's muscles and nerves are ideal for his task, and the cerebral cortex has been atrophied so that he can desire nothing except to perform his duties. Tyranny, you say? How can you tyrannize someone who cannot >feel pain?
– Chairman Sheng-ji Yang, "Essays on Mind and Matter"

>Hey Foreman Domai
>You call your faction the Free Drones yet you still have drone riots. Curious.
>- Turning Point Chiron

>my infiltrator tells me the Usurpers are making at least one planetbuster
should I be worried?

>>2171692
Hovertanks are not bad, but Helljumpers [Infantry with airdrop and the Space Elevator perk] do it for me. That additional bonus to city fights is nice and they are a fair amount cheaper.

>>2187593
>What do I care for your cooming? Jugs, even poonan, is no more than information before the cumbrain, data fed to the computer of the fap. The lesson is simple: you have received the information, now act on it. Take control of the wang and you shall become master of the jizz.

just won a game on Librarian difficulty as Zacharov. will probably try Transcend next time. also nerve gas really does a number on enemy cities. excellent for de-ayyy-ification

>>2172323
It's like if the Dao De Jing had been written by Nietzche. I never want to (nor am I able to) get off Chairman Yang's Wild Ride.

>>2170480
I BELIEVE IN YOU

>>2171376
>She demands blind faith and preaches against the kind of critical thinking associated with technological development because it threatens her power.

"The righteous need not cower before the drumbeat of human progress. Though the song of yesterday fades into the challenge of tomorrow, God still watches and judges us. Evil lurks in the datalinks as it lurked in the streets of yesteryear. But it was never the streets that were evil."

How is this anti-technology?

>>2171200
Woman leader.

>>2171376
There are no atheists in the history of science

>>2193289
>nerve gas really does a number on enemy cities. excellent for de-ayyy-ification
I usually try to maintain Noble integrity all the way to the end and I appreciate the fact that using nerve gas against alien factions is considered moral and just.

>>2200251
Solar flares are a thing...

>>2170480
Everyone gets stuck on the act part

>>2200259
Not if you play without random events

>>2171392
It's ironic that you caricaturize Inherit The Wind in turn, which is actually positive towards Christians. There's just as much of a biblical argument for the defense's position in that movie, with rendering unto Caesar that which is Caesar's, and the final scene showing that the defense attorney was a devout Christian all along. It was in fact the prosecutorial side that got involved in demagoguery and casted aspersions towards the faith of the defense that were not acting Christlike.

Anons, it has been like 5 five years since I played SMAC. Any suggestions about playing a new game?. I used to play with the Proctor or the Cyborgs, but I am open to other factions as long as I can get the ropes again.

>>2202100
Well, start with all original factions, don't turn up the heat or difficulty too much and bumrush water if it's SMAX. Bumrush crawlers if it's not.

>>2202142
or just play as the pirates unless that makes it too easy

>>2202286
I don't think it gets easier than that. Caretaker ayys included.

>>2202291
I still got absolutely mauled by the Cyborgs in my last Transcend playthrough :'(

>>2202301
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wmjn_vrShmU

>>2202286
Pirates you say huh? I cannot recall playing with that faction. Maybe I will give it a try on Specialist diffculty.
The most annoying (or funny) is recalling what tech are worth investigating.

>>2203000
they're relatively ez because you start in the water so you can expand unmolested for many turns. but I overextended myself I think

>make peace/pacts with all my fellow humans
>vendetta on all the ayys
>start building nerve gas needlers
oh yeah it's all coming together

>>2204304
plz post screenshots :3

>>2203100
You have free reign over water for 100 turns easy, you have bonus minerals in ocean on top of all the busted shit SMAX added for water, they get 2 buildings for free, of which naval yard which works for probe teams too and the Pressure Dome not only makes you immune to flooding but also doubles as a third free building recycler. And if the AI does decide to attack you, you get to capture their units.
>>relatively

>>2205100
>And if the AI does decide to attack you, you get to capture their units
oh yeah this happened to me a few times and I didn't understand why because I didn't add any special ability to my units for it. only now does it dawn on me that oh yeah, pirates

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>>2170480
>- Chairman Sheng-ji Yang

I make sure to squash this slant eye bug as early as I can in the game because he is a constant source of conflict and is able to churn out infantry like a motherfucker. Used a planet buster on me too, which resulted in my razing his cities and raping/murdering the populations.

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>>2170796
Needlejets early game basically can be used to blitzkrieg across the map, wiping out enemy ground units, while a small ground force does the mopping up and taking cities.

>>2205858
It's insanely good once you realize "civilian" naval units such as formers, colonizers and probe teams count too.

>>2205928
They never really fall off. Worst case scenario if the enemy has lots of cruisers or AAA you get to use some of them as transports to drop infantry. Or soften him with cruise missiles and then send in the gasjets.

>>2205959
>They never really fall off.

They kinda do by the time I can mass produce improved cruise missiles in 1 turn in my forge cities. By the time I'm sufficiently strong to be ethnically cleansing the entire planet my surviving force of shard and better needlejets is still active but I switch to cruise missiles and drop pod hover tanks which do orbital insertions from my space elevator.

>you get to use some of them as transports to drop infantry.

Oh shit, I didn't realize you could transport infantry in needlejets. Which feature allows that and how early can you get it?

>only now notice you can put a transport pod on a jet
guys this solves so many problems (until you get drop pods)
>send missiles to soften up defenses
>send gas jets after that
>finally fly in with ground troops and capture what's left
>>2205919
I have a yang problem right now. gas helps but it's not enough. also the other humans are getting angry at me for gassing the hivescum

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>>2206042
You didn't try changing the main module? And no, they don't fall off if you don't want them. By far the best counter to massive worm swarms if you piss of the hivemind and THE budget solution to other people sending cruise missiles or deathstacks your way.

>>2206225
>supply jet that needs to refuel every other turn
for what purpose?

>>2206232
Convenience? Feeding those super popbooms, setting up a new base in 5 turns instead of 50, finishing special projects instantly without artefacts, sectioning off an area to buy a turn. Lots of uses if you're inclined. Between those and regular armored supply crawlers you can bring some real cancer to Chiron.

>>2171376
>blind faith
Dumbass

>>2171376
Man's unfailing capacity to believe what he prefers to be true rather than what the evidence shows to be likely and possible has always astounded me.

Are there any let's play's of this game on youtube that aren't made by mouth-breathing retards?

As a mouth-breathing retard myself, I'd like to see someone actually play this game properly, explaining their strategy, why they pick certain techs, switching SE choices etc.
I finished one campaign recently with Aki the robo girl, but i only played on Talent.
I had the thinker mod installed, and I guess that made it a bit harder?
But I'd really like to see someone good play this

>>2209193
I liked Grimith's playthrough his recent one not the one he did like a decade ago

>>2209348
thanks

>>2209193
Not a video, but here's a link to some text based game reports with screenshots.

He's really good at the game. Reaches Transcendence within 150 turns or less in his games. On a tiny map he even finished in 60 turns.

http://www.dos486.com/alpha/

>>2210712
this inspired me to try a couple of rounds on a 16x16 map to see if I can manage to win a Transcend game that way. the answer is no

Favorite faction and why? Mechanics only so no larp reasons please.

>>2214768
Gaians. An early worm is the best exploration unit and usually gets you easy artifacts and other goodies and lots of money from killing other worms. Extra efficiency is always nice, and the ability to boom with democratic+planned is something I value more than free market. It's just a very well-rounded faction with no big weaknesses.

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>>2214768
>Mechanics only
University or Morgan as far as the vanilla concerned. Free research nodes plus innate +2 research give you +80% to your research assignations from the get go. Insanely massive boost to science.

Morgan is great because he can effectively run free market without adopting free market, and his commerce bonus benefits my preferred playstyle of building up diplomacy with AIs to get that sweet trade revenue income. In terms of pure science output Uni is better but Morgan overall gets more energy (my ballpark estimate).

In SMAX it's the pirates (boats are neat in general, and the faction itself is unique). Also I find Progenitors amusing - being a highly advanced faction which is locked into internal war with its mirror counterpart is also a very rare idea.

>>2215909
why not go with University if you want basedence?

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holy brap I did it
>16x16 map, abundant lifeforms, transcend difficulty, gaians
>only me and yang spawn
>give yang everything he wants so I can expand in peace
>yang launches "surprise" attack in 2212 AD
>manage to hold off the initial attack
>gear up for nerve gas missile troops and scout meat shields
>march into yang's territory, decimating his cities as I go
>get very close to victory
>worms.txt
>lots of fucking worms.txt because I turned native lifeforms up to max
>have to spend several turns just clearing worms that are in the way of yang's last cities
>finally manage to get enough gas rovers close enough to capture his last city in one turn
in retrospect I probably shouldn't have chosen the Gaians. there's not enough time to spec into worm tech for it to be useful. but hey, my first Transcend victory!

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>>2216774
>beat yang within 30 turns of him invading me

>>2215757
>>2215909
Interesting. I expected at least one Yang or Miriam for the easy pop booms at least.

>>2217079
They're both fun to play once you get the ball rolling, but they both suffer from a slow start. Yang with his economy penalty and inability to either boom with demo+planned or properly benefit from FM, and Miriam's inability to tech ANYTHING at the start has sometimes made me miss all the early secret projects.

I see Miriam as the most rewarding faction if you do manage to catch up because the faith offense bonus is a very unique advantage if you're otherwise on equal footing in tech.

>>2217420
>they both suffer from a slow start
Do elaborate. I'm rusty but I'd name them as THE factions to get that ball rolling early.

-2 ECO is like -1 energy per base with you having more bases, and quicker, than everyone (except probably drones) else put together more than offsetting that. And he can boom just fine with creche + planned + gold age or just enjoy that +1/3/6GRO if gold age isn't available yet or for some other reason. If anything he's the king of (early game) wide.

Miriam, huh, yeah, no knowledge value can be annoying but those 10 initial turns are hardly make or break and you do get to trade for techs. But that +2SUP is insane for early game and that +25ATT doesn't really fall off. Army of formers not eating your paltry early yields? Sure. Army of ghetto rovers taking over whatever you want? Yes please. You want peace, sure, enjoy my notmujahedeen probing your ass and you don't get to do anything about it.

>>2217448
Having to go into golden age to boom is hardly "just fine", especially with the minimal energy Yang has to get it going. And some of that little energy is lost to waste since you're probably at exactly 0 Efficiency, not to mention possibly spending it on bureaucracy drones first. Better to forget booming and grow fast (but not boom-fast like others) on condenser farms. And that -1 energy per base you can definitely feel in the early game when you're trying to rush formers and recycling tanks. The cash just isn't there like it is for other factions. The 10% growth and industry discounts aren't that impressive at the start on transcend difficulty when the AIs also get discounts.

I've had plenty of games with Miriam where my starting neighbor isn't impressed with the scout patrols I've only been able to build and they declare vendetta immediately. Good luck tech trading in that situation. Sure you can get lucky, and you can get the former tech from a pod, but that's not something that others have to rely on. Anyone can tech steal with probes just as well as Miriam, but Miriam takes longer to get to planetary networks - and while she's working to get her tech stealing going, those wonders might be going already.
>+2SUP is insane
Meh. Everyone gets some free support, and then it's only one mineral if you go above it. Not to mention nearly everyone can run police state for a while at the start if you like free support.

Like I said, slow start, but their faction bonuses obviously become very strong once you get the momentum going. Though I'm not sure if Yang's late game is that impressive without ever being able to run Democratic.

>>2217533
I have no idea how are you struggling with
energy. Do you not go for wide and police state or something?

>The 10% growth and industry discounts aren't that impressive at the start on transcend difficulty when the AIs also get discounts.
Levels the playing field a bit. The efficiency immunity is where it's at.

>>2217537
I'm just saying it takes longer for Yang to finish a recycling tank in each base than it does for others. You do use all your early game energy to rush formers and recycling tanks, right?

>>2217652
>You do use all your early game energy to rush formers and recycling tanks, right?
Not really. I'm more of the run on all fours, dick out, frothing at the mouth and colonize as much as possible inclination. My early game formers, and there are few of those, build roads and sensors. Plant a forest now and then when available. Yeah, you'll lose on some early wonders and yeah an early war will slow you down but when you have 15 bases to his four-five and you don't spend too much income on building upkeep or those free support slots on formers you can have a pretty meaty peacecorp available.

I had a feeling from picking your brain you're one of those perfectly manicured empires tallfags, and that's fine. But we have a different approach. I play on trannycend too so there's no confusion.

>>2217679
>you're one of those perfectly manicured empires tallfags
Hardly - I'll make use of every inch of land and sea, but I find that there's usually enough room to expand that I can leave some space between bases to let them grow later. I don't like going tall in AC because hab domes are stupidly far away in the tech tree, but I also don't like to go ICS with too many tiny bases to micromanage.

I guess I prefer a rectangular approach, being both tall and wide; build bases as tightly as I can but not within the fat cross of another base, fill the land with forest, some condenser farms and all the boreholes I can fit, and meanwhile hit pop caps everywhere and never stop expanding. I find that this is a comfortable way to play that guarantees victory against the AIs but also makes use of all the game's mechanics, and it gives value for secret projects that speed up terraforming and keep the drones under control.

>>2217779
>hybrid
Eww. Nah, just kidding but I was close enough. I can see hive not being your go-to if you're used to rushing your infrastructure with energy, without, you know, mostly ignoring it until crawlers come online. Thankfully the game has enough flavors to cater to different playstyles.

omw to another 16x16 Transcend win. this time as the Free Drones

>>2216778
What's the best way to get every single "achievement"?

>it's possible to play by email
interesting. I'm tempted to see if we can get a game together ITT by passing the save via catbox, but it'd also probably be very slow
>>2224458
you mean in a single game? not sure if that's possible

>>2224498
>a game together ITT by passing the save via catbox
Brother, I'd rather have all my teeth pulled out my ass while listening to k-pop over joining that game.

>>2224498
I don't think you're going to find seven people on this board with the patience to play PBEM in 2025, but I'd be down to playing a succession game with players taking 10-20 turns each.

>>2225911
>>2224498
What about online multiplayer?

https://pastebin.com/X3br4PvH

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsJTV2rArVE

People actually play it this way.

>>2214768
Peacekeepers. I love pop booming.

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>>2223396
>eliminate the ayys and the pirates
>only remaining rival is the Cybernetic Consciousness,
>get immediate diplomatic victory
Aki Zeta-5 is so addicted to Big Drone Cock that she can overlook a little gassing

>>2226126
>07:50 monoliths upgrade your troops' morale and heal them
huh, didn't know that

>>2171416
her criticisms are usually religious in nature, though. Take the Bulk Matter Transmitter quote:
>And what of the immortal soul in such transactions? Can this machine transmit and reattach it as well? Or is it lost forever, leaving a soulless body to wander the world in despair?

>>2227253
Based and "the transporter kills you" pilled

looking for an old screencap about how Miriam is the one who wants better for her people, anyone have it?

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>>2228503
That's when I find it of course

>>2170480
I still own this on CD. That's how old I am

>>2228504
This was written by a 14 year old moron.

Miriam is an ultra conservative whackjob who hears voices and thinks she can do whatever she wants because "god speaks to her". Deidra doesn't want to make the mistakes of the past and remembers why they're there, solely because they fucked over the environment of Earth. She's the only one with a long term plan on a hostile alien world while the others are in a race to the bottom developing ever increasing weapons of mass destruction. Her sole motivation is "if we go down this path we'll leave this planet lifeless and die along with it so I'd better fight to save it".

>>2229023
>This was written by a 14 year old moron.

>>2229023
>t. The Believers have renamed Gaia's Landing to New Eden.

>>2229023
worm covered fingers typed this post

>>2229023
*tips fedora*

>>2228504
That's a slight misunderstanding of the Morgan quote. It's less about "fuck the future" and more "I will make the present a golden age that lasts forever"

>>2228504
>>2229023
I doubt it was written by a 14 year old, more likely Anon was playing devil's advocate but the result does read like something that only a teenager would take at face value.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQfYKbKdlBM&t=730s
Isaac Asimov speaks about necessity of planet wide federal council to address global problems in 1989

Does it not sound naive? Even in a game like SMAC you can bribe whole nations or representatives and we all know how UN can't do shit against a certain country that has enough power or small allies to block resolutions.

>>2234188
12:10 I forgot embeds cut off the timestamp

>>2234188
a single world government will be necessary, including a single global planned economy

>>2228504
When a 14 year old outwits the academically educated then you know something's off in 2025.

>>2224498
>>2226126
What about playing it in MP? >>2226126

>>2174813
demographic shifts

>>2229023
ok Quill

>>2235998
>shift
to what?
retard mode?

>>2236772
yes

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>>2236813
we live in the Future...

>>2236825
we must dissent

guys is organic superlube safe for sex? asking for a friend

>>2239341
Organic Superlube? Oh, it's great stuff, great stuff. You really have to keep an eye on it, though - it'll try and slide away from you the first chance it gets.

>>2239355
what is superlube made from anyway? Deidre's snail slime?

>>2171435
It's not like as if having strength to defend yourself really requires much justification or ideological embellishment. Regardless, the Spartans receive no love or attention in their in-game exposition. Even what few quotes they have are low-effort. The right to bear arms? Come on now, that's not an aim, just a means, and not even one that's mandatory. It would be like as if the Gaians claim that their core ideology is to recycle.

>>2171435
>she's supposed to be a survivalist
Brazilian/SA guerilla more like it. Everyone else, except Morgan that simply bought a place, was a UN/ship officer. She was a terrorist infiltrator and likely killed the captain.

>>2239423
I don't know but I've been told
Deidre's got a network node.
Likes to press the on/off switch.
Dig that crazy Gaian witch!

I want to cum inside Deidre
I want to make tiny worm children with Deidre
I want Deidre to surrender all her worldly possessions to Planet
thank you

I love the game but it always makes me feel so overwhelmed after 100 turns or so.

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another gas extermination win. these runs are fast but also they're getting kinda boring because the solution is always to gas everyone

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Transcend difficulty is stupidly and unfairly hard.
AI units start appearing near my borders even though I hit Ctrl+K to reveal map and discover they had no means to get to my landmass because they don't even have foils yet.
By the time I get to 10 cities, fucking Yang has neeedlejets and hundreds of ground units, while I'm struggling to create a few units of missile infantry.

I'm just going to pre-emptively nuke these cockroaches.

>filtered
>better cheat!
>still filtered
lmao

>>2242392
>hard difficulties become harder until the computer is cheating to such an extent you need beyond perfect play to beat
No shit.

>>2242392
git gud scrub

Fine, I'll reinstall it again, Jesus

This game is too intense. One bad decision or miscalculation can set you back immensely.

I get anxious everytime Yang, Miriam or whoever is the dominant faction leader wants to contact me.

>>2242739
with Yang it's always "give me tech or else" and then he attacks anyway one or two turns later. never give in to Yang. if he offers truce but puts a price on it do not accept. he will always break it

>>2229023
i thought there was canon lore for the plot of this game? IIRC the Spartan faction died out first by starting an early war and losing. Church people lost eventually and Miriam commited sudoku by teleportation or something. i forgot who won. probably the worm sluts.

>>2236940
i dunno. stop buying Paradox games?

>>2242410
this. every single 4X computer player cheats.

>>2242988
I don't think Spartans started the war. Gaians kept sending secretly controlled worms at them until they've weakened them enough to take them in a fight.

>>2242988
There is no canon lore. Someone managed to hallucinate an entire story from tech quotes and put it on the internet. The closest thing we have to canon are the books, which ends with everybody dying, and everybody pretends doesn't exist (the ending that is, everybody refers to the books when it contains a titbit about a character they don't like.

>>2227253
The only thing 'religious' is the use of the word 'soul', which isn't itself inherently religious since she's really talking about consciousness.

>>2244931
I don't know what's more retarded, him thinking he's onto something how a biblethumping notmormon is actually biblethumping or you doing whatever you're trying to do now. You people will bitch over the most pointless shit nowadays.

>>2244977
maybe they're trying to pull a Žižek
>actually atheists are the real Christians
>Christians? atheists
>I am very smart

>>2245018
You mean embracing that incel mindset and the pent up bullshit spewing that comes from it? You might be onto something here anon.

>>2170480
Please tell me there's a way to field all 14 factions in a single game.

when i was a kid and this game was new i had a big tech tree poster on my wall next to my monitor, it's just not the same playing it without it

>>2245267
sent the fix by email

>>2246370
Thanks!

>>2244931
No, the quote only has any meaning at all if you are religious in the first place due to the unspoken implication of a soul as inviolable (in the Abrahamic tradition). Just like the Swampman thought experiment (of which it is a rephrasing), Miriam's quote for the Bulk Matter Transmuter is just gibberish to anyone who uses the secular meaning of soul until they realize what's going on. At which point Miriam's entire quote is dismissed as schizoid ramblings or a disingenuous and poor attempt at a gotcha. After all, consciousness is clearly recreated in-universe (and in most fiction) by the teleporter, which is anathema to orthodox (lower case) Christian doctrine. Not to mention the idea of a soulless body having despair, which is also gibberish to the secular definition of souls.

A non-religious person, when asked whether their soul travels along for the journey would say one of the following
1. Dunno, don't care, no one asked, fuck off you nerd.
2. I die, and there's a new me. Shit sucks, but oh well.
3. I guess it's like sleeping, maybe it sorta counts as continuity of thought if I'm philosophically minded, or the details of how the matter/information moves.
but at no point would they ever consider the possibility of the body on the other side to have no soul. At worst, just a creation and copy of the original soul.

tl;dr the last sentence of the quote makes zero sense if she's talking about consciousness.

>>2247430
why is there a difference between a Bulk Matter Transmitter creating a human and a womb or cloning vat creating one?

>>2247818
Dunno, you'll have to ask Miriam. I'm sure Miriam would had also objected to the cloning vats on exactly the same basis. While you're at it, you should also ask Miriam whether she thinks the children of these teleported bodies would have souls. I'm sure those real-life theologians who would agree with Miriam's position on teleportation would enjoy the resulting mental contortions.

Unless you're asking about real life, in which case it's just a matter of en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creationism_(soul) being the lead doctrine and the other theories being unpopular (indeed, most followers of the Abrahamic religions, if they even think about it at all, wouldn't even be aware of these alternatives). Which then leads naturally to accusations of teleportation as playing God since it is creating life and hence, the soul. Of course, this doesn't actually exclude God creating a soul for a teleported body, except that you can see why theologians would draw a line between womb-creation (based and trad, and clearly involves souls by author fiat) and teleportation-creation (scary and unnatural and easy, also creates awkward questions about how can a soul be immutable if they can be copied like that and the new soul already has memories of the teleported body attached).

>>2247818
>>2247988
you can compare it to the jupiter fundies in eclipse phase

>>2248368
>Eclipse Phase
Not really. The Jovians have very reasonable concerns about the continuity of consciousness with regards to virtualization (A concern that Alpha Centauri does not share, which goes fully down the transhuman rabbit hole, to the point that having Planet kill all human life and run SimHuman.exe is considered a win condition). They don't deny that a copied body has consciousness, just that it is not the same person as the person on the other side.

>>2248474
yes, and i'm sure miriam would say something similar about the transmitted person being a person, just not the same one, because their views come from the same christian background

>>2248488
No, the Bulk Matter Transmitter quote very clearly shows that she doesn't even consider the transmitted person to have a soul.
The Jovians consider that the transmitted person would have a soul, just not the original soul.

>>2248491
clearly that's just because they needed her to be retarded

>>2248491
actually no, i went and read the quote and she isn't claiming that, she's phrasing it as a question

Does infantry units get a damage boost when attacking units inside bases?

>>2248646
infantry is the counter to ECM garrisons if that's what you mean

Does pressing start new game start a new game?

>>2248658
What is an ECM garrison?

>>2248698
https://civilization.fandom.com/wiki/Comm_Jammer_(SMAC)

>>2248695
There's some good guides for that on youtube.

>>2248744
I only use tiktok

>>2248646
Yes, infantry always has a bonus +25% when attacking bases. That's besides ignoring ECM.

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>>2247430
>>2248368
Unless "matter transmitter" is a misnomer, it implies it transmits matter, not just information to create a copy, so it's not the same as cloning/uploading consciousness, where the original could still exist. It's really just religious rambling whether there's something in a human that science can never measure no matter how advanced, if it could, that would be recreated too.
Or maybe there's a fine print on matter transmitter EULA saying that an insignificant amount of unimportant data might be lost in process, then the "soul" quote would have some rationale.

>actual chatgpt response
lel

>>2248821
any atom is as good as any other atom

>>2249042
Uncertainty principle, spin?
Also how is transmitting information the same as transmitting matter?

>>2249214
matter = information = energy

>>2248593
A rhetorical question.

>>2248525
>needed her to be retarded
Not at all, this is an accurate rendition of what Christian theologians say about the subject.

>>2248798
>Yes, infantry always has a bonus +25% when attacking bases. That's besides ignoring ECM.
Nice, so a well rounded battalion would have at least one artillery unit to weaken fortified units, one or two infantry to finish them off and a few pure defense units to take the attacks.

>>2249521
I prefer stealth carriers with gas jets and a single copter but you do you

>>2249521
>Nice, so a well rounded battalion would have at least one artillery unit to weaken fortified units, one or two infantry to finish them off and a few pure defense units to take the attacks.
Too slow and exposed to enemy counterattacks or air strikes. Infiltrate or get yourself a planetary governor position to see the garrisons, and the good odds are the enemy base defenders won't even have ECM in the first place (AAA is probably more likely when aviation gets available).

In any case rovers with maximum weaponry and minimal defense are superior to infantry simply because they have enough movement to strike a nearby base in one turn. Plus, they function as discount marines long before you get amphibious ability: you can unload a unit with 2 or more MP on the flat tile next to a base and attack the same turn.

>>2249779
>Plus, they function as discount marines long before you get amphibious ability: you can unload a unit with 2 or more MP on the flat tile next to a base and attack the same turn.
But can they attack sea or sea-adjacent bases?

>>2249803
amphibious rovers should be able to attack adjacent ones

>>2249779
>rovers with maximum weaponry and minimal defense are superior to infantry simply because they have enough movement to strike a nearby base in one turn
Elite infantry is even better, because they get an extra move and still keep the +25% bonus vs bases

>>2249513
please show me where christian theologians have seriously discussded teleportation

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>>2250092
>Elite infantry
We got a Spartan ova here!

>>2246370
The what?

I'm a zoomer and I really want to enjoy this game. I've played a lot of older games, mostly from the 2000s, so this one is a bit tough to get into. Civ 3 and 4 were easy to handle, but this one feels harder. Even with PRACX and Thinker, I still find it difficult to invest my time in the game. Any advice, uncle?

>>2250840
electronic email

>>2252844
Trying to force yourself into playing it will only make you less interested in it.
It's fine if you don't want to play it, you don't have to force yourself just to prove something. SMAC is a demanding game and if you're autistic about building, organizing and planning stuff like I am, the game takes a lot of time and can easily burn you out.

Go play other stuff or maybe take a break from videogames for a while. Then come back and try it again when you're feeling like it. If you still can't get yourself to play it then it's just not for you and that is fine.

>>2252844
Start on easy and go from there, experiment, go from there ramping up the difficulty until you find your comfort zone. Some people like to rush everything, some enjoy playing notsimcity with improvements and some like me just enjoy launching fusion and fungus missiles on everyone and playing with their food. It's a sandbox game so enjoy yourself if you can.

>>2250472
>He held off four waves of mindworms is what he did. He was a brave Morgan soldier. And in this house, Recon Rover Rick is a hero. End of story!

>>2252844
>Civ 3 and 4 were easy to handle
Civ 4 was already peak complexity for a Sid-shilled Civ game. every before and after Civ 4 was simpler or dumbed down.
AC is just modified Civ 2 AFAIK. play as the wormslut Gaians so you don't get graped by worms as much?
like any Civ game, easiest way to win is to kill 'em all as soon as possible , once you get a tech advantage.

>>2257347
>every CIV before and after Civ 4 was simpler or dumbed down

>>2207606
Lol, a Bright showed up. I'm sorry your parents put you in Sunday school

Evidence for abiogenesis, beneficial mutations and macroevolution when?
"Deeptimedidit/deep time of the gaps" isn't an answer either

>>2207606
Half of that quip is Zaharov, if I remember right

>>2252844
>Any advice,
Learn hotkeys for common unit commands. Saves a lot of time, and makes micromanagement smooth.
>>2257347
>AC is just modified Civ 2 AFAIK
>just
Literally almost everything "complex" in Civ 4 aside from religions was borrowed from SMAC: the UN, civics, production & science overflow, combat unit counters etc. And even then combat and diplomacy is better in SMAC than in 4.

>>2257433
The entire thing is. Fits here, tho.

>>2257436
>almost everything "complex" in Civ 4 aside from religions was borrowed from SMAC
yes and he supposedly played Civ 4 just fine. SMAC should be "easy to handle" for this guy >>2252844

>>2257430
im not a fundie but god finds a way. or a planet worm god does anyway. we are all pawns of greater forces at work.

playing my first Big Boy game on Transcend difficulty. that is, on the normal map of Planet. my strategy is
>peacemaxxing
>crawlermaxxing
I'm sending out supply foils all over the map to nab all the sea bonus squares. so far things are progressing smoothly
I just need to make morgan and the spartans stop fighting since both are my neighbors

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>>2257631
The core problem, IMO, is still the UI not mechanics.
Tile improvements in 4 are:
- all available in the worker's action panel for clicking;
- have clear icons;
- provide info on what they do.

Meanwhile in SMAC they are:
- hidden behind two pop-up menus;
- have no icons;
- don't tell what they do - you need to consult in-game help or manual.

Tile improvements in SMAC are definitely more complex than in 4 but if SMAC had the same interface, the problem would be gone.

It's not terribly difficult to learn hotkeys but they require some adjustment time.

>>2257678
>need to make morgan and the spartans stop fighting since both are my neighbors
What's the stratagem here? I'm not sure if the latter follows the former: Santiago is likely to fight you when you choose to adopt anything but power in values civics.

>>2257691
you can sometimes just ask other factions to call of their vendettas. this is surprisingly effective. feels a bit like acting "team mom" for all of Planet

>>2257678
>peacemaxxing
Unironically good luck with that

>>2257691
>>>they don't tell you what to do
What's more goddamn intuitive than a farm gets you more food or roads make you go faster? And that's if you turn off the annoying in-game recommend tutorial popups and reqs.

>>2257744
>What's more goddamn intuitive than a farm gets you more food or roads make you go faster?
What about sensor arrays, condensers, or echelon mirrors.

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>>2257764
What about them? You've got ingame tutorials for everything, including those, conveniently put under HELP. And they're automatically on and in your face if you're playing on I believe the first three difficulties. The game quite literally tells you when you select a former building a farm *goes to point* here is a good idea and here's why.

>>2257678
I love terraformaxxing

>>2234711
t. gay cuck

>>2257448

>>2257430

>>2257691
That menu is obnoxious, but everything has easy to remember hotkeys like f for farm and r for road. Those menus are pretty much just instruction manual, you could print it out and use as a cheat sheet.

I had never played any 4X game before, nothing like SMAC ever, yet I had no problem figuring how to navigate the UI in short time.

I don't understand how some people have so much trouble with it, but then I'm not retarded.

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>>2170480
Haven't played it for a long time.
But try to get the secret project like the "The Merchant Exchange" ASAP as Morgan nothing else matters.
Setup a shitton of cheap supply crawlers for energy and solar panels etc, before you reach that secret project.

You'll be printing energy like you are the Federal reserve on cocaine/amphetamine.
And you can just churn out units like its nothing by insta building them.

Energy is just fun coupons for you at this stage.

Total Morgan domination.

>>2260719
this is giving me >>2257678 an idea: flip my armada of crawlers to energy, convert that energy to beakers and push for a transcend victory

>>2260719
>>2260730
yes capitalism good. purge space commies.

>>2258054
who the fuck were you trying to reply to? or you just love posting random xtian hate on a space fun guy game thread?

>>2262137
>>2250840
>>2252891

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What's the nicest thing an AI ally did for you in SMAC? For me it was when during our joint war against Lal, Morgan gifted me a rover and garrison infantry. Both of them with the top weaponry and armor respectively at the time.

The manual didn't even say AI could do that, I was blown away by that feature.

>>2264212
Aki Zeta-5 giving me tech for free every time I try to trade techs with her

>>2264387
>tfw no emotionally distant waifu to hook up to my datalink

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>>2264421
hey baby. wanna "trade technology"? uhuhuhuh

the worm slut is catching up to me, but my research and industry is so far ahead I'll probably ascend without her being able to do anything about it besides destroying some of my crawlers

Why do I keep getting my ass handed to me in Transcend difficulty?

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>>2274241

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>>2274266

>>2274241
u didn't cheat more and savescum?

>>2274241
did you make sure to build lots of crawlers and cuck to the AI's demands?

>>2274439
>you control the buttons you press

>>2171198
Souce?

>>2275796
https://civilization.fandom.com/wiki/Atrocities_(SMAC)

>>2214768
Luv me some cybernetics
>super model faction leader
>EFFICIENCY!!!!!
They take awhile to get going but the flavor and gameplay is too fun to pass up.
Also bonus points for making roasties seethe.
>ITS CRINGE TIME
>be 10 years ago
>talking to a girl at work
>realize I have absolutely nothing to talk to her about other than maybe old movies
>try talking about ideology through SMAC
>mention cybernetic faction is the autistic faction and my favorite
>anon that's offensive to autistic people!
>call her out, saying she ain't autistic, I am and I love it, bitch you don't speak for me
She never talked to me again.
good riddance

>>2277767
the 'ol "being offended on other peoples' behalf"

I think I've figured out a usecase for supply jets: to hurry construction of special projects over large distances

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first Transcend/Transcend victory on the normal map!

>>2278002
OK trooncend

>completely wipe out several cities because I'm too lazy to manage them and don't want governors
>2 turns after the great genocide, fungus pops up in all of my main cities and fifteen demon boils comes out of each spawned fungus tiles
>mindrape.jpg
they fucking completely destroyed a size 14 colony in a single turn holy fuck, the stacks I managed to kill gave me 200 power each because winning one psi battle kills the entire stack though. Also it's kind of stupid how the planet doesn't give a shit about you blowing craters out of it if you revoke the UN charter. I'm guessing the thinker mod fixes this?

>>2278425
>Also it's kind of stupid how the planet doesn't give a shit about you blowing craters out of it if you revoke the UN charter.
I promise you that's not a thing.

>>2278450
Ah okay I looked into it, apparently there is a global planetary eco damage scale different than the one in bases but gets influenced by it. So if you revoke the charter it gets rid of the +5 permanent eco-damage number in the calculation for each base but it still effects global eco damage. I guess I won too quickly after using planet busters to see the consequences.

>>2278458
Yes. The planet will also respond if you use planetbusters or nerve gas if the UN charter is in effect but that's separate (but stacks with) from the eco damage response. Funnily enough it'll still respond to very high mineral income even if you're getting them exclusively from fungal and or forest tiles.

2257347
2257631
It's not that the feature is hard to understand, but I simply don't know what I'm doing every time I play the game. I do x but I don't know what it gives me. In Civ 4, I do x and I know it gives me y. As that guy said >>2257691, it feels like I'm blind yet somehow still in control of my actions. In Civ 4, even if it's complex, I know what to do, so I can still enjoy it, even if I'm getting ransacked by barbarians or other civs.

>>2278208
aaaa im transceeeeending
>>2278425
this is why you build psi/trance probes as garrisons, and/or empath rovers
>>2278462
I can understand planetbusters but why tf does Planet care about nerve gas?

>>2278554
>I believe Planet will talk to us if we are willing to listen. These fungal stalks behave as multistate relays: taken together, the neural net connectivity must be staggering. Can a planet be said to have achieved sentience?
Lady Deirdre Skye, Arguments in Council

>this is why you build psi/trance probes as garrisons, and/or empath rovers
I put a couple of 3r garrisons and some jets everywhere. Fuck defending against 50+ doomstack when you can delete the whole thing with preemtive airstrikes. But it sucks having to rebuild boreholes after a fungal bloom.

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My terraforming method is building the respective improvement in bonus tiles then "forest and forget" everything else.

Is that the best way to do it?

>>2278554
>I can understand planetbusters but why tf does Planet care about nerve gas?
The Planet is practically a boomer hippy from the 60s on LSD.
You need to hug trees and be one with nature.

Anything else gets shoa'd.

>>2278595
Most hassle free, that's for sure. Put a couple on autoroads and autofungus removal as well.

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>>2278511
Being "that guy" I again recommend you to learn hotkeys.

>but I simply don't know what I'm doing every time I play the game.
Check out this guide.
https://alphacentauri.miraheze.org/wiki/Vel%27s_SMAX_guide#Chapter_Two_-_The_Early_Years

>>2278595
>Is that the best way to do it?
Maybe in the very beginning. The actual meta is borehole and crawled farm/condenser grid.

>>2278778
>farm/condenser grid.
Meh. Way too much effort to maintain once worms keep jihading your turnip patches five times per turn vs kelp/forests with smax buildings. No argument on boreholes.

>>2278801
put trance crawlers at the perimeter of your territory. worms can't spawn in an occupied square (I think)
>>2278778
there's still one or two uncrawled squares in there baka
the one downside to crawlers in this kind of scenario (that being they can only gather one resource) turns into an upside because no citizens get assigned any jobs -> lots of specialists

is a single-city run with crawler spam viable? could be dine. immediately raze any enemy cities captured of course

>>2278815
Tried it. They can. Fucking worms.

>>2278819
how does that work? does the crawler just get blown up or do both units occupy the square?

>>2278878
Deletes your unit(s) if there's not a free tile.

t. tested covering literally EVERY tile on the planet with scenario editor a long time ago.

>>2278941
5 worms per turn doesn't sound a lot at all by the stage the continent-spanning grid is on. Just get 5-10 high-morale/empath troopers on mag tubes or bombers to clean up the worms.

>>2279159
Infestations scale indefinitely with eco damage. I think my record was well in the 200s individual worms per pop with about two dozen pops that turn alone when I said fuck it and wiped out a runaway yang and most of two continents. The squirming assholes take out improvements they spawn on tho, and boreholes need to be replaced manually, hence the annoyance. So no, I don't believe it's worth doing the same with condensers which add yet more eco damage but power to you if you've got the patience and attentionspan to micro that shit lategame.

>>2278815
just tried running a couple of single-city runs on Transcend difficulty. no luck so far, but I only tried drones and pirates. maybe I need to go with uni to get decent tech early enough so I can defend myself

>>2277767
based autistical inceldom in /vst/ gaming?

>>2278635
>>2278554
yeah why does a Alien Planet, which is suppose to be half asleep, care about what United Cuntries votes for?

it would only make sense for Planet to get angry IF any faction does anti-hippy shit, no matter what UN sez.

>>2280643
Why wouldn't it? The planet does try to understand humans and if it probes you mind and sees humans consider that haram makes all sense to probe your ass with worms.

The reason why the Planet cares about nerve gas is because it is a hive mind ecosystem and humanity isn't, so seeing humans gas each other makes us look like insane vermin.

>>2279159
>>2279327
I think difficulty also matters too, what kind of clown squad of worms the planet will send.
On the easiest its manageable even if you melt the ice caps.

But on normal i have seen literal tsunamis of demon boils run me down like i was sodom and gomorrah.

the ways of Planet are an enigma

>>2280643
UN is a joke like real life once you can secure votes by either vassalizing or boosting your pops.
You can pretty much planet bust anything on the face of the planet.
Or bully around with other factions with laws and sanctions.

>>2280873
>you can secure votes by either vassalizing or boosting your pops
So, like real life? Also, you don't have to lead in pops, just buy the votes.

Name one thing more satisfying than carpet bombing your opponents with fungal cruise missiles.

>>2274241
Transcend seems impossible once you install the thinker mod.
Especially if you want to maintain nobility.

>>2281767
I can't even imagine how I'd fare against Thinker AI, vanilla AI is already makes me want to ragequit

I've never played this but every single thread I've read about it holds it up as the holy grail of 4x AND somehow this strategy game had the deepest lore known to videogames.
Does the game hold up? Civ 5 was my first civ.

>>2285630
does any civ game allow you to customize units the way you can in SMAC?
>deepest lore known to videogames
I don't think anyone claims this. but at least there's a background story. civ doesn't have that. but any RPG will have way deeper lore than SMAC does

>>2285647
>does any civ game allow you to customize units the way you can in SMAC?
Yes, a few.