/vr/ - Retro Games

Alpha Centauri will always have a special place in my heart.

So /vr/; favourite factions? Quotes? What ideaology espoused in the game really speaks to you?

>>452179
As far as I'm concerned, Lal is the only one I can truly empathize with, and I feel like he's the guy you're supposed to be rooting for, the star character as it were. Sure, there's the whole "trying to clone your dead lover" thing but I found it strangely endearing. It made him feel much more human. He's 100% devoted to preserving peace and human dignity in a world ravaged by violence and extremism.

"As the Americans learned so painfully in Earth's final century, free flow of information is the only safeguard against tyranny. The once-chained people whose leaders at last lose their grip on information flow will soon burst with freedom and vitality, but the free nation gradually constricting its grip on public discourse has begun its rapid slide into despotism. Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master."
-Commissioner Pravin Lal

Naturally, yang is my most despised enemy. All the other factions may be accused of being misguided, but at least they BELIEVE in their ideologies. Yang is just a deceitful, power-hungry megalomaniac with a shocking disrespect for human life. I'll take an alliance with Miriam any day over Yang, if I had the choose.

>>452574

>mfw last game you played Lal became a ridiculously power-hungry dipshit by landing in the monsoon jungle and curbstomped every single faction, threatening and extorting me every chance he got

sadmindwormboil.tiff

>>452179
The Free Drones. Sure, they're Bolshevik knockoffs, but look at all the shit drones go through in the SMAC world, I can't help but want to see them get some revenge.

As strange as it may sound, I'm going to side with the Believers on this one.

Someone made the case - the idea has spread on /tg/ - that she's actually completely aware of how batshit she sounds and is doing it on purpose. Apparently she was a genius and had a doctorate in psychology, using her knowledge of people to design a society based on principles that would preserve man's "humanity" for whatever that is worth. Think about the creepy projects like the Self-Aware Colony or facilities like the Genejack Factory. She's aware that this nightmarish technology will change man into something utterly inhuman, and I'm assuming her faction's penalties and strengths represent the hopeless but natural human resistance to such rapid change.

I also have a thing for fiery redheads.

>>452680
One of the funnest things for me in SMAC is trying to puzzle out why the factions behave the way they do in games. Sure, it's all just a bunch of positive and negative numbers interacting with each other (I think?) but I like to create little plotlines for the game. Going crazy is quite unusual for him since he's supposed to have a low aggression value. Looks like he's engaging in a bit of gunboat diplomacy.

...Although, I can draw some parallels between Lal and Gandhi.

>>452861
I know what you're saying. Humanity is a laughably tormented species, we create a personal hell for ourselves through our greed for power. We try to make the world a better place, but human judgment has its limitations and more often that not it backfires on us. I mean, look at hitler - he thought he was doing the right thing, improving all of humanity. Most people nowadays disagree. Technology brings its own share of problems, the ancient peoples did not have to worry about nuclear problems, though they certainly faced their share of perils the modern man scarcely has to think about today. How great IS the price of progress? And is stagnation truly any better? I love the kind of philosophical depth of this game, it really makes you think...

>>452574
>Yang is just a deceitful, power-hungry megalomaniac with a shocking disrespect for human life

This is interesting because someone in one of the previous threads made an excellent case for Yang, explaining that the Human Hive was based on Chinese Legalism.

Plus, Lal has his own deficiencies. The guy is bonkers and produced clones of his wife that kept rejecting him. The UN force itself is notoriously hypocritical and steeped in layers of bureaucracy (probe team spam and inefficiency respectively).

>dat santiago

>17 demon boils wash ashore next to Morgan Industries
>check environmental damage
>175

uh oh

>>452935
It is. Shen-Ji Yang is HEAVILY based on the works of the legalist philosopher Shang Yang.

Shang Yang was heavily meritocratic and hated the fuck out of the people and most pleasures. He believed that the state needed to produce food and prepare for war, and should get rid of things like art, music, and mercantile pursuits. Just more people and more war.

He was interesting in that he managed to propel his state to extreme success through his meritocratic principles and "focus on the basics" approach to governance. However, he was hated by *everyone* and was eventually driven out of power by nobles that he had pissed off. He tried to hide at an Inn but was refused because he didn't have an ID - a law he'd made. He died by being ripped apart by horses, iirc.

Which interestingly has some parallels with Shen-Ji Yang's struggle with Domai and the drones, and his likely eventual death at their hands.

Shen-Ji Yang differs in that his philosophies also combine legalism with nihilism, AND sound suspiciously like the principles everyone later embraces on the path to transcendence. He's evil, amoral, and brutal, yes. But he's also creating the path to transcending humanity faster than anyone else.

If you want to see what Shang Yang was like, read his book. He was the ultimate no-fun-allowed asshole who did great things for his people.

http://ctext.org/shang-jun-shu

>If in a country there are the following ten evils: rites, music, odes, history, virtue, moral culture, filial piety, brotherly duty, integrity and sophistry, the ruler cannot make the people fight and dismemberment is inevitable; and this brings extinction in its train.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shang_Yang

>>452935
Aye, that's a bit of personal bias on my part. I favor an ineffectual idealist over a potent tyrant any day. And I can't completely dismiss yang, he's made good points on a few thing. He feels like the villain, but he has so much more depth than that. Even if his position is not necessarily justified, it's certainly understandable, and that's a priceless quality in a good villain, as opposed to, LOL I'M EVIL. Yang is authentic, believable! Probably because he borrows from real-life history. Every faction has some things I can level with.

>>452861
It's kind of hard to not be against some of the technology you research in the game

>>453023
As Miriam would say - it isn't the tech that's evil. It's how you use it, and why.

>>453001
>He tried to hide at an Inn but was refused because he didn't have an ID - a law he'd made. He died by being ripped apart by horses, iirc.

>>453001
Jesus, even his statue makes him seem like a stifled prick.

"You want pray mahjong? TOO BAD. You buird road."

>>452861

That idea isn't far-fetched at all. Her quotes oscillate between utterly rational and/or thought provoking to completely batshit insane. And if you read her dossier, it's very much implied she's a master manipulator. There's quite obviously two sides to Miriam.

Now, whether her real side stands for a certain lifestyle and ideology or hunger for power and control is left intentionally vague, just like it is for Yang. The writers knew what they were doing and didn't want to flesh out the characters beyond the point where everything becomes a soap opera and more about the characters rather than the philosophy they stand for. That would be completely counter-productive, unnecessary and just fan-service-esque, realy. Instead, they leave it to us to ponder the possibility that Yang and Miriam are nothing but dictators, that Deidre puts worms up her vagina, that Lal has a odd, sociopathic yet clingy streak hiding behind all the altruism. Really, the only character that's obviously selfish and ultimately standing only for himself is Morgan. There's little ambiguity around him and everything he says seems only a flimsy veneer to justify his greed.

I like the pirates. Every other faction has all this philosophy behind them, the pirates' motives are just 'yar har steal stuff and drink rum'

>smac
>not smax
gtfo

>>453043
>>453064
The funny thing was that if you actually read his book, it turns out that he's one smart bastard. Mostly it's a big "Confucius is a fucking asshole and fuck everything he wrote" treatise. But you get a lot of practical stuff in it. Valuing the state over family (which to Confucians was the opposite, EVERYTHING was the family), promoting people based on merit, making sure your people had enough to eat, stamping the FUCK out of corruption, and so on.

He was an enormous NO FUN ALLOWED asshole, but he was an asshole that actually got shit done and took care of his people, purging corruption. He absolutely deserved his death and yet was an awesome dude at the same time.

>>453120
Oh, and "create laws based on the needs of the time, not upon tradition alone". Which to a Confucian was heresy, because the past to them was the glorious golden age where everything was perfect and if they only emulated it HARD ENOUGH they'd get to be that awesome too.

>>453001
It makes me sad that success and power are so infrequently aligned with happiness. In my preteen years I was one of those technocrat, hyper-rationalist, empiricist militant atheist type guys, but I think Deirdre and Miriam make decent arguments for stagnation, or at the very least pacing our development. The conflation of power (of the scientific, economic and military flavors in particular) with fulfillment in life is responsible for a lot of the troubles the modern world faces. This is a common theme in Sci-Fi, actually, and it certainly has a precedent in history - blind devotion to abstract concepts that promise to better humanity leads to a lower quality of life for all.

It feels very strange for me to say that. If any of you here have ever understood and favored two completely opposing ideologies at two different points in your life you can understand how frightening, and at the same time, enlightening it can be. You truly understand each side, and it gives you the power to empathize with them both. 14-year old me would have been shocked and disgusted to hear me agreeing with the other side's viewpoints. Funny how we change, which is the real me, "then" me or "now" me? Am I betraying my past, "true" self or is the natural evolution of my own ideals? It's hard to say.

Anyway, NO other game makes me think this deeply. The way Firaxis really made the faction leaders come alive in a small handful of quotes, behavior values and online backstory is simply poetry.

>>453120
>He was an enormous NO FUN ALLOWED asshole

>>453138
>14 year old you
>understanding anything
Top lel, you're American aren't you?

>>453074
>Deidre puts worms up her vagina
wat

You're being facetious, right? Sauce? I mean, I THOUGHT about it, but...

Also, am I the only one who wants to be pegged by Santiago in one of the punishment spheres? No? Okay.

>>453138
>You truly understand each side, and it gives you the power to empathize with them both. 14-year old me would have been shocked and disgusted to hear me agreeing with the other side's viewpoints.

All well-adjusted adults go through that stage. We all rebel against things that we believe entrap us, but then we come to realize that the alternative is worse, that we're flawed as human beings, and that even logic and rationality have their limitations.

Otherwise we'd all end up like the guy in this pic.

>>453138
Well, I don't recall all my political views when I was a teenager. I do recall liking Zakharov and Santiago best though, so I suppose I wasn't all that different.

But Dierdre doesn't represent stagnation. nor does Miriam. Both emphasize control over our own growth, careful planning and consideration of what is to come. Dierdre wants you to think about how the environment will be affected by your actions. That's wise on a world where the planet WANTS to kill you. Miriam wants you to consider the ethics of what you're doing. It it really smart to make a self-aware colony that kills people for graffiti?

Zakharov represents the blind pursuit of knowledge. Neither evil nor good, he JUST wants new knowledge at any cost.

Yang wants personal control and growth at any cost. Perfect self control through pain and ascetic virtues, allowing you to become more than you were.

Santiago JUST wants power. The power of defense, the power of attack. The power to kill and not be killed. It's another blind pursuit.

Morgan wants wealth - and the power that comes with it - at any cost. Future? What future. I'm going to live forever and consume all things to feed my need for wealth.

And Lal is a moderate who wants peace at all costs.

This is not to say Dierdre and Miriam are "good guys". But they emphasize self-control over blind pursuit in some respects, though each turns it into their own kind of blind pursuit.

>>453139
Haha, now THAT is fantastic work.

>>453152
What? Yes, but what does nationality have to do with it? Many if not the most preteens are conceited. This ain't /pol/, you know.

>>453152
>>>/v/

>>453210
Shang-Yang would probably not think so.

>>453152

also liked their preteen years of hyper rationalism.

>>453138

if you felt like you understood and favored one ideology, and then felt like you understood and favored an opposing one, and then felt like you were enlightened by your true understanding of each side... you're probably just easily impressed by whatever you happen to believe at present.

>>453249
"You dare waste manhours on this frivolity when there are fields to be tended and wars to be fought?"

He had a statement that applies well to this.

>Wherefore, if you wish to imitate the ancients, you will have orderly government by promoting virtue, and if you wish to imitate modern times, you will have laws by emphasizing punishments, and this is commonly distrusted. What the world now calls righteousness is the establishment of what people like and the abolishment of what they dislike, and what the world calls unrighteousness is the establishment of what people dislike and the abolishment of that in which they take delight. The names and practice of these two methods may be interchanged. It is necessary to examine this: if you establish what people delight in, then they will suffer from what they dislike; but if you establish what the people dislike, they will be happy in what they enjoy. How do I know that this is so? Because, if people are in sorrow, they think, and in thinking they invent various devices. Whereas, if they enjoy themselves, they are dissolute, and dissoluteness breeds idleness. Therefore, if you govern by punishment the people will fear. Being fearful, they will not commit villainies; there being no villainies, people will be happy in what they enjoy. If, however, you teach the people by righteousness, then they will be lax, and if they are lax, there will be disorder; if there is disorder, the people will suffer from what they dislike. What I call profit is the basis of righteousness, but what the world calls righteousness is the way to violence. Indeed, in making the people correct, one always attains what they like by means of what they dislike, and one brings about what they dislike by means of what they like.

tl;dr: Unhappy people work better. Shut up and get back to the rice fields, you filthy peasant. But if you work hard enough, you might become a mighty philosopher like me.

>>453186
Haha, I seriously CRINGE when I look back at my teen self. I was the most self-assured asshole ever, a true strawman atheist. I didn't understand the limitations of science or even WHY science works as well as it does, I treated it like another faith and hid behind the efficacy of empirical research so that others could not question my viewpoints, the very same way bible-thumpers. Most of the time I'm very relieved I didn't stay on that path, but every now and then I get that creeping feeling of doubt that I've compromised my values, diluted my ideals and fell to some kind of global pandemic of ignorance. Just like the rest of "them." I now realize, with appropriate shame that a lot of my beliefs stemmed from the need to feel superior to others, whom I felt had ruined the world for everyone else. Yet, I remember how much I despised the people who wrote off my actions as a fleeting teen "phase," I feel sympathy for the younger generation and I refuse to act condescending towards them. I hope I never use my age or "wisdom" to argue my viewpoints are more valid than other's. Anything could happen though, really.

>>453097

Well, the Xfire factions are all kinda stupid and one-dimensional. I guess they'd be interesting as natural extensions of the existing factions, but the lore has them formed back on Unity rather than the planet. Stupid and baffling. Unnecessary retcon, especially since no new philosophical ground was covered. The new factions have nothing new to say and feel like uninteresting frankensteins of already established philosophies.

Pirates -- much like you claim, really. Morgan's principles without any real exploration of any of their implications.

Consciousness -- Computer say 0101011. That's really all there is to her. Rationality = good, feelings = unnecessary. It's like you took Yang's philosophy and stripped it of any nuance. Yeah, so you jack off to her voice, that doesn't change this fact one bit.

Cult = 3creepy5me. Worm = good, notworm = bad. The only interesting thing is the implication that he's the planet infiltrating humanity, but that completely retcons the fact that The Voice at first has zero inkling on how humanity operates.

Drones = Workers = good, moneymen = bad. I mean, come on.

Angels = Everything bad about the '90s cyberpunk hacker caricature. Feels more like a fetish rather than a philosophy as "Jazz" was never explored in any depth. You're living wild and living free while hacking computationally streaming datalink coreputing processing mainframes. So basically, C grade German EBM lyrics: The Faction.

To sum it up:

>Pirates
Santiago + Morgan, only dumb.

>Consciousness
Yang + University, only dumb.

>Cult
Deidre + Batshit insanity, only dumb.

>Drones
They don't fit any existing AC philosophy because AC intentionally set out to avoid simpleminded and unlikely setups like this.

>Angels
Peacekeepers + Morgan, but really, what I sad about Drones applies more.

>>453335
I feel Domai fits in with the original seven pretty well. Socialism is as valid as Morgan's no-frills capitalism, and works well with the drone riots going on everywhere.

He doesn't get the depth of statemens the originals do, but I feel his is an interesting and compelling story.

The others are pretty weak, but I like the Cybernetic Consciousness mostly just because Aki-Zeta is hot.

>>453263
>you're probably just easily impressed by whatever you happen to believe at present.

If you don't believe your own beliefs, then why believe them?

>>453263
Nah, I don't really favor any ideology. As I got older I become *extremely* wary of the consequences of presuming to know anything. I try to be objective about things while realizing science isn't always objective by virtue of being science, without falling victim to the "golden mean." I realize the limits of human knowledge. I don't really know anything, and it's liberating! The Buddhists were really on to something. Trying too hard to understand the world can only bring suffering, but I still try.

Immanuel Kant is basically my idol. I think he even has a quote featured somewhere in one of the game's strings, but I can't be bothered to find it.

>>453335
>Yeah, so you jack off to her voice, that doesn't change this fact one bit.

LIES! Hot cyber-tits change everything!

>>453173

>Relies on deep intuitive sense combined with scientific knowledge for determination of future actions. Powerful mind and will combined with broad base of knowledge leads her to excel in chosen area of expertise. Sense of isolation from childhood events (e.g. divorce of parents) and pre-launch events reinforces strong tendency to introversion.
>Strong connection to environmental causes may cloud scientific judgment; strong democratic leadership style may result in subject placing welfare of loyal subordinates above welfare of mission as a whole. Appeals to reason should prove effective in discouraging these behaviors.

It is implied she's emotionally unstable. She's quite loving and almost motherly, but introvert. Couple her aversion to interpersonal relations with humans and passionate devotion to biology -- it's only natural to assume that she stuffs her vagina with worms daily.

>>453386
>I like the Cybernetic Consciousness mostly just because Aki-Zeta is hot.

And being a robot is fun (okay, a cyborg if you want to get TECHNICAL about things, sheesh).

EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!

For whoever is interested:

http://www.mediafire.com/view/?fvcd1zt21udqd9k

SMAC manual

http://www.mediafire.com/view/?8cf3e59m5632x8q

GURPS Roleplaying guide (tons of juicy lore)

>>453438

>>453438
>Couple her aversion to interpersonal relations with humans and passionate devotion to biology -- it's only natural to assume that she stuffs her vagina with worms daily.
Yes, it's natural to assume that, if you're psychotic

>>453335
I thought the drones were really cool, they explored a little bit of the more idealistic, marxist side of communism, which thus far we haven't seen any incarnations of in real life. It's not completely comparable, but it contrasts nicely with Yang's Stalin-influenced ideology.

To be fair, the SMAC factions were a REALLY tough act to follow, I got the impression they were running out of ideas for truly fleshed out characters and they probably would have exhausted themselves trying to do it all over again. They're quite interesting from a gameplay standpoint, however!

>>453434
"A handsome young cyborg named Ace, wooed women at every base, but once ladies glanced at his special enhancement, they vanished with nary a trace."
Better hope she's backwards-compatible with organics, bud. But I applaud your efforts and lend my support to the tireless pursuit of cyborg sexytimes.

>>453386

As I said, they all potentially make sense as quite logical offshoots of existing factions. Here's what the lore should have been:

Pirates. They land on the planet and realize there's this impenetrable sea that's quite harder to control than Earth's seas, but absolutely vital to progress. There's some who see a world of opportunity in this.

Consciousness. As Zakharov's ideals gain significant foothold a natural schizm develops between the technocratic upper echelon and those not feeling to graft chips into their brains.

Drones. Oppressed and exiled drones of all factions come together and start anew.

Angels. As conflicts and lawlessness all across the planet arise parallel to rapid technological progress, there are those who are capable of harnessing serious profit from the chaos. They see this as an opportunity to cast off shackles, etc, etc, you get the point.

Cult. As Deidre's followers gain further understanding of the planet, some become a bit bonkers and yeah, this is quite irredeemably stupid.

The point is -- all of these factions feel like they've grown out of the planet and the way of life it imposed. Why they're not treated as such by the lore is beyond me. Maybe they wanted to avoid judgement on the existing factions. Maybe they didn't want things like "Zakharov's society kinda falls apart and breaks in half" as official lore because it takes away from things precisely like our discussion here. As stated a few posts back, the writers clearly valued this discussion more than casting their own judgement on the factions. But, you know, if you're gonna make an expansion like this, might as well do it rather than beat around the bush like they did.

>>453621
Aki is actually physically human, she just has some cybernetic implants and shares her consciousness with an AI. An AI which doesn't like sex much, causing Cyborgs to find sex really awkweird.

But frankly that only makes my dick harder.

Not even that guy, though.

>>453434
"Hot?"
Aki-Zeta does not believe in personal hygiene.
It was bad enough before her cyberization, but after? Let's just say that her portrait lies.

Also, personally speaking, I favor Yang quite a bit over everyone else. But that's mostly because I wholeheartedly agree with most of his philosophy, and especially his ideas on governance.

As was said, a tyranny may reach great heights, but it can fall to greater lows. With life extension technology seen in AC, the possibility of a bad ruler seizing power is negligible.

In such a case, with light speed communication and automated data processing, the multitude of checks and balances inherent to the structure of a modern 20th century democracy are not only contraproductive, but outright malign, imposing constraints on the efficiency of the state that are downright criminal in their waste, as a central authority is not only capable of micromanaging even outlying territories, but of doing so in real time.

With the failure points of a command economy removed (the human factor and market prediction in particular), it becomes the best possible option, especially in a situation where resources are limited.

>>453654

Oh sure. That perfectly explains why we should all devolve to amoral lumps of flesh just because of some unexplained devotion to an arbitrarily defined idea of "progress".

>>453623

The best way I feel that they could be implemented in a hypothetical sequel would be as alternative leaders of the original 7 factions that confer different bonuses/handicaps on the faction. You could choose to take Cha Dawn for the Gaians instead of Dierdre and lose the efficiency rating but gain the +1 police and free brood-pit ability, or take Domai as head of the Hive and create a collectivist workers paradise instead of a hard-line dictatorship.

>>453685
Do you have a better idea?
One that does not rely on dismissing his axiomatic assumptions?

Could you post your special units created in the game workshop?
Especify the parts and abilities
>Example related (is not mine)

>>453876

Instead of clinging onto a singular idea as a measure of success, we should keep an open mind to the feedback between our desires and the means by which we accomplish them. We shackle our minds with symbols and quickly lose sight of why they ever meant anything to us in the first place. Yang speaks of transcendence for it's own sake with little insight into what this accomplishes, all the while cursing our carnal state as weak and inefficient. Seems to me this particular idea of "transcendence" is reactionary and born out of resentment of what is more than a striving to be something more. Yang speaks of inherent worthlessness of symbols such as "humanity" and "morality", yet preaches the mystical, unseen benefits of a perfectly unified whole. Are these benefits really so evident that they need not be questioned, but rather simply experienced and we are to believe they will automatically become internalized once we become a productive part of the collective? Is it simply the nature of things that are to simply become "better" at what they are? To what end?

I see no benefit in clinging to a singular idea at the expense of everything else. Soon enough, everything external becomes waste as we approach some sort of imagined singularity of perfection. Whole lot of suffering and self-denial for mystical mumbo-jumbo. "Transendence" is bullshit. We grow *from* just as much as we grow *into*. Deny and shun who you are in favor of "something better" -- you'll quickly realize it's a pointless struggle as you discover the faults of your new form.

>continued

>>453654
Don't you talk shit about my cyborg waifu.

>>455027
>continued

Surely enough, some form of benevolent dictatorship is always preferable to the glorified mob rule that is democracy, I'll always agree on that. However, leadership should be about setting aside shackles that stand in the way of our personal development and putting into shackles the ideas of personal development that seek to utterly dominate others. Sure, it's not perfect and does not stand for complete freedom, but I'm sure we could find a more altruistic way of channeling our darker sides without completely suffocating other modes of being. I don't mean to completely suffocate modes of being like sadism and greed, just not let them run rampant to the point of becoming cancerous.

To put in short terms -- leadership must recognize itself as feedback. Ideals come and go depending on our current state of being and the closest thing to perfection we can achieve is balanced exploration of our potential. Nurturing our understanding of the world and our potential role in it through experience. Observing it grow outward to encompass more and more. This is the ideal way of discovering where we as individuals fit in best, without being shoehorned into demagoguery of established philosophies pilling on top of each other to the point of utter meaninglessness.

Ironically enough, it is nihilism that is reactionary. I believe it's born out of disappointment in what is rather than a transcendence into the true, uncolored state of things nihilists will have you believe it is. Everything is colored -- even creation itself had purpose and intent before coming into being. Really, what could be better than will and purpose -- finding our own path through life? Why not embrace our biases and explore them instead of immediately externalizing them as unwanted?

Is there a downside to pumping out clean fighterjets?

>>454510

Is there a widescreen mod for this? Or something that updates the UI and shit?

>>453001
>>453043
>>453120

http://www.anu.edu.au/hrc/first_and_last/title_page.htm

>>454510

You'll find there's not much to customizing units. You'll want to design a cheap AAA unit -- there's not one available. You'll also want flying colony pods and cheap flying transports (beats slow as fuck fucking boats). Other than that, you'll just want to tweak the original designs for quick upgrades when necessary. You can't really shift any paradigms through the editor.

>>455212
That's incredibly wrong. Empath-Copters are pretty much "I rape mind worms" the unit and don't exist as a default. Anti-psi units are NOT a default, and you need to build them yourself.

>>455364

Alright, that's true, but I'm yet to see a really clever and practical unit that makes me stand up and say "Holy shit, why didn't I think of that?"

>>455104
Well, there aren't any combat advantages to having a clean reactor so they have a slight disadvantage against units that chose, for example, high morale. You're making a small sacrifice in quality for a considerable increase in quantity. If you're creating a buildup for home defense then you almost certainly want to research neural grafting, pick clean reactor for your first ability and a second, "situational" ability for your second. You probably want to do this for an offense too, you'll eventually hit a ceiling where support costs make it infeasible to produce additional units or facilities at a reasonable pace and you may find yourself throwing units at the enemy just to free up resources. The exception would be when your industrial capacity is already quite large, when you can take advantage of your considerable resources to crush the enemy with high qualityk double-ability units.

So, in summary, clean reactor is AWESOME. I would go so far as to say that if you have it, it is actually situational to NOT use it. The key problem with it is that it is a relatively expensive tech, and it's often important to produce superior units so you can accumulate promotions and get a good snowball going.

>>455426
Well because the game does most of the work FOR you and just makes a shitload of units, it'd be more interesting if it made you design them yourself.

I crack myself up sometimes.

Get it?

They're using chaos guns. Also, there's a pun in there. Teehee.

The pride and joy of the peacekeeper fleet. These are so cutting edge, I could not afford to build them until fusion reactors.

>>455460
I smirked.

Typically used to transport spies.

Because this former has a higher health pool and defenses against wildlife, it's a good choice to lead the stack, hence the name.

>mfw I had never thought to use needlejets with colony pods on them before

After over ten years of playing this game... I'm so ashamed.

>>455127
Fizzles abilities... Besides morale you've forced the enemy to fight on your own terms, odds can't possible be stacked very high against you. Looks like it packs a pretty good punch for a probe team, if you have the proper morale upgrades. Clever.

>>455460

>>455470
Ooh, forgot to mention. The "natural killer" isn't edgy, it's a reference to the immune cells of the same name. They were specifically commissioned to inoculate Planet against the alien menace.

It... Takes care of the care takers. *lightning crash*

>>455496
slap some armor on it so it can avoid the -50% noncombat penalty, makes it much better at fighting off worms

>>455212
>Not building the maritime control center and belching forth quadruplets of probe teams onto enemy shorelines every other turn

>>455583
Noncombat WHAT? I think you just blew my mind. Does this only affect formers, or does it affect infantry and other unarmored units as well?

>>455603
Anything with no weapon or armor is classed as non-combat and takes a 50% penalty in combat.

>>455651
Er, to clarify, the unit has to have zero attack (i.e., an equipment module) AND no armor to count as non-combat.
A former with any type of armor (even Psi) is considered a combat unit. Similarly, a unit with any weapon (not equipment) is automatically a combat unit even if it has no armor.

Alright, check this guy out.

Cheap as shit.
Can go anywhere you want at a snap of a finger.
Four of these and you can lift a square in a single turn.

A few of these and you can really tear some shit up at any stage of the game. Completely unfair against the AI but I plan to use him in multiplayer.

I call him "Dickbutt". It's a clever worldplay you see as it's a marriage of two words -- "dick" an euphemism for penis and "butt" and euphemism for one's ass.

>>455683
>ass
I don't think that's the proper medical terminology anon.

MAYDAY, MAYDAY, THIS CHARLIE REALLY DID A NUMBER ON US, REQUESTING IMMEDIATE ASSISTANCE

Sure thing soldier, A squad of Dangerous Rapist Person ready for emergency evac procedures.

>>454510

>>456191

>>455683
No clean reactor or singularity engine?
For shame.

>>452574

>tfw last time I played as lal
>Started out strong, but the Hive next door came for me
>Took out the hive after a long ass war of attrition
>Gaians started to go to war with me and my bros the Morgans and Santiago
>Come very close to losing it all, repeal the UN charter so I can adopt a scorched earth policy and finally win

I broke every rule Lal ever stood for, I used biological weapons, I nuked, I stapled, I exterminated bases, but in the end Chiron was cleansed, and transcendence began.


BTW, does anybody know of any Science Fiction games like Alpha Centauri or District 9, the kind of realistic and high concept stuff?

>>456268

Singularity engine increases production cost. So does clean reactor. What's the point? The idea is to shit out as many as possible as quickly as possible -- fuck up what you wanted to fuck up and disband. You can easily upgrade to clean reactor later if you want to keep them for whatever reason.

They're meant to create and destroy land bridges primarily, but also for makeshift bunkers and sensors in the field. You can also use them to build boreholes in stupid locations where you think the enemy wouldn't look.

>>456367

Mass Effect was *supposed* to be along this line. The lore the first game establishes is very much hard sci-fi. The story is borderline idiotic though and by the second game, the hard sci-fi was abandoned in favor of Hollywoodisms.

Other than that, literally nothing comes to mind.

>>456367
The only ones that come to my (sleep-addled) mind right now are Millennium 2.2 and the sequel, Deuteros.

Most others are adventure games or interactive fiction. And I can't remember the name of any except Rama and Gateway.

>>456410

>The lore the first game establishes is very much hard sci-fi.

Oh, you're one of -those-.

>>457473

Elaborate

>>452878

Actually the aggression values for the Core 7 are:

Low aggression: Deidre, Zak and Morgan
Medium aggression: Lal, Yang
High aggression: Santiago, Miriam

This matches up with their preferred victory conditions, Deidre, Zak, and Morgan favor Transcendence victories(With Morgan also being able to go for economic). Lal and Yang prefer Diplomatic or Military victories, and Santiago and Miriam are all-in conquest.

>>458947

Telekinesis, FTL travel, humanoid aliens, humanoid aliens who live for a thousand years, the monstrosity that is krogan biology, mind control, mind reading, the whole normandy stealth system

The themes of ME are rooted in the same themes that preoccupied a lot of hard sci-fi writers, but to say that the lore is particularly hard sci-fi is just completely wrong.

Mirriam is my waifu. I don't know why people hate her, she is so perfect. I wonder if she is supposed to be married to someone or not? I mean aside from Lal we know next to nothing about if they had any loved ones or not. It makes the faction leaders seem kinda, almost inhuman.

>>462279
We know next to nothing of their private lives in general. Which makes sense, since it's a strategy game.

>>453074

You can flip Morgan easily - on one hand he's greedy, on the other hand he recognizes that all people are. He is the ultimate optimist (you have to be when you readily embrace the free market) - resources will eventually be consumed nonetheless, but mankind's ingenuity will always find a new way; our impulse to seek prosperity will always drive us onward.

The Morgan Polysoft quotes are also illuminating - yes, they made up the Recon Rover Rick character (even though the real guy died screaming) - because people need heroes. It's an illusion, but it's an illusion that might inspire a child to someday aspire to acts of heroism too.

>>455470

Actually, one thing you can do with the "Trained" upgrade is build "Cadet" units - no armour, no weapons, just the high Morale upgrade. They build extremely quickly since you aren't slapping high end equipment on them.

You can then upgrade them in the field to your best weapons and armour (assuming you've prototyped them) for a small sum of energy credits, and they upgrade in one turn!

It's actually cheaper than rush-building them in the equivalent timeframe. What's more, to save credits, you can keep most of your troops in a stand-down state until a war actually starts, then immediately upgrade all your border cadets at once.

Or you can simply just upgrade their weapons, or upgrade their armour, as the situations requires (for example, amphibious infantry or infantry inside Rover APCs rarely need armour upgrades, since the ship/rover takes the hits most of the time; same goes for artillery).

Another expensive, but sometimes worthwhile strategy is to add the Trained upgrade specifically for prototype designs only. Since prototype units get one free morale upgrade, you can add the trained upgrade on top. If you have a monolith nearby that makes 3 instant morale upgrades (you can easily go to Elite and get the double attack with the right social engineering).

What would you like to see in Alpha Centauri 2? Or an Alpha Centauri remake?

First off -- let's get it over with -- I'd like it to not be 3D. I know it's inevitable though. Terrain elevation and custom unit designs. How could they possibly resist making a butt-ugly 3D game that turns your computer into a nuclear reactor on Huge maps. Hell, they don't even need an excuse, they turned Civ 4 and 5 into 3D games with zero gameplay justification.

One can dream though, right?

I'd like either a rehaul of the terrain elevation system or clearer indication of where key elevation levels net an actual change in gameplay. Some sort of color-coded overlay. Also, the combat elevation modifiers are something I never paid attention to in Alpha Centauri because I simply cannot be fucking bothered. Paying attention slows the pacing down to a crawl. This should have been implemented a lot more intuitively.

Supply crawlers are a good idea, retrieval of resources every year from anywhere on the planet doesn't sit well with me. Supply crawlers should travel from and to like any other unit.

Special resources like in later Civ games should be a thing. Adds more tension to politics and combat as key locations of the map need to be controlled. Consider that something like this is already in the game in the form of the jungle and uranium fields for example. Not enough is at stake though and controlling special resources should be of immense importance like it is in later Civs.

>>462507

Morgan player and hardcore libertarian here. When I first got SMAC I refused to play Morgan as I assumed that he would be a hypocrite using State power to distort the market in his favor, like pretty much every other member of his character archetype(*cough*Andrew Ryan*cough*).

Then I read the GURPS Alpha Centauri supplement to learn more about everyday life in the various factions and was surprised to discover that Morgan Industries really is 90% free market utopia. While there is canonically some State shenannigans going on here and there, for the most part life in Morgan Industries really is a functional minarchy.

>>463473

More realistic wind patterns and a less insane AI are really the only things I would want from a SMAC remake.

Oh, and an option to have all the factions on the map at once.

>>463486

I thought Andrew Ryan's whole downfall was that he didn't use his state control to clamp down on Fontaine

"Richard Baxton piloted his Recon Rover into a fungal vortex and held off four waves of mind worms, saving an entire colony. We immediately purchased his identity manifests and repackaged him into the Recon Rover Rick character with a multi-tiered media campaign: televids, touchbooks, holos, psi-tours-- the works. People need heroes. They don't need to know how he died clawing his eyes out, screaming for mercy. The real story would just hurt sales, and dampen the spirits of our customers."

Morgan Stellartots Keynote Speech, "Mythology for Profit"

>tfw this is the unseen story behind every single unit destroyed by mindworms

Richard Baxton; the hero Planet needs, not the one it deserves.

>>464380

The very first time I heard that, narrator got as far as "fungal vortex" before I thought "Recon Rover and Richard, that's three R's. The alliteration would make a great action figure."

Then they went on to do exactly that and my choice to play Morgan was reaffirmed.

>>453438
>It is implied she's emotionally unstable. She's quite loving and almost motherly, but introvert. Couple her aversion to interpersonal relations with humans and passionate devotion to biology -- it's only natural to assume that she stuffs her vagina with worms daily.

Guess I'm not the only one who has tentacle sex fantasies of Deidre.

>>464491
You haven't seen the fanart have you?

This is half the reason I was willing to make peace with him.

>ctrl+f
>no references to contemporary continental philosophers
>no walter benjamin, badiou, latour, zizek
trust me guys, these are amazing threads we're having and if you consider looking at SMAC/AX through the lens continental philosophy, specifically [post-]frankfurt school thinkers, the quality and quantity of these very good posts would increase dramatically

>>465562

... The quality of this thread would increase dramatically if we started namedropping philosophers?

I'm just fine using my own little head.

>>465562
>any of these scam artists
>philosopher
...

>>464940
SMAC needs way more fan-created content.

>>464940
>>465707

>>464896

There's exceedingly little 34 for SMAX. :(

>>453438
the worms are the only ones who understands her

>>465562
>namedropping a bunch of really shit-tier idealist marxists
Much like the Free Drones faction not a single original philosophical thought went into the Frankfurt School.
They all just ripped off Oswald Spengler shamelessly and twisted his words to fit their their political beliefs.

Downloading now. What`s the easiest way to get into the game?

I was always a settler guy so during that time I played settlers and sim city.

>>465828
Start SMAX, single player, pick Map of Planet option, standard rules and choose faction (from SMAC, not SMAX!) you'll like the most from description and play. This way, it's almost like Dwarf Fortress. You'll get your ass kicked countless times, but that's the fun.

You can also wait for someone who can write second manual and walkthrough for it.

>pic related, playing without any protips from proplayers is depicted in Hardcore Games

I was going to post a picture of the 300 shield cost heavily armored supply crawlers I used to finish the endgame projects, but all I have is this.

>>465853

I know it's been said, but it's still true: If this was animated it'd be the best thing ever.

So how do Psi weapons and armour work? Do they just convert the usual battle calculations into psi based ones? Like, is the idea that once you've got psi armour and weapons you have a potentially viable weapon even against an otherwise vastly superior enemy by forcing them to fight on moral terms rather than tech?

>>465853

bb i just buy the ascend

u smalltime

>>465890
Psi artillery is pretty much the dumbest thing in the game.

>>452719
This.

Domai is one charismatic motherfucker too.

>>465890
Exactly. The good thing is that you can, let's say, have good armor (8-Res) available, but not good weapons because you didn't invest much into weaponry. So you equip them with Psi Weapons, and your highly trained defenders are suddenly capable of killing stuff.

Really good if you have the Twister.

>>462279

>>mahnigger

>>462507
>>mfw recon rover rick is played by ranger gord

>>452983
how the fuck

>>453438
I want Mass Effect General to leave.

>>456191

My favorite unit. Throw level 2 armor on that and it defends itself against the natives. The name is icing on the cake.

>>467081

Nessus Mining Stations + Bulk Matter Transporter + Genejack Factory + Robotic Assembly Plant + Quantum Converter + Nanoreplicator + Thermal Boreholes + Supply Crawlers is a hell of a lot of planethate.

>>454510
String Stasis Singularity Deathsphere

>cost
>630 minerals

>>467232
Now I want to aggressively settle on my neighbor's coast, rebase 20 supply crawlers to it, then have them all work on boreholes on another continent. Turn that city into a slug beacon.

Dropping knowledge.

Zakharov is pride, he's the one that has the most faith in Humanity's ability to comprehend and ultimately control the universe.

Morgan is greed, for obvious reasons.

Yang is gluttony, his faction bonuses are all about finding more ways to consume his environment. This is strengthened by the fact that his rec commons are feeding commons.

Sister Miriam is envy, her bonuses center around stealing technology and taking territory, and all her quotes involve her shaming other people for their accomplishments.

Santiago is wrath, for obvious reasons.

Lal is sloth, since it seems like ultimate dream of every citizen is to become a bureaucrat and sit at meetings and talk about how we should all be nicer and stuff.

Dierdre is lust, as her entire desire is to be one with planet outweighs all considerations.

The twist is that the faction leaders all benefit from their sins. Zakharov's pride allows him to attempt (and often succeed at) the impossible. Morgan's greed makes him cunning and adaptable. Yang's gluttony allows him to boil all matters down to their most basic elements and see the the big picture. Miriam's envy motivates her to defeat her enemies and overcome hardship. Santiago's rage serves a similar purpose. And finally, Lal's sloth creates an unparalleled degree of social harmony within his territories. These aspects help define each leader. But they're not so 2D, the computer's actions, the quotes, fluff, and so forth help flesh hem out but it's hard not to ignore their inspiration from the 7 sins.

>>467440

At least a good half of this doesn't work. Why try so hard to connect things obviously unrelated ? Feels like reading some consipiracy theory.

Zakharov is Twilight Sparkle. He's the one who wants to spend all his time studying alien artifacts in the Network Node instead of going out and making friends.

Morgan is Rarity, for obvious reasons.

Yang is Spike, his faction bonuses are all about finding more ways to dig gems and minerals out of the ground and eat them.

Sister Miriam is Applejack. She represents down-to-earth, old timey values like believing what your ancestors tell you as the honest truth, and incest.

Santiago is Rainbow Dash, for obvious reasons.

Lal is Fluttershy, since it seems like ultimate dream of every citizen is to become a hikki and sit at home and talk about how we should all be nicer and stuff.

Dierdre is Pinkie Pie, as her entire desire is to throw a big party and all the mindworms are invited.

>>465913
Clearly we must see if you can achieve a conquest victory using NOTHING but psi-artillery.

>>465828

The in-game manual (the Datalinks) are very comprehensive and excellently explain many of the game concepts - crazy ahead of it's time for 1999 (which admittedly was around when games started focusing more on organic tutorials within the game itself). Hit the Datalinks button once you start the game and you can easily find topics on anything you're confused about.

One beginner tip - the game is a great deal about terraforming. You will want to research Centauri Ecology ASAP (or play the Gaians who start with it); this will allow you to construct Formers, which are this game's worker/labour/economic improvement units. Formers can build roads, mines, forests, farms, solar collectors, etc. that generally improve the resource output of a base. Using them efficiently and effectively is how you gain a massive leg up.

>>467279

That won't work exactly as you intend it. The pollution rating of a city is based on it's mineral output of the city itself - *not* where it's getting resources from.

So since you are crawling those minerals away to another city, the worms will show up at the city you are crawling the resources to - not where your boreholes are located.

In general the biggest effect on worm attraction overall is probably the Genejack factory - it multiplies mineral production by 150%, which is almost always a huge number if you have a respectable mineral income.

>>468301
I think you read it wrong. The city is on my rival's landmass. The boreholes are on mine.

>>468315

Is it possible to use your own crawlers to funnel ressources to someone else's city ? Never tried it.

>>465890
Psi combat essentially sets both you and your opponent's attack and defense to 1. This makes it fantastic for waging war on technologically superior factions, or attacking heavily fortified positions. However, there are some other modifiers to consider, namely MORALE, PLANET rating, special abilities and res armor. Each rank in morale gives your units a 12.5% advantage in all combat (including psi). Each rank in planet from your SE choices gives you an extra 10%. Res armor gives you a 25% advantage when defending. Most significantly of all, the Trance and Empath special abilities give you a 50% advantage when defending and attacking, respectively, but these are both rendered useless by dissociative wave, which fizzles them.

One more thing worth mentioning, native units (i.e. mindworms) don't gain any advantages from barracks or morale. They use lifecycle instead, which is basically the same but granted by different buildings, like the bio lab. Pretty sure they still get upgrades from surviving combat.

>>465913
Remind me how these things work again, I've never used one before and they always confused me when I got attacked by them

>>468301
Hmm. There's a page in help that explains the algorithm used for eco damage, and it appears there's a separate value used that represents the total amount of terraforming on that that base's squares. So it would work, but only partially. Boreholes are limited by the adjacent placement rule, so I would spam echelon mirrors and condensors instead. Also demolish their forests, sabotage their preserves and tree farms.

More here:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=323697

>>468570
It's been a while, but I'm pretty sure this is how it goes.

Artillery can attack from two spaces away. If the defender also has artillery, the arty units are locked in "mortar combat" until one of them dies. The defending arty gets to use its attack value instead of its armor value. Otherwise, the attacker gets to do free collateral damage to all units in a stack. Arty can also destroy roads and other improvements from that distance (other units can only pillage the tile they are standing on).

Psi arty is pretty dumb because the collateral damage done is based on the weapon strength, which for psi weapons is 1. This is why spore crawlers are only a threat when they destroy your land improvements. Arty also has a problem with gaining morale because it only ever gets kills against defending arties.

>>468315
So... what?

>>468347
No. The supply crawler transfers resources to the base that owns it. You can't CTRL+H a pact member's base.

>>468697

Yes, that's why you build boreholes just outside of city limits. In my recent Huge playthrough, I had two big dedicated patches of boreholes that a magtube lead to. My own borders were littered with quite a few boreholes as well, but only in squares that no city borders occupied.

I studied that datalink entry quite closely and it still reads like the ramblings of a severely demented individual. I'll never make sense of it.

>>471006
>I studied that datalink entry quite closely and it still reads like the ramblings of a severely demented individual. I'll never make sense of it.

To summarize:
1. Every city has what is called a "clean mineral limit". This is the amount of mineral production that can happen without Eco-damage (starts at 16 minerals, and is raised every time a fungal bloom occurs).

2. Extra minerals produced past this clean limit start contributing to eco-damage. Terraformed tiles also contribute, although at a greatly reduced rate compared to mineral production. Terraformed enhancements that are being actively worked count double vs. enhancements that are sitting idle.

3. Various other facilities work to reduce eco-damage (Centauri preserve, etc.).

>>472798

Yes, I knew all that, but your summary is not complete at all. Here's the key questions.

- Say you have a farm with a road over it. Say you're working it. Does the road now count as being "worked" even though it provides no yields?
- The necessity of a fungal bloom to make facilities like Centauri Preserve start making a difference. This makes zero sense and I didn't even know it was in the game. So they make no difference until your eco damage starts causes your first fungal bloom in your base limits. Riiight. So, after that happens, does removing that fungal bloom with your formers stop the preserve from working? It's not only vague but a bullshit mechanic in the first place.
- Why do boreholes outside of your city limits still cause warming near specific cities? When the game says "boreholes causes warming near Butthole Central", is this because:

1) The borehole is being worked by that city.
2) The square that turned arid is simply within city limits.
3) I swear I saw squares outside of city limits change because of boreholes and the game still said "square near Butthole Central changed". Is this simply a matter of proximity?

I don't really mind because Alpha Centauri is quite a gem in the rough filled with tons of unbalanced and poorly implemented bullshit. I love it regardless.

>>473023
I don't think so, because being worked just doubles the effective mineral burden for ecopurposes. No minerals, no burden.

Centauri preserves just reduce ecodamage in the forumlae somewhere, you don't HAVE to have blooms, IIRC.

>poorly implemented bullshit
What stuff? I'm curious, it always seemed like an almost perfectly designed game barring crawlers.

>>473050
>I don't think so, because being worked just doubles the effective mineral burden for ecopurposes. No minerals, no burden.
So, how do worked farms and solar collectors cause more pollution than the unworked ones?

>Centauri preserves just reduce ecodamage in the forumlae somewhere, you don't HAVE to have blooms, IIRC.
You have to have blooms. From the forums:

>(b) the "clean mineral" limit can increase. Every fungal pop and every tree farm, hybrid forests, centauri preserve and temple of planet built after the first fungal pop increases the clean mineral limit.

>that means that tree farms and centauri preserves doesn't improve the clean mineral limit(except for terraforming with the tree farm) if they are built before the first fungal bloom of the base?

>That is correct.

I still don't even have an inkling what the fuck is going on, but there you have it, it's a part of the game. Somehow.

>What stuff? I'm curious, it always seemed like an almost perfectly designed game barring crawlers.

Here's a few off the top of my head.

Copters.

Poorly implemented height mechanics without clear visual indication of where energy gains increase, forcing you to inspect every tile individually. This is boring and long enough in single player and you're boring two people in multiplayer. I'm patient and understanding when it comes to min/maxing, but some people aren't.

Beginning of turn shenanigans. This was a problem in other Civ games too, where skipped alerts cannot be accessed later. They should have been pop-ups on the side of the screen like in Startopia.

The governor can't manage citizens properly. It's the only reason anyone would ever use the governor, but unfortunately, it doesn't account for population growth. So yes, avoiding drone riots is keeping a mental check of when the game mechanics cause drones to pop up, manually checking each base every turn for growth and switching citizens to doctors if necessary. This is tedious even in tiny maps.

>>473167

That seems strange, because I've had hybrid forests and tree farms in a base that never had any fungal blooms, and it's eco damage was zero, despite lots of mineral production.

The governor deals with drone riots. I've had them allocate people to empath etc all the time. And they recommend psych boosts.

Copters can be an issue, but against other air units, and against properly defended bases, they still go down pretty easy.

>playing Lal
>Zakharov (my pact bro) and I are the strongest factions, but I notice that the others are growing bigger and restless
>call election for Planetary Governor, I win thanks to Zakharov
>spend the next few years being nice to everyone, donating energy and tech
>run for Supreme Leader
>everyone agrees
>mfw

I find it strange that Lal decided to go for Conquer in my current University playthrough. He naturally hates my guts for running a Police State while Yang hates me for not sharing research. The Believers and the Gaians, being caught in the middle, did not survive the battle between the two juggernauts. I subjugated the Spartans and exterminated the Morganites in order to control all of the northern territories.

The UN are now engaged in a massive attrition war with the Hive while I slowly build up my air force and drop troops. UN Charter has been repealed so I hope Yang throws his Planet Buster at Lal or they start nerve gassing each other.

>>474442

And then he drops that buster on you.

>>474442

Always remember to kill Yang first.

>>468347
His point is let that one city die a horrible death, so the enemy has tons of worms on his landmass

>>474565

Yang was trying his hardest to destroy my enclaves on his continent, but I've just realised that Miriam's been eating him alive. Now the entire continent is hers. I'm not sure if I'm relieved, or worried. Belivers, since when do they have their shit together? Admitedly, nobody has missile launchers yet, but still.

>>474757
But the computer is always cheating when it comes to Planet life. I've never seen them losing a single town to Planet life, no matter how un-ecological they were.

>>474960

Maybe because the computer is always choke filled with defensive units and regularly spends all of his cash to make up for his losses.

How many of you guys here obliterate enemy bases whenever you capture them? Will my rating with other factions suffer if I do so, even with the UN Charter repealed?

>>475042

It's like nerve stapling. People don't like it, even with the charter repealed.

I have a question: to planet bust my way to victory or not? I did that with my previous playthroughs as the Spartans and Believers but I thought I should do something different as The University. Still, I thought a pre-emptive strike might be necessary on The Hive since they have a Planet Buster.

>>468534
>Psi combat essentially sets both you and your opponent's attack and defense to 1
Only on the water. On land, it's always 3:2 in favour of the attacker.

>>475134
I like to horde Planet Busters, then unleash them all at once to utterly annihilate all sides

>>475134

I've always been quite fond of missile submarines stashed around the place. Impossible to wipe out in a first strike.

Planet Busters are a major atrocity. If you use them, you're out of the UN, and every other faction declares war on ypou.

>>475134

It really depends on your situation, how are we supposed to know?

>>475134

Make sure your cities have Pressure Domes and that they are well garrisoned with Empath infantry. Not only are Planet Busters UN atrocities, they cause major eco-damage. At the low end, you'll be raped by worms and fungus. At the high end, global warming will speed up incredibly and raise sea levels. Even one buster has a pretty severe effect on sea levels.

>>475134
Careful there. One time in civ I blew my nuclear load ALL OVER poland and the climate change fucked my production up to the point that I couldn't really even produce the workers to clean it up.

>>476442
speaking of which, what's the point of recycling tanks when pressure tanks exists?

why couldn't just both give +1/1/1 bonuses?

>>475134
Make sure you Planet Bust as fast as you can, as many in one turn.

Once you start busting, you have to finish busting ASAP.

>>483315

I'm assuming pressure tanks take longer to build. Plus you get recycling tanks earlier.

>>475134
After getting a truce from the UN, I have engaged in a massive 'slash and burn' campaign on The Hive by obliterating any captured base with my Drop Troops and bringing waves of Copters, Missiles and X Needle jets to bring down Hive population. Just after I am through with half of Yang's territory, Lal decides to back stab me. Yang tries to reinstate the UN Charter but I managed to block it thanks to my faithful slave Santiago, who does my bidding for merely 10 credits. I plan to send one Planet Buster to cripple Yang for good while the last two will be for the UN capital and production centres.

>>483526

Always count on being backstabbed. As soon as the enemy or a "friend" sees poorly guarded cities, they'll move in on you.

>>483315

Recyc tanks come up much earlier in the tech tree, and are faster to build - which means a faster return on investment vs. a Pressure Dome. They also cost less in terms of energy maintenance.

Obviously, a Pressure Dome is superior in a coastal city, but if your city is 5000m above sea level on a mountain range, you can probably cheap out a bit and build recyc tanks instead. The only time to build Pressure Domes is if you expect a possibility of the city being flooded.