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[Astral]

There is, if I recall, a solar flare random event that causes a sort of communications blackout between factions, generally meaning your line of sight is cut off from any allies, and you can't directly contact anyone else. However, this also means that atrocities are kept secret for the duration...

[Sonlirain]

There is, if I recall, a solar flare random event that causes a sort of communications blackout between factions, generally meaning your line of sight is cut off from any allies, and you can't directly contact anyone else. However, this also means that atrocities are kept secret for the duration...

So... if you screw someone over with planet busters and eliminate them before the flare ends would that atrocity get public after the flare despite the reepient of the crackers is eliminated?

[Fikes]

If I remember correctly, planet busters caused everyone to declare war on you regardless of anything else. The sunspot/no coms thing let you get away with atrocities though.

I did, at one point, fill 10-20 subs with planet busters and bomb the entire planet in a single turn. I missed one or two cities but I had orbital drop pods to take care of those.

The replay at the end was so disappointing. I was hoping to see the land mass of Planet go from mountains and plains to ocean all in one turn, but unfortunately the map only shows the state of the terrain in the last turn.

[Loud Whispers]

Nothing quite so tense as sneaking a subcarrier filled with missiles into the waters of the Hive whom you just declared blood truce with; you know he will betray you soon and surrounded by Hive soldiers on all sides and dodging past hive patrols by sea you have one chance to sail up the straits... One moment, terror - the next, vengeance.

I did, at one point, fill 10-20 subs with planet busters and bomb the entire planet in a single turn. I missed one or two cities but I had orbital drop pods to take care of those.

One of my favourite tactics to counter Gaian expansionism  was always to use orbital colony drop pods to build a ring of cities around her stuff and press deeper into Gaian territory. Almost always this would turn her into a warlord for some reason.

[Mr. Strange]

Damn you people! I had to dig up my old computer that had SMAC/X installed just so I could play it one more time for nostalgias sake.
Now, if I could get it transfered to my new comp...

[Girlinhat]

Any suggestions on a new player trying to run University of Planet?

[EuchreJack]

Any suggestions on a new player trying to run University of Planet?

Don't lose.   
Eh, just focus on research and you should win as University.

[Chosrau]

Try to get the Virtual World Secret Project. You already get free Network Nodes everywhere, so its really useful.

[Sergarr]

Am I the only person who could not get past the interface? It's really clunky and weird.

And I've played Civilization 1 with no problems...

[Sharp]

Probably an acquired taste, I quite like the interface tbh but whatever floats your boat.

[Bouchart]

There is, if I recall, a solar flare random event that causes a sort of communications blackout between factions, generally meaning your line of sight is cut off from any allies, and you can't directly contact anyone else. However, this also means that atrocities are kept secret for the duration...

It's not random.  I think it happens every 80 turns or so.

[Loud Whispers]

Spoiler: Big pics for a big world (click to show/hide)

I've been making big maps to see if I can scale up the awesomeness, and oh yes it's god damn awesome.
I'm the Believers here (orange) who started out dead center in the massive continental world island, having just emerged from a massive crisis as the world island superpower. The crisis began with the location of the Believers being conducive to conflict, Northern expansion took place at a lightning pace to counter any colonizing by the University and the Free Drones. While a war I had started to get Spartan rovers out of my lands took place between the Free Drone Empire and the Believing Empire against the Spartans there were signs that the University were getting restless. Namely they were making demands of me. A little 50 energy credits here or there, they were warnings that I took to heart. Above is a picture of all the land gains the Spartans had been making, they destroyed all initial armies both Believing and Free Drone and it would take decades (during which the Spartans would actually begin razing Believing lands) before they got pushed back to their own turf.


In preparation for war against the University I began setting up bases on their side of the continent in lands that were technically mine. Most of them were destroyed, as that nice University impact squad can attest to. He apparently did not have time for Jesus.


The University had not been fighting the Spartans for decades, and I was preparing for war against something else - my former ally in Domai was now a possible threat. The free drones had been sending probe teams to steal my research for quite some time and so our pact ended. When his troops began showing up in my lands I prepared for war, he withdrew every time I demanded it but tensions remained high. A war against the Free Drones and University would annihilate me. I stopped the Free Drones from taking any more Spartan lands, Spartan soldiers could soon be needed to fight Drones. Above shows the state of the defences, spread thin against the Drone front and Spartan front the University very quickly overwhelmed the freshest bases.


This is the only one of the bases I had set up by sea transport in Univ lands earlier on that survived, and was crucial in breaking the University assault. Zhakarov didn't like that I was probing his units and his bases and so had to spend lovely amounts of resources guarding this one base. I had also infiltrated his datalinks and was absolutely delighted to see that most of his research efforts had been cancelled to make Impact squads who would in all likelihood just be converted by me later.

As an aside, it is somewhat amusing to play as Miriam; by using probe teams on other factions they usually have to resort to fundamentalism to stop you, furthering your agenda.


In the aftermath of the Spartan war I rebuilt all of my lost bases and also filled the gap left by lost Drone bases. Plans to build a bridge over the mountain so that a swift assault may take place on the Drone HQ are underway.


The Believers empire is huge, as befitting the superpower whose influence spreads further every year. The University are being subsumed, the Spartans humbled but alive. The Gaians have grown powerful by virtue of its friends and its fertile lands, the Gaians have remained governer for every single planetary election so far. To the East the Morganites reside on their own island, probably the perfect spot for them as they would have been annihilated if they had lived on the mainland. I don't know much about the Morganites as I've been at war with them from essentially day 1 [Free Drones said they would only sign the pact if I declared war on Morgan] and all my maps of them come from Gaian or Drone explorers. As for the Hive; just look at them.

No one, not a single faction has a map of their lands. You can't see it but along the coasts the Hive have walls of soldiers lining the Believer-Hive coast and an even vaster wall of soldiers from the Gaian-Hive coast. The Spartans don't even dare to go near the Hive border.
A minor detail is that you can see all the troop buildups on Drone lands, in the top left you can only see a few soldiers mobilized as most fighting is base to base; but with the Free Drone/Believing borders you can see where there's close bases there's a lot of troops ready to invade.

Verdict: Technology hasn't even passed the impact rifle stage or reached the synthetic fossil fuel stage and already I have fought in two make or break wars, with the Gaians slowly building up a coalition to take me down. Big maps ARE better!

Next all I need to do is make a map this big and chomp down on how much water there is; even bigger empires!

In all honesty though, god damn is the Hive a great faction. He's created a police state with information control so tight that the whereabouts of entire cities is unknown. His faction is like an entire void of 'don't fuck with me' on the map, a statement of strict observance to his principles; what happens in the Hole of Aspiration clearly stays in the Hole of Aspiration. Damn Yang, you need some Jesus.

Any suggestions on a new player trying to run University of Planet?

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

1. Never give Miriam anything unless she's surrendered.
2. Keep the air, sea and fungus between you and Yang.
3. Peacekeepers are friends, democracy is good for University for efficiency [more efficiency = more energy = more science research!].
4. Gaians are friends, green economics are good for efficiency and planet and the Gaian are an effective military ally and good until the end. Betray the Gaians at your prime or they will surpass you, because when I mean they're good until the end I mean they will try to end you.
5. Morganites are friends, free market economics are amazing for energy and so you can get on his great side [pick whether you want Morganites or Gaians on your side; I'd pick Gaians mainly because Morganites actually run the risk of out energy economizing you.
6. Get someone else to fight the Spartans for you. An ally if you can, or if you have got the Believers working for you just give Miriam some weapon tech and allow her to steamroll the Spartans for you. The more time goes on the more your soldiers will gain the technological advantage, you will need it.

7. Don't forget to actually use your research. There's no point in building a research empire spanning a continent if all your bases are full of random swathes of prototypes yet to be made and your production lines have been full of crap.

It's not random.  I think it happens every 80 turns or so.

Isn't that the Perihelion event? Solar flares IIRC are random.

[Akura]

I was wondering, what was Miriam Godwinson's role on the Unity before it crashed? A psychotic right-wing Christian extremist doesn't seem like she fits in with the others.

[10ebbor10]

I don't think she's psychotic, or even that right wing for that matter.

As for her role on the Unity, she was psychiater/chaplain. Quite usefull in space

[Loud Whispers]

I was wondering, what was Miriam Godwinson's role on the Unity before it crashed? A psychotic right-wing Christian extremist doesn't seem like she fits in with the others.

She started out on Earth as the daughter to an American megachurch priest and began learning the ways and all that, becoming a trained psychologist at Yale and so forth. She was very charismatic and so rose quickly through the ranks of her sect of Christianity and was appointed as a psych chaplain for a UN mission to reintegrate soldiers who had fought in some religious-nuclear war back into society. All seems to be working perfectly until the masses of fundamentalist warriors [some of whom were suffering from whatever post-nuclear madness is supposed to be] all began hailing Miriam as the new prophet of God.
The UN, realizing that millions of fundamentalist war veterans who had just finished one religious war now finding a new prophet was somewhat not helpful to reintegrating them back into normal society. They removed her from her position.
Presumably she still continued to attract the masses, as political pressure brought her back to the UN with the Alpha Centauri mission as Psych Chaplain in an attempt to reconcile the secular and religious. Looking at how Zhakarov and Miriam work together like explosives and more explosives, it didn't really work.
It is also unknown whether political pressure happened to be done by politician, probe team or millions of nuclear-maddened fundamentalist war veterans. It actually makes sense why Miriam's followers get a bonus to their attack for zealousness, she's led religious warriors before.
Also she isn't psychotic. A lot of the times she's damn right in that Zhakarov and all them have gone off the deep end of Morgan has been engulfed in short sighted materialism. Her followers would also have the best lives after Lal, Domai, Deidre and rich Morganites when they aren't being hunted down by University AIs.