[Freeciv-Dev] Re: Speeding Up Games

[Greg Wooledge <greg@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Vasco Alexandre Da Silva Costa (vasc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx) wrote:

> * I don't remember seeing wave. Is this an expansion pack thing?

Yes, I believe it is.

> Combining flags made a unit so bloody expensive the only units I made with
> lots of combinations were the city defense units which had AAA+Policy+Good
> Defense and lousy Attack.

Generally there are some flags which are expensive and some which
are cheap or free depending on the unit type.  I've found it's
usually best to use only one expensive flag on a given unit, not
two.

> You couldn't put a probe on aerial or naval units.

You can, on the boats (not planes).  Probe foils are an essential SMAC
unit, without which you are basically screwed against a human
opponent or a Transcend level AI.  With fusion reactor they're also
*very* cheap (30 instead of 40, IIRC, for Industry +0).

Start the unit workshop with a probe team, then change the chassis.
Don't try to change a boat's weapon to "probe".  This is the same
way you make sea terraformers and crawlers.

> Making an aerial aircraft carrier would be interesting but since you could
> only carry one unit inside the carrier it was pointless.

I haven't used this myself, but from what I've read, the basic
tactic here is to load a (rover chassis) probe team in the chopper,
then fly it over enemy terrain, and unload the probe team in their
territory.

I don't recall whether the probe team can move after unloading.
There may be a multiple ways to unload (mouse vs. keyboard etc.)
and the results may be different depending on which way you do it.

> The number of combinations possible was low and the number of combinations
> probitable was even lower.

I normally use the following units:

 scout patrol (1-1-1) (cost: 10)
   later: trance scout infantry (1-1t-1) (cost: 10)

 former (0-1-1) (cost: 20)
 colony pod (0-1-1) (cost: 30)
 sea former (0-1-4) (cost: 40)
   later: fusion sea former (0-3-4*2) (cost: 30)
 sea colony pod (0-1-4) (cost: 70)
   later: fusion sea colony pod (0-1-4*2) (cost: 40)

 synthmetal garrison (1-2-1) (cost: 20)
   later: trance synthmetal garrison (1-2t-1) (cost: 20)
   or: plasma garrison (1-3-1) (cost: 20)
   later: trance plasma garrison (1-3t-1) (cost: 20)

 crawler (0-1-1) (cost: 30)
   later: supply (0-2-1*2) (cost: 30)
   later: trance supply (0-best/trance-1) (cost: lots)
     (These are upgraded from a normal crawler for money, then cashed
      in to build a special project.)
 skimship supply (0-1-4) (cost: 50)

 probe team (0-1-2) (cost: 30)
   later: fusion probe team (0-1-2*2) (cost: 30)
 infantry probe (0-1-1) (cost: 20) (for city defense)
 skimship probe (0-1-4) (cost: 50)
   later: fusion probe foil (0-1-4*2) (cost: 30)

 transport foil (0-1-3) (cost: 30)
   later: trance transport (0-3t-3) (cost: ??)
   or:    trance transport (0-3tr-3) (cost: 40)
 trance synthmetal coastal (1-2t-4) (cost: 20)
   later: trance plasma coastal (2-3t-4) (cost: 20) (vision, too!)

 recon rover (2-1-2) (cost: 20)
 impact rover (4-1-2) (cost: 30)
   later: chaos rover (8-1-2*2) (cost: 30)
 impact battery ((4)-1-1) (cost: 20)
 chaos battery ((8)-1-1) (cost: 30)

 impact infantry (4-3-1) (cost: 40)
   or: impact infantry (4-3r-1) (cost: 50)
   or: gatling infantry (5-3-1) (cost: 40)
   later: missile infantry (6-3-1*2) (cost: 30)

 impact foil ((4)-1-4) (cost: 30)
   or: gatling foil ((5)-1-4) (cost: 30)
   later: chaos foil ((8)-1-4*2) (cost: 30)

 empath recon rover (2e-1-2) (cost: 30)
 SAM impact rover (<4>-1-2) (cost: 40) (for shooting down AI planes)
   later: SAM chaos rover (<8>-1-2*2) (cost: 40)

 clean plasma sentinels (1-3t-1 clean) (cost: 40)
 clean formers (0-1-1 clean) (cost: 30)
 AAA plasma sentinels (0-<3>-1 clean) (cost: 40)

 impact needlejet (4-1-10) (cost: 20)
 chaos needlejet (8-1-10) (cost: 50)
   later: chaos penetrator (8-1-12*2) (cost: 30)

 trance destroyer transport (0-3tr-5) (cost: 50)

 chaos chopper (8-1-10) (cost: 50)
   later: chaos copter (8-1-12*2) (cost: 30)
 drop plasma defensive (1^-3t-2) (cost: 50)

Those will get me through the first 150 turns. ;-)  After that, the
game generally turns into a mop-up, with ever-bigger chopper guns
taking out ever-tougher AI garrisons.

-- 
Greg Wooledge                  |   "Truth belongs to everybody."
greg@xxxxxxxxxxxx              |    - The Red Hot Chili Peppers
http://wooledge.org/~greg/     |

pgp8KvVdraM8V.pgp
Description: PGP signature