Fun With Industrial Sabotage: Your Guide To Beating Civ
Zazazu:
Tried last run-through with my second predatorial race that will be eating away at the Grox. My initial vehicles were at about 90% speed. Fantastically fast. As soon as I was done grabbing geysers, redesigned to about 70% power and something atrocious for speed...18%? Eh. Whatever. They made pretty quick work of conquests and I didn't lose a single vehicle. After the continent was taken, I sold all land units (as per usual) and flooded all cities with planes. I think I had 12 to start. Middling on both power and speed. Health was not and never is an issue with planes. I then ganged all 12 up on opposing cities. Takeovers were less than 20 seconds. That's really what makes planes the best...they are untouchable.
Personally, I never bother with sea vehicles unless I have a coastal takeover very early on. Then I build one, maxed for speed. I quickly take available geysers and then sell back the unit. If I don't get a coastal city first or second takeover, it's not worth the few seconds. I have plenty of money coming in.
Ellatrue:
I have not yet been able to make a vehicle with either 100% speed with no speed at all--even when removing all forms of locomotion (8%). I've gotten it up to 85% for speed (I think) but after that adding new speed parts didn't seem to make a difference. How did you manage this?
J. M. Pescado:
There are hull parts that you can start with that add only speed, like "Wimp" or "Macho". Other vehicle parts are +Health and +Speed, so if you start with one of those, you can only asymptotically approach 100% speed. Achieving 100% speed will allow you to flag geysers faster than any AI player that is not using a similar vehicle, likely claiming nearly all the land-based spice before they can move. ADDITIONALLY, the mere existence of such vehicles will inspire the AI to choose them for its own, thus footbulleting itself because the AI, unlike you, will not discard them in favor of vehicles that are useful after the flag rush, meaning he will subsequently attack you with vehicles that have 150 HP and do 10 points of damage, so they die instantly.
jsalemi:
Quote from: J. M. Pescado on 2008 October 06, 19:16:04
ADDITIONALLY, the mere existence of such vehicles will inspire the AI to choose them for its own, thus footbulleting itself because the AI, unlike you, will not discard them in favor of vehicles that are useful after the flag rush, meaning he will subsequently attack you with vehicles that have 150 HP and do 10 points of damage, so they die instantly.
That explains a whole lot about some of the problems I've had in Civ -- I haven't started with weak, fast units and then get pummeled later on by other cities. This tip alone will make a world of difference in my play style.
J. M. Pescado:
If you cannot flag geysers fast, you are choking yourself of resources at the point in the game when it is most critical. Like in the Civilization games, how you START ultimately will decide how well you do: if you have a poor start, you will pretty much always be behind, because a weak start will permanently put you behind in the growth race: the more you have, the faster you can expand. Since you can retroactively retrofit all vehicles without cost or penalty, there is no reason why you should not choose a starting vehicle that is more appropriate for your needs. Even if vehicles were NOT retroactively transformed, the benefit of a flagging vehicle pays for itself within a minute, as seizing a fresh spice mine yields $900/m for the cost of a $1000 vehicle, PLUS it denies the use of the spice mine to your enemies, forestalling an early war and strangling them of resources they would need to oppose you. Since the vehicle can subsequently be refitted to a more suitable vehicle for your later purposes at No Additional Cost, there is simply no reason not to do it.
To compound matters, the AI seems to just randomly pick a vehicle to use, with a clear bias towards vehicles that YOU have designed, particularly recently. This characteristic makes it more vulnerable because it will likely choose to use one of the crippled vehicles you have designed that has only specialist utility, and then attempt to use them as generalist vehicles, a task for which they are completely unsuitable, thus footbulleting itself.
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