Ascendancy

[Eagle of Fire]

By medal, do you mean research?

[SirPeter]

Originally posted by Eagle of Fire@Dec 24 2005, 09:33 PM
By medal, do you mean research?
Nah when you finish the game you get some sort of medal. The medal can be very big and pretty.

[laiocfar]

I read here about Ascendancy II and i want facts!!!! :angry:

[Cockroach]

Great idea for a game....AI is completely braindead though. Just get a ship with loads of power and plasma cannons. You can outrun and outrange them on the battlefield. You will be invincible while you pummel the enemy fleet that just ran out of power following you around trying to get in range. They can't adapt to anything and just die en mass.

Another thing that was lacking was the combat system. You can have 1 ship, the enemy 6. You move your ship the enemy only can move one then it's your turn again. It would have been a lot better and more realistic if you moved all of your ships in your turn and would make that immortal tactic stated above a lot harder to pull off.

[legolas558]

Please help me!

I am looking for general info's about Ascendancy game files, .FNT file format for example. Is somebody around with this information?

I'm making a clone project with some enhancements (the enhancements Ascendancy players ever wanted), the game will be fully MODifiable and will accept Ascendancy game files by default.

If you could supply me with useful links, contacts or files please send me!

All that I have found on the net is a wiki spec for the .COB format, an old links page (http://www.geocities.com/greyknight3/jmp_asc.htm), the GameFaqs page (http://www.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/game/575213.html) and nothing else! I also have a .SHP editor (by Chlanda) but all other links are broken.

This game is beautiful, even if a lot of better 4x games are around nowadays, I still want to re-create it as open-source (without using the copyrighted material btw).

Thank you

[PostMan(NL)]

Hi I played this game years ago and was SO addicted to it !!
Great Game, but yes the AI sucked.

Id love to play it again but when i start i have no sound and the mouse is very very slow.

Did anyone figire out how to fix that ?


Oh i did find a flaw/cheat in the game:
When you can build enormous ships everyone seemd to be adding the strongest shield there is...., side effect is that these take loads of power.

Now, there is 1 type of shield that uses NO power, but is very weak. So you add like half your ships full of these !! --> result --> nobody can kill you ships anymore becuase yr shield is to strong !

Using the above my tactics were 3 of these ships with "super shields".
1 war ship with only weapons added.
2 colonize ships.

You are simply invincible


Hope to helped out here, so if someone could help me out that would be great

Thx !

Post

[Guest]

Originally posted by laiocfar@Dec 25 2005, 07:37 PM
I read here about Ascendancy II and i want facts!!!! :angry:
i did email the logic factory about a year ago, got a reply they were finishing some other game first.. but they promised me to advice me when they start testing it.

So far didnt heard anything.. to bad i love beta testing

[Guest]

ah ok, works nicely in the dos box

[punch999]

Yes this is a very good game!

[laiocfar]

Now, there is 1 type of shield that uses NO power, but is very weak. So you add like half your ships full of these !! --> result --> nobody can kill you ships anymore becuase yr shield is to strong ! :tomato:

PROBLEM: this cheap shield is too weak for use agaisnt some weapons. This shield consumes no energy to be active but to contain damage it use energy and by having to bad stats as shield it would deplet your power or fail to contain damage. So when building a ship, use better shields and more power units. :ok:

[Cockroach]

Or use big engines and loads of power to stay out of range. :D

[Guest]

Originally posted by laiocfar@Jan 4 2006, 03:40 AM
Now, there is 1 type of shield that uses NO power, but is very weak. So you add like half your ships full of these !! --> result --> nobody can kill you ships anymore becuase yr shield is to strong ! :tomato:

PROBLEM: this cheap shield is too weak for use agaisnt some weapons. This shield consumes no energy to be active but to contain damage it use energy and by having to bad stats as shield it would deplet your power or fail to contain damage. So when building a ship, use better shields and more power units. :ok:
not true, i used this tactic over and over again, i never run out of energy or power and the shields never fail even against the strongest weapons, ill just started playing again, as soon as i can build enomrous ships again ill send a screenshot of how the vessel layout should look like.
Trust me this works :)

[Taskmaster]

:D Suppose it does work, the game AI is so lousy that even with a hostile environment the computers barely blinked at me. You crush them easily. The computer ignores the Xeno ruins so finding a few of those puts you miles in front of the computer. The computer doesn't retrofit it's ships either, so if you disarm them, but don't destroy them, you can run around killing all the colonies at will.

Great game, great graphics, but the lousy AI and the micromangement make it painful to play sometimes, in my opinion.

:Titan:

[legolas558]

Originally posted by Taskmaster@Jan 4 2006, 02:00 PM
:D Suppose it does work, the game AI is so lousy that even with a hostile environment the computers barely blinked at me. You crush them easily. The computer ignores the Xeno ruins so finding a few of those puts you miles in front of the computer. The computer doesn't retrofit it's ships either, so if you disarm them, but don't destroy them, you can run around killing all the colonies at will.

Great game, great graphics, but the lousy AI and the micromangement make it painful to play sometimes, in my opinion.

:Titan:
Will somebody answer???
:blink:
--> Previous Post (http://www.abandonia.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=969&view=findpost&p=192753)

Thank you

[punch999]

Have you looked and seen if there are any already available tools to do so?

[laiocfar]

Well, in facts, even with the bettered AI, u don´t need shields or be out of range....

Great game, great graphics, but the lousy AI and the micromangement make it painful to play sometimes, in my opinion.

Very true.


Legolas: i can´t help u beacause i don´t know how do it.

[Taskmaster]

:D .FNT would seem like a font file, but not sure.

At one point in the past I opened one of the files and grab data on the research tree, such as how long each took to research, but that was years ago.

Good luck.

[Guest]

oh, I tested it again on what I said about the cheat/flaw
It works

Just add the shield that uses no power upto 4 full blue rounds and your undefetable.

When someone else is firing on you it does not consume power so you never run
out


OH, CAPITAL LETTERS....I KNOW...DONT WANT TO TYPE THIS ALL AGAIN

GREETZ !

Edit by punch- Rewrote whole post without all the caps :)

[Tom Henrik]

There is a nice key on your keyboard called Caps Lock - don't fear it. Even though it scared you the first (and appearantly only) time you clicked it... please click it again.

Thank you.

[Guest]

actually it was my shift key being *meep*ed up by gaming that got stuck again, and since i was typing without looking at the screen i realized to late....

you care if i type in capitals or not ?

[Tom Henrik]

Look, I'm sorry for lashing out at you like that, but after a couple of thousand posts written in Caps by newbies with no grasp of grammar - you tend to get fed up by it ;)

So sorry, for letting you feel my build up of frustration. Hope you won't think bad of me. :tomato:

[Yobor]

Its cool Tom. Just remember this picture (Kudos to Maddox once again)
http://maddox.xmission.com/keyboard4.jpg

[laiocfar]

LOL
and between the shift and the "a" no more than 3 cm

[gregor]

Originally posted by Guest@Jan 5 2006, 11:32 PM
Just add the shield that uses no power upto 4 full blue rounds and your undefetable.


I don't understand. what do you mean? what blue rounds? what shield that uses no power? don't they all use power?

[Taskmaster]

No, there is one shield that is weak, but uses no energy. I think it is a "passive" shield, although I believe you have to activate it before it takes effect, just like the other shields.

What I hate is the civilizations that put a recall device in every ship. As soon as I fire a single shot at them they "recall" back to mama. I just station a few ships in their home system then send out my fastest ships to met up with their roaming fleets and send them back to their home system one at a time for anihilation.

:Titan:

[laiocfar]

QUOTE (Guest @ Jan 5 2006, 11:32 PM)
Just add the shield that uses no power upto 4 full blue rounds and your undefetable.


I don't understand. what do you mean? what blue rounds? what shield that uses no power? don't they all use power?

The blue rounds are the sum of capacity of all shields in a ship. Each blue round got 4 levels. There is also a shield that gives u the lowest level of shielding but consumes no power to be active. He its talking of equip a ship with 16 of this shield to be undefeteable. Anyway, these shields are only usefull to don´t caught with your guard down, remember that u have to active the shields to make them work but be with the shields up consumes energy, so its better to get next to your enemy with the shields down, set them up when the battle start and et them down again if the enemy ship consumes all his power. If a ship whit an activated shield get shotted, the shield will use power to absorve the damage, even this shield that takes no power to be active, I prefer to have a better shield and more units of power in my ships

[Guest]

Originally posted by laiocfar@Jan 6 2006, 10:54 PM
If a ship whit an activated shield get shotted, the shield will use power to absorve the damage, even this shield that takes no power to be active, I prefer to have a better shield and more units of power in my ships
The blue rounds are the sum of capacity of all shields in a ship. Each blue round got 4 levels. There is also a shield that gives u the lowest level of shielding but consumes no power to be active.
exactly !, look at what you write: consumes no power to be active. which is correct


these shields are only usefull to don´t caught with your guard down, remember that u have to active the shields to make them work but be with the shields up consumes energy,
this is wrong, as you said yourself above it does not take energy/power !

If a ship whit an activated shield get shotted, the shield will use power to absorve the damage, even this shield that takes no power to be active.
not true, im not sure about other shields but these shields definitaly dont use power to absorbe the damage.

If a ship whit an activated shield get shotted, the shield will use power to absorve the damage, even this shield that takes no power to be active, I prefer to have a better shield and more units of power in my ships
so do I :D because you cant take so much cools tuff with so many shields onboard. but its a fact that the ships fitted with these shield i said are undefeatable.

Greetz !

Edit by Tom:
Fixed your quotes :)

[Blank_box]

Too much defense will take more time to attack or invade some system since you can't more very fast in the system and between lenses both and can't take more weapons on board...

I love to use balance defense and offense then emphasis on moving. This is very importance in later game (If AI have enough wit to do so) that powerful long-length plasma(sorry, I've forgotten the name) with cloaking sphere and the planet missile can delay or even stop you there if you can not manage to get out of length or occupy their orbit quickly. Moving fast between the lenses also help you dispatch more your reinforcement(if you would like to avoid micro management by building ship yard in every far and less important planets).

Equip your ship more than one powerful weapon types can help you much solve the slowly recharge or out of length problem.

"Hit and Run" is my favorite tactic. :sniper:. An army of flying turtles can not conquer the fortress. :sneaky:

Remember that tactic depend on your way, style, and situation so... choose your best! :ok:

P.S. Sorry, I forgot its name since I have play and addicted nethack sooooooo much :Titan:

[laiocfar]

The shields consumes power by being active per each battle turn. But there is a shield that takes no power to be active. Unactive shield do nothing. All the others shields also consumes power to avoid damage when being active and shotted, the shield can fail to avoid it if left no more power or if the weapon its too powerfull. I will check if the "no power to be active" shield use power to absorb damage but i belive that yes.

[Guest]

Sorry to be a smart behind again, but i can resist :D

None of the shields in the game use power to absorb attacks.
Only most shields use power each turn to be active. except for the one im talking about.

Each turn when a shield is activated your power levels drop, wether or not it took an attack in that turn does not effect the amount of power used.

check it out ! youll see

greetz !

Damn i have to register, im always posting as a guest :D

[Guest]

No sound, can't exit the game without it crashing my computer...

Bummer. Seemed like a good game too.

[Gandalf]

Use DOSBox to run this great game! Works perfectly. (Yes, with sound)

[Menasor]

WOW! ive had this game donwloaded for a while now but never attempted it coz i thought it would be too boring...i only started playing a few hours ago...its purely magnificent!! and the atmospheric music is a nice addition...

[Taskmaster]

:D Just give it a few more hours!

[Menasor]

ive been looking thru the pages to find a solution to my problem...but i gave up on page 6 and decided to just ask it...

ive got a ship with a colonizer, and i sent it to another planet to colonize...but now i dont know what to do with the ship...i returned it back to my original planet...but i can't seem to attach another colonizer on it...issit even possible to do this? and if i cant do this...what do i do with the ship? (its my first ship so its not really a heavy weapon or a scout kinda ship)

[Menasor]

loox like i gotta refer to the manual :blink:

[gregor]

Originally posted by Menasor@Feb 1 2006, 04:52 PM
ive been looking thru the pages to find a solution to my problem...but i gave up on page 6 and decided to just ask it...

ive got a ship with a colonizer, and i sent it to another planet to colonize...but now i dont know what to do with the ship...i returned it back to my original planet...but i can't seem to attach another colonizer on it...issit even possible to do this? and if i cant do this...what do i do with the ship? (its my first ship so its not really a heavy weapon or a scout kinda ship)
you might have to activate it when you come to the planet you wish to colonise. put the ship in orbit and colonise it.

If you wish to refit it can also be done, but you need free shipyard on the planet and then you can refit the ship.

[Menasor]

how do u refit it? ive brought my ship back...but i dont know where to go to refit it...i click on the ship and there are three options "leave orbit", "abandon", "cancel"...and ive only got one shipyard, but im not building anyships at the moment...and when i click on the shipyard it doesnt say much either...im a bit lost...

[Taskmaster]

:D Research! You will eventually get to Orbital Platform or some such... different that the Orbital Shipyard. One only builds ships and one only refits ships.

Of course, once you get the larger hulls, you can just scrap the small ships since you are limited to how many total ships you can build. Although colonizing more planets increases the limit.

[gregor]

Originally posted by Menasor@Feb 2 2006, 10:36 AM
how do u refit it? ive brought my ship back...but i dont know where to go to refit it...i click on the ship and there are three options "leave orbit", "abandon", "cancel"...and ive only got one shipyard, but im not building anyships at the moment...and when i click on the shipyard it doesnt say much either...im a bit lost...
sorry i am at work now and i really can't look into it, but i think you bring the ship to the planet with shipyard and then somehow refit it (maybe some icon or right click...) can't remember... wish they alowed games at work...

[laiocfar]

U have to click the ship and chose refit, if u dont got that oprion its cuz u didnt got orbitals docks(different of shipyard) at that planet. If u got the orbitals docks and cant make refit... u are doomed

[Menasor]

thanks guys...i didnt have orbital docks, i thought you could refit with the shipyard...it makes sense now.

[Playgame.]

Hi, I like the site. Cool idea.

Simple question regarding Ascendancy.

It runs decent enough, however, the mouse moves very slow across the screen. You have to move it right off the desk about 5 times to get across a full screen. Is there some sort of way to adjust mouse sensitivity in this game? Is having an optical mouse an issue? Is have a P4 instead of a 486 an issue???

Anyone have this problem? Help a brother out.

Cheers

[laiocfar]

If this happens only in this game.... check options menu and if doesnt works hit the mouse until it works. If it also happens outside Ascendancy, the lifetime of the mouse is over, even in a third world country, mouses cost no more than 2 u$s. buy another

[Menasor]

any tips or hints about what to research? i seem to be going all over the place...

[BeefontheBone]

I get that mouse speed problem running the game in XP - it's very neatly fixed by using DOSBox.

Research the things you need to get off the planet and onto another one first, then Xenoarchaeology, then things which allow more research and let you get to Shipyards, then I tend to beeline for the enormous ships (the tech also allows the Metropolis, which is great) since you need them to really get a war going, and I'm a big fan of long range orbital whoppers - missiles don't cut it for defense.
Oh, Automation is a priority too, since without it your population cap will be really low.

[vk0]

I heard someone asking for data extraction tools, i found some, can't remember from where though. (using these you can extract the wonderfull music from ascendancy, it's in pure .wav format from ascend01.cob or ascend02.cob).
www.vk0.dk/ascendutils.zip
(Remember to don't run .exe files from random people on random forums).

also, i have a "experienced" user game instruction thing: (from vidruand)
www.vk0.dk/vidscob.zip
This will change some research stuff around plus add some restrictions (nothing you actually have to do)

from the html instruction from vidscob.zip:
"
The following is the suggested play style to be used with the new cob for experienced players:
300 Turn start
Hostile Antag
3 species
Rules for setting:
1. Turn penalties, in addition to the 300 turn start penalty:
Dubtaks: +200 turns
Mebes, Govorom, Minions: +100 turns
2. Leave one space free for each colonization module placed on the ship. This means, one module needs 2 slots.
3. Only 1 planet allowed on micro management (MM), all others on self management (SM): Once you are allowed to switch this MM to another planet and place your home planet on SM. If the planet you are manually managing is invaded, you may switch to another planet. Ship building and repairing (re-designing) is allowed on the actual MM planet only.
4. Ship restrictions: No more than 4 attack ships in any system. No more than 10 ships at any one time.
5. (optional) Research Xenos last
"

playing with vidruand's rules and changed cob makes the game quite tough and therefore alot more fun to play, highly recommended.

vidscob.zip instalaltion:
backup your ascend00.cob, rename the "ascend00 changed.cob" from vidscob.zip to ascend00.cob and place it where the original ascend00.cob used to be, done.

note that vidscob.zip doesn't include any .exe files, just a cob datafile, which i don't think can execute maliciuosly code.
but ascendutils.exe can be filled with viruses and shouldn't be run unless you trust people calling themselves vk0 (which you shouldn't).

[Puzzled]

I have been playing the game a bit. Has anyone else noticed that some of the industrial structures don't work properly? The industrial megafacility, which is supposed to provide more industry than the factory, provides the same industry as the factory. The metroplex, which is supposed to provide industry, research and population, does not provide industry. Don't know about other advanced industry buildings.

Anyone know how to fix this? Is there a building stat editor or something?

[laiocfar]

Are u looking at graphic or are u reading the data? The graphic chnages every ten units. But in mine, Metro and I Complex works well.

[Blank_box]

Originally posted by vk0@Feb 4 2006, 01:09 PM
"
The following is the suggested play style to be used with the new cob for experienced players:
300 Turn start
Hostile Antag
3 species
Rules for setting:
* 1. Turn penalties, in addition to the 300 turn start penalty:*
Dubtaks: +200 turns
Mebes, Govorom, Minions: +100 turns
* 2. Leave one space free for each colonization module placed on the ship. This means, one module needs 2 slots.
* 3. Only 1 planet allowed on micro management (MM), all others on self management (SM): Once you are allowed to switch this MM to another planet and place your home planet on SM. If the planet you are manually managing is invaded, you may switch to another planet. Ship building and repairing (re-designing) is allowed on the actual MM planet only.
* 4. Ship restrictions: No more than 4 attack ships in any system. No more than 10 ships at any one time.*
* 5. (optional) Research Xenos last
"

playing with vidruand's rules and changed cob makes the game quite tough and therefore alot more fun to play, highly recommended.

Sound interesting :max: , perhaps, I should try it.

Are you sure that less important planet will become completely self-management? (I mean that no more pop-up every planet and every turn.) Also, if it were rule which AI have to take the effect too?

If this patch works fine, the game will be more fun.

[vk0]

all the patch itself does is change some research stuff around and make some buildings less good.
self managening plants is default in the game and can be toggled on or off by pressing the "M" key while in the planet display for the current planet. It says which setting the planet is set to if you press the main info panel of the planet (the box that display current populationg and maximum population).

The reason you have to put the planets on this setting is that the AI is so unbelieveable dump it will heavily weaken you and build a bunch of crappy planets.

[Jug Head]

Guys, quick question...

I am a self-confessed noob - not just to abandonware but pretty much to the computers scene. Ascendancy is my first attempted download, and boy did I not do it right.

I have set up the files, and got DOSBox up and running, but when I type 'install' as the DOSBox command I get the reply 'Illegal command: install'. What am I doing wrong? Any advice appreciated.

Apologies if these is a separate technical help thread for stuff like this, but I play my 'noob' card once again.

JH

[BeefontheBone]

Well, you can't run install.exe without first navigating to the directory where it resides. Assuming you've followed the DOSBox tutorial (or figured out what it odes for yourself) and extracted the game to C:\Ascend (where C: is whatever you've mounted as drive C is DOSBox - in my config it's actually C:\DOSProgs\) then the command sequence you need to run it the first time is

cd ascend
install
<set up the game - autodetect should spot whatever DOSBox is emulating, the default being a standard SoundBlaster I believe)>
ascend

Hope that helps :)

[Guest]

Thanks for getting back to me Beef.

Well I've made it as far as being able to mount C: onto DOSBox (ie when I open up DOSBox it goes to 'C:' by default) - the last lines of my DOSBox config are:

[autoexec]
# Lines in this section will be run at startup.
mount C C:\DOSBox\CDrive
mount D D:\ -t cdrom
C:
CLS

I have also extracted the game to the file marked 'CDrive', as instructed. In fact, when following the step-by-step tutorial, I was cruising until 'install' turned out to be an illegal command. Hope this explains my situation a little clearer.

Ascendancy was meant to be a dress rehearsal for my real Holy Grail - Mega Lo Mania! I'd be grateful as ever for your help.

JH

[BeefontheBone]

You should have a folder in C:\DOSBox\CDrive called ASCEND, containing (among other things) install.exe and ascend.exe (it's also worth running the patch included in the archive, too).

Actually, looking at my CD I think you need to run SETSOUND not INSTALL. Gah! Basically, DOS games used to have their own setup programs to tell them what hardware you had (DirectX and the OS tend to handle all this for you now, which is nice). DOSBox can emulate a number of hardware configurations, defaulting to a SoundBlaster IIRC, but the games still need to be told what it's emulating, in this case by running SETSOUND.EXE. They usually had SETSOUND, INSTALL, SETUP or something similar to do it.

OK, assuming you've got the folder in the right place, run DOSBox then type:

cd ascend
setsound
<you should get to set the sound options - autodetect should work fine>
ascend

That should do it. If you get problems, try typing

dir -w

That'll list the contents of whatever folder you're in (shown on the left of the DOSBox screen). If you're in your mounted C drive it should list [ASCEND] for the ascendancy folder - if not, you've not extracted the game to the right place. If you're in C:\ASCEND then it should list a few folders and some executables, hopefully including ASCEND.EXE and SETSOUND.EXE. If not, you've created the folder in the right place but not extracted the game data there.

[legolas558]

Here is the dosboxhere.reg file to have always available a DOSbox shell from the folder context menu, copy & paste into a file called dosboxhere.reg and launch it.
REGEDIT4

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\DOSBox Here]
@="&DOSBox"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\DOSBox Here\command]
@="c:\program files\dosbox\dosbox.exe -noconsole -c \"@mount c %1\" -c "@c:\" "


Edit to have 'c:\program files\dosbox' as the folder path to Dosbox. I also advice you to edit the dosbox.conf file located in the DOSbox folder, this way (from the bottom):
...
[autoexec]
# Lines in this section will be run at startup.
@mount c c:\


And yes, if you asked, here it is another cmdhere.reg, a very handy tool for windows xp:
REGEDIT4

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\Command Prompt Here]
@="&Command prompt"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\Command Prompt Here\command]
@="cmd.exe /k cd %1 "


Enjoy the stuff and post any thanks if you have ... :cheers:

[Guest]

You should have a folder in C:\DOSBox\CDrive called ASCEND, containing (among other things) install.exe and ascend.exe (it's also worth running the patch included in the archive, too).

Well, the plot thickens. I do indeed have a folder in C:\DOSBox\CDrive called ASCEND, but the only thing in it is another folder called 'ASCENDANCY'. When I open that, then I find 23 icons - although none of them are install.exe or ascend.exe.

Actually, looking at my CD I think you need to run SETSOUND not INSTALL. Gah!

This inspired me, so I tried punching in 'setsound' as a command. No joy. Same with 'setup'. However, 'SETSOUND' is one of the 23 things in the 'ascendancy' file.

In a burst of genius, I thought that perhaps I needed to get to the ASCEND file in DOSBox, and then type in 'cd ascendancy'. Well well well...absolutely nothing happened. ('Unable to change to: ascendancy.')

Icon of the day is :help: .

JH

[Guest]

When I open that, then I find 23 icons - although none of them are install.exe or ascend.exe.

Hold the phone...now I'm just confusing myself. Contrary to what I typed (above), there is actually an icon called 'ASCEND' in the 'ASCENDANCY' folder - but nothing for 'install'. Sorry for the mix-up.

:help:

JH

[vk0]

My ideas:

2 guesses:
either ascendancy is ascendancy.zip meannig you have to unpack it first, although not sure if your os opens zip as normal dirs or opens a wizard to unpack.
if this is the case, unzip it ofc.

other thing is that dosbox is a dos emulator (;)), and ascendancy is too long a filename for dos, so:
after having started dosbox and having c mounted to your c:\dosbox\cdrive, type this in:
c:
cd ascend
cd ascend~1
setsound (follow program guides)
ascend


ascend~1 is abit of a hassle to write so i suggest copying the files from c:\dosbox\cdrive\ascend\ascendancy to c:\dosbox\cdrive\ascend.

[Jug Head]

Success!

Yup, we're officially in business. The problem was indeed the fact that the DOS emulator couldn't access the ASCENDANCY file, so with a bit of slick cut-and-pasting I did away with that folder and put the contents in ASCEND. Worked a treat! Many thanks to vk0 and BeefontheBone for your help. Cheers guys. Mega Lo Mania, here I come...

JH

[Squalid Blaze]

Hello, this has been my favorite download site for a while now, well done folks totally cool, so I thought it was time to regester and say thanks. I've been playing Acendancy for a week on and off and agree with the coments in this forum. Seems to be a brilliant game with appaling AI and the most tedious micro management I've ever seen. Can't even tell visually if something has been automated or not. If you think the end of a big Masters of Magic or civ 2 game was bad you ain't seen nothing. Somewhere else in this forum someone suggested that this would be a good one for the open source crowd, I agree - it would be one of the all time classics if only it was finished. Something similar to the way point system ( eg blaster bombs in X-com ) only done as development orders for planets would help, with maybe an ignore, resume or change function if interupted or out of population. In fact most games with resource management sections could use something like this. puzzles me why they don't. That said this game is excellent and definately worth a play. I do have one thing to offer as a game play hint, try playing the rodents. They are popular and their special ability is to make peace with all. I know that doesn't sound like much but I think that it makes them the best race in the game. Here's how. Do all the usual stuff but emphasise planet defences and exploration. Find everone else as fast as you can so given the choise between sending an empty ship home for more colonisers or exploring then explore. When you have found the others cuddle up to them, trade everything, go into the hotel trade. If anyone gives you trouble call in your mates. Then cherry pick the best of their planets, get an invasion force, or forces. ready and make sure it can take the planet, or planets, in one go. Also make sure that your special ability is charged up. Then hit them, they will declair war on the next round, hense the advice about defenses, after this happens force peace and build up for the next time the ability is charged up. If you're really fortunate you'll be up against one of the technology masters or planet improving types. This wouldn't work against a human or decent AI but ....nuf said. One cheeky rodent grin and they forgive anything. The buildings on all your new planets will be badly placed but it'll be a start and most of all it wasn't you that had to do all that tedious building work.

[Lloyd Christmas]

Ok, I am at the last step where I actually launch the game (Everything else I did it and it worked. The game I downloaded was FlashBack, and the folder was called Flash. now I typed in cd flash and install and did the sound stuff. I then saved it, and it said to type FB in the command prompt. I did, and it launches the game, but it gives this blurry messed up image and just freezes it. Now is this because I have a router and need to enable some ports, or my firewall (which I have disabled), or I messed up in a part I don't know about in the tutorial. Here is an image. http://img83.imageshack.us/img83/5194/flashbackerror5gl.jpg

[Eagle of Fire]

I don't remember using DOSBox for Ascendancy, I used VDMSound with XP directly.

[BeefontheBone]

Erm, why ask about Flashback in the Ascendancy thread? No idea about your problem, but I don't see how it could possibly have anything to do with the router since it's a singleplayer game...

[Guest]

Originally posted by Squalid Blaze@Mar 4 2006, 05:09 AM
Hello, this has been my favorite download site for a while now, well done folks totally cool, so I thought it was time to regester and say thanks.
I've been playing Acendancy for a week on and off and agree with the coments in this forum. Seems to be a brilliant game with appaling AI and the most tedious micro management I've ever seen. Can't even tell visually if something has been automated or not.
If you think the end of a big Masters of Magic or civ 2 game was bad you ain't seen nothing. Somewhere else in this forum someone suggested that this would be a good one for the open source crowd, I agree - it would be one of the all time classics if only it was finished. Something similar to the way point system ( eg blaster bombs in X-com ) only done as development orders for planets would help, with maybe an ignore, resume or change function if interupted or out of population.
In fact most games with resource management sections could use something like this. puzzles me why they don't.

That said this game is excellent and definately worth a play. I do have one thing to offer as a game play hint, try playing the rodents. They are popular and their special ability is to make peace with all. I know that doesn't sound like much but I think that it makes them the best race in the game. Here's how. Do all the usual stuff but emphasise planet defences and exploration. Find everone else as fast as you can so given the choise between sending an empty ship home for more colonisers or exploring then explore. When you have found the others cuddle up to them, trade everything, go into the hotel trade. If anyone gives you trouble call in your mates. Then cherry pick the best of their planets, get an invasion force, or forces. ready and make sure it can take the planet, or planets, in one go. Also make sure that your special ability is charged up. Then hit them, they will declair war on the next round, hense the advice about defenses, after this happens force peace and build up for the next time the ability is charged up. If you're really fortunate you'll be up against one of the technology masters or planet improving types. This wouldn't work against a human or decent AI but ....nuf said. One cheeky rodent grin and they forgive anything. The buildings on all your new planets will be badly placed but it'll be a start and most of all it wasn't you that had to do all that tedious building work.
I havent played this game in about 7 years now, but i seem to remember a small "*" somwhere if the planet was automated.

However, automation tends to move planets towards metropolises instead of habitat/megafactory/the uber research thing and so i dont recommend it, for that reason.

Micromanage for fun and profit!


Nice guide :D .

[legolas558]

If you are looking for the lost Ascendancy I MODguide you can now download it from the

Trascendancy Project website (http://www.trascendancy.altervista.org/)

It is in the Downloads (http://www.trascendancy.altervista.org/downloads.php) section, where you can get the older versions and the latest (version 0.5b updated by me)

If you make some cool MODs, tell me!
:ot:

[Adict]

HELP no matter what i do i cant get the color to show up correctly. I have windows xp and i set the icon to run it in 256 colors but it still comes out with inverse colors so i cant read half of the writing. Please help me and tell me of any way you folks could think of how to fix this problem.

thanks

[legolas558]

Use DOSbox (http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/dosbox/DOSBox0.63-win32-installer.exe?download) instead

[SirPeter]

Legolas maybe make a new thread in the programming subforum about the Mod on ascendancy. Maybe ppl are interested in joining this project :)

[Guest]

how do you use dosbox

[legolas558]

Originally posted by SirPeter@Mar 29 2006, 03:37 PM
Legolas maybe make a new thread in the programming subforum about the Mod on ascendancy. Maybe ppl are interested in joining this project :)
I opened such thread, 0 replies so far :(

Edit: The link (http://www.abandonia.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=9968)

[Old Woman]

Starting Ascendancy

I love big games, very big, so I use Antagonizer and always set Ascendancy on: Very dense star cluster - Seven species - Neutral atmosphere. And now the female touch! You don't win with power or theft, try agility and speed for a change. My choice are always the Chronomyst and they have never disappointed me yet.

Every time you start a new game you play in a hole new universe. You get a home planet in a star system with between one and five planets. You need beside your home planet at least two huge planets and preferably one large planet none of them with only black squares, such a Husk planet is almost unusable for the Chronomyst. If the fourth or fifth planet is a Husk planet with an argeological dig that is great, an normal planet with such a dig is even better and Cornucopia planets are of course the best. An argeological dig early in the game gives an enormous advantage and on a Cornucopia planet you can build twice as fast as on a white planet.

If you start in a star system with only your medium home planet just start over again and again until you get a star system with at least your home planet and 2 huge and 1 medium or large planets.

Have fun.

[Old Woman]

Starships

You can't build as many starships as you want, the rules are:

For the star system with your home planet you are allowed 2 ships, even when you are not the absolute ruler, meaning one of the planets in your home system is occupied by an other race, you still have the right to build two ships.
For every star system where you are the absolute ruler, meaning only you occupy one ore more planets in that system, you are allowed to build an extra spaceship.
For star systems that are occupied by two or more races, nobody is allowed an extra ship. To know the number of ships you still can build, you count the star systems where you're the only ruler, or you klick on the word ship on the right of the main screen, on top of the new screen the game tells you how many ships you have and how many you still can to build.

So, if you have your home star system, 1 star system where you occupy three planets, 1 star systems where you occupy 1 planet, 1 star system where you occupy planet 4 and another race occupies planet 1, you are allowed to build 4 starships, as follows:

Home star system - 2 ships
star system with 3 occupied planets - 1 ship
1 star systems with 1 planet - 1 ships
1 shared star system - 0 ships
for a total of 4 ships


Strategic thinking !!!!

If in the above example you have four ships and another race invades one of your normal star systems and don't attack your planet but occupies another planet, you suddenly have one ship to many and if you can't take that planet in the same turn, Ascendancy shall remove your oldest ship from the game, and that can be very costly. You can use this strategy against the other races. And remember, if necessary build only in the beginning all the ships you are allowed and occupy some new star systems as soon as possible.

Have fun.

[AllianceWeb]

Hello,
I'd just like to submit some cheat codes I have on my site:
Ascendancy cheat codes (http://www.allianceweb.sk/cheats-hints-codes/ascendancy.php)

Enjoy.

[legolas558]

Thank you!

I have added your page to Trascendancy Project Links page (http://trascendancy.altervista.org/links.php)

I hope there's no problem for that

[Guest]

this game has been giving me trouble in one regard: The mouse is screwy. it moves really slowly and and sloppily (though not in the config screens so it's just the app). I'd appreciate it... do you think another mouse (I've only tried USB) would work, or do I have to rewrite some code? I'm still going to try a ps2 and a serial mouse, though. thanks!

[legolas558]

try incrementing cycles using Ctrl+F12 (if you are using DOSbox)

[ShadowXIX]

I just started playing again this time with the Antag patch :blink: Man does it make the AI more agressive. I played the normal game quite a bit and owned with pretty much any race so I decided on a average galaxy in ANTAG with a Hostile atmosphere 7 species. In short order I had 5 species all at war with me and was losing colonies very early on. The AI also builds orbital defense very early on now, which makes invasion nearly impossible until you get some decent weapons tech that can outrange the orbital missile platforms.

Adds some new dimensions to a game I already had fun with

I havent bothered with the maintenance patch yet though. Anyone know exactly what that does and if you can run it with the antag patch? It says you have to type -ascend/patch to run the patch version, but to run anatg you must type ascend/antag?

Is the antag version already patched?

[ShadowXIX]

Originally posted by Taskmaster@Nov 9 2005, 09:12 PM
The thing I disliked in Ascendancy, beside the poor AI, is the 2/3 of the galaxy rule, or whatever it is. You are kicking behind and taking names, and then because you colonize one too many planets, suddenly the game is over and you've won. I want to be able to make use of that new planet and go on to anhiliate the rest!

:Titan:
There is a way around the 2/3 rule in a sense. The rule only applies to 2/3 of the galaxy if it is a connected empire. If you allow the enemy to keep a few junk worlds in the middle of your empire it breaks up your 2/3 empire and you can go on to conquere many more planets then normal.

[laiocfar]

If you control 1/3 of the galaxy or less the fight is over and lucky when you got 2/3 it ends.

[ShadowXIX]

Originally posted by laiocfar@Apr 27 2006, 12:31 AM
If you control 1/3 of the galaxy or less the fight is over and lucky when you got 2/3 it ends.
It all depends on what systems you let the AI control.

My current game for example. 7 species

I control 63 planets and 29 systems

The remaining 6 species control 3 planets each (18 planets) and actually control a total of 10 systems. There are I think 2 uncontroled systems left with tiny husk planets nobody has colonized.

I control far over the 1/3 limit of the galaxy

[laiocfar]

The AI only is a threat to small empires. When you get enought planets, they are walking deads.

[ShadowXIX]

Yeah too bad the AI wasnt better :yawn: If it was smarter and gameplay had a few little tweaks here and there "Ascendancy" could have been one of the best of the 4x space strategy games of its era, perhaps of all time.

The AI species are much tougher with the Antag patch but mainly because it allows the AI to cheat and gives it bonuses in Industry, Research ETC..

I have to give "Galactic Civilization II" a try, I heard its AI is hard to beat on higher levels and they claim it doesn't cheat at all.


BTW on the game I mentioned in the above post I got the Extinction ending :Titan: I managed to kill every species in a single turn (which wasnt that hard since they had only 3 colonies each). It gave me the Title "Interstellar Death-Dealer" at the ending screen.

Much more fun then the 1/3 ending

[laiocfar]

Interstellar Death-Dealer? wow, i never dreamed something like that, the problem with most of the space civilization games is that they were made to internet multyplay mode so they become very repetitive and the ai is just a lastminute add to the game.

[ShadowXIX]

Yeah making a hard to beat A.I in strategy games of this type is no easy task either (well unless you let them cheat). There are just so many variables to have the AI deal with. It takes Super computers to be able to make A.Is that can beat the best players in the world at Chess and Im pretty sure the variables in chess though massive pale when compared to every possible variable in a game like Ascendancy.

Thats one thing that has me interested in this new game GC II, Because they never created any multiplayer for the game and sank alot of time into the A.I.

[Borodin]

Originally posted by ShadowXIX@Apr 29 2006, 07:20 PM
Thats one thing that has me interested in this new game GC II, Because they never created any multiplayer for the game and sank alot of time into the A.I.
All the more shame they gave up the contract to make Master of Magic II. But really, MoM2 would probably have had too many variables for them to handle--so perhaps they were wise to abandon it.

[help needed]

my mouse is *meep*in slow...

[ShadowXIX]

Are you running the game in DosBOX?

I never had any problems with mouse speed in Dosbox though I do have to speed the game up with Ctrl-F12 to make it run smooth.

[Abbu]

:bye:

well, I love the game, found it yesterday and researched with my Orfas already the whole tree.. getting annoyed by the micromanagement and the fact that I can demolish all my researching planets.. but so what..
but, I still have one problem: in order to win, what do I have to accomplish? destroy all the other races :eeeeeh: or what?

:help:

[ShadowXIX]

Well theres a couple of ways to win.

The 1/3 win- The easiest and the one most people get is what is known as 1/3 win. When you control 1/3 of the galaxy (it has to be connected) you win the game you expanded so far no other race can stop you. If you leave choice worlds in alien hands that break up your empire you can control much more then 1/3

The Peace ending- you get this one when you have a alliance with all living races in the galaxy and usher in a era of peace.

The Extinction ending- this happens when you completly wipe out all alien races.

There is also a ending when you take over all the other races home systems, though I can't remember what that ending is called.

Thats all the ways to win I have found in the game.

[Guest]

thank you :D

[laiocfar]

There is also a ending when you take over all the other races home systems, though I can't remember what that ending is called.

I know about peacefull and 1/3 endings, few ago ya told me about the extiontion one.
Any other? :D

[vk0]

from looking at the data files there are only 5 endings, but each have 10 ranks so one could imaging there be 50 endings. here are all of them (first is lowest rank):

--Capture alien homeworlds:
Home Wrecker.
Megalomaniac.
Master Invader.
Hypercosmic Saboteur.
Lord of Subversion.
Interstellar Coup Master.
Insurrection Champion.
Galactic Infiltrator.
Supreme Invader.
Ascendant Invader.

--control 2/3 of galaxy:
Ambitious Beginner.
Imperialist.
Interstellar Warrior.
Interstellar Subjugator.
Galactic Powermonger.
Hyper-Conqueror.
Cosmic Dictator.
Imperial Overlord.
Galactic Emperor.
Ascendant Emperor.

--killed all:
Unrighteous Neighbor.
Xenophobe.
Galactic Villain.
Interstellar Death-Dealer.
Supreme Killing Machine.
Techno-Annihilator.
Cosmic Devastator.
Lord High Executioner.
Overlord of Cosmic Night.
Ascendant Destroyer.

--allied all:
Hyper-Explorer.
Mover and Shaker.
Master of Diplomacy.
Interstellar Victor.
Galactic Unifier.
Cosmic Harmonizer.
Lord of Tranquility.
High King of Serenity.
Ascendant Overlord.
Supreme Master of Ascendancy.

--defeat:
Interstellar Pushover.
Space History.
Galactic Exile.
Cosmic Martyr.
Cosmic Ultra-Martyr.
Lord of Self-Sacrifice.
Existential Transcender.
Master of the Void.
Ultimate Scoremaster.
Ascendant Hyper-Cheater.


If you lack something to do for a few years you could try getting all of these ranks.

[Roadkill]

Very good game, glad the AI patch was added which makes it more interesting.

For some reason I think Civilisations is so ripped from this game :titan:

[torg]

What possibilities are there to destroy alien colonies? Can I only invade them or is there a chance to completely wipe them of the planet's surface?

[vk0]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(torg @ Jun 7 2006, 12:27 PM) 234968</div>
What possibilities are there to destroy alien colonies? Can I only invade them or is there a chance to completely wipe them of the planet's surface?
[/b]

There is a one-use ship module that destroys stuctures on a planet.
But it doesn't destroy (atleast) outpost and the "main" colony building.

so it isn't possible to completely destroy a colony

edit: but if you do destroy nearly anything on a planet near endgamg, it's likely that the planet will be stuck building a ship with >10k turns left.

[Mrdrofcrows]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Havell @ Sep 18 2004, 05:10 PM) 14131</div>
Damn, this is a good game! But one thing, how do you build shipyards? I have researched the technology to build them but they are not avaliblr to build in the display when you click on a tile on the planet.
[/b]

You build them in space!

[Insectoid]

Absolut amazing, incredibly brilliant, it worth to play, and its graphic better than Master of Orion 2. :brain:

[Guest]

Better than MOO2? <_< I don't think so
Maybe I'm too MOO2-spoiled but ...

Even at the smallest galaxy size, micro gets in the way of fun, the 3d lane stuff is weird and makes u need a huge amount of micro to take one ship from point a to point b (travel speed is another game aspect i think could have been improved)

There is no way u can move population from near population cap planets to new colonies.
The partial benefits a colony puts in the empire fund are a bit obscure, and you can't make the inverse step (investing on a colony from common fund)
You can't spy :ph34r:
Fleets?

If u like ASCENDANCY don't forget to try MOO2, maybe u change to the latter

[vk0]

you can set colonies to auto-manage, reducing some of the micro. But the way the turn-system is made there's found to be a rather big varriation of micro management (which isn't nessesary a bad thing).
The amount of time it takes a ship to move around can be increased by adding more star- or hyperlane drives, (but it still requries some micromanagement to move the ship through a system (This again is not neccesary a bad thing, it allows you to infiltrate enemy systems with the right tactic / ship).

colony polulation is how the game is made, changing it would mean ruining the way colonies are build. (Adding one-hit=kill headshots to quake3 wouldn't be a good idea as it would make everyone onle used machine gun (thereby destroying much of the game))

The removal of a common treasury is part of the simple gameplay, each planet only tributes 1 thing (research) to the "common fund", rest is rather basic stuff, manufactoring determines how fast the planet can build stuff, max polulation, population growth (such simple), investing in a colony from a common fond would probably be overpowered.

You can actually spy, it's merely a build-in feature of the simplified more open gameplay. Building a fast ship with alot of shield can easily penetrate deep into enemy systems. This will gives you information on borders, which systems have what planets, the all-important information of how the systems are connected (other of these types of games have their systems connected in a rather boring way or maybe not atall, meaning it can be a risky affeir having lines of defense. And all this optained information is your main diplomatic weapon, (diplomacy in ascendancy is also simplified, so you only really talk to people if they have stuff you need or make war with them if they have systems you need, it's common in ascendancy to have a little war, instead of being forced into a game-long war because you needed 1 system taking out of a AI hands due to usually border-defense-issues.

fleets... Why would you want fleets when you have the extremly open battle-system? just having 2+ ships with similar hyperlane drives fly together is a fleet, actual formation of a fleet with weird modifyers and some such stuff is not needed with a open enough battle-system.

Maybe you should play abit more ascendancy and then you can switch. :)

[Roadkill]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Mrdrofcrows @ Jun 13 2006, 03:02 PM) 236435</div>
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Havell @ Sep 18 2004, 05:10 PM) 14131
Damn, this is a good game! But one thing, how do you build shipyards? I have researched the technology to build them but they are not avaliblr to build in the display when you click on a tile on the planet.
[/b]

You build them in space!
[/b][/quote]

click on the spaces left of ur planet, that will allow u to have the 'build shipyard' option

one thing I really would wish for in this game is that you can send your ships to a certain galaxy without actually commanding the buggers each step of the way (it kinda gets old fast if u got more than 10 ships) I would like to click on a ship and say 'move to that galaxy because im a lazy Bas$%$^' and let the comp do the rest.

by the way - if you like this game check out Freelancer (on google.. its not an old game but well worth a look)

[Guest]

I've been playing this game since it came out, a few suggestions for stretching the fun out.

1.) The handicap

This is a great AI equalizer, give yourself a 2 - 6 hundred day waiting period before you build your first structure (aka no science) depending on your ability. Obviously if you play a race like the Dubtaks, Chanchamines etc, this does jack as a handicap really. Try a weak race like the Abryls.

2.) Alternate victories

Conquer all the home systems, and ONLY the homesystems

3.) DON'T CHEAT
We all know this is an easy one. Don't stall enemy planetary attacks.

4.) The Reboot.

After you've dominated the galaxy, Abandon all planets other than your homeworld. On your homeworld abandon all structures other than your colony base. If you need to abadon it and recolonize it.

Fun tricks:

THE INVULNERABLE SHIP:

Build an enormous class ship, fill it with wave scatterers to the point that you have more shield bubbles than even a nano-twirlers can damage, nothing short of a disintigrator can take it out no matter how long a battle rages for.

[Roadkill]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Guest @ Jul 12 2006, 11:34 PM) 242997</div>
I've been playing this game since it came out, a few suggestions for stretching the fun out.

1.) The handicap

This is a great AI equalizer, give yourself a 2 - 6 hundred day waiting period before you build your first structure (aka no science) depending on your ability. Obviously if you play a race like the Dubtaks, Chanchamines etc, this does jack as a handicap really. Try a weak race like the Abryls.

2.) Alternate victories

Conquer all the home systems, and ONLY the homesystems

3.) DON'T CHEAT
We all know this is an easy one. Don't stall enemy planetary attacks.

4.) The Reboot.

After you've dominated the galaxy, Abandon all planets other than your homeworld. On your homeworld abandon all structures other than your colony base. If you need to abadon it and recolonize it.

Fun tricks:

THE INVULNERABLE SHIP:

Build an enormous class ship, fill it with wave scatterers to the point that you have more shield bubbles than even a nano-twirlers can damage, nothing short of a disintigrator can take it out no matter how long a battle rages for.
[/b]

LOL what a age battle, thnx for the advice.

sent in my invunerable ship, had 1 crappy weapon onboard - a black hole maker thingumijig.

planetery defence wastes all its shots on my invuneraable ship then I go in for the invasion :)

[Guest_joe_*]

hi, this game is one of greatest, and i find that logic facktory works on ascendancy2 but for a year or two
their web pages are same.
Someone knows if ascendancy2 is definitely dead and even logicfacktory?

I cant find any other information about that.

[Guest]

my mouse works very very slow...anyone know the problem??? plzzzzzzzz my email ***FIZZZZZZZLE!!!***

[The Fifth Horseman]

Use Dosbox.

And don't post e-mail adresses in open.

[blkebonics]

How can I disable the *ping* that comes with left-clicking?

[dcash]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(the_fifth_horseman @ Aug 10 2006, 12:25 PM) 247735</div>
Use Dosbox.

And don't post e-mail adresses in open, bub.
[/b]

ok sorry... what dos box? :sos:

[Cockroach]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(blkebonics @ Aug 19 2006, 01:18 AM) 249569</div>
How can I disable the *ping* that comes with left-clicking?
[/b]

Are you talking about the ingame sound effects? Only way I know is to turn off sound completely...

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(dcash @ Aug 19 2006, 06:46 AM) 249592</div>
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(the_fifth_horseman @ Aug 10 2006, 12:25 PM) 247735
Use Dosbox.

And don't post e-mail adresses in open, bub.
[/b]

ok sorry... what dos box? :sos:
[/b][/quote]

It's a DOS emulator that allows you to run DOS games on other platforms.

[watcher1307]

WOW! I must say that I've been playing this game for many years now. I remember having it on my 486. All I can say is that I can still sit down and start a small, quick game, and have it be over in a few short hours. Then again, I can start a huge, drawn-out game, and have it last for days, if not weeks. Every move and every building is carefully considered before a decision is made.
I love this game! I've loved this game since it came out. I can never seem to get better then 25% as far as the end is concerned though. I'm going to keep working on it though.
I hope that "The Logic Factory" comes out with another great game soon.

[Nibs]

Love this game.... haven't played it since I owned it on CD back in the day.

I'm running it in DosBox and am having a problem... after a while, the colored squares on the planets vanish. I can still build things on the squares, but I can't see what color they are unless I click it first. No idea what caused this. Instead of a planet covered with buildable squares, I just see the planet, and structures that have already been built.

I am using the patch.exe. Anyone know know why this would happen?

Thanks!

[Guest]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Nibs @ Aug 22 2006, 01:38 AM) 250108</div>
Love this game.... haven't played it since I owned it on CD back in the day.

I'm running it in DosBox and am having a problem... after a while, the colored squares on the planets vanish. I can still build things on the squares, but I can't see what color they are unless I click it first. No idea what caused this. Instead of a planet covered with buildable squares, I just see the planet, and structures that have already been built.

I am using the patch.exe. Anyone know know why this would happen?

Thanks!
[/b]

*sigh*

It never fails. I could spend hours trying to figure something out but it isn't until I break down and post a question that I figure it out on my own. Press "S" to toggle the squares. I have no idea why they included this "feature"!!!!

[Chamachie]

Check out the brand new Ascendancy fan-site.

http://theorbitaldocks.17.forumer.com/

[Elward]

Having played the game for years, I just learned about auto-management, but drastically prefer to do it personally.

-EE

[Cockroach]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Elward @ Aug 30 2006, 09:55 PM) 251993</div>
Having played the game for years, I just learned about auto-management, but drastically prefer to do it personally.

-EE
[/b]

Yeah, the AI can't even manage it's own planets. Why let it manage your's? :P

[laiocfar]

AAAAHHHHH, this can be a huge leveler, AI managing all but your capitol planet from your empire. I should try it.

[CmdKewin]

Oh well :) I do use Auto-Management only in late-game: Medium and Huge Sized planets are still Microed (it's still a pain when you have 40+, but it's worth). Everything else is on automode.

[Aphiberg]

Wow the game seems so cool I have a quick question: does it work on windows 98 with 90 mb ram?

Also I really hope it works on my computer this is the only time im glad not to have a stat of the art computer.

[another_guest]

According to at least one site it should work on a win 95 pc with 8 MB ram...

[Guest]

Just downloaded the game a while ago, its an awesome game! Pity its dead, it has such a great potential, i dont mind the micromanagement, and the AI is bad but i dont mind that too. Its very sad that this game is dead and is abandonware. Ins't there any chance of a sequel showing up? Even if somebody spread the word about this game around somebody might get interrested in making a sequel? Its such an awesome game with great potential, its sad to see great games die out like that :(

[The Fifth Horseman]

Wasn't there something posted in this thread about a fan-sequel a while ago?

[vk0]

nibs:

Disable/enable the view of planet squares is related to some obscure key.
I can't remember which exactly, but "m" is auto-mangement, so it must be one of the others :)

[Cerebro-Megalomane]

Hellz.

I've dl Ascendancy, but i've a problem.

When I click on Ascend.exe ; nothing happened.

I've dl the Patch, but i've the same problem.

I've dl DosBox but I don't understand what have I to do with it...

Thx for help :kosta:

[ReamusLQ]

Check this out; it's a DOSBox tutorial.

http://www.abandonia.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=5684

[Cerebro-Megalomane]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(ReamusLQ @ Nov 4 2006, 06:45 PM) 265337</div>
Check this out; it's a DOSBox tutorial.

http://www.abandonia.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=5684
[/b]


Very Thx ! :kosta: :kosta:

[Guest]

When i start the game on windows xp, i see the screen "cuteed", i mean, i see the drawings cutted, so i cant understand nor do anything... help please!

[The Fifth Horseman]

It seems you are trying to run the game in plain Windows. I strongly suggest you use DosBox (http://dosbox.sourceforge.net) instead.
You can download it here (http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/download.php?main=1).

You might want to check out the official DosBox FAQ (http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php), and particularly this part of it. (http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php?page=Basic+Setup+and+Installation+of+Dos Box) It is quite helpful for users unfamiliar with DosBox.

[Winwood]

Hallo,

there are 2 patches for Ascendancy. The 1.6 -> 1.6.5 maintenance Patch (http://www.logicfactory.com/support_ascendancy.htm) and the antagonizer. I think the maintenance Patch is the one, which makes the AI smarter (try "M", it works), and the antagonizer makes it more aggressiv (and cheating).

But how can i activate both patches together?

Greetings, Winwood

[Guest]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(gregor @ Dec 9 2004, 06:57 PM) 35367</div>
anyone knwos how to abandon ship that is in warp? i 've mistakinly sent ships with poor warp engines into red warp drive and they kept on bouncing back and fourth but never came out of it (weird).
[/b]

I just ran into the same issue as above. I though I knew this game front and back but I guess not. My ships won't leave the red star warp and I can't figure out why or how to get them back. Once my ETA times reach zero the go back up again. Is this some kind of bug or what? :ranting:

[laiocfar]

Nope, i think that you can abandon the ship from fleet control room. The ship wont go out from the red star lane beacause it HASNT be equipped with the proper lane driver. Even when it is SF, most of times star lanes are like gravity holes with a spring at end of it, ships impulse himself deep in the hole to be launched with an amazing speed imposible to get with normal engines. The starlane´s drivers or navcoms or many other SF´s devices are used to get into the gravity holes and control the ship destination. Without the proper driver, your ship will be forever inside the hole coz it lacks of proper devices to use the spring and also lacks of power to get out of the hole.

[Guest]

Hello, IF your ships jumps back to the start of the starlane, bevor it enters ne new starsystem, then there could be two reasons for this problem. First reason could be, that another race has put a block-item on the one end of the starlane, thats an item with which you can equip your ship. Then the ship jumps back to the start, when it reached the blocked system.
And theres another force which can move your ship back to the start. One race has the skill to send all ships in starlanes in the galaxy to its start.

I hope I didnt fool myself, dunno if you already knew this things.
..and sorry for my bad english, i am from germany ;)

[weaverka]

any one know were to get a crack for this game? dosbox wont acknowledge the cd rom.


Also if another race put a block on the starlane the block shows up at both ends. And the ships always came out of the starlane when another race forced the ships back through the starlane but not when the engines couldn't push it through the red links.

[weaverka]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(weavis @ Dec 30 2006, 08:10 PM) 272836</div>
any one know were to get a crack for this game? dosbox wont acknowledge the cd rom.
[/b]


I got it to work on my laptop with xp but it won't work on my pc. The screen goes back and it freezes, ctrl alt del bring up a box that says the driver failed, I have installed directX 9.0 but still won't work any sugestions?

[Cosmonaut_Roger]

This is my all time favorite game, I'm glad to see there is so much discussion of it here, good to know people are still playing it. I know it can be a pain to get running under XP, my suggestion is to use Dosbox. As for the CD problem, I had that to. I can't recall the fix I did, but I know I did not use a crack and I do not use an ISO or CD to play the game. In other words, I dont mount an ISO or use a CD, so there is a solution to install and run the game without a CD. In fact, I don't remember ever having to put in the CD, but I could be mistaken. Anyway, I suggest you search for Ascendancy on The-underdogs.info or Dosgames.com at their tech support forums. That's where I found the solution to my problem with the CD.

Also, I found that the antagonizer AI patch just made the game annoying. Even with a peaceful setting, you will be attacked by every race, so I don't use it. I don't really mind if the enemy is boring, there are ways to handicap yourself to make it more challenging, like waiting 500 years before beginning to colonize, or waiting to research advanced weapons until later in the game to give the AI a head start.

[skipjack]

You dont need a crack to play the game! I had once an introduction how to play without the cd, but i lost it.
I'll try to explain:
You only need the 3 COB files which are on the cd. When you download the game here, you get them with the game. Then you have to change a file where the information is stored where the ascend.exe can find this COB-files. You have to change this file (I think its the ascend.cfg) and say where the new COB-files are now. They arent anymore on a cd, now they are on your hdd.
DUnno if this can help you. But make sure you have this files in your ascendancy directory: Ascend00.COB, Ascend01.COB, Ascend02.COB . You need them if you havnt got a cd.

[weaverka]

I don't have an ascend.cfg file but I do have a COB.cfg file. I couldn't download from this site, I spent 26 hours tring. It timed out regularly and finaly at 99% my system crashed and I lost it all.

I copied the cob files off the cd and put them into my ascend folder but it just replaced the existing files. How do I change them to be able to be read with out the cd?

[Ydobon]

How do you abandon planets?

I colonize small planets just to dig that archeology site for technologies, so i want to dump them after the digging. Someone might say to just leave it, but i use the race Chronos, that transforms planets with the least population to Gaias, and i don't want to spend my special ability on small planets.
I have read all 26 pages and haven't find an answer except that on page 24 someone suggested that abandoning can be done (Guest - post Jul 12 2006, 10:34 PM) and i wonder how.

Thank You!

[Ydobon]

I can't belive it. As soon as i posted my question i started to play Ascendancy again. In next couple of minutes i stumbled across an icon to abandon planet. I wanted to abandon my ship and noticed icon that was always there:)
For those that don't know it's an icon in bottom right corner in system display. Just select the planet and click on that icon.

[Guest_Einer_*]

I played this game many years ago and when a friend asked me for one I remembered it, my friend got it and he told me that since that moment he couldn´t stop playing it, I went to his house to play and is as good as I remember, it´s one of my favourites games ever. Enjoy it!
And one question.. there are two patchs? one that makes the game more difficult and one that makes the others species be in war with you? Because I only have one and I stop playing Ascendancy because it was too much easy.

[Mighty Midget]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Guest_Einer_* @ Jan 10 2007, 09:31 AM) 274124</div>
I played this game many years ago and when a friend asked me for one I remembered it, my friend got it and he told me that since that moment he couldn´t stop playing it, I went to his house to play and is as good as I remember, it´s one of my favourites games ever. Enjoy it!
And one question.. there are two patchs? one that makes the game more difficult and one that makes the others species be in war with you? Because I only have one and I stop playing Ascendancy because it was too much easy.
[/b]

Try The Patches Scrolls (http://www.patches-scrolls.de/)

[weaverka]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(skipjack @ Jan 3 2007, 06:31 AM) 273096</div>
You dont need a crack to play the game! I had once an introduction how to play without the cd, but i lost it.
I'll try to explain:
You only need the 3 COB files which are on the cd. When you download the game here, you get them with the game. Then you have to change a file where the information is stored where the ascend.exe can find this COB-files. You have to change this file (I think its the ascend.cfg) and say where the new COB-files are now. They arent anymore on a cd, now they are on your hdd.
DUnno if this can help you. But make sure you have this files in your ascendancy directory: Ascend00.COB, Ascend01.COB, Ascend02.COB . You need them if you havnt got a cd.
[/b]


Any one know of a download site that works, I still can't get this game to work with dosbox or with out. I found a download on another site but it had no intall function once I unziped it. I have the cd but my computer crashes or rather the video driver crashes when I try to start the program. This is very frustrating trying to get this game to work!! Please help.

[The Fifth Horseman]

Without knowing what you have exactly done and what specifically is the problem, we cannot help you.
Until you post more detailed information about your problem, I can only refer you to this FAQ (http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php?page=Basic+Setup+and+Installation+of+Dos Box).

Please post a more detailed description of your problem including any and all error messages you encountered.

[weaverka]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(the_fifth_horseman @ Jan 12 2007, 05:18 AM) 274516</div>
Without knowing what you have exactly done and what specifically is the problem, we cannot help you.
Until you post more detailed information about your problem, I can only refer you to this FAQ (http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php?page=Basic+Setup+and+Installation+of+Dos Box).

Please post a more detailed description of your problem including any and all error messages you encountered.
[/b]


Thanks this should help, dosbox would not recognize my cdrom. I will try this later today to see if it works.

you are awsome thanks. It finally works.

[Guest_lol_*]

this game is FCUKING easy, but nevertheless fun to play :)

just focus on research, as soon as u get the "akkutron?!" whatever, if turned on u increases the distance ur weapons can shoot...research the best energythingys and some nice engines
well and...i dont know the names of the weapons in english...but one is big n called hypersomething,(2ndbest)
the best one though nano something, useing that one 2gether with akkutron man...u r invincible (cuz the cpu player is just stupid building their plantes, equipping their ships etc...)

for planetary defenes u just nee dlong range whopper n big shielp and enemys dont stand a chance just cuz they act tooo stupid in fight...

hf :)

[Icewolf]

Well... I think it's always as easy as you make it.
Did you ever have six or seven com-players? Then you're really into politics. Especially when you have to deal with a agressive or stubborn race.

Give it a try... :sneaky: :ok:

[Eagle of Fire]

Sorry to break it to you Icewolf, but if you are into politics then you are going to the loser side. The AIs are going to attack you eventually no matter what you do (especially with the patch), and whatever happen if you don't have a good defense then you're toast. If you have a good offense, you'll win. That's how the game is meant to be played... And since the computer AI is so incredibly weak in this game, as soon as you can take a big enough advance in tech and power you are sure to win the game. Just keep bashing until you win.

Ascendency is one of my favorite game for it's originality... But I class it sore loser at the last position for challenge and AI strenght.

If you want a real challenge, go play MOO, Civilization or way better yet, Stars!.

[Cosmonaut_Roger]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Eagle of Fire @ Jan 15 2007, 02:04 PM) 275006</div>
Sorry to break it to you Icewolf, but if you are into politics then you are going to the loser side. The AIs are going to attack you eventually no matter what you do (especially with the patch), and whatever happen if you don't have a good defense then you're toast. If you have a good offense, you'll win. That's how the game is meant to be played... And since the computer AI is so incredibly weak in this game, as soon as you can take a big enough advance in tech and power you are sure to win the game. Just keep bashing until you win.

Ascendency is one of my favorite game for it's originality... But I class it sore loser at the last position for challenge and AI strenght.

If you want a real challenge, go play MOO, Civilization or way better yet, Stars!.
[/b]

I'm afraid Eagle is right about this. I've played literally hundreds of Ascendancy games ranging from small to huge galaxies with and without the antagonizer patch set to peaceful to hostile and you will always end up at war with the other aliens unless you are the Balifids which can force other species to make peace. If you use the antagonizer AI patch (which I don't recommend), you will be at war with each new alien species you meet only a few turns after you meet them, even when the galaxy is set to peaceful. Ascendancy is my favorite game of all time, and the last game I played of it was Wednesday of last week, but it is very weak in the diplomacy department. Here's what I do to have an enjoyable game of Ascendancy:

Let 500-1000 turns go by before you even begin to colonize other planets or research advanced technologies. Let the other species get a big head start, so they have more advanced weapons and ships than you when you begin expanding. This way, at least the first 3/4 of the game will be challenging and interesting.

[Guest]

Hey,
I have a big problem in the game, maybe one of you can help me. I´ve played ascendancy when I was a child and found it last week again. But here is the problem: I can´t build bigger ships than small ones (or I don´t know how to do it), even I have the technology to build gigantic ships. So the game is definitely more challenging if you have only small ships and the computer large ones, but I like it if I have enormous ships and overrun stupid computer :sneaky:

[Guest]

I solved the problem by myself. Something was wrong with the game, after restarting everything was fine.

[A]

Namaste all,

Like the site!

I've read the whole thread and thought i should share an observation i haven't read...

if you save your game the day before a xeno-archeological dig is completed, if you dont like what you get, or have your eye on some tasty morsel of research far far away, most times you reload the game a different technology awaits. Great 'bug'.

I'm about to install the 'smart' patch, wish me luck.

Farewell

[Xinithaous]

Hey,
I still play this game time to time, and have done since back in about 1996. It's a great game, can play it for hours on end. I can still remember the cheat files too, :shameful:

Create a blank text document and then rename it (including extension) to...

NOUGAT.LF

You can then use keyboard shortcuts to finish construction quickly. I can only remember a couple off-hand as I was about 8/9 when I was playing this reguarly.

R - Claim Planet
T - Create Colony
I - Finish Construction

Then I think on the main systems view it's cycling thru 1-7 to choose the civilization you want to play as :D

EDIT: Also I still have the original disc :P

[Toslan]

Hi Folks!

I've been playing Ascendancy since it came out, and came to the same conclusion most of you have: the AI sucks!

NEVER play in a peaceful environment because your enemies' ships won't be destroyed regularyly by each other!
Why is that bad?
- You will never notice any technological advancement in your enemies fleets, since they are unable to abandon their ships or to refit them!
So, if their ships don't get destroyed they will still have tiny frames even in the endgame

-> It's imperative to kill off all ships smaller than 'big' to slowly get a challenge

I abandoned this game 5 ago, but reading this thread, i realised that i never got a different ending than the 2/3 one.
I think I'll try it again.. with the patches of course.
(with knowlege of automated management ('m' key) and fractured empire this time)
Thanks for the tips to prolong gameplay!

2 handicaps to get a bit more of a 'fair' game:
- don't colonize large planets (conquering is allowed of course ^^)
- only build metroplexes instead of industrail megafacilities - by far the biggest handicap

otherwise its easy to build planets which can churn out a gigantic ship with nothing but nano-technologie in 1-2 days
(cover the whole planets surface with automated industrial megafacilities (now you will realise a big flaw in the games graphics: you can't visually discern automated plants from manual ones))

flaws: same goes for the lush growth bomb.. have you ever tried to build it on all planets in a game with 150+ planets under your control?

last thing:
since i didn't know about the alternative endings i tried to achieve other things, e.g. biggest fleet (while not colonising or attacking)
-> my biggest fleet so far: 80 gigantic ships (60 fighters, 10 colonizers, 10 invaders; never needed more classes)
gamefaqs suggest to build gateships and supporters, but if you have anything in that game it's time.
(once in the endgame i set all my planets to party and left the computer alone, i hadn't lost a single system when i came back 4 hours later (but i think it was peaceful env))

-> fastest victory was on day 932 (small universe, max enemies)

-> most planets: 350+ (don't remember exactly, but less than 500 (was the goal, but won to fast))

ok, back to setting up dosbox..

[c1f3r]

I LOVE IT >.<

[boy of no imagination]

hmmmmmm i think imperium galactica is a clone of this ive only played the second one but it deffinatly reminds me of this

[Doubler]

No clone, it's simply in the same genre ;)
They're both 4X games :)

[Devilgrins]

This game rocks!! that and MOO2 and non-spaced game Jagged Alliance..

ohh the good old gaming days.. i will have to try this dosbox emulator to see if i can play these old games..

i certainly miss them..

i would love to see ascendancy II but gosh there certainly is now news of it at all.............

[Guest]

ascendancy 2 is supposedly in development,go to the logic factory website and go to development,it shows it.but theve bin workin on it for like 10 years :omg2:
it better be an awsome game,hope logic factory makes tons for more games like ascendancy :D

[Shaden]

I been playing this for a while and at this moment I'm not sure which should be my next step. The races that declared war are already dead, and I don't want to start one. Does the ends at some time, how do I win, or it continues until you get bored?

[dumbass]

i know you guys will think im an idiot but how do you start the program

[dumbass]

also could you write your response in the simplest terms possible because i am a complete computer noob :kosta:

[_r.u.s.s.]

weeel, use dosbox for the game. download it from the site, run the program and type 'intro', there is everything explained :)

after mounting the drive, run 'setsound.exe', select soundblaster pro or 100% compatible, save it, and run 'ascend.exe'

[The Fifth Horseman]

A Beginner's Guide to DOSBox (http://www.abandonia.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=14913) should help you. That's about as simple as it can get.

[Shade]

a immortal classic this one! sat up all night with it.
and i bet it will get better if i can get the sound on XD

[Guest_LacyCat_*]

When I try to finish the install, the game tells me I don't have any sound drivers installed. I don't know what to do.. Doesn't DosBox use the sound drivers I already have installed? Can anyone help me?

[Mighty Midget]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Guest_LacyCat_* @ Jul 15 2007, 10:24 PM) 299549</div>
When I try to finish the install, the game tells me I don't have any sound drivers installed. I don't know what to do.. Doesn't DosBox use the sound drivers I already have installed? Can anyone help me?
[/b]

DOSBox emulates the (fake) soundcard specified in the DOSBox config file. Default is a Soundblaster 16 card with settings addresse=220 irq=7 dma=1 hdma=5. When setting up sound in the game's setup, you need to match the selected options there with the ones in the DOSBox config file.

[Guest_LacyCat_*]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Mighty Midget @ Jul 15 2007, 09:28 PM) 299550</div>
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Guest_LacyCat_* @ Jul 15 2007, 10:24 PM) 299549
When I try to finish the install, the game tells me I don't have any sound drivers installed. I don't know what to do.. Doesn't DosBox use the sound drivers I already have installed? Can anyone help me?
[/b]

DOSBox emulates the (fake) soundcard specified in the DOSBox config file. Default is a Soundblaster 16 card with settings addresse=220 irq=7 dma=1 hdma=5. When setting up sound in the game's setup, you need to match the selected options there with the ones in the DOSBox config file.
[/b][/quote]

Thank you for responding. Ascendancy doesn't let me get that far. I do understand that DOsBox usually emulates Soundblaster at the settings you mentioned , but when I type in "Setsound" at the prompt (I am in the Ascendancy directory) I get the Sound Configuration page with a message telling me there is an error.. no sound drivers were found. The game will not continue any further. I can't finish the install and I can't run the game , with or without sound. So why doesn't the game (or DosBox) know I really do have drivers and what can I do to convince the game (or DosBox) that they're there?

[The Fifth Horseman]

Sounds like a corrupted or incomplete copy of the game. Did you download it from Abandonia?

[Guest_LacyCat_*]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(the_fifth_horseman @ Jul 16 2007, 08:53 AM) 299610</div>
Sounds like a corrupted or incomplete copy of the game. Did you download it from Abandonia?
[/b]
Yes. I did. You think I should download it again?

[Mighty Midget]

Corrupted downloads happen sometimes, so yes: Try download it again.

[Guest_LacyCat_*]

Oh thank you guys for your help. I downloaded it again and this time the files all unzipped properly and i was able to complete the sound configuration and everything. I have no idea what happened the first time around but I'm glad you guys were here . :kosta:

[Mighty Midget]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Guest_LacyCat_* @ Jul 17 2007, 12:09 AM) 299740</div>
Oh thank you guys for your help. I downloaded it again and this time the files all unzipped properly and i was able to complete the sound configuration and everything. I have no idea what happened the first time around but I'm glad you guys were here . :kosta:
[/b]

Glad to see a happy member (feel free to log in :P :) ) and even happier to see the feedback. That is very valuable for others with similar problems. Happy gaming :)

[Alyssa]

I used to be sooooo addicted to this game, but I thought it could only run in the old DOS-based computers. When I upgraded my pc eons ago (and about 4x since then) I was unable to install and run the game. Am I missing something? :unsure: I really do miss playing it!! That's why I decided to google it to see if there was a newer version and I ended up here. :sos:

[Mighty Midget]

Even if someone is able to run this game on XP, I suggest you download and install DOSBox, which will allow you to play DOS games on modern computers. Please note that DOSBox needs quite a bit of resources, and that the games you run through it may be very slow to unlapyable on lower end computers.
Download DOSBox here
http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/download.php...33e373fdbb09ac4 (http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/download.php?main=1&begaming_website_session=aba4498701a2eaadd33e373fd bb09ac4)

Then please read this tutorial for setting up DOSBox
http://www.abandonia.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=14913

Feel free to ask for additional help if needed :)

[Eagle of Fire]

Actually, this game is one of the few which work way past fine on XP as long as you use VDMSound for the sound.

[Guest_eolsunder_*]

I just want to know if anyone has figured out the forumlas for the type of star and planets that affect your different levels of production/research/growth.

I know of course the type of planet you are on, and the type of sun in the system affect your 3 areas of growth, but not by how much. Just wondering if anyone has looked at the game code to figure out how much each type of star/planet either negates or boosts certain production.

One of the few things Ive always wondered about the game but never found out.

[Muad&#39;Dib]

What other games on this genre do you advise me to play? I played moo, but are there any other games like this which are worth playing?

[Doubler]

Imperium Galactica, GalCiv, Sword of the Stars, just to name a few :)

[another_guest]

Oh yes, definitely the 3 above.
About Galactic Civilizations: I would recommend going to Galactic Civilizations 2 straightaway - by the way there's another expansion pack planned soon. Not that I'm in any way related to GalCiv, except that I'm addicted :)

[Guest]

Luv it!

[oombaka]

can someone please tell me why this game looks horrible on my brand new computer....i'm running a dual core with xp and a brand new graphics card but i can hardly make out anything on the screen...and i also don't think the mouse clicking works...

i remember this game from when i was a kid and i really really want to play it because i remember it being one of the best games i ever played...any tips on getting the resolution appropriate would be much appreciated...

[oombaka]

also i can't seem to download dosbox....it just keeps saying thank you for downloading dosbox but it's no where on my desktop...what the hell man? i really want to play this game but it looks too horrible to be playable right now....

[The Fifth Horseman]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(oombaka @ Nov 7 2007, 03:32 AM) 318501</div>
can someone please tell me why this game looks horrible on my brand new computer....i'm running a dual core with xp and a brand new graphics card but i can hardly make out anything on the screen...and i also don't think the mouse clicking works...

i remember this game from when i was a kid and i really really want to play it because i remember it being one of the best games i ever played...any tips on getting the resolution appropriate would be much appreciated...
[/b]
This game looks every jot as it used to look when you were a kid. Memories are usually better than the real thing was.

Also, the game has a fixed resolution (like most of old DOS titles did). You can't change it.

There is a way to make the game look better, which is to run it in DOSBox with appropriate scaler settings.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(oombaka @ Nov 7 2007, 03:49 AM) 318502</div>
also i can't seem to download dosbox....it just keeps saying thank you for downloading dosbox but it's no where on my desktop...what the hell man? i really want to play this game but it looks too horrible to be playable right now....
[/b]
Look in "My Documents".

PS. Too horrible to be playable? I can't agree. Been playing it recently and it's pretty good. Of course, I'm the kind of person who considers the graphics of Death Track and Mechwarrior 1 to be playable.

[Argh!]

how do I make an Xeno Archiological Dig?

I have found a planet with Xeno Ruins
I have colonized it
I have adv. factory, adv. farm and an adv. research facilities
I have, obviously, researched the Xeno Dig ability

why am I not able to start the archiological project (or as they (ourght) to say: "get dirty in the dust") ?
is there a trick to it?

[The Fifth Horseman]

Like any other building, Xeno-Archeological Digs can only be built next to an existing structure or a Transport Tube.

[clockworkspider]

Question: I downloaded DosBox 0.72, and I downloaded Ascendancy from this site...I'm not quite sure what do do next, though...thanks for your help!

[Eagle of Fire]

Download Ascendancy.
Download Dosbox.
Use DOSBox to run Ascendancy.
Have fun
[...]
Profit!

:D

[clockworkspider]

Thanks, I've got it now :)

[alkyl]

cant believe i found this! this game pwnzorz lol

[jordos]

The link to that ascendancy mod in this thread is down, would anyone by any chance still have it? (it's called vibscob.zip)
I also once had a mod for ascendancy from www.fanscendancy.de, but that site seems to be down nowadays. If anyone has that one please let me know too. Thanks! :)

[Eagle of Fire]

What does that mod do anyways? Does it make the game harder? The big downfall of Ascendancy is that the maximum difficulty level is laughable.

If you're talking about the antagonizer patch, it's already in the download. It doesn't change much in the game to be frank, ennemy races will simply attack you sooner.

[jordos]

No I already got the antagonizer patch. The mod on this forum (http://www.abandonia.com/vbullet/showpost.php?p=196684&postcount=297) only makes some minor modifications. Never tried it, but it seems it's mainly aimed at making the game more difficult (along with some player-only houserules :) ).
The mod at fanscendancy made some larger changes and added some things, can't really remember much of it, an orbital housing building and such... It helps to keep things fresh once you've seen all techs in the game already.

[Eagle of Fire]

Heh, I don't need all the techs in the game to win. I usually already know I've won by a long shot when I get about in the middle of the tech tree. Heck, I'm not even sure I already saw the complete tech tree even once!

But 'house rules' in mods is what I hate most of all. That's why I usually don't touch them...

[tomisbo]

Hey, i have found a free online game wich looks like to Ascendancy. It's a realy cool french game. http://www.expantion-online.com

[Borodin]

I don't see any resemblance.

[The Fifth Horseman]

The graphics are different, but if you look at it carefully you see some similarities with Ascendancy (solar system fights, research tree, spaceship equipping.... even the planetary building screen is similar).

[tomisbo]

That's right. Also invasion and colonisation processes are similar. The graphics are different because it is a flash game. The main difference is that this a multiplayer game in a persistent world. As i had a discussion with the creators of this game, they told that Ascendancy is their main inspiration and they keep it in mind for the futur evolutions (music for example)

[Borodin]

Well, that's neat. I'm glad they liked a classic such as Ascendency. There are worse games you could use for a model, unless it's the relatively poor AI. ;)

[tomisbo]

The solar system fights are real-time fights what is a very stressful, because you can see your ennemies moving and fighting while you are trying to develop your own tactic. Expantion is a very addictiv game, realy.

[Borodin]

Realtime? Too bad. I don't do realtime. :D I prefer games that allow me to sit back, and gradually employ what few brain cells have survived the years. Turn-based strategy titles do it for me.

[Melchizedek]

Oh how I wish you could queue up commands for your planets in this game. The micromanagement becomes quite painful after a while.

[The Fifth Horseman]

I'd say after establishing a third colony.

[wakeup]

love that game! there a lot of alikes but this one is a really good one, evon tho it is old... chamancies or how ever they are spelled ftw!

[cocochops]

Good game at first but as mentioned by everyone else, crap AI. First time i played it lost my best colonies to comp but was able to easily win them back even though computer should have beaten me easily from that position, after that it quickly became apparent that my victory was an inevitability but would involve a long drawn out process of building, travelling through star lanes etc. So I could not be bothered to carry on playing. But it has got great ideas, kind of wish someone would do a remake or something.

[Eagle of Fire]

You are absolutely right Cocochops.

I always said that Ascendancy is a great game for the strategy game newbie.

And the antagonist patch doesn't change a thing.

[laiocfar]

In some way, it is good that Ascendacy lacks of a competent AI who can hold his ground until end of game: The lack of auto-management will result in a huge micromanagement problem if AI can put a serious fight.

[Eagle of Fire]

Why do you say until end of game?

As far as I am concerned, the AI can't hold his ground at all, coma. If they can't stand a chace early game when they colonize like crazy, why would they stand a better chance in late game when I already conquered more than half the galaxy?

[4RANGER]

I have played this game since if came out years ago and still love it, especially with the enhanced AI engine. I do have an issue with the game on the newer hardware. The planetary grid disappears much like a cloaked planet but I can still see my buildings just not the colored grid markers for undeveloped squares. Has anyone else had this issue and how do I get around it?

[The Fifth Horseman]

Try running the game in DOSBox.

[4ranger]

Tried that with same results.

[Eagle of Fire]

Colonize non black planets? :p

[_r.u.s.s.]

racist

[Eagle of Fire]

Neophyte. :p

http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/5185/antag000np6.png

[Philos73]

Hello guys,

I usually don't have trouble defeating any AI in this game but there are games where I simply cannot get my hands on the Arborils. Their Lane blockers seem to last indefinitely and I just cannot get to their systems.

This is especially nasty when you start in a cut-off region of the map and your only way out of that corner is through one single starlane that happens to be blocked by the Arborils.

I've tried firing Lane Destabilizers at the blocked Lane entries but that doesn't change anything - still can't enter those lanes.

Has anyone figured this out? If so - I'd like to know.

[Juogo]

Hi Guys,

some question, i dont really know which building is usefull for what, is there any description around?

it will be very usefull :)

thx

[Icewolf]

Hi Guys,

some question, i dont really know which building is usefull for what, is there any description around?

it will be very usefull :)

thxI think right-clicking on an object in the building list opens a windows that tells what building is of what use.

[Juogo]

i tryed ^^

it closed the current window :/

[Philos73]

@Juogos

You can get that info when you enter the screen for building new structures - where you get the list of buildings you can build on a square. Then hover your mouse over an item in the list and SHIFT-CLICK (hold down shift and then click). This will display info on the building you are hovering the mouse cursor on. The Tutorial also tells you about the shift-click function. It's just not available for buildings that have already been constructed.

Of course you first have to research a new building type before you can get that information.

However there is something else available for buildings that have already been constructed. If you invade an enemy planet and left-click on an existing building it will tell you the color of the square the building has been built on. This is very useful since the AI builds all kinds of stuff on the wrong kinds of squares. So if you find a Hydroponifier on a red square you might wanna change that. You'll find just about everything on every type of square. There will be outposts on blue squares (where you would rather want to have a lab or a research campus). Even with the maintenance patch you find this kind of nonsense. I wonder why they ever called it a "maintenance" patch since it does not solve the AI maintenance problem.

I do like the Antagonizer patch though. Still does not solve the AI maintenance weakness but the bonuses they get make them harder opponents. ;)

[Icewolf]

i tryed ^^

it closed the current window :/Sorry for the wrong advice, dude. LOL

Have you played the tutorial? I think it's mentioned in there.

[Eagle of Fire]

Like Philos73 said already, use the shift-click to bring the ingame help up.

[Philos73]

Hello guys,

even though I answered Juogo's question I'm still a bit of a Newbie at this game myself.

So noone seems to have figured out my question on the Arbryls above? There is no way to unblock a lane blocked by the Arbryls? If they block the only lane out of a restricted area you cannot get out? Well, I abandoned the game in question and started a new one. Doesn't happen all of the time. Still kinda bugs me that I cannot get my hands on the Arbryls homeworld...

Now I have another question as well. The game limits the display on ship stats. If you build giant ships you can easily reach the limit of the display for energy supply and for weapon power. For instance if you put 8 to 10 Van Creek Hyper Splicers into a ship this will exceed what can be displayed in terms of generator power in the ship strength display.

My question now is - is that energy still available in battle just the same or does the program simply cut off what is in excess of what can be displayed? The extra energy is actually needed in battles. That way you can keep your shields up longer than the enemy does. The AI seems to tend to build underpowered ships.

It does work with the weapons though, since each weapon slot is handled separately. For example if you have more than 6 Hyper Drivers (or even stronger weapons) the weapon strength of your ship will exceed what can be displayed in the ship strength diagram. You can still use all these weapons as long as you have enough energy - but the question is - does it work likewise with the generator power?

The problem does not arise with shields and with propulsion speed though. I found out there is no use in putting more than 2 shields into any ship since it's more a question of having enough juice to keep them powered up than a question of absolute shield strength.

Same thing with the propulsion drives (intra starsystem drives). Once you have the Ion Banger (and that comes along early in the game) there is no need to use more than one propulsion drive on any ship. Normally only my very first ship will have the Tonklin motor. And that will be a small ship - since my homeworld will still be in the build-up process. As soon as I build my second ship I already have the Ion Banger - so I never need more than one propulsion drive. It is possible to bust the display limit for shield strength and propulsion strength as well - it just doesn't make sense to put in that many of these two. So the only problem is knowing whether generator strength actually gets wasted once you fit in more than can be displayed in the diagram.

[Eagle of Fire]

Hello guys,

even though I answered Juogo's question I'm still a bit of a Newbie at this game myself.

So noone seems to have figured out my question on the Arbryls above? There is no way to unblock a lane blocked by the Arbryls? If they block the only lane out of a restricted area you cannot get out? Well, I abandoned the game in question and started a new one. Doesn't happen all of the time. Still kinda bugs me that I cannot get my hands on the Arbryls homeworld...

I'm not really sure of what you are talking about. You probably mean those red blockers which prevent you from entering a lane. Those things are lame: just shoot them down and get thru. If you can't it would simply be because you don't have strong enough weapons.

Now I have another question as well. The game limits the display on ship stats. If you build giant ships you can easily reach the limit of the display for energy supply and for weapon power. For instance if you put 8 to 10 Van Creek Hyper Splicers into a ship this will exceed what can be displayed in terms of generator power in the ship strength display.

My question now is - is that energy still available in battle just the same or does the program simply cut off what is in excess of what can be displayed? The extra energy is actually needed in battles. That way you can keep your shields up longer than the enemy does. The AI seems to tend to build underpowered ships.

It does work with the weapons though, since each weapon slot is handled separately. For example if you have more than 6 Hyper Drivers (or even stronger weapons) the weapon strength of your ship will exceed what can be displayed in the ship strength diagram. You can still use all these weapons as long as you have enough energy - but the question is - does it work likewise with the generator power?

The problem does not arise with shields and with propulsion speed though. I found out there is no use in putting more than 2 shields into any ship since it's more a question of having enough juice to keep them powered up than a question of absolute shield strength.

Same thing with the propulsion drives (intra starsystem drives). Once you have the Ion Banger (and that comes along early in the game) there is no need to use more than one propulsion drive on any ship. Normally only my very first ship will have the Tonklin motor. And that will be a small ship - since my homeworld will still be in the build-up process. As soon as I build my second ship I already have the Ion Banger - so I never need more than one propulsion drive. It is possible to bust the display limit for shield strength and propulsion strength as well - it just doesn't make sense to put in that many of these two. So the only problem is knowing whether generator strength actually gets wasted once you fit in more than can be displayed in the diagram.

I don't understand why you are asking the question. There is not much use for so much energy on a ship. There is also next to no use for shields in the whole game either. All you need is a big enough ship to be able to take damage in rare circumstances in which you happen to get in range of the ennemy plannets as soon as you exit the lanes (and even then I use those shields which don't use any power and are always on) and enough weapons to blow everything to bits.

The more engines you add, the further away you can go in one click. This is very usefull to get away from ennemy ships and out of range of planetary missiles... And thus why you don't need much shielding if any. The computer AIs are so lame... I often simply custom build ships with enough engines to slip past thru all the ennemy defense and colonise all their worlds they didn't bother to colonize themselves. The game is half won already.

Also, the more lane engines you put, the faster you will go in those lanes. Save a lot of time for long travel. Oftentime your home world and the surrounding worlds are very well developed while border worlds have trouble doing anything, so I often produce huge ships at my home worlds with a lot of lane engines and then retrofit them in the core worlds.

But believe me when I say this: even with the patch (which for me change absolutely nothing whatsoever), if you didn't win already before you even come close to getting to 2/3 of the total tech in the game then you are doing something wrong... This game is way too easy to win when you know what you are doing.

[Juogo]

i found it ^^

it was right: shift and the mouse arrow get a Help sign with left clit it opened a window to explain the Ship Technologies and Buildings now it is much easyar to play :clap:

thx a lot guys

[red_avatar]

left clit

:whistling: Someone had other things on his mind when writing that post:hihihi:

[Philos73]

@ Eagle of Fire

Aaaahhh! I can shoot at those darn lane blockers!! Will try that out. Wonder
what blocked my mind in this case. Already aimed at lane gates quite a few times accidentally. should have gotten the idea to try my weapons on the lane blockers. Just didn't get that idea.

Okay the ship stats display thing. You and I seem to have different battle tactics. I actually like a bit of a battle in this game. You just evade the battle - which is fine in terms of strategy - I understand it is possible to win that way. Still your strategy might be useful for some rare game where I really need to zip past the AI.

I do put quite a few lane drives on my ships if they have to get to a point
far away on the map - or if they have to go through a red lane before I have researched the lane destabilizer tech.

But one of the reasons I asked about this is that I like finding out more about game details in large 4x games - even when it is clear that Ascendancy is in no way as hard as MoO 1.

I noticed the various game displays reach their limits rather quickly. For Instance the planetary displays for research, industry production and prosperity reach their maximum state long before you have actually maxed out a large planet. Since you still get the correct figure when left clicking on one of the planet stat fields I figured that a higher amount of indurstry production or research would still be calculated correctly when calculating the totals.

There are other areas where the graphically displayed strength of a player maxes out. For instance in the intelligence display for the species. There is a maximum for the number of colonies in that display. Also the fleet strength of a player can be stronger than what this display can show at maximum. The correct strenght is shown in the saved games screen though.

So there seems to be a pattern throughout the whole game design that they did not make the displays to show the maximum values possible in the game but cut the graphics off at a certain point.

Using the weaker shields that consume no energy might actually not
be such a bad idea. Will try that out too.

Maybe I will still find out somehow if an amount of energy that exceeds the ship stats display is actually lost or still available nonetheless. The first question about the lane blockers was bugging me more than the second one.

By the way I now found out that the Antagonizer patch handles maintenance a bit better than the original maintenance patch. There are less structures built by the AI on wrong squares than with the "maintenance" patch - still not perfect but within reasonable range. Does anyone know whether the maintenance patch appeared earlier than the Antag patch? That would have given the author of the Antag patch the possibility to check the maintenance part in the other patch.

Thanks again for your answer Eagle of Fire - that cleared up quite a lot for me.

[Eagle of Fire]

Okay the ship stats display thing. You and I seem to have different battle tactics. I actually like a bit of a battle in this game. You just evade the battle - which is fine in terms of strategy - I understand it is possible to win that way. Still your strategy might be useful for some rare game where I really need to zip past the AI.
I think you got the wrong idea: I don't run from every battles. I really do destroy every ennemy ships I can intercept safely. I happen to be able to do that to 100% of the ships which enter my system past a certain part of the early game... That's the main problem.

I too like the battles... But I'd never go as far as to "badly" design my ships simply to give a chance to the AI.

[Philos73]

@ red_avatar

.... haven't seen a woman with 2 clits yet. Have mercy on Juogo
- his mothertongue is probably Spanish. 2 clits sounds like some alien
filly - might be an idea for a game character...... just imagine the effect of stimulating her...

@ Eagle of Fire

- ah, I see. But then my question was not useless because it is aimed
at designing better ships. The question whether there is a relatively tight limit of the amount of energy you can have on a ship is not irrelevant.

Having to struggle a bit during the early game phase when there are other species visiting your home system before you even build your first ship is actually the most interesting aspect of the game. Playing with the Antag Patch of course. That's the only phase that really poses a good challenge. Do I rather build an orbital shield and an orbital missile base first because they take less time to complete than the first ship? There where a few games where I actually needed a basic orbital defense in effect before getting my first ship. I just found out you are still allowed to have 2 ships if another species settles a planet in your home system before you even get to produce your first ship. So I put invasion modules on my very first ship. That was a fun game when that thing happened.

[Borodin]

By the way I now found out that the Antagonizer patch handles maintenance a bit better than the original maintenance patch. There are less structures built by the AI on wrong squares than with the "maintenance" patch - still not perfect but within reasonable range. Does anyone know whether the maintenance patch appeared earlier than the Antag patch? That would have given the author of the Antag patch the possibility to check the maintenance part in the other patch.

Last time I spoke with the developers (admittedly several years ago, at an ancient E3 convention), they told me the antagonizer patch was the latest.

[Oskatat]

planets from the AI are still badly managed, research badly planned and ships badly designed. As mentioned, as soon as you can make more than a few ships, it's usually a cakewalk. It does depend on the race you choose though. The research or construction bonus races tend to be easier to play (chamanchy or something, and the cloud thingies), while some don't have a useful special ability

[The Yawning Dragon]

Hi!

This is my first post here! Ascendancy was one of the first games I played (back in 1996) and enjoyed it immensely. I was playing it lately and I decided to write a small tool for viewing art assets from the game - Ascendancy Explorer. It can also serve as converter from Ascendancy internal formats to more common formats (i. e. raw music files to wav). If someone thinks that it could be useful, more information can be found on my homepage (http://attila.infinitereflections.rs/Programming/AscendancyExplorer.aspx)

The Yawning Dragon

PS Sorry for this shameless self-promotion :)

[knurps]

hi guys,

dumb question, I am unable to start the game. I extracted the zip moved the folder to my DOSbox, started Dosbox and could not find any executable to run except the UVconfig.

Downloaded again, same behaviour.

What did I miss?

Thanks in advance for any hint,
knurps

[Chris]

What did I miss?


ASCEND.EXE ?? :max:

[dosraider]

What did I miss?
You didn't gave any relevant details, OS? Program you used to unzip?
FYI: Ascend.exe is the file to run.
....I extracted the zip moved the folder to my DOSbox
Moved? Hmmmm, doesn't sound to good, try 7zip (http://www.7-zip.org/) , freeware and damn good, at least with that one you can unzip directly where the folder belongs.
And: delete your old folder before doing a new attempt.
... started Dosbox and could not find any executable to run except the UVconfig.
Could you please state your mount lines and inputs in dosbox to get the game running?
95% of the problems with dosbox comes from badly mounted drives/folders.

[Inquisitor]

one of the most fascinating games I played ever. Especially the particular abilities of every civilization were unique. I never played another space-game which built up such a good atmosphere. On my opinion there is just one weakness in gameplay: after you have conquered more than five starsystems the micromanagement on every planet gets on your nerves, because for me it was difficult to overview all the projects for each planet.

[knurps]

You didn't gave any relevant details, OS? Program you used to unzip?
FYI: Ascend.exe is the file to run.

Moved? Hmmmm, doesn't sound to good, try 7zip (http://www.7-zip.org/) , freeware and damn good, at least with that one you can unzip directly where the folder belongs.
And: delete your old folder before doing a new attempt.

Could you please state your mount lines and inputs in dosbox to get the game running?
95% of the problems with dosbox comes from badly mounted drives/folders.

Thank you for taking care. And sorry for the few details only.

I run DOSbox on an OSX 10.5 and the folder move did not affect the content of it. See this screenshot for my Ascend folder content:
http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/3461/files.png
As you see there is no other .exe except the UVconfig.

BUT you made the point with the zip tool. I used stuffit expander to extract the zip (with redownload etc.).

Two minutes ago I redownloaded and used OSX built-in extractor instead of stuffit and voila now I got more than one exe.

OK, now I am giving this game a try. According to the messages from other users it will take several hours till I will be back ;)

Thanks again for the hint,
knurps

[jungwirsch]

On March 16, 2009, he wrote:

But believe me when I say this: even with the patch (which for me change absolutely nothing whatsoever), if you didn't win already before you even come close to getting to 2/3 of the total tech in the game then you are doing something wrong... This game is way too easy to win when you know what you are doing.

Compare this to September 19, 2004:

In fact, this game is not that great. I played it again, and again I been disapointed.

If only I could build a bigger fleet than only 2 ships... But no! The computer just flood me until I can't do anything about it (even with several missiles at the same planet) and conquer my planets one by one...

And the AI patch is not good either... All it does is make the computer "biased" diplomatically VS you, so they'll all end up at war with you no matter what.

I voted for a 3 on 5 on the site. I would rather play MOO. :not_ok:

Talk about an obvious learning curve. Two thumbs up! :thumbs:

Hey, I'm pulling your leg! No offence meant :3:

[Eagle of Fire]

I don't really see the difference, except that now I know the loopholes one need to know to win...

I always said this game wasn't so great and that it didn't deserve it's 5/5 mark.

[red_avatar]

I don't really see the difference, except that now I know the loopholes one need to know to win...

I always said this game wasn't so great and that it didn't deserve it's 5/5 mark.
I was 15 when I got this game. My English was spotty and yet I kicked AI ass from the start. The game may not be perfect, but if you follow standard 4X tactics (expand, explore, etc.), it's not very hard. The AI is pretty laid back and you can win the game easily by doing the following:

- get the research to build small ships + colonisation module
- get as many planets colonised from the start, even if they're small - it's free
- focus on defense of your planets, not ship weapons
- research better industrial & research structures

Doing this will quickly give you the edge since you'll be able to research a lot quicker and faster. The trade off is being weak early in the game but if your galaxy is large enough, that's not a real problem since your opponents won't declare war that quickly.

[laiocfar]

I disagree in one point: AI is so low that it almost doesnt matter what do you do or what dont do, you also can win by
-building only huge ships with lot of firepower and dont hesitate to declare war to some aliens just because they are ugly
-capture resourceful planets no matters how many invasions pods it takes you need new bases all the time. On minor planets wipe out the surface and capture it to deny it to enemy.
-dont build any defensive structure, use slow but heavily armed ships to block star lanes that connect to other empires and arent being used by the main fleet.
-research weapons, shields or armor. Also ship size is very important, the bigger they are, the harder they strike.

I was on my bad side of the bed but the ai of this game is a big deception

[red_avatar]

I disagree in one point: AI is so low that it almost doesnt matter what do you do or what dont do, you also can win by
-building only huge ships with lot of firepower and dont hesitate to declare war to some aliens just because they are ugly
-capture resourceful planets no matters how many invasions pods it takes you need new bases all the time. On minor planets wipe out the surface and capture it to deny it to enemy.
-dont build any defensive structure, use slow but heavily armed ships to block star lanes that connect to other empires and arent being used by the main fleet.
-research weapons, shields or armor. Also ship size is very important, the bigger they are, the harder they strike.

I was on my bad side of the bed but the ai of this game is a big deception

The AI doesn't coordinate its attacks either - they'll send ships to your planets but only one at a time so with a few shields and long range defenses, they don't stand a chance.

[Mrylanxus]

If anyone is interested, I created an online manual here:

Ascendency (http://www.udava.info/ascend/)

Hope y'all enjoy.

rmfr

[Borodin]

Nice, Mrylanxus. Thank's for creating that.

I really do wish the Ascendancy team had done more with the AI, or that someone else would recreate the game with improvements in that respect. Otherwise, it's a classic.

[Dewion]

hey everyone, been playing this game for sometime and yet i haven't figured how to abandon a planet. it's probly very easy, i just haven't realized it and i believe i have tried every key and way it could possible be. i wonder how close i have been, i even tried to shoot my planet. :D

btw, this really is an awesome game, although i hate micro-management..

[_r.u.s.s.]

to leave the planet you have to kill yourself

kill yourself
kill yourself
kill yourself

[Oskatat]

go to the 'system screen' (you know, with the planets floating in space), select the planet and at the bottom right corner, click the fleet/planet with the red circle across

always useful if you just wanted that historical dig

also, at some point, you may just colonize some smaller plannets, or when you previously colonized them, and stop upgrading them. Maybe work on it untill you have defences up, but otherwise, it really adds to micromanagement. Next, dont work on more than 8 big planets at the same time (except the beginning of the game). Choose a few plannets for ship construction, make the rest science and ! stop building the science planets as soon as you researched everything ! . You may think more planets for ship construction is good, but if you need that many shipyards in the first place, you are doing something wrong

[El Quia]

to leave the planet you have to kill yourself

kill yourself
kill yourself
kill yourself


:eww:

[Eagle of Fire]

There is no point in abandoning planets. Even planets which are totally black can be terraformed once the right technology is researched.

Abandoning planets only reduce your efficiency in the long run.

[Oskatat]

well, that wasnt really the issue, was it? it was about cutting down micro management. I actually keep small planets. for what? missile bases. dont bother building anything else, it will just give you headaches and make you feel oblidged to improve the planet. Its almost the only thing the ai got right: dont devellop small planets, its not worth your time and effort. Where they miss out on is defensive insight.

And yes, early on, that one science station that you are able to build on your 8 square big planet, after 20 turns since there is only place for 1 factory, will really have a great impact and when you can terraform the whole planet (and automize) it will also really improve your efficiency

[Eagle of Fire]

Its almost the only thing the ai got right: dont devellop small planets,
I strongly disagree. That's one of the major reason why I think the AI in this game really suck: they simply can't do anything right.

I always colonize all the planets which are available for me. I of course colonize the most useful planets first... But leaving uncolonized planets in your systems only lead to big and even bigger problems in the long run.

Here is the list of the bigger problems in order of importance:

1: Production, ressources and especially population in strategy games are exponential. Meaning that the better the start of your civilization, the higher the maximum end output will be. This can be reflected in mathematics as a linear graphic. The maximum possible is a straight line from the very start to the very end, while the real output would usually be lower with a lot of curves with human players.

Leaving opportunities behind, those you can accomplish and which can't harm you in the short or long run, simply serve to lower your maximum output. There is no way around this fact, other that you of course don't need the maximum output to win most strategy games (especially not Ascendancy).

Since you practically give out free resources and, more importantly, free research away by not colonizing all the planets that you have at your disposal... You are giving away part of your total production and speed of research.

2: Not colonizing all the planets in a system right away often lead in having them claimed by an opponent. They can then in turn create an outpost and, if not taken care of swiftly, can be a real pain in the behind. Sometimes you need to take care of a huge territory with a small amount of ships and it's simply impossible or really hard for you to react fast enough, and you get stuck with the problem.

Colonizing all your planets right away nullifies this problem since the AIs in this game are too dumb to colonize the most nearby worlds by force. They prefer to design and send "colonizers" to the nearest uncolonized system to "expand" their territory. This of course lead to even bigger problems for AIs since it is way harder to defend further colonies efficiently, and I always end up grabbing those colonies by force. To return to the subject at hand, it also mean in the early game that colonized planets are virtually invincible up to the point when you can actually afford to build ships which are not purely designed for colonization or for attack/defense. This leave you a long time before you can worry about being invaded, peace of mind and a winning strategy.
3: If you look at the definition of strategy games in the dictionary, you will probably see micro management written right next to it. MM can't be removed from good strategy games because otherwise you would end up with an automated action game commonly referred as RTS games. If you really can't stand MM, strategy games are probably not for you...

-EoF

[Glyphstone]

I'd love to be able to play Ascendancy again, it was one of the highlights of my long-ago gaming past, but it doesn't seem to be working. I downloaded and installed the game, downloaded DOSBOX, and followed the excellent how-to guide for setting it up. It worked perfectly, attempting to run Ascendancy exactly how my XP computer does - including the CD check, where it aborted and told me to insert my Ascendancy CD. I'm pretty sure this means I need to follow the alternate DOSBOX setup where it reads off a CD-image, but does anyone know where to find one?

[Mrylanxus]

To bypass the CD requirement, your COB.CFG file (in the C:\ascend folder)must read as follows:

ASCEND00.COB
ASCEND01.COB
ASCEND02.COB

with a CR/LF character at the end of each line (i.e. hit the <ENTER> key).

The file COB.CFG is a DOS ASCII text file. Altering this file within Windows Notepad may result in a file that won't work (since Notepad uses a Windows ANSI standard, unless you change it). I don't know. Because I do not use Windows Notepad for any reason. I use HTML-Kit 292 (http://www.chami.com/) since its native format, regardless of added extension, is DOS ASCII text. And it will read UNIX/LINUX text correctly which Notepad will not. (I am a Linux and UNIX user and hate Windows...)

Each of the COB files listed above MUST be in the C:\ascend folder. If not, then simply move the files with your favorite file manipulator program.

Some further help is available on my website here:

Ascendency (http://www.udava.info/ascend/)

I will be the first to admit that I need to do some more work on this site, but I think it is at least good. I will never admit it is the bestest and greatest. But I think it may help.

rmfr