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[Havell]

My personal favourite race is the lava people (as they can build on the black squares on planets) and I quite like the lizard people as well.

[Eagle of Fire]

My favorite race is also the Charmathing you said. I beleive they have the only really usefull skill of all the bunch... :blink:

I've played this game for a long time, and the best strategy I found was to choose the chamanches, and to start with maybe one science facility, and then build as many factories as possible. Build Agriplots only when necessary to boost population. For research, don't worry too much about what order to go in, but try to get the three special techs: Alien Hospitatlity, Scientist Takeover, and Endless Party. With a massive industrial base you can enact each of these states when necessary (Endless Party, which boosts your population growth, and Scientist Takeover, which boosts research, are usually the most useful). As far as ships go, I usually find it's productive to put up at least one shield and at least one missle platform (/ orbital whooper) around the planet before building a ship. When building ships, I usually put two star lane drives (which doubles your speed through lanespace), about 20% engines, 20% generators, one or two colonization modules, and maybe 10-20% weapons. I have thus far found no use whatsoever for shields. My favorite weapons are the hypersphere driver and the nano-gun, especially when combined with an accutron (which doubles their range). The best colonization strategy I've found is to colonize ( a ) planets alone in a system, ( b ) planets particularly large and filled with red squares, and ( c ) any planet w/ archeological ruins. When colonizing, try to put your colony base on a green square that's pretty close to a red one. When attacking another planet, if you need to move close to it before you can fire, try to move into orbit around a nearby planet. That way they won't get a free shot off at you.

Overall, the heavy-industry based strategy allows you to tailor your overall economy to what you need. If you need more research, start some scientist takeovers. If you need some population growth, instigate endless parties. If you need a ship, a mostly industrialized large planet can churn an enormous-class ship out w/full armament in around 5-10 days, and refits ususally take about 1-2.

[Eagle of Fire]

I have found in my later games that you can build a colony module on a Black square. Building there in the beginning of the game is advisable since the specialised squares is what makes your planet more productive than others, especially on small planets.

On later games it is less important as soon as you get access to the multi use buildings and double use buildings.

[gregor]

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).

also in later time a strange thjing happened - one of my ships coulnd't leave the system. hmm but i wish i could now check if it had those warp drives on (maybe i forgot to install them). ah now i already erased the save files.

one thing i am missing in this game is governors (like in Space empires). i really hated to keep on selecting what and where to build once i had a lot of planets.

also i've started off really bad but after playing a bit, knowing the game.... i realised i am much more advanced then any other computer player. it seem as if the game is setting the difficulty according to player.
:eeeeeh:

[Eagle of Fire]

Not really. In fact the AI is extremely poor.

Wow... a fantastic game. LOL, on one of those multi-coloured, oh-so-useful planets I got 156 research, with 8 long range space whoopers. A handy planet indeed.

This was the first game I ever got, it was a Christman present fom my dad back in 1995, 3 days after my first computer - I LOVED IT and played it a lot for a year or so.....

However, I remember 2 things that made the game kind of sick due to being "imbalanced" if used vs the Computer:

1.) Brunswik Dissipator, an equipment for your ships that empties an enemy ship for 1 turn with a single shot - use it as first thing in your turn in a 1 vs 1 situation, afterwards kill it as slowly as you want

2.) Room-Bomb or Spacebomb (I played german version back then), another equipment that can only be used once but deals a lot of damage to each enemy ship in the system - 5 or 6 of these always kill the complete enemy fleet of 25+ ships if you let the game last that long, while you never even lose one yourself

Once I realized that, there was no motivation left :-(

This was THE BEST computergame EVER in potential.

Sorry for the AI. Imagine this game with a mp-mode and consider this 3d engine even works on a 386 DX 40!!!

There are rumours for years that Ascendancy II would be made. But I think after their deserved failure with the Tone Rebellion it is over, sadly enough.

But what a game.. what a game

[Eagle of Fire]

Altough I am often the first to bash down Ascendancy for it's numerous flaws, I just have to agree to the fact it has almost infinite potential. The problem here is that potential is not what makes a game good, it what makes sequels interesting...

Like you said, I don't think we are about to see a sequel quite soon... I am yet to see a successful sequel to Xcom!