one tile island start

[bvanevery]

I don't know why, but every once in a blue moon playing SMACX on a Huge map, I start on a 1 tile island.  Alternately, I might start on a rather small island, and other factions start on 1 tile islands.  Of course they don't know what to do about it and are effectively stillborn.   I know what to do... but the endgame is it's boring.  Yeah, I built The Merchant Exchange, since I'm a Drone.  Yeah, I researched Explore and got off the island as fast as I could.  Which took a hundred years.  Think about the historical implications of that, 100 years of staring at one's own navel.  What was that, the underwater basket weaving faction?

[Nexii]

I thought you started with a Unity Foil when on a small landmass?

[bvanevery]

I thought you started with a Unity Foil when on a small landmass?

On a small landmass, that is typical.  But I have had starts where I didn't get one, and the start wasn't particularly viable as maybe I'm on a 9-tile island.  When given a one tile island, typically I don't get a Foil at all.  I figure it's a bug in the world generator.

[Mart]

One tile island start is a great idea for challenge scenario.

[bvanevery]

I dunno about "great", if only because I've played enough "one city" in other Civ-style games to be fairly bored of it.  But if you haven't been down that road a few hundred times already, have at it.

[Mart]

It's only "one city" till the moment when a colony pod can be loaded on a boat. It is like giving AI a lot of free turns, but also the player would have decision on how to get to the Doctrine Flexibility. Blind Research would more interesting here.

[bvanevery]

In other Civ-style games I alluded to, I've played with 1 city, or possibly 2 if I was given 2 Settlers to start with, the whole game.  And yes, Freeciv is stupid enough that you can win that way.

In your imagined SMAC challenge, I'm not really seeing a choice about getting Doctrine:Flexibility as soon as you can.  At least on Transcend on a Huge map, if you don't spread some you're going to die.  With Blind Research (the default for all but Alien factions), you focus on Explore only.  You'll get Centauri Ecology, Doctrine:Mobility, and Doctrine:Flexibility in that order.  Unless someone runs into you who wants to trade with you.  That is unlikely on a Huge map, but not impossible.

It's worth noting that when doing those Freeciv 1 city challenges, I've generally started on land.  With enough land to have some tiles to work, and usually a free Worker thrown in to boot.  Maybe also an Explorer, if one takes default settings.  One can modify those settings though, and I've also played more "old school", where one has to research Pottery to get Workers.  No free Explorer.

1 tile surrounded by ocean is a pretty severe challenge by comparison.  I don't find the idea unwinnable so much as deadly dull.