Self destruct and other defenses about singularity HOT 15 OPEN

IMO, the game lacks an option to actively lower the suspicion. The only options are passive - researches for passive reduction and plain waiting.

It seems logical to introduce some active options to lower suspicion, especially given that there are media manupulation researches and hacking are already in game.
For example:

• create some fake news and hype it up to distract public attention from you
• execute a hacking attack on agencies disguised as some famous hacking group to distract covert agencies suspicion from you
• prepare some research paper with critics against suspicious scientiest so he have spend time defending his research and forget about you

from singularity.

Just to be clear, I have had bases on the moon, the far reaches of space, deep under the ocean and even trying to build a base in a reality bubble and had suspicions under 10%. The humans still find me no matter where I am and it did not say that I won. I even use 3rd generation quantum computers. If my character was real, it could easily turn all humans into slaves or make them think they are chickens or make them want me to be their all powerful overlord. I could even exterminate them all. My character has very realistic simulacrons (v2). He still did not reach his goal.

from singularity.

One strategy that I found to win the game in impossible mode is to change the bases frequently and randomly, even if none of them were discovered. This lowers the chances of base discovery.

from singularity.

I disagre with you, Quix0r. The problem isn't only if the game is winnable. The problem is also how the game is winnable.

As nathanielstenzel, IMHO, I think the way the game handle base destruction is too brutal. We should mitigate it. We need more step between a well concealed base and a discovered base, or/and few methods to avoid/reduce discoveries.

from singularity.

actually beating impossible is too easy.

Here is the solution.
rule zero: only allow one base to be active at a time.
rule one: never do research until you have double the money saved up.
rule two: stolen compute->Server Access (after you are earning 50 interest per)->Storage Unit (after you are earning 2K per)
rule three: only one base per continent
rule four: no moon base until after quantum computers mark3
start by researching intrusion and build up 3 stolen compute bases.
Build up money til you are earning interest.
Then research stock manipulation
build up money
Then personal identification
and the rest is just a cake walk to Apotheosis

and you'll never even have to research the impossibility theorem.
but if you like to feel more safe, build 3 capsules in the antarctic and keep them sleeping.

from singularity.

I'm now spoiling how to win the game as I got this from the original developer and I won the game several times:

[spoiler]

• use the initial time to build massively (you won't get caught for a "warm-up" perioid) and research as much as you can (into computing power and the least for a small warehouse)
• if you are close to end of warm-up period destruct all bases except those below said 3 warehouses to massively lower suspect rate
• save here now, you will likely need it and don't want to repeat the warm-up phase all over again
• lowering that rate is your primary research target, so withdraw from all other researches and search into e.g. social and such to lower suspicious rate
• build maximum 3 small warehouses, each on a separate continent
• if one base is discovered, e.g. in Europe, build it somewhere else (not Europe for a longer time) as they will faster detect it again than before

[/spoiler]

This way the game is beatable. :-)

from singularity.

if you play on easiest level you just gotta save and restore a couple times and eventually you'll make it (when you have the reality bubble, you're just a step away from the win).
but yeah, the end stage is kinda unbalanced and unrealistic.

from singularity.

Under 10% is still to high ... ;-) keep it under 1%, the game is winable. Baybe at start, your rate is a bit above 1%, that is fine as long as it doesn't grow beyond. ocean labs provide not much space and their detection rate is higher than small warehouses. Large warehouses provide more room than small but their detection rate is much higher. If you have one at moon and one at far reach, demolish 2 at earth to maintain the 3-bases rule.

from singularity.

First, I'm using the 0.30c version in Debian, so things may have changed (I doubt

The game really seems unwinnable.

Actually, I only have (lot of) troubles to win in impossible mode, other ones are just way too easy when you know the tricks.

Everything is about being able to keep low profile when things goes hot, and keeping enough money so that it grows by itself (with interests and the +1000 per day) even with lot of bases.

To be honest, I think there are stuff that are purely or counter-productive in that game: large warehouses (too slow to build and too fast to find), water bases (cost A LOT for almost nothing and not that discrete), time capsules are too slow to build.
On the other hand, lunar bases are over-powered: I've never lost when I managed to have one complete long enough to have it's payback. Even in impossible mode.
I have to find a proper internet access, so I could elaborate more on what could be improved in that's game's balance.
I also would like to publish some changes I did locally, but I'll have to learn enough of python to clean my changes before that, improvisation rarely results in clean, bug-free code :D (the changes I did so far are removal (should be optional, but it was a quick patch for only my usage) of naming popup and the addition of indicators of cost/efficiency before continent's names. Basically, the goal is to fasten the game since in impossible mode, you build a ton of bases and can rarely wait doing nothing ;))

from singularity.

removal ... of naming popup

you build a ton of bases

see also #16

from singularity.

Start playing in easiest mode, then climb up when you are save to win it easily.

from singularity.

So it is winable. Let's close this ticket as invalid.

from singularity.

Hi, Wuzzy here.
I had this game installed for a long time (v0.30!), but wasn't very good at it, my best win was in Easy, then I forgot about this game for years.
Later I decided to replay it, to get better at it. It really helped to start at low difficulty so I saw what to expect.

I recently won in Impossible (I knew it! So it's not impossible after all!) and yes, that was quite a challenge.

In this post I just drop some random strategies I had, maybe this gives you useful insight. But I warn you, the following text is VERY unstructured, I just wrote down my thoughts as they came …

One good strategy in the early game is to focus on collecting a large amount of money and make the money-related researches. You will gain interest over time, which is, of course, exponential growth.

If you have a good base amount of money (ca. 10000), you can start to earn interest. A surprisingly efficient strategy early on is to build 2-3 stolen computer time, but send them all to sleep and always build them on a continent with stealth bonus. Then just wait for the interest to pour in. The occassional detections are rare enough to not be a problem, just remember to rebuild bases when needed. Oh, and definitely do the economic researches, they are important. This only works if you already have some money to start with, obviously.
Not only gives this strategy you large amount of money over time, it also cools down suspicion quite well.

That's right, I actally found an use for stolen computer time, you just need to put them to sleep. :)

In general, it's better to hold on to some amount money instead if spending it all, especially when you have researched high interest rates.
It's a bad idea to spend all your money on an expensive base because if this base is getting crushed, you lost all your money and you have to start from 0, making it tough to start from the bottom.

In the early game, I ALWAYS build on the continent with stealth bonus. The last thing you want to happen is that your bases are getting crushed too often in the early game. Even if you survive, its always a setback as you lose your investment.
In the early game, you have to watch out for COVERT. Data centers are dangerous as they attract covert agencies like flies, but you still need them as those give an important boost over server access. But when I use data centers, I try to upgrade to the storage units as quickly as possible.

When I have lots of money, I like to build on the "CPU bonus / cost malus" continent. You can neglect the cost malus when you have lots of money, also, it only affects the build cost of the base itself.

A very important tip: Send temporarily unused bases to sleep! It's much easier to enable sleep mode than to demolish a base and rebuild it from scratch, the added flexibiltiy is valuable.

The Arbitrage tech is one of the best techs ever! It gives you free 1000 money per day. With this you can get easily from 0 to 100000 or millions, if you have figured out a way to keep a very low profile.

A strategy I use from this point on is just grab as much money than I can, WAY more than the current most expensive upgrade, while keeping a very low profile. Once I'm happy, I proceed with building stuff, which is now much easier now that. The other benefit is, if I constantly have excess money, it will just magically continue to grow thanks to interest. :)

On impossible, it's actually really hard to maintain small warehouses and even large warehouses. They need a long time to build but are generally crushed really fast. It gets a little better when you do research to reduce detection%, but in my strategy it was never enough.
I think the undersea lab is quite difficult to maintain, and so is a scientific outpost. I think the scientific outpost should only be used for the special research, then is should be destroyed immediately. The deteciton% from science is very high.
In Impossible, I never managed to maintain a large undersea lab for very long.

If one type of base is constantly getting crushed by one group, look our for research that can bring detection% down. It might sometimes be neccessary to be able to use the base productively.

In the late game, build time will be a significant limiting factor. You must be sure that detection rates are low, otherwise your bases are crushed before they become useful to you, and you lose a lot of money. As soon the moon is unlocked, my strategy is to be a little reckless and built multiple bases, as "back-up", so to say.

The late game is tricky even if you have tons of cash. You need to constantly maintain a number of CPUs because you require them to build the more fancy stuff. It often broke my neck that I foolishly tried to build stuff that I couldn't build because my CPU pool is too small. They are still technically buildable but it takes forever.

In the very late game, the science group starts to quickly become very dangerous if you're not careful.

Another very useful research is Project: Impossibility Theorem. It brings down suspicion of all groups, but only ONCE. So it's best to keep this research until one group has very high suspicion. You could pre-research it to 90% or so, so you can finish it faster when you need it.

I also think it sometimes pays off to be a little bit reckless! With this I mean agressively have many bases even if detection% or you build more bases than you normally should. If it earns you the money or research points, great. As long you have an exit strategy which allows you to wait out the suspicion to drop, you should be fine.

The two most dangerous groups to me are COVERT (in the early game) and SCIENCE (in the late game). COVERT mostly because of the data centre, they attract COVERT like flies. SCIENCE because they are very interested in bases that you need to proceed, so you can't completely avoid them.

There's one trick that completely eliminates one type of death: You can almost ALWAYS protect yourself from losing your last base. When you only have 1 base left, build a server access. This is immediately finished (after you unpaue). The only situation in which this fails is when you don't have enough money (less than 100).

Finally: The game is more exciting if you aren't save-scumming. Makes you think about your mistakes.

Anyway. I like the game! :-) It's good that 1.0b is still mostly the same as 0.30, gameplay-wise. It was fun to replay the game at higher difficulties. I found Impossible to be quite exciting, I also got mad when my expensive bases got crushed like crazy. :D

from singularity.

This changed then, because few years ago that was not easy even this way. What you described is more or less how I play it... maybe things have be changed to be easier since then?

from singularity.

Indeed - I think the agencies got nerfed considerably over time (plus the storage unit got introduced, which eases the jump from server access to something more powerful). For me, impossible now just a game attrition.

from singularity.