Capture all Homeworlds Bug

If you are trying the "Capture all Homeworlds" category you might run into a bug. The game sometimes doesn't end after you captured every homeworld. I'm sorry to say, that I don't have a clue, why this happens. All I can say is: take it easy, try again. ;-)

Getting started

Welcome!
You probably played a lot of this game back in the 90s, so did I and I really enjoyed each and every second of it. It is still a fun game to play nowadays, if you don't mind all the micro management.
You can get this game relatively easy online. Be sure to also get the AI patch called "Antagonizer". It will make the game playable casually, since the AI is really stupid if you don't use it. For speedrunning purposes, however, you will probably don't want to use it.
To run the game on a modern machine use DosBox. If you don't like the very small resolution of the window, go to the install directory, start "DOSBox [version] Options.bat", change "windowresolution" to whatever you like and set "output" to "ddraw". (at least this works for Windows 10)
Now run DosBox and navigate to the directory, you unzipped Ascendancy to. If you want to play without AI patch, simply start "Ascend.exe". To run with AI on, start "Antag.exe". You can also create a shortcut linking DosBox directly to an Exe-File so you can start the game just by one double-click.
That's it! Have fun!

One hint for grinding runs in the winning categories: if you recognize, you are playing against the "Arbryls" (the tree guys) the run is already lost. They can lock you out of their star systems and you probably don't have weapons at hand to shoot your way through. However, this may somehow glitch into the "Conquer 2/3" winning condition. Maybe I will put some research in this topic some day. :)

Thoughts on Alliance Victory

Getting an Alliance Victory seems to be very difficult. On a small map with two opponents (1 friendly, 1 hostile species) I tried to ally with one and then destroy the other. Though possible, this let into a 2/3 Conquest Victory before I could eleminate the whole enemy. After you got one victory condition, you cannot get another one. The game will just go on forever.
This leads me into thinking, that it's probably easier to try to get two friendly races as opponents and just ally them without any conflict. Be sure to not use the AI patch, because enemies are much more aggressive then. Which races are hostile can be found out, I believe, by checking the soundtrack when chatting with them. Probably there are neutral ones too.
Here is what I found out so far:
Hostile: Marmosian, Orfa, Minion, Frutmaka
Neutral: 
Peaceful: Dubtak
If you find out anything regarding this topic, feel free to contact me via Discord.

Update: I managed to win with an Alliance Victory following the ally one defeat the other strategy. Sadly I have no record of it, but will do asap. I took Kambuchka as a race, so I can see, who I'm playing against and where they are. Now I had to reset until I was sure to have the Dubtaks in the game (the only race I have discovered so far to ally without anything to do for it). After that you have to absolutely annihilate the other enemy, invading every planet and destroying every ship. The Dubtaks will eventually show up on their own and you can just ally them and that's it!

Update: The run is submitted and approved. There's a lot to do better, so go ahead! :-)

नाम	लेखक
Capture all Homeworlds Bug	Original_Baum 4 years ago
Getting started	Original_Baum 4 years ago
Thoughts on Alliance Victory	Original_Baum 4 years ago