Apolyton Civilization Site - SMAC: Editing alpha.txt

The following editing comments have been compiled by cyberspyder at hotmail dot com.

3, : Movement rate along roads	This does just what it says. It allows you to change how far a unit can move along a road. You could remove the movement benefit for roads, so that it only gives resource benefit, or bring it up really high, to make perhaps a more realistic railroad that takes away some movement points.
2, ;Nutrient intake requirement for citizens	This does just what it says. It allows you to change how far a unit can move along a road. You could remove the movement benefit for roads, so that it only gives resource benefit, or bring it up really high, to make perhaps a more realistic railroad that takes away some movement points.
3,2;Numerator & Denominator for artillery fire damage	This is more complex. It deals with damage in the long range fire option. Raising the first number makes the damage higher, and raising the second lowers damage.
2, ; Max artillery range	This determines how far away you can do long range fire from. If you want to disable long range fire, just set it to 0, and the people will have to walk into the unit they are attacking. Otherwise, you can raise it to attack from the other side of the planet, if you wanted. Increasing these will break multiplayer!
8, ; Max airdrop range w/o orbital insertion	I don't think this really needs an explanation...just change for how far away you want to be able to airdrop from...
10,; Nutrient cost multiplier	This does just what it says. It allows you to change how far a unit can move along a road. You could remove the movement benefit for roads, so that it only gives resource benefit, or bring it up really high, to make perhaps a more realistic railroad that takes away some movement points.
10,; Minerals cost multiplier	Not known yet. If somebody does know, please comment.
100,; Technology discovery rate as a percentage of standard	Determines how quickly research is performed. Set this higher to research faster, or lower to slow research.
1, ; Limits mineral increase for mine without road in square	This determines how much a mine raises mineral production, if there is no road in the same square. That is, if a square produces 2 minerals, then with a mine it will produce 3 if there is only a mine. If you raise this number, a mine will increase mineral production by more. If you set it to zero, it will make no difference, and if you make it negative, you can have reverse mines! =)
-1,; Nutrient effect in mine square (0 or -1)	This determines how nutrients are affected in a mine square. Normally there's 1 less nutrients, but it can be changed to have no effect on nutrients.
5, ; Minimum base size to support specialists	This determines how big a base has to be before you can have doctors, technicians, etc. I personally would advise lowering it, so you can have such things before size 5.
1, ; Drones induced by Genejack factory	Quite obvious. How many drones are created by making a Genejack factory.
7, ; Population limit w/o hab complex	Also obvious. Change this to change how big a base can be without having a Hab Complex.
14,; Population limit w/o hab dome	Do I really need to explain this?
50,; Extra percentage cost of prototype LAND unit	This changes how much extra it costs to make the first model of a land unit (Infantry, tank, etc)
50,; Extra percentage cost of prototype SEA unit	Same, but for air, foils, cruisers.
50,; Extra percentage cost of prototype AIR unit	Same, but for air, choppers and needlejets.
3,2,; Psi combat offense-to-defense ratio (LAND unit defending)	Here we have something more complex. In PSI combat, this determines the offense bonus to defense bonus ratio when it is a land unit defending. Whether it is a land, air, or water unit attacking makes no difference. For instance, in this, the attacking unit gets a bonus of 3 times their base attack, while the defending unit gets a bonus of 2 times their normal. In effect, this means that the attacking unit gets 1.5 times their normal attack. You can make the defending unit get a bonus, or that there is no difference.
1,1,; Psi combat offense-to-defense ratio (SEA unit defending)	The same as above for a sea unit.
1,1,; Psi combat offense-to-defense ratio (AIR unit defending)	The same as above for an air unit
10,; Players' starting energy reserves	This determines how many energy credits the factions start up with, UNLESS the faction file changes it.
25,; Combat % -> intrinsic base defense	This defines the defense bonus units get when they are defending from a base, as a percentage of the standard.
0, ; Combat % -> attacking along road	This is a bonus which is unused in the normal game, but it allows you to give a bonus if you start out on a road when attacking.
0, ; Combat % -> for attacking from higher elevation	This is another unused bonus. But it allows you to have an attack bonus if you start out on a higher elevation than the person you are attacking.
0, ; Combat penalty % -> attacking from lower elevation	This allows you to give a PENALTY if you attack from a lower elevation, although if you set it negative you can give a bonus, just like setting a negative for any bonus allows you to give a penalty.
25,; Combat % -> Mobile unit in open ground	Fairly self-explanatory. Allows you to give a bonus to a mobile unit if it's on open ground, without forest or rocky
0, ; Combat % -> Defend vs. mobile in rough	The opposite. Gives a defense bonus to someone being attacked by a mobile unit if it is in rough terran, rocky or with a forest.
25,; Combat % -> Infantry vs. Base	Gives a bonus to a unit with an infantry chassis if it is attacking a base. Frankly, this bonus doesn't make too much sense to me, so it might be good to take it out.
50,; Combat penalty % -> attack after airdrop	This gives a penalty to units who attack immediately after being airdropped. This is supposed to prevent quick drop-and-kills.
25,; Combat % -> Fanatic attack bonus	This determines what bonus in attacking a faction with the FANATIC special rule. I saw someone mention in the alpha centauri forums making a custom faction with an attacking penalty by hacking the FANATIC bonus, if you want to, this is the way. Just set it to negative
50,; Combat % -> Land based guns vs. ship artillery bonus	This determines the attack bonus land units get when they are attacked by ships.
25,; Combat % -> Artillery bonus per level of altitude	This determines what bonus artillery gets for every 1000 feet they are above their target.
50,; Combat % -> Trance bonus defending vs. psi	This determines what bonus the special ability trance gets units when defending against psi units.
50,; Combat % -> Empath Song bonus attacking vs. psi	Similar to the one above, except it determines the attacking bonus they get against psi.
50,; Combat penalty % -> Air superiority unit vs. ground unit	This determines the penalty a unit with the air superiority special ability gets when it is attacking a ground unit.
100,; Combat % -> Air superiority unit vs. air unit	DO NOT CHANGE THIS UNLESS YOU SET IT ABOVE 100!!! This just enables air superiority units to attack air units. If you set it to 0, air units will be impossible to attack, though not impossible to defend against.
50,; Combat penalty % -> Non-combat unit defending vs. combat unit	This determines the penalty units like formers or colony pods have when they are attacked, for not having any weapons. Though if they don't have any weapons, they should technically always lose...but that's no fun.
50,; Combat % -> Comm Jammer unit defending vs. mobile unit	This gives the comm jammer special ability it's effect. You can have comm jammer give even more of a bonus against mobile units, or make it have no effect.
100,; Combat % -> Bonus vs. ships caught in port	This gives makes land units attacking ships attack by twice as much. But you can change it to have more or less effect, or even have a penalty for attacking ships.
100,; Combat % -> AAA bonus vs. air units	This determines how much of an attack bonus units with the special ability AAA have against air units.
25,; Combat % -> Defend in range of friendly Sensor	This determines how much a sensor helps in defending.
10,; Combat % -> Psi attack bonus/penalty per +PLANET	This determines how much your planet rating affects your PSI combat. For instance, if you have a planet rating of 4, your PSI attack/defense is increased by 40%, and if you have a rating of -2, it is decreased by 20%.
50,; Retool percent penalty for production change	This determines how much of your progress is taken away if you change your production in a city. For instance, if you change from working on Hab Complex to Needlejet, this percentage of your progress will be taken away.
2, ; Retool strictness	This determines in which cases the penalty takes effect. If you have 0, there is never any penalty for changing production. If you have 1, there is no penalty if you change production in the same catagory. Like, from one base improvement to another, one unit to another, one Secret Project to another. If you put 2, there is only no penalty if you change from one Secret Project to another. And finally, if you put 3, there is always a penalty when changing productions.
10,; Retool exemption	This determines how much of your progress is not affected by the penalty. In this case, the first 10 minerals are not affected by the penalty.
20,; Minimum # of turns between councils	This many turns must pass inbetween councils, before another council can be called. Like, if you made an America Mod, this would be set to 4, how often elections are held.
5, ; Minerals for harvesting forest	You get this many minerals for harvesting a forest
8, ; Territory: max distance from base	This determines how far from your outermost base your territory extends. To make huge territories, set it to, like, 20, or to eliminate territories entirely set it to 0.
20,; Turns to corner Global Energy Market	Another obvious thing. It takes this many turns to enact an Economic Victory.

The rest of the values are described in alpha.txt and need no description.

Originally posted on AC Zone. Posted here under permission of Marian Hartel