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  • Changing endgame?

    OK, I've searched everywhere for a solution to this but I simply can't find one.

    I absolutely love SMAC, more than the Civ games, but near the end of the game (~MY2400) fungus/mindworms start spawning at a purely ridiculous rate and it kills my enjoyment. Is there any way to stop this?

    I don't mind fungus spawning, or basically any of the mechanics up to this point so I'd rather not edit out the fungus/native life completely - I just want to get rid of this idiotic "20 worms spawn on one square every turn" business. If that's the only way to do it then I'll do it, but I'm hoping for a more elegant solution.

    I am aware of how this is by design and fits into the lore, but I still don't like it and want to turn it off.

  • #2
    The situation that you describe is caused by excessive Eco-Damage (ED). Any base that produces more than a certain number of minerals will, by default, incur ED. You can see a base's ED in the base screen. It will look something like Eco-Damage: 10. It's possible to control ED in high-mineral bases. Please see the Ecodamage entry in the FAQ.
    "The avalanche has already started. It is too late for the pebbles to vote."
    -- Kosh

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    • #3
      Are you absolutely certain it's ED and not related to the Voice of Planet secret project or something? I swear the little interludes near the end of the game refer to vastly increased native life activity as a plot point rather than base ED.

      In my experience when ED causes fungus spawns it is in small batches; this feels like a deliberate, artificial push to "finish" the game - the fungus spawns so quickly it's effectively impossible to defend against and continue normal play. No matter what civs I use I -always- encounter this issue at the end of the game.

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      • #4
        Here's my understanding: Excessive ED causes fungal >pops<. The first few >pops< result in fungus appearing near a base, destroying any terraforming improvements in those tiles. If you continue to generate >pops<, native life forms also begin to appear along with the fungus. If left uncontrolled, the native life forms can easily overwhelm a base that isn't prepared to deal with them. Building the VoiceofPlanet (VoP) results in a different effect. Fungus appears all over your territory (regardless of ED), and everyone else's territory. IIRC, native life forms no longer spawn.

        I noticed that the link to the ecodamage article in the FAQ no longer works. I just created a new thread where I reposted it. Here's an explanation how to control ecodamage (the article contains more information):

        1. The term clean mineral limit means how many minerals a base can produce before it incurs ED. In general, a base begins with a clean mineral limit of 16, but various factors can raise or lower it.
        2. Do not build any Tree Farms, Hybrid Forests, Centauri Preserves or Temples of Planet before receiving your first >pop<.
        3. Each >pop< raises the clean mineral limit of all bases by one. Also, each of the facilities mentioned above raises the clean mineral limit of all bases by one, but only if built after the first >pop<.
        4. So, create ED in one base by crawling lots of minerals. Once you get to ED = 40 or so, you should get a >pop< within a couple of turns. You probably should wait until discovering Environmental Economics (the tech for Tree Farms) before generating high ED.
        5. After you get a >pop<, build lots of Tree Farms (and later, the other above facilities). You should be able to reduce your ED in all bases to zero. even if the bases produce lots of minerals.
        6. If you don't have many bases, you can scrap and rebuild the above facilities (Centauri Preserves work well for this strategy). Each rebuilt facility will also increase the clean mineral limit by one.

        It should be mentioned that some players employ an alternate strategy by embracing ED, rather than suppressing it. These players are prepared to take advantage of massive native life form invasions.
        "The avalanche has already started. It is too late for the pebbles to vote."
        -- Kosh

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        • #5
          I noticed that the link to the ecodamage article in the FAQ no longer works.
          It works fine for me
          With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.

          Steven Weinberg

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          • #6
            Originally posted by BlackCat View Post
            It works fine for me
            That's odd. So http://apolyton.net/misc/column/175_ecodamage.shtml takes you to Ned's article on ecodamage? I get a 404 Not Found message.
            "The avalanche has already started. It is too late for the pebbles to vote."
            -- Kosh

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            • #7
              It doesn't show up for me either. BC, might you have it cached?
              1011 1100
              Pyrebound--a free online serial fantasy novel

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              • #8
                Originally posted by Petek View Post
                Please see the Ecodamage entry in the FAQ.
                This link works for me, I can't find any other links.

                EDIT: Ah, got it - it's the link in the link that doesn't work - not exactly obvious
                With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.

                Steven Weinberg

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                • #9
                  I'm not sure that Ned's article can be restored so old links will be revived - I bet that there are other interesting stuff, so maybe those articles could be put into a sticky thread ?

                  Edit: have asked if Martin can do something to do something.

                  Editedit: I think that articles like this is poly's "gold", so admin should put in some energy in such a case Btw. miss Ned
                  Last edited by BlackCat; February 14, 2012, 21:44.
                  With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.

                  Steven Weinberg

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    I also PM'd Martin about the matter. You make a good point, though, about all the other links to Ned's article. Making the FAQ link point to the thread that I created will still leave all the other links broken. I don't know anything about web programming, but supposing that the original article can't be revived, would it be possible to redirect the broken link http://apolyton.net/misc/column/175_ecodamage.shtml to my thread?
                    "The avalanche has already started. It is too late for the pebbles to vote."
                    -- Kosh

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                    • #11
                      Originally posted by BlackCat View Post
                      I'm not sure that Ned's article can be restored so old links will be revived - I bet that there are other interesting stuff, so maybe those articles could be put into a sticky thread ?

                      Edit: have asked if Martin can do something to do something.

                      Editedit: I think that articles like this is poly's "gold", so admin should put in some energy in such a case Btw. miss Ned
                      This article was part of the column, I should have a copy of all those articles. However, I prefer to have that stuff in our content management system, and that is quite some work.

                      I guess those articles where only posted as articles, and not copied from a forum post. So I would first post them as forum thread, to have a thread where all the comments can go and then, promote them to articles. Either we repost those articles silently, than we have to adjust the post date or we repost them openly.

                      Anyway, if anyone wants to help with that, be welcome to offer it.

                      -Martin
                      Civ2 military advisor: "No complaints, Sir!"

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                      • #12
                        I'd be glad to help. What needs to be done?
                        "The avalanche has already started. It is too late for the pebbles to vote."
                        -- Kosh

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                        • #13
                          Good work people. We don't want to lose any knowledge!

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