New player, advice needed.

[gwillybj]

CEO Aaron: Will Bombers scramble? Or is that just Fighters?

[551262]

Only Interceptors and Rotors will scramble. At some point in time you will come up on the much-dreaded, infamous Interceptor Bug. Firaxis, as I'm told, said they couldn't reproduce it, which sounds like a load of guano to me.

The bug is simple: An enemy air unit will attack, your interceptor will scramble, and the game crashes. It doesn't happen *all* the time, but it can happen.

A Rotor is a chopper unit equipped with the SAM special ability. Performs an awesome air interdiction and defense purpose. Scares away needlejets real quick, at least it should in MP.

A smart player uses his advantage of air power while the time is right, as in, earlier rather than later. By the time people start throwing AAA on everything under the sun, air units start to wane in their effectiveness. Cheap 1-6-1*2 AAA ECM units are effective air defense, and better when in bases with aerospace complexes. This is why I don't focus on air power as a focus of my warring: rather, I focus on infantry, rovers and artillery.

Don't use interceptors to attack sea or land units with decent armor, and especially not with AAA defenses. They work fine on unarmoured rovers, foils and other units like ?-1-4*1 Terraform foils.

Some units should *always* have AAA, like expensive 13-6-6*2 AAA Clean cruisers. Don't forget to pair them with 5-6-4*2 AAA SAM foils, which are not only cheap (play with the unit workshop to find out which is the highest attack weapon you can slap on there which adds the least cost, don't worry too much because it will only attack unarmored units and air units) but disposable and keep choppers at bay.

I don't know why people call plain needlejets Bombers, they're just regular needlejets. *shrug* Yes you can press the D key and bomb terraforming enhancements, but you can do that with interceptors too if I'm not seriously mistaken.

Edit: Make sure you make your 1-6-1*2 AAA ECM, 5-6-4*2 AAA SAM foils a Designated Defender. The only other time I use Designated Defender is with 1-6-2*2 Trance Empath rovers (or 6r-3r-2*2 Trance Empath for SMAC-X).

[Lord Avalon]

Scient fixed the interceptor crash; Yitzi's unofficial patch includes that.

Needlejets are called "bombers" because they don't fight air-to-air.

[CEO Aaron]

CEO Aaron: Will Bombers scramble? Or is that just Fighters?

Just to avoid confusion, I'll be specific about the special ability, rather than the unit name, which is subject to variance. The 'Air Superiority' ability is what allows air units to combat other air units, and therefore scramble to protect your troops against enemy air units. It also gives your air unit +100% attack versus other air units, and a 50% attack penalty versus ground targets. That said, I never use 'scramble', not explicitly because of the interceptor bug, but because of the fight mechanics of air combat.

When an air unit with air superiority scrambles to fight an incoming attacking air unit, the attack value of the scrambling unit goes against the attack value of the incoming unit. If, on the other hand, your attack an air unit on your own turn, the attack value of your unit goes against its defense value, which makes it a MUCH more lopsided encounter. So, given how much cheaper the odd former or crawler or ground unit my enemy may snipe compared to the cost of the needlejet he's flying out to kill it, I'm happy to reap more or less guaranteed kills of his air units. This enables me to defend my airspace with ultra-cheap impact interceptors.

The only unit you have to use scramble to destroy should be enemy choppers, but given how short their range is, if you're close enough to be threatened by them, you really should just go crush their airbase with your ground forces. If you can't do that, just stay away until you've ready to move in with a mob of AAA garrisons covering your artillery.

[Morgan Everett]

Hello again,

How does one refuel SAM aircrafts? I let them in my bases, nothing happens. I let them rest on an airbase, nothing happens still!!

[gwillybj]

Resting in a base still might require an Aerospace Complex in order to refuel?

[551262]

I've always had needlejets and choppers refuel in any base.

An Aerospace Complex does the following:

1) Grants +2 morale points to any air units (needlejet, chopper, gravship, and I think missile units too, although it doesn't matter for missiles, really)
2) Allows air units to repair completely in a single turn
3) Allows full benefits from satellites (versus half for a base without one, until you get the Space Elevator SP)
4) Grants +100% defensive bonus to units inside against attacking needlejets, choppers, gravships and I think missiles too: but not scrambling interceptors
5) Costs 2 energy credits per facility, per turn

An airbase is really just a landing strip for air units to refuel on. You *COULD* just build a base. This has many benefits, except from enemy probe teams. Airbases and mobile airbases (carrier deck) do not grant defensive bonuses to defending units.

If you see "Fuel: 26/26" then it's full of fuel. If, however, it's "Fuel: 13/26" then it's not fueled up. (Or less, like 8/26.) Although needlejets are set to default to return to home base, or at least, a nearby-ish base each turn, you can override this in the settings or clicking on the unit to take control of it before "it comes around" in the unit control sequence. Thusly, you can attack "twice" with one needlejet on "one tank" of fuel, but it'll crash afterwards.

Reminds me of one time I was playing SMAC-X. Marr was bothering me with his pokey wokey 6r-1-10*1 needlejets. So one turn, he sends over 13 of them, I strike hard with 13-4-6*2 AAA cruisers at his front base where the needlejets are taking off from. End result -- one of them attacked, lost and crashed, the other 12 tried to make it back but crashed. Whoops.

[Morgan Everett]

Sorry guys, I still don't understand how tu fuel my aircrafts.

Aerospace complex does nothing, just like airbases.. I'm starting to lose patience here, what the hell was the game thinking?

[551262]

Screenshots.

[Petek]

Choppers are automatically refueled each turn, either after reaching a base or airbase, or after crashing after running out of fuel outside a base (or airbase). When the air unit is active, its display should show something like Fuel: x/y, where x is the remaining fuel and y is the unit's range. So, if you have a chopper whose range is 10 and is fully fueled, its display will show Fuel: 10/10. Each time you move it one tile, the remaining fuel will decrease by one. The display will show Fuel: 9/10, 8/10 and so on. If it reaches 0/10 and is outside a base or airbase the chopper will crash and take damage. Needlejets work similarly, but will crash and be destroyed if they run out of fuel outside a base or airbase. Why do you think that your air units aren't refueling?

[Morgan Everett]

Alright, I've managed to figure it out. It's quite a silly system, really. I just need to calculate a certain consumption of fuel before my aircraft reaches a base and it will refuel automatically provided a certain amount of fuel has already been consumed.

So problem solved.

I've read something awful in the datalinks though. It seems I'll be forced to quit the game after a certain period, is there a way to prevent this from happening? I don't want to rush my victory, ever.

[Petek]

Look in your Alpha(x).txt file for the lines

2600 ; Normal ending year for lowest 3 difficulty levels
2500 ; Normal ending year for highest 3 difficulty levels

These entries determine the ending year. You can changes the ending years to any reasonable value. For example, placing 3000 in each line (that's what I have) should provide plenty of turns to play.

[gwillybj]

9999 works well, too especially if you change the starting year to 1000

[rah]

Just started playing and a tad overwhelmed. I keep thinking in terms of civII.
A couple of simple questions.

1. How do I upgrade a unit? I"ve created a prototype and can't figure how to upgrade my older units.
2. Is unit support done by faction or by base. And if by base, how can I switch which base is supporting a unit. (how can you tell which base a unit is being supported from.
and is it like civII where if you get a free unit from a hut, and the closest city is another faction, does it become the equiv of a NONE unit from civ that is free from support.

[Petek]

Just started playing and a tad overwhelmed. I keep thinking in terms of civII.
A couple of simple questions.

1. How do I upgrade a unit? I"ve created a prototype and can't figure how to upgrade my older units.

To upgrade individual units, select the unit and press Ctrl-U. To upgrade all units of a given type, press U to enter the Design Workshop. Find the unit in question at the bottom of the screen and select the Upgrade button. You'll be presented with a list of possible upgrades.

2. Is unit support done by faction or by base. And if by base, how can I switch which base is supporting a unit. (how can you tell which base a unit is being supported from.
and is it like civII where if you get a free unit from a hut, and the closest city is another faction, does it become the equiv of a NONE unit from civ that is free from support.

Unit support is by home base, not globally. To change the supporting base, move the unit to the base and press Ctrl-H. If you select the unit, it's home base should be displayed in the information near the bottom left of the screen. Whether or not a unit requires support from its home base depends on several factors. If the unit has the "clean reactor" special ability (becomes available when you discover the Bioengineering tech), it will never require support. Also, your support rating determines how many units a base can support as follows:

-4, Each unit costs 2 to support; no free minerals for new base.
-3, Each unit costs 1 to support; no free minerals for new base.
-2, Support 1 unit free per base; no free minerals for new base.
-1, Support 1 unit free per base
0, Support 2 units free per base
1, Support 3 units free per base
2, Support 4 units free per base!
3, Support 4 units OR up to base size for free!!

You can see your support rating by pressing the E key to go to the Social Engineering screen.

Hope this makes sense!