Specialist limits?

[nickersonm]

After reading about specialist bases in several places, I decided to try it in a PBEM game. However, I ran in to a problem. University Base is size 40 (through pod-booming, no hab dome), but can have a maximum of 16 total librarians and engineers. There's 15 citizens working and the remaining 9 specialists can only be Empaths. Even if I re-assign them to Librarians, they stay as empaths. Any worker turned in to a specialist will become an empath no matter what I tell it to do. I am using SMAC 4.0.

Is there a limit to the number of specialists you can have in a base? If not, is this a bug, or do I need a hab dome? Thanks for your help.

- nickersonm

[Archaic]

There's no limit to the number of a type of specialists you can have in a base, so I would assume it's because you don't have a hab dome.

[Mongoose]

I think I recall reading somebody post once upon a time that there is a limit ...Sikander, perhaps?

Anyway, you'll be fine once you get the tech for Transcendi!

[nickersonm]

Hmm, ok, thanks. If anyone knows for sure, I'd really appreciate it if they'd confirm or deny it. Hab Domes and transcendi are fairly far away, because I'm playing on tech stagnation. University Base is a lab city (provides over half of my research - 1932/3173), so I want as many librarians as possible ).

- nickersonm

[CEO Aaron]

Well, I don't know of any specialist cap, other than that you can't employ engineers and other non-doctorish specialists with your first 5 citizens. Sounds like a bug, but one that's pretty easy to get around: Stop pod booming and spend your minerals popping out crawlers and formers for a good, old-fashioned energy park.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Yes there is a cap on the number of 'useful' specialists. I wrote about this many moons ago when initially proposing the idea of all specializiation. IIRC it seemed to me that the number was 18 though although it could have been a mere 16. (My mind is hazy on it as it was a long time ago)

For the purpose of clarification I always categorized useful specialists as non-empath non-doctor specilaists namely technicians or librarians for equivalent 3 F.O.P.'s or better engineers at 5 equivalent F.O.P.'s.

This becomes a moot issue upon advent of transcendi as these will always become the prefered specialsit at 6 equivalent F.O.P.'s.

Og

[Mongoose]

I thought I remembered reading something about that! My memory isn't totally shot...yet.

- Mong, relieved not to be wrong on all counts.

[Sikander]

I believe that the limit is 16 "selectable" specialists. All after that will be Doctors/Empaths/Transcendi depending on the tech. The empaths are a pretty good bargain, but I rarely get them very early when they are the most useful.

[Archaic]

*Blinks*

Well.....that's all news to me. Sorry about the false info earlier nickersonm.