F4 Base Screen

[socrate95]

Hi i'm a smac newbie and i've been looking for ways to enhance the gameplay experience. In SP games i often have 30+ bases and it becomes tedious to manage them all. I tried using the F4 screen but it's still tedious. Anyone knows if i can change the production or queue of multiple bases at once rather than clicking 30+ times? I noticed that you can select multiple bases in the F4 screen but that doesn't help. Anytime i tried to change production it only does it for 1 base.

[Lazerus]

As far as i know you can't. If you dislike managing that your only choice is to either give all your bases a big queue or stick them on gov

[Adalbertus]

In the production screen window, you can save and load queues. Somewhat into the game, I use it often for the first build queue(s) of new bases.
You also can scroll through your bases in alphabetical order by clicking on the arrows to the right and left of the base name.

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Adalbertus
You also can scroll through your bases in alphabetical order by clicking on the arrows to the right and left of the base name.

I find this to be the most effective way to go through the screens. I also will sometimes rename bases by function or region, ie " AA Drone Mound" so that certain bases will appear together or first.

[MattyBoy]

Alphabetical, so that's it.
Thankyou for that tip. I was wondering how they were ordered and now I have control over it.

[Hydro]

A better solution is to stop building bases when you get the efficiency warning, which is somewhere around 12 or so (depending on what you are running and your level of difficulty). Then you can give each base its own TLC and not be annoyed by tedious micromanaging. That's about the right number for critical mass anyway, especially since you're likely to acquire a few from the AI.

P.S. - ever tried to micromanage 250+ worlds in Moo3? If you thought 30 SMAC bases were bad...

[Adalbertus]

On transcend, you should go beyond the first efficiency warning, because even for huge maps, it is 9 bases.

[Impaler[WrG]]

Boy I always play the Huge Map of Planet and usaly cover an entire Continent in Bases, I slow down once I am into the Lambda, Upsion, Gama lists. I guess I am a glutton for Micro Managment.

[TimeTraveler]

I also have a common tendency to build a ridiculously high number of bases; namely over 100 per game, and only slow down when I'm about to transcend. Often I will go as far as raising my land to get more room to put more solar collectors, echelon mirrors, and bases, so that they can quickly spawn even more colony pods and terraformers to go through the cycle all over again.
After four years of playing Alpha Centauri, I have found that building lots of bases everywhere is really a great strategy.
By the way, psych-enhancing projects help out a lot here, especially if you play as the University.

[socrate95]

100 bases per turn! Jeeze. How long does it take you to gt through each turn?

[Mead]

Originally posted by TimeTraveler
I also have a common tendency to build a ridiculously high number of bases; namely over 100 per game, and only slow down when I'm about to transcend. Often I will go as far as raising my land to get more room to put more solar collectors, echelon mirrors, and bases, so that they can quickly spawn even more colony pods and terraformers to go through the cycle all over again.
After four years of playing Alpha Centauri, I have found that building lots of bases everywhere is really a great strategy.
By the way, psych-enhancing projects help out a lot here, especially if you play as the University.

More bases = Good

More bases mean more minerals (more military units)
More population with more votes
More energy, even it the new bases increase inefficiency. Just use good SE choices, and where necessary, build Children's Creche's.

More bases equal more mass, better survival, and dominance over the game.

The only thing that slows me down when trying to expand my empire as far and as fast as possible, is taking the time to make sure I make a few good military units and probe teams to hold off any aggressor that might appear. The need to build Drone management facilities and SPs also slow me down a little.

Usually after I build so many bases that the computer starts naming them all [Faction Name] 58, I start making my own names up. I have tried either naming them with a geographic cue such as, Southeast Lower Continent on Big River. Now I just name them numerically. I make sure I number them as 001, 002, 003, not 1, 2, 3. Because the computer sorts them alphabetically numbering them 1, 2, 3, .... runs into problems once you start going over 19.

I have recently tried OCC and found it to be fun, but if I am going to play a game where I want to be certain I win it, I will ICS with as many bases as I can get.


Mead

[gwillybj]

I use another variant of (admittedly boring) sequential base names: G2178A = Gaians, Year 2178, first Base this year. I love lots of bases (and picayune micromanagement), but have yet to go beyond E.
Gaian Headquarters would be G2101AHQ. Sometimes I re-order the list of bases (by resource output or population or such), so having HQ on the end of the name makes it easier to spot. If I relocate the Headquarters, I drop the HQ from the original and tack it on the new one.