newbie questions

[hydra628]

i am new to the game, and i read the manual and the in game help fairly thorough. i still have a few questions.

1. how to you use alien artifacts? i found one, then i hauled it to my base, then i built a network node, but it didn't give me a technology breakthrough?? do i have to activate it somehow? or do i need something else besides a node? oh yeah, the in game help says that you can use an alien artifact to speed up your research, how do you do that?

2. what are talents?? do they work resource squares like regular workers? the manual says that talents speed up your research, how much? also, how do you get talents?

3. can you play against the AI, with a friend or two via isp?

[WhiteElephants]

Hydra -- 1) Once you build the node move it into the city and a window should pop up asking if you want to link it to the node, if you do you will get a new tech. If the AA is already in the city activate it and then hold it again and the window should pop up. The other thing you can do with AA's are use them to rush build secret projects and prototypes. They add 50 minerals to both.

2) You can use talents after your bases reach 5 population points. The talents do not work the surrounding area, but instead contribute effects all their own. As the game progresses and you accumulate different tech you will have different talents available to you. The early talents available are librarians which contribute +3 reasearch and ? which contribute +3 to your energy output. The important thing to remember about talents is that their bonuses are not effected by inefficency.

3) Not to sure about this. I think you can play with a friend over the net,you can play e-mail games, or you can play hotseat games together on the same computer.

Hope this helps and good luck.

[Misotu]

Hi Hydra628

Here is some information, though you'll probably get more and better from other people here.

1 Alien artifacts. You've done the right things by getting it back to a base with a node. All you need to do, next turn, is hit space bar when the artifact's move comes up. You will then get a number of options for what to do with it, including linking it to your node. If you accept this, you will immediately discover a technology that you don't have. This is what is meant by "speeding up your research".

2 Talents. Ah well, this is a big question. Talents are very happy citizens. Each very happy citizen cancels out the effect of a drone. Yes, your talents work squares like regular citizens. Talents can be created by many methods. If you are the Peacekeepers, you automatically get one talent per four (I think) population. But you can also create talents, by increasing the psych generated by the base. You can do this by a number of methods:

* Taking a worker off a square in the base screen, by clicking on a worked square. This will turn the worker into a specialist: a doctor, an empath, or a transcendi, depending on your tech level. Each of these specialists generates psych, and if the level in your base is high enough, talents will appear.

* Certain projects create talents. The earliest is the Human Genome Project, which will give you a talent per base.

* Change your social engineering settings to divert some energy to psych. Once you have energy going to psych, you will see talents appear in your bases. The more energy you divert to psych, the more talents you will have. Personally, I don't like to use this but many other people do.

* Certain base improvements increase psych output, and therefore the number of talents. These include the tree farm, the hologram theatre and the hybrid forest. Bear in mind that these only work in bases that have some psych output to start with - multiplying 0 by any number still gives you 0

Try these for starters ...

3 Yes you can have an IP game against another human player and assorted AI factions. Go to the multiplayer menu, and follow the instructions. If you are the host, you will need to give other player(s) your IP address so that they can locate you on the internet and join your game.

Enjoy and welcome to the boards

- Mis

[WhiteElephants]

Yeah, my mistake, Mistou is right about the talents. I was thinking of Specialists. Close, but no cigar.

[Misotu]

Sorry WE ... our posts crossed. I didn't realise you'd already replied. Did you play ACT021 yet by the way?

[WhiteElephants]

No sadly, I'm at work and I don't play my turns till I get home. Things sure seem to be heating up though! I usually don't play them till an hour and a half from now and then it goes to Mark13. Sorry, but you'll just have to be patient.

I apologize for the near tread jacking. Carry on!!!

[Misotu]

Oh. OK. Just keen to find out what happens next. Never thought I'd get to feel mildly affectionate towards the Spartans, but those elite tractors can do weird things to your head

On the subject of talents, though (threadjacking? not me) I should have mentioned the following two things:

* If the number of talents equals or exceeds the number of ordinary citizens in your base, *and* you have no drones, you will experience a "Golden Age" when growth and energy output are boosted. Some players like to go for this.

* If a golden age is not your aim, your only interest in talents is balancing drones. One talent will balance one drone, but if you can avoid creating drones, you will need fewer talents. And so, talents are not necessarily the most important consideration when thinking about the general happiness of a base. One way to approach it is actually to look at it as drone suppression, rather than talent creation. This means that garrison units, police powers and recreation commons are very important early considerations. You can get a long way into a game with no talents at all...

[mark13]

Mis, don't mention ACT021, I've already sabotaged the e-mail account once, we don't want him checking it again.....

One thing Misotu missed about Golden Ages (a rare occurence indeed ) - they increase Economy by +1 and Growth by +2 from your SE settings, but only at that base. Golden Ages are useful if you need to pop boom, but don't fancy going Planned economics (usually as the Peaceks, the efficiency hurts).

[RedFred]

Just a postscript on the AAs. You can also use them to rush prototypes (kind of a waste unless you are suddenly at war with the enemy at your doorstep), to rush build SPs (often a good choice early on in the game)

SMAC has some strange magic in it which allows you to intercept other faction's AAs even when you are not at war with them. Just attack it if it is unescorted.

Random newbie tip: If you build or capture an SP which gives you a new improvement in each base, be sure to sell off the duplicate improvement if you had built one before. For example, if you already had an aerospace complex and then get the Academy SP, sell off the duplicate aerospace complex. You'll be able to tell the duplicate because it will be asterisked. [took me forever to figure out this one!]

Or you could sell off the improvement ahead of time to get the cash to rush build the SP.

[Misotu]

Mark: I don't know how you did Plan B, but I'd like to know for some of my other games

On another note, thanks for posting the exact benefits of GA once again. For some reason, I can never remember them. I think it's because I'm allergic to psych allocation. Sometimes I try to point my mouse at the psych bar on the social engineering screen, but a higher force always intervenes

Having said that - tonight the higher force must've been off-duty or drunk or something because I took your advice in an MP game and looked at psych/FM with the PKs. Quite early in the game, not in full-blown pop-boom mode. Well, whaddya know? I lose one pop next turn. I double my income, and take a year off research rates. I wasn't about to build anything anyway, so the -1 industry is irrelevant, in a single turn I make enough extra energy to switch back to planned for "free" when I need it. Astonishing. You live and learn ...

[mark13]

Always a pleasure to be of service, Misotu.

Another thing you can do with GAs, to get you to the coveted +2 econ without FM:

Run wealth, jack the psych allocation up to around 40% for a turn, and watch the GAs come flooding in. Your economy, at most bases, will now be at +2. Then, reset psych allocation to 20%, and the GAs will stay, because of the extra energy generated by the +2 econ. In this way, you can have a half-decent economy, and not have to worry about pacifism, very useful if you are at war, of course.

Another side-effect, (if you run democratic, that is, and assuming you have CCs up) is your ability to pop boom, because of the extra +2 growth. This can be soooo useful early-mid game, when your economy is still finding it's feet, and you don't want to worry about inefficiency.

[VoodooChild]

Footnote about Talents and Drones...

Depending on what causes the change in your "Happiness" will determine the effects of what you see in your population from the base screen.

If a building or project says that it will create less drones, then one of those red (angry) fellows will be changed to blue (content)

If a building or project says that it will create a talant, then one of those blue (content) fellows will be changes to white (happy)

Ajustments made to your psyc from any source will fall under the "create a talant" catagory

[MariOne]

I'd like to "complete" the good info gathered here, adding a note about AA capture (RedFred's post).

You don't need to attack AA: you just have to get NEAR (adjacent) to a lone one, to capture it! It works even if it's the artifact moving next to your units! So, BEWARE when you move YOUR AA in unexplored/unpatrolled terrain, you could gift it to an unspotted neighbor, even to a pactmate.
OR, you can conquer an AA if it's stacked with other units, you attack the units and kill them. If the artifact is left alone on the field, you'll conquer it instaed of killing it as with non-combat units.
Catch: if an artifact is alone inside an enemy base, you have to attack the base, getting adjacent to it won't be enough.

[Misotu]

quote: Originally posted by mark13 on 10-27-2000 10:18 AM Run wealth, jack the psych allocation up to around 40% for a turn, and watch the GAs come flooding in ...

What a great tip. This will be my next move, as soon as I get the tech for wealth ... how excellent. It'll make such a change to run something other than Dem/Plan/Wealth.

That's what I love about this game. Always something new to try