Why is it a cheat?

[Googlie]

Misotu and MariOne:

I read and agree - from a game perspective - that it is enriched by the creativity of the human mind. And I accept that it is not intended to mimic real life (or futuristic envisioned life). I'm jusdt saying that I preferred the Civ II approach - gifting the unit gifted the technology.

But...

Let's say you have fusion, and I don't, but I have D:AP. You send my way a 1-1-1(2*). Now all of a sudden I can build fusion needlejets? Bit of a stretch to say that my scientists are able to replicate the drive, mass produce it and install it on jets all based on a fusion power pack carried by an infantryman.

"Horst - what the heck do these iodised titanium deflector baffles do?"

"Damned if I know, Chuck. But let's replicate them anyway, 14 times bigger, and slap them in the engine nacelles and keep our fingers crossed."

"OOh, they work. Hooray"

Yeah, right.



But I'm obviously in a minority, so I'll hold my peace and instead strategize how I can work with my pactmates in the various PBEM's to exploit reverse engineering



G.

[Rift]

quote: Originally posted by Googlie on 04-22-2001 10:33 AM Misotu and MariOne: Let's say you have fusion, and I don't, but I have D:AP. You send my way a 1-1-1(2*). Now all of a sudden I can build fusion needlejets? Bit of a stretch to say that my scientists are able to replicate the drive, mass produce it and install it on jets all based on a fusion power pack carried by an infantryman.

It is possible, since you have the basic design of the fusion pack. All you need to do is to modify it to fit the needlejet. It should take time, energy, and resources, but it can be done. What brings on this argument is probably the fact that you don't need to do anything to modify the design; the game does it by itself, when it should take up mineral, energy, and turns.

[Googlie]

Rift:

Now there's a thought. You should lose, say half of your accumulated research points when retro-engineering as your scientists have been diverted from their mission.

But the game hasn't been programmed that way.

And I have to agree with an earlier post. the fact that the tech was deemed to have been given in CivII, and not in SMAC suggetss that the game designers reckoned it a feature, allowable thru the workshop (by not carrying forward that particular piece of program code)

So I guess I'll live with it (LOL, can't do anything about it)

G.

[Thantos]

Well if the technology exists on the planet, and you are in contact with that nation it only goes to reason that commerce is also going on. For instance you could see the theft of a unit and the rights to reverse engineering it as gaining a liscense to produce it locally. Or as your espianage sources using purchases of noncmilitary production from other countries and converting it to military use. For instance buying a huey putting a couple of machine guns and rockets on it and calling it an attack helo.