alien artefacts on water - what do you do? (& use of them)

[Drago Sinio]

The ability to capture ships, Marine Detachment, doesnt apply to IOD's. Of course any of the Green factions have some chance of capturing them as they always have.

You can capture enemy sea formers with marine detachment.

And dont forget that building the transports is not as expensive as you think, due to the many pods that contain credits or free builds. Also the advantages of early contact with other factions.

I like to have at least one ship out popping pods at all times.

Although I usually use plain unarmored trance gun foils or cruisers rather than transports, becuase they have more movement points, so they explore more territory earlier and pop more pods than a transport could. Also when they pop a data pod, you get the tech right away, without having to transport an alien artifact all the way back to a network node.

And they are so cheap I dont care if they get killed by Iods. If they survive a few attacks and build up morale, I bring them home and upgrade them as base defenders.

[Daniel Senz]

maybe i am to long-term-orienated; you are right, the other goodies to get are quite valuable. i am at the stand that artefacts can save tons of energy in mid-game and maybe allow you to get those SPs like the "clouds"...

i am not sure how the percentage of the random events charges when using transports - but the last dozends of games tend me to think that artefacts on sea are times more the case than other things.

due to the "expensivness" of the units i think i have to explain that at the time of starting huge exploring my empire usually not even reached the "critical mass" (about turn 30 or 40); but using transports on far-way-journeys may allow me to take a lonely island (which sometimes reveals at a huge empty continent)

same reason is on cruiser chassis; i just reached flexibility but i am yet far away from doc:init (tech stag or 1/10 of normal tech development)

[johndmuller]

I wonder whether popping a sea pod with a non-transport unit results in always getting an IoD on those occasions when an AA would have apppeared if you were using a transport unit or if it is randomized. (I've never gotten a (doomed to drown) AA when I've popped without transport, so I'm assuming that it doesn't happen and that you always get something else.) If the odds of getting the IoD are greatly increased by non-transport popping, it would be worth factoring in, one way or another - depending.

[RedFred]

Any sea pod pop which would have required the transport such as getting a Rover, Ogre or AA; will result in an IoD if you use a foil instead of a transport. This is explicitly stated in one of the more popular SMAC guides.

You can pop an "instabuild" from the sea regardless of what unit you use. IIRC you can get a tech either way too, can someone confirm?

While it is nice that IoD's of your own can transport as well as fight, I have a very poor record of keeping them alive in the early game.

[Sikander]

Originally posted by RedFred
Any sea pod pop which would have required the transport such as getting a Rover, Ogre or AA; will result in an IoD if you use a foil instead of a transport. This is explicitly stated in one of the more popular SMAC guides.

You can pop an "instabuild" from the sea regardless of what unit you use. IIRC you can get a tech either way too, can someone confirm?

While it is nice that IoD's of your own can transport as well as fight, I have a very poor record of keeping them alive in the early game.

This all seems to be true in my experience. And yes you can get a tech from the sea. I seem to only try this in the early game as the Pirates, where it becomes something of an industry. It really helps me get those early SPs. Later I think it is wise to build an armored (can be synthmetal) trance-port. Trance should keep this guy alive most of the time. If you build the SP that gives you +50% psi defense your trance-ports should only fear enemy ships. Even in the mid to late game picking up pods can be very lucrative. At this point you should use a cruiser, hopefully with an advanced reactor. The increased movement and cargo capacity allow these ships to range far and wide. I really hate to make a long trip home before I have cleaned out an area because I can't carry any more AAs. (Well ok I don't hate it, but it's more efficient to continue popping pods if you are halfway around the globe from your bases.)

[Earwicker]

Unless I'm using an IoD (or have an IoD or cruiser escort), I'll usually send a transport to base after picking up the first couple of AA's or ogres. Pod-harvesting is rolling the dice, and I'd rather get AA's plugged in than risk losing them to an unlucky IoD pop (esp if by that point the transport is carrying 4-5 AA's, ouch!) I try to have lots of folks wandering around to get the rest of the goodies, so not too much time is lost by sending the successful hunter home.

And I somehow missed the part about AA/rover/ogre seapods always being IoD's when popped by non-transports. That's good to know.