GA pop boom in SMAC

[mark13]

It has always been my experience that the GA pop boom (as seems to be the consensus) is broken in SMAC, and was fixed with SMACX v2. However, in another thread, Freshman had indicated that he'd been successful in pulling off a GA pop boom with Morgan, in his OCC.

I've just been to test it out, and I simply can't get it to work - Morgan running Dem/FM/Creche/GA simply won't pop boom....however, the number of nutrients needed for growth does decrease. I've also tried Lal in a number of different scenarios using this technique (i.e. without switching to planned) and the number of times I've sworn because I've forgotten that I'm playing SMAC is....well, too many.

Has anyone else had any success with this critical Morgan technique in classic SMAC?

[Hydro]

mark13,

Based on my limited Morgan experience, he does not pop in Classic under GA - he simply grows more quickly (which is something at least). I fired up a SMAX game with Morgan and STILL wasn't able to boom. It's possible that I'm mucking it up, but I had plenty of nutrients and had the SE Dem/FM/Wealth+creche+hab and 20%psych for GA. I gave it 2 turns for the pop, but no luck (just normal growth as the nutrient tank filled up). Just like in Classic, I grew faster but not 1/turn. So, I gave up on GA and went for cash and research. I'll try it again just in case...

Hydro

[WhiteElephants]

I've seen my opponent, who was playing Morgan in an SMACX MP game, pop boom.

[Blake]

Apparentely it works in Mac SMAC.
(Can a Mac'er confirm or deny this?)

I'm not sure what ramifications this would have on a multiplayer game with mixed mac/PC.

[mark13]

Oh right, that would explain it, thanks Blake ....presumably it works on the Linux version as well?

[freshman]

Yes - it was I who stated in the other thread that Morgan can indeed pop-boom. I have the SMAC classic version 1.5.2 for the Macintosh; perhaps the only version which does allow it.

I also noted I needed 2 surplus food to pop - is that pretty much standard?

So yes - for Mac - tested verified verified verified.

So if playing Morgan in multiplayer - better buy a Mac!!

[freshman]

Are there any SMAC patches for the PC that fix this problem for Morgan?

My guess is that for the Mac, by the time they came out with the 1.5.2 patch for classic SMAC, SMAX had already been written, and so the bug fix that went into SMAX went into the patch for classic.

Hmm..

Need a Fireaxis connection to reveal the truth...

[mark13]

That's settled then, and I'm disappointed - I can see this being very unbalancing in MP games, where both PCs and Macs are often used in the same game.

Yeah, 2 surplus food is standard in SMAC - unlike Civ2's WTL*D's, of course.

And yes, your theory on the Mac version is probably accurate - Firaxis most likely couldn't be bothered to incorporate this into a v5 patch.

[civcop]

Booming for Mac vs. PC

I suspect that Macs will boom as Morgan while PCs will not due to Firaxis. They probably snuck this feature into the Mac version to help them compensate for using an inferior computer

The ultimate oxymoron is: Power Mac

[freshman]

So I confused about the griping -
Can't people who want to pop-boom with Morgan on a PC just buy SMAX? Isn't that a desirable thing to have anyway?

And keep Mac insults out of this discussion !.

[buster]

Well in Multiplaying all players play either Smac or Smacx. Often games are Smac classic due to some player not having smacx.

Besides this it is also my clear experience that GA pop boom does not work in SMAC, while it does work in Smacx.

It would indeed be unbalancing if it works on MAC or Linux editions. Hope the ones that did the platform ports did not try to be helpful by incorporation all the other smacx fixes too.

Then we will need to work out some balancing scheme - like the Mac players can GA pop boom while the pc players are alowed to do multiple airdrops.

[mark13]

Yeah, I'm really talking about MP here - SP is a non-issue, because the AI can't cope with you anyway, pop boom or no pop boom....

Buster - great idea. Now, who here has a Mac? Fancy an MP game?

[WhiteElephants]

Wouldn't being able to golden age pop boom in SMAC with Morgan or the Hive just make things fair and not unbalanced?

[MariOne]

WE,
we all expected in the beginning that the game would have behaved as stated in the manuals, and all were surprised to know that the GA boom effect was broken.
This forced the players from the very beginning to adapt their playing style, I'd say even more, their perception of the game, to the fact that 2 of the factions lacked the ability to boom (early, that is).

Despite the broken GA effect would have let us think that it was a bug, the fact that we could live with it, and that once the Hive or Morgan got to boom thanks to CV they easily get to dominate the game, our habit even grew into the convinction that it was a feature or correction introduced at the last minute, which could not make it into the manual or the datalinks.

When finally we discovered that it was fixed in SMAX, 2 years of play were so radicated in us that we practically had two DIFFERENT games in our hand.

I can't say really what would be more balanced.
I have been able to win both with Hive and Morgan in SMAC (I always only talk of MP obviously), and against decent opponents.

I just think that GA-boom SMAC/X and NOT GA-boom SMAC/X would be two DISTINCT games.

_____


I would not say that FurXs weren't bothered to include the fix in a SMACv5 patch: they weren't bothered to issue the patch at all.
I was already angry with them.
Now getting to know that they included the fix in the ports of the Classic version, has done it.

I will DEFINITELY not give a cent to those bastards for Civ III. I'll grab the first warez version of it I'll find, and I'll be proud of it.

[freshman]

wooaa, MariOne

You're this upset at Fireaxis over a bug like this?
I'm not even sure Fireaxis is the one which handles the port to Mac; it could have been an inadvertant fix by the port company - you don't know their intent.

If you would like the GA fix - just get V.2 of SMAX.
If not, and it looks like you've been able to live with it, live with it.

I believe Fireaxis has done a great job overall. You have really blown this one little thing out of proportion. How much value have you gotten out of this $20-$50 game? 100 hours of fun? 1000 hours of fun? You could pay up to $4000 to see 500 movies (1000 hours of entertainment). Fireaxis should be rewarded for their efforts, and not admonished for a mistake anyone can make. No software is perfect How many details did they get right? You'll never know - because you probably don't know the first thing about programming.