Just what CAN you do on a Volcano?

[Kassiopeia]

knowhow2, how come if I recall correctly then there is also the Unity wreckage, possibly on the other side of Planet? Haven't played in a while so someone confirm this.
I would suggest it's a product of nature like the one in Mexico, and named probably by someone from the Unity folks after the captain.

I think I heard a rumor that if you are playing Miriam, and all your bases are arranged in perfect symmetry around the Volcano, the game will let you build a new base on top of the Volcano - if you then make that base Miriam's HQ, it will automatically get the Voice of Planet as a free facility! Another variation of that rumor had it that you had to also capture and interrogate Brother Lal at that base as well; so who knows?

[Kirnwaffen]

IRC Garland is the name of the Captain on Unity. So the Crater should be the rest of Unity (crashed on planet).

That was my understanding as well. Then the Unity wreckage appeared in SMAX, and I've been confused ever since.

[Googlie]

And talking of which (the Unity wreckage) - how come the faction discovering it (and moving around it) gets the energy bonus from the core, and yet you can still call a Council meeting to 'salvage the Unity core'

Surely if a faction has explored and exploited the wreckage that option should then be disabled for Council activities.

Googlie

[Kirnwaffen]

Surely if a faction has explored and exploited the wreckage that option should then be disabled for Council activities.

But that would make way too much sense...

[knowhow2]

Well I still think it would be strange to name a existing Crater after you dead captain. Anyway, confusion is the name.

[aaglo]

Re: DANCE!!!

Originally posted by MariOne
Oh, I was almost forgetting...
What can you do on a Volcano???
You can DANCE!!!

Genesis = Great music in the seventies, a bit lame after that. "You'd better start doing it right!"

And talking of which (the Unity wreckage) - how come the faction discovering it (and moving around it) gets the energy bonus from the core, and yet you can still call a Council meeting to 'salvage the Unity core'

IIRC, there were two fusion cores in the Unity. When the ship broke apart, the 'bigger' core stayed in orbit and 'smaller' core came down with the rest of us.

And I think that garland crater is only a landform named by factions - propably they saw it from the orbit. Or it might be the remnants of the secret "eight faction", whose escape pod wasn't so lucky.

[wheathin]

Build a base on the Volcano

I a recent game, Mount Planet was right in the middle of a set of bonuses. Santiago build a base at the peak, which I took from her. It had the base tile (which gets the Volcano bonuses, I think), all the side tiles, and then 4 !! bonuses, two food and two mineral, on the downward slopes.

That base ROCKED. Lots of SPs, units, etc. - who needs boreholes? I did farm-solar on the non-rocky tiles, and mines on the rocky tiles.

As far as I know, that is the best thing to do with the Volcano.

[Fitz]

Re: Re: DANCE!!!

Originally posted by aaglo
IIRC, there were two fusion cores in the Unity. When the ship broke apart, the 'bigger' core stayed in orbit and 'smaller' core came down with the rest of us.

Actually, I was confused too until I noticed that when you get the 200ec from the landmark, it calls it the "secondary" fusion core.

[MariOne]

Thank you jdm for pointing me out this undocumented inconsistency in the game parameters.
From your first post I had the impression that you could have been assuming the basic yields erroneously.
I didn't get that you were specifically referring to "peculiar" volcano mineral yields, tested different from what the game mechanics declare.

Indeed, now I'm testing it too and these are the results.

MineRoad: flat=1 rolling=2 rocky=4
+ Volcano: flat=3 rolling=4 rocky=6

Volcano itself would positively confer only +1 to the tile yield.
This means that a MineRoad gives a 3rd +1 bonus, on a volcano tile
But BEWARE, while the rocky bonus is cumulative with both the MinSpecial bouns or the Volcano bonus...
the Volcano +1 bonus for a MineRoad is NOT CUMULATIVE with the MinSpecial +1 bonus.

So, if you have a MinSpecial on a Volcano tile, you'll get 5-6-8 for the 3 tiles, getting only +2 for the Special over the non-special situation, while on non-volcano tiles with a MineRoad you get +2+1 where you have a MinSpecial...

I hope this is confused enough to push everybody to make their own tests!

[MariOne]

PS: I was forgetting (this is a classic for me, you know the aging...)

I tested it with Garland Crater too, and with Nessus Canyon.
The behavior is the same.

So rather than speaking of a 3r +1 mineral bonus for the MineRoad compund on Volcano tiles we should speak of that bonus for any MineralEnhancingLandmark tile (MEL bonus?).

In synthesis, it's a good thing to MineRoad a MEL.

___
PPS:
thus, a RollingMEL tile is equivalent to a normal rocky tile, with respect to MineRoading.
And a RockyMEL tile would be even better than a RollingSpecial tile.
With the catch that a MEL doesn't lift mineral restrictions, so the latter comment DNA in the early game.

Also, I wonder whether Rocky Craterbed tiles can be as frequent as Rocky Volcanoside tiles. To my recollection, I harldy remeber a Rocky Craterbed (usually all those tiles are rolling)...

[gwillybj]

knowhow2: IIRC Garland is the name of the Captain on Unity. So the Crater should be the rest of Unity (crashed on planet).

Kirnwaffen: That was my understanding as well. Then the Unity wreckage appeared in SMAX, and I've been confused ever since.

The Unity Wreckage is just that, the spaceship.
The Garland Crater is the man himself. You freefall 50 or 60 thousand feet with no parachute and see how big a crater you make.

[Adalbertus]

))

gwillybj: You freefall 50 or 60 thousand feet with no parachute and see how big a crater you make.

Sorry, I have to disappoint you. On the moon, you might have a chance to create such big a crater. Due to the resistance of air, each falling body will reach a final speed. The speed at which you arrive on the earth is the same if you fell from a plane at 10 km or a building of 100m height. And if you are not very lucky, you are dead anyway (I've heard rumours about one stewardess falling from a plane which had the big luck to fall from a plane on the side of a steep hill where she rolled down ... and survived. Don't even try it )
As the atmosphere of Chiron has a higher density than Earth, the final speed will be even lower.
For those in doubt: The big craters like the one of Mexico is due to the big mass of a meteorite of several kilometers in diameter. So, even from physical reasons I would doubt that Garland crater is from Unity or Captain Garland falling on Planet.

Conclusion: Look for its existence beforehand

[RedFred]

Yeah, it would make sense for the new inhabitants of Planet to name a naturally occurring landmark after the deceased leader of the expedition.

As far as Mt. Planet goes, sometimes I'll go straight energy park, more typically I will road/mine the rocky tiles and solar the rest. If there is any free space lower down I might add in a mirror or two.

I honestly haven't seen the AI build any bases on the exact centre of the volcano since patched SMACX. But they still seem to build any number of other improvements that I can't make. I think I have seen the sensor array most often.

[GeneralTacticus]

It's possible to build a base in the crater if it's rolling and not rocky. It actually makes quite a good base site, as the base square is 2 nuts/2mins/2energy, which isn't at all bad. It's only possible some of the time though.

[RedFred]

Not sure I follow the General. I have never noticed any special restrictions for building bases inside the Garland Crater. Unless he is talking about the lava dome on top of Mt. Planet, but I never have been successful building there.