Auto Terraforming?

[Emvepe]

I was just wondering what some of the veteran SMAC players though about auto terraforming. I like to have 3 formers for every base i have and set them all to auto.. Also if I do manual terraforming are there any special techniques or anything I could try??

[Mr. President]

Hoo boy. You're going to get an earful about the evils of automation in SMAC.

I tend to set my formers to automatic, and manage base production myself, simply because I really don't like micromanaging every tiny little detail.

[Pandemoniak]

i dont like micromanaging either but i just hate when my former put solars on my nice condensors

[Main_Brain]

2 Formers at bigger Bases..
1 to Autoimprove Base and the Second for Global Task (Fungusremoval,Roads..)

Anyone who manages all Formers has Waaaay to much Time on hand ;=)
You always have way more Formers than AttackUnits (me has) .. and If i'd manage them all *shudders*

[RedFred]

This question comes up often enough that it probably should be included in the sticky FAQ thread.

The great players of the game tend to be control freaks. So 'auto' anything is seldom used. As far as autoformers go, why condemn your self to the same level of decision making as the AI?

Autoformers will not only make idiotic decisions, but they will also preclude more imaginitive use of forming methods including energy parks and strategic use of terraform up and down.

Vel's strat guide brings up the important concept of turn advantage. Each and every decision you make that allows you to grow more quickly, build more quickly or even research more quickly and get ahead of everyone else is a key to winning.

Sure you can beat up on the AI with a lot of bad habits, but sooner or later the challenge of excelling at single player or playing other humans will be too interesting to ignore.

The hotkey commands will allow you to deal with your formers in the blink of an eye. The suggestion that people who manually form have way too much time on their hands doesn't seem reasonable; I spend more time on rush build decisions, what to build decisions and even diplomacy and troop movement in the typical turn.

[Method]

Originally posted by Main_Brain
Anyone who manages all Formers has Waaaay to much Time on hand

i'll only stop managing all my formers when i'm a few turns away from winning (especially conquest, i'll only move my attack units), and concentrate on getting victory as quickly as possible. i NEVER automate.


(anymore)

[Sargoth]

aoutomate is for newbs. (aa excluded)

[Emvepe]

So if i do manual terraforming what should I build???? Certain things on certain squares or does it matter and should I make lots of forests or just farms solars and stuff and what about boreholes and ... Ahhh its all confusing

[Method]

i mine all the rocky squares, and then crawl them. i'll build boreholes on the coasts, or on energy or mineral resource tiles. i'll put crawled condensors on all the nutrient resources, and lacking those, i'll just put them anywhere. the rest is forest. i never farm/solar anymore.

[Blake]

So if i do manual terraforming what should I build???? Certain things on certain squares or does it matter and should I make lots of forests or just farms solars and stuff and what about boreholes and ... Ahhh its all confusing

Forest'n'forget will do you very well. That means, plant forest in every tile, early in the game you should prefer not to plant it on rolling/rainy tiles but it wont really matter. So basically everywhere you can, plant forest (allow it to expand naturally over fungus).
There are two things you can do to rocky tiles: Level them, and plant forest, or mine+road+crawl. Both take about the same amount of former effort and it really comes down to personal taste (some like the look of a perfectely forested territory).

The key to success with Forest'n'forget is improving forest output by building treefarms and hybrid forests in bases. The really nice thing is once you've forested you really can forget, all future improvement is done in bases.

Personally I use a slight variation, I forest until I get to around level-5 techs, then start drilling boreholes with my spare former power. Then in the sea I build only kelp+tidal and upgrade the output with Aquafarm + Thermocline (SMAC only). This gives me lots of extra food for working more boreholes.

You will find that using forest'n'forget you get much better resource output, with a very acceptable level of micromanagment. In fact due to your improved resources the game will be won quicker, meaning ultimately less micromanagment.

[Emvepe]

So forests are better then farms???????????

[Blake]

That summarises it quite nicely.
Just remember to build tree farms as soon as possible to boost the food output and your away.

[Sikander]

Another way to terraform is to maximize your borehole density, which requires a rigid adherence to the pattern (boreholes can't be placed next to one another), and farm / condensor (and eventually) soil enricher all other tiles. This allows a tight base spacing with plenty of minerals and energy per base, and by using crawlers on your nutrient squares, plenty of specialists also. It is heavy on the former time though, and I don't do it until I have already put forests all over the place.

[gwillybj]

The only automated terraforming I ever found the least bit useful was fungus removal, but I stopped using it because, instead of clearing one patch and moving to an adjacent patch, they ran around all over the place, sometimes even through one fungus patch to go to some other. Now I run the whole show. I can't work, so I have plenty of time. Unless, of course, they fix my brain - or it explodes.

[Emvepe]

Originally posted by Sikander
Another way to terraform is to maximize your borehole density, which requires a rigid adherence to the pattern (boreholes can't be placed next to one another), and farm / condensor (and eventually) soil enricher all other tiles. This allows a tight base spacing with plenty of minerals and energy per base, and by using crawlers on your nutrient squares, plenty of specialists also. It is heavy on the former time though, and I don't do it until I have already put forests all over the place.

Could you set up a few bases this way and make a save file so I can see exactly what you mean and/or post some screenshots? This would help me alot and I would praise the ground you walked on!! =]