SMAC 2

[Nakar Gabab]

I think he means Fortify, Darsnan, or whatever the "remain immobile and don't accept orders until I say, adopting a defensive posture" is.

However, SMAC has several ways of doing this, unlike Civ3, so that may be what he's thinking of (fortification in Civ3 is very obvious).

[Mongoose]

There is no defensive bonus for doing so in SMAC, unlike Civ2 or Civ3. Indeed, in SMAC, the command is 'hold' not fortify.

[gwillybj]

how to Dig In

When not in a base you might consider Sentry instead of Hold.
From the manual, pages 96 and 97, with some highlighting:

Sentry/Board Transport {L}
The unit stands down to repair itself, while posting sentries and maintaining a state of readiness. It stays in position and does not reactivate unless:

• it repairs itself to the maximum it can achieve under current field conditions
• an enemy unit enters an adjacent square
• it is attacked by artillery

If used in a base, this command causes the unit to automatically board any transport that has room for it.

That is an excellent way to use Bunkers. The unit will sit silently until it needs orders. If all is quiet for several turns, you might forget it's out there.

Hold This Position {H}
The unit stays in its current position indefinitely. You must activate it directly to change its orders.

A unit with the Hold order will just sit there and ignore everything happening around and to it until you tell it otherwise, while a unit with the Load order will wake up and request orders.
Because the unit will not move without your order to do so, this is sometimes more desirable than the Alert order:

Place Unit On Alert {Shift+L}
Orders a unit to hold in the current square until an enemy unit comes within its movement range, then attack automatically. Air interceptor units automatically attack air units. Bomber units attack land and sea units. Naval units attack naval units and transports. Land units attack adjacent land units.

Other than the "Interceptors on Alert" bug some players experience (I do use the command and have yet to have a problem) there is the (sometimes) unwanted action of your air or naval unit moving out of position to attack.

[Finarfin]

Originally posted by Nakar Gabab
I think he means Fortify, Darsnan, or whatever the "remain immobile and don't accept orders until I say, adopting a defensive posture" is.

However, SMAC has several ways of doing this, unlike Civ3, so that may be what he's thinking of (fortification in Civ3 is very obvious).

I didn't install SMAX (my all time favorite game, btw) on my new system so I haven't played it in a while. I could've sworn, though, that there was a command to Fortify a unit, gaining a defensive bonus vs. attack. Maybe it's bunkers I'm thinking of, and units cannot get a defensive bonus on their own (other than terrain).

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Finarfin


I didn't install SMAX (my all time favorite game, btw) on my new system so I haven't played it in a while. I could've sworn, though, that there was a command to Fortify a unit, gaining a defensive bonus vs. attack. Maybe it's bunkers I'm thinking of, and units cannot get a defensive bonus on their own (other than terrain).

like your nickname

[Finarfin]

Originally posted by lord of the mark


like your nickname

Looks like we draw from the same sources.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Finarfin


Looks like we draw from the same sources.

yeah but the silm is much more obscure than LOTR.

I always get Finarfin, Fingolfin, Finwe and all those Finns mixed up.

[Alinestra Covelia]

Re: SMAC2 addies

Originally posted by Darsnan
I think, from a military perspective, that minefields are a must: give all units the ability to plant minefields (in "X" number of turns), and have the "minefield attack" equivalent to an arty barrage for all enemy units transgressing the mined square.

This would be a cool addition. You could also designate a special power (say, the existing "ECM" power) that would allow a unit to sidestep some or all of the damage in minefields. (This power IIRC is free for infantry units, so a minefield would essentially slow down rover units so that the infantry can make it up to escort them through safely.)

Hovertanks would be invulnerable to minefield damage, for reasons that should be obvious.

Formers could deactivate minefields but it takes a fair number of turns (say, double whatever it took to plant them in the first place) and because formers can't have the ECM ability, they'd need infantry to guard them at all times. Finally, squares that are protected by minefields cannot be harvested by any base (this could lead to interesting seige tactics).

A unit would only suffer damage upon moving into a minefield. Once in a mined square, the unit no longer suffers damage, but may suffer a defense penalty to simulate the difficulties of navigating around unknown mines. We could also say that the square drains all movement points as per fungus unless a road is present. (Perhaps roads could take 1/2 movement point through mines instead of 1/3?)

Also, concerning cities: since the populace has the capability to riot, and in some instances even defect, why I would think that they might also have the opportunity to actively participate in a battle for their city: make it a function of the attacking enemies Social Choices, as well as what, if any atrocities have been committed by the enemy.

I don't know if a specific new mechanic is needed to deal with cities, but I think that the SE table should have had a rating for drone activity. As it is, the closest you get is POLICE, which is related but not congruent to discontent. One thing I liked a lot from Civ3 was the way the game remembered what nation the individual citizens came from, and if you waged war against that nation, these citizens would immediately become drones. This would slow conquest right down for even the most battle hardened faction.

Also, two tweaks that I would definitely make would be to downpower the Aerospace complex (or equivalent) improvement so that it only grants EITHER morale/healing OR defence bonus and not both. I would also downpower choppers - perhaps making them able to attack once per movement point against units in the field, but giving them a serious penalty in base assaults to represent their relative vulnerability. In my games of SMAC I just take them straight out as it currently stands.

Either way, very good ideas and ones that I hope will be implemented once we hack Firaxis grants us the source code.

[Maniac]

but I think that the SE table should have had a rating for drone activity.

Good news for you. There is a SE factor that affects # of drones and talents. It's called the TALENT SE factor. I suggest you do a search for it in the alphax.txt . That SE factor isn't used in the official version SE choices, but it still works. Though if you adapt some SE choice in the alphax.txt, the change won't show in-game in the SE screen, as no icon is available to represent the TALENT SE factor.

As for the effects, I tested it more than two years ago, when I was creating my (never completed due to lack of time and problems with alphax.txt) Earth scenario. As a consequence I can no longer recall what the detailed exact effects are, but simply said it gives factions with a positive TALENT rate extra talents, and those with a negative TALENT rate more drones. IIRC a downpoint was the range of effect was quite small. Only from -2/3 to +2/3 I think. In other words, TALENT +5 wouldn't give you a bigger effect than TALENT +3, just like RESEARCH +6 gives you the same research bonus as RESEARCH +5.

[gwillybj]

Negative Resource Modifiers

I like the minefield concepts!

I have some ideas on negative resource modifiers for the Landmarks, maybe adding editable lines to the #RULES section similar to the one for Mines so the effects can be optional:
-1, ; Nutrient effect in mine square (0 or -1)

• Monsoon Jungle and manually-placed Jungle tiles now give +1Nutrient.
  Take -1 Mineral.
• Uranium Flats and manually-placed Uranium tiles now give +1Energy.
  Take -1 Nutrient.
• Great Dunes and manually-placed Dunes tiles now act like Arid, with 0 Nutrients.
  (I think that's right; I will check and update).
  Take -1 Nutrient. This would make Farms unproductive, which is the idea: hoping to stop the AI from Farming the Dunes, but to Forest or Fungus instead. It probably won't work; they'll Solar or Mine and suffer from the Nutrient shortage.

For reference, these are the Landmark bonus resources:

• +1 Energy in Geothermal Shallows, Mount Planet (and Volcano), Pholus Ridge, and Uranium Flats.
• +1 Mineral in Garland Crater (and Asteroid Crater) and Mount Planet (and Volcano).
• +1 Nutrient in Freshwater Sea and Monsoon Jungle.