Drop Pods, Ships, and "Commuter Flights"

[The Mad Monk]

I know that drop pods are disabled for ships, and you can't "drop" into water tiles anyway, but if you activated drop pods for ships (in alphax.txt), could you drop into bases?

(Are you contemplating what I'm contemplating, Pinky?)

[Lazerus]

narf

[Jamski]

Then you can make "dropships"

Isn't it possible to use a 1-1-1(drop,transport) to drop into a sea base?

-Jam

[The Mad Monk]

Sure, but an infantry drop transport only moves one, period.

A drop foil could move two to eight in a single shot, and a drop cruiser, four to sixteen...and since the base square appears to ignore whether it's on land or sea, that dropship () could service interior bases at 3500 meters.

It would be a great way to move around masses of formers, crawlers, or...whatever.

[Googlie]

Well, in Cocoon I the Aliens lifted a ship, so presumably they could drop one??

[jtsisyoda]

"I think so, Brain, but where can we get handcuffs and a whip at this hour?"

I loved that toon.

Has anybody gotten a dropship to work? Sounds cool.

[The Mad Monk]

I'll let you know, once I get far enough in my current game.

[Enigma_Nova]

* Enigma opens up Alphax.txt. *
* Enigma tinkers around *
Ah yes here we are.

change the line
Drop Pods, 2, MindMac, Drop, 000000111001, Makes air drops

To
Drop Pods, 2, MindMac, Drop, 000000111011, Makes air drops

This will allow all ships to have the drop pods ability.

Or, if you keep that original line, and directly under it add:

Drop Pods, 2, MindMac, Drop, 000101101010, Makes air drops

So that the two lines in alphax.txt read:

Drop Pods, 2, MindMac, Drop, 000000111001, Makes air drops
Drop Pods, 2, MindMac, Drop, 000101101010, Makes air drops

Then you can build drop ship transports without dropping all ships.
Note that the last string of 1s and 0s was copied from the 'carrier deck' ability - and if I'm not mistaken this allows airplane dropships if you build a ship with the 2 special abilities!

...

Clever, aren't I?

[The Mad Monk]

Anywho, I've gotten far enough to try this in my current game. So, I create the new design, and upgrade a spare transport cruiser, which is sitting just outside a base.

Using the context menu, I order it to drop into a seabase -- it dosen't work, and tells me I cannot drop into water.

Next, I order it to drop into an inland base -- this works (yay!).

I then reload, and try dropping it inland, not into a base -- it works, and I'm looking at a transport cruiser sitting on a patch of rocky terrain at 2300 meters.

I finish the turn, and go back to where I left the cruiser -- it has disappeared.

[Barinthus]

Ah I guess that ship went to where the Lost Ark has been, eh?

[The Mad Monk]

Heh.

Next test will involve passengers -- I doubt they would disappear along with the ship, but it pays to be sure. Also, I have to see if the ship will disappear when left in an inland base -- I don't think it will, but again, it pays to be sure.

I was surprised I wasn't allowed to drop in a seabase.

[The Mad Monk]

Well, it definately survives when left in inland bases. I'm just tooling around with it, dropping it into another base on every turn -- not much else I can do with it, at the moment (unless I want to use the blatant cheat on the context menu), since I don't have world-spanning drops yet.

I also enabled droppods for aircraft, and the heavy transport ability (tagged to planetary economics). The transport noodle I designed using those two abilites can carry two units, and survive three turns outside of a base (one for the drop, and then both turns' worth of fuel).

[Jamski]

We should set up a PBEM with these modified alpha.txt stuff.

-Jam

[Darsnan]

Originally posted by Jamski
We should set up a PBEM with these modified alpha.txt stuff.

-Jam

This is a really good idea! Essentially the players for the game agree upon a modified alpha(x).txt file. Each then does a second loading of SMAC(X) onto their D: drive (which the second loading will operate independently of the original loading), and replaces the original alpha(x).txt file with the agreed to modified one. Then let the games begin!
Essentially I am working on a mod for SMAX, and am building it on my D: drive. I just posted a Challenge over at CGN based upon my modified alphax.txt file. Although I can't impart everything I have modified into this Challenge (in my alphax.txt I've simulated a higher gravity by decreasing air unit movement by two and sea movement by one), why it gives players a good idea as to how different you can make the game play.
So if there is interest in playing a PBEM with a modified alphax.txt it would be my advice for all interested parties to first experiment with your alphax.txt, come up with what everyone considers a balanced set of changes, then set up the PBEM from there.


D

[johndmuller]

D,

I'm surprised you picked this thread to boost your otherwise potentially good idea. After all, do you really want to be able to drop ships into the desert? Back in the Arizona Beachfront Real Estate business again, are you? Next thing you know, the Titanic will be a casino on the Vegas Strip.

You also seemed to have neglected the mandatory warning message: Kids: don't try this at home! Remember to Back Up your original Alpha(x).txt and other AC files before modifying them. In the spirit of TV drug commercials, you might want to add: Possible side effects include green faced Yangs, forgetting what the original settings are supposed to be, mistakenly using slow choppers in a real PBEM, sleepless nights after discovering that your game won't start up, getting caught with your Unity (gravship) Probeteam unit in the CGN tourney. There is also a low incidence of terminal disruption to your Alpha Centauri installation and there are occasional reports of pop-boom dysfunction and (rarely) Sister Miriam infatuation.

Seriously though, as you know, rampant modification of one's Alpha(x).txt etc., files, even with the best file swapping intentions executed (nearly) perfectly can easily lead at best to embarassing confessions and explanations and/or less pleasant spoiled games, wasted time and other unpleasantries.

Creating a separate installation on an alternate drive is a great idea, but it is, after all only 1 additional playground, which would itself become at risk and subject to all these same warnings as soon as one started playing PBEMs with some alternate .txt files.

A while ago, I was playing Smack's Aldebaron mod and I wrote a set of batch file programs which checked out my AC directory, figured out which set of files were active and switched between the Aldeb and normal Alpha.txt and other stuff as appropriate. Other people have written scripts to load game note files, A-C.ini files (to get the right faction graphics), etc. for each of their PBEMs and to run SMAC or SMAX as appropriate. Some such approach adds a significant amount of protection, but the temptation to just 'make a quick change' can be too much sometimes no matter how compulsive the security.

Anyway, all that aside, it would, IMhO, be really great to have an agreed upon improved configuration that we could all use to play a better version of our favorite game. I would suggest that we start with some of the cleanups that Rubin and Darsnan identified in their excellent treatise on Alpha(x).txt in the CGN Academy article that they wrote. For example, fixing the Anti-Grav Struts ability so it applies to Air units as was clearly intended in the game documentation.

Starting small might create the momentum for a 'climate of agreement', which will be necessary if we are going to create a new and improved version that we can all live with.

A separate thread of its own might be a good idea too .