Supply Crawler?

[TheSmitty]

I hate to sound like a idiot but what and how do you use a supply crawler? They seem like they are important but I just do not understand how to utilize them.

Thanks

[EternalSpark]

Basically, supply crawlers are used in two ways -

1) Getting nutrients and stuff out of your base's control zones. Like if there is a nutrient square JUST outside your range, send a supply crawler to that square, and hit "o".

2) Make them at a base and send them to a base that is making a Secret Project. It'll shorten the time it takes to make. I frankly don't understand this. How does an infantry chassis with a supply holder help SPs?

[RedFred]

How about:

1b) ferrying a resource from within city limits (where no city workers are presently situated)

3) rush building prototypes

4) transferring resources from one city to another

As far as the "how" of it goes, to capture a resource in an unused square just send your crawler to the place you want to get the resources from. You may be able to use a drop down menu, try under "action" but I always use the hot key. Just hit "o". Bingo. The extra resource will now flow to the city that the crawler is supported from.

Tip: for your science cities, it helps to build the crawlers in other cities and then move them to your science city and transfer ownership. Then go out and gather energy.

To rush build wonders or prototypes just send crawlers to the city doing the building. Once you get inside the city a menu will pop up.

To transfer resources from city A to city B, build a crawler at city A and then send it into city B. You'll get that menu popping up asking what you want to transfer.

[Googlie]

If your science-city is a coastal city, build sea crawlers (you'll have to use the workshop for that) and ferry nutrients like crazy to max your pop - and convert all your pops into librarians/empaths/transcendii for the science boost

[LoD]

Smitty: Build energy parks energy parks. The layout scheme is like this:

SSSSS
EEEEE
SSSSS
EEEEE
SSSSS

where E is an Echelon Mirror, and S is a solar collector. Up to 13 energy per square - sheesh!

LoD
LoD

[Adam_Smith]

TheSmitty,

First strategy is to build the Merchant Exchange at you HQ (or move your HQ). Or another base with little inefficiency. Then build the Maritime Control Center if you can, but it's not as important. Then build one of those thermal thingamabobs(for 1 extra sea evergy). Then build foil supply (and destroyer suply if it's feasable). build sea harnesses on all the special energy resourses out there. I guarantee that you will not have energy problems. You will need a lot of sea formers and navy to do it also, but it pays off very well.

LoD, why not just build borehole and put rivers on them?
[This message has been edited by Adam_Smith (edited March 12, 2000).]

[Enigma]

That is what I used to think, but an energy park is better for several different reasons. A borehole with a river on it produces 7 energy base, while every solar panel will produce 10 base. An energy park makes a lot more sense because you need less bases to build crawlers, and it takes up less land. The only stipulation about an energy park is that it cant be used for anything else, you also must build cities around the solar panels before you crawler them in order for E mirrors to work. In my current game as Morgan it is year 160 and I would be getting 3 techs per turn except each base can only reach 1 tech. I have 2 science cities. My energy park is roughly the same size as my 25 base empire.. giving me about 1000 extra energy divided between the two main science cities. Blah blah.. it is so pathetic fighting the computer.. this is on transcend difficulty and the comp allows me to do this. Shooting for year 165 transcend..

[Ned]

There is one more trick to keep in mind and then a question.

The trick is to create a crawler with your best armor and trance. Very costly. However, if you use them to advance SP, they add, I believe, 60 minerals to the cost. But, do not! make these crawlers. Instead, upgrade conventional crawlers when you need to build an SP. The upgrade costs, depending on your industrial output, is about $140.

Now imagine you have a number of crawlers - oridinary crawlers - surrounding a base and you now get a new SP to build. Choose to build it in this base in turn 1 and also upgrade a sufficient number of crawlers so that in the NEXT turn, after adding these crawler's minerals, the SP will be built. If the SP requires 300 minerals, upgrade 4 crawlers. In the next turn, the base will add its own minerals. Assume for the moment that it adds the first 20 minerals to the SP. Now move the four uprgraded crawlers into the base for an additional 240 minerals. You now have 260. With base's twenty next turn, you need only 20 more minerals to complete the SP. You can do this by moving in one more, but conventional, crawler or by simply paying the $80 needed for the extra minerals.

The SP is built in two turns - for an out-of-pocket cost of $640. This is far cheaper and faster than using money alone to rush build.

(Of course, if you play either the Energists or Britney Spears, with $50 million in the bank, you simply pay the o$3500 out of pocket cost and build the SP in one turn.)

I also sometimes, later in the game, simply build or convert five to eight of these crawlers and station them at a base that has no current SP's (to avoid the Planet Buster problem). The next time I get an SP to build, I simply move these crawlers into the base to build the SP in one turn!

Now the question.

What techs does one research and in what order to get to Industrial Automation in the shortest path?

Ned

[Adam_Smith]

quote: Originally posted by Enigma on 03-12-2000 01:49 PM An energy park makes a lot more sense because you need less bases to build crawlers, and it takes up less land

I like the idea, but is this part mixed up? Why would you need less bases building crawlers and why does it take up less land?

P.S. Do you raise the land also to maximize? This seems like a lot of terraforming. I will try it though.


[This message has been edited by Adam_Smith (edited March 12, 2000).]

[Vi Vicdi]

I like the "Parallel Ridge" energy park myself, being as how I invented it, but with the Thermocline Transducer any ocean shelf you can protect from stinkin' allies' colony pods will give you a good return with minimal investment.

On land if you want maximum energy per terraform Parallel Ridges is the way to go; if you want maximum energy per crawler the "classic" design of solid rows of solars in between solid rows of Echelons is better.

A word of caution: until patch 5 comes out don't build mag tubes on your energy park. I've had two energy parks cause repeatable, verifiable, bona-fide unhandled exception system crashes, and it seems to be related to mag tubes. Put drop pods on your crawlers instead.

Here is a link to the Parallel Ridge Energy Park thread.

[Christopher]

If you take a look at the later posting you will see quite a few different suggestions on how to use crawlers. Everyone have their favourite tactics for crawlers and their uses are many.

So to answer your question:
Crawlers are one of the most important additions in smac vs civ. and you should really learn how to use em.
They don't need support and when you use them they collect resources for you. *yammy*

So learn to use them!

Chris

[TheSmitty]

Thanks for all the valuable input. I started constructing and using them already.

Thanks,
TheSmitty

[PrinceBimz]

I sometimes make Supply Ships so I can transport resources from the sea to my coastal cities. It makes a huge difference! But they do get sunk by jets at times so you just have to protect them by using a AAA ship or something. Try it out!

[Scott Johnson]

A brief note on supply crawler foils.

Before you pick up fusion power, they cost 50 min @, but then the price drops to 30@, making them very attractive builds indeed. Don't forget when building your fusion supply skimships to equip them with RADAR for the same low price! That way, they do double duty as suppliers and sentries. Yeah, you will lose a few down the line, but they're cheap and you can make sure that each dead foil more than pays for itself if you are sitting there ready with your air/sea reprisal force and can blast the guy who just killed your foil. I'd trade a 30 min foil for a battle cruiser any day.

[MichaeltheGreat]

I'd trade a 40 mineral fusion chopper for half a dozen crawlers any day. Even at 90% damage, getting me 36 squares to fly to reach those crawlers, bagging half a dozen won't be too tough. If you're closer, and your warships aren't in port, I'd bag a few of them to boot.