Recently I Planetbusted my Science city by accident...

[Avenoct]

I'd never actually used a PB before, and just before I transcended I wanted to see what a Singularity PB would do to the pestering Yang Navies just off shore from the Uranium Flats. I was a little surprised when I lost my two best cities along with all of Yang's Navy and his closest two seabases. I did manage to sink my target (a unity transport with an important diplomat (spy)). Though my score was less than it could have been, I think I convinced Yang not to bring anymore probe teams to my side of the pond.

What are your most memorable mistakes from SMAC? I'd like to see a few tales of whoa...did I just..?

-Smack

[Ned]

Boy, you really taught Yang a lesson you will never forget!

The thing I had doing the most is losing aircraft due to lack of fuel. It used to be a real problem in CIV b/c there were no warnings. In SMAC, planes tend to automatically return to base. But at times still, you can run them out of fuel.

For some strange reason, the AI loses a lot of aircraft this way. I don't have a clue as to how this could possibly happen.

Ned

[Clear Skies]

I once PB'ed Santiago by mistake - I was trying to move a PB through her territory to one of my bases on the other side and I accidentally moved it into one of her units, then tried to double-click the 'Cancel Action', missed and clicked 'Renounce Treaty' by mistake! All the other five factions as well as Santiago declared instant Vendetta and I only just survived to go on to win!

[Kirnwaffen]

I was in the middle of a war with the caretakers when I decided to land five shard rovers in caretaker territory to see if I could force a truce by quickly grabbing a base. Everything was going well until they mind controlled the base back, with all five rovers in adjacent squares, giving them access to shard when they were still several techs back of it. Needless to say, this prolonged the conflict somewhat and gave me a small headache.

[Docfeelgood]

Yang nuked me in a game so I wanted revenge.


I built a PB sent it to his best city and it ran out of fuel along the way.

I felt stupid


That PB cost me a lot.
Yep, I sure showed him.




Hard to believe this game can bring out such strong emotions.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Worst mistake was moving a PB through my territory and fat fingered the arrow key. Result was that I hit a worm near a high production base (with some pollution hence the worm) resulting in loss of many nearby bases including a number of SPs.

Next turn all the factions declared vendetta. I was worm raped gallore and almost all my bases were in riot.

Not a pretty sight.

Og

Ever since then I have been very careful when moving PB's as well as spreading Sp's about.

[Method]

the automatic goto is useful for situations like that ogie

[Ken Hinds]

Except for Aircraft I tend to stay away from the goto command. Does it work better in regular SMAC than it did in CIV II?

Ken

[Basil]

Yes. It works in SMAC.

[Ned]

I really like the "go to" command in SMACx. There are a variety of interrelated command. You can simply click on a spot, wait 'til a green line appears, and the unit goes there. You can also click on the same spot, wait till the green line appears, press the letter J, and all units (without orders) on the square or in the city go there. Moreover, you can assemble a group of like units using shift-j, and do the same: give it a destination city by pressing j or pointing and pressing j. (The letter G operates on only one unit.)

Finally, and this is the most fun, you can set up unit delivery routes, but only between your own cities. (This really has to be expanded to include pact mates.) Newly minted ground units can be told to assemble at a port. Fresh air units can be moved automatically across the map. Ditto Naval.

SMACX's interface in this regards is significantly improved over CIV.

[johndmuller]

The goto is definitely improved and even continued to improve between versions of SMAC (air movement and distance estimates at least). However, we all know it makes some poor choices sometimes, like taking the long way just to avoid going adjacent to a neutral unit (even though there is no ZOC problem).

I've noticed that the green line is sometimes a super probe in that it will tell you if your path is blocked or made circuitous by (invisible to you) units in the way. At risk of feeling like you're cheating, you can save youself an ill advised journey by first stretching out your route to see if it really goes through. I think it also will give you some indication of where the mind worms are hiding in the fungus (at least if your fungus movement is enhanced enough so that it doesn't always plot routes around it). Its hard to tell sometimes, because it doesn't always plot logical routes, but often those odd looking routes are because there is a surprise waiting for you along the direct route.

[Ned]

John, I've noticed that the AI naval always plots a course that will intersect enemy or native sea units.

Talk about deep radar.

Ned

[Garth Vader]

I don't use goto on planes anymore. I was playing in a tense MP game and I had used a bomber right on it's maximum range. I was worried that I would do a finger slip on the way back and lose my plane so I used the goto to go back to my base.

It took an unexpected zig zag course and I was left shouting obsenities at the screen as it ran out of gas next to my base.

[Fitz]

Autoreturn on planes can be a pain too. Sometimes you know it has enough range to reach the base you want, and it diverts to another. Choppers that you want to leave in the open will divert to a base if any are in range too.

Although I do use it when I'm playing fast and think I might miss the fact that a plane has already used up half its fuel.

[Earwicker]

The GOTO for missiles (and occasionally other air units as well) has a tendency to land in intermediate bases. While not causing a crash or other wise disastrous loss, it can be a big nuisance if you REALLY need to get that PB in place right now. That said, I do find it very useful - also for finding out which bases a plane can reach this turn before its fuel runs out.