Help with Alien Artifact

[Chowlett]

I didn't know about 'o' either. I've always been an "activate, then space-bar" method proponent myself.

[Method]

what does 'o' do exactly? automatic cash in artifact every turn or something?

[Mongoose]

It just pops up the dialogue box re: link/put to project or PT/do nothing. I found it in IP play, actually. That's the ONLY way, IIRC, to use an artifact when playing IP. The other methods produce no pop-up box.

[SirVincealot]

It actually makes -some- sense: the "O" shortcut is for "convoy". I used it ALL THE TIME when I sent supply crawlers/foils: I just didn't think to try that with the artifact.

That Unversal translator, man: you are so right! By the time I build the thing, artifacts are a rarity indeed!

Regards,
SirVincealot

[johndmuller]

I've posted before that an AA will bring up the what-do-you-want-to-do-with-me dialog box simply by giving it the Shift-H (Hold for 10 turns) command, but since then I have noticed that that is not always true, sometimes it does not bring up the dialog box. My new theory is that the Shift-H brings it up only if you are otherwise eligible to use the AA - i.e. unlinked Net Node or Prototype in progress - which seems to make sense, but isn't really tested out yet)

[Mongoose]

Error!! Retraction!!

Seems the O command doesn't work for AA, just for crawlers.

My bad memory got the better of me again.

Sorry.

"It's not what you don't know that hurts you. It's what you know that just ain't so." - Mark Twain

[RedFred]

I've noticed that if you hold an AA at a base it will reactivate once a net node has been built. The space bar for an active AA inside a base always brings up the dialogue box for me.

One of the rare times I use the 'go to base' command is when I have already linked AAs to net nodes in many of my bases. The 'goto' will let you know the nearest unlinked net node.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Unca Red,

Do you know if the goto allows an AA to go over a unpopped pod?

I don't use goto often if at all.

I do know that using an AA to pop a pod allows a 50/50 chance of said AA to instantly vaporize.

Og

[mark13]

Og,

I think it's the same for artifacts as it is for other units - if the pathfinding takes it over an unpopped pod the "Investigate pod beacon?" pop-up shows. If you select no, the unit's orders are cancelled, and you have to traverse the pod.

[Alex]

Mongoose:

Just kidding, man.

[RedFred]

Originally posted by Ogie Oglethorpe
Unca Red,

Do you know if the goto allows an AA to go over a unpopped pod?

I don't use goto often if at all.

I do know that using an AA to pop a pod allows a 50/50 chance of said AA to instantly vaporize.

Og

Agreed. The AA hitting a pod is a recipe for disaster. It isn't any better in an encounter with enemy units or native life. Even a spore launcher can somehow take out an AA in one turn. Sending an AA through a patch of fungus is something I go out of my way to avoid.

If I have a bunch of linked net nodes it is typically midgame or later. By that time I have roads or mag tubes linking my cities. New AAs are coming in from overseas, whether it be from an ocean square or from another landmass. So I don't have any risk of an inadvertant pod pop with an AA.

So I can't personally verify Mark13's claim, but it seems reasonable.

[Earwicker]

Originally posted by RedFred
Agreed. The AA hitting a pod is a recipe for disaster. It isn't any better in an encounter with enemy units or native life. Even a spore launcher can somehow take out an AA in one turn. Sending an AA through a patch of fungus is something I go out of my way to avoid.

AA's vanish if you move them into a Monolith (but, strangely, not if your goto orders route them through a Monolith but with a destination further along). So when an AA pops a pod and vanishes, I assume it found a Monolith. The only time I use AA's for pod-popping is if I think there's no chance of getting it home (deep in enemy territory with its defender killed, or offloaded from a badly damaged transport). I'll pop pods in enemy territory in the hopes of getting money or units. If it vanishes, taking the monolith to vanish with it, then that's just part of the scorched earth approach.

If I have AA's in the early game, I only use them for SP production. The techs they would provide are available from trade or theft. It is only when I have achieved tech parity that AA's get linked to nodes, and I leap into the lead.

[Blake]

Put in on hold!

In order to cash in an AA all you need to do is press "h" for hold, it then brings up the link/cash dialog, if you chose to not link/cash it'll just go on hold. (shift-h, space, may work too, but I've always used plain old hold... at least since I discovered it in a IP game)

And the only use I have ever found for automate units is automating AA's, once I get one close enough to my empire I just automate it and it finds itself a nice node or SP to link to, remarkably I have no complaints about the AA automation AI, when it gets to a base it can link to it brings up the Dialog, IIRC if you choose NO it'll go to another base and ask again. If there is nothing for it to link to it'll go to the nearest base and sleep until such time as a NN is built or SP is started, at which stage it activates and beelines to the new node/SP.

I'm a big advocate of using AA's exclusively to rush build SP's (in the early game anyway), then again I rarely bother to pod-pop later in the game when the AA's would provide tech which isn't available for stealing or trading.