how much better is SMAX over SMAC ?

[Pandemoniak]

Indeed it is hard to get the opportunity to build SP before opponents. But just think that you will usually build any SP for about half the cost.
As well, the mind worm tactic is really cool with Drones. Since you have lots of industry and if you are not technologically advanced, there's no need to stubborn on research. Just give it away for a while, build crowds of mind worms - since you have good chances to win, despite of your lack of technology.

That is why the AI is stupid. Instead of keeping SynthMetal Garrison, get mind worms garrison and attacks !

[MattyBoy]

Yep,
I guess mindworms are a natural response to low technology.

[Pandemoniak]

To low technology AND high mineral resources, since they' re quite expensive compared to others units, at the time you can build them

[Method]

the AI will build trance units though

[aaglo]

Re: how much better is SMAX over SMAC ?

I would say that SMAX is 20€ (slightly over 20$) better than SMAC.

[DilithiumDad]

I can't believe no one mentioned the GAME KILLER BUG in SMAX! That's the "mystery drone" bug that makes drones appear in the base screen when there are none. This forces you to manage psych from the F4 screen, which is tedious. This inexcusable bug makes SMAX nearly unplayable unless you give up base management and respond to drone riots after the fact.

That said, there are lots of fun additions to SMAX. There is also more challenge for those who no longer find trascend-iron man SMAC challenging. The biggest thing are those nasty spore launchers, which will undo all your terraforming unless you have defending empath arillery. Fungal towers spawn loads of spore launchers, and they are very tough to kill. Also, sea lurks are a menace to coastal bases. Put these together with a lot of new techs, and a SMAX game takes considerably longer than a SMAC game. This is the main reason I won't play SMAX multiplayer --games are too much longer and bad luck with the native life can overwhelm strategic brilliance in a hurry.

[Maniac]

I actually consider the F4 screen very handy to check possible drone riots. You immediately see which bases you should check and which are safe because they have eg lots of talents. The alternative, manually checking each base one by one, is tedious.

[Gregurabi]

The false drone display bug in SMAX is fixed in the Linux version. (I happen to be the one who reported it during the beta test.... )

[DilithiumDad]

If the Mystery Drone Bug is fixed in the Linux version, then it's totally inexcusable not to patch it for Windows!

The problem with drone management from F4 is that you can't tell which bases are about to grow.

[MariOne]

DD, we could on the same line say that as the Maintenance and the GA bugs are fixed in SMAX, then it's totally inexcusable to not patch them for plain SMAC too....

Re the false Drone Display Bug, I have a rather limited experience in SMAX, but I'm 99% positive that the false drone is only displayed in the basewindow screen-bottom citizens icons line.
From inside the basewindow as well, if you select the Psych tab to show how the Drones/Talents are determined by the game factors (instead of the default basezone tiles view), you should see the CORRECT Drone situation on that panel last line.