Effects of XP patch on Classic SMAC faction play

[DilithiumDad]

We all know that the "XP patch" implements fixes for the "maintenance bug" and the golden age pop boom. The maintenance bug reduced facility upkeep costs at the Thinker and Transcend levels --these bonuses were meant for the AI but were given to human players by mistake. These two fixes were applied to SMACX with patch 2.0.

The question here is more subtle: how does this patch alter strategies honed over years of play? Does it strengthen some factions and weaken others?

Overall effects: It slows the game by increasing maintenance costs thus reducing rush build ability. It also strengthens the AI. It makes facilities slightly less valuable without affecting the value of military and nonmilitary units. Some facilty builds you might have done before --Tree Farm in a base with only 3 or 4 forest tiles --become unprofitable with the patch.

[DilithiumDad]

Survey of factions

Gaians: Gaian economy is weak because of inability to run FM. High maintenance costs are a difficult burden. Patch favors the Gaian strategy of worm hunting and maintaining a "worm preserve" to hunt for worms for income.

Hive: Hive has the worst economy, and takes a huge hit for maintenance. Hive is now hard pressed to pay for facilities like Research Hospital except in a few core bases. On the other hand, Hive can now pop boom with a golden age. Getting a golden age with 0 efficiency rating is tough, and it's best to do it before you have too many b-drones. Human Genome Project is extremely valuable now, where it was of little interest to Hive players before. With the HGP, you can have golden booms in your inner three or four rings of bases. Without it, you may only get golden ages in bases with 10 tiles of your HQ, even with 70% of energy going to psych and having Rec Commons, Holo Therater and Tree Farms in every base. Best to do two rounds of booming, before and after hybrid forests. Hive bases tend to stall out around size 5, so booming is a tremendous boost.

University: This is my choice for most negatively affected faction, although it's not too bad. It's just that the University is depending on drone-controlling facilities and also needs to build research-promoting buildings to take advantage of its research bonus. Finally, one of the benfits of research is that it allows you to build more facilities, and now they cost more, reducing the advantage. Small consideration to be sure. This just reduces the overwhelming advantage the University had (mostly from the free netwek nodes and reduced cost of each tech).

Morganites: This is the faction most advantaged. Pop booming is easy with the Morganites now. The Morganites are easily able to pay for their facilities, so increased costs are no problem.

Spartans: This is the faction that builds the fewest facilities, so they are least disadvanted. The advantages of building more units are even greater now than the advantages of building more facilities, thus favoring the warmonger.

Believers: Another faction that favors units over structures and comes out ahead.

Peacekeepers: They break even. They build fewer drone-controlling facilities, but tend to build lots of facilities in general. This may change PK strategy slightly from builder to hybrid.

[Petek]

This question, though interesting, only applies to SMAC, not SMACX. Since SMACX is again available I wonder how many on this board still play SMAC? I haven't since SMACX first came out.

Is it still your opinion that the "Drones in base screen" bug makes SMACX virtually unplayable?

[CEO Aaron]

While the economically weaker factions will be harder hit by the lack of a facility bug, I don't feel that either change is significant enough to substantially alter the balance of power between factions. Starting position will make a much, MUCH larger difference than most faction properties.

[DilithiumDad]

Here' s something I haven't seen mentioned elsewhere: the xp patch introduces the "phantom drone" bug into SMAC!

For single player, it makes the game almost unplayable because of excessive micromanagment versus incompetent governors. For PBEM, it doesn't really matter because you are micromanaging every base anyway because each turn is a big deal.

Regarding abandoning SMAC for SMACX, I really wouldn't for PBEM purposes. SMACX is better for single player. But the additional techs and more aggressive native life really slow progress through the game. I think SMACX is a little too slow-placed for multiplayer without significant prebuilt bases.

[DilithiumDad]

You're right about starting position! That's why all games should be played on The Ultimate Builder Map, which has at least 14 balanced start sites!

But the patch does make a huge difference. Getting pop boom ability for Morgan is huge, since they can get folden ages easily, and to a lesser extent, Hive. University is over-powered in general and on transcend with the maintenance bug they were way too strong. University is dependent on lots of dron-control facilities and also on research-boosting facilities to make best advantage of its faction strength in research. These facilities will be harder rush as maintenance costs pile up.

[LtDonny]

I have XP and the patch screwed the game, it ran fine without it for some reason, but I have the Encore Software version, is it different? I don't know what happened, but at the beginning it prompts me if I want to continue, I say yes, and it crashes. One of the weird mysteries of computers. I wasn't even using compatibility mode. Very odd, indeed. Any patch I install it screws the game. Too bad, though, as I really want to play multiplayer.

[johndmuller]

Interaction between Compat Patch and (No-CD) 'Cracked' versions

I have become quite fond of using the No-CD Cracked versions of the .exe files to play SMAC & SMAX and I doubt that there is a cracked version of the SMAC v5 .exe file. I would assume that the Compatibility patch replaces the .exe file(s) and perhaps also some of the other files, like possibly some of the .txt files, but I really haven't seen any info on that one way or another. If the essence of the patches lie in the .exe files, which I would assume to be likely, then the existing No-CD cracked versions would not have it; OTOH, if the essence is in some of the .txt files and the changes to the .exe files were only for the XP compatibility stuff, then conceivably the existing cracked .exes with updated other files would end up running the programs with the maint and pop boom issues fixed.

Does anyone know the story here?

Also, exactly what happens if players in a SMAC PBEM are not all running the updated v5 version? Do the v4 people get the old treatment and the v5 people the new, or does the mismatch fail due to program errors, or does something else happen?

Finally, I get the impression that there are no substantive changes to SMAX in the compat patch (compared to SMAX v2) - i.e. that the only SMAX changes are related to the XP compatibility thing; is that actually true?

[binTravkin]

I liked Morgan very much even before that GoldenAge bug got repaired..

Now I like him twice as much, because:
1.He can get popboom before Cloning Vats
2.He's the one who doesnt care for maintenace - he gets more energy anyway!

I voted for Hive, because I've tried them in both editions and they've become much worse..

Uni becomes very linear - go straight to IA (as always) & get WV(critical) + HGP (very needed) + PTS (If you manage) and go base-crazy.
You dont have to pay maintenance for HoloTheatres then and since you produce much CPs, you havent got too much pop in your cities (nor too much drones).
In the old times Uni was more flexible..

But I like that patch, because it resolves GA popboom bug - PKs become quite nice too:
Go for IA (other players such as Morgan & Uni & Aki & Angels will get there before you.. ) & put all efforts in HGP!
PTS gives much too as it makes your bases big enough to start GA Popboom ASAP
If you manage to get both, just set 20% psych, build CCreche + RecComms + RecTanx & watch your might graph hittin the skies!

[binTravkin]

BTW - Where can I get that Ultimate Builder Map?

[Chaunk]

Here.

[binTravkin]

Thanx!

[DilithiumDad]

Quick on the draw there! I have used the Ultimate Builder Map for several PBEM's, and I have even found it effective for "CMN-less" games. You can just launch and have everyopne set their own passwords. That's because every start site has 4 tiles of jungle and a monolith, which accelerates early development without having to use the scenario editor.

The patch doesn't change any of the help files or text files. I don't think it does anything to SMACX.

If I had a no-CD version of SMACX, I might switch to it for multiplayer.

[binTravkin]

SMAX no-CD here:

http://smac.2be.cc

[Sikander]

Originally posted by LtDonny
I have XP and the patch screwed the game, it ran fine without it for some reason, but I have the Encore Software version, is it different? I don't know what happened, but at the beginning it prompts me if I want to continue, I say yes, and it crashes. One of the weird mysteries of computers. I wasn't even using compatibility mode. Very odd, indeed. Any patch I install it screws the game. Too bad, though, as I really want to play multiplayer.

I have this same problem. As I don't really care all that much about SMAC I have just accepted it and play SMACX exclusively.