What's your "favorite" exploit.

[GeoModder]

Voted none, but on second thought I would miss upgrade and move... Not that I use it a lot, but is handy to upgrade all formers, interceptors and so in a single action.

[Skanky Burns]

From the list, Stockpile queue is pretty much all I use.
Other than that, I like ICS and upgrade'n'move combos.

EDIT: My military is built exclusively of prototypes and unit shells too.

[Blake]

Problem with Ugpgrade'n'move is it cannot really be avoided except by avoiding the workshop mass upgrade altogether... I actually think it's the intended behaivour, to justify spending the enourmous lump-sum on upgrading say all formers. The only real abuse is when you make multiple variants of one unit, so you can quite accurately upgrade'n'move particular units. (but I do this with rovers, not deliberately, it's just rovers play such a small part in my army that I rarely upgrade them, so end up with multiple "models" - especially probed - lying around, perfect for upgrading to SAM to knock out some birds)

[Cosmic]

Surely I´ll try this Stockpile bug, thanks to Aaron and Googlie for the explanation

[Googlie]

Instant upgrades to Elites:

It's not so much your unit that gets upgraded, but the ones that you unearth.

Send out a scout or mindworm towards the fungus. Now set it to patrol using waypoints. Mindworms that they encounter will be demon boils, not larvae. (you need a good planet rating or an already awesome morale scout as they'd be killed instantly otherwise)

[Jamski]

Not exactly Googlie. This one is my favorite though. Give ANY unit a patrol route with 3 waypoints then cancel the patrol. The unit is now elite. Simple, and hugely cheating. Luckily this one is easy to spot. Hmmm... Gaians... running weath... with elites??? Lots of elites...????

-Jam

[Googlie]

Hmm - I've never been able to replicate that in smax. IIRC it was one of the "undocumented fixes" when v2.0 was released - Tim Train or maybe Geoffrey Morris commented on those changes in a 'Poly thread a couple of years ago. (but they couldn't/wouldn't invest the time to correct the "instant demon boil" bug)

G.

[Jamski]

Yeah, I always forget what got changed in SMAX.

What with the drones not showing up properly, the off-shore sporelaunchers and the cheezy SPs, I never got to grips with it...

-Jam

[Commy]

I have never every used any exploit in the game, and until now, I didn't know any of them. (mostly, I still don't) So, does this like make me a bad player or something?

Oh, and how do you people find these exploits?

[Chaos Theory]

Some of those exploits would be found naturally by observing behavior not consistent with the stated rules. These exploits in particular would be detected that way:

Stockpile energy bug
Demon boil bug
Move and Form
Automated Interceptors
Multiple Airdrops
Upgrade and Move

The crawler upgrade exploit was probably found just by realizing that crawlers can be upgraded, crawlers can be cashed in, and upgrading is not too expensive.

Others were probably found by accident or through random experimentation, or perhaps by realizing that a feature could be used exploitively (particularly the rename undiscovered landmark exploit)

[Flubber]

I use stockpile and crawler upgrades

What is the rename landmark bug?-- I thought I knew them all

[Enigma_Nova]

BS Flubber. You yelled at me for using that bug personally.

Rename Landmark bugs:

1. You can attempt to create a landmark (or erase a landmark) in territory that is not yet discovered.
This enables you to guess how far away your enemies (allies?) are.

2. You can right-click around an empty map to check where a landmark is located. If the landmark is close enough, you can rename it to see exactly what it is.
This is a good way to find the Jungle and the Nexus.

Corollary to 2:
You can make a bunch of junk landmarks, or place a 'bogus landmark' on terrain that could be mistaken for a good landmark.

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Enigma_Nova
BS Flubber. You yelled at me for using that bug personally.

Double BS-- I only ever played with you once and that game ended on turn one or two due to a disagreement over the rules to be used.

But thanks for the rest of the info. I would not use that exploit although I do rename things for fun-- Its a blast to discover an opponents probeship and then surround it with advertisements for the nightlife in your nearest base

[Blake]

Originally posted by Commy
I have never every used any exploit in the game, and until now, I didn't know any of them. (mostly, I still don't) So, does this like make me a bad player or something?

Oh, and how do you people find these exploits?

You are not a bad player if you don't use exploits. The list of exploits I don't use on normal transcend games is huge, in fact I don't exploit anything that isn't hard to avoid exploiting. (ie I wont religiosly use queues to avoid stockpile bug, and I'll use the workshop to upgrade all units of type).
It is entirely possible to thrash the AI's while exploiting nothing more than good terraforming/infrastructure investment (that includes using absolutely no crawlers, or only in the minimal role of speeding up SP's like with a Civ caravan - the AI use crawlers like that a bit).

Most exploits are found by trying weird stuff and having a high attention to detail, then once you notice something not quite right, you try to replicate it and figure out how to best exploit it. And you have to play, a lot. Then you know how things should work, and notice when they don't work how they should.

Some things are found just by thinking a bit, like the SE quickies, 1-turn incremental rushbuy etc. The thought usually starts "Wonder if they closed that potential loophole", and the answer is usually "nope".

[CEO Aaron]

Originally posted by Googlie
edit after CEO Aaron's post: AFAIK after completing a base there is no energy stockpiled. That's why it's smart to pay 20 ec's more to completely finish a facility - it gives ten minerals towards the next facility (but not unit), with no energy stockpiled. Otherwise there would be energy additions (there aren't)

Sorry, Goog, I just double-checked, and you benefit from the stockpile bug every time you finish a facility and have nothing else in your production queue. I checked by making a Morgan game, rush buying recycling tanks in my 2 bases, and counting how much energy and mineral production I had. Sure enough, my EC stockpile increased by my energy AND mineral production on the subsequent turn.