Ascent to Transcendence -- help

[paulrees100]

Hi, I bought SMAC used and without a manual so I apologize if my question has an obvious answer, but... how do I build the Secret Project "Ascent to Transcendence"?

I get as far as building "Voice of Planet", and I wipe out all other factions down to a single base to keep the game going, but it goes on forever and I never have the option of building this project. My Game Rules are set to "Victory by Transcendence".

Do I have to play at the Transcend level? That's the only level I haven't tried yet.

Thanks, Paul

[Clear Skies]

You say you've 'got as far as building' the Voice of Planet'; have you actually built it? Once you've actually built the VoP, the Ascent to Transcendence should appear in your build menu.

[paulrees100]

I build it completely, and build or capture all other Secret Projects. I expected Ascent to Transcendence to appear in the build menu when VoP was finished, but it doesn't. I'm playing 3.0 and I just discovered there is a patch v.4.0. I guess I'll install it and see if that fixes it.

Love SMAC but this is driving me nutz!
Thx

[Clear Skies]

The only possibilities I can think of (beside it being a patch issue) are:
i) You've accidentally deactivated victory by transcendence rather than leaving it on (unlikely, but I once thought I'd turned the unity survey off and hadn't)
ii) IIRC the Ascent doesn't appear as a build option until the turn after completion of the VoP. You should get a popup saying 'with the VoP active, humanity may now begin the Ascent etc. etc.' Have you waited a turn?

[Petek]

I agree with Clear Skies that the most likely cause of your problem is having disabled transcendence victory. To check this, start a new game. Select the Customize Rules option. There should be an X next to the first option (Higher Goal: Allow Victory by Trancendence). If no X is present, that's your problem.

I can't think of any bug or patch that affects this victory condition.

BTW, you can start building the Ascent SP the same turn that you complete VOP. I often build the Ascent in the same base that just finished the VOP. By the time that I get the popup, the Ascent is already built.

[paulrees100]

VoP was completed in year 2394 and I played until 2412 before I gave up and destroyed the final faction. Also, the X is definitely beside Higher Goal: Allow Victory by Trancendence.

I've been playing without the CD (full install on my computer) so I'm going to try a new game with the CD in. BTW, I found the manual on the CD but it didn't tell me anything new. I've also installed the patch v 4.0 so maybe that will affect the new game.

I dunno...

[Illuminatus]

Could you attach a save file here? It might be a bizzare bug. This sounds most peculiar indeed.

[paulrees100]

Here's the last save before I finished the game. Good luck!

[Dis]

strange. The CD nor the patch should affect building the ascent. And it doesn't look like you are past the time (year) limit. Hmm.

[Petek]

I opened the save file and confirmed that the Ascent SP was not available, even though the VOP was built. I then went into the Scenario Editor (Ctrl+K). Went into "Edit Custom Rules". No victory conditions were checked. These settings should reflect the way the game was set up, but paulrees100 is pretty clear that Victory by Transcendence was enabled. Anyway, I then checked the "Allow Victory by Transcendence" box and went back to the game. The Ascent SP was now available to be built.

Kind of hard to say at this point what happened.

[#endgame]

You're not playing as the manifold caretakers, are you? they're not allowed to transcend.

[Petek]

Originally posted by #endgame
You're not playing as the manifold caretakers, are you? they're not allowed to transcend.

He's playing as the Believers.

[Googlie]

I can confirm Petek's analysis

Somehow all the victory conditions are disabled. I opened the turn, and immediately activated the scenario editor, and looked at the customized rules - here they are: (and on changing to "standard rules", the Ascent option is then available within the game)

[paulrees100]

That's really weird. I see the same thing but it is definitely not how I set up the game. Those are also not the rules used while the game is playing. I always select all the Victory options, Do or Die, and Spoils of War.

I guess I'll start a new game and check the Senerio Editor regularly to see if I can determine when it changes and why.

Thanks for your help.

(BTW, did you use Print Screen to capture the game image? When I try it or Alt + Print Screen it pastes completely black.)

[Petek]

Perhaps there is a problem with your Alpha Centauri.ini file. That file stores your most recent options and preferences, including the customized rules.

The .ini file contains a line labeled Rules. When all victory conditions are enabled, it looks like this:

Rules=1011100110001111

When all victory conditions are disabled, it looks like this:

Rules=1010000110000001

You can see that five of the bits changed (positions 4, 5, 13, 14 and 15), presumably corresponding to the five possible victory conditions.

What does the Rules section of your Alpha Centauri.ini file look like? Does it change when you change the victory conditions?

If the file is corrupt, you can delete (or rename) it and start a new game. The file will be recreated. You'll have to redo any changes you made (such as ForceOldVoxelAlgorithm=1).