Radical Alpha.txt stuff

[Straybow]

Has anybody tried radical changes in alpha.txt such as:

Allowing Mag Tubes in sea tiles
Allowing Forests in sea tiles (Mangroves?)
Allowing Boreholes in sea tiles

I remember how Civ1 would let you build "roads" on sea tiles. They would give you the +1 trade but not allow land units to walk on water.

I see that somebody made a mod called "turboSMAC" that said it had sea forests, but there is no commentary on whether anyone tried it or found it added to the game.

[Mart]

mag tubes do not work last time I checked
forests - I haven't checked
boreholes - possible, but there is an oppinion that it is overpowered

[Kataphraktoi]

mag tubes dont give any bonus,IIRC.ive seen alot of old posts mention this didnt work also
forests-no idea
boreholes-overpowered

i had a alpha.txt with things such as min rows reduced and base pop only needing 1 food(not 2) to support,but havnt messed with terrain changes

[Darsnan]

Re: Radical Alpha.txt stuff

Originally posted by Straybow
Has anybody tried radical changes in alpha.txt such as:

Allowing Mag Tubes in sea tiles
Allowing Forests in sea tiles (Mangroves?)
Allowing Boreholes in sea tiles

Thw first challenge I ever built I put some magtubes onto sea tiles (via the Scenario Editor) - they didn't work.
Gwillybj has used the "mangroves" concept before, however he hasn't really pushed the idea too much, so his playtesting must've proved less than satisfactory.
I've played with the Sea Boreholes concept on several occasions. Because the game considers all sea tiles as flat, then you can build sea boreholes all over the place (as opposed to land where you either have to find a flat spot or first terraform it level). Because the AI's won't build boreholes why this is a huge advantage for humans, which is typically the opposite of what your trying to acomplish when playing with the alpha(x).txt file.


D

[Googlie]

Re: Re: Radical Alpha.txt stuff

Originally posted by Darsnan
Because the AI's won't build boreholes why this is a huge advantage for humans, which is typically the opposite of what your trying to acomplish when playing with the alpha(x).txt file.

Hmm - except that there's a great opportunity for a CMN to give an AI faction an energy park - thermal boreholes in the ocean being worked by crawlers (not trawlers)

The problem we typically face when giving the AI a crawler-worked energy park is that they then use the crawlers to explore, or generally run around doing nothing - by placing them on sea boreholes, the AI can't move them

[GeoModder]

How can those crawlers survive on an ocean tile then?
As far as I understand you mean with crawlers a landbased unit

[Leon Trotsky]

Besides, they are quite vulnerable. Even though the human player could refrain from attacking them in the sake of balance, native lifeforms wouldn't be so forgiving.

[Lazerus]

resonance armour, high morale would toughen em up

[binTravkin]

and trance of course.

[Darsnan]

Re: Re: Re: Radical Alpha.txt stuff

Originally posted by Googlie


Hmm - except that there's a great opportunity for a CMN to give an AI faction an energy park - thermal boreholes in the ocean being worked by crawlers (not trawlers)

A CMN can still make sea boreholes via the Scenario Designer (i.e. not having to mod the alpha(x).txt file).

Originally posted by Googlie
The problem we typically face when giving the AI a crawler-worked energy park is that they then use the crawlers to explore, or generally run around doing nothing - by placing them on sea boreholes, the AI can't move them

I've never tried building an Energy park (per the reasons you listed) and instead built my "Patch o' Eden".
As far as the crawlers (or trawlers) are concerned: too bad there's no command for "You stay here!". Also too bad that we can't modify the Fungal Tower into a crawler and place those instead, as that already has the default coding to be a stationary unit (Fungal Towers always revert back to the Red Flag after one turn). Although Fungal Towers do make great Sessile Grogs.....


D

[GeoModder]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Radical Alpha.txt stuff

Originally posted by Darsnan
... Although Fungal Towers do make great Sessile Grogs.....

The Grog Problem!
Put a ramscoop in orbit of their sun.

[Darsnan]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Radical Alpha.txt stuff

Originally posted by GeoModder


The Grog Problem!
Put a ramscoop in orbit of their sun.

Either that or tell them we've found a tnuctipun superweapon....

Anyways, back to the boreholes/ energy parks for AI's thing: I think its kinda useless in trying to construct these as the AI's then never take advantage of them the way a human would. AI's have no concepts of "Superscience" or "Supermineral" cities. Better to give them satelites (a la Googlie's idea) so that each city is blessed with a little more than it would have been otherwise. My thought here being that AI's will build SP's (and most other city improvements) in any city, so a little improvement in every city is better than having it in the wrong city.


D

[Mart]

How about setting a crawler as "lurker"
Unit is not supposed to move for some time.

[BlackCat]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Radical Alpha.txt stuff

Originally posted by GeoModder


The Grog Problem!
Put a ramscoop in orbit of their sun.

That could be unpleasant for a short moment if you are on the same planet, wich I suppose is the case here

[BlackCat]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Radical Alpha.txt stuff

Originally posted by Darsnan


Either that or tell them we've found a tnuctipun superweapon....

Ehrm, unless I'm wrong, then they wasn't rarely what they seemed to be and the probe team equipment actually had some nasty effects -- well, ok