=d

[binTravkin]

Do tile improvements work for crawlers as well?(if I had farmed that tile, would the crawler be providing more nutrients to the city?).

Yes

Also, cities still have to pay support for crawler units, yes?

No

So, is it even worth the sacrifice of the cost to keep them, for the resources they provide?

Absolutely

It seems to me like they just provide extra resources to the city closest to where they're gathering - but when I tried to use one for nutrients, it was only gathering one.

They provide one type of the resources (the one you chose in the dialog) to it's home base - by default the one who built it (you can re-home by moving a unit into base and hitting CTRL-H).
Try foresting around your city and building say 5 crawlers, all convoying minerals from forest tiles. You'll notice that each next crawler is produced faster and you have even better production when it sets out to convoy.
I don't have to tell you that production = power, do I?

Also, you can try another trick - start a secret project and move in crawler. It will ask you whether you want to 'add crawler to Secret Project production'. Say yes and watch how your project is now by ~30 minerals more done.
If the project requires 200 minerals, cash in (that's how it's called, yes!) 6 crawlers and you're almost done. Rush ('hurry' order) the remaining with cash of just wait until it's done.

Thank you for all the menu shortcuts and whatnot, these are exactly what I was looking for. I didn't even realize civics were in this game, and I shortly realized after testing one out, that your "friends" may not like you because of your civic choices.

This and many other mechanisms of cIV have been borrowed from SMACX.

I noticed another message kept popping up in a lot of my cities, I can't think of what it said now... something about energy I believe.. I'll have to check next time.(

You have probably allocated >50% research.
Never do it in SMACX unless you know what you are doing and are aware of consequences.
For now leave it 50% economy, 50% research, 0% psych.

also seem to always have big problems with Drone riots unless I build every possible drone reducing building and wonder.

The Human Hive which is running Police State (and it really should!) shouldn't build any drone-reducing things except for the mighty 'scout patrol'!
If you run into drones again, build another.
You should also learn to 'predict' drone riots.

Later in game you have the 'police' ability, add it to your scout patrols and see their drone-reducing capabilities double.
Also, the 'Ascetic Virtues' project adds +1 quelled drone per police unit (any military unit in your city).

[spartanpez]

You have probably allocated >50% research.Never do it in SMACX unless you know what you are doing and are aware of consequences.
For now leave it 50% economy, 50% research, 0% psych.

what happens if you change the allocation
(lower research, raise psych)?

[binTravkin]

lower research - your research points get lower thus research speed aswell.
raise psych - you invest some credits in making people happy, but in early game you have them so little that it does not change anything, thus it's only useless when you've well set up, plus preferably built some +x% facilities like Tree Farms e.g.

But this guy's problem was, he probably set it to 100% research as he is used to from Civilization series.
In SMACX you should only do it if you are fully aware of consequences and know what you're doing.
Better leave it 50/50 as per default.

2 things happen in most cases:
1.due to '-48% to that -24% to this', you waste some credits, they simple vaporise.
2.if you allocate no credits to economy, while you have any maintenance costs (from buildings), you can quickly get into situation where you have 0 credits and shrinking, which means your base facilities get disbanded returning some energy (at simply obnoxious mineral->energy rate) until they all've been disbanded.

[Method]

Energy lost from differences between research and economy is dependent on efficiency. At +4 efficiency and above, you receive no penalty. It's sorta like in civ2 how certain governments don't actually allow you to go past a certain percentage.

40% economy 20% psych and 40% research is a good setting for free market. The psych makes up for the drones resulting from the -5 police free market causes, and the extra energy produced makes up for the 10% loss in economy and research.

Originally posted by Kirov
Try heroine, it's much safer, but quit Alpha Centauri!

QFT

[smacksim]

Do certain factions have certain civics(err, social engineering settings?) that are more compatible with their starting stats?(like how some factions have +1 efficiency and whatnot). Just like how binTravkin is saying Police State, Planned, and Wealth are the best for Hive. Is this pretty much fact, or just personal preference?

The Hive is the most 'locked in' to a perfect choice because of its immunity to inefficiency which cancels the negatives of that choice and gives great benefits.

As for the other factions, yes there are 'best' SE choices for each faction, in most situations, but these do change in the mid-game when efficiency becomes more important than economy for both energy and labs..........

The general 'best' choice is considered 'Dem/FM/Wealth' for most factions (that can make those choices), or Dem/FM/Knowledge in some circumstances.........however!...........

Running FM is difficult for a beginner: No Police, Angry Planet, citizens won't tolerate military outside your borders at all. The benefits though...........

Drones: Some players use facilities and specialists, some use Police and specialists, and some use just specialists to quell drones........... See the common factor you're missing?

Also, do be sure to read the F1 datalinks screen on bureacracy drones. Its the hardest part to understand in practice (which base gets the extra drones?) but may help you temper your expansion with other strategies while you master the drone situation.

Put down the Smac pipe before its too late!

[binTravkin]

Put down the Smac pipe before its too late!

Hey, why are you all encouraging the new convert to stop using it!?!

As SmackSim says:

Hive: PS/Planned/Wealth

Other factions usually go Demo/FM/Wealth, but with variations in FM -> Planned (for easier popboom) and Wealth->Knowledge (though Knowledge is a tad worse, just try to compare your labs output under both, you'll find out that Wealth is at least as good, plus that industry bonus and does not leave you that vulnerable to probes)

A good moment for Demo-FM-Knowledge or even Demo-Planned-Knowledge is when you gear up or are at war and have much morale boosting secret projects/facilities, e.g. Command Nexus and/or Cyborg Factory and others which under Wealth give greatly diminished results because -2 morale means their +2 morale bonuses are halved, while with Knowledge you can have +4 morale (Commando) troops out of factory and with a visit to a monolith, they're elite, which is SO much more than any other morale level, because of additional movement point.

There are other SE combo alternatives, though, e.g.

Gaians: Frontier/Green/Wealth, which gives you a solid +4 Effic and you can allocate ALL your energy to economy or research or economy (which is the best bet indeed as then you can convert to Fundy/Green/Wealth, build probes and steal tech, building up very fast all the while) without any loss.
Fundy/Green/Wealth is also very helpful for Native/Probe warfare and pod popping at sea (read - grab M(aritime)C(ontrol)C(enter))

CyCon can pull that (+4 effic) off with simply going Demo/FM/Wealth


You will also see some variations of a militaristic setup, made by other players, for example gaians or cycon running police state for the sake of support or someone running power and having all his units elite.
Actually Demo/[any option but default works here*]/Thought Control/Power is a very good late game combination for a conflict if oyu have the Cloning Vats (otherwise the maluses of Power and TC pretty much offset bonuses).

* - explanation:
- Planned = popboom
- FM = money, research (but no police and ecodamage problems)
- Green = +4 Effic which is in turn anything you wish - money, research (just how you allocate) plus high mineral limit till ecodamage and plus native army (useful with Locusts).

[Mr. President]