Number of cities

[Kataphraktoi]

Knowing the limit of 512 is great, and during the early years you can easily see how many cities you have. But if you have a big faction, how do you find it? counting the f4 screen would be impossible to use accurately. im sure there is a easy answer, i just dont know tho

[Petek]

I don't know of any in-game report that will provide the number of bases. Here's how you can calculate the exact number, using the F4 screen:

-- Press F4.
-- Note how many bases appear on the initial screen (assuming that you have more than one screenful of bases). Call this number x.
-- Press the Page Down key repeatedly and count how many times you press this key until you arrive at the last screen. Call this number y.
-- Count the number of bases on the last screen. Call this number z.

Then the total number of bases is

(x - 1)*y + z.

Remarks:

-- Don't count the initial F4 screen as part of the Page Down operation. Only count the number of times that you actually press the Page Down key.
-- For the formula to work, you must not press Page Down after arriving at the last partial page of bases. That is, stop pressing the Page Down key as soon as you get to a page that has fewer bases than the number x, described above.

Example:

In a current game I press F4 and observe that 10 bases are shown (so x = 10).

I press Page Down 4 times and stop because now the screen shows fewer than 10 bases (so y = 4).

I count 4 bases on the final screen (so z = 4).

My total number of bases is therefore

(10 - 1)*4 + 4 = 40

A manual count shows this number to be correct.

[Kataphraktoi]

Thanks

so (9) * 12 +7=171 that looks accurate enough...kewl.

[Nightlifter]

I guess that means I will never accomplish my goal of having a base on every square of planet

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Nightlifter
I guess that means I will never accomplish my goal of having a base on every square of planet

you could fill planet if you make it smaller

[Kataphraktoi]

Still cant cover every square....

Unless, of course, you figure a way to have a map that is 1x1.

[Nightlifter]

Ever read the disclaimer in the Smac manual about txt editing might actually break the game?

I think you've just done it.

[Kataphraktoi]

explain again...? its impossible to get lower than 16x8 btw

[Nightlifter]

EDIT
{
There is a section in the back of the smac manual
that talks about text editing, and says that they
are not responible if your modifications cause
the game to crash or stop working.
}


oh, well 16 by 8 would still allow for 128, well below the 512 limit.

starting a game with 1x1 wouldn't work b/c everyone would make planetfall in the same square!

and doing it with one faction in scenario would be cheating!

the problem with having a base on every single square is there would be nowhere to gather nutrients, you would have to rely on recycling tanks. on the plus side, no competing factions would alleviate the need for minerals and energy.

Hold up... does the game allow you to build bases adjacent to one another? I don't remember. not that it would be practical to do so.

[Kataphraktoi]

Only if look first is off and the pods splash down together. There may be another way in older smac but i cant remember now

[Nightlifter]

even if look first was on(hypothetically) all colony pods would occupy the same space. I know there is a bug that lets that happen sometimes anyway with mindworms, but I don't know if it can apply to interfaction units as well.

.... but if it did, trying to establish a base in another (non-allied) faction's base.....

that might rip a hole in the universe!

or it could just up the other faction's base popultation.
interesting how software can be ambiguous like that, but there is no such thing as a perfect program.

[Kataphraktoi]

no i mean on a 16x8 map sometimes bases will be adjacent

[Nightlifter]

ah...

*makes mental note to pay more attention


no worries about adjecent bases though, it better to have more bases than less, even if it doesn't collect nearby resources(thus leaving them for another nearby base) you could just use it as another crawler factory

[EDIT]: 120 squares or whatever it is still leaves some room for a small crawler army