Super fast terraforming

[Nightlifter]

Is it considered a bug or cheating to have multiple formers working simultaneous to hurry up a single enhancement?

4 formers can build a borehole in three turns I think, but the real cheapness comes when raising/lowering terrain.

If it costs (hypothetically) 10 credits to raise an area of land, another former can join in (cutting time in half) but at no additional cost, I have done this in the original smac (not smax, and no patches).

with this tactic, two allied factions in a multiplayer game could take an army of speeder super-formers, colony pods, and intercepters to defend them. Combine that with WP, and you could cut the map in half in 20 - 40 turns, depending on the map size.

again, depending on the map, this could be used as a land invasion tactic or a naval defense line.

I don't think this is what they meant by "Building Bridges."

[Illuminatus]

Re: Super fast terraforming

Originally posted by Nightlifter
Is it considered a bug or cheating to have multiple formers working simultaneous to hurry up a single enhancement?

It is not considerd cheating but good micromanagement.

[GeoModder]

Re: Super fast terraforming

Originally posted by Nightlifter
again, depending on the map, this could be used as a land invasion tactic or a naval defense line.

Who was this guy again that took 8 hours preparing and executing one turn terraforming a landbridge into enemy territory, magrail it and taking half of his opponents bases.

[Nightlifter]

you mean you had enough formers to finish a crapload of raise terrains in less then a turn, then enough time to spare to build magtubes into enemy territory and begin the downpour? wow. just, wow.

the one downside to turn based games, being defenseless between turns. after hearing that, I am going to have nightmares about all the formers!

[binTravkin]

It was 'big_canuck' IIRC and he was using 200+ formers to achieve that.

[Nightlifter]

hold up, aren't you limited to 255 units or does it just reset the counter afterwards?

the most units I had was when playing Ddra i think, I had several hundred mindworms. The entire continent was like a worm sea, quite fearsome. If I remember correctly, that was the game where I attempted to insta-build the ascent to transcendance...

I had to have 25 to 50 crawlers in the base, but one turn they had been reduced to 5.

I heard about problems creating new units, but not old ones dissapearing. anyone else had that happen?

[Kataphraktoi]

just resets the counter.
i think in some older versians or maybe still now units after a fixed limit just dissapear. i know it happaned in civ2 that way

you could ask petek for a firmer answer, he must know everything about smax.

[GeoModder]

Normally, and AFAIK, units only "disappear" by combat or insufficient minerals to support them in their homebase.

[Illuminatus]

Originally posted by Nightlifter
hold up, aren't you limited to 255 units or does it just reset the counter afterwards?

I've created 400+ units in games, and I tend to play on gigantic maps where AIs spam enourmous amounts of units (Yang 200+ shard needles, Lal 90+ active probes etc.).

I had to have 25 to 50 crawlers in the base, but one turn they had been reduced to 5.

I heard about problems creating new units, but not old ones dissapearing. anyone else had that happen?

I must admit that I've encountered bugs involving unit disappearance and teleporting. But I never experienced units disappearing only at a single base. Are you sure the base has not been attacked or units disbanded due to low support?

[N35t0r]

Th euit limit in Civ2 is closer to the 2k mark, so I don't think the unit limit in SMAC/X will be lower than that. (Cities, OTOH, were limited to 255, so it's feasible that that limit is still in place, although from some screenshots I highly doubt it)

[Kataphraktoi]

2000(probably 2024) is the civ2 limit. Its easily hittable if you play a scenario like RedFront...

[Flubber]

Originally posted by GeoModder
Normally, and AFAIK, units only "disappear" by combat or insufficient minerals to support them in their homebase.

The other way is if you are not careful in the design workshop-- There are ways to make all the units of a given class just disappear.

[GeoModder]

Eliminating a design you mean?

[Maniac]

If you retire a basic unit design, the units of that type of ALL players disappear.

[Kataphraktoi]

That only works in smac1 afaik

A good way to get a 2101 conquest victory as gaians...