A few noob questions:

[Aabraxan]

I just got SMAC (w/o Alien Crossfire), and I've got some questions, the answers for which I can't seem to find. Any help would be appreciated.

1) Unit design: What exactly determines when a new unit design is an "upgrade" of an old design? I keep trying to upgrade units and getting the "no upgrade possible because we haven't designed a prototype blah blah blah message." This even happens when I know that I've just designed a better unit with the same chassis. I know, for instance, that I can't "upgrade" from a missile rover to a probe team rover or one equipped with terraforming equipment, and that I can upgrade from a missile rover to other speeder-chassis designs with better weapons and armor. But I haven't been able to figure out the pattern. It doesn't look like new designs have to exactly copy the special abilities of the old one . . . What gives?

2) Deep pressure hulls: What's the advantage of deep pressure hulls? OK, I know that they operate underwater, but does this convey any combat advantage? Or any other advantage, for that matter?

3) Mag tubes: In my latest game, I've built mag tubes the length and breadth of my empire, but for some reason, if I try to move beyond a certain distance, the indicator tells me something like "distance = 38," or some such. I've built mag tubes on every square in between. I can make the trek with several long leaps, each with a distance = 0, but at some point, the green "route indicator" line straightens out and I seem to lose the benefit of the mag tubes. Not an insurmountable hassle, but a hassle nonetheless.

[Humphrey]

Re: A few noob questions:

1. You can't change the type of equipment eg from probe to crawler or weapon when upgrading. I think I know how upgrading works in other cases, but I'm not 100% sure, so if you don't mind I'll leave that for someone else to answer incase I'm wrong.

2. None in SP, as the enemy knows where all your units are anyway, but in MP other players can't see the underwater units (unless they run into them).

3. No idea. Have you got the latest patch (4 for samc I think)?

[Aabraxan]

My CD came with a patch of some sort, but installing it just means that the game no longer recognizes my CPU (of course, rendering the game totally unplayable).

[Aabraxan]

Oh, and ECM Jammers: it says they give +50% vs. fast units. What exactly constitutes a "fast unit?"

[PJayTycy]

3) is just a limit on the pathfinding algorithm (ie: for such long distances it doesn't try the shortest path anymore and just shows the distance in tiles -the flight distance-)

[Lazerus]

Fast = rovers and hovertanks

[Humphrey]

Originally posted by GameGeek
My CD came with a patch of some sort, but installing it just means that the game no longer recognizes my CPU (of course, rendering the game totally unplayable).

Download the patch from the website (whatever the current website is). It's lying about the CPU, just answer ok to the message. Read the FAQ on this forum, it'll tell you how to get it working with a new computer and stuff (though I'm surprised it only gives you the 'CPU not recognised' message when you patch it, and not always).

[Petek]

Re: A few noob questions:

Originally posted by GameGeek
I just got SMAC (w/o Alien Crossfire), and I've got some questions, the answers for which I can't seem to find. Any help would be appreciated.

1) Unit design: What exactly determines when a new unit design is an "upgrade" of an old design? I keep trying to upgrade units and getting the "no upgrade possible because we haven't designed a prototype blah blah blah message." This even happens when I know that I've just designed a better unit with the same chassis. I know, for instance, that I can't "upgrade" from a missile rover to a probe team rover or one equipped with terraforming equipment, and that I can upgrade from a missile rover to other speeder-chassis designs with better weapons and armor. But I haven't been able to figure out the pattern. It doesn't look like new designs have to exactly copy the special abilities of the old one . . . What gives?

In addition to the other factors mentioned, here are two other considerations when upgrading:

1) You can't upgrade non-artilliary units to artilliary, or vice versa.

2) An upgrade to a better weapon can't downgrade the armor, or vice versa. For example, you can't upgrade a 4-2-1 to a 5-1-1.

If you had some situation in which you thought an upgrade should have been possible, please post a description plus a game save and we'll take a look.

[Leon Trotsky]

Re: Re: A few noob questions:

Originally posted by Petek
2) An upgrade to a better weapon can't downgrade the armor, or vice versa. For example, you can't upgrade a 4-2-1 to a 5-1-1.

This is especially annoying after the discovery of Fusion Power.

You probably want the best out of your energy credit, so you give your garrisons the best weapon they can have without making them more expensive. The problem arises when you discover a new armor type; since you have pushed your unit towards the limit weapon/armor ratio, a better armor without lowering the weapon value would inevitably increase the unit cost. I often find myself in this dilemma; I can give my garrisons better weapons for no immediate increase in cost, but by doing so I'm sealing my destiny of having more expensive garrisons in the future.

Some numbers for comparison:

After fusion,, all these units cost the same:
1-1-1 to 20-1-1
1-1-1 to 1-6-1
8-2-1
6-3-1
5-4-1
4-5-1

But those are more expensive:
10-2-1
8-3-1
6-4-1
5-5-1
2-6-1

[Leon Trotsky]

Originally posted by GameGeek
Oh, and ECM Jammers: it says they give +50% vs. fast units. What exactly constitutes a "fast unit?"

As comrade Lazerus pointed out, "fast units" are determined by their chassis - an elite infantry does not count as a fast unit for this purpose. Note that ECM Jammer also prevents a fast unit from retreating.

And this is a garrison you can't touch:

[Aabraxan]

Originally posted by Humphrey

Download the patch from the website (whatever the current website is). It's lying about the CPU, just answer ok to the message. Read the FAQ on this forum, it'll tell you how to get it working with a new computer and stuff (though I'm surprised it only gives you the 'CPU not recognised' message when you patch it, and not always).

Installing the patch from the CD & hitting OK after the 'CPU not recognized' error shuts the game off entirely. Without the patch, the game seems to run just fine. In fact, I never got the error until after I installed the patch. Does the patch fix anything else? If not, it doesn't sound like I need it.

[Illuminatus]

Try this from the FAQ: 34) Q: When launching Alpha Centauri. I receive the error message "CPU not supported". My computer has a Pentium 4 or newer CPU.

A: You will need to modify a line in the Alpha Centauri.ini that is located in the game folder. To do this:

Double click on My Computer
Double click on the C: Local Drive (your Hard Drive or the drive that the game is installed to)
Double click on the Program Files Folder
Double click on the Firaxis Games Folder
Double click on the Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri Folder]
Double click on the Alpha Centauri.ini File (The file looks like a read me text file with a little gold symbol on it).

Once the file is open in Notepad, change:

ForceOldVoxelAlgorithm=0

to

ForceOldVoxelAlgorithm=1

Be sure to save your changes, then run the game. You may still receive the error message. If it occurs, click OK and the game will load fine.

If you are Installed Sid Meier's Planetary pack then their will be no Alpha Centauri.ini File initially. Upon attemping to play the game and
clicking ok despite CPU being unsupported the ini file will be produced. Then simply change the ForceOldVoxelAlgorithm to 1. Or if necessary copy ini file from original SMAC.

[Aabraxan]

OK, I got the patch and successfully installed it. That's done. Now for my next question:

Hunter-Seeker Algorithm: What happens to infiltrations of a player's datalinks when this is built? In other words, if my datalinks have been infiltrated by another faction, what happens when I build HSA? Can the other player still see what I'm doing, what my garrison is like, etc.? I don't think I'm likely to learn the answer to this in single-player unless I let the AI build this -- a thought I'm not fond of.

[Chaos Theory]

The HSA does not repeal infiltration.

[Aabraxan]

OK. Thanks.