A few noob questions:

[vyeh]

I'm not sure that orbital minerals are free. I continued to play a game long after I won it. I had a city that already had workers on all 20 available (mostly jungle) squares and the Cloning Vats. I was building a Nessus Mining station every turn so it continued to receive a mineral for every population point. At a certain point it started showing eco-damage again. I was playing SMAC.

[Leon Trotsky]

Originally posted by Flubber
As a general rule, citing the manual as a source doesn't covince any of the veteran players.

So true... just look at the Bulk Matter Transmitter; if it only gave 2 minerals per base, it would be the most expensive pair of Nessus Mining Stations you could get (it actually rises your mineral production by 50% in all bases).

I now have a doubt regading the Planetary Datalinks - when does it check the number of factions that have the technology? That is, if two factions already have it when a third does the breakthrough, do you get it (as one would naturally assume)? Or maybe it is poorly implemented and you get it when a fourth faction completes it?

Also, how does it work in PBEM?

[BlackCat]

Yeah, finishing the Bulk Matter Transmitter can be a nasty surprise - suddently fungus pops everywhere and your feet get very wet


You dont get any free techs before next time a faction finishes it and three or more has it.

[Whoha]

Orbital minerals are free, any increase in them due to nano-replicators,robo factories,genejacks,quantum converters,the singularity inductor,or the bulk native life transmitter are not free.

[Flubber]

Originally posted by BlackCat



You dont get any free techs before next time a faction finishes it and three or more has it.

finishes it or otherwise acquires it--- IN single player games I have seen instances when I get a bunch of techs because some backward faction was gifted or traded for them

In that instance it seem the game checks for PDL shares

[Sikander]

Originally posted by Flubber


finishes it or otherwise acquires it--- IN single player games I have seen instances when I get a bunch of techs because some backward faction was gifted or traded for them

In that instance it seem the game checks for PDL shares

In fact a good way to get the ball rolling is to trade a tech or two to that backward faction that most of the other factions don't have. It can really fill your tech tree after you've been beelining a long time.

[Aabraxan]

Rather than beginning a new thread, Ive decided to just add a couple of questions to this one.

Social Engineering:
Police State and Planned both say that they get -2 efficiency, but when I actually use them, the efficiency penalties don't show up on the charts on the right side of the screen. Am I really getting hit for the -2 efficiency penalties?

Is there any way to see another faction's SE settings?

Airdrops:
Sometimes air defenses in my own bases prevent my units from airdropping in the protected radius. I think that this is usually happening in bases that I've captured, but it does not happen at all bases that I capture. Is there any way to tell where this will happen without having to attempt an airdrop?

[PJayTycy]

Arabraxan:

You are playing Yang I guess. Yang has efficiency immunity. It means he doesn't get negative efficiency effects.

You can see SE settings in the faction profile (right click on their name in the commlink)

I haven't noticed air defenses around my own bases protecting against air drops. Are you sure there are no enemy bases close enough to protect against airdrop ?

[Verrucosus]

Are you playing the Hive? They have an "immunity" to inefficiency penalties. While this sounds as though Police State and Planned shouldn't carry any penalty, I think the real effect is that the faction's overall efficiency value cannot be negative, so the efficiency penalty from "Police" would still cancel the bonus from "Green".

You can check another faction's SE choices by right-clicking the leader's name on the commlink and selecting "faction profile".

I'm uncertain about the airdrop question. Does it happen only during the turn during which you have captured the base? If so, maybe there is a glitch that prevents the game from taking account of the change in control for purposes of airdrops until the next turn. The fact that it only happens with some bases could be explained if only those with aerospace complexes are affected. (I think that contrary to the documentation air defenses are not provided by interceptors, but aerospace complexes.) A completely different explanation would be that it isn't really the captured base itself, but a nearby base still in enemy hands, but close enough to prevent airdrops.

Please note that most of this is pure speculation. I'm certain others will be able to provide a more definite answer.

(Edit: ... and they already have! Sorry PJayTycy, I hadn't seen your post!)

[Aabraxan]

Yes, I'm playing the Hive. That would explain the SE/efficiency issue.

And here I'd been wishing that there were a way to access that screen that initially pops up on infiltration . . . If I'd right-clicked, I mighta seen it. (Doh!)

As for the airdrops, I don't think the problem is contained to the turn on which I capture a base, but it does seem to limit itself to certain bases for some reason. I'm sure that it's related to aerospace complexes and not interceptors, though. In my last game, I was across a two-square-wide channel from Miriam and had killed every Believing transport that I could find. I used planes to bomb a coastal base until it was undefended, airdropped a couple of troops nearby, and captured the base. It was when I tried to airdrop more of my troops in to fortify my position that I got the message regarding air defenses. Unfortunately, I don't recall if Miriam had built the complex before invasion or if I did it afterwards. I didn't have any interceptors in the base, so that couldn't have been it.

As always, thanks for the information.

[Straybow]

I played SMAC for four years before I found out how to do that.

[Aabraxan]

OK, I've got a couple more to tack onto this thread:

1) Is it just impossible to probe/steal a loaded sea transport? What about unloaded transports? I've tried to probe/steal loaded transports, but nothing happened.

2) If I do probesteal a ship, where does the support come from? Is the stolen ship an independent? Is it supported by the home base of the probeship?

3) Why does the AI continue to send probe teams at me long after I've built the Hunter-Seeker Algorithm?

4) Questions about ICS & crawlers: How useful is actually crawling resources in an ICS strategy (as opposed to using crawlers to rush build)? Where do you find room to crawl resources? Playing the Hive with an ICS strategy & trying to capitalize on the growth and industry aspects, I invariably run out of land mass, and quickly. My cities wind up overcrowded and working all of their available squares. The only use I find for crawlers is rush building.

[Lazerus]

1) Unloaded should be fine to steal, loaded IIRC counts as 2 units on same square and thus cant be converted.

2) Hmm can't remember, think independant.

3) Because it's dumb

4) Very useful to crawl all available squares early game, then later game crawl condensors and work boreholes. Once you've ran out of room in the core area thats when you use crawlers produced there to get SP's or churn out formers to develop more land for further expansion. The aim of ICS is to work ALL tiles.

[Aabraxan]

OK, now I understand about the transports. As far as crawlers, I was working all available base squares. I was crawling a few squares outside the base radius, but I think it really boiled down to momentum. At the difficulty level I was playing at, my empire just expanded way too fast to worry about crawlers or raising land. As always, thanks for the information.

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Aabraxan
.

2) If I do probesteal a ship, where does the support come from? Is the stolen ship an independent? Is it supported by the home base of the probeship?

.

I have seen both independent and support from the nearest base. I think it might be a function of distance but I have never really tested it