Some more questions

[Laser Eyes]

1. On one of my bases if I click on the square information window it says that the square produces 2, 1, 2. However in the Base Control Screen the Resources MFD says it produces 3, 2, 2. So why is it different? The square next to the base is moist with a farm on it and the square information window says the square produces 2, 1, 0 so it does take account of enhancements in that case.

2. Is it possible to play SMAC on widescreen monitors without the image stretching? How can I get the image to spread across the full widescreen?

3. I understand what is displayed by the Support MFD but I'm confused as to how to use it. How is it helpful to have the information it provides?

4. It's simple to figure out how your nutrients are being used. Nutrients are only allocated to citizens and nowhere else. Also there is an energy allocation readout showing how the bases energy is used. But it seems more difficult to figure out how your minerals are being used. I had to individually look up each facility in the help index to see how much it costs to maintain. Is there a display showing mineral allocation for all facilities and units so I know how the minerals are being used?

5. How is the energy cost to hurry production for a project calculated? Is it a specific amount times the number of turns to complete the project at normal speed?

6. How do you know how much energy resources will be used to build a facility or unit? Neither the Build Orders window nor the Production Readout provides this info, it only tells you the number of turns to build the project. When you click on the Hurry button you have the option to complete the project on the next turn at a certain energy cost. Since you don't know how much energy will be used to complete the project at the normal speed how do you know how much more it will cost you to hurry production?

7.How do I delete save games?

[gwillybj]

7.How do I delete save games?

7.How do I delete save games?

Navigate to C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri\saves and you will see your saved games (*.SAV).
The subdirectory \auto contains the autosaves if you use that option (same extension, *.SAV).
It's good to go in there and delete any saves you're sure you don't want, because they can range from 300 to 3,000KB and more.

[Aabraxan]

Re: Some more questions

Originally posted by Laser Eyes
5. How is the energy cost to hurry production for a project calculated? Is it a specific amount times the number of turns to complete the project at normal speed?

The energy cost to hurry is a multiple of the number of minerals remaining in the build. I don't recall the number (or numbers, if variable) off the top of my head, unfortunately.

[Flubber]

Re: Re: Some more questions

Originally posted by Aabraxan


The energy cost to hurry is a multiple of the number of minerals remaining in the build. I don't recall the number (or numbers, if variable) off the top of my head, unfortunately.

For facilities it is

2* minerals remaining if you have 10 minerals built already-- If you have less than 10 minerals I BELIEVE it is 4* all the remaining minerals

For units I have never been quite certain

[Flubber]

Re: Some more questions

Originally posted by Laser Eyes


6. How do you know how much energy resources will be used to build a facility or unit? Neither the Build Orders window nor the Production Readout provides this info, it only tells you the number of turns to build the project. When you click on the Hurry button you have the option to complete the project on the next turn at a certain energy cost. Since you don't know how much energy will be used to complete the project at the normal speed how do you know how much more it will cost you to hurry production?

Zero energy-- If you do not hurry something you will use zero energy but you will use your minerals turn after turn

Originally posted by Laser Eyes


4. It's simple to figure out how your nutrients are being used. Nutrients are only allocated to citizens and nowhere else. Also there is an energy allocation readout showing how the bases energy is used. But it seems more difficult to figure out how your minerals are being used. I had to individually look up each facility in the help index to see how much it costs to maintain. Is there a display showing mineral allocation for all facilities and units so I know how the minerals are being used?

Minerals are used to support units only. Facilities do not have a mineral upkeep cost.

MOST Facilities DO have an energy upkeep cost

Originally posted by Laser Eyes


3. I understand what is displayed by the Support MFD but I'm confused as to how to use it. How is it helpful to have the information it provides?

Do you mean the little window to the right that shows all the units and crawlers homed to this base or do you mean that support window at the top that shows a map. I find the map one almost useless but IO love the little window in the lower right hand corner. I use it to click on crawlers that are not bringing in many resources or to quickly find units to downgrade support requirements from the base

[Aabraxan]

Somewhere or another, I downloaded Nethog's SMAC(X) Rush Reference Chart. I'll see if I can find a link.

Edit: It might be here:

http://apolyton.net/dir/index.php?sid=514583908&t=sub_pages&cat=176

[Verrucosus]

Re: Some more questions

Originally posted by Laser Eyes
1. On one of my bases if I click on the square information window it says that the square produces 2, 1, 2. However in the Base Control Screen the Resources MFD says it produces 3, 2, 2. So why is it different? The square next to the base is moist with a farm on it and the square information window says the square produces 2, 1, 0 so it does take account of enhancements in that case.

If we were talking about the base square itself, it could be about the square information window not taking account of recycling tanks in the base. For a square next to the base, I'm at a loss.

Originally posted by Laser Eyes
3. I understand what is displayed by the Support MFD but I'm confused as to how to use it. How is it helpful to have the information it provides?

It's not one of the most useful displays in the game, but there are occasions when it can be helpful. For example when you have a negative police rating, you might get additional drones for needlejets or other units outside your territory. In such situations there might be some bases where you don't have enough talents to balance out the drones while you have "surplus" talents in others. The support MFD can help you find the units that cause drones in a rioting base so you can reallocate them to a base that can sustain additional drones (or even a base with a punishment sphere ...). There might be other uses for the display, but I cannot think of any right now.

Originally posted by Laser Eyes
5. How is the energy cost to hurry production for a project calculated? Is it a specific amount times the number of turns to complete the project at normal speed?

The formula varies for the different types of projects.
Base Facilities: hurry cost = 2 * number of minerals left (as pointed out by Flubber)
Secret Projects: hurry cost = 4 * number of minerals left
Units: hurry cost = (2 + (number of minerals left / 20)) * number of minerals left
As mentioned by Flubber, hurry costs are doubled when fewer than 10 minerals have been accumulated.
As you can see, the key variable is not the number of turns, but the number of minerals left till completion. This means that in terms of speed it is more efficient to spend your rush-building budgets in bases with low mineral production because hurrying there "buys" a larger number of turns than it does in the more productive bases.

(edited to add some important brackets to the hurry cost formula)

[Darrell01]

1. On one of my bases...

I do believe he is talking about the tile his base is on. Bases will always produce at least 2 food and one mineral in their tile regardless of some terrain. The energy they produce is based off of you economic social engineering choice and for neutral economy it is 2.
The food output of a base tile can be increased by a recycling tank OR a pressure dome (+1), a nutrient bonus (+2), being in a jungle square (+1).
The mineral output of a base tile can be increased by a recycling tank OR a pressure dome (+1) a mineral bonus (+2), being in a crater tile (+1), or being on a volcano square (+1).
The energy output of a base tile can be increased by a recycling tank OR a pressure dome (+1), by being in a river (+1), being in a geothermal square (+1), being on a ridge square (+1), being on a uranium square (+1), or by your economy (varies).
These are things that do not affect the output of a base tile.
arid, moist, rainy, flat, rolling, rocky, fungus, farm, soil enricher solar collector, dunes, forest, sensor, condenser, echelon mirror, bunker, airport, roads, magtubes, sea, kelp, tidal harness, mining platform, borehole (highly doubltful if you could get that to happen), and elevation. However, they still have the same ecological effects, but they do not have the same effects because they are in a base tile. For instance, bunkers will not convey a defensive bonus until the city is destroyed. A condenser will add moisture to the tiles around the base and the echelon mirror will add energy bonus to the solar collectors around the base tile. A forest will reduce the ecological affects of terraforming by +1 and a farm will reduce it by -1 even though it is on the base tile.

4. It's simple to figure out how your nutrients are being used... Minerals?... Energy?...

Yes. Nutrients are used 2 per citizen and the surplus is put towards base growth.
Minerals are used in unit support and base production. Depending on your support rating, it cost your city 1 or in some cases 2 minerals per unit per turn over the support limit. In most cases this is 2, but it can vary from 0 up to 4 or the size of the base. You sound like you are confusing this with energy.
Energy in the beginning of the game is put 50% to economy and 50% to lab output. Economy is energy credits being put into your pocket per turn. Lab are research points put toward the research of the next technology. Not in here is Luxury. This goes to creating Talents in your base or removing a Drone for every 2 luxury energy that the city makes itself. If you go free market, usually you might set this at 10% or 20% if you don't have the infrastucture to handle the extra dronage. Each city facility uses energy. This can range from 0 to up to as much as 6 (I do believe). Now some facilities will increase your base economy, labs, and/or luxury by a certain percent. This is anywhere from +25% to +50%. So if you had a base with 6 energy being put toward your economy and you had an energy bank (+50%) and a tree farm (+50%) your base would be producing 12 energy credits per turn. Of course your energy bank eats up some and so does the tree farm. You can figure out if a base is making or losing energy by hitting F3 and scrolling to the base name on the lower left of the summary list. If you click on the base listing, the base breakdown of the facility energy usage will appear on the upper right display.
On top of all this is Efficiency. There is a formula somewhere on the site for how much percentage energy you lose from a base's harvested energy (not to be confused with specialist energy) the further from the headquarters it is. This is energy that is just cut right off the top of the harvested energy. For instance if a base is losing half its energy harvest and it is bringing in +30 energy from the tiles and crawlers, +5 energy from satallites, and +5 more energy from trade, (a total of 40 energy) then it will get only 20 energy to split up among the economy, labs, and luxuries.