AI not using formers (Talent difficulty)

[HybridM]

Hi =) First post and all that jazz.

I recently picked up SMAC on budget (played it extensively years ago). I've been playing on Talent difficulty as I'm not good enough to compete on unequal terms with the AI (production bonuses and all).

I remember when I used to play it (on lower difficulties), the AI was more than capable of building up a large civ with flourishing cities. However, on my current setup (XP, SMAC v4, no XP update patch applied) the AI is simply not using formers.

This is leading to anemic cities which can be conquered with ease. Basically, they are lucky if they can get beyond city size 3 or 4.

There is evidence of roads and one or two farms, but nothing like what I expected (and remembered). I used my ability as leader of the council to look at all the units the AI had built. In all cases, there were only 1 or 2 formers per faction.

What's going on? I remembered SMAC being a very hard game, even at lower difficulties. I don't see any reason why they wouldn't build formers.

Does the v4 patch break something? Does XP break something? Did setting "useoldvoxelalgorithm=true" break something? I'd really like to go back to the good old days where Chairman Yang would crush me every time It's just not fun otherwise

Thanks in advance,
HM

[Seleuceia]

Is this a one-time thing or is it consistent?

I have played a few games where most factions didn't build any formers...conditions leading to this were factions close together, constant war, and (for Spartans, Hive, and Believers) getting formers too late...

However, I've only had this happen two or three times, so if it's consistent, I got nothing...you might have to reinstall the game if something was changed and you can't find it...

[Petek]

Hi HybridM!

Welcome to the forum.

You might want to open a save file from a game that's fairly advanced and then open the scenario editor (Ctrl-K). You'll then be able to see the whole map. I suspect that you'll see that the AI formers have built lots of Farm + Solar Collectors, some Mines and a few forests. That's their typical strategy. Also, as Seleuceia pointed out, some factions don't research Centauri Ecology right away and so won't have formers until later in the game.

Petek

[CEO Aaron]

You're looking at random luck of the draw. As others have pointed out, the AI's development depends a great deal on its situation. An early war of attrition can cause the AI to flip out and choke all available support with combat units, leaving nothing for development of its own territory. This unfortunate habit is one of the principal reasons that the AI tends to do much better with factions that get good support, namely Yang and Miriam. Yet even these factions will occasionally miscue, getting formers late or even not at all. I remember a particular single player challenge, where I played one faction for 100 turns, then switched to the lowest ranked faction using the scenario editor. Sparta hadn't researched centauri ecology, and had built 8 colony pods which were wandering aimlessly in search of base sites to found.