ACDG6: Operations

[vyeh]

Sands of Time Base Control Screen

Sands of Time Base Control Screen



From the composite base map, its coordinates are (56,26).

It is in the middle of the jungle, so it has good growth potential. It has an alien artifact.

There are roads leading to Illuminatus, Adonia and Faralia.

[vyeh]

Adonia Base Control Screen

Adonia Base Control Screen



From the composite base map, its coordinates are (0,24).

It has a 1-4-2 bonus mineral forest river, so it has good mineral production.

There are roads leading to Illuminatus, Sands of Time and Faralia.

[vyeh]

Faralia Base Control Screen

Faralia Base Control Screen



It is in the middle of the jungle, so it has good growth potential.

There are roads leading to Adonia and Sands of Time.

[vyeh]

Aurora Base Control Screen

Aurora Base Control Screen



It is a seaport on a river.

There are no roads connecting it to any other Templar base; on the contrary, there is a big patch of fungus between it and the other Templar bases.

Since the only unaccounted combat unit is a jumpsuit garrison, we don't have to worry much about reinforcements.

[Maniac]

Great monolith experimenting!
I tried some myself yesterday, but it was turn 2101, so as you found out the monolith never disappeared, even for morale upgrading.

[vyeh]

Thanks. The SMAC/X FAQ, question 20 says:

"20) Q: Can a Monolith Disappear?

A: Yes. Every time a unit visits at a monolith, it has a 1 in 32 chance of disappearing."

From my experiments, I question the accuracy of 1 in 32 chance for year 2400. For 2400, the monolith vanished after 13 and 25 times. Obviously, I'd have to do more tests to actually state the 1 in 32 is wrong.

The FAQ referenced a thread, which referenced another thread, which stated:
"IIRC, every time you upgrade a unit at a monolith it has a 1 in 32 chance of vanishing."

Note:

(1) the 1 in 32 seems to have been pulled out of the air; and
(2) "upgrade" got changed to "used."

I tried it for mission year 2200. The monolith vanished after 37, 3, 63, 6 and 85 times. The average is 194/5 or 38.8.

I did 3 more trials for the year 2400. The monolith vanished after 12, 13 and 37 times. Combined with my previous trials of 13 and 25 times, the average is 100/5 or 20.

Even though the sample size is small, a factor of 2 is enough for the following conclusions:

(1) Mission year is definitely a variable in a monolith vanishing (as opposed to simply being a threshold).

(2) The figure of 1 in 32 appears to have been speculation in a thread, which was used as justification in a second thread and finally became part of the FAQ "bible."

Maniac, Hydro, look here.

[vyeh]

Ghost colony pod moved north east.

The Templar colony pods moved out of Faralia. We can take Faralia this turn if the battle ogre defeats the jumpsuit garrison.

[Hydro]

Go for it. This will deny them resources and get us a better foothold in the Jungle. The captured base will be our 6th base, so we'll have drone problems from B-drones and unrest in the base. But so be it. If I see correctly, the base will be size 1 after we take it (formerly size 3), so the first citizen will go from a Talent to a Worker.

Quick question - do we have a probe in place to steal tech from the base before we take it? I presume our probe survived, and if so went to the nearest base. If the probes are not in position I don't think we should wait - we can probe another base.

Hydro

[vyeh]

The probe is in Cytosino. As I see it, there are 3 techs to steal and 5 bases.

[vyeh]

The Atlanteans offered us the comm frequency of the Consciousness for 10 credits. We accepted. We also signed a treaty with them.

The battle ogre incurred 10% damage in knocking out Faralia's defender. The scout occupied Faralia. It is now size 2. Cytosino's first citizen changed from a talent to a worker.

The Templars contacted us and offered us a blood truce. We declined.

The Genesis probe is moving toward Faralia, which it will use as its base of operations.

The Purini probe is moving toward Aurora to steal tech.

The Mutatio explorer recovered a resupply pod with manufacturing supplies worth 50 credits.

With those supplies, we hurried a recreation commons for Uracil.

We contacted Aki Zeta-5. She is offering a pact if we declare vendetta on the Cult.

My inclination is to accept. We'll see her map. If the Cult is on the same continent as us, we will have to deal with them. If they are not, a vendetta is a formality. Since they are not aquatic, the risk to our gun foil is small.

So, should we accept the pact?

Current power graph:

[Hydro]

Excellent! Crushing the Templar is a good thing. Hopefully there will be more success in the near future.

GPS “Lucky” does it again! No tech trade with the Atlantians? Maybe at a future date, but for now the communication link for the Cyborgs is good enough!

I’d say Pact with Aki Zeta. She is generally a good ally (in SMAniaC she has no SE aversions and likes Cybernetic SE), generally has excellent tech, and the Cult is most definitely not a good prospect for a friend or ally. We’ll be at war with them shortly after we meet them. Plus, we can get their communication link of the Cult for free from Aki after the pact. We can also consider asking the Cyborgs to declare war on the Templar (that means no tech trade between Aki and our the Cyborgs). We’ll also get some Pact trade energy (eventually at least when our economy rating and base energy production goes up), which always helps.

By the way, do you still have the Cyborg dialog open (e.g. save during the dialog with Aki) we can let them know of our decision? If so, I didn’t know you could do that!

Hydro

[vyeh]

Do you want to try for a tech trade with the Atlanteans?

You can't save in the middle of the dialog. In ACDG5, Bodissey use to allow us to make a decision. I suspect he used 2 computers and left SMAC open. What I do is to go far enough to take a screen shot and then quit the program.

When you've made a decision, I then go back to the previous save and repeat my moves.

[vyeh]

The Consciousness occupies the territory to our north west (on the other side of the Templars). The Cult is to the south west of the Consciousness.

We traded exowomb for industrial base and Aki Zeta-5 gave us the fission reactor.

She terminated the conversation after giving us the fission reactor.

[Hydro]

I think we should consider trading tech with the Atlantians. One way the AI keeps ahead is Group Research, and if you aren't part of that little click then you are at a disadvantage. The risk is that the tech will end up being slutted out to everyone, which is why I like trading the same tech to all the AIs at one time, if possible.

Having gotten 2 very useful techs out of the Cyborgs is great. Now if we can steal a few from the nastly Templar then we're set!

Also, it is very interesting that the Cyborgs are on the other side of the Templar, meaning that they are boxed in to some degree. Too bad Aki terminated the conversation before we could get her to declare vendetta.

Quick question what sort of tech does Aki have? Does she have any military? If not we should consider gifting A4 to her after we get it from the Templar. It would help against the Cult if they are using conventional instead of psi. Plus, a gift would do much to improve our relationship - quid pro quo.

Hydro

[Hydro]

double post