Loading transport after using all moves

[Superglide]

I've been playing this great game off and on since it was new, but have only recently discovered this site. I was reading this thread about ACDG4.

http://www.apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=158400

Vyeh was using a units move points and then somehow boarding a transport and moving it after all movement points were exhausted. For example, move an artillery out of a base, fire on something, and then use a transport to move it back to safety in the base.

How is this done? It was mentioned somewhere in the text that it can't be done from the unit select screen. I've tried everything I could think of, but no joy. I noticed that he is using the Mac version of the game, I'm using Linux. I also have SMAC only for windows, so I loaded that onto an XP machine and couldn't do it there either. Does this transport boarding work on all platforms? Is it considered an exploit?

[vyeh]

Start with both the land transport (with movement remaining) and artillery (with no movement) in the same square.

Left-click on the stack in the square. Select the artillery. It will blink even though it has no movement left.

Hit the "L" key (for load transport) or Menu > Action > Sleep/Board Transport.

The artillery is now loaded on the transport. If the transport isn't active, left-click on the stack and select the transport. You should see that the transport says "cargo: 1/1."

Now you can move the transport and the artillery will move along with the transport.

Note that for this to work, you have to left-click on the stack. If the transport is active and you click on the bottom window which shows the transport and the artillery, the artillery will briefly activate and then the game will switch over to the transport so you can't load the already moved unit.

I don't think it is an exploit. If I have an already moved unit inside a sea port, I can go into the base screen, right-click on the already moved unit and board transport. If a transport foil then leaves the base, it will take the already moved unit with it.

In ACDG6, I have been using land transports to speed up building roads to get military units to their objectives sooner as well as using them to get military units into attack position (sometimes an infantry unit is moved by a transport along a road right up to an enemy base; then the infantry unit attacks the base; and after another unit seizes the base, the transport moves the infantry unit into the safety of the captured base).

Land transports can really speed up the tempo of a campaign. One thing you can do if you happen to have two transports in the right position is use one transport to move a unit to the second transport, then unload the unit from the first transport and load the unit onto the second transport. Then you move the second transport with the unit.

Because land transports do require support and cost minerals, they are probably best used in a military campaign where a transport plus an infantry unit cost the same or less than a rover with the same weapon and armor. (In addition, the infantry gets +25% versus a base that the rover does not get). It doesn't make much sense to build a land transport to move a single former around for terraforming, since you could just build a second former for the minerals a land transport costs.

In some ways, land transports are similar to foil probe teams. In the right situation, they can be very cost effective. In other situations, regular units are more cost effective. The design workshop is one thing that distinguishes SMAC from Civilization (another is crawlers). Designing the most cost effective unit to fill a particular need can improve your game.

ACDG5 is in this forum (it finished last fall) and is a SMAC vanilla game. ACDG6 (it is still running) is also in this forum and is a SMAniaC game. If you're going through the archives looking at ACDG4, you might also be interested in Data Angel Bug and Fixing it. I am finding out some interesting things about the game as scient digs through the game's assembly code.

[Superglide]

Thanks, that works as you say. I agree, it doesn't seem to be an exploit, just a minor interface bug. It should work from both places, or not work from both places.

I've never found ground transport very useful until this scenario, because the rover transport has a movement of 1, but in the scenario, they had 2. I have found the transport board/unboard annoying with sea transports though. Which one will it board? etc.

Nice to see someone fixing bugs. I hope it can be fixed in the linux and mac versions as well.