New player, advice needed.

[Morgan Everett]

Sounds like you have this problem.

If you want to know a little about bugs in the game, then try to read this.

I don't know if this is the kind of crash I'm experiencing, but it looks like it. What should I install alongside the original game to cover most of the game's glitches/bugs, and in which order?

[551262]

There's some unofficial binaries/patched .exes of the game floating around. I don't play it on Windows (but I guess it could make the game faster on really big maps I guess) so one of the others will have to chime in about yeti's latest patches or whatever.

Do be well aware of the intercepter bug. Firaxis back in the day said they couldn't reproduce it, which is B.S. to me. Has to do with interceptor needlejets (I don't think the A.I. builds rotors, aka choppers with air superiority) scrambling. You'll get it one day sooner or later.

I would read more of the known bugs, as there are a LOT, but I play it on a Mac, and I don't want to help myself to some rather unethical exploits against the A.I.

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

Links/info about the Yitzi patch, which is latest for SMAX, three threads down - the first word in the title is Yitzi. There's also a post in there linking kyrub's latest patch, which is for SMAC only (and about to release a new version, but hasn't yet). Both incorporate scient's bugfixes of a few years ago.

[Morgan Everett]

Acknowledged.

But in which order should I install all these patches? I intend to cover as many bugs as possible but on certain games, like Baldur's Gate 2, there's an order to respect otherwise the game goes haywire.

Also, is it necessary to farm the tile you're about to build a base on? If the tile is depleted of any resource, should I build a forest or something BEFORE building the base? It seems that no matter what I do or don't do the base starts with the same resources unless there's a natural bonus.

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

See this thread http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=1437.0 -It's about setting up hotseat MP, but there's so much information about patches and getting SMACX running on your machine that Petek, Lord High Poobah of installation troubleshooting swears by it. Pete will help you himself if that leaves you with any questions.

[551262]

You don't need to terraform base squares.

Advanced players usually like to plop a sensor down though, this makes the sensor immune to artillery attacks and bombings from aircraft, so the +25% defensive bonus is yours no matter what. (Although, if they're that close, the base could be theirs sooner or later.)

Bases get the same level of nutrients, minerals and energy regardless of the underlying terrain, unless:

a) The square has a river (+1 energy)
b) The square has a nutrient, mineral or energy bonus (I'd recommend not building a base on a bonus square though*)
c) The base lies in a "enhanced" area, like the Uranium Flats (+1 e), Monsoon Jungle (+1 n), Fossil Ridge (SMAC-X, +1 m), stuff like that
d) Bases cannot be built on rocky squares or squares with fungus

Adding a forest, farm, soil enricher, et cetera will not provide any bonuses to the base. The base can get +1 nutrient, +1 mineral, and +1 energy by building a recycling tanks. The Merchant Exchange SP and your factions' ECONOMY scale will affect the base's energy figure.

* Let's consider three cases: nutrient bonus, mineral bonus, and energy bonus.

In the early game, for a nutrient bonus, I put a forest if the square is arid, so I get 3-2-1, not bad. Moist or rainy I put a farm + solar, for a net gain of 4-1-1 or 4-1-2 (5-1-1 or 5-1-2 if rainy) depending on circumstances (elevation, river, Uranium Flats, Pholus Ridge, ...). In the later game you'd be better off putting a farm+condensor+soil enricher and stick a crawler on it. Soil enrichers come out later in the game so before that you'd get 6 nutrients alone, 7 with the SE and 8 if it's in the Monsoon Jungle.

Mineral bonus squares: Arid squares I put a forest. Ain't going to get much better than that, unless it's rocky, in which case road+mine=7 minerals. Get those SPs going. Moist and rainy -- depends if it's rolling or flat (flat I'd just forest it) -- probably would be okay with a farm + solar. Later game, if it's not rocky, put a borehole on it. Energy bonus squares are treated similarly, forest if it's arid, farm + solar if moist or rainy.

Resource bonus squares are not subject to the early game restrictions on more than 2 of the resource, so keep a sharp eye on them. Apparently the game keeps a watch on how many resource bonus squares a base is using -- if it's more than 2, then one will peter out earlier than usual after a certain interval.

Also try to make good use of monoliths. 2-2-2 in the early game and that's as good as you can get. Really, the only resource area worth fighting to the death for, no matter what faction you are, is the Monsoon Jungle. If Yang gets in there, which I find that he usually does, kick him out at once.

[Morgan Everett]

If I get the weather paradigm isn't it always better to build thermal boreholes if workers are harvesting, instead of a mine?

( By the way, does weather paradigm work?! My formers don't seem to be terraforming any faster.. )

I can only see the good in building a mine when it's on a tile that's far away from the base so it requires a crawler.


Also, what are the resources restrictions and when and how are they be removed?

[Lord Avalon]

Boreholes take a long time, even with the Weather Paradigm (24 turns without, 16 with - you terraform 50% faster, so finish in 2/3 time). I usually wait until I can commit two formers to the task. Before you've lifted the mineral restriction, you might not even want to build any mines (unless there's a mineral bonus) - forests will do. Then you need to decide if having a mine in the short run is worth it - the former will be available sooner for other tasks. Or do you want to commit the former turns to build a borehole, which is better in the long run?

Building a mine, then a borehole later is a waste of former turns in a sense, but as someone who plays single player and builds dozens of formers, it's not as much of a worry for me, as once I've done basic terraforming, I can send multiple formers to do more advanced stuff. I find it worthwhile to crawl a mine with a base's production radius, as that frees up a worker to put on another tile. Also I want to have farms + condensers to crawl so I can put workers on boreholes, and all that takes time. I'd rather work some resources now, and reterraform, rather than waiting for the maximum later.

Aside from boni, which give you their full benefit, you're initially limited to two of a resource. Gene Splicing lifts the nutrient restriction, Ecological Engineering the mineral, and Environmental Economics the energy. These were listed in the tech path I posted earlier. Generally speaking, I beeline certain things, then try to lift the resource restrictions.

[Elok]

I haven't played this game in well over a year, but I remember loving Lal. No weaknesses, beyond the lack of any particularly big strength. Perfect for a beginner, I'd think. But he wants to be Morgan--fair enough. Has anyone mentioned pop-booming yet? I remember Morgan is basically the absolute worst at it (while Lal is the best), but it's so powerful that it probably should be explained for the day he decides to play somebody else.

Here's my attempt at explanation: any base with +6 growth will enter a population boom, such that it will grow by one every single turn, provided you have enough nutrients to feed the new people. With most factions, you just need to build a Creche (+2 growth) in every base, switch to Democracy and Planned (+4), then hold on to your hat as your empire doubles in size overnight. The only trick is to have everything set up ahead of time, with lots of food and riot control, etc. Obviously, Morgan can't do that--no Planned, plus tough growth restrictions that shut your boom down before it's properly started. That's what you give up by choosing him. But it's loads of fun, if you want to try as somebody else.

Apologies if somebody mentioned this already. I just skimmed the thread.

[Morgan Everett]

I think I prefer settling up for the long term. That's why I'll probably bother building boreholes and condensers from the beginning with a couple of forests to first work on because they're more valuable till the resources restrictions are lifted. Boreholes can't be adjacent anyway, and building only condensers and boreholes doesn't seem wise considering the amount of ecological damage they would make. A few squares of forest will reduce eco-damage and give me what I need to first go with, so it's a no-brainer.

I know a lot of you guys don't find Morgan so great, but I like to play someone I can relate to. Hal is a hypocritical jerk, I can't stand any of his UN bull****.

He makes a very aggressive AI and I always take a particular interest in seeing him being wiped out.

[Elok]

Hey, Morgan's a perfectly valid gameplay choice--quite powerful if used right. The trick is using him right, since you give up a lot to get his advantages. As for their personalities, pretty much all of them, with the possible exception of Lal, are blatantly criminally insane. Even Deirdre is basically Poison Ivy from Batman. I don't recall Lal being particularly aggressive when I played, but then I usually either played as Lal or ran democracy, which made him my best buddy. One thing I do recall CEO Aaron saying--and I agree-is that democracy is basically the best SE option (well, except Eudaimonia, but that's really late, like somebody else said). The downside is basically negligible for what you get. Anyway, any one of the seven will go totally psycho if you pick their aversion, or even fail to accept their favorite after repeated promptings. The funny thing is that it was intended to make them seem more like real people, but instead they come across as total maniacs.

[Morgan Everett]

Hey, Morgan's a perfectly valid gameplay choice--quite powerful if used right. The trick is using him right, since you give up a lot to get his advantages. As for their personalities, pretty much all of them, with the possible exception of Lal, are blatantly criminally insane. Even Deirdre is basically Poison Ivy from Batman. I don't recall Lal being particularly aggressive when I played, but then I usually either played as Lal or ran democracy, which made him my best buddy. One thing I do recall CEO Aaron saying--and I agree-is that democracy is basically the best SE option (well, except Eudaimonia, but that's really late, like somebody else said). The downside is basically negligible for what you get. Anyway, any one of the seven will go totally psycho if you pick their aversion, or even fail to accept their favorite after repeated promptings. The funny thing is that it was intended to make them seem more like real people, but instead they come across as total maniacs.

Hey it's me, French Drone.

According to the game's data link Morgan is pacifist. It makes perfect sense since he wouldn't win anything by killing his trade partners, so you might want to include him as a sane leader. I'm not sure about Lal though, I remember several games where he attacked me while I was running Wealth, Free Market and Frontier, for no specific reason.

As for the AI in general, I think it's realistic in a cynical way. This is war after all.

Most western countries which claim to be democratic and - to make a long story short - to be on the good side are downright hypocritical. Behind words and appearances they are directed by mass murderers, geniuses of spoils.

The United States is the most obvious example of that since it was built on a genocide and has turned to be an expert at neocolonialism, but it also applies to smaller countries like France in regard to their former colonies in Africa. Bottom line is, whenever you're at war, whether it's visible or invisible, you need to get your hands dirty. Be it by lying or by nuking without sorrow your neighbor for being a pain in the neck.

That being said, some people - and in the game some factions - are franker than others.

Lal embodies that kind of super hypocrisy, which is why I don't like him.

I prefer people who are not afraid to say who they are, but that's just me.

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

"Still me" as in a certain Galois peon?

Lal is also criminally insane. I most always play Gaian, democratic as soon as I can get it, and never declare vendetta, preferring to wait for them to come to me before I commence wiping them out. Lal gets really aggressive in mid-game, and never fails to declare, given time enough. None of them do.

[Morgan Everett]

"Still me" as in a certain Galois peon?

Lal is also criminally insane. I most always play Gaian, democratic as soon as I can get it, and never declare vendetta, preferring to wait for them to come to me before I commence wiping them out. Lal gets really aggressive in mid-game, and never fails to declare, given time enough. None of them do.

I take it you're unsurpassed by mid-game?

[Elok]

Yeah, they're all psychos in terms of gameplay. He's the only one whose nominal values are not somehow unhinged, is all. You've got a heartless plutocrat, a murderous hippie, a gun nut, a fanatic, a tyrant and a literal mad scientist. I'd rather roleplay as the humanitarian. Actually, no--I'd rather play as the balanced character with no weakness to attack, whatever his policies. His not-a-loon profile is gravy.

As for hypocrisy, it's been observed by many people that our modern distaste for "hypocrisy" is often a mask for a perverse pride in our own lack of moral standards. That is, we are not hypocrites only because we do not set our own bar high enough to risk failing it--and our failure to recognize this is itself a form of hypocrisy. But this is more a subject for the OT.