New player, advice needed.

[CEO Aaron]

Thanks Aaron.

Less than a week and I'll be playing Morgan ten hours a day .

By the way, what do you think of the Free Drones?

I'm less impressed by the balance of the Alien Crossfire factions. Aki, Domai, Sven and the Aliens are kind of over-powered, and Rose and Cha'dawn are under-powered. Domai is probably the strongest of the human factions in Crossfire. His primary drawback, the research penalty is easily overcome by the early midgame. You'll be a bit behind on terraforming, but the free drone quell per city basically makes expanding to the second bureaucracy limit trivial (I should stipulate, all discussions of faction balance should be made in light transcend difficulty).

Late-game, assuming you utilize a specialist-driven economy (and you should), efficiency isn't very important, which makes Domai's inability to run Green also largely irrelevant. You'll lose out on some trade income and base energy collection in a sprawling empire, but again, the free -1 drone takes the sting out of the worst part of efficiency.

To play Domai at his best, expand aggressively and fight opportunistically. You don't have any profound advantage on the battlefield, but your production advantage makes you far better able to win a war of attrition against most opponents. As a less technologically-blessed faction, probes must feature prominently in your strategy in order to achieve parity.

[Morgan Everett]

I'm less impressed by the balance of the Alien Crossfire factions. Aki, Domai, Sven and the Aliens are kind of over-powered, and Rose and Cha'dawn are under-powered. Domai is probably the strongest of the human factions in Crossfire. His primary drawback, the research penalty is easily overcome by the early midgame. You'll be a bit behind on terraforming, but the free drone quell per city basically makes expanding to the second bureaucracy limit trivial (I should stipulate, all discussions of faction balance should be made in light transcend difficulty).

Late-game, assuming you utilize a specialist-driven economy (and you should), efficiency isn't very important, which makes Domai's inability to run Green also largely irrelevant. You'll lose out on some trade income and base energy collection in a sprawling empire, but again, the free -1 drone takes the sting out of the worst part of efficiency.

To play Domai at his best, expand aggressively and fight opportunistically. You don't have any profound advantage on the battlefield, but your production advantage makes you far better able to win a war of attrition against most opponents. As a less technologically-blessed faction, probes must feature prominently in your strategy in order to achieve parity.

From what you're saying it doesn't look like they're that overpowered, basically you have to compensate until midgame for your research penalty - leaving you weak and unprepared in case of an imminent attack - AND compensate indefinitely for your lack of significant advantage in the battlefield by being opportunistic.. Yet, if acquiring technology for this faction comes primarily from acquiring spoils of war and theft by probes then you can't just be 'opportunistic', can you?

The thing is, Miriam suffers from this bad research too but she's a war machine AND she's a probe bonus which can come in handy, the Free Drones have nothing..

The aliens, however, seem unquestionably overpowered to me.

The pirates, I don't know... It doesn't seem they are that overpowered too.

I, for one, would think the best human faction is whether the Spartans or the Morganites.

Although one could easily argue there's no such thing as a 'best faction'.

[551262]

You won't get the bunker bonus if you do that. Also you won't get the Aerospace Complex +100% defensive bonus on airfields. In fact, I rarely ever build airfields -- there's usually a conquered city on the way anyways, which can have a perimeter defense, command center, etc.

The best faction is the one that you like playing the most first, then secondly, which you do play the best.

[CEO Aaron]

[QUOTE=Morgan Everett;6331595]From what you're saying it doesn't look like they're that overpowered, basically you have to compensate until midgame for your research penalty - leaving you weak and unprepared in case of an imminent attack - AND compensate indefinitely for your lack of significant advantage in the battlefield by being opportunistic.. Yet, if acquiring technology for this faction comes primarily from acquiring spoils of war and theft by probes then you can't just be 'opportunistic', can you?[QUOTE]

Tech penalties are, in my opinion, the easiest to overcome. It's not as if the first 10 turns you can't research anything (by far the most meaningful penalty of -2 research) completely deprive you of useful activity: Just build a few more scouts and colony pods instead, and you can make up the lost turns from lack of terraforming with a nice alien artifact or other unity pod reward. Later on, the 20% research tax is pretty much meaningless. The difference can be overcome in any number of ways, from simply outbuilding your opposition (easy to do with +2 industry) to trading techs, to probe actions.

The thing is, Miriam suffers from this bad research too but she's a war machine AND she's a probe bonus which can come in handy, the Free Drones have nothing..

The difference is that Miriam's advantages are decidedly more mediocre than Domai's. +2 Industry is AMAZING, and really almost can't be overstated, and when stacked with Wealth and Planned, you're paying 6 minerals per row, something you should absolutely do. Go Demo/Planned/Wealth, put Creches everywhere and you're in perma-pop boom with ultra-cheap construction, and really not terrible efficiency. Put enough money into Psych and you'll get +1 Econ from a Golden Age, and you're earning +1 energy per square to boot, and more efficiency as well. With your amazing industrial output, building all those psych magnifying facilities is much easier than what your opponents will spend.

The aliens, however, seem unquestionably overpowered to me.

They are, even in the context of the other SMAX factions, but in a multiplayer game against humans, that actually will work against you, because humans have no compunction about using nerve gas against you, which will even the odds somewhat.

The pirates, I don't know... It doesn't seem they are that overpowered too.

They're better than most basic factions, by virtue of having a completely unassailable starting position.

I, for one, would think the best human faction is whether the Spartans or the Morganites.

I think they did a much better job of dialing in the balance in the basic factions, to the point where 'who's best' is largely situational. Stuck nestled in with a bunch of rivals? You don't want to be Morgan. On a mid-sized island all on your own? You WANT to be Morgan. Sparta is largely viewed as one of the more mediocre factions, for the exact same reason that Domai is considered one of the best: The industry penalty (and wealth prohibition) is quite difficult to overcome.

Although one could easily argue there's no such thing as a 'best faction'.

If I had to pick overall rankings, I'd go:

Caretakers (Aliens who can pop boom)
Usurpers (Aliens who can't pop boom)
Domai (Best human faction, insanely stupid industry forgives all drawbacks)
Aki (Best aspects of Dierdre and Zak)
Sven (Immune to early-game harassment)
University (Most flexible SMAC faction)
Morgan (Strongest builder)
Dierdre (Only real drawback is free-market restriction)
Peacekeepers (Only real strength is hab limits, disappears late-game, as close to a neutral faction as you can get)
Hive (Trapped in a stupid SE model, only saved by industry boost, can't popboom)
Sparta (Only redeemed by ability to pop boom with nice police, industry penalty + wealth prohibition is crippling)
Miriam (Utterly vapid conditional advantages, substantial tech penalties)
Cha'Dawn (Same spartan industry without benefits anywhere near as good)
Rose (Designed to lose, do not play)

[Morgan Everett]

I should have said it sooner, I don't play with scattered pods.

Does that make you reassess the triviality of the research penalty?

[Morgan Everett]

For the Free Drones, my first breakthrough should be the one which provides formers, right?

[CEO Aaron]

For the Free Drones, my first breakthrough should be the one which provides formers, right?

Yes, for every faction except Morgan. That's one of the reasons I weight Zak and Dee as high as I do: Starting with the ability to build formers from turn one gives you a nice jump on your turn advantage from terraforming, something Sikander demonstrates very effectively in that thread I linked. But as good as formers are, for the money, colony pods offer a still greater return on investment, they're only constrained by your nutrient income as well as minerals.

I should have said it sooner, I don't play with scattered pods.

Does that make you reassess the triviality of the research penalty?

In the long run, no. It will make your opening a little rocky, but over time the 20% discount to everything you build will bury it, and catching up in tech is just so easy with probes and diplomacy. You might get rolled if you get stuck next to an aggro neighbor before you can research Planetary networks, but that can happen to any builder.

The -1 drone means you can delay building recreation commons, spreading right to the second bureaucracy limit. On a large map at Transcend, that's 12 bases. The only faction that can spread that thin as easily is PK's, but their lower efficiency means they'll have 10 bases to your 12. So let's say that each base has base square income plus one 2/1/- square. Assuming your bases have similar mineral and energy output, you'll have a 44% net advantage in industrial output. That's without spending money on a single garrison, rec commons or other facility to manage your population.

[Morgan Everett]

Yes, for every faction except Morgan. That's one of the reasons I weight Zak and Dee as high as I do: Starting with the ability to build formers from turn one gives you a nice jump on your turn advantage from terraforming, something Sikander demonstrates very effectively in that thread I linked. But as good as formers are, for the money, colony pods offer a still greater return on investment, they're only constrained by your nutrient income as well as minerals.



In the long run, no. It will make your opening a little rocky, but over time the 20% discount to everything you build will bury it, and catching up in tech is just so easy with probes and diplomacy. You might get rolled if you get stuck next to an aggro neighbor before you can research Planetary networks, but that can happen to any builder.

The -1 drone means you can delay building recreation commons, spreading right to the second bureaucracy limit. On a large map at Transcend, that's 12 bases. The only faction that can spread that thin as easily is PK's, but their lower efficiency means they'll have 10 bases to your 12. So let's say that each base has base square income plus one 2/1/- square. Assuming your bases have similar mineral and energy output, you'll have a 44% net advantage in industrial output. That's without spending money on a single garrison, rec commons or other facility to manage your population.

Sounds like a great challenge to me, being a noob the tech penalty will compensate for their apparently blatant advantage.

By the way, I have to reinstall the game on my new laptop, do you know what patch I should install and in which order?

I've tried to check it out on other threads but I don't understand what I need to install or not, and how I should install whatever I need.

[Petek]

Sounds like a great challenge to me, being a noob the tech penalty will compensate for their apparently blatant advantage.

By the way, I have to reinstall the game on my new laptop, do you know what patch I should install and in which order?

I've tried to check it out on other threads but I don't understand what I need to install or not, and how I should install whatever I need.

Which version of the game do you own (original release, Planetary Pack, Laptop Collection, Sold-out Software, GOG, something else)? Did you ever install any of the unofficial patches? (If you don't know about unofficial patches, then you probably haven't installed them.)

[Morgan Everett]

Which version of the game do you own (original release, Planetary Pack, Laptop Collection, Sold-out Software, GOG, something else)? Did you ever install any of the unofficial patches? (If you don't know about unofficial patches, then you probably haven't installed them.)

Hello there, thanks for your help!

I have the GOG version.

I installed the game on my old computer many years ago and I don't remember what I installed or not nor the version.. Then I installed the GOG version without any patch.. but I've gotten mad because my games sometimes crash, usually after quite some time around the end of the game. Usually the crash occurs when enemy troops are closing in on one of my bases, often via helicopters or aircrafts.

I need to know what I need to install to avoid, at the very least, this crash problem.. Knowing I'll be using the GOG version from now on, even on my brand-new laptop.

[Petek]

The GOG version includes all official patches. You probably are running into the "interceptor crash," which happens when an air unit tries to intercept another air unit. This bug is fixed with scient's unofficial patch, which may be downloaded from the link I just gave. This unofficial patch consists of modified terran.exe and terranx.exe files, plus a readme file. Make backup copies of the original exe files and then extract the modified files into your main SMACX folder. There are other unofficial patches, but install just scient's patch for now. It fixes several other bugs. Please post again if you have any questions.

[Morgan Everett]

The GOG version includes all official patches. You probably are running into the "interceptor crash," which happens when an air unit tries to intercept another air unit. This bug is fixed with scient's unofficial patch, which may be downloaded from the link I just gave. This unofficial patch consists of modified terran.exe and terranx.exe files, plus a readme file. Make backup copies of the original exe files and then extract the modified files into your main SMACX folder. There are other unofficial patches, but install just scient's patch for now. It fixes several other bugs. Please post again if you have any questions.

Sure, so I must install the game then install your patch, right?

Is there a way to make sure the patch was installed properly, to make sure it works?

Thanks a lot, again.

[Petek]

Sure, so I must install the game then install your patch, right?

Yes.

Is there a way to make sure the patch was installed properly, to make sure it works?

scient's unofficial patch has been used and tested by many players. If you extract the two exe files into your main SMACX folder, it will work.

Thanks a lot, again.

[Morgan Everett]

Yes.scient's unofficial patch has been used and tested by many players. If you extract the two exe files into your main SMACX folder, it will work.

Oh and I suppose I should launch the game from the modified .exe and NOT from the shortcut in windows start menu?

[CEO Aaron]

I believe that applying the patch will rename the new .exe to the same name as the old one, and the start menu shortcut will still work. Long story short, Windows shortcuts are not dynamic. If you move the target out from under it, they don't follow.