Tweet
As the author of the Advanced Hydromechanics tech patch and soon to complete a newer version of the complete SMAC remod SNAC 1.0, which will be released soon, I have discovered how to add several new features to the game, making things VERY interesting.
TERRAFORMING
If you check out my tech patch, you will notice I added sea terraforming abilities, such as the Sea Sensor Array, the Kelp Enricher and the Minefield.
I experimented with adding all the others to the sea, and some of them showed up on the map but the base would not recognize them when I would try to use, say a Condensor at sea, and some, like the Airbase, would not show up, renering them useless. The Kelp Enricher does not show up on the map, which is no great loss, and neither does the bunker, adapted for the sea, but I named it a Minefield, so it not showing up on the map is apt. In order to mark your Minefields, you can use the Name Landmark feature, or Put Cursor Here to see them. The AI, though, does not seem to use these new terraforming features.
In the new SNAC I'm creating, I've added a borehole to sea squares, which does show up, and the base does know how to use it. It does look kind of strange, though, so I named it a Geothermal Borehole -- sort of a borehole at the bottom of the ocean floor into the earth (you need to use your imagination for that one).
As for the Monolith, I have tried everything I could think of, from simply modifying the alpha.txt file to adding a new line in the menu.txt file, but to no avail -- there simply is no way for you to terraform a Monolith. Which would be cool with a tech like, say The Secrets of Alpha Centauri. Oh well.
So the only terrain enhancements I've managed to be able to adapt for the sea are the Soil Enricher, the Sensor Array, the Bunker, and the Borehole.
---------------------------------------------
UNITS
Second on my list of neat mods is adding new units to the game. Yes, you heard me right -- new units!!!
In the area of alpha.txt called #UNITS, there is a number under it. That number can be changed to reflect a number of new basic units added. For example, in my SNAC 2.0, that number is at 40. (No I didn't create THAT many new units. What I did was add new units with abilities in innovative configurations that I as a player would think about but the AI never seems to implement, making the AI MUCH samrter at developing innovatively tactical units, such as a Trance Former, a Synthmetal Supply Crawler, or even a Clean Police Unit, among others -- which in turn creates, in my view, a smarter AI)
Now here's the interesting part. When using the unit designer in the game to design new units, you can only add two abilities to a unit if you have the Neural tech. But in the basic units, you can design special units with MORE than two abilities. But I must caution prospective designers out there -- be careful not to unbalance gameplay, as the AIs will also have access to those units, and should not take the place of other, 'legally' designed units. Usually I give a number of '0' in the cost category so that even though the unit is impossibly souped up with features, the cost is incrementally reflected, so as to make the units rarities in the game. Also to consider is when deciding at what tech the unit can be built, be careful not to add abilities that may not have been arrived at on the tech tree -- because if, say you introduce a unit with three abilities, and has the chasis Gravship, but the tech at which the unit appears is before Graviton Theory, all the player would have to do to gain illegal use of the gravship chassis would be to push 'help' in the production allocation screen (from the base screen), and from there design a new unit with only two of the three abilities of its predecessor. (For some reason the designers at Firaxis realised this potential bug and corrected for it, cause if you try that with the Locusts of Chiron, which uses Gravship as chasis, all you get in the design screen is a Rover.)
Adding Abilities:
The string of zeros after the unit descripts at the end of the line represent the abilities the unit has. The trick is to add the correct 1s in the right places representing the right abilities. How to determine that? Well through trial and error I discovered that:
In the 0000... sequence, the first digit represents the LAST ability in the #ABILITIES list, and the last digit represents the FIRST ability in the #ABILITIES list. Then all you have to do is figure out where to put the 1s.
Designating Graphics:
When designing a unit that is not 'legal', or one that is radically different that anything else, sometimes you might want to add a custom graphic for the unit.
In the #ABILITIES list, in one collumn is a bunch of -1s. But some have a different number. These are the Mind Morms and the Isle of The Deep. Take a look at the file 'Units.pcx'. If you look at the first column, the third one down is... the Mind Worm. And the fourth one down the list is... the Isle of The Deep. If one were to designate the first icon as 0, then the third one down would be 2, the fourth 3 -- the very numbers that are indicated as icon numbers in #ABILITIES.
This presents an almost infinity of possibilities. I have, for example used the tornadoe-like icon in that file, no.'5', for a unit I call the Nanite Swarm. And the icon for that monster, no.'4', for a unit I call Horror of the Deep.
Now you would think that for the monster-like icon, that Morale would advance the unit in size, as in the Units.pcx file indicates. Alas this is not so. Any icons you use must be in the first row; SMAC does not seem to recognise any icons in any other row. So what I did for the Horror of The Deep was, with the aid of a paint program that could keep palette integrity (so the colors aren't all screwed up), cut and pasted one of the larger looking monsters into the first row position. And when playing the unit in gameplay, the unit does not pivot to face whichever direction it is facing, so there is also that limitation.
Now with this knowledge you could potentially create any combination of units without a two ability restriction, assign abilities to unit combinations you would not normally be able to create (such as adding psi attack ability to a missile), and through modification of the Units.pcx file (keeping palette integrity), assign any icon/graphic you wish for it.
Let me know if anyone comes up with any good unit ideas. Enjoy!!
------------------
TERRAFORMING
If you check out my tech patch, you will notice I added sea terraforming abilities, such as the Sea Sensor Array, the Kelp Enricher and the Minefield.
I experimented with adding all the others to the sea, and some of them showed up on the map but the base would not recognize them when I would try to use, say a Condensor at sea, and some, like the Airbase, would not show up, renering them useless. The Kelp Enricher does not show up on the map, which is no great loss, and neither does the bunker, adapted for the sea, but I named it a Minefield, so it not showing up on the map is apt. In order to mark your Minefields, you can use the Name Landmark feature, or Put Cursor Here to see them. The AI, though, does not seem to use these new terraforming features.
In the new SNAC I'm creating, I've added a borehole to sea squares, which does show up, and the base does know how to use it. It does look kind of strange, though, so I named it a Geothermal Borehole -- sort of a borehole at the bottom of the ocean floor into the earth (you need to use your imagination for that one).
As for the Monolith, I have tried everything I could think of, from simply modifying the alpha.txt file to adding a new line in the menu.txt file, but to no avail -- there simply is no way for you to terraform a Monolith. Which would be cool with a tech like, say The Secrets of Alpha Centauri. Oh well.
So the only terrain enhancements I've managed to be able to adapt for the sea are the Soil Enricher, the Sensor Array, the Bunker, and the Borehole.
---------------------------------------------
UNITS
Second on my list of neat mods is adding new units to the game. Yes, you heard me right -- new units!!!
In the area of alpha.txt called #UNITS, there is a number under it. That number can be changed to reflect a number of new basic units added. For example, in my SNAC 2.0, that number is at 40. (No I didn't create THAT many new units. What I did was add new units with abilities in innovative configurations that I as a player would think about but the AI never seems to implement, making the AI MUCH samrter at developing innovatively tactical units, such as a Trance Former, a Synthmetal Supply Crawler, or even a Clean Police Unit, among others -- which in turn creates, in my view, a smarter AI)
Now here's the interesting part. When using the unit designer in the game to design new units, you can only add two abilities to a unit if you have the Neural tech. But in the basic units, you can design special units with MORE than two abilities. But I must caution prospective designers out there -- be careful not to unbalance gameplay, as the AIs will also have access to those units, and should not take the place of other, 'legally' designed units. Usually I give a number of '0' in the cost category so that even though the unit is impossibly souped up with features, the cost is incrementally reflected, so as to make the units rarities in the game. Also to consider is when deciding at what tech the unit can be built, be careful not to add abilities that may not have been arrived at on the tech tree -- because if, say you introduce a unit with three abilities, and has the chasis Gravship, but the tech at which the unit appears is before Graviton Theory, all the player would have to do to gain illegal use of the gravship chassis would be to push 'help' in the production allocation screen (from the base screen), and from there design a new unit with only two of the three abilities of its predecessor. (For some reason the designers at Firaxis realised this potential bug and corrected for it, cause if you try that with the Locusts of Chiron, which uses Gravship as chasis, all you get in the design screen is a Rover.)
Adding Abilities:
The string of zeros after the unit descripts at the end of the line represent the abilities the unit has. The trick is to add the correct 1s in the right places representing the right abilities. How to determine that? Well through trial and error I discovered that:
In the 0000... sequence, the first digit represents the LAST ability in the #ABILITIES list, and the last digit represents the FIRST ability in the #ABILITIES list. Then all you have to do is figure out where to put the 1s.
Designating Graphics:
When designing a unit that is not 'legal', or one that is radically different that anything else, sometimes you might want to add a custom graphic for the unit.
In the #ABILITIES list, in one collumn is a bunch of -1s. But some have a different number. These are the Mind Morms and the Isle of The Deep. Take a look at the file 'Units.pcx'. If you look at the first column, the third one down is... the Mind Worm. And the fourth one down the list is... the Isle of The Deep. If one were to designate the first icon as 0, then the third one down would be 2, the fourth 3 -- the very numbers that are indicated as icon numbers in #ABILITIES.
This presents an almost infinity of possibilities. I have, for example used the tornadoe-like icon in that file, no.'5', for a unit I call the Nanite Swarm. And the icon for that monster, no.'4', for a unit I call Horror of the Deep.
Now you would think that for the monster-like icon, that Morale would advance the unit in size, as in the Units.pcx file indicates. Alas this is not so. Any icons you use must be in the first row; SMAC does not seem to recognise any icons in any other row. So what I did for the Horror of The Deep was, with the aid of a paint program that could keep palette integrity (so the colors aren't all screwed up), cut and pasted one of the larger looking monsters into the first row position. And when playing the unit in gameplay, the unit does not pivot to face whichever direction it is facing, so there is also that limitation.
Now with this knowledge you could potentially create any combination of units without a two ability restriction, assign abilities to unit combinations you would not normally be able to create (such as adding psi attack ability to a missile), and through modification of the Units.pcx file (keeping palette integrity), assign any icon/graphic you wish for it.
Let me know if anyone comes up with any good unit ideas. Enjoy!!
------------------
Comment