making zero move units (yes, it's possible!)

[dmm1285]

I. The Process

First off, wave goodbye to the hovertank if you want to do this, you need a new chassis and the hovertank is the least important one in my opinion. All right, open up your alphax.txt and go to the chassis section. Edit this:

Hovertank,M1, Tank,M1, Skimmer,M1, Evasive,M1, 3, 0, 0, 0, 1, 3, NanoMin, Behemoth,M1, Guardian,M1,

to this

Hovertank,M1, Tank,M1, Skimmer,M1, Evasive,M1, 0, 2, 1, 0, 1, 1, Disable, Behemoth,M1, Guardian,M1,

This turns the hovertank chassis into an aircraft with two moves and two fuel, not very useful yet. Now go to the units section of the alphax.tx, and put

Security Interlocks, Hovertank,Probe Team, Scout, 11, 1, 1, PlaNets, -1, 00100000000000000000000000

This example gives the ai (or you) a probe team that cannot leave the base it was built at. The two important things to note:

001 - gives the SLOW ability. Now our chassis has a move of 1 and a fuel of 1! By some miracle, the AI is smart enough not to crash them, and instead leaves them in hold. The only thing you have to be careful about is not your own enter a neutral square or they will crash/dissapear lol:

11,1,1 - the third 1 gives the unit the abiility to transport 1 unit. What's the point of that if it can't leave its base? Units that can transport are not allowed to board transports themselves, so there is no way that they can leave the base. If you want to allow these type of units to leave a base by transport, switch to 11,1,0

II. Ideas for units
(Note: while all these can be reverse engineered by a human, I play/design with the assumption that if you want to cheat, you can just hit ctrl-K)


Aerospace Bunker

Aerospace Bunker, Hovertank,Transport, Antimatter, 0,20, 1, DocAir, 6, 00100000010000000100000000

Replace the line with Battle Orge MK1 with this so it cannot be repaired. This is kind of a hybrid facility/unit, it's supposed to mimic a large underground bunker with its high strength armor (which I may raise or lower, haven't played too much with these desiigns yet). If you don't want to replace the battle orge for the no heal ability, you need to drastically reduce the armor strength, as well as the cost maybe.

Security Interlocks

Security Interlocks, Hovertank,Probe Team, Scout, 11, 1, 1, PlaNets, -1, 00100000000000000000000000

Allow AI to build cheap probe defenders that won't wander around the map.

Synthmetal Sentinels (and all other armor types)

Synthmetal Sentinels, Hovertank,Gun, Synthmetal, 2, 1, 1, Indust, -1, 00100000010000000000000000

Extremely cheap defenders with clean. I had them at 2 or 3 mineral cost before, and the AI didn't really build them, might be too cheap for humans

SAM Site

SAM Site, Hovertank,Missile, Scout, 4, 0, 1, DocAir, -1, 00100000000000000000100000

Needs to tweaked still, these are my orignal reason for trying to make zero move units, it turns out that these actually work better than true zero moive units (fungal towers, which I tried first), becasue they in essence have an attack of 1, and a move of 0.

III. Graphic Changes

It's possible to swap the hovertank caviars for the infantry caviars, though it's tough to figure out which correspond (even with the caviar player) It's also possible to makea unique graphic for the bunker and the sam site with units.pcx (and still have 2 slots left over)

IV. Concerns

But I like the hovertank!

It's the least unique of the chassis, you can design a bucnh of speaders with struts for nanomin, that will get you 80% there.

I'm setting up a scenario and I want to use zero movement crawlers outside a base for the AI. Won't they crash?

I haven't tested this, but I believe with the scenrio editor, you can put an airbase on the same square as a mine/condensor/etc. If so, the AI should be able to use the crawler without moving it (I'm not sure though. the crawler may just hold instead of collecting resources, it should woik if you set them to collect from the start).

The predefined defender units automaticaly prototype the armor.

The only way I know how to fix this is to change the (dumb) pulse and R armors into armors that have the same values as the first armors. So it would look like:

#DEFENSES
No Armor, Scout, 1, 0, 1, None,
Synthmetal Armor, Synthmetal, 2, 0, 2, Indust,
Plasma Steel Armor, Plasma, 3, 2, 3, Chemist,
Silksteel Armor, Silksteel, 4, 1, 4, Alloys,
Photon Wall, Photon, 5, 1, 5, DocSec,
Probability Sheath, Probability, 6, 2, 6, ProbMec,
Neutronium Armor, Neutronium, 8, 1, 8, MatComp,
Antimatter Plate, Antimatter, 10, 2,10, NanEdit,
Stasis Generator, Stasis, 12, 2,12, TempMec,
Psi Defense, Psi, -1, 2, 6, Eudaim,
Pulse 3 Armor, 3-Pulse, 2, 1, 5, Disable,
Resonance 3 Armor, 3-Res, 3, 1, 5, Disable,
Pulse 8 Armor, 8-Pulse, 4, 1, 11,Disable,
Resonance 8 Armor, 8-Res, 5 1, 11, Disable,

You still get the pusle and res effects though, so it's not a great solution

The predefinded units are giving pacifism drones! Help!
For the AI. this isn't a problem for me because I give them nodrone 8 and apparently nodrone comes after pacifism. For a huiman, there are 2 solutions:

1)Do nothing. Think of cheap clean defenders as a bonus for not running FM.

2)Switch the air superiorty flag to on. This creates its own problems though; the premade units will now defend with their weapon value (1) and get sluaghtered. Also, giving air superiority to the aerospace bunker breaks it.

Won't pods pop aerospace bunkers instead of battle orge MK1's now?

Yes, but I don't see this is a big issue. Unless the pod is popped right next to the base, bunker will disappear the next turn, making the pod a neutral event. However, if it is popped right next to a base, it could be unbalancing early.

[Maniac]

wow

[dmm1285]

Originally posted by Maniac
wow

I'm surprised no one figured this out before actually.

[Darsnan]

Originally posted by dmm1285



I'm surprised no one figured this out before actually.

Both Googlie and I gave it a good shot, but were never able to come up with "The Forumla" for building a unit with no movement points. I think my closest success was simply to build a naval chassis "Defender" into a landlocked base....

This is very good work! I can envision uses such as for "forts" where variations of the unit include arty, attack, and defenders manning each fort! You could also build air bases that are Faction specific, and that have offensive and defensive capabilities built into the "airbase"!

Are you planning to build any scenarios off of your work, or are you just introducing a new concept for use in scenarios?

As a sidenote, why if you were to use the Gravship chassis instead you could place units in ocean squares.



D

[Chaos Theory]

Re: making zero move units (yes, it's possible!)

Originally posted by dmm1285
Units that can transport are not allowed to board transports themselves, so there is no way that they can leave the base.

Not true. Land transports can board other transports just fine, but they don't move with the transports. For example, a land transport can enter a sea tile occupied by a sea transport, but when the sea transport moves away, the land transport just stays there (and can move onto an adjacent sea transport as its turn). Of course, you need to use a carrier for an air unit.

The predefinded units are giving pacifism drones! Help!
For the AI. this isn't a problem for me because I give them nodrone 8 and apparently nodrone comes after pacifism.

Nodrone comes very early, about at the same time as psych. Pacifism comes very late, at the same time as police would be, so after everything but secret projects, punishment spheres, and nerve stapling.

[dmm1285]

Originally posted by Darsnan


Both Googlie and I gave it a good shot, but were never able to come up with "The Forumla" for building a unit with no movement points. I think my closest success was simply to build a naval chassis "Defender" into a landlocked base....

This is very good work! I can envision uses such as for "forts" where variations of the unit include arty, attack, and defenders manning each fort! You could also build air bases that are Faction specific, and that have offensive and defensive capabilities built into the "airbase"!

Are you planning to build any scenarios off of your work, or are you just introducing a new concept for use in scenarios?

As a sidenote, why if you were to use the Gravship chassis instead you could place units in ocean squares.



D

i'm just introducing the concept, I'm not sure what you're asking about gravship, but if understand correctly, gravships won't work because they don't run out of fuel and crash

[Kirov]

I have just taken a look at these units in game. As I understand it right now, they're still movable - you can move them along roads and magtubes. It's likely AIs will do it, and for example leave the base to attack/probe your units.

[dmm1285]

Originally posted by Kirov
I have just taken a look at these units in game. As I understand it right now, they're still movable - you can move them along roads and magtubes. It's likely AIs will do it, and for example leave the base to attack/probe your units.

aricraft are never affected by roads/magtubes

[Kirov]

Oh yeah, I forgot about the chassis. Me stupid.

Another thing: what was exactly your reason for swapping Aero Bunker with Ogre Mk I, not Mk III? I understand that if you pod pop it, it's gonna crash. Not to mention that Aliens are a lot more difficult to rush with impact rovers.

[dmm1285]

Originally posted by Kirov
Oh yeah, I forgot about the chassis. Me stupid.

Another thing: what was exactly your reason for swapping Aero Bunker with Ogre Mk I, not Mk III? I understand that if you pod pop it, it's gonna crash. Not to mention that Aliens are a lot more difficult to rush with impact rovers.

MkIII have quantum reactors, so the bunker would move around (pretty unrealistic)