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I was fiddling around with the alpha.txt and I found something important...
I remebered that in Civ2, it was possible to assign a unit a fourth domain (ie make it something other than land, air, or sea). I tried this in SMAC, and it works! Just change the domain number of the chassis to 3.
This 'domain three' (hereafter referred to as 3D) has many interesting powers. It moves like a gravship, but is treated like a ground unit for all other purposes.
I immediately renamed my Scout Patrol "Jesus Infantry", due to his ability to walk on water.
He ignores terrain (including roads, magtubes, and post-XenoDome fungus), just like a gravship, but he can pop pods and interact with monoliths, just like a trooper. If given a colony pod module, he can start new bases on land, but not on sea. He can accept any power normally available to infantry-based units, including AAA. He can be attacked normally by non-SAM units and still cannot intiate combat against aircraft, unless equipped with SAM himself. Hostile AAA doesn't affect him.
Presumably, any chassis could be given this domain. I supspect that all the rules that normally apply to that chassis would be carried over, excepting his 'domain,' of course.
Regrettably, you can't add new chassises to alpha.txt, so you would be replacing one of the established unit bodies if you made a 3D unit. It would work fairly well on a gravship, giving it only a few minor advantages. Making 3D variants of the other chassises is probably best left for total conversion mods only.
I'm not sure if this is something that everyone knew or not. As I said, this is an old trick from Civ2.
I remebered that in Civ2, it was possible to assign a unit a fourth domain (ie make it something other than land, air, or sea). I tried this in SMAC, and it works! Just change the domain number of the chassis to 3.
This 'domain three' (hereafter referred to as 3D) has many interesting powers. It moves like a gravship, but is treated like a ground unit for all other purposes.
I immediately renamed my Scout Patrol "Jesus Infantry", due to his ability to walk on water.
He ignores terrain (including roads, magtubes, and post-XenoDome fungus), just like a gravship, but he can pop pods and interact with monoliths, just like a trooper. If given a colony pod module, he can start new bases on land, but not on sea. He can accept any power normally available to infantry-based units, including AAA. He can be attacked normally by non-SAM units and still cannot intiate combat against aircraft, unless equipped with SAM himself. Hostile AAA doesn't affect him.
Presumably, any chassis could be given this domain. I supspect that all the rules that normally apply to that chassis would be carried over, excepting his 'domain,' of course.
Regrettably, you can't add new chassises to alpha.txt, so you would be replacing one of the established unit bodies if you made a 3D unit. It would work fairly well on a gravship, giving it only a few minor advantages. Making 3D variants of the other chassises is probably best left for total conversion mods only.
I'm not sure if this is something that everyone knew or not. As I said, this is an old trick from Civ2.
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