airports

[nebelung]

I have played civII and smac for a while now and the thing I think I miss most in smac that I used to great success in civ II were the airports! you take an enemies city, build an airport in it then start sending units in from the interior of the empire through to expand and clear the ground. Now, in SMAC, you have to wait until 3/4 through the game to use the matter transmitters. Am I missing something?

[Avenoct]

No, you got it correctly. If you'd like to use Psi-gates earlier..open the alpha.txt and change the requirement for the Psi-gate facility to some earlier tech, say 'Physic'. There you go.

If you were referring to airports in Smac, you can do the same thing, but these merely act as bases in terms of sending units around the globe.

Airpower can be extended by the use of Ken Hinds C-5Galaxy technique...see the posts in strategies under 'Creating custom units'.

Strategy wise, units with 'drop pods' can accomplish nearly the same thing, with only their range limited until orbital insertion is allowed (again, you can change that in the Alphatext if it suits you.)

-Smack