A civ vet explores Alpha Centauri (SMAC)

[Fluffball]

SMAC does something weird in that it will adjust your starting units based on how bad your start is. If you're in a complete garbage start it might give you 2 colony pods (IIRC, 85% chance I do.)

Peacekeepers are a good do-anything faction. There also the only boring one out of the original 7. 

[T-hawk]

- Production overflow is to be avoided; no Civ IV overflow building of big projects here.

You can overflow up to 10 minerals (this might not have been in the earliest patches.)  That's not a lot.  But the tool to work around it is cash rushing.  You can cash-rush anything at anytime, and can always do so for any fractional amount of production rather than pay for the entire item at once.  If you see you will overflow more than 10 minerals two turns from now, the right thing to do is partially cash-rush just enough of that item to finish it in one turn instead.

There is no overflow for food at all.  What you have to do is fill up the food box on one turn (any overflow is lost), then the city grows at the start of the next turn.  IIRC, SMAC processes production before food in each city, unlike all the other Civ games. Also be warned that growth is processed before happiness, so it's infuriatingly common for a city to grow into unhappiness and riot.

SMAC is absolutely terrible at balancing starts.  I think it may not even try at all.  You can get absolute crap like a 3-tile island or 21 zero-food tiles.  I always reroll until I get at least some rainy and moist land, or else a Unity Pod popping a monolith that yields 2-2-2.

[haphazard1]

Does SMAC have any in game facility for screen shots? I have been experimenting, and the usual screenshot/print screen procedure for my machine does not seem to be working. Reporting on a game would be hard if I can't post pictures. Any suggestions?

I generated several starts, and I see what T-hawk meant about the starts. It took 4 tries to get a start that had even a single rainy tile. For the first three I had a colony pod at the starting base, which sounds like the adjustment Fluffball was mentioning. One start had not even a single tile with 2 food -- ouch.

[Fluffball]

Print screen will work but you need to alt-tab to Paint or something. Just out of curiosity I also found this thread: https://www.gog.com/forum/sid_meier_s_al...creenshots

I wouldn't really worry too much about your starting terrain. As your tech advances it becomes almost irrelevant. You can build condensers, change weather patterns via raising mountains, build aquatic bases, etc. I personally just play the first start I get.

[RFS-81]

You can also import the game into Steam (open your Library, there's a small button labeled "+ ADD A GAME" in the lower left corner). Then you can use the F12 key to make screenshots. Of course if SMAC uses that key for something else, you still have a problem, though maybe SMAC lets you remap that. Also I'm sure there are some freeware screenshot tools out there, though I haven't used any lately.

[Fluffball]

Restoring alt-tab from the GoG version. Apparently they disabled it.

http://www.gogwiki.com/wiki/Sid_Meier%27...ab_support

[haphazard1]

Thanks for the help, Fluffball and RFS-81! Rather inconvenient and roundabout, but I have it working. For a game this old, some difficulties are to be expected.

After escaping the chaos on the Unity and a crash landing, a base is established on this new world:

We are on the coast, with a pair of nutrient bonus tiles, and a pod to check out. Hmmm, should have moved my scout along the river -- need to keep the movement rules in mind for this new world. Some scouting of the immediate area is needed, plus development of the initial base. Formers require some research it seems, so that will be a priority goal.

[Fluffball]

That's a really good HQ. What difficulty and settings did you wind up on? I may have advised you to be a little too safe.

[haphazard1]

Yes, that start was by far the best of the 4 I generated -- none of the others was even close.

I meant to mention the difficulty, thanks for reminding me. I ended up choosing the level between Talent (your recommendation) and Thinker (the 2nd highest, as T-hawk recommended). Librarian? Something like that. Split the difference, seemed like a good idea.

I went with a standard sized map, less ocean than normal (more land and less water looks like it might be a bit easier to deal wtih for a first game, although I could be wrong about that), standard atmosphere/cloud cover/alien life/rest.

I am not really sure how to deal with xenofungus at this stage of the game. It seems like for now it is a hazard and makes tiles unproductive, but later in the game it can become a positive if I push my research down certain paths and keep a strong rating with planet. I don't know just how far into the game that transition might occur, though. Do I wipe out the xenofungus for the moment (taking appropriate precautions), and perhaps replant it later? Or am I better off ignoring it and focusing on tiles that are clear of it, and hope to use it later?

I guess this depends on how I intend to play and what type of victory I intend to pursue. Will have to think about that. For now I just hope to survive, grow my base a bit while exploring, and then expand with a new base or three if I can find some promising locations. And who knows if I might meet some other survivors from the Unity....

[Mardoc]

Wiping Xenofungus is a playstyle choice, definitely, but you needn't fear you'll have problems getting it back if you want it later.  It's not like forests, fungus is a core mechanic and you will get new tiles due to Planet rating and stage of the game, regardless of what tiles you already have.

I think personally I would recommend you plan to play both ways (Planet-friendly and Planet-hostile) in different games.  I think moderately-hostile is probably the easier route - that is, clear tiles that you need but don't go so far as to try to clear your territory. But you can deviate later to see how it goes.