A civ vet explores Alpha Centauri (SMAC)

[woengel]

Some more questions for the SMAC vets:

- Apparently mind worms can eat forests? I was not aware of this, but that was the message I got and sure enough one of my forests was gone.
- Restrictions on tile yields: how does this work? It looks like certain techs lift caps on yields? I am still getting familiar with just what yields to expect from different terrain combinations, so I am not sure just what to expect.
- A lot of the base facilities' descriptions are rather vague, such as "boost labs" or "fewer drones" and similar. Is there a good source of info on exactly what they do? Knowing just how big (or little) an effect they have is pretty important to making decent decisions, so I find the lack a bit frustrating. The quotations for the various facilities are well done, if frequently disturbing.

Mind worms can destroy almost any terraforming you've done.  Gene Splicing (B3) allows 3+ nutrients per square, Ecological Engineering allows 3+ minerals, and Environmental Economics allows 3+ energy.  Network Nodes, Research Hospital both add 50% to labs energy, Biology Lab adds 2, but that can be multiplied by the others.

[Quagma Blast]

- Restrictions on tile yields: how does this work? It looks like certain techs lift caps on yields? I am still getting familiar with just what yields to expect from different terrain combinations, so I am not sure just what to expect.

At the beginning of the game, you can't get more that 2 nutrients, minerals, or energy from most tiles. (So 2/2/2 monuments are the best possible tile, basically.) This restriction is lifted on tiles with a yield bonus, like the nutrient bonus south of UN Headquarters. Three particular techs lift these restrictions in general: the third-tier Gene Splicing tech lets you collect as many nutrients as you want, letting citizens go food-positive even if the city doesn't have a nutrient bonus tile; fourth-tier Ecological Engineering lifts the mineral restriction as well as unlocking the advanced terraforming options, letting your production shoot up; and fifth-tier Environmental Economics lifts the energy restriction and lets you raise or lower terrain, which lets you make big plateaus full of solar collectors and watch your tech rate skyrocket.

- A lot of the base facilities' descriptions are rather vague, such as "boost labs" or "fewer drones" and similar. Is there a good source of info on exactly what they do? Knowing just how big (or little) an effect they have is pretty important to making decent decisions, so I find the lack a bit frustrating. The quotations for the various facilities are well done, if frequently disturbing.

You can get detailed descriptions of just about everything in the Datalinks (Alpha Centauri Civilopedia) - I think the 'Help' button on the base construction menu is be a direct link to them, but I can't be sure offhand.

[haphazard1]

Thanks for the info, woengel and Quagma Blast! I am currently researching Gene Splicing, so maybe my food situation will improve a bit. Or perhaps not -- I think I have maybe one rainy tile in my entire territory at the moment. Most of my land is moist or arid; the rainy river valley to my west has a carpet of xenofungus so I have not pushed a base there yet.

Have not seen any monuments -- is this because of turning off the scattering of Unity pods? I seem to remember reading that monuments were one of the possible results of opening pods.

[woengel]

Thanks for the info, woengel and Quagma Blast! I am currently researching Gene Splicing, so maybe my food situation will improve a bit. Or perhaps not -- I think I have maybe one rainy tile in my entire territory at the moment. Most of my land is moist or arid; the rainy river valley to my west has a carpet of xenofungus so I have not pushed a base there yet.

Have not seen any monuments -- is this because of turning off the scattering of Unity pods? I seem to remember reading that monuments were one of the possible results of opening pods.

I think monuments only appear with pod scattering, but sea tiles can get 3 nutrients, 3 energy with kelp farm and tidal harness (2 energy for now).

[Fluffball]

Santiago is actually quite reasonable compared to Miriam.  

Also it looks like those 3 factions are having a lot of trouble based on that bar graph. I wonder if they spawned on small islands or something. Hopefully that doesn't make the game too easy; it looks like you're already pulling away pretty solidly.
Edit: Actually it say Santiago has the most territory. I guess she just covers a lot of ground with not much substance to it.

By the way there is an option to turn on fog of war if that helps you read the map a little easier.

[T-hawk]

Tile yields:

Arid: 0 food
Moist: 1 food
Rainy: 2 food

Flat: 0 minerals
Rolling: 1 mineral
Rocky: 1 mineral and 0 food

Forest overrides those with a base yield of 1-2-1
Base center square overrides with a base yield of 2-1-1

River: +1 energy, applies to everything, including base squares and forests and monoliths
Tile yield bonuses: 2 of the appropriate type, also applies to everything

Before certain techs, yields are capped at 2 of each type per square.  The game shows a black outline around the 2 if you're losing resources to this cap.  A tile bonus removes that cap for that tile.  So does the center square of a base.

Farm: +1 food
Mine: -1 food and +1 mineral, except on a rocky tile where a mine gives +2 minerals and a road another +1 (total of 4)
Solar collector: +1 energy and +1 more per 1000m of elevation (highest is 4 total)

Condensor: x1.5 to food and increase raininess in its own and adjacent tiles
Borehole: 0 food, 6 minerals, 6 energy
Echelon Mirror: +1 energy to all adjacent solar collectors, plus the yield of a solar collector itself

Monument: 2-2-2, and yes they are only created by pods (besides one natural landmark), so with pod scattering off there won't be any.

A farm can stack with anything except forest.  Forest can't stack with anything except sensors.  Other improvements are mutually exclusive with each other, including sensors.

=================================

On the modifiers from improvements, the in-game datalinks are mostly pretty good about stating the numbers (go into the datalinks screen, not just the select-city-build window.)  A few things are missing, notably the tile restriction lifting - that isn't listed in the datalinks, the only place you see it is the popup when you're selecting your next tech.  The best info online is the wiki here: http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki

Most territory for Santiago just means she's got a big landmass without coast and neighbors to interrupt her border.  One base controls territory out to 8 tiles (not like Civ 3+ with culture radius of 2-3) so it's really just a measure of continent size.  The AI isn't good at turning a big continent into productive bases unless it's the monsoon jungle.

Mind worms can eat terrain improvements?  I actually didn't know or had forgotten that one, except obviously for an eco-damage fungal bloom.

The quotes for some facilities and techs may sound disturbing... but over time I've come to realize that Yang is basically right about everything.

[naufragar]

Even the feeding bay at the Hive gives stark insight into the sleeping demons of Yang's communal utopia.

[haphazard1]

Thanks for the tile yield info, T-hawk! Some of that I knew, but I did not properly understand the yield caps so several things did not seem to make sense. Also, no wonder mines had seemed rather pointless. Until I get the minerals cap lifted, they pretty much are.

In the context of the human settlement of Planet, a lot of the quotations make sense. Their situation is rather desperate, compared to almost anything back on Earth. For such brief little bits of dialog, they do a really good job of setting a tone and atmosphere.

[T-hawk]

Mines are useful in one case: farm+mine on a rainy-rolling tile is the only way to get a 2-food 2-mineral tile early (besides monoliths and bonus tiles.)

The Genejack quote is probably Yang's most extreme, but even there he does have a point. Reminds me of the scene in Hitchhiker's Guide about breeding the animal who wants to be eaten and says so. Where is it wrong if the subject never desires otherwise?

(And in game mechanical terms, build those Genejacks right away to the max, the huge minerals are well worth one drone, don't get scared away by the moralizing.)

[haphazard1]

Mines are useful in one case: farm+mine on a rainy-rolling tile is the only way to get a 2-food 2-mineral tile early (besides monoliths and bonus tiles.)

If only I actually had some rainy tiles.

SMAC does a really interesting job presenting ideas like genejacks. Such ideas were not new and had been speculated on in fiction and elsewhere, but the setting on another world and the different factions' ideologies make an outstanding platform for depicting what they might be like if actually put into practice.

The game itself is interesting and fun (at least it is for me as a long-time fan of the Civ series, where it obviously got much of its basis), and combined with the story line and atmosphere I can see why it is considered a classic.