[AC Creation] Basic Units boosting AIs

[vyeh]

I'm in the process of CMNing my second game. Can anyone point me to a scenario that contains a modified alphax.txt that contains additional units that help the AI? (Of course, I could just look at the latest Darsnan scenario.)

 

[Darsnan]

I'm in the process of CMNing my second game. Can anyone point me to a scenario that contains a modified alphax.txt that contains additional units that help the AI? (Of course, I could just look at the latest Darsnan scenario.)

The scenarios I build are typically radically different from the PBEM's I build in that I make the units in scenarios as challenging as possible, whereas the units in PBEM's are more balanced. From my experience the following are the units that assist the AI's without being overbalanced for humans:

Cruiser Probe Ship Mk1, Cruiser, Probe Team, Scout, 11, 0, 0, DocInit, -1, 00000000000000000000000000
SP 88, Speeder, Missile, Plasma, 0, 3, 0, DocAir, -1, 00000000000000000000101000
Seawolf Mk1, Cruiser, Gatling, Plasma, 6, 4, 0, Super, -1, 00100100100000000000001000000
Speeder Formers, Speeder, Formers, Scout, 9, 0, 0, Disable, -1, 00000000000000000000001000
Speeder CP, Speeder, Colony Pod, Scout, 8, 0, 0, Disable, -1, 00000000000000000000000000

The Cruiser Probe Ship is Googlie's invention and is actually what got the ball rolling in regards to adding additional units to the alpha(x).txt.

The SP-88 is in response to the AI's poor response to attack by aircraft. Note that it has been significantly cheapened.

The Seawolf is a good unit for the AI's in that it is invisible until it moves.

Speeder Formers and Speeder CPs are CMN units designed specifically to accelerate the early game. Give the AI's (and humans if you so choose) Speeder Formers. You can also give the human players Speeder CPs to hasten their 2nd (and 3rd) bases. Note that you must give each human player at least one regular CP, otherwise the game thinks the player has been eliminated (i.e. the game is doing an exclusive check on the regular CP as opposed to doing a generic check on the CP module).

Any other questions let me know.

D

 

[vyeh]

Thanks. In the first game, I put in one of Mart's unity former droid, a disabled unit that kept the players from reverse engineering the former module. And disabled the copter and planetbuster chassis' at the request of the players.

If I include the speeder CP or the speeder former in the basic units, does that mean the speeder chassis no longer needs to be prototyped?

I learned that simply checking "force current difficulty" in the scenario rules isn't enough. I recreated the game's 2125 turn with everybody on transcend level by looking at a 2125 game save and reproducing each player's units, bases, energy reserves, accumulated minerals and nutrients for each base, terraformed squares and revealed squares.

I couldn't find a way to set accumulated labs, so everybody got the tech they were currently researching in the old game.

This time I plan to give each faction a tech that allows a SE, check to see that the SE switching cost is right and take away the tech.

Are there any other pitfalls I should be aware of?

Fortunately, in the first game, the players wanted Mart's modified vet map and in this game, they wanted a random map with certain parameters.

So I generated a SMAX game using those parameters and saved the map. I then loaded the map into SMAC and created a game (I read somewhere that SMAC is better at locating good sites).

This particular game has all SMAX factions (humans are Cult, Pirates, Angels, Drones and Cyborg; the AIs are Cult and Usurper). In the generated SMAX game, I also advanced the game 5 years to see where the game placed the Cult and the aliens.

Now I plan to create a scenario using the map and using the locations given by SMAX and SMAC as guides to where to place the factions.

I found out in my first game that although I placed all the AI factions on ideal base sites, all three of them moved from those base sites to less ideal squares to establish their HQ base. Really stupid. I'm thinking that I should just go ahead and create the aliens bases. I think I read a post by you that placing AI bases on energy is the best thing you can do for AI.

Thanks. I want to give the players a good game. (Fortunately, the title is "Just for Fun" and there are random events and pods, so strict balance isn't necessary.)

 

[Elliot]

Super clean rover formers and foil formers that cost 1 row of minerals and have no tech pre-req.

AI Super Formers, Speeder , Formers, Scout, 9, 1, 0, None, -1, 00000000010000000000000001

The computer usually builds 10-15 of these. Since the computer is too dumb to build lots of boreholes or condensers giving the AI a huge bonus to terraforming doesn't make the game too hard. The rover chasis is particularly helpful because the computer needs to connect its cities before it does extensive terraforming. Sadly, the computer stops making these cheap ones once they can build fungicidal formers.

Ofcourse, you need to have an ingame rule against humans using these formers.

 

[Darsnan]

If I include the speeder CP or the speeder former in the basic units, does that mean the speeder chassis no longer needs to be prototyped?

Note that these units are disabled, so the answer to your question is no.

This time I plan to give each faction a tech that allows a SE, check to see that the SE switching cost is right and take away the tech.

Are there any other pitfalls I should be aware of?

If there are units involved with these techs then I think you need to delete them from the player's build queues. Probably a better way to do this would be to save off your scenario, then give each player the tech and make your check. After your done just don't bother saving off the scenario.

I found out in my first game that although I placed all the AI factions on ideal base sites, all three of them moved from those base sites to less ideal squares to establish their HQ base. Really stupid.

Yup. I always build the AI's bases for them. Typically when I'm building the map I place a sensor at each location I want to place an AI city - just makes it easier for me
to remember.

I think I read a post by you that placing AI bases on energy is the best thing you can do for AI.

That and giving your more powerful AIs Tree Farms (or Hybrid Forests) in their first cities: really gives them a good boost. btw I assume you have my document on "How to Build Ghost Secret Projects"?

D

 

[vyeh]

Unfortunately, I ran into a problem. I think it has to do with the Mac version of SMAX. When I have more than 24 units in #UNITS, I get the message that there was a

Bad chassis key in Alphax.txt in hte line 8,0,0 Disable, -1, 0000000000000000000000000

and messages about Bad weapon/equipment in script.txt, identifying the line as

#BADWEAPKEY

and about BADARMKEY

and Bad tech identifying the line as

#DUPLICATE TECH

I'm pretty sure it had to do with the number. When I have only 23 items (standard SMAX), no problem.

When I have 24 items (adding Mart's Unity Former Droid to the 23 standard SMAX list), no problem.

When I have 24 items (adding your Speeder CP to the 23 standard SMAX list), no problem.

When I have 24 items (adding your Speeder Formers to the 23 standard SMAX list) no problem.

When I have 25 items (adding Mart's Unity Former Droid and your Speeder CP to the 23 SMAX list in either order), I get the error message. (The error message is different when the Unity Former Droid is last; then it has the last part of the Unity Former Droid stats as the line where the error is).

When I have 29 items, the error message identifies the erroneous line as #BASES.

I have the same problem for Mac OS 9 and the carbon (Mac OS X) versions.

Have you ever encountered anything similar under Windows?

So I went ahead and generated the game without the special units.

I do have the document on How to Build Ghost Secret Projects. I'll keep in mind giving tree farms and hybrid forests for the next time.

 

[Elliot]

http://www.civgaming.net/smac/alphaxguide_v1_3.html#UNITS

Is this the problem?

The number 23 below #UNITS, refers to the total number of units in the list, i.e. if you add a unit increase this number by one.

#UNITS

23

Colony Pod, Infantry, Colony Pod, Scout, 8, 0, 0, None, -1, 00000000000000000000000000

Formers, Infantry, Formers, Scout, 9, 0, 0, Ecology, -1, 00000000000000000000000000

Scout Patrol, Infantry, Gun, Scout, 3, 0, 0, None, -1, 00000000000000000000000000

 

[vyeh]

I did change the number in each case.