AI and Pressure Domes

[ShoujinZeraf]

Hi guys,

First time posting here.

I've been playing Alpha Centauri for quite some time now, and I've recently gotten back into playing it. I've gotten around to playing the game, but I'm having the damnest problem with the AI building bases, so I came up with a solution that I'm sure everyone's partial to, considering you don't get yelled at for commiting an atrocity.

I've started sinking cities

Now, when it comes down to terraforming the land down, I've no problem and I usually tend to have Probe Teams on standby, but then the game pulls a fast one, and when there was no Pressure Dome on the city that I'm working on sinking into the sea...

*BOOM* I get the terraforming complete message, and the city is STILL STANDING with a Pressure Dome that got added all the sudden...

So the question is, has anyone encountered this phenomenon, and what have you done to keep the game from "cheating" like this?

 

[Buster's Uncle]

...Sinking works sometimes for me, but I've even seen them floating there without a pressure dome...

I wonder if it's not a simple case of rush-building. Everybody knows a sea-level rise is in progress, and it would be typical for the AI to know exactly which turn. The dome-less bases could have been sold off promptly to recoop ome of the rush cost. Not subsequently sinking sounds like a bug, though.

 

[Russia4Life]

I brought this up in a thread on WPC, someone wanted to make a scenario that involved winning the game through gloal warming.

Cities that get submerged do not always get destroyed, I have seen them survive without even losing population while I was testing this. Anyways, if they survive the submersion the city gets an automatic pressure dome, in essence becoming a sea base.

 

[ShoujinZeraf]

I guess I should've stated that I've had some success, but in general, it requires a lot of saving and reloading just to get it right.

I don't think it could be rushed building. Otherwise, the Hive would be taking their turn a little too late or too early in the game. (I've got the Spartan slot, but I'm using my own custom race )

Anyway, if it IS auto-pressure doming cities, then that leaves the question of how do I stop it in the game internally from continuously "saving" these bases. There's way too many on the map for my liking and I'm trying to conquer the land, but also space out the bases for proper nutrient/mineral/energy harvesting.

I know some of the things people could say:
1. Just build orbitals
2. More bases help
3. AI bases come already equipped with facilities

While that maybe true, I just like to control all the aspects of my game and want to figure out how to fix this problem to make the game seem more realistic. For all us control freaks out there.

 

[Buster's Uncle]

You're a builder, man. I understand completely.

(I reported this thread to scient, so there may be a direct fix someday...)

 

[GooglyBoogly]

we'll need some saves in order to isolate the bugs. It should be relatively easy to reproduce, but still if you have recently been in that situation, it would help to post the save the turn before the sinking is supposed to occur.

 

[ShoujinZeraf]

I'll see if I can produce some saves, but I found a more... subtle route to take.



Under the Alpha.txt file, there's this option:

0 ; If non-zero, obliterating a base counts as an atrocity

I've tested it with an old save, and it accepted the rule already. Poor Lal never knew what hit him.

Spread the world.

 

[vyeh]

Just to be clear. When a save was generated, you had this line in your alpha.txt:

1        ; If non-zero, obliterating a base counts as an atrocity

and obliterating a base would count as an atrocity.

Then you changed the line to

0        ; If non-zero, obliterating a base counts as an atrocity

When you opened the old save, you were then able to obliterate a base without an atrocity warning.

I supposed you know this trick for getting rid of a base without an atrocity. If you are playing at the higher difficulty levels, starve the base to size 1, then build a colony pod. This will evacuate the base. (And you can then use the colony pod to add to the population of one of your bases.)

I like to churn out colony pods instead of starving the base. This way I get all the pop points from the captured AI base.

 

[ShoujinZeraf]

That's correct when it comes to the code.

As for starving bases, that takes times and I'm highly impatient when it comes to taking over the map. The computer poking holes in my map causes me to get frustrated, so having the ability to wipe out a base allowed me to continuing my expansion plans without waiting for the base to starve.

As much as I like the idea of starving a base and turning it into a colony pod, I tend to limit my prototypes.

*shrugs* Just me, but the advice is appreciated.

 

[vyeh]

I guess I am more patient in getting my ideal pattern. The only kicker is that if a captured base has a SP, you don't want to destroy that base!