Comprehensive Unity Pods

[GooglyBoogly]

I am looking to add a Unity Pod section to my Comprehensive datalinks update and would appreciate it if anyone has a link to, or has done some research about Unity Pods.

I have a feeling that pods popped within the city raduis (fat cross) have better results, but it would be nice to know why they are better. Is it because:
a) Some 'bad' results are impossible
b) increased odds of some good results/decreased odds of bad results

I read somewhere that using an Alien Artifact to pop a pod has a 50% chance of dissappearing, does it have any other effects?

I have also noticed that sometimes you get two effects from popping a pod. - Often money and a resource.
I also plan to include everything that can happen from a pod pop (with any special restrictions), and ideally some odds - even if approximate.

The results I can think of off the top of my head include (no particular order)

1. Dimensional Rift - Teleported to a completely random (sea-sea or land-land)
Notes: Is the teleport completely random, or are some tiles impossible - e.g another pod, base cross etc..

2. Resource square bonus- Nutrient, Mineral or Energy
Note: are the odds of each of these equal? I would assume so

3. Monolith
Note: These seem to appear more frequently in fungus tiles

4. Free Energy (Money)
Note: Does the ammount you get scale with time? Economy techs? or just totally random

5. Free Tech -Self explanatory
Note: Pretty sure free tech is restructed to level 1

6. Commlink - free commlinmk for a faction you have not yet met
Note: Can humans get alien comms thuis way? can aliens get this result at all?

7. River - generates a river just like the drill to aquifier terraform

8. Forest - Places a few forests
Note: Is there always a set ammount, or is the runber random within some range

9. Free farms and solar colectors (forgot the name)
Same query as for forest

10. Free mines
sme query as for forest

10. Earthquake - Raises terrain 2000(3000)m?

Unit Section:
ALL the units generated from pods are independant (no home base)

11. Free Unity Unit - Unity Scout, Unity Rover, Unity Gunship, Unity Foil

12. Free Battle Ogre -mkI mkII mkIII
Notes: I have never popped a mkII or III ogre ever. perhaps only possible under easier difficuilties, or after a certain game year?

13. Alien artifact

14. Clone - Copy of a unit that is independent (copies thnig include damage, morale)
Note: Is monolith visitation status copied too? Can artifacts be copied?

and of course

15. Alien infestation - Makes some fungus and spawns some natives
Notes: Can a fungal tower spawn? Are odds increased if popping on a fungus tile? Does PLANET rating change the odds?

16. Empty pod - nothing happens
Note: is this when a result would have no effect (I.E free tech when you alreddy have all the lvl1 techs)?

 

[Petek]

I'll enter my comments in bold. Most of this information is taken from the Prima Strategy Guide. The guide was written for SMAC and before any patches.

I am looking to add a Unity Pod section to my Comprehensive datalinks update and would appreciate it if anyone has a link to, or has done some research about Unity Pods.

I have a feeling that pods popped within the city raduis (fat cross) have better results, but it would be nice to know why they are better. Is it because:
a) Some 'bad' results are impossible
b) increased odds of some good results/decreased odds of bad results

Yes, according to Prima, you don't get native life forms if the pod is adjacent to a base. Also, you don't get fungal spawns when popping anywhere within the base radius.

I read somewhere that using an Alien Artifact to pop a pod has a 50% chance of dissappearing, does it have any other effects?

I have also noticed that sometimes you get two effects from popping a pod. - Often money and a resource.

Prima states that the overall % of discovering a new resource is 50%. When you discover a new resource, there's an additional 50% chance of producing another result as well.

I also plan to include everything that can happen from a pod pop (with any special restrictions), and ideally some odds - even if approximate.

The results I can think of off the top of my head include (no particular order)

1. Dimensional Rift - Teleported to a completely random (sea-sea or land-land)
Notes: Is the teleport completely random, or are some tiles impossible - e.g another pod, base cross etc..

2. Resource square bonus- Nutrient, Mineral or Energy
Note: are the odds of each of these equal? I would assume so

In addition to the above comments regarding % of resource pops, Prima notes that resources are discovered only in non-fungus, non-sea tiles.

3. Monolith
Note: These seem to appear more frequently in fungus tiles

4. Free Energy (Money)
Note: Does the ammount you get scale with time? Economy techs? or just totally random

Prima states that you get 25-200 energy credits, with bigger totals more likely at sea and later in the game.

5. Free Tech -Self explanatory
Note: Pretty sure free tech is restructed to level 1

6. Commlink - free commlinmk for a faction you have not yet met
Note: Can humans get alien comms thuis way? can aliens get this result at all?

7. River - generates a river just like the drill to aquifier terraform

8. Forest - Places a few forests
Note: Is there always a set ammount, or is the runber random within some range

9. Free farms and solar colectors (forgot the name)
Same query as for forest

10. Free mines
sme query as for forest

10. Earthquake - Raises terrain 2000(3000)m?

Unit Section:
ALL the units generated from pods are independant (no home base)

11. Free Unity Unit - Unity Scout, Unity Rover, Unity Gunship, Unity Foil

Prima notes that if Synthetic Fossil Fuels have been discovered, you have a 1 in 3 chance of discovering a Unity Chopper.

12. Free Battle Ogre -mkI mkII mkIII
Notes: I have never popped a mkII or III ogre ever. perhaps only possible under easier difficuilties, or after a certain game year?

I've gotten mk2s, and have seen reports of mk3s. Very rare though.

13. Alien artifact

14. Clone - Copy of a unit that is independent (copies thnig include damage, morale)
Note: Is monolith visitation status copied too?

Yes.

Can artifacts be copied?

and of course

15. Alien infestation - Makes some fungus and spawns some natives
Notes: Can a fungal tower spawn?

Yes.

Are odds increased if popping on a fungus tile? Does PLANET rating change the odds?

16. Empty pod - nothing happens

Have you seen this event? I can't recall it.

Note: is this when a result would have no effect (I.E free tech when you alreddy have all the lvl1 techs)?

Two other events:

17. Cartographer/Sonar Pod. Shows all land/sea tiles within 5 squares.

18. Materials pod. Completes production of item at nearest base.

Petek

 

[NwabudikeMorgan]

I can help you out with the robotic assembly pod things.
I've seen as few as 1, as many as 4 forest pop
As few as 1, as many as 5 solar collectors
As few as 1 as many as 4 farms
As few as 1 as many as 3 mines (mines come with roads linking them)

 

[Thorvald of Lym]

In my experience, cloned units do not carry over monolith status.

 

[Begle1]

If you trudge through all the squares of the Unity Wreckage in Alien Crossfire, you get a handful of unique effects.

One of them reveals the landing places of every human faction. There's some more too...

 

[GooglyBoogly]

Okay, I have updated the entry with some superficial testing I have done. I have included the info Patek has supplied.

Re: Begle1 - I am looking for Unity Pod related information, I would classify the Unity wreckage bonuses as landmark related, but thanks for the info.

1. Survey Pod:
Nutrient, Mineral or Energy resource
Note: The overall % of discovering a new resource is 50% (if possible). When you discover a new resource, there's an additional 50% chance of producing another result as well.
In addition to the above comments regarding % of resource pops, Prima notes that resources are discovered only in non-fungus, non-sea tiles. -Confirmed

2. Monolith
Note: These seem to appear more frequently in fungus tiles - Never occurs on sea tiles
If found on fungus, removes fungus from the tile beneath

3. Resupply Pod:
Free Energy (Money)
Prima states that you get 25-200 energy credits, with bigger totals more likely at sea and later in the game.

4. Cartographer/Sonar Pod.
Shows all land/sea tiles within 5 squares. CONFIRMED

5. Materials pod. Completes production of item at nearest base
Note: Never spawns when nearest is a Secret Project.
b) If hurried item is changed, bonus production is completely lost (no 50% reduction)

6. Dimensional Gate (Land)/ Tidal Wave (Sea):
Teleported to a completely random (sea-sea or land-land) square. Movement reset
Is the teleport completely random, or are some tiles impossible - e.g another pod, base cross etc..

Data Pod:
7. Free Tech -Self explanatory
Note: Pretty sure free tech is restructed to level 1

Data Pod:
8. Commlink - free commlinmk for a faction you have not yet met
Note: Can humans get alien comms this way? can aliens get this result at all?

Hydrology Pod
9. River - taps an underground river just like the drill to aquifier terraform

Hydroponics Pod
10. Forest - Places 1-5+ forests

Robot Agricultiral Pod:
11. Free farms
As few as 1 as many as 7! farms - got 7! during one of the tests

Sea Farming Pod:
12. Free Kelp:
1-67 squares. Replaces Fungus

Robot Mining Pod.
13. Free 1-3+ mines with roads on same tile

Robot Power Pod:
14. Free solar collectors
As few as 1, as many as 5 solar collectors

Unit Section:
ALL the units generated from pods are independant (no home base)

Supply Pod:
15. Free Unity Unit - Unity Scout, Unity Rover, Unity Gunship, Unity Foil

Prima notes that if Synthetic Fossil Fuels have been discovered, you have a 1 in 3 chance of discovering a Unity Chopper.
I would assume that means a 1/3 chance of a free unit being a unity chopper

Not a pod:
16. Free Battle Ogre -mkI mkII mkIII
Notes: Perhaps only possible under easier difficuilties, or after a certain game year?
and:
17. Alien artifact.
Notes: Movement is 0 when discovered, unlike any other free units

18. Dimensional Rift - Copy of a unit that is independent (copied stuff includes damage, morale)
Note: Monolith Status is NOT COPIED, it is set to unvisited - CONFIRMED
Artifacts can be copied: CONFIRMED

and of course the bad stuff

19. Xenofungal Bloom- Makes some fungus and (usually)spawns some natives
Notes: Can spawn fungal tower, can spawn fungus in adjacent land/sea tiles
Never occurs if within base radius

20. Native infestation - Spawns some natives -1 move (if naval)
If Sea Pod: swallowed whole by Isle of the Deep - Isle always has native cargo,
Never occurs if adjacent to base
What about next to a sensor array?

21. Earthquake - Raises terrain 2000(3000)m???!!
Notes: Raised flat tiles can become rocky


Interesting Notes:
Raising terrain to dredge up the sea can reveal additional unity pods. Not sure if this process is repeatable (can you constantly lower/raise the same tile for repeated chances to 'discover' a pod?)

If you succesfully bombard a pod and there is another artilllery capable unit within range (even if your own faction!), you will get into a battle with the other unit in which you will be -100% hasty penalty (only if non-native) and thus always lose.
Pods cannot be destroyed by bombardment ever.

 

[Chip56]

Unit Section:
ALL the units generated from pods are independant (no home base)

Supply Pod:
15. Free Unity Unit - Unity Scout, Unity Rover, Unity Gunship, Unity Foil

You you sure that all units have no upkeep? I think I got unity rovers with an home base if I poped the pod near my bases. ( just like capturing natives: if you capture them in your teritory they might require upkeep but if capture them in foreign teritory they are always no home base.

20. Native infestation - Spawns some natives
If Sea Pod: swalowled whole by Isle of the Deep - Isle always has native cargo
Never occurs if adjacent to base
What about next to a sensor array?

If you spawn an isle of the deep you also lose one movement point.

 

[NwabudikeMorgan]

don't forget the mines come with roads, have 100% of the time on my game

 

[GooglyBoogly]

post 6 updated to include chip and morgans suggestions

Re unit independanc,e I have tested and confirmed that even if a pod is popped right next to a base the free unit given will be independant, however yes captured natives are homed to nearest base if captured within your territory

 

[GooglyBoogly]

Did some more testing:

Never had an earthquake triggered from a sea pod - assumed to be impossible

Finally got a mining pod event (only happens in later years)
was called a mining pod - duh.

Confirmed that there appears to be no such thing as a completely empty pod that does nothing - entry removed.

Noted that -1 movement if only for Naval infestation, not land ones -there appears to be no movement penalty for land pod infestation

I plan to add this entry to my datalinks next week if nothing else comes up

 

[vyeh]

Since you can't raise an ocean square to land directly (you have to raise adjoining land), I'd speculate the same mechanism prevents a sea pod from turning a sea square to land (which is what an earthquake would do).

 

[GooglyBoogly]

I have done some testing ni regards to terraforming to dredge pods, and it appears that you will ALWAYS get a unity pod if you dredge up a sea tile that contains a resource, however once the pod has been popped - you canot re-dredge the same tile for another pod. It is a one-shot thing. This process also appears to work in reverse - SOME pods will turn into a resource tile when submerged, if re-raised once popped the pod will disappear, but the resource will still spawn if re-submerged.

This means that there is now a way to reliable way to 'find' more pods and resources by raising/lowering resource/pod tiles (these resource tiles must have been present since the start of the game and not created by a random event or a pod). It also means that by keeping track of where you have popped pods, you can now have a chance to track where resources will spawn by lowing a tile that once had/still has a pod into the sea.

I have also noticed that during all of my pod popping experiments i never had a unity scout/ mining laser nor a unity gunship spawn- just foils, rovers and (once) a chopper

 

[Avelon]

One thing I'd like to note is that I have experienced 2 events from 1 pod in several combinations, but it seems like there are two sets of event types that can happen, and events within each type do not happen along with other events of that type.

So...

1.) Xenofungal bloom + Pod was infested
2.) Xenofungal bloom + Unity unit
3.) Free credits + Infested/Unity unit
4.) Free credits + taps aquifier
5.) Located resource + Infested/Unity unit
6.) Drone sets up mines + roads, farms, or solar collectors (always alone)
7.) Monolith (always alone)
8.) Cartography scan (always alone)
9.) Dimensional gate (always alone, never falls on another pod)
10.) Clones unit (always alone)

Those are all I can think of off the top of my head that I've experienced. I've personally never popped a tech from a pod (I know, weird, right?), but I know it's possible.

I have also noticed that during all of my pod popping experiments i never had a unity scout/ mining laser nor a unity gunship spawn- just foils, rovers and (once) a chopper

The mining laser only occurs at the UNS Wreckage, dunno about the scout and gunship.

 

[GooglyBoogly]

1.) Xenofungal bloom + Pod was infested

I am pretty sure this always is the case, remember the native units may be hidden and wonder off elsewhere.

9.) Dimensional gate (always alone, never falls on another pod
10.) Clones unit (always alone)

I have had resources pop as well as a clone or dimensional rift from a single pod. The dimensional rift/tidal wave also appears to never teleport to an occupied square (I guess monoliths and pods would count as occupied)

 

[Avelon]

I am pretty sure this always is the case, remember the native units may be hidden and wonder off elsewhere.

I've actually had xenofungal blooms triggered without natives. I know this only because I've done this on the corner of my territory with the polar caps or the sea being on the other side, and then explored the fungus - leaving nowhere for those natives to go. I suppose through some glitching, mismemory, and/or Isles of the Deep being nearby to transport the worms away, I could be mistaken, though.

Thanks for the datalinks update - it is much appreciated. =)

 

[GooglyBoogly]

It appears that the unity gunship is the unit that the pirates start with - you cannot get it form a pod. This will be noted in the next update

 

[vyeh]

During my testing, I renamed unity gunship and found that renamed unit was the unit the pirates started with. I was unable to pop a unity gunship despite numerous attempts.

 

[vyeh]

In my testing, I renamed the units. The unit in the unity gunship slot is assigned to the pirates. I was unable to pop a unity gunship despite numerous attempts.

 

[fallennorthstar]

Hi everyone,

I'm Chris and I hail from Santa Barbara. I've known about this game for a while but never had the chance to play it. I picked it up for the first time on GOG.com a few weeks ago and have been playing ~6 hrs each of the last 10 days (on a break from school). And I'm a man who likes to research and study all the info so I feel pretty knowledgeable for a novice. I will probably post elsewhere too but questions about unity pods were on my mind at the time I registered, so here I am.

5. Free Tech -Self explanatory
Note: Pretty sure free tech is restructed to level 1

Hope you caught this typo: "restricted"

Interesting Notes:
Raising terrain to dredge up the sea can reveal additional unity pods.

Are you sure this can work in the original SMAC without the expansion? I've tried to do this in several spots with no success. For me, the pods that become "available" had previously already existed in the sea, and are in the same tiles.

Finally got a mining pod event (only happens in later years)
was called a mining pod - duh.

I was able to get one in the 3rd pod I collected, pretty early in the game (~turn 15?)


But my question is in regards to the pods that give you the materials to finish a non SP-item in a nearby base's queue. Since I'm still experimenting around in this game, I always save my game right before picking up a pod, so I can reload endlessly until I get what I want. But in one case, I've got a land pod 4 tiles from a base (on Mount Planet, if that matters) and I can't seem to get it to give me materials. I'm using a Former to pick it up. While I too have suspicions that Alien Artifacts and Non-Combat units alter the % of what you get, I can't figure this one. My Sea Formers and Transport Foils have been able to give me material pods, so why not a Land Former? Then I thought it was because I was trying build a prototype unit (as a non-Spartan faction), so I changed it to another unit. When that didn't work, I changed it to a standard facility, also to no avail. I've reloaded my game 100+ times with no success. Any ideas?

 

[Petek]

Hi Chris,

Welcome to CFC and the Alpha Centauri forum!

I'll try to address your questions and concerns:

Hope you caught this typo: "restricted"

That remark didn't make it into the revised datalinks.

Are you sure this can work in the original SMAC without the expansion? I've tried to do this in several spots with no success. For me, the pods that become "available" had previously already existed in the sea, and are in the same tiles.

The datalinks update is only for SMAX, so no testing was done for SMAC. However, right off the top of my head, I think you're right. As above, this remark isn't in the revised datalinks.

I was able to get one in the 3rd pod I collected, pretty early in the game (~turn 15?)

Yes, I also believe you can get mining pods early on.

But my question is in regards to the pods that give you the materials to finish a non SP-item in a nearby base's queue. Since I'm still experimenting around in this game, I always save my game right before picking up a pod, so I can reload endlessly until I get what I want. But in one case, I've got a land pod 4 tiles from a base (on Mount Planet, if that matters) and I can't seem to get it to give me materials. I'm using a Former to pick it up. While I too have suspicions that Alien Artifacts and Non-Combat units alter the % of what you get, I can't figure this one. My Sea Formers and Transport Foils have been able to give me material pods, so why not a Land Former? Then I thought it was because I was trying build a prototype unit (as a non-Spartan faction), so I changed it to another unit. When that didn't work, I changed it to a standard facility, also to no avail. I've reloaded my game 100+ times with no success. Any ideas?

I don't think that the rules governing pod results are well-understood. I've also been known to reload after getting a bad result. I found that some pods would only produce worms no matter how many times I tried for a different result. However, if I left the pod alone and then popped it several turns later, I could get a different outcome. IIRC, this behavior only occurred if the pod was on a land tile, but adjacent to a sea tile. You may be seeing something similar.

Please feel free to post more questions.