Not much of a noob, but...

[Eawyne]

As I said in my previous topic, I'm a casual player, for as many years as the game exists ^^ It's just a perfect game, but sadly, I never managed to in-depth play it. Some concepts just seem out of grasp ; they seem to be core elements to the game, but I just can't comprehend'em enough :

- how does "energy" work ? I never really got to get the full potential of that, because of ineffeciency, and treaties rarely are in my favor... I understand some concepts about it, but it's the in-dephts aspects that fail me. I read here and there that people manage to stockpile a huge load of that : how do they do ?! ^^ It happens that even in big bases am I not able to harvest more than 3 or 4 units of energy without being inefficient...

- what exactly are restrictions (of minerals/nutrients/energy) ? When are they lifted ?

- are Jungles the same as Forest (building-wise, like the ones offering more nutrients in Forest tiles)

Also, there is a sound that bothers me to no end : that message announcing the end of a turn. In the opening of a game, it's reaaaaally annoying !

I browsed the fx folder but couldn't find the right file it seems : I had something called cpu turn complete.wav and another one cpu turn complete.sfk ; but deleting (after copy of course ^^) them didn't seem to make a difference... the voice is still there.

Does anyone have a clue ?

 

[Petek]

Here are some ways to mitigate the loss of Energy Credits due to inefficiency:

* Adopt SE choices (such as Democracy and Green) that increase efficiency.
* Build Children's Creches in bases to increase individual base efficiency.
* Don't place bases too far apart. The further a base is from your HQ, the more inefficiency it will have.
* Replace workers with specialists (since the energy produced by specialists isn't subject to inefficiency).

Also, although not directly related to inefficiency, hold off on building most base facilities until your base is large enough to support them. Most facilities cost one or more ECs per turn to maintain (Recycling Tanks are an exception as they have no maintenance cost).

Mineral/Nutrient/Energy restrictions:

Subject to the following exceptions, no tile can produce more than two of the above Factors of Production (FOPs) until after certain techs are researched. If a tile is producing two FOPs, but could produce more after the restrictions are lifted, you will see a black outline around the resource. The exceptions to this rule are

1. Min/Nut and Energy specials aren't limited (so, for example, a mined and roaded min special on a rocky tile will produce seven mins at any time), and
2. A Farm/Condensor combination can produce four nuts, even before the restriction is lifted.

The techs for lifting the restrictions are

Nutrients - Gene Splicing
Minerals - Ecological Engineering
Energy - Environmental Economics

SMAC has no "jungle" tiles, unlike some versions of Civ. However, one of the landmarks is named the Monsoon Jungle, usually just called the jungle. In that sense, jungle tiles produce +1 nuts. You can plant a forest (or make just about any other improvement) on a jungle tile.

I don't know about the sound files.

 

[bhavv]

Play as Morgan and run Democracy, Free Market, and Wealth

Once you learn to cope with his small bases and -1 support, You will have so much energy that you will never want to play as anyone else.

 

[Eawyne]

Petek : thanks for the advices. Empires tend to expand, but I tend to forget that it's possible to move HQ easily ; I suppose it can help keeping the heart as much centered as possible... it's a factor that has to be considered in the big picture.

Replacing workers with specialists means using crawlers instead ?

 

[Petek]

Petek : thanks for the advices. Empires tend to expand, but I tend to forget that it's possible to move HQ easily ; I suppose it can help keeping the heart as much centered as possible... it's a factor that has to be considered in the big picture.

Replacing workers with specialists means using crawlers instead ?

That's right. Use crawlers to work high nutrient tiles. You then can convert workers to specialists without running a nutrient deficit. Bases need to have a population of at least five to employ specialists other than doctors.