@Maniac
What I can think offhand:
- When you set the automated formers to not build bunkers, they still do sometimes. I think this may have something to do with the ridges...there was a hint about being able to build mag-lines to ridges, if a bunker was there or something like that, and I think the former was trying to make a connection, which caused him to become a bunker.
- It is not clear when hurrying buildings by cash becomes available. In my first try of the mod I played Zhakarov and never could buy anything. In my second I tried Morgan, because I thought it possible that its a thing for his faction only, and found I could not either. Later on in that game, though, I got the ability to buy stuff, although I have no idea at what point (second half of the game anyway).
- Native life forms are pretty deadly, especially if someone is showering you with them (I suspect it is Deirdre, who sends them anonymously, as it happens mostly on borders with her). I was unaware of the psionic combat rules, which made me think them not too dangerous at first.
- It seems a very combat oriented mod, and I am more of a builder. I realised only after checking the modifiers that it's impossible to keep peace...some small faction comes and demands ridiculous tribute and after denying you have -2; plus the -2 because you are ahead of them; and usually the close borders which spark tensions...one civic they dont like, and its war. So building an army from the start is
a must, and small defensive forces won't do.
- I thought at first you have to research stuff in the tech tree from the basics on. I found only by accident that you can pick something for which you never made it's lower techs (in this case I picked the tech allowing me to build rotors). I got the idea when I clicked on a tech to see what the path to it is, and the game suggested two steps in the uppermost branch and then two in the lowest, which have no connections at all. I have not checked, if that works for techs which are more than one step higher up in the tree; it might work only if I have one tech in each vertical column before it.
Probably most people know about that anyway, but I havent played the original SMAC, and I did about 90% of the time FfH when playing Civ IV, which is pretty different from normal Civ.
Planetfall is good, btw, once you get used to it
What would interest me is:
- When can who hurry things by using credits?
- Is there a table hidden somewhere explaining all the symbols? I could guess what most of them meant by looking around the screens, but I didn't find a page which simply lists them.
- Is there a meaning behind the symbols and colors of the various techs?