So... which version/mod to use?

[Todd Hawks]

Hi everyone!

I've been playing SMAC/X extensively when it came out a long time ago.

I'd like to play it once more and I'm wondering what can be done about making the AI better. I read about Kyrub's patch, which unfortunately is only for SMAC; I read about SManiaC, which is for SMAX and has some AI omprovements but is a bit unclear on what exactly the AI changes are (only loads of bonuses or actual improvements?); I read about various alpha(x).txt tweaks. And of course there may be other files/settings/mods I didn't even notice.

So it seems a bit overwhelming and too much to try it all out extensively.

Therefore I'd like to ask you: Which do you play and which do you recommend?

Note that I don't expect top-notch AI, that will unfortunately never happen. But AI that actually uses terraforming and builds enough stuff to keep up a little would be nice. Oh, and no blatantly obvious cheating, please (like units appearing out of nowhere).... bonuses are ok.

Thanks for any input you can provide!

 

[Kilkakon]

Some partial conversions, such as the LazyTown mod made by chuft, has some good features to help out the AI. From memory, terraforming technologies are tweaked to force the AI to build forests early which helps them with production. There's also "AI only units" which, when discovered, the player is meant to obselete immeditately, and provide the AI with some extra pushing power. It's also got some extra features like custom factions and so on, but is still largely SMAX, which is what I think you are after.

If you want a completely different game, there is always trying out my mod, Lost Eden. As everything is simplied a bit, the AI puts up a pretty decent effort, well at least Oblivion/Rangers etc.

 

[Todd Hawks]

Thanks, but even LazyTown is a but too far from the original game (and not available anymore?). I guess I'm not really looking for partial or full conversions.

 

[Kilkakon]

Fair enough! I don't really know too many of the mods out there--perhaps somebody else can provide better knowledge on this area. I just thought I'd say what I knew.

An elegant solution is to create copies of the SMAC/X factions with extra bonuses. E.g. a free Biology Lab in every base = a very powerful version of the University.