Unity Pod results

[Maniac]

What unity pod results do we want in Planetfall? This affects what new XML tags are needed in CIV4GoodyInfos.xml.

Some unity pod results that were in SMAC:

* Gold/Credits - no additional coding requirements

* Free tech - no additional requirements

* Sonar/part of map being revealed - no additional coding requirements

* Free Unity rover

* Free Unity foil

* Free gun foil?

* Free Former - wasn't in SMAC, but I'd add it.

* Popping bonus resources & monoliths! - needs new XML tag

* Native life spawn - can be done already, unless we want to have Isles of the Deep spawning with a full cargo of land units as in SMAC sometimes - any idea how that could be done?

* Alien Artifact. Include this in Planetfall?

* Materials - completed the production of the nearest city. Was very exploitable, and that exploit required annoying micromanagement. So best to leave out. We could have a unit from unity pods though that provides hammers like a Great Engineer. Either a seperate Unity Supplies unit, or include this function in the Alien Artifact (besides tech popping)?

* Unit cloning?

* Some farms/greenhouses/mines/solar collectors/windmills being created on nearby tiles?

* Fungal Bloom - all surrounding terrain covered by fungus/sea fungus?

* Free commlink?

* Some kelp farms being created on nearby tiles?

* Unity Chopper?

* Some forests being created on nearby tiles? I wouldn't do this, given that forests are technologically more advanced than in SMAC.

* A river being created - wouldn't do this, for making little sense

* Pod causing an earthquake/increasing elevation - wouldn't do this, for making little sense


In reply to Ellestar in the Central List thread:

Sounds cool but waste of time to code something that complicated for a feature with no gameplay value. Guess why noone ever did it in other games?

What other games had sea unity pods?
Do you feel popping alien artifacts and unity rovers from sea unity pods (for which this code would be needed) added nothing to SMAC? Likewise with materials pods.

Personally I fear popping unity pods in the sea might become boring if we don't include a similar variety as for land pods. At the moment the only things that could be popped in the sea are gold, techs (rare), maps, free foil, resources with some coding (but no monoliths), experience and barbarians. Is this enough? At least personally I find popping goody huts in Civ4 quite boring compared to SMAC.

IMHO "no lakes" condition should be in either both cases or no cases. Or make it 3 conditions - bOcean, bLake and bLand.

But probably it will be easier to remove bWater and bLand. If spawned unit is a water unit then hut should be in the ocean or on the ocean coast. If it's a land unit then hut should be on land. A check if it's a valid plot for a bonus is obvious anyway. Good enough?

If it can be coded that the game knows which possible results it should and shouldn't take into account depending on the pod's location, that sounds good of course, no matter how exactly it's implemented. I'd suggest then as general rule that units can't be popped in lake tiles.

 

[Pfeffersack]

Personally I fear popping unity pods in the sea might become boring if we don't include a similar variety as for land pods. At the moment the only things that could be popped in the sea are gold, techs (rare), maps, free foil, resources with some coding (but no monoliths), experience and barbarians. Is this enough? At least personally I find popping goody huts in Civ4 quite boring compared to SMAC.

I noticed exactly this in two of my recent games - however, not in terms of being bored by opening seapods, but because it can lead to a kind of snowball effect sometimes. Since Aquaformers or Foils aren't too unlikely, you might end up with 2 or 3 additional vessels in the first pods - and then you have a huge advantage in exploring the higher seas (which is quickly especially quickly done if you promote them with Deep Radar) and popping even more pods. Never experienced a similar thing on land (Rovers are more rarely, exploration over land is both slower and more deadly and the AI is always more of a challenge here)

I remember that SMAC had a pod result both on sea and land, which teleported you somewhere far away on the same sea or landmass. Spreading some Kelp sounds good as well - maybe only after a certain tech has been reserached (if that is possible). Same for Forest on land (might be further restrictedby only allowing it, if the tile on which the pod is and some surrounding ones have feasible terrain for forest)

 

[Maniac]

Hmm, my experience is naval exploration is more deadly. Must be because Scattered Landing Pods is off.

A Dimensional Gate goodie is on the to-do list.

 

[Pfeffersack]

Hmm, my experience is naval exploration is more deadly. Must be because Scattered Landing Pods is off.

I started a new game with SLP off. Land explaoration on my landmass was over soon of course (all players except Yang started there, I guess he will become a powerhouse in that game because of that...) and the AIs moved to exploring the sea sooner. Nonetheless, I popped a couple of pods on sea. I used aquaformers for exploration and sometimes they get disabled...but if you keep away from fungus with them and leave that parts to the foils, it isn't a problem. the latter ones are less in danger because naval PSI combat has 3:3 instead of 2:3 base odds for the defender.
It was no different in SMAC, except that -at least for my feeling- I got less units out of naval pods.

A Dimensional Gate goodie is on the to-do list.

Thats great to hear!

 

[deadliver]

How about getting a supply crawler?