Original Units Created

Frankychan · January 18, 2002, 20:46

One of the most "original" units I have ever created was my

"Nuclear Sub" as I like to call it.

I designed it where it held 8 planet busters and acted just like real-life nuclear missile subs today.

I had so much fun with these (never mind their impracticality or the overall costs) that I made three more...all armed with some type of missile!

Well, I want to know is what kinds of units have you all made that were either "original" or fun that you had to design yourself, instead of having the computer make the units for you.

TresXF · January 19, 2002, 03:34

Quote:

instead of having the computer make the units for you

i don't think that using the automatic build option would be wise for a serious game

i may post some personal design favs later.

Adalbertus · January 19, 2002, 05:51

I like the colony needlejets. Later in the game, the minerals are not as important as real life time for building a conventional colony pod, sending a transport to the main continent, load the colony pod, send it to an uninhabited island, move the colony pod at a good place ...
And it even can create turn advantage through higher speed.

SPasmofiT · January 19, 2002, 16:15

Carriers carrying half nukes, half bombers and interceptors. Escorted with AAA cruisers, regular cruisers and some troop transport, you can produce havoc on an undefended shore.

Frankychan · January 19, 2002, 17:33

I didn't know that you can have a colony pod on a needlejet chassis! How does it work? Do you just put the needlejet in the desired square and hit the 'B' button?

SPasmofiT · January 19, 2002, 17:40

Yes.
But you are limited by the plane/chopper's range and turn limit. Also, if you build one in a land base, it's considered a land pod. If built in a sea base, it's a sea pod. Can't mix them... afaik.

Adalbertus · January 19, 2002, 17:40

Quote:

I didn't know that you can have a colony pod on a needlejet chassis! How does it work? Do you just put the needlejet in the desired square and hit the 'B' button?

Exactly.

CorporalX · January 19, 2002, 19:40

The most original unit I made because I wanted to test out the limits of smac was an Aircraft Carrier with underwater capability...

Unbelievable it actually worked...

gwillybj · January 20, 2002, 00:50

Thought of this one today. Not sure if it's strong or not?

Could a half-dozen of these be a serious invasion force?

I'll try it for fun anyway.

?-?-1*4 Cloak Blink
Infantry + Psi Attack + Psi Defense + Singularity Engine + Cloaking Device + Blink Displacer

Combine this with The Neural Amplifier

and The Dream Twister

for an extra B!

Frankychan · January 20, 2002, 03:40

dang, there's some really original unit idea's coming out. You guys don't mind if I try some right?

CorporalX,

My 'nuclear sub' was kinda like your idea. It was underwater but instead of holding jets and choppers, it held an arsenal of planet busters. I just loved parking my sub offshore of my enemies land mass and sending nukes all over there territory!

One of the dumbest units I made was a "Police Rover". It only had hand weapons, no armor, and its special ability was that it had the police ability. I figured I could use it for drone rioting in far away cities but by then all my cities were connected by mag-tubes...go figure.

k.k.fly · January 20, 2002, 09:46

transport with needlejets. man i really thought why go for the fuss of sea transport, until I found out each aircraft transport only carries one unit. But still quite useful to transport formers to cities off the coast.

transport + needlejets + repair. It repairs one unit at a time.

build these 2 above, you can really go deep into enemy dominion with air power. First use aircrafts to attack a base, drop a unit from transport, capture that empty base, then use this base to refuel your aircrafts. Rename this captured base "Base 1"

Then attack another base nearby, drop the unit and capture that base, obliterate the base and move all aircraft back to "Base 1". Obliterate all enemy bases near "Base 1", and then expand further to capture another base for further refuel of your aircrafts.

yay no more fuss with carriers and sea transport. A nice variety from air-drop units, or haven't invent air-drop ability.

You may or may not want to obliterate bases, but since your force are mainly aircrafts (bombers & interceptors & transport) with few ground troops (mainly used to capture empty bases). If you don't obliterate bases, next turn you would lose that base if enemy strike back via mag tube.

I haven't test if needlejet transport can carry naval ships, but if it can, drop your naval ships beside a city that is floating on ocean, and capture that base.

TresXF · January 20, 2002, 10:04

transponder crawlers
a supply crawler or foil equipped with deep radar.
u can use them as sensors outside your territory while they additionally extract minerals / food / energy.

Cybergod · January 20, 2002, 10:24

Moi's favourite:

Probe-1-3*4 with Gav Struts and Air Drop. Additionally add armour and Orbital insertions.

Or a drop colony pod that used orbital insertions to establish bases on the other side of Planet!

Cybergod · January 20, 2002, 10:25

And what about gravship formers!!! The only drawback - they come too late in the game

Vytae · January 21, 2002, 01:34

If i am correct you cant put drop pods on colony pods,i just use the computer made colony pods tho,you might on a diffrent chassis.

MariOne · January 21, 2002, 08:32

No, you CAN use drop pods on any land chassis, regardless of equipment. You can have drop formers, probes, crawlers, pods, and even transports.

transponder crawlers: IIRC they were named "canary with eyes" (or ears) on this forum....

Sorry but I seldom get to build all thos high-tech complex units. When I get past Fusion & Orbital, the rush to transcendence leaves very little time to fidget with unnecessary units....

Most originals are those very simple units that you can put to a specific task with success...

I remember seeing someone using Arty Cops, one row cost...

In a recent game, my enemy was surprised when I succeeded in taking down his jets with 1-<1>-1... (I had not the minerals or the money avaiability to produce even impact noodles in emergency hurry, but thos humble SAM scouts served the purpose perfectly).
Also, when I suddenly decided to take my former ally's coastal seabase, which was at 9 tiles from my nearest, but with an adjacent land tile distant 8 from it, I invented the ... Drop Marine Scout! 1^~-1-1. Only two rows cost. Drop it on the coast, and invade the base... It was the only solution to achieve it in one turn, simple, cheap and elegant. (he had no AeroC or interceptor defenses, of course)

Also, General cousLee always praised me the usefulness of Drop SAM Rovers, even simple <2>^-1-2. It took me a while to understand, but they are often very effective.

TresXF · January 21, 2002, 13:19

cheap standard scout patrols (infantry) and scout rovers are the best.

send them in while you are developing new tech and prototypes. before the big invasion starts you just have to upgrade them to attack units, base defenders etc.

fast production rate and not outdated when they arrive at the enemy's gates

(you just need loads of money)

MariOne · January 22, 2002, 10:09

I could give in for scout patrols, but...
Scout Rovers are in my HUMBLE opinion the utter idiocy in unit design (I never ever EVER build one).

For the same production cost, you can have a 2-1-1 or a 1-2t-2.
Immediatley useful units usually for the time when you build them.
And when you'll have to upgrade them, you'll also have to pay 10ec less because you start from one level up in weapon/armor.
Of course the only downside is when you'd need to upgrade to a 6-1-2 and you have only 1-2-2 in the area, while yor upgradable 2-1-2 are distant. That is, a little less flexibility.

But I'd have to say that you might need better units than mere shells *far before* you are able to produce an income such to sustain the required expenses to upgrade them. In that meanwhile you hardly can renounce to build your 1-3-1's, and the upgrade from a plasma garrison to a scoutpatrol is NOT cost-effective.
It's true that at higher weapon/armor levels, upgrading might become sometimes more convenient than hurrying. But even in those case usually you'd have the best efficiency balance between "available production capability / cash flow / time-to-market" by starting with something more than level 1 weapon/armor in your shell.

I know that there are experienced players (see Sikander) following a strict shell-upgrade strategy. Maybe I'm not as smart as them, but in real play (that is not against stupid AI) I hardly have found the conditions where that tactic is viable/convenient other than in limited occasions.

MariOne · January 22, 2002, 10:23

OH, and I forgot...
STANDARD scout patrols are usually the FIRST design that I mark as "Obsolete"!
Thanks to a peculiarity in the units production cost formula, you usually can add FOR FREE one special ability to them.
After you discover SoHB, it's STUPID to build a 1-1-1 instead of a 1-1t-1.

I can't recall offhand exactly, but there are also other patrol designs with free added ability.
For sure a 1-1-1 police.
I think also a (1)-1-1.
Most likely if I'm not mistaken also a 1-1-1 Trained, which is a stepstone to get to Elite upgraded units in many cases.

All those free abilities do NOT in any way hinder the upgrade possibilities (Artillery apart), and don't influence its cost either...

I have to say, that in MANY occasions I even use to take the 1-1-1's I was forced to build in the very early stage of the game, and spend the 10ec required to upgrade them to 1-1-1 Police!

Yxklyx · January 22, 2002, 14:09

My new favorite unit is the Gas Wave Chopper.

TresXF · January 22, 2002, 14:24

@ marione
never had a prob with money (energy) - i'm a capitalistic builder

slightly mods of the 1-1-1 infantry (with free addons) or even the rovers (i like(!) them) are used of course.

btw, i believe this thread was meant as a think tank - not as a step-by-step-blue print

Earwicker · January 22, 2002, 14:48

My favorite combat/ expansion unit is a 1-1-1 trained drop infantry (I rename them dropboyz). Cost is 19 or 20 minerals, and the "trained" ability is a freebie. They are quite potent to take empty bases (pre-aero-defenses) or bolster the garrison of bases you've captured with ground units. Drop them in and upgrade to a defender or an extra attacker, depending upon your needs.

Clear Skies · January 22, 2002, 15:08

Quote:

Originally posted by Yxklyx
My new favorite unit is the Gas Wave Chopper.

I like these also!

Frankychan · January 22, 2002, 18:02

From TresXf,

Quote:

btw, i believe this thread was meant as a think tank - not as a step-by-step-blue print

Thanks for getting the underlying message. I kinda wanted everyone to share with each other their own unique unit idea's that we might wanna try out.

Mine was the 'Nuclear Submarine'----never mind the cost!

It's just fun to play with it.

Adalbertus · January 22, 2002, 19:03

Quote:

Originally posted by Earwicker:
Drop them in and upgrade to a defender or an extra attacker, depending upon your needs.

Never tried to do that. Can you drop and upgrade in one turn (provided you do not use any movement point)?
It is certainly covered in another thread, but I'm too lazy to look it up

:
If you upgrade a trained unit, does it loose morale?

Flubber · January 22, 2002, 19:23

I use a few of the units indicated like the radar sea crawler. I love specific units and make all kinds of different combinations

1. Mall cop -- This is the basic probe on an infantry chassis to reduce cost and is used for base defense

2. The AWACS-4-- a radar plane given the highest weapon the base can build in a turn-- often these guys are impact equipped but the main job is patrolling the frontiers

3. The suicide chopper-- perhaps only equipped with a 4 weapon and the idea is to take a run through opposing unarmoured crawlers/formers and perhaps self destruct at the last movement point

4. The Locust Liquidator -- a best weapon SAM artillery rover, These guys just decimate locusts, worms and IODs-- damaging them so much that a green scout can finish off the stack

5 El cheapo (radar) chopper-- Often I will send a cheap chopper off to explore any remaining unknown frontier. I often find the long range current scouting data to be more than worth the cost of the thing

Those are just some of them. My workshop is always full of all kinds of cheaper units. Later game you might want to go best weapons on everything but lots of times, I build "cheaper" in the early to mid game-- knowing that the role of the thing is to die

MattyBoy · January 23, 2002, 01:31

I like that cheap chopper idea, Flubber.
Maybe Drop SAM Rovers too.

There are some awesome old threads on all of this, especially on infantry probes with good defense as cheaper "clean" defenders.

Sikander · January 23, 2002, 04:45

Marione,

You are correct that I use a regimented approach to shells and upgrades, but I play a lot of single player, and very little multiplayer, and the intent is to save me micromanagement headaches. If I can follow my development paradigm, I have tons of cash, and no really difficult choices to make. I store up clean shells when there is nothing better to build for that day when someone needs a lesson in manners.

There have been some interesting ideas here. I tend to build SAM artillery when the need arises, but most of the time it doesn't. Artillery is pretty handy since the patch, but it needs to be part of a combined arms team obviously.

To answer a question, the only time the trained special ability does any good is when the unit is first built. You can then upgrade the unit from the right click menu (or using U), and it will retain it's higher morale even though the type that you upgrade to lacks the trained attribute. Upgrading the entire type from the Unit Workshop however loses the morale upgrade.