newbie questions about building a navy, mobile airbases, subs

snackwitch · July 27, 2002, 13:04

hey, I'm glad I found this site. I've had alpha centauri for quite a few years now but I've just gotten into it.

Anyways I'll get right into the question since I'm dying to hear a few answers.

First. Is it just me, or is the deep pressure hull (submarine) ability way too little and too late in the game? and the mobile airbase ability. These should be huge advantages to your navy but im dissapointed that the only thing that submarine affects the unit's visibility and the mobile airbase can't even have aaa ability to defend itself against air attacks!

Anyways, I digress.

About subs. Does anyone exactly what benefits they give?

More importantly, so I have a mobile airbase (right now I'm in the planning stages of constructing my navy). I think what if it's protected by some aaa sentinels. so far so good. I toss the sentinels in the airbase. And then I use scenario editor to test the idea, but a missile needlejet will ignore the sentinels (even if i put them "designate defender") and attack the mobile airbase, which is of course a lowly transport without aaa underneath it all. Is this a bug or something? Because when i try this for a conventional missile to defend against an enemy missile, it works. In fact the conventional missile will defend against an enemy needlejet as well.

i have version 1.0 of alpha centauri, so im wondering if you guys can solve this for me.

BTW, do building conventional missiles reduce your clean minerals limit?

Maniac · July 27, 2002, 14:01

A quick comment. Submarines are useless since the AI cheats and always knows the position of all your units.

Juliennew · July 27, 2002, 17:17

You should also upgrade to Alpha Centauri version 4.0.
Very much bugs are fixed.
http://www.firaxis.com/downloads_detail.cfm?file_id=1

Pandemoniak · July 27, 2002, 17:54

Quote:

BTW, do building conventional missiles reduce your clean minerals limit?

No, not at all. Only each time you build farm tree, hybrid forest centauri preserves, etc...

Quote:

20) Where can I find more about ecodamage?
For almost everything you ever wanted to know about ecodamage read this column:
http://apolyton.net/misc/column/175_ecodamage.shtml

Method · July 28, 2002, 19:20

its just tectonic missles and planet busters which reduce your clean mineral limit

about defending your transports, i'll usually send along a few AAA cruisers as escorts. after fusion power, its cheap to armour your transports too.

Adalbertus · July 29, 2002, 18:36

Pandemoniak, it's "reducing" not "increasing. Tree Farms, Hybrid forests, Centauri Preserves, and Temples of Planet increase the free mineral limit by one for each built after the first fungal bloom. Building any unit doesn't change the free mineral limit. Using a planet buster (TKG, didn't hear about the tectonic missiles 'cause it is the only thing which is more useless than fungal missiles and less fun) and (IIRC) nerve gas reduces the free mineral limit.

Method · July 29, 2002, 21:31

i don't use tectonics either. nerve gas doesn't reduce the limit against aliens and, IIRC, if the charter is repealed. (

)

johndmuller · July 30, 2002, 02:52

snackwitch, Submarines seem flawed, particularly in that the AI seems to know where they are anyway (a charitable reading would have it that the AI is just good at patrolling every tile, but it seems more like it just knows). Similarly, hiding in fungus seems not to fool the AI. Neither of these are problems with human opponents in MP, but as you said, the subs come late in the game; hiding in fungus seems to be moderately effective, but I don't really trust it.

Land units on board a ship will not defend it, but other ships in the same tile will - it may be necessary to 'designate' the desired defenders to get the combat system to use them instead of the carrier, if the carrier is otherwise the same or greater strength.

Aircraft carriers can also be guarded from air attack by carrying some NJ's with SAM, i.e. fighters, which will scramble to attack the offender whenever a unit within their 2 tile range is attacked by an aircraft. The scrambling is a little too dilligent, as sometimes very wounded fighters will scramble to defend a perfectly capable AAA unit (no matter what mode the fighter is in); some people also experience crashes associated with scrambling fighters (in conjunction with unlucky combinations of hardware and drivers). IMhO, if you want to use ships, it is wise to do everything you can to give them the highest possible morale (Navy Yard, Bioenhancement Center, building while under favorable SE settings, fighting native life to build them up, maybe even sinking a monolith to get its upgrades for your ships). Separate ships for offense and defense seems much cheaper as well. Even with all that stuff, it is still hard to fight off planes and especially missiles with ships, unless you want them enough to spend twice as much as your opponent to get an even fight.

Pandemoniak · July 30, 2002, 03:53

Quote:

Pandemoniak, it's "reducing" not "increasing. Tree Farms, Hybrid forests, Centauri Preserves, and Temples of Planet increase the free mineral limit by one for each built after the first fungal bloom. Building any unit doesn't change the free mineral limit. Using a planet buster (TKG, didn't hear about the tectonic missiles 'cause it is the only thing which is more useless than fungal missiles and less fun) and (IIRC) nerve gas reduces the free mineral limit.

Yeah, you're right

Anyway, about tectonic missile it can be really cool if you want to do some fast terraforming and raise a mountain in the middle of nowhere

snackwitch · July 31, 2002, 01:35

thanks for the responses.

hmm... that's dissapointing. It would have been nice if subs were invulnerable to aircraft attack, or even better, a whole new chassis type that everyone has to deal with. I think the navy is seriously underpowered while the air force is seriously overpowered.

another question, ok, im playing this game on a huge map with university, im approaching near total world conquest (thanks to my unstoppable naval/chopper/locust of chiron/drop pod invaders force) but one thing still irks me. All those conquered bases still look like my opponent's. How do I get those bases to look like mine? Becase they are mine, after all.

Mongoose · July 31, 2002, 01:42

With time, they will acquire your faction's graphics. I can't recall how much time, maybe 30 years. Once they are 'yours' you will no longer have drones associated with a 'captured base' either.

Maniac · July 31, 2002, 06:09

50

Method · July 31, 2002, 12:58

it only makes sense really. all the buildings just don't change to look different just because the city's been conquered. IIRC the faction you capture the base from will get mad if you nerve staple the citizens (or obliterate the base

) while it still has their graphics

Main_Brain · August 3, 2002, 17:59

A Behavior I share withe the Ai..
Me too gets mad if a base is captured (Bad enuff) and obliberated (wooorse)

Clear Skies · August 9, 2002, 14:15

Tectonic missiles can be useful if you're just about to free a captured faction leader and you want to give them some decent land to start off on. I remember freeing Lal from the grip of the Evil Fungus Boy only to have him start again on a tiny little island....stupid random faction placer. Next time I freed someone (I believe it was Dee, from Miriam?) I tectonicked up a new mountain for her, and it worked.