Random Events Question

[KMadeleine]

I kow that you can play with random events on or off. I used to like to play with them on,
until in two separate games a really great city [with special projects galore] got wiped out by an asteroid, way before defense pods were technologically feasible.

Is there any way to edit the random events themselves, so I can take out that one event that I hate, and keep the others?

I *really* can't stand losing a base with special projects, to something that there is no defense for. So if there's no way to change that event, I guess I'll have to keep them off forever.

Thanks for any help you can give me!

[Kinjiru]

Short of hacking the engine itself, there is no way to disable certain random events. Ya either get em all, or get none.

Now, I have been playing this game since the day it came out and I STILL have not seen this cool asteroid thingy :<

Come on you mischievious and capricous (sp?) gods of gaming! I laugh in your face and dare you to strike me down with your flying rocks! I mock thee! I ridicule thee!...

[SteveMc]

The very first game of SMAC I played had an asteroit hit. I had to search the map to find the impact site. This was way back before the second patch for the game and I have played lots of games since and have yet to have it happen again. It would have been cool if they had made up a little graphic similar to when your shuttle landa at the start for the asteroid so you could see it land.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Supposedly, the asteroid thingy is most likely when you have one super city with many SPs in it. If you take to randomizing your SPs to many different cities the likelyhood of the asteroid impact is unlikely. (besides if it does hit you'll only have one or two SPs destroyed.) I agree this specific random event can be devastating. The other one I hate is solar flares wiping out all your energy sats. and more importantly your ODP's (usually followed with a massive Hive PB bombardment).

[RedFred]

I must be a real asteriod target! I have been nailed twice.

Can't remember if I had ODPs in either game, but I'm guessing that they wouldn't do any good.

The other thing is forget about turning ironman off. I went back in one game to a few years before I was hit. The asteriod hit me again, about the same year. My guess is that the "random event" is set during the game start up.

I posted on the very topic of asteriods nailing your absolute best city. In my case it was the HQ/science city both times. Other posters indicated that it is not always the best city taken out.

My suggestion is to keep playing with random on. As you can see from comments above you are very unlikely to be hit. I now have multiple science cities. You can more easily get to 2 or more techs a turn and all my eggs aren't in one basket. This strategy might also help you prepare for games when nukes start to get tossed around.

[MichaeltheGreat]

ODP's have no effects on an asteroid hit, and the game does make a point of picking out "superbases" - I've never been hit, but have seen numerous save files. I've never built more than six SP's at any single base, and never allow my bases to go into ecodamage for more than a turn at less than 5 ecodamage. In general, random events occur more frequently and more adversely, the further up the power bar you are compared to your other rivals. In a PBEM game I'm finishing in year 2221, my powerbar rating has been more than double any human or AI faction's for about 60 turns, and was at least 50% higher after the first 40 turns. I've had 11 random events hit my bases, all bad, and the only favorable random event for me was global - solar flares giving triple energy.

[CBH]

Never seen the asteroid hit, but i had to turn off Random Events purely because of the Energy Market Crash event. Deeply annoying.

[Travathian]

I had the astroid hit twice, once on me, once on the computer. Both times it wasn't a significant base. And in my situation, it hit a base on a nearby continent from my main group of bases, which had no special project, no eco damage, no mind worm issues, and same pop as most of my other bases.

I honestly think either the game screwed in my game and just missed, or that the whole thing about it hitting the most powerful base is wrong.

i've been playing smac for at least two hours a day since it came out. no stinking asteroids. **Walks over next to Kinjiru** come on, gaming Gods! give me all you got!

------------------
i've had the poison leak into my skin
and it corroded my heart away

[Helium Pond]

Make that three of us, blaspheming against the gaming gods, hoping to invoke their wrath...

(in other words, I've also *never* seen an asteroid hit)

[TigToad]

I saw _one_ asteroid hit was all...it was against the computer in one of my first games.. destroyed a major Gaian city.

I have had Mount Planet erupt on me a couple times tho... Tig

[Ironwolf]

Didn't know Mount Planet ever erupted. I would like to see that one. Never been hit by an asteroid either. Maybe tonight since I have no wood to knock on.

oh, i have aonother volcano erupt about one in every six completed games. BUT I WANNA ASTEROID!

------------------
i've had the poison leak into my skin
and it corroded my heart away

[Jasonian]

Mount Planet doesn't erupt. Another new volcano is created, effectivly creating two Mount Planets. The pop up text is really weird for this. I got a message that said "Solar collector University Base! It appears a new volcano has errupted" or something... some weird exclamations there on Planet.

I've had an asteroid strike, but only on Nessus. Bugger took out my 20+ Nessus Mining Stations. Ugh!

None ever hit ground though... too bad. It sounds great, even if it will hurt.

[Enigma]

I have had *neither* happen. Do I ever want to see some major cataclysmic event. As for other random events one game I had +1 energy in my science city for 10 years, which really increased my labs. That city had maybe only 50 extra energy from trawlers and 2 SP's but it was still easily the best in the game...

I spite in the face of the random number generator which has not given me either of these events!

[RedFred]

Jasonian - I can't agree with you that Mt. Planet doesn't erupt. I would agree that it is easy to get other volcanoes to erupt - but this is hardly rare. Just aim to get planet really angry by making environmental mayhem.

Why are people wishing for this kind of stuff?

-RedFred (target number one for rare random events)

[Qilue]

My tally so far,
5 asteroid strikes (one hit Deirdre)
3 Mt Planet II eruptions (this will occur even with random events off)

Now, I only play with random events off.

well, aren't we the lucky one...

------------------
i've had the poison leak into my skin
and it corroded my heart away

[BustaMike]

I'm interested now. What events are possible? I'm wondering if I've seen all of them. Here are the ones I have seen:

Energy surge (gives energy bank credits or destroys mines w/o energy bank)

Solar Flare

Volcanic Eruption

Industrial Bust/Boom

Crop Failure/Bunker Crops

Severe Haze/Warming? (whatever gives the +1 energy every square for the city)

Children's Creche experiences pop surge (this one is great )

Energy Market Crash

Special resources appearing or disappearing

Monoliths vanishing

Meteor shower destroys all Nessus mining stations

Any I missed besides the asteroid? I've never seen an asteroid hit. What happens to the terrain where it lands? Is it similar to a planet buster, does it make a new crater, or what?


------------------
"Luck's last match struck in the pouring down wind." - Chris Cornell, "Mindriot"
[This message has been edited by BustaMike (edited March 04, 2000).]

[LoD]

BustaMike: see - http://free.polbox.pl/0/0lod/random.htm

That's a complete list of random events, taken from script.txt.

------------------
---LoD

He, who comprehends the past, shall conquer the present and rule the future.

[Jasonian]

Huh?! Mount Planet itself errupts?! What happens? Are all the cities in the area consumed by lava? Does the air get full of dust, causing needlejets to smash into high peaks? Does an ice age start, killing off all the fungus?!

What?! I have to know!

[Jasonian]

Oh, and to answer some above questions...

The new asteriod creates an unnamed crater, like the new volcano. Everything in the radius is nailed.

Monolith disapearing isn't random. You can only use monolith's so many times. After that, they're gone.

One missing random event: Solar Storm. Like the Solar Flare, this one desroyes ODPs and OPTs as well.

And, for those that are interested, here are some events that were left out:

Energy Market boom (reverse of crash!)
Tidal wave (destroys tidal harnesses near a city)
Beetle infestation (destroys kelp farms near a city)

[RedFred]

Jasnonian - I thought for sure I saw the original Mt. Planet erupt in a game about 10 months ago. Prior to the eruption it was more like Mt. Pancake as I had been experimenting with the terriform down option extensively.

I THOUGHT!

But seeing how no one else has rushed in with confirmation, and it was so long ago, I admit there is a chance I was hallucinating. Too many consecutive hours of SMAC can do that to a person.

[KMadeleine]

Thanks for the help, guys. Even though you didn't give me the answer I wanted.

For those of you that haven't seen the asteroid crash, one 'feature' of it is that it creates severe dust clouds, which give you 1 less energy in every square in [I think] every city on the planet.