Fixing SMAC/X thread

[jed]

I suggest that we use this thread to post constructive suggestions to fix aspects of SMAC/X that annoy us. These fixes get mentioned in all sorts of threads, but I think it would be useful to have a single thread that everybody could refer to for this type of thing. Please no whining. Keep it constructive. I will start it off with the following:

Problem: IMO, the Monsoon Jungle is way too unbalancing. Whichever faction gets it has a
big advantage.

Fix: It is surprisingly difficult, but possible to make maps without the Monsoon Jungle. Go into the scenario editor, make a random map (press 0) with the parameters you like (you can adjust them from inside the scenario editor). You could keep pressing 0 until you get a map without the MJ, but nearly all of them have it. Otherwise, you put your cursor on the MJ (this is necessary), then go to the menu item to remove natural landmarks, and choose the MJ.
Save your map. Make a few of them if you're afraid you saw too much. You won't remember anything.

[RedFred]

To tell you the truth, fixing the monsoon jungle wouldn't be any where near the top of my priorities. I'd be happier if some of the bugs were dealt with. (I know, no whining )

But as far as the jungle goes, in SP, if an AI gets it, great. They need all the help that they can get. In MP, why reinvent the wheel? There are a ton of custom maps that you can download.

[Ned]

Jed,

I wish they would fix the way the screen automatically snaps to the active unit after you exit the city map. This is the most annoying feature of SMACX.

Ditto the Workshop. I simply wish it were possible to work from one end of the queue to the other without having the game move to the point in the queue where it adds a new or upgraded unit.

Ditto the F4 screen.

Being able to sort the workshop or the F4 screen would also help. The F4 screen should display the total production of energy, minerals, and labs. Each should be subject to a sort.

We really need the autoforming AI fixed. It would be really nice to instruct a former to build only forests or fungus, just like we can instruct it to build only tubes.

[Mongoose]

You CAN sort F4. In the lower left panel it lists the best base of the faction in several categories...minerals, labs, pop, infrastructure, etc. Click on the one you wish to sort by. The F4 display will change to that order. Resettting to the default orderisdone (usually inadvertantly) by clicking anywhere in the frame of the display, rather than on a specific base.

Unfortunately, none of the attributes you wish are shown on F4. Also, the F2 and F3 screens aren't tied to the F4 sequence. (I speak of the 'Bases' section of the lower left panel of each of these, where net labs and net ec, respectively, are displayed.) These remain in the default sequence.

[Basil]

I have 3 fixes for this thread:
- A tweak to the SMACX tech tree so that Hybrid Forests come *after* Tree Farms.
- Tweaks to the Progenitors.
- A way to fix alpha.txt to get around the facility maintenance cost bug at Thinker and Transcend levels of SMAC.


1. SMACX Tech Tree for Tree Farms (TF) and Hybrid Forests (HF)
This doesn't really matter, but it seems strange to get the technology for Hybrid Forests before you get that for Tree Farms - like getting the tech for universities before you get the tech for libraries in Civ.

The problem is that they had to add the technology for the Thermocline Transducer (Adaptive Economics) in somewhere, and they chose to make it, instead of Enviromental Economics (TF), the prerequisite for Planetary Economics (HF).

Fortunately, this is easily tweaked. Industrial Economics is a prerequisite for both Env. Econ. and Adaptive Econ, so just make Adaptive Economics (Thermocline) a prerequisite for Environmental Econ (TF) - it keeps its old prerequisites since they are all prerequisites for Adaptive - and make Enviro Econ (TF) a prerequisite for Planetary Econ (HF) and everything works.


2. The Progenitors
Maybe you're giving the Progenitor factions to the AI as a way of making things more challenging - I've certainly done that. But they have a huge Achilles' Heel - their agenda is Planned. This means nothing to a human playing them, but if the AI is playing them it won't be long before they go over to Planned, and their resulting -2 efficiency gives you the tech lead on a platter. (Their fondness for Fundamentalism doesn't help, but it's minor compared to the inefficiency.) So: give them Impunity: Planned (rationalization: the Progenitors don't suffer a penalty for behaving in the manner in which their evolution, culture, and means of communication - I won't say language - suits them for better than humans).

To do this, I think you need to remove one of Marr's abilities (because the software only allows factions 8, and he already has 8) - I take away the +1 morale.

I also like to give H'minee Aversion: Free Market (Progenitors aren't into trade, that's why they like planned economies and get no commerce bonuses, and H'minee especially dislikes people who run -3 Planet ratings), and make Marr's priority Research and not Planet (he's trying to find out how to induce a controlled Flowering, not to preserve Planet). But this moving definitely away from the realm of fixes into that of variants.


3. The Base Facility Maintenance Bug in SMAC
This bug is that the game only charges 1/3 the energy it should for base facilities at the Transcend level of SMAC and 2/3 the energy it should at the Thinker level. At other levels, and in the 2nd patch of SMACX, this bug does not exist/has been fixed.

Now to know about this bug is to be able to fix it - you just go into alpha.txt, find the data for base facility maintenance costs, and either triple it or multiply it by 1.5 depending on which level game you intend to play. There are at least two different ways in which this does not completely solve the problem: the reports are not subject to the bug, so after you've tripled the maintenance costs your F3 report will make it look like you're running a loss/a small profit, and the game calculates the cost of command centers, ignoring? the value in alpha.txt. There may be other problems as well, but this at least gives you reasonable results rather than letting you have all your facilities much cheaper than you'd get them at "easier" difficulty levels.