Managing the game.

[foureyes]

I am a long-time FPS gamer that recently got a hankering to play something a little more cerebral, so I blew the dust off of my year-old copy of SMAC and installed it. I had tried it before but found it too tedious and gave up after a couple of days, which brings me to the point of this post.

I've been playing seriously for about a week now and would like to get more in to the "guts" of the game. Right now I have almost everything automated because I find that managing everything directly is a little overwhelming. If the AI isn't doing something that I think should be done I grab a few units and go do it by hand then re-automate them again when I'm finished. I generally keep out of the micromanagement of the game and let the AI do most everything and I guide tech and unit development in the general direction I would like to go. I realize that to become a better player I need to have a more direct hand in the way things are done.

My question is can any of you offer insight as to how you manage everything? I'm having a hard time juggling unit production, tech research, improvement construction, etc., etc. What are your techniques for keeping on top of it all?


------------------
"Oh Bartleby, Wisconsin isn't really that bad is it?" - Alan Rickman as The Metatron (Dogma)

[mark13]

You have to have some sort of plan, no question. You can't just say "we'll build this for now, and then see what else there is to build in a few turns' time" - that is a recipe for disaster. The in-game governors are fine for beginners, but once you get to a certain level, they will make some absurd choices for construction. To start off with, play a game on a small map, where you will most likely only have a few bases. Then gradually work your way up - it will come naturally.

Units, especially formers, should never be automated. The number of times I have seen farm/solar on a low-lying arid square are too numerous to mention - it makes no sense whatsoever. Research paths, also, come with time - you will learn some of the 'key' technologies (techs like Doctrine: Air Power, Environmental Economics and Industrial Automation, depending on whether you are a builder/momentum player) and be able to navigate your way toward them with relative ease.

Improvement construction - you have to decide which facilities you need and prioritise accordingly. A lot of players build Recycling Tanks before even their formers - because of the massive production bonus in small bases - others don't build them until after their Rec. Commons. It depends on playing style, strategy and, obviously, circumstance. In time, you should develop your own ideas about exactly what to build when.

Hope this helps,
Mark

[RedFred]

Dare I say it? I think a lot of people that are drawn to SMAC enjoy its complexity. In fact I suspect that a lot of us are micromanaging control freaks.

Some of the techniques I may or may not use in single play (depending on my mood) to help me keep track are:

Special names for special cities. For example, each science specialist city are successively prefaced by S1, S2, S3...I'll often do the same with crawler cities and military unit producing specialist cities.

Limit the number of bases. In SP, you should be able do to well with 1 to 3 dozen bases. You will win more quickly or more convincingly with more but it means a lot more management. Most people don't enjoy an all out ICS. Give any conquered cities away to your pactmates.

If you have autodesign on for the workshop prune your unit designs like crazy. You don't need all the default stuff, and quite often the units that are not designed like the skimship probe and skimship crawler are the most useful.

Limit your former choices. Again, this will mean a less than optimum performance, but you can get away with it in SP. I will sometimes go primarily forest, with occasional farm and mined rocky land squares and connecting roads. And nothing else for land tiles.

Use the build queue. You lose some energy by not exploiting the stockpile energy bug, but it shouldn't make a difference in SP. The queue helps you keep track of future plans and means that you don't have to check every city every turn. If you stick a base improvement at the bottom of the queue you will be warned when you run out of queue.

The more you play the more natural it seems and the less you have to keep it simple. I can see why you stopped playing if you had Auto Guv and Auto Former on most of the time. What an exercise in frustration!

[Slim-Neo]

If I have a base in a secure place (away from enemies) and have made defenses and formers, I change the Governor settings to only build facilities, that way you don't have to worry about production for that base.

[Sindai]

I do the same thing Slim Neo does, but that's just about the ONLY time I use governors......

[Goit]

In addition to the above suggestions, you can simplify the micromanagement of bases and production by using the base control screen (default hotkeyed to F4).

From this sreen you can monitor production of all your bases simultaneously. You can also hurry and change production and manipulate governor settings if you use them.
In addition, by clicking the screen from Production to Citizens (buttons at top of screen) you can monitor for potential future drone riots.

Also, by clicking on the 'Best Bases' button (bottom left) you can optimize your production choices. e.g. You can ascertain which city has the best mineral production so that you can build a Secret Project or unit prototype most efficiently.

The usefulness of this screen is doubled when monitoring factions which you have infiltrated as it allows you to quickly ascertain the least defended bases of your enemy. By again using the Best Bases info, you target his most productive bases for attack or probe disruption.

[MariOne]

< fidgets with his mousewheel, nervously looking at the audience >
< spotting RedFred reassures him >
"...Hi. I'm MariOne, but you can call me MoSe"
"Hi MoSe!"
"I'm...
I am a micromamaging control freakaholic!
I've been abusing SMAC since two years now < sigh >"
[This message has been edited by MariOne (edited December 30, 2000).]

[RedFred]

Whoops! Sorry about getting the wrong name. I'll just call you M. for simplicity, then.

I am also willing to own up to being a micro-managing freak.

[Misotu]

Um. Hi. My name is Misotu and I have been a micro-management control freak since I first discovered Colonization. And Civ.

Since then, it has just got worse. Sometimes it gets so bad I can hardly bear to open a game. I move every former by hand, of course. Can't let the daft buggers make their own decisions.

I check every one of my bases every single turn. Well, sometimes ever other turn if I have more than 60 or so. I never use the queues - the only optimal decision is the one made hands-on, at the scene, at the time of commissioning.

I check each of my cities to look at what every single citizen is producing, every single turn.

The word "g*v*rnor" actually gives me nervous fits. I have never used them. What, delegate to underlings!!!???

Never.

I'm in counselling, but I think it's incurable.

[foureyes]

Thanks everyone for all of your suggestions, especially RedFred and Goit. You guys have exactly the kind of information I was looking for.

[mark13]

Mis,

Are you saying you micromanage every single base every turn in SP?

[Googlie]

You can adjust your in-game preferences to be warned ("stop") when a unit is completed, just like it does automatically when a facility is completed.

[Misotu]

quote: Originally posted by mark13 on 12-31-2000 08:35 AM Mis, Are you saying you micromanage every single base every turn in SP?

It has been known. I mean, not usually. But if it's, you know, one of those challenge games then ... well ... um.

How can I put this?

My name is Misotu and I need to get a life.

[mark13]

At least you have your priorities sorted....

[Misotu]

Ah yes. Now that's something I *do* know about. First I check the best labs producers, then I check the worst nutrient producers, then I check for riots working downwards through best to worst psych then I ...

(I'm in counselling)

[Fitz]

I follow a simple pattern:

Move units. Terraforming has a set pattern for me depending on terrain.

Hit F4. Scan bases for hurrying.

Scan bases for units 1 turn away from completion. Zoom to base and add next production item to queue.

Scan base names for red names (ie bases garunteed to revolt). Fix them.

(MP only: zoom to first base, rotate through using arrows to check for bases one turn from growth. Double check drone situation at these bases.)

hit F2. Check what I'm researching, and how many turns to completion. If 2-3, I play arount with the social engineering settings to see if I can complete it in one turn at the cost of energy.

Turn Complete

[Garth Vader]

Jeez Mis, you should see one of my SP games. I let everything slide, sometimes I have noticed a base on stockpile energy and I have no idea how long it's been doing that I basically try to finish as quickly as possible (I don't know why).

[Misotu]

You're a momentum guy, that's why I'm pure builder ...

[mark13]

It's nice to know there are people out there worse than me, at any rate....

[Quercus]

Going back to an earlier point, how does everyone handle the design workshop? I hadn't actually noticed that you could turn autodesign off and so end up with units that I never build clogging up the build options screen. Every time you get a tech, do you think 'yippee' and rush off to design new toys, or just redesign as and when needed?

P.S I've only had the game a couple of months, and, uh, quite like the micromanagement. From you guys, it sounds like there's no cure. For obsessive m.m., Colonisation is the game - all those little colonists with different professions to shuffle round the map.

[big_canuk]

Quercus: Greetings from your sister city in Canada

I micromanage everything.

1. Identify units for transfering support.

2. Decide on SE stratagy for next few turns. Check out "F" screens for my faction and others. Contact any factions nescessary.

3. Identify bases that need crawlers changed for more/less nuts/mins/energy. Move those crawlers.

4. Move non-military units first, then military 2nd round (In case of worms or other unexpecteds).

4. Cycle through bases changing workers production, or to specialists to avoid drone riots on growth, ecodamage on growth, or to maintain or quash 2 extra nuts for growth if pop booming.

5. Cycle through bases doing hurries.

6. Examine "F" screens of my faction and all infiltratd factions to determine metagame decisions for future.

7. Contact any factions nescessary.

To be honest, I don't do all of these if I'm in a hurry. But on a complicated turn, I might doublecheck some twice. Interestingly, I don't design new units when I get the new tech, but when I want a unit I will check out the best design possible then, and make it if nescessary. I prolly should do it when i get the techs, cause sometimes I forget to build a better design for a few turns. (ie deep radar on air, or trance on scouts).

[Garth Vader]

I turn auto design off but choose the autoprune option.

I only design units when I want to build something that I don't have a degign for. Or if I want to build a unit, and I have researched better tech since the last build of that type.

[Skanderbeg]

I normally work with a restricted number of unit designs, updated when I got no tech.
A thing I think is useful to give some unit's special names. I do this since in the first games I made mistakes of the use of the similary looking penetrators and interceptors.

1. defense garrison
1-best-1
special abilites changing during the game
trance
trance + AAA
AAA + dissociative wave

2. attack rover
best weapon no armour
special ability nerve gas if I have aliens in the game

3. infantry
best armour best weapon
special ability nerve gas if I have aliens in the game
marines special ability when avaliable (or AAA, depends on the game)

4. "Slayer"-Rover
best armour best weapon
special ablity nerve gas if I have aliens in the game
second special ablity AAA or diss. wave

5. don't forget it: the good ol' Scout patrol
1-1-1 trance. It's cheapness is it's power.

6. probe team

7. probe skimship (very essential)

8. conventional missile

9. planet buster

10. transport ship with best armour

11. "Shark" warship
best weapon, best armour
special ability empath, later marine detachmend
second spec. ability AAA

12. crawler

13. heavy speeder crawler
3res-trance-rover-crawler, the rolling savings bank for rushing secret projects

14. trawler

15. "Painkiller" penetrator
best weapon no armour
special abilities X gas or soporific gas

16. "Terminator" interceptor
best weapon no armour

17. defense rover
laser weapon, best armour
special abilities:
empath in the early game
AAA + drop pods in the later game

18. Chopper
best weapon no armour
special ability nerve and/or soporific gas

19. SAM-Chopper
best weapon no armour
special ability soporific gas

20. former

21. seaformer

22. colony pod

23. sea colony pod

That is all that I would need in a normal game. Under normal circumstances, I rarely build artillery. Of course, when i got the tech, I build cruisers instead of skimships and hovertanks instead of rovers.
But, depending on the strategic situation of the game, I sometimes build some more "esoteric" units:

Psi-Defender-Rover
2-3res-2-trance+empath
as a defender for bases with ecodamage

SAM-Rover
best weapon no armour, special ability SAM
for bases in range of enemy airforce

colony pod needlejet
very expensive, but sometimes very useful to claim territorry of strategic worth

"Alien Surprise"
best weapon no armour rover
special abilities marine + nerve gas
two of them on a transport ship can kill a complete alien pop-8 base in one turn.

And there are the funny thingies I like to build in the latest phase of the game. I confess they have no real use, because if you be able to build them, you are only a few turns away from ascendent to transcendece, but they are real fun:

"Marr's nightmare"
disruptor nervegas gravship
30-8res-nerve + soporific gas
the thing I would like to dream of when Marr shows up with his battle ogre in 2108!

"Flying Fortress"
disruptor weapon psi armour gravship
special abilities soporific gas and diss. wave
this thing is simply invincible


2-3r-s

[Gregurabi]

The unit that I use often, which I didn't see on the list, is the drop marine: 6~^-3-1*2 or better. (You generally don't need best weapon or best armor, though it can come in handy when your enemies start to get some tech, if they live that long.)

Enemy sea base next to your shore? Empty it with your air force, drop the drop marine onto the shore next to the base and walk in. Enemy base on land? Empty it, then drop in like any normal paratrooper (or drop outside the base's radius, if it's got an Aerospace Complex, then walk in on a road). Enemy sea base in the middle of the ocean? Put the drop marine on a transport and use him like a normal marine.

I also like to use AAA drop infantry (no weapon or small weapon, best armor, AAA and drop pods) for taking and holding enemy cities while they still have an active air force. This is especially good if I have the Cloudbase Academy (the captured enemy base will automatically have an Aerospace Complex effect).

[grimreap]

Another really handy unit design is the gravship former.

[cbn]

Great list Skanderbeg !!

It looks a lot like what I use and I likewise rename certain units (for fun and clarity). It seems that the only units I use a fair bit that you didn't mention (IIRC) are the armoured probe team, armoured trawlers and armoured formers/seaformers.

Since I usually have a pretty good handle on where the AI factions' militaries are, I often like to use 3-res trance formers, crawlers and probe teams on the frontiers to minimize the damage done by native life. Losing formers or productive crawlers really bites so one or more units in the immediate area is armoured and a crash upgrade if needed always seems well worth the cash.

I have also used this as a method (more rarely) to slow down or stop an invasion. It was great when a 3 res former beat 2 laser rovers and completed a mine while it was doing it. Then an armoured crawler can hold that spot, productively, the same as any military unit and without support issues.

More generally, I turn off autoprune and autodesign. Its much easier IMO to simply design what you want. The darn autoprune would keep taking away the 1-1-1 scout and I love building those. The autodesign seems to think that 3 armour (plasma??) is an upgrade from 3 res and never seems to autodesign the special abilities I want.

The craziness of the autodesign is highlighted by the fact that neither probe skimships nor seagoing crawlers are ever designed. Does the AI factions build these??-- I've never seen them.

[Misotu]

cbn: I have seen the AI build skimship probes once. It was in a scenario game, designed to be really tough, (and one of these days I'll finish designing it, LOL). Sven built *fleets* of them, and sent them in teams against my bases. Very effective. And the only time I've seen the AI do this.

I've never seen the AI build sea crawlers, but then very few of the AI factions seem to use crawlers at all, with the exception of Yang who uses them regularly in my experience.

[Skanderbeg]

Gregurabi: The drop marine is a great idea!
Ever when I tried to drop in a sea base, I always got a message that it was not possible to drop in seabases.
But I haver never thought of trying a drop marine. Thanks for that great tip!

grimreap: I agree that gravship formers a great thing, but they come to late in the game to be very useful.
The time I was able to build them, I normally have so much "normal" formers which can do the job that I don't need gravship formers.

Misotu: I also have seen the AI using a skimship probe one time, and it has also been sven! The reason is simple: Svens ship have marine detachment and can enter other ships. And Sven has entered one of my probe skimship and got it in his design workshop in this way.
I think the same thing has happend to You.

[Qilue]

In addition to some of what Misotu mentioned, in early game I usually check each base's workers and rearrange to get the best industry output, every turn, all 40+ bases. At least until I get hybrid forest running at which point it doesn't matter where the workers are.

My unit designs are mostly like everyone else's with some notable exceptions.

Drop colony pod
Rover colony
Drop pods (space elevator recomended)

This one gets very limited use since it's late game and I don't start new bases then.

Drop probe team
Normal probe team
Drop pods
Anti-grav struts

With elite morale, these have a move of 4.

Super Quantum former
Hover tank, former-5-3
Super former
Clean (or drop pods to follow the colony pod to new base site)

These are for mass fungus planting in late game.

The following are what I use for terrorist activities since they can be used on both hostile and friendly factions without diplomatic penality.

Suicide Bomber
Hover tank, 24-4-3*4
Drop pods (Space elevator recomended)
Cloaked

Drop into middle of offending units and self distruct. Just like a conventional missle only with a 9 square area of effect. Will not affect units in a base.

Torpedo
Cruiser, 24-6-6*4
Deep radar
Clean (recomended although expensive)

Used like Suicide bomber only at sea. Psi gates recomended. Build at two or three bases and gate to where ever needed. Remember those 30+ stacks of locusts that have to be killed one at a time? This bad boy takes out all of them along with any of their friends.

Sealurks.
AI built a sea base on top of your coast base? Build 6 of these, surround the offending base and release all of them into the wild. AI -1 base.

Grav Former
Gravship former with psi armour.
Super former
Clean

Terraform (or terrorform) all the AI's base squares into fungus. In fact, if you have max tech, the Xenoempathy Dome and the Manifold Harmonics, plant fungus EVERYWHERE.

Edit-
There's a bug/feature where you can take eco-damage to any level and not have to worry about worm-rape.

In the diagram below, worm stacks that appear because of eco-damage will usually appear in the X's if the O's are fungus.

O=base squares

XXXXXXX
XXOOOXX
XOOOOOX
XOOOOOX
XOOOOOX
XXOOOXX
XXXXXXX

If your running a fungus economy, also plant fungus where I have placed X's. Because there's nowhere for 'new' fungus to appear, hence no worm rape.

[This message has been edited by Mouse (edited January 08, 2001).]

[Blake]

I'm going to have to try exploding units, btw what determines the explosive power of the unit?

A possible strategy I've found to control worm rape in the mid game is to leave one square of fungus near your base, new fungus always grows next to an existing piece of fungus if possible, so leave/plant a single square of fungus just outside your base radius, leave a couple of formers where the new fungus will grow (this can be found by trial and error), fungus grows under formers, worms don't appear because of formers, clean up fungus (move formers and kill Fungal Tower if nessecary, then move back and clean fungus). Repeat

Ofcourse this only works if you have VERY few VERY high polluting bases, for example OCC's, but in the case of a OCC it is often better to "harvest" the worms for cash.