What torques me off is ...

[lbores]

... this inefficiency thing! In CivII it was corruption and waste which you could get rid of by changing to Communism (what a laugh that is) or Democracy (almost as funny).

I'm a newbie in SMAC and always play University. Can anyone offer advice on Social adjustments for Univ (other than shifting headquarters) they've found useful in early, mid and late game? Is there anything the equivalent of Communism (probably Police State)?

I'm used to CivII and building large numbers of bases but this inefficiency thing ...

[Blake]

For Univ in early game Planned is great, if your playing on a difficulty level easier than Transcend then switch to Free Market as soon as you get the tech, otherwise build rec commons in most of your bases before switching to FM.

Once you want an airforce switch to Green, the boost in effic also helps the economy, so your research and economy shouldn't suffer much from the switch, you can also then crank up labs% a lot higher.

As Univ you can't run Fundy anyway, so that's not an option. Police state tends to really cripple the economy, which is bad for Zak so under normal circumstances avoid that too. Switch to Demo once you have finished founding the majority of your new bases.

Once you get IndAuto switch to Wealth, altough change to knowledge as soon as you get the option (usually wealth comes first).

Communism? Sure, that's what everyones favourite chairman uses. The Hive is immune to negative effic, so he still has 0 effic when running both Police State and Planned, this is the nearest thing to communism IMO. A normal faction which runs Planned Police state can't make much income at all, except by using the HQ base and specialists .

[uptons]

On the subject of inefficient and generally troubleome bases...

As Santiago, I, in the late-game, equipped with 20 elite Shard units (rovers, infantry and 2 tanks), and a power-high navy which transported them, made a big invasion move against the Caretakers (on the Isle of Deianira) and managed to capture the whole island, giving me extra 10 bases. Then I moved on to the Usurpers (on Mt.Planet, halted to the west by Lal) and eventually conquered them as well adding 15 new bases to my already large number of 40 (I had developed the entire Garland Crater continent with my bases).
Because I had the Cloning Vats up and running, I now had an enormous Drone problem on my hands, as my poor industry (and the general poorness of the bases themselves + the lack of the HGP) prevented them from building the garrison units necessary to control the populace. Every turn I was bombarded with Drone Riots screens until I made it stop popping up and quit giving a damn what was happening in them.
Also, because I hadn't made Efficiency-positive SE choices, those troublemakers hardly contributed anything to my treasury or labs.
Most of the occupied bases were stuck making the same garrison unit I ordered them to build when they were first captured, so I was shocked that when I was going to upgrade the "few" 3-Res garrisons I thought I had left, I was prompted to pay 1300 energy.

But hey, to help you solve your efficiency problems:

Make the efficiency-boosting SE choices. Build Children's Creches (They count as a SE +1 Efficiency bonus in their respective bases). Try not to sprawl (as in don't build sea bases around the world if you want them to be productive). Build the Network Backbone (in the base that built the Merchant Exchange, Supercollider and Theory o'Everything, most preferably) and go Cybernetic at no downside (except lack of benefits, esp. if you're already Green).

[Sikander]

I have a very effective play style with the University, whereby I suffer almost not at all from inefficiency. There are several game factors which are effected by your efficiency rating:

1) Loss of energy (like Civ corruption)

2) Drones which spring up after you build more bases than your efficiency rating and the planet size like.

3) The ability to vary the % of your energy that you put into labs and econ. (ie the ability to run 100% labs without losing energy)

I simply build lots of crawlers and replace my workers with them. I terraform so as to maximize the output of a square towards on type of production (ie minerals or Food), which maximizes the efficiency of crawlers who can only harvest one type. My terraforming scheme goes like this:

If a square is within a base radius and can be boreholed, I borehole it and use a worker to harvest the 6 mins and 6 energy.

If a square is rocky, I put a road and mine on it, and then a crawler to harvest the 4 mins.

All other (non-special) squares get farms and condensor, and then a crawler to harvest the 4 food. When soil enrichment becomes available I do that as well, and the same crawler will now harvest 6 food.

This leaves me with a bunch of specialists eventually in every base. Specialists are great for several reasons.

1) They cannot become drones

2) They produce the same commodities as energy (Psych, Labs and Econ) but they do not suffer from inefficiency like energy production does.

3) You can change them around to suit your immediate needs, from Librarians to Doctors to Econ guys (I forget the name), which allows you to customize your production even though you have a sub-paradigm efficiency rating.

4) The types of specialists advance as your tech increases, and become very productive be mid to late game. (Engineers, Thinkers, Transcendi)

Thus, a Specialist approach can circumvent all of the negative effects due to efficiency (or rather the lack thereof). Bases no longer suffer from drones, as there are very few workers to become unhappy. Bases no longer suffer from energy loss, as you are not producing much energy, but rather directly producing Psych, Labs and Econ. And finally, you can tinker with your specialists to get the right balance between Psych, Labs and Econ without losing anything due to running a sub-paradigm economy.

[Skanderbeg]

It helps to launch some satellites.
No problems with food if You have to turn workers to doctors.
And with enough orbital energy transmitters even the worst bases at the ass of the world would bring You some bucks.

"Steelborn, Starborn"