Rescue Fac Leaders, but where?

knowhow2 · May 2, 2001, 09:55

Okey this problem probably been up before but I just have to bring it up again. The faction Leaders Rescue doesn't always work when I play my SPs. I sent my probe to that Faction HQ and nothing.... no option for rescue, how come?

example:
I'm playing a game right now. About 80 turns into the game Santiago capture Deidre. Then about 20 turns later I sent my probe into her HQ. Nothing, no option for rescue faction leader. So I couldn't rescu Dee.

This problem happens to me a lot, I have in total tried the rescue 7 times, only twice had that worked. The other 5 times, the option didn't even come up.

Is this a bug?

ixnay · May 2, 2001, 18:40

KH2,

Do you have the patch for SMAX? You need it to enable several of the things listed in the demo, including rescuing faction leaders. Once you have the Alien crossfire v2.0, you should be able to.

knowhow2 · May 2, 2001, 18:58

Kyller,

I got that patch and all the other patches avaible.

Again, I CAN rescue faction leaders just not every time. Is this a bug or what? Anyone?

Blake · May 2, 2001, 21:27

just a possibility, is there enough room for the new faction to spawn? I *believe* that it only spawns new factions in un-claimed territory. On a smallish map all land could feasibly be claimed within 100 years. I don't have a problem rescuing leaders, but then again I also don't have a problem with ICS. Often I don't fill my continent so factions I rescue actually spawn on my continent.

Once I rescued two leaders in the same turn, they both spawned in the same patch of land (Usurpers ex territory, after mass gassing), only one got to build a base, the other couldn't without declaring vendetta on the first (I gifted captured bases instead).

knowhow2 · May 2, 2001, 22:39

Blake,

I'm playing on HUGE map of planet and i would say that there still would be room for new bases. So i don't think is that either.

,,,,
BTW, maybe i should mention that I don't have the best of computers.

Ned · May 2, 2001, 23:04

It really would be nice info to have on some screen somewhere that X faction has captured the leader of Y faction. I have reported here before what appeared to me to be a bug, but perhaps it was not. When I first get the list of other factions in the game and their relative strength, I sometimes notice that certain factions are not there. Since they are suppose to escape in pods and start elsewhere under certain conditions, I thought their lack of presence to be a bug. However, it could be because they were captured, but I never saw the message!

I have such a situation in my current game. Aki is not there. Why? I will probe the other HQ's to see what I can find out.

Ned

Ned · May 3, 2001, 00:19

KH2, I have never had the problem you just reported. However, I do have a beef. A lot of times messages such as X captured Y will appear as little messages on the screen just above the "control" box. These messages are then hiddened by a large black window that reports activity in your own faction. In order to actually read a message on the screen, I have to move this window. At times, I am not quick enough, and completely miss the message. This is critical since there is no was to scroll through the messages later at one's leisure.

This is, IMHO, a significant user interface flaw.

Ned

knowhow2 · May 3, 2001, 00:40

Ned,

does this problem occurs also when you're PG and/or have Empath Guild?

Sprayber · May 3, 2001, 01:44

quote:

Originally posted by knowhow2 on 05-02-2001 09:55 AM
Okey this problem probably been up before but I just have to bring it up again. The faction Leaders Rescue doesn't always work when I play my SPs. I sent my probe to that Faction HQ and nothing.... no option for rescue, how come?

example:
I'm playing a game right now. About 80 turns into the game Santiago capture Deidre. Then about 20 turns later I sent my probe into her HQ. Nothing, no option for rescue faction leader. So I couldn't rescu Dee.

This problem happens to me a lot, I have in total tried the rescue 7 times, only twice had that worked. The other 5 times, the option didn't even come up.

Is this a bug?

I have had the same problem from time to time. Have you made sure that the do or die option is on? I remember once I too was trying to rescue Dee from Santiago and come to find out Dee had actually restarted on the other side of the planet.

edit: Do you have to have infiltration to be able to rescue the captured leaders? I believe everytime I have done this, I was either the PG or had the EG.

And another question. Has anyone ever seen a situation where a human player had a leader stolen out from under them?
[This message has been edited by Sprayber (edited May 03, 2001).]

Sprayber · May 3, 2001, 01:48

quote:

Originally posted by Ned on 05-02-2001 12:19 PM
KH2, I have never had the problem you just reported. However, I do have a beef. A lot of times messages such as X captured Y will appear as little messages on the screen just above the "control" box. These messages are then hiddened by a large black window that reports activity in your own faction. In order to actually read a message on the screen, I have to move this window. At times, I am not quick enough, and completely miss the message. This is critical since there is no was to scroll through the messages later at one's leisure.

This is, IMHO, a significant user interface flaw.

Ned

I have the same problem.

It really is annoying to see a message flash and then something else gets in the way.

Helghallen · May 3, 2001, 07:16

On the subject of messages being missed. I always have a problem missing "golden age" announcements. I use the window in the middle of the screen that keeps track of how everyone is doing. If you right click on it, it should give you an option to view the messages or some such. I'm fairly certain the eradication message appears there.

Chris

knowhow2 · May 3, 2001, 09:33

quote:

Originally posted by Sprayber on 05-03-2001 01:44 AM
I have had the same problem from time to time. Have you made sure that the do or die option is on? I remember once I too was trying to rescue Dee from Santiago and come to find out Dee had actually restarted on the other side of the planet.

edit: Do you have to have infiltration to be able to rescue the captured leaders? I believe everytime I have done this, I was either the PG or had the EG.
[This message has been edited by Sprayber (edited May 03, 2001).]

Well I almost done with that game so I pretty sure Dee hasn't escape anywhere. Beside it was sort of kinda late into the game.

But you did raise an interesting question: Do you have to be either the PG or have the EG to rescue faction leaders? I thought you didn't need either just send your probe to that faction HQ.

I'm not sure I were PG at the time (i didn't have EG) so this could be it.

I have to say that this still confuse me and I really would like to sort this out.

DilithiumDad · May 3, 2001, 15:28

This feature has always worked for me and it's one of the coolest things they added to SMAX. In SMAC I as waging desperate wars to keep hapless Morgan from being eradicated, then as often as not the ungrateful wretch would cancel our pact. Now in SMAX I just calmly wait for Morgan or Dawn to get eradicated, then rescue them.

Earwicker · May 4, 2001, 13:04

quote:

Originally posted by Helghallen on 05-03-2001 07:16 AM
On the subject of messages being missed. I always have a problem missing "golden age" announcements. I use the window in the middle of the screen that keeps track of how everyone is doing. If you right click on it, it should give you an option to view the messages or some such. I'm fairly certain the eradication message appears there.

Chris

My beef on the "missable" messages has to do with other factions declaring vendetta on you (after signing an alliance with another). The tiny center message will come up but is very possible to overlook.

Ned · May 11, 2001, 20:16

Earwicker, I don't think there is anyway to view messages that appear in pale beige just above your main control console that concern other factions. Messages concerning one's own factions can indeed be reviewed later at one's leisure.

Knowing whether a faction leader was captured is critical. One can then lauch an expidition to rescue the leader far in advance of one's ability to conquer that faction.

Rescuing a capture faction leader can really enhance one's game in a variety of ways. But most of all, it builds commerce income.

Ned

Clear Skies · May 12, 2001, 07:07

This is probably completely unrelated, but...

I was playing a game on the HMOP and had conquered everyone except Dee (still proudly independent), Lal (my pet - 1 base left) and Zakharov (Vendetta). Lal had declared Vendetta on Zakharov because of our Pact. I wanted to keep Lal safe, so I tried to swap his last base for one of mine on the opposite side of Planet from Zakharov. Unfortunately, I selected the wrong option, and threatened Lal with a Pact cancellation if he didn't give me his last base!
He agreed, but I got no 'faction eradicated' message. In fact, when I looked on the commlink menu, Lal still existed! I could talk to him, give him techs, everything, but he hadn't a single base to his name!
Odd, eh?
(Eventually I gave him back his last base, and eliminated Zak from the picture.)
Another thing - how come, on the Economy readouts, some factions still have energy credits even though you've conquered them? Once I took Zak's last base and got about 15 credits from the capture, but when I looked on the Econ readouts he still had about 500 credits left! (And we had salvage the Unity core aaaages ago, so it can't've been that!)

Ned · May 13, 2001, 13:11

Fanatic, No bases? Every time that seems to have happened to me I find that the faction has founded a base I know nothing about and have to go hunting for it. Did you double-check the F4 screen to see that he had no bases?

BTW, When you free captured faction leaders, for a while they are there,but without bases. They have a pod instead. Perhaps this is what happened to LAL.

Ned

Clear Skies · May 14, 2001, 15:20

Lal wasn't freed, he never got conquered - oh yeah, except by me, but I didn't take all his bases - left him two.
I checked the F4 screen. No bases. I checked his military - all colony pods lost in action.
????