posted 04-25-99 12:50 PM ET            

The tool bar does not always show up like it's suppose to.

Trying to remove a special resource is a real pain in the arse. ctrl-right click only scrolls the other way through the resources, and None is not in the roster.

WTF am I doing wrong??? I made a great map, and it seems all the time spent on it was wasted!

posted 04-25-99 11:00 PM ET            

You need to deactivate the "Editor Only" mode to get the units to move - you can do this with CTRL-SHIFT-F10, or go to Menu -> Edit Map -> Toggle Editor Only Mode.

Actually, I think this is kinda kewl... in the CIV2 scenario editor, it was a pain getting the settlers to *stop* building cities etc. before you were ready for them! At least the SMAC editor lets you stop any unit from doing anything while the Editor Only Mode is active.

Getting rid of Special Resources: when you've got SR's selected as the active item to paint, CTRL+Leftclick will paint them and cycle through them, and CTRL+Rightclick will remove them.

But I agree, it's not very easy to use - far too easy to accidentally bung down great big landmasses, which are then a pain to erase, etc etc. 6/10, could do better!!

Hope this helps.

posted 04-26-99 01:25 AM ET            

If you have civ2, I have a scenario you may enjoy. it is a head to head with the AI, 2 player. and the barbarians have ...... you'll see (if you want it)

posted 04-26-99 10:49 AM ET         

What's probably causing the confusion is that the editor isn't independent of the game, its really a mode of playing the game. If you're building a map, turn on the 'map editor only' mode. In many respects its a lot like the one in Civ2 in fact. Once you've got a map built then use the editor to place colony pods and other units for each faction. If you want a faction to start with a base already built then you'll need to turn the game on after selecting that faction for human play. You build the base, then you can edit it to increase the population, give it facilities, etc. Do that for each faction in turn. Set the starting year to what you want, diplomatic conditions, energy reserves, technologies, etc, etc.

posted 04-27-99 03:56 AM ET            

Another thing! when editing the technology, why was the alpha/numeric not included?, example e1, c3, ect... it is in alphabetical order at least, but I would be more user friendy to show which level of tech each one is (this would be an easy thing to fix, perhaps in v4.0).

also, say I want 2 factions having each other's comm freq, but their starting points are not next to each other. Is there an easy way to do this? the only way i have found so far, is to create a unit for the faction B, and put it next to faction A base. I have been running into some problems with this, and can find a work-around eventually, but I was wondering if there was an easier way? (btw, I have not explored the edit diplomacy yet, i just realized that it is prob in there, if not, I'll be yelling some more)

posted 04-27-99 05:40 AM ET            

For the frequency thing: Go in the scenario menu, diplomacy option. Select the faction you want to work with, it will pop a window where you can select the "target" faction, and edit the diplomacy parameters. It's a bunch of toggle, such as Commlink, Vendetta, Pact, Will betray (yes, it's in there), Atrocities, and so forth.

posted 04-27-99 05:44 AM ET            

I once played an excellent Lord of the Rings scenario I downloaded from somewhere. It had special units such as Gandalf, the Nazgul, the Balrog, the Ring, the Giant Eagles... Very cool indeed.

I think I still have it on a floppy at home. But I'd be interested in yours (if I can actually run anything else than SMAC on that P100 of mine , the mouse just seems to drift to the SMAC icon whenever I sit at my desk). Is it 2Mb zipped ? Argh...

cous, "Chess" could be interesting as well.

posted 04-27-99 05:33 PM ET            

The scenario you're referring to is (I'm pretty sure) called Lordofri.scn and was written by Harlan Thompson - I d/loaded it myself from the Apolyton site and thought it was totally amazing in terms of the way it sticks so faithfully to the original story. I thought the way he'd created Frodo as a carrier unit and the Ring as a missile (so that both units must end their turn in the same square) was just such a great brainwave.

However, Harlan's scenario, though technically brilliant, wasn't quite what I wanted, because it was an "already set up", jump-straight-in-there, no-need-to-build-anything kind of affair. The one I created starts from scratch, because I've always been a builder and don't like "immediate battle" scenarios where you don't really need to build anything except more units. Another thing I wasn't too keen on was the rigid victory conditions in Harlan's scenario, although I fully understand that he set it that way in order to stay 100% faithful to the book.

The scenario I made (and yes, it's actually OVER 2Mb zipped, thanks to the customised graphics and sounds... even reducing the WAVs to the lowest quality!) is a very long affair... you start with two cities and that's your lot, on an enormous map. For the life of me, I could never win on Deity level with it, even though I had the advantage of knowing where everyone else was!!

I'll dig it out and send it on, when I get a moment - if nothing else, I'd value your opinion on it, seeing as it still hasn't made it to the Apolyton downloads section!

posted 04-27-99 06:04 PM ET            

Have you found a way to clear out resource squares that are placed randomly on the initial map?

When I Ctrl-Rt-Click on them nothing happens. I can CRC on resources that I place down, but not on the ones initially placed by the SE. Only thing I have found that works is to toggle off the random resources and "beacons" (pods, I guess). But then it is a pain to go back and put resources and pods back in at random places.

Along these lines, I find myself wishing that there was a way to set how many resources (and what kind) and how many pods will be placed, when you select randomize from the menu.

And I _REALLY_ wish you could turn off resources that are auto-placed. You can do it with pods, but not with resources??

posted 04-28-99 09:20 AM ET            

Well, I wanted some resources to be visible after raising the land, so I select the Pod tool (bottom left in the palette - looks like an UFO) from the menu, right-click on the map thinking it would remove the pod but leave the minerals below, but WOHOOOO, the whole stuff was gone. I was left with an arid/rolling tile...