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Author Topic:   Blasted !@#%^! Random Events!!

Urban Ranger posted 05-02-99 01:26 AM ET
What's the deal with these bad random events? Do we know if they happen to the computer players? Maybe they do, but as far as I can tell, **** happens only to me.
In the game I am playing, this "crop failure" BS is happening third time in a row to one of my bases.
"Industrial bust" I can live with. All it means is production will be slower. However, this "crop failure" kills people and most of the time there is nothing a person can do. Farms, etc, don't help, since the population keeps expanding to take up all the food. So unless one's lucky, one WILL lose population.
I found it really unreasonable that, in the 23rd century, there's no technological advance that can forestall a famine.
Since these kind of events are supposed determined 10 turns in advance, if you don't want people dying you need to back up 10 turns (probably more). This is really ridiculous.
I wonder whose brilliant idea it was. "Yeah, we'll sack them with disaters that they can do nothing about. That will show them who's the boss. WAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"
No, turning off the events doesn't help. It is the underlying idea, that people in the far future are incapable of building a simple GRANARY that really pisses me off.
It is de-install time.
R A Spottiswood posted 05-03-99 01:34 AM ET
First of all, if you hate random events so much, you should turn them off while deciding the starting rules. Second, you can send food to the starving city with supply convoys. Last, yes, the computer players get random events -- I have seen them happen due to my infiltrators.
If you think that random event is bad, there are some that are way worse. I have read one report of an asteroid annihilating a major base, maybe more than one. Also, there is volcano that usually points up at some point in the game. That could very easily take out a base or two -- in fact in one of my games it almost did.
RAS
Fusker posted 05-03-99 01:31 PM ET
I agree, if you can't handle the game, remove it from your hardrive at once
Urban Ranger posted 05-05-99 02:21 AM ET
My point is this: if you can drill a hole to the mantle, you can damn well fix a crop failure.
As for conveys, yes, they work, providing:
1. You have some spare ones lying around (or can build some fast enough).
2. You have enough spare food.
3. You can get the spare food with the spare conveys to the afflicted base fast enough.
Lloyd posted 05-05-99 04:20 AM ET
It just says "crop failure", UR--it doesn't specify blight or drought or transdimensional invaders or whatever. If the designers want your crops to fail for a decade or so--say, in another star system 200+ years from now--I'll cut them a little slack and assume a flavor justification for it. But if you think bulging forehead veins are fun and can't live without them, that's your prerogative. SMAC stays on my hard drive.
Lloyd George
Urban Ranger posted 05-05-99 12:11 PM ET
As far as I can tell, the message DOES say "climate variance."
Having a random event in the far future that can affect you for ten years, when it can be averted with today's technology, just seems like a heavyhanded deus ex machina to me.
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Author	Topic: Blasted !@#%^! Random Events!!
Urban Ranger	posted 05-02-99 01:26 AM ET What's the deal with these bad random events? Do we know if they happen to the computer players? Maybe they do, but as far as I can tell, **** happens only to me. In the game I am playing, this "crop failure" BS is happening third time in a row to one of my bases. "Industrial bust" I can live with. All it means is production will be slower. However, this "crop failure" kills people and most of the time there is nothing a person can do. Farms, etc, don't help, since the population keeps expanding to take up all the food. So unless one's lucky, one WILL lose population. I found it really unreasonable that, in the 23rd century, there's no technological advance that can forestall a famine. Since these kind of events are supposed determined 10 turns in advance, if you don't want people dying you need to back up 10 turns (probably more). This is really ridiculous. I wonder whose brilliant idea it was. "Yeah, we'll sack them with disaters that they can do nothing about. That will show them who's the boss. WAHAHAHAHAHA!!!" No, turning off the events doesn't help. It is the underlying idea, that people in the far future are incapable of building a simple GRANARY that really pisses me off. It is de-install time.
R A Spottiswood	posted 05-03-99 01:34 AM ET First of all, if you hate random events so much, you should turn them off while deciding the starting rules. Second, you can send food to the starving city with supply convoys. Last, yes, the computer players get random events -- I have seen them happen due to my infiltrators. If you think that random event is bad, there are some that are way worse. I have read one report of an asteroid annihilating a major base, maybe more than one. Also, there is volcano that usually points up at some point in the game. That could very easily take out a base or two -- in fact in one of my games it almost did. RAS
Fusker	posted 05-03-99 01:31 PM ET I agree, if you can't handle the game, remove it from your hardrive at once
Urban Ranger	posted 05-05-99 02:21 AM ET My point is this: if you can drill a hole to the mantle, you can damn well fix a crop failure. As for conveys, yes, they work, providing: 1. You have some spare ones lying around (or can build some fast enough). 2. You have enough spare food. 3. You can get the spare food with the spare conveys to the afflicted base fast enough.
Lloyd	posted 05-05-99 04:20 AM ET It just says "crop failure", UR--it doesn't specify blight or drought or transdimensional invaders or whatever. If the designers want your crops to fail for a decade or so--say, in another star system 200+ years from now--I'll cut them a little slack and assume a flavor justification for it. But if you think bulging forehead veins are fun and can't live without them, that's your prerogative. SMAC stays on my hard drive. Lloyd George
Urban Ranger	posted 05-05-99 12:11 PM ET As far as I can tell, the message DOES say "climate variance." Having a random event in the far future that can affect you for ten years, when it can be averted with today's technology, just seems like a heavyhanded deus ex machina to me.