posted 05-05-99 09:40 AM ET        

The GUI seems designed for someone who plays with at most about 15-20 cities. Even the "report" pages seem designed to reveal as little information as possible per page.

I've had a brief attempt to get Governors to work by limiting their options to what I wanted them to build, but it seems they prefer to build nothing than to build colony pods or formers, making them pretty useless. It seems if there was a way to dictate what a explore / discover / build / conquer governor produces, I could allocate most of my cities to one of the 4 types and then still tightly control their production but about 100 times more easily.

It seems a shame that the game designers apparently didn't consider the possibility that anyone would play the game in the way most likely to acheive most success in the way the game itself defines success [ie an extreme 'builder' strategy to get a large alpha centauri score].

I haven't even found a way to see *how many* cities I have, easily, let alone program them in groups. it's almost as if the game designers wanted to punish anyone for building a large empire. Surely that's the appeal of the game for many?

This is all so counter to what you would expect-- I wonder if there is some explanation for it? It seems to demand an explanation.

posted 05-05-99 11:55 AM ET            

Having said that, I found the easiest way to manage large number of cities is turn OFF all the "stop" warning preferences (e.g. stop when facility built, stop when combat unit built, etc.), and at the beginning of each turn, go through the messages to check the bases that had something built that turn. That way you can go in and out of the base screen to see the surroundings and make decisions accordingly; while if you use the "stop" thing, once you close the base screen you'd be transferred to another base, leaving the previous base stock piling energy or producing duplicate units.

Also, make good use of the F4 screen. You can sort the list by mineral production, nutrient etc., which would come in handy when you, say, want to find a high production base for your new secrect project. You can see the population and how content they are, and predict drone riots.

I agree there are places for improvement, but as it stands now, the SMAC interface is not that bad. In my last game, I was on a 256x256 map, I had, I don't know, 80 to 90 bases. I was in the mid 2200's before I got bored and joined tfs99's excellent tournament.

The bigger problem I have is not with the GUI or the micromanagement; it's the combat strategy/tactics of AI. The AI components just don't put up a good fight. Once you have you bases built up and your central bases are churning out a clean needlejet every turn or two, the game just turns into boring repetitive routines. In my last game I blasted over 400 Yang's land units before I moved into his capital, while his not so small air force just sit on the ground waiting to be pounded.