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Author Topic:   Is it possible?

pcgamez posted 05-08-99 11:01 AM ET
I have 22 immensly powerfull units. THey have the highest tech weapon and armor, along with being AAA and Clean Reactor. The problem is that they are infantry units. I want to upgrade them to the hovertank design. Is it possible to do this?
Magic posted 05-08-99 11:11 AM ET
Sorry, you can't upgrade the chassis of an unit.
An infantry will be an infantry forever.
pcgamez posted 05-08-99 12:15 PM ET
crap, that sucks...
Nell_Smith posted 05-08-99 08:59 PM ET
It makes sense, though, if you think about it... in real life, you couldn't turn a human being (i.e. an infantry unit) into a hovertank, although you could upgrade his abilities by giving him better weapons and armour. And in terms of game balance, being able to turn your units into completely different types of units would make for chaos, and would also negate a lot of the "strategic planning" that you need to use in order to make sure you have a fully balanced army, containing units that can cope with all eventualities. Otherwise, where would it stop? You decide you want to bomb a remote continent instead of overrunning a nearby one, so you upgrade all your rovers into PBs? Doesn't seem very realistic, and would be very unbalancing. It could be argued that, in real life, you could dismantle those same rovers and use their materials to build new PBs, but that can of course be done in SMAC anyway by simply disbanding units in bases that are producing something else. The fact that you lose some of the original minerals is, to my mind, a realistic interpretation of what happens when you recycle something into something else... bits of the original thing are always lost along the way.
Just my usual waffley two cents' worth!
Nell
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Author	Topic: Is it possible?
pcgamez	posted 05-08-99 11:01 AM ET I have 22 immensly powerfull units. THey have the highest tech weapon and armor, along with being AAA and Clean Reactor. The problem is that they are infantry units. I want to upgrade them to the hovertank design. Is it possible to do this?
Magic	posted 05-08-99 11:11 AM ET Sorry, you can't upgrade the chassis of an unit. An infantry will be an infantry forever.
pcgamez	posted 05-08-99 12:15 PM ET crap, that sucks...
Nell_Smith	posted 05-08-99 08:59 PM ET It makes sense, though, if you think about it... in real life, you couldn't turn a human being (i.e. an infantry unit) into a hovertank, although you could upgrade his abilities by giving him better weapons and armour. And in terms of game balance, being able to turn your units into completely different types of units would make for chaos, and would also negate a lot of the "strategic planning" that you need to use in order to make sure you have a fully balanced army, containing units that can cope with all eventualities. Otherwise, where would it stop? You decide you want to bomb a remote continent instead of overrunning a nearby one, so you upgrade all your rovers into PBs? Doesn't seem very realistic, and would be very unbalancing. It could be argued that, in real life, you could dismantle those same rovers and use their materials to build new PBs, but that can of course be done in SMAC anyway by simply disbanding units in bases that are producing something else. The fact that you lose some of the original minerals is, to my mind, a realistic interpretation of what happens when you recycle something into something else... bits of the original thing are always lost along the way. Just my usual waffley two cents' worth! Nell