Patch 4.0 Q&A. Let's make this thread useful

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Author Topic:   Patch 4.0 Q&A. Let's make this thread useful

The Doc posted 07-09-99 08:49 PM ET
Hello. I am attempting to start this thread where people can ask useful questions about Patch 4.0 and where those that know can answer them. Your input would be greatly appreciated. Let me start with just one question:
Q1) What changes have been made to the factions' pcx files and txt files such that they had to be included in the Patch 4.0 download? I myself couldn't find any difference and I'm wondering if it's ok to use my current files (which I've edited).

secret agent man posted 07-10-99 02:06 PM ET
What's up Doc?
as far as I can tell, they are the same. yeah, the file sizes are slightly different from the ones you had already, but I can't see that they've changed. anyways, the old ones work with patch4 so that should be enough.
does anyone know if patch4 fixed the memory leaking problems? I get to use Memturbo for about 2 more weeks and I don't want to pay $20 to have to buy it. Unless anyone's figured out another solution...
s.a.m.
Centaurion posted 07-10-99 07:12 PM ET
The question everybody want to ask:
Why is the game running so slow after installing patch 4.0?
licha posted 07-10-99 10:45 PM ET
I guess I'm one of the lucky few. I noticed a slow down at first (the first time I ran the patched game), but after that they all seemed pretty normal. Loading old saved games that were saved before the patch still take longer, but I'm not sure about newly saved games.
To S.A.M.: Does Memturbo really do anything? I actually have a problem that I don't know the cause for. Any time I've played AC for an extended period of time and then shutdown my computer, I get the blue screen of death. Wonder if Memturbo will help.
OldWarrior_42 posted 07-10-99 11:49 PM ET
My mem turbo evaluation just ran out. I tried uninstalling and looking for any hidden files but when I redownloaded it ,it still knew that the evaluation was up. I am guessing I am missing a hidden file somewhere or possibly its in a cookie. Anyway if I want to use it again I guess I will have to purchase it. But I dont want to until I am sure there is no other way.Licha...yea it really is an excellent utility.But I dont know if memory is the cause for your problem.
Zardoz posted 07-11-99 03:08 AM ET
The game seems to load more slowly than it did before the patch, but not as slowly as some other games I play, maybe an increase of 10 to 15 seconds and yes it is a slow old machine. Not an issue to me but it might be for the PBEM people out there. The game play about the same maybe a little better in the late stages. Some of the most annoying problems have been taken care of, but I really need several more hours with the patch before I can be sure.
Jythexinvok posted 07-11-99 03:20 AM ET
As for the faction pcx files, did anyone else notice the new city icons on the right hand side of UofP's file? They dont' seem to have any equivelents in the other factions.
Also, I can spot differances in the city icons for several factions, esp the hive.
Mklangelo9 posted 07-11-99 08:40 AM ET
I hope this doesn't sound too easy but how do I install the files? I unzipped them into the SMAC dir but after that I can't find the .exe.
I unzipped them into an empty dir and find no readme file.
What gives?? thnx MK9 :-))
Chowlett posted 07-11-99 08:42 AM ET
Mklanglo:
Assuming you're using the English Version (like me) , the zip should be self-executing - double-click and it unzips into your smac dir. As far as I can tell, that's it. Correct, anyone?
LackOfKnack posted 07-11-99 09:02 AM ET
Jyth: the _only_ change I see in the univ file (I looked really closely and tabbed between the two) is the little faction color/text thing in the lower-lef thand corner. I didn't notice anything in the hive file either.
SMAC 4 runs faster for me, see the 'no critique?' thread.
Lack
Sinapus posted 07-11-99 10:51 AM ET
I *did* notice something other than the slowness of loading savegames.
When you load a custom faction made with ACEdit (using the pcx files it generates)and use the Spartan colors, for some reason the text and the background of the shield and the population indicators are all black. In other words, you can't see the population of a base and you can't see the status of the unit.
I've tried the same using PK and it works fine. I'm guessing the pcx files default to black text or something like that.
The Doc posted 07-11-99 05:47 PM ET
Sinapus:
Do you have that black text problem only when you use an edited faction (with Spartan colors), or does it appear with the Spartans as well? Also, what did you use to edit the pcx files? My personal faction (the Siths) are black but I haven't tried loading them yet (I'll be away from home for awhile)...
Sinapus posted 07-11-99 09:13 PM ET
Doc:
It was with the default .pcx files that come with ACEdit. I did start a game with the Spartans and the text showed up fine.
I might toy around and start some games with each faction to see if it shows up anywhere else.
I didn't edit the default files at all so I'm guessing the color palette is doing something, although I just looked at all three .pcx files and can't find anything that looks like it would be used for text. Maybe the Spartan settings select a different color for text but a custom faction uses black text as a default. Oh well.
Krushala posted 07-11-99 10:11 PM ET
Here's a question. I just finished my first game with 4.0. And my victory score sheet said 0 objectives achieved and I got like 1300 points instead of 2000 for transcendence. Could this be due to having cooperative victory set to off. I never use it so I turned it off. My score was much lower because of this. I didn't use a scenario I just did a custom random planet.
Krushala posted 07-11-99 11:41 PM ET
Maybe it always said 0 objectives achieved when you get a trancendence victory, I can't remember. I figured out why I only got 1300. Transcendence is 1600 not 2000 points like I thought. It took me 300 years to get it. But I'm still confused on cooperative victory. The manual isn't very helpful on explaining it. It says the points are split between allied factions, but it says you get points of 1/2 their population. This is my first game with it off. I thought it was 4.0 that caused me to get less points than I normally do. So do you get more points with cooperative victory on or with it off?
Goobmeister posted 07-12-99 09:16 AM ET
I have 4.0 on a NT box and a W95 box, the CD is safely tucked away. On the NT box I am still prompted about the CD, I click OK and everything goes on fine. On the 95 side I get no prompt. It just starts right up.
I have a 166 at home and there is always a short delay starting, whether this is more pronounce with 4.0 or not I cannot say for sure.
Goob
Aredhran posted 07-12-99 10:33 AM ET
OK, I know, my PC is an old piece of **** (my stars).
BUT.
Loading SMAC, and loading/saving a game takes about 3-4 times longer than with patch 3.
So it *is* MUCH slower. And the *game* itself is slower too...
Aredhran
HeatherWst posted 07-12-99 01:41 PM ET
I already got rid of patch 4.0 due to the utter slowness of starting the application and then loading saved game files. On my machine, loading the game in V3.0 took about 10 seconds and loading saved game files was pretty much instantaneous. With 4.0 it takes close to a MINUTE to just load the app then it takes like 15 seconds to load a saved game (in SP) and even longer in MP. That is completely unacceptable. When playing a multitude of PBEM games where you have to reload the app after every one, I just couldn't deal with it. The bug-fixes aren't worth it to me.
licha posted 07-13-99 10:49 PM ET
I'll tell you why I'll use 4.0 even if it is slower (although i'm not sure if that's the case on my machine). It's because the bug that bugged me the most was one of the ones that got fixed. That would be the Singularity Reactor bug, not giving 40 hit points. Sorry to the other people who posted bugs to the huge yin26 list and didn't get their bug fixed in this patch. But as for me, now I am happy.
HeatherWst posted 07-14-99 03:04 PM ET
The only bug that really bothered me that has apparently gotten fixed was the missile bug. I rarely play long enough to have singularity reactors become a big factor. I'm FAR too impatient to deal with the game when I get to the point that one turn takes me 30 minutes or more.
Giulio posted 07-16-99 05:36 AM ET
Here there are my question:
Is scheduled an italian version for the 4.0 patch ?
Bye
Giulio
Cobell Ta posted 07-16-99 10:51 AM ET
Hello all... first time poster long time lurker... just thought i'd throw in my two cents about the 4.0 patch... first off i have to agree that the longer load times is an annoyance, but i seriously do not see what the big deal about it is... for me the initial start up is a few seconds longer and loading a saved games the same... but seriously people... just how many times are you loading and starting SMAC? at most once right? ;P
in anycase, i would like to point out a few things i believe are positive things about the new patch... first off, the save time and exit times for the game (i believe) are substantially shorter (and read this as instantaneous... for me anyway and i'm running a p200 here)... also having experienced the infinite missile bug from 3.0 i have to say i truly enjoy not having santiago and yang bombarding all of my cities non stop... also i like to believe that the ai has been tweaked (especially in yang's case) i am in the middle of a game on my standard settings... huge map, abundant lifeforms, and average everything else... and have found yang to have a fairly aggressive water strategy... whereas before i never encountered a sea based war (a transport or a foil or cruiser every decade or so does not count) yang has been sending a almost non-stop stream of packed transports and foils at my bases... it is refreshingly new to me...
by the by, i feel the manifold nexus' +1 to planet to be more justifiable than any other bonus to SE, but i do feel it is a little unbalancing... since half of my Zhakarov's standing army consists of captured mind worms now... which altough nice... has never happened to me ever since i stopped playing deirde...
and thus ends my ramble...
Krushala posted 07-16-99 01:54 PM ET
I agree what's the big deal with load times. Maybe they put that in there to discourage cheating. So people don't save and reload for pods.
OhWell posted 07-16-99 03:16 PM ET
I have only played the older SMAC versions on maps of Planet. When I installed the 4.0 patch I wanted to try out that new landmark thing, but the old Planet maps didn�t get updated to have it. So I made started some random map games. Anyway, there seem to be a lot of stalactites and stalagmites on the random maps. In one game I started on a stalactite and the Believers crawled the wall from another stalactite and attacked some of my cities somewhat unexpectedly (that was interesting). Was the old versions that way (lots stalactites and stalagmites on random maps) or is this something new for the 4.0 patch? Patch 4 does seem to load way slow too.
Stalactite = Large land mass attached to the top border.
Stalagmite = Large land mass attached to the bottom border.
Crawl the Wall = Move units along the border to get to another attached land mass.
Krushala posted 07-16-99 03:33 PM ET
I like the definitions. The smac world is just one big cave. I've had this happen in 3.0 with random maps. But when you create your own you can opt to have polar caps off. But if you activate them you can't take them away.
The Doc posted 07-16-99 07:26 PM ET
I think more troublesome than the longer load and startup times is the longer graphics movement time. For example, if you start a new game and all those menu options appear on the right hand side, such as % ocean coverage, now much native life, etc., it seems like the computer is choking to get those buttons to show. Same with when the units are moving during the game, and when you have your design workshop out (the unit spins slower).
itdoesntfit posted 07-16-99 07:46 PM ET
I'm not sure what version question (v2.0, v3.0 etc.), but how on earth do you connect an e-mail game? I know how to do everything, until they say something about mailing it to the other player, do you just paste it there and mail it? Or something else?
Krushala posted 07-16-99 09:31 PM ET
what the hell are you talking about? Like anyone would want to play a game with you. I thought you weren't going to post for a couple of weeks. It's like it says, mail it to the other player. Package your computer in a box and mail it to the next player. When he's done he will mail the computer to the next player and so on.
OhWell posted 07-17-99 11:34 AM ET
Doc,
The only problem that I have had with the new patch is the load time. I built this computer several years ago. It has a Cyrix P150+ processor and 32 meg of ram. The older SMAC versions played OK on it though. I haven�t had any problems with buttons on the new version.
Krushala,
Thanks for the feedback. I had started several random map SMAC games on different sized maps and all had the stalactites and stalagmites. I had never seen this in Civ or Civ2 so I was kind of surprised.
The Doc posted 07-17-99 12:57 PM ET
Ok, I discovered one potential cause of slowdowns: custom faction files. I always used to use my own custom factions, saved under their own names. This seemed to slow the computer down for loading as well as starting the game.
What I did was get rid of one of the original factions, and saved my faction under the name of one of the originals. As long as the game sees the original 7 faction names and finds the appropriate files, it has no problems and skips unnecessary searches, so it seems.
Anyways, it is now only slightly slower than version 3.0.
The Doc posted 07-17-99 01:42 PM ET
Update on the Spartan colors and the blacked out boxes: Two things are required to keep a black color faction to display its city size box and unit shield icons to display properly. They are:
1) The Spartan name. Whatever custom faction you decide to make, save it as spartans.txt with the #SPARTANS within it, spartans.pcx, etc. The faction is still played as whatever you named it within the txt file, but the file itself has to be spartans.
2) The original Spartan position within the 7 faction list near the bottom of alpha.txt. I think it's the 5th position.
I also noticed that changing those faction/text color boxes in the lower left corner of the pcx files doesn't do anything, as far as I can tell. So I think the conclusion is that the game will automatically display black text labels in the game for any faction that does not fit BOTH of the above prerequisites (I've tested this by placing Spartans in the Univ slot in alpha.txt and making the name changes, and they came out with white shields and black text).
secret agent man posted 07-18-99 03:40 PM ET
Question: Has anyone noticed a CHANGE in the cost of a unit over the course of the game? This never happened before version 4.0, to the best of my knowledge. A unit that I designed at one point in the game had a cost of 160, and about 20 or so turns later, the same exact unit came down in price to 104. Same weapon, armor, reactor, and special abilities! And definitely not a change in Industry. Something is weird.
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Author	Topic: Patch 4.0 Q&A. Let's make this thread useful
The Doc	posted 07-09-99 08:49 PM ET Hello. I am attempting to start this thread where people can ask useful questions about Patch 4.0 and where those that know can answer them. Your input would be greatly appreciated. Let me start with just one question: Q1) What changes have been made to the factions' pcx files and txt files such that they had to be included in the Patch 4.0 download? I myself couldn't find any difference and I'm wondering if it's ok to use my current files (which I've edited).
secret agent man	posted 07-10-99 02:06 PM ET What's up Doc? as far as I can tell, they are the same. yeah, the file sizes are slightly different from the ones you had already, but I can't see that they've changed. anyways, the old ones work with patch4 so that should be enough. does anyone know if patch4 fixed the memory leaking problems? I get to use Memturbo for about 2 more weeks and I don't want to pay $20 to have to buy it. Unless anyone's figured out another solution... s.a.m.
Centaurion	posted 07-10-99 07:12 PM ET The question everybody want to ask: Why is the game running so slow after installing patch 4.0?
licha	posted 07-10-99 10:45 PM ET I guess I'm one of the lucky few. I noticed a slow down at first (the first time I ran the patched game), but after that they all seemed pretty normal. Loading old saved games that were saved before the patch still take longer, but I'm not sure about newly saved games. To S.A.M.: Does Memturbo really do anything? I actually have a problem that I don't know the cause for. Any time I've played AC for an extended period of time and then shutdown my computer, I get the blue screen of death. Wonder if Memturbo will help.
OldWarrior_42	posted 07-10-99 11:49 PM ET My mem turbo evaluation just ran out. I tried uninstalling and looking for any hidden files but when I redownloaded it ,it still knew that the evaluation was up. I am guessing I am missing a hidden file somewhere or possibly its in a cookie. Anyway if I want to use it again I guess I will have to purchase it. But I dont want to until I am sure there is no other way.Licha...yea it really is an excellent utility.But I dont know if memory is the cause for your problem.
Zardoz	posted 07-11-99 03:08 AM ET The game seems to load more slowly than it did before the patch, but not as slowly as some other games I play, maybe an increase of 10 to 15 seconds and yes it is a slow old machine. Not an issue to me but it might be for the PBEM people out there. The game play about the same maybe a little better in the late stages. Some of the most annoying problems have been taken care of, but I really need several more hours with the patch before I can be sure.
Jythexinvok	posted 07-11-99 03:20 AM ET As for the faction pcx files, did anyone else notice the new city icons on the right hand side of UofP's file? They dont' seem to have any equivelents in the other factions. Also, I can spot differances in the city icons for several factions, esp the hive.
Mklangelo9	posted 07-11-99 08:40 AM ET I hope this doesn't sound too easy but how do I install the files? I unzipped them into the SMAC dir but after that I can't find the .exe. I unzipped them into an empty dir and find no readme file. What gives?? thnx MK9 :-))
Chowlett	posted 07-11-99 08:42 AM ET Mklanglo: Assuming you're using the English Version (like me) , the zip should be self-executing - double-click and it unzips into your smac dir. As far as I can tell, that's it. Correct, anyone?
LackOfKnack	posted 07-11-99 09:02 AM ET Jyth: the _only_ change I see in the univ file (I looked really closely and tabbed between the two) is the little faction color/text thing in the lower-lef thand corner. I didn't notice anything in the hive file either. SMAC 4 runs faster for me, see the 'no critique?' thread. Lack
Sinapus	posted 07-11-99 10:51 AM ET I did notice something other than the slowness of loading savegames. When you load a custom faction made with ACEdit (using the pcx files it generates)and use the Spartan colors, for some reason the text and the background of the shield and the population indicators are all black. In other words, you can't see the population of a base and you can't see the status of the unit. I've tried the same using PK and it works fine. I'm guessing the pcx files default to black text or something like that.
The Doc	posted 07-11-99 05:47 PM ET Sinapus: Do you have that black text problem only when you use an edited faction (with Spartan colors), or does it appear with the Spartans as well? Also, what did you use to edit the pcx files? My personal faction (the Siths) are black but I haven't tried loading them yet (I'll be away from home for awhile)...
Sinapus	posted 07-11-99 09:13 PM ET Doc: It was with the default .pcx files that come with ACEdit. I did start a game with the Spartans and the text showed up fine. I might toy around and start some games with each faction to see if it shows up anywhere else. I didn't edit the default files at all so I'm guessing the color palette is doing something, although I just looked at all three .pcx files and can't find anything that looks like it would be used for text. Maybe the Spartan settings select a different color for text but a custom faction uses black text as a default. Oh well.
Krushala	posted 07-11-99 10:11 PM ET Here's a question. I just finished my first game with 4.0. And my victory score sheet said 0 objectives achieved and I got like 1300 points instead of 2000 for transcendence. Could this be due to having cooperative victory set to off. I never use it so I turned it off. My score was much lower because of this. I didn't use a scenario I just did a custom random planet.
Krushala	posted 07-11-99 11:41 PM ET Maybe it always said 0 objectives achieved when you get a trancendence victory, I can't remember. I figured out why I only got 1300. Transcendence is 1600 not 2000 points like I thought. It took me 300 years to get it. But I'm still confused on cooperative victory. The manual isn't very helpful on explaining it. It says the points are split between allied factions, but it says you get points of 1/2 their population. This is my first game with it off. I thought it was 4.0 that caused me to get less points than I normally do. So do you get more points with cooperative victory on or with it off?
Goobmeister	posted 07-12-99 09:16 AM ET I have 4.0 on a NT box and a W95 box, the CD is safely tucked away. On the NT box I am still prompted about the CD, I click OK and everything goes on fine. On the 95 side I get no prompt. It just starts right up. I have a 166 at home and there is always a short delay starting, whether this is more pronounce with 4.0 or not I cannot say for sure. Goob
Aredhran	posted 07-12-99 10:33 AM ET OK, I know, my PC is an old piece of **** (my stars). BUT. Loading SMAC, and loading/saving a game takes about 3-4 times longer than with patch 3. So it is MUCH slower. And the game itself is slower too... Aredhran
HeatherWst	posted 07-12-99 01:41 PM ET I already got rid of patch 4.0 due to the utter slowness of starting the application and then loading saved game files. On my machine, loading the game in V3.0 took about 10 seconds and loading saved game files was pretty much instantaneous. With 4.0 it takes close to a MINUTE to just load the app then it takes like 15 seconds to load a saved game (in SP) and even longer in MP. That is completely unacceptable. When playing a multitude of PBEM games where you have to reload the app after every one, I just couldn't deal with it. The bug-fixes aren't worth it to me.
licha	posted 07-13-99 10:49 PM ET I'll tell you why I'll use 4.0 even if it is slower (although i'm not sure if that's the case on my machine). It's because the bug that bugged me the most was one of the ones that got fixed. That would be the Singularity Reactor bug, not giving 40 hit points. Sorry to the other people who posted bugs to the huge yin26 list and didn't get their bug fixed in this patch. But as for me, now I am happy.
HeatherWst	posted 07-14-99 03:04 PM ET The only bug that really bothered me that has apparently gotten fixed was the missile bug. I rarely play long enough to have singularity reactors become a big factor. I'm FAR too impatient to deal with the game when I get to the point that one turn takes me 30 minutes or more.
Giulio	posted 07-16-99 05:36 AM ET Here there are my question: Is scheduled an italian version for the 4.0 patch ? Bye Giulio
Cobell Ta	posted 07-16-99 10:51 AM ET Hello all... first time poster long time lurker... just thought i'd throw in my two cents about the 4.0 patch... first off i have to agree that the longer load times is an annoyance, but i seriously do not see what the big deal about it is... for me the initial start up is a few seconds longer and loading a saved games the same... but seriously people... just how many times are you loading and starting SMAC? at most once right? ;P in anycase, i would like to point out a few things i believe are positive things about the new patch... first off, the save time and exit times for the game (i believe) are substantially shorter (and read this as instantaneous... for me anyway and i'm running a p200 here)... also having experienced the infinite missile bug from 3.0 i have to say i truly enjoy not having santiago and yang bombarding all of my cities non stop... also i like to believe that the ai has been tweaked (especially in yang's case) i am in the middle of a game on my standard settings... huge map, abundant lifeforms, and average everything else... and have found yang to have a fairly aggressive water strategy... whereas before i never encountered a sea based war (a transport or a foil or cruiser every decade or so does not count) yang has been sending a almost non-stop stream of packed transports and foils at my bases... it is refreshingly new to me... by the by, i feel the manifold nexus' +1 to planet to be more justifiable than any other bonus to SE, but i do feel it is a little unbalancing... since half of my Zhakarov's standing army consists of captured mind worms now... which altough nice... has never happened to me ever since i stopped playing deirde... and thus ends my ramble...
Krushala	posted 07-16-99 01:54 PM ET I agree what's the big deal with load times. Maybe they put that in there to discourage cheating. So people don't save and reload for pods.
OhWell	posted 07-16-99 03:16 PM ET I have only played the older SMAC versions on maps of Planet. When I installed the 4.0 patch I wanted to try out that new landmark thing, but the old Planet maps didn�t get updated to have it. So I made started some random map games. Anyway, there seem to be a lot of stalactites and stalagmites on the random maps. In one game I started on a stalactite and the Believers crawled the wall from another stalactite and attacked some of my cities somewhat unexpectedly (that was interesting). Was the old versions that way (lots stalactites and stalagmites on random maps) or is this something new for the 4.0 patch? Patch 4 does seem to load way slow too. Stalactite = Large land mass attached to the top border. Stalagmite = Large land mass attached to the bottom border. Crawl the Wall = Move units along the border to get to another attached land mass.
Krushala	posted 07-16-99 03:33 PM ET I like the definitions. The smac world is just one big cave. I've had this happen in 3.0 with random maps. But when you create your own you can opt to have polar caps off. But if you activate them you can't take them away.
The Doc	posted 07-16-99 07:26 PM ET I think more troublesome than the longer load and startup times is the longer graphics movement time. For example, if you start a new game and all those menu options appear on the right hand side, such as % ocean coverage, now much native life, etc., it seems like the computer is choking to get those buttons to show. Same with when the units are moving during the game, and when you have your design workshop out (the unit spins slower).
itdoesntfit	posted 07-16-99 07:46 PM ET I'm not sure what version question (v2.0, v3.0 etc.), but how on earth do you connect an e-mail game? I know how to do everything, until they say something about mailing it to the other player, do you just paste it there and mail it? Or something else?
Krushala	posted 07-16-99 09:31 PM ET what the hell are you talking about? Like anyone would want to play a game with you. I thought you weren't going to post for a couple of weeks. It's like it says, mail it to the other player. Package your computer in a box and mail it to the next player. When he's done he will mail the computer to the next player and so on.
OhWell	posted 07-17-99 11:34 AM ET Doc, The only problem that I have had with the new patch is the load time. I built this computer several years ago. It has a Cyrix P150+ processor and 32 meg of ram. The older SMAC versions played OK on it though. I haven�t had any problems with buttons on the new version. Krushala, Thanks for the feedback. I had started several random map SMAC games on different sized maps and all had the stalactites and stalagmites. I had never seen this in Civ or Civ2 so I was kind of surprised.
The Doc	posted 07-17-99 12:57 PM ET Ok, I discovered one potential cause of slowdowns: custom faction files. I always used to use my own custom factions, saved under their own names. This seemed to slow the computer down for loading as well as starting the game. What I did was get rid of one of the original factions, and saved my faction under the name of one of the originals. As long as the game sees the original 7 faction names and finds the appropriate files, it has no problems and skips unnecessary searches, so it seems. Anyways, it is now only slightly slower than version 3.0.
The Doc	posted 07-17-99 01:42 PM ET Update on the Spartan colors and the blacked out boxes: Two things are required to keep a black color faction to display its city size box and unit shield icons to display properly. They are: 1) The Spartan name. Whatever custom faction you decide to make, save it as spartans.txt with the #SPARTANS within it, spartans.pcx, etc. The faction is still played as whatever you named it within the txt file, but the file itself has to be spartans. 2) The original Spartan position within the 7 faction list near the bottom of alpha.txt. I think it's the 5th position. I also noticed that changing those faction/text color boxes in the lower left corner of the pcx files doesn't do anything, as far as I can tell. So I think the conclusion is that the game will automatically display black text labels in the game for any faction that does not fit BOTH of the above prerequisites (I've tested this by placing Spartans in the Univ slot in alpha.txt and making the name changes, and they came out with white shields and black text).
secret agent man	posted 07-18-99 03:40 PM ET Question: Has anyone noticed a CHANGE in the cost of a unit over the course of the game? This never happened before version 4.0, to the best of my knowledge. A unit that I designed at one point in the game had a cost of 160, and about 20 or so turns later, the same exact unit came down in price to 104. Same weapon, armor, reactor, and special abilities! And definitely not a change in Industry. Something is weird.