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Author Topic:   Psi Gates

God of Lava Lamps posted 06-29-99 07:12 PM ET
Can someone tell me how to use Psi Gates? I've had them for a while now but i can't seem to figure out how to get them to work.
Krushala posted 06-29-99 07:16 PM ET
You have to build 2 psi gates. Once built you can transport 1 unit a turn through the gate. Just go to action menu and click use psi gate. It will list all other cities with psi gates. I usually only use them to transport alien artifacts from one continent to another. To link them with my universal translator. I'm too lazy to load them on a transport.
Krushala posted 06-29-99 07:18 PM ET
I should clarify. When you have a unit in a city with a psi gate. Go to the action menu and click on psi gate. You will need to have a receiving city with a psi gate. Click on a city from the list and you're there.
googlie posted 06-29-99 09:07 PM ET
If you're a CivIIer they work just like the airports
googlie
Zoetrope posted 06-30-99 04:13 AM ET
Krushala: _one_ unit per turn? That is utterly pathetic. Psi gates are discovered so late in the game that most other means of transport have greater throughput (for example, drop troops travel everywhere in one turn centuries earlier), and the game's over anyway by the time they're available, so they're militarily useless.
googlie: Yes, like Civ2's airports, which I heavily used because they were available early enough to be valuable for a long time.
However, one thing about airports in Civ2 is that a transfer could fail because of intervening enemy fighters. Presumably there's no way that SMAC factions can interfere with a Psi Gate transfer, is there?
Despite that advantage, there's no way I could find a use for Psi Gates, because by then I've terraformed all the continents together, have mag-rail between all my cities in the world ("instant" transfer for every unit), and if the game's not already concluded then the enemy faction(s) have at most a handful of sea bases that I have surrounded by gravships.
Perhaps we can edit Alpha.txt (or whatever) to make Psi Gates appear in mid-game?
But it would have to be a lower tech than drop pods. (Even in Civ2, airports appear before combined arms.)
Zoetrope posted 06-30-99 04:22 AM ET
Alternatively, to make Psi Gates useful in the late game, they should allow the transfer of an unlimited number of units from A to B.
After all, mag-rail already does that, albeit tediously. Oh the boredom of watching units crawl, one at a time, along the track!
It should be instant, Mr Brian Reynolds, instant! Where's the option to make rail and air travel instant? Any travel or battle that is completed inside one turn should be over in a flash! There's nothing interesting about watching units crawl like snails just because they're on the screen. Capiche?
So there's no issue of strategic balance wrt the number of units you can push through a pair of Psi Gates each turn, but since they appear so unjolly late, player sanity would be much improved if they had no (stupid, outdated) limit.
Rackam posted 06-30-99 05:19 AM ET
Psi Gates (a relation perhaps?) are IMHO the best transport system for SMAC. First, true each gate can only be use once per turn to send, but a gate can recieve an unlimited number of units even after (not before) it has been used to send a unit.
Example 1. Capture a base off another faction and build a psi gate in it, the from 10+ bases somewhere else, you can gate in 10+ units a turn each having full movement with no damage and no drop penality.
Example 2. Build a base on another continent and as it's first build order, rush a psi gate. Then you can gate in formers, pods, garrison units, etc which can be built with the much higher production of older bases.
Example 3. When playing podlotto on another continent and moving all the artifacts back to a base, using the gate with an artifact will show those bases with gates that haven't been linked, gate->link->tech advance in one turn.
googlie posted 06-30-99 02:18 PM ET
Rackam:
I'm impressed. (Not that I thought I knew everything there was to know about SMAC, but I was pretty sure.....)
I've always looked on psi gates as a waste of minerals. Now you've opened my eyes - and mind - to new uses.
Thanks
googlie
Putting a spin on it
Krushala posted 06-30-99 05:42 PM ET
Definately a good idea. You can only send 1 unit a turn but can receive and infinite number. Still a lot of minerals but having 10 bases with them all connected by mag tubes. 10 extra hovertanks would be nice. I'll have to look at a tech tree though. It seems I only get them a tech or two before orbital insertion. Yeah it delays me a turn but I still like orbital insertion. I suppose I wouldn't have to build very many drop units with psi gates though and save minerals there.
Lo_11 posted 07-01-99 11:30 PM ET
Psi Gates are an excellent means of moving units from a Sea Base(SB) to a Land Base(LB) that is served by a mag tube to the rest of your bases or from a SB/LB to a SB that is under attack. A SB without a Psi Gate is isolated, dependent on slow transports to send and/or receive the full benefits of a mag tube connected continent.
Lo
Hamburger Hacker posted 07-02-99 12:45 PM ET
Zoetrope,
Almost instant mag and air travel is possible. Select the "Do not center on units with orders" preference. The movement becomes almost instant as soon as the unit leaves the screen.
CrankyHotDog posted 09-06-99 04:47 PM ET
Psi gates are better than drop pods because when a unit makes a drop, it gets 20% damage. With Psi gates, there is no damage.
mcostant posted 09-07-99 06:28 AM ET
CrankyHotDog, you get 20% damage only when your unit makes a drop landing OUTSIDE your base (or pact brother's one).
If your unit lands INSIDE your base (as a Psi Gate transfer definitely do ) your unit are safe.
By the way, I think that "Psi Gates" come really too late, because (at thinker level, single player) I'm really so far in front of AI factions, that I really never bother with Psi Gates, Gravship and the like. If I'm playing as a builder (I mean, without a conquer rush) I stay with Drop Pod and Orbital Insertion, magtube between every base. BTW what a pity you can't build magtube to a sea base (only limit should be to keep the trail on square not deeper than - e.g. - 500 meters).
Zoetrope posted 09-07-99 08:55 PM ET
I missed Hamburger Hacker's reply. Yes, i have all the speedup options selected, including "don't centre". True, units travel quickly off-screen, but each unit takes a _long_ time to leave the screen. My question to BR is: why isn't there an option to make units travel quickly (or even disappear while in motion) when on-screen?
So i utterly hate those "caviar" graphics, for two reasons: (1) slow movement, and (2) because they prevent customisation by users. BR promised customisation, but he blew it there, meaning that SMAC has no mod-packs to compare with Civ2's.
mcostant: speaking of depth limitations on sea magtubes, shouldn't tubes and even roads be damaged or destroyed when the terrain is raised or lowered - especially by another faction?
mcostant posted 09-08-99 06:41 AM ET
Zoetrope - Sure, in real life you will end to destroy every improvement and during game you can often lose any special terrain if you change altitude of that square.
Because of game balancing... well, I'm not sure. For the builder, you can think that the long time and the amount of energy required to lower or raise terrain summarize also the partial remake of road et al.
For the attacker of another faction it will end with a really powerful "former attack strategy", where few formers protected only with a handful of defenders unit can destroy every empire as a really BIG earthquake (aehm, Planetquake in fact ).
OTOH, I haven't really explored on the field the use of formers as attacker unit, as some SMACers did, so may be I'm not a good judge on this matter.
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Author	Topic: Psi Gates
God of Lava Lamps	posted 06-29-99 07:12 PM ET Can someone tell me how to use Psi Gates? I've had them for a while now but i can't seem to figure out how to get them to work.
Krushala	posted 06-29-99 07:16 PM ET You have to build 2 psi gates. Once built you can transport 1 unit a turn through the gate. Just go to action menu and click use psi gate. It will list all other cities with psi gates. I usually only use them to transport alien artifacts from one continent to another. To link them with my universal translator. I'm too lazy to load them on a transport.
Krushala	posted 06-29-99 07:18 PM ET I should clarify. When you have a unit in a city with a psi gate. Go to the action menu and click on psi gate. You will need to have a receiving city with a psi gate. Click on a city from the list and you're there.
googlie	posted 06-29-99 09:07 PM ET If you're a CivIIer they work just like the airports googlie
Zoetrope	posted 06-30-99 04:13 AM ET Krushala: _one_ unit per turn? That is utterly pathetic. Psi gates are discovered so late in the game that most other means of transport have greater throughput (for example, drop troops travel everywhere in one turn centuries earlier), and the game's over anyway by the time they're available, so they're militarily useless. googlie: Yes, like Civ2's airports, which I heavily used because they were available early enough to be valuable for a long time. However, one thing about airports in Civ2 is that a transfer could fail because of intervening enemy fighters. Presumably there's no way that SMAC factions can interfere with a Psi Gate transfer, is there? Despite that advantage, there's no way I could find a use for Psi Gates, because by then I've terraformed all the continents together, have mag-rail between all my cities in the world ("instant" transfer for every unit), and if the game's not already concluded then the enemy faction(s) have at most a handful of sea bases that I have surrounded by gravships. Perhaps we can edit Alpha.txt (or whatever) to make Psi Gates appear in mid-game? But it would have to be a lower tech than drop pods. (Even in Civ2, airports appear before combined arms.)
Zoetrope	posted 06-30-99 04:22 AM ET Alternatively, to make Psi Gates useful in the late game, they should allow the transfer of an unlimited number of units from A to B. After all, mag-rail already does that, albeit tediously. Oh the boredom of watching units crawl, one at a time, along the track! It should be instant, Mr Brian Reynolds, instant! Where's the option to make rail and air travel instant? Any travel or battle that is completed inside one turn should be over in a flash! There's nothing interesting about watching units crawl like snails just because they're on the screen. Capiche? So there's no issue of strategic balance wrt the number of units you can push through a pair of Psi Gates each turn, but since they appear so unjolly late, player sanity would be much improved if they had no (stupid, outdated) limit.
Rackam	posted 06-30-99 05:19 AM ET Psi Gates (a relation perhaps?) are IMHO the best transport system for SMAC. First, true each gate can only be use once per turn to send, but a gate can recieve an unlimited number of units even after (not before) it has been used to send a unit. Example 1. Capture a base off another faction and build a psi gate in it, the from 10+ bases somewhere else, you can gate in 10+ units a turn each having full movement with no damage and no drop penality. Example 2. Build a base on another continent and as it's first build order, rush a psi gate. Then you can gate in formers, pods, garrison units, etc which can be built with the much higher production of older bases. Example 3. When playing podlotto on another continent and moving all the artifacts back to a base, using the gate with an artifact will show those bases with gates that haven't been linked, gate->link->tech advance in one turn.
googlie	posted 06-30-99 02:18 PM ET Rackam: I'm impressed. (Not that I thought I knew everything there was to know about SMAC, but I was pretty sure.....) I've always looked on psi gates as a waste of minerals. Now you've opened my eyes - and mind - to new uses. Thanks googlie Putting a spin on it
Krushala	posted 06-30-99 05:42 PM ET Definately a good idea. You can only send 1 unit a turn but can receive and infinite number. Still a lot of minerals but having 10 bases with them all connected by mag tubes. 10 extra hovertanks would be nice. I'll have to look at a tech tree though. It seems I only get them a tech or two before orbital insertion. Yeah it delays me a turn but I still like orbital insertion. I suppose I wouldn't have to build very many drop units with psi gates though and save minerals there.
Lo_11	posted 07-01-99 11:30 PM ET Psi Gates are an excellent means of moving units from a Sea Base(SB) to a Land Base(LB) that is served by a mag tube to the rest of your bases or from a SB/LB to a SB that is under attack. A SB without a Psi Gate is isolated, dependent on slow transports to send and/or receive the full benefits of a mag tube connected continent. Lo
Hamburger Hacker	posted 07-02-99 12:45 PM ET Zoetrope, Almost instant mag and air travel is possible. Select the "Do not center on units with orders" preference. The movement becomes almost instant as soon as the unit leaves the screen.
CrankyHotDog	posted 09-06-99 04:47 PM ET Psi gates are better than drop pods because when a unit makes a drop, it gets 20% damage. With Psi gates, there is no damage.
mcostant	posted 09-07-99 06:28 AM ET CrankyHotDog, you get 20% damage only when your unit makes a drop landing OUTSIDE your base (or pact brother's one). If your unit lands INSIDE your base (as a Psi Gate transfer definitely do ) your unit are safe. By the way, I think that "Psi Gates" come really too late, because (at thinker level, single player) I'm really so far in front of AI factions, that I really never bother with Psi Gates, Gravship and the like. If I'm playing as a builder (I mean, without a conquer rush) I stay with Drop Pod and Orbital Insertion, magtube between every base. BTW what a pity you can't build magtube to a sea base (only limit should be to keep the trail on square not deeper than - e.g. - 500 meters).
Zoetrope	posted 09-07-99 08:55 PM ET I missed Hamburger Hacker's reply. Yes, i have all the speedup options selected, including "don't centre". True, units travel quickly off-screen, but each unit takes a _long_ time to leave the screen. My question to BR is: why isn't there an option to make units travel quickly (or even disappear while in motion) when on-screen? So i utterly hate those "caviar" graphics, for two reasons: (1) slow movement, and (2) because they prevent customisation by users. BR promised customisation, but he blew it there, meaning that SMAC has no mod-packs to compare with Civ2's. mcostant: speaking of depth limitations on sea magtubes, shouldn't tubes and even roads be damaged or destroyed when the terrain is raised or lowered - especially by another faction?
mcostant	posted 09-08-99 06:41 AM ET Zoetrope - Sure, in real life you will end to destroy every improvement and during game you can often lose any special terrain if you change altitude of that square. Because of game balancing... well, I'm not sure. For the builder, you can think that the long time and the amount of energy required to lower or raise terrain summarize also the partial remake of road et al. For the attacker of another faction it will end with a really powerful "former attack strategy", where few formers protected only with a handful of defenders unit can destroy every empire as a really BIG earthquake (aehm, Planetquake in fact ). OTOH, I haven't really explored on the field the use of formers as attacker unit, as some SMACers did, so may be I'm not a good judge on this matter.