Getting rid of unwanted colonies

[Hawke67]

Hi there, new member here. I have a problem in alpha centauri. How do I get rid of unwanted colonies? I have tried the "starve them and build colony pods" method with no success. The colony just keeps spitting out colony pods but never goes below 2 population, I gave up after 5 pods or something like that. Some people have mentioned some "abandon colony" option but I havent been able to find that.

Is there any mod to fix this problem? Or perhaps even better, a mod to stop the AI from building bases with overlaping base grids? I did try to use the search funktion here to find an answer but couldnt find any solution to this.

Anyways, glad to be here and I hope to stay for a long time since my Alpha Centauri addiction doesnt show any signs to wear off.

Cheers
Tom

[bvanevery]

Just click on the workers to turn them into medical doctors.  Your city will starve.  Getting them down to size 1 isn't a problem this way.  Complete a colony pod when it's size 1 and you've got the option to abandon the base.

A .txt mod cannot fix this "problem".  There is no interface to control this at the .txt mod level.  A few rare souls hack the binary to add new capabilities to the game.  However I think you are unlikely to convince such people to work on this "problem", because it's a problem of your own creation, not the game per se.

There is no .txt mod variable for minimum distances between cities.  Some games in the 4X genre do have such a variable, but this one doesn't.  The effects of such a variable are knowable; for instance, Freeciv has this, and I've tried it.  It's not really some great or amazing improvement to the game.  What you should actually realize is twofold.  1) The city resource grid is deliberately imperfect as far as grabbing resources within its "radius".  This gives you the player something to do, something to worry yourself about.  2) You should quit worrying so much about it.  It's going to be mid to late game before you've used up the available squares for any given city.  By that late a time, other factors are going to be dominating whether you're winning or losing.

I do believe that cities would be "better" if they could swallow resources in arbitrary distances and directions, at some logistical cost.  If I write a 4X game, I'll implement a system more like that.  For instance, Los Angeles has tried to swallow water as far away as Colorado.

[Hawke67]

Thx for the answer, I will try this.

Cheers

[Buster's Uncle]

Starving /podshould work IF the city square isn't on a nutrient bonus, or Monsoon Jungle square - maybe rushing the colony pod enough turns would do it, then, if you had 400 ec, or so, to throw at it...

[bvanevery]

If you settled on a Nutrient bonus, it's your own damn fault.

If you captured a base, well you could just use this city as a permanent new source of Colonists.

Later in the game, I suppose you could Convoy all the Nutrients to somewhere else, using a Supply Crawler.

Distant conquered cities will never meaningfully contribute energy or labs to my empire.  If I'm not committing atrocities, I throw a Punishment Sphere on top of them and call it good.  If I'm committing atrocities, I Obliterate them.  Or I hit them with chemical weapons and gene warfare to begin with.  Obliteration is good to remember as the low tech atrocity.  Just round up all the citizens and shoot them.

[Buster's Uncle]

Convoying one or two nutrients away to another base in those situations ought to do the trick...

[Hawke67]

If you settled on a Nutrient bonus, it's your own damn fault.

Oh, Im sorry if I upset someone, I didnt realise this was in any way a sensitive subject. Anyways, the use of crawlers to speed up the starving rate worked and the base eventually dissapared, so problem solved. It didnt turn into the expected colony pod that I bought when the colony reached population 1, and I never got the "abandon base?" question, but that doesent really matter for me.

No, I never try to get rid of my own bases, simply because I dont need to. I take great care when placing them so that they dont overlap in any way. The AI on the other hand throws out its bases in the same careful manner as a toddler throwing around its toys, and its quite annoying when my carefully placed colonies suddenly get "suburbs" with just 2-3 squares of space in between. And just like you I dont like to commit atrocities, I try to play the way I would if I was acctually there, and commiting atrocities simply isnt "me".

Anyways, big thanks for the help, thanks to you (all) Alpha Centauri will be even better from now on.

Cheers
Tom

[bvanevery]

If you settled on a Nutrient bonus, it's your own damn fault.

Oh, Im sorry if I upset someone, I didnt realise this was in any way a sensitive subject.

It isn't.  There are just things in the game that would be dumb to do.  Like walking a Colony Pod on a fungus infested river square after about turn 20.  Not sure why those things like water, but they sure do.

It didnt turn into the expected colony pod that I bought when the colony reached population 1,

That's odd.

and I never got the "abandon base?" question,

So is that.  I wonder if a Convoy creates some kind of bug?

The AI on the other hand throws out its bases in the same careful manner as a toddler throwing around its toys,

You should see how it moves those Colony Pods to get there.  It's terrible.  Like a squirrel trying to decide which way to dodge a car.

And just like you I dont like to commit atrocities,

For me it's situational.  Lately if I'm doing it, I've gotten them legalized.  Or it's Aliens.  Or I'm the Aliens and it's Humans.  Although oddly, using an interspecies chemical weapon isn't an atrocity, but Obliterating a base is an atrocity.  Go figure.  And Planet cares.  Planet really, really cares.  Unless it's legalized.

[Buster's Uncle]

That last has to be a psychic phenomenon.  Planet cares because the people doing it know it's wrong - that's crap, but I got nothing better...

[bvanevery]

It's tempting to blame the Aliens for the problem.  But I believe even in original SMAC without Aliens, Planet punishes chemical attacks... unless they've been legalized by the U.N.  If they really did mean for this to be a "psychic" disturbance rather than an environmental disturbance, well they made a really poor game design choice.  Why wouldn't people be disturbed by conventional bombings and artillery shellings?  People don't get especially wound up just because they're dying of chemicals.  Generally speaking they just don't like dying.

I think they just screwed up, it's a bug, that's the real explanation.

[Buster's Uncle]

It's a fan-handwave, man.  Roll with it.

[bvanevery]

I can't stand the kinds of arguments about Civ II, where the Phalanx that survives the tank attack, is because the Phalanx upgraded with RPGs in the interim.

Planet's punishment may not actually be a bug.  It may be a deliberate game mechanical contrivance.  You get the option to use powerful chemical weapons, to really wipe everyone out.  But that has serious negative repercussions for you, making it a "press your luck" mechanic.  After 25 chemical attacks Planet will destroy you.  We know that's intentional.  The contrivance is, "if you go to the U.N. and get it legalized, you're off the hook."  Whether Planet is the big bad cop or not is deemed irrelevant, game mechanically speaking.  Suffer consequences or off the hook.

It's very poorly thought out, but it may not be a bug.

[Buster's Uncle]

Why Planet would care what the people carrying out the atrocities think about it over any other doubts they may have about soldiering/killing, I cannot explain.  Likewise, why it being legal and not a war crime would actually concern a soldier in the life-or-death of war all that much, when Basic trained him to be more afraid of Sarge than dying - well.  Thing is, talking about the realities of the comic book business during a Thor-Hulk whoodwin conversation is just a buzzkill.  Planet cares, and mind-reading the soldiers is my best shot, if a weak one.  I'm playing the time-honored Trying To Make Sense Of It game, and challenge you to come up with something better, or at least a better handwave/rationale.

[bvanevery]

I can't get a buzz from a bug.  Or a completely sloppy design.  I envision Brian Reynolds and company running around like chickens with their heads cut off.  Sleep deprived, too much caffeine, doughnut sugar spilled on keyboards.

Perhaps because Planet is German, it is trying to atone for the Holocaust.

[Buster's Uncle]

-sigghh-