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Author Topic:   Questions on Terraforming.

Teeman posted 04-01-99 08:06 AM ET
I looking for some pointers on what to do with which squares.
When you click on a square and it tells youthe resourse for that square(nutrinets:1 with farm:1) does that mean you get one normally and 2 when you farm it or does it mean that you get 1 wether or not you have a farm or not?
Should I automate my formers or do it manually?
Where is the best place for farms/mines/mirrors?
Are thermal bores worth the eco damage?
What about creating rivers?
When trees expand do they destroy the enhancements in that square?
Should I leave some fungus or get rid of all of it?
Are sensors useful at all?
I think thats enough for now.
Thanks in advance
Teeman
Teeman posted 04-01-99 08:27 AM ET
Oh yea, one more thing.
How exactly do supply crawlers work? They pick up resoucres from a suqare and return to a city right?
Can another crawler work the same square?
Do they bring in all of the resources from that square or just one?
Teeman
GaryD posted 04-01-99 08:36 AM ET
Your best option is to download some of the stuff from the private SMAC dedicated websites. I have a spreadsheet at I downloaded (sorry can't recall creator's name) than shows best options for each type of terrain. You can probably find more.
Only automate formers if you are really sick of micro management. Their AI isn't up to scratch and they will often charge around doing nothing useful at all.
I try to get rid of all fungus (how else are you going to p*ss off planet ?) But I am unconvinced you are supposed to.
Plato90s posted 04-01-99 08:49 AM ET
In general, these are the main choices.
Arid - forest or fungus. You won't get nutrients worth a damn.
Moist - forest or fungus or condensor-aided farms. It's relatively easy to get a moist square to rainy with condensors.
Rainy - farm
In addition, there is the terrain level.
Flat - farm or forest
Rolling - farm and solar collector
Rocky - Mine and road
Plato90s posted 04-01-99 08:52 AM ET
Forests will not destroy existing facilities, but fungus can.
Boreholes are VERY worthwhile, despite the eco-damage. When you are at the points where minerals aren't important to a city use a supply crawler to harvest the energy. Minimal eco-damage when you don't "mine" a borehole.
Rivers are great, put them everywhere you can, particular on high elevation. Free +1 energy everywhere there is river.
Sensors are also very useful to detect mindworm intrusions and to give your defending units that +25% bonus if they are in a base or bunker within 2 square of an sensor array. It's best to put sensors in forests or fungus because they don't interfere with each other.
Fiannaidh posted 04-01-99 09:08 AM ET
You might want to leave a little fungus if you have xenoempathy dome and pholus mutagen, makes a great natural barrier between you and your enemies, and you will be camoflauged while in it, and get combat bonuses. But as far as keeping it in your main city area, not worth it until late game, then make fungus every square!
Teeman posted 04-01-99 12:44 PM ET
What are some good private websites? I know there have to be some good ones out there because all good games have them but I can't find any and I can't stand doing web searches.
Teeman
Cadfael posted 04-01-99 01:13 PM ET
Apolyton CS
http://civilization.gamestats.com/smac/
is probably the pick of the litter right now.
I'm sure as time passes additional sites will become available. There isn't anything out there yet to rival CII's late great Civilization Heaven. Maybe Mike will become addicted to SMAC too.
GaryD posted 04-06-99 09:39 AM ET
ONCE YOU FOUND ONE YOU HAVE PROABLY FOUND MOST AS THEY DO TEND TO LINK TO EACH OTHER.

A REASONABLE START IN CASE YOU HAVEN'T FOUND IT YET IS
http://members.tripod.com/ACHeaven/captcomal.htm
eNo posted 04-06-99 05:40 PM ET
Do formers manually.
Rivers give +1 Energy and help travel. I don't know how much Eco-Damage they cause though.
Except for fungus, I have not experianced forests growing into any already improved square.
I like to get ride of all the fungus within a 3 square radius of all my bases.
Sensors let you see everything within a 2 square radius and gives you a +25% defensive bonus. I make sure all my bases are covered by at least one sensor.
My site is members.xoom.com/eNo_Talon. It just has a whole bunch of links on the SMAC page.
eNo posted 04-06-99 05:42 PM ET
You send the supply crawler to a square and tell it to convey resources to the home city. (O on the keyboard) You have to select a particular type of resource (minerals, nutrients or energy) to convey. I'm not sure if you can build three crawlers and convey all three of resources from the same square.
GaryD, why did you type in all capitol letters?
Plato90s posted 04-06-99 05:56 PM ET
Rivers do not cause any eco-damage as they are considered a standard terrain feature. Farms, Soil Enrichers, Mines, Solar Arrays, Condensors, Echelon Mirror, and Boreholes cause eco-damage. Sensors cause none, and Forests reduce eco-damage from terraformed terrains.
Also, only one Crawler can be used for each square.
Shadow1188 posted 04-06-99 06:57 PM ET
Try http://www.sidgames.com/ac/loband/i2lo.htm. Try the "Voice of Planet" (archives) section. There was a terraforming guide in the last issue. Plus it's a great all around site, with great strats, guest columnists and the hilarious "Hologram Theatre (Humor For the Drones) " section.
RSHER posted 04-07-99 01:55 PM ET
New question:
I am playing my first game since buying it (played lots of demo games, tho). The starting location that I was given has very little rain making food a difficult to come by. I have one city that is stuck at pop 3 due to lack of food.
Question: How do I improve the food productivity of arid areas. Farming works to some extent, but only just to keep up with population growth. If I raise the elevation to the west of one city, my cities further east will suffer even more. HELP!
BTW, am playing Gaians, Thinker, Huge random map, extra aliens. Tech levels are around 3 acroos the board, Conquer's a little lower.
Thanks!
Rodney
Ronbo posted 04-08-99 03:29 AM ET
Rodney--do you have the Weather Paradigm secret project? If so, you can build condensor units (hotkey is "N"). The condensor will increase the rainfall level by one in each square surrounding it, which will increase the food output by one in each square. You cannot construct two condensor side by side, and they cause eco-damage, so use them judiciously, but properly employed, they can be a godsend. If you do not have The Weather Paradigm, you need a particular technology (I cannot remember which one) but you should already have it (it is fairly early in the tech tree).
GaryD posted 04-08-99 06:29 AM ET
eNo
because, not being a touch typist, I don't look at the screen until the end (too busy looking at the keyboard and failing to spot that the capital lock light was on). Really couldn't be bothered to change it afterwards. Sorry if it is a faux pas re protocol around here.

Must write out 100 times
"I must not shout at the other posters"
"I must not shout at the other posters"
"I must not shout at the other posters"
....
RSHER posted 04-08-99 08:33 AM ET
Thanks Ronbo. I hadn't thought to check what all the Weather Paradigm would let me do. I'll try that the next time my wife let's me play!
Igor posted 04-08-99 11:24 AM ET
Hello,
I'm playing as Hive on Talent level and my automated formers placed two condencers side by side :-). Bug, of course, but looks interesting (this is for Rondo).
Igor
GaryD posted 04-08-99 12:55 PM ET
Well thank you Shadow !!!!
I've just spend most of the afternoon reading about Kosova in the forums, first at sidgames (!) and then on to gamepost (courtesy of Melan Choly) and I'm now going to have to put in a few hours unpaid overtime to get this darn programming done.
And you know who I blame ...
Mutter...mutter...mutter....
ApcJK posted 04-08-99 02:10 PM ET
I think you can build any enhancement that cannot be built side by side by starting them before the other one is completed. It is possible to start drilling to aquifers in adjacent squares.
Primogen posted 04-08-99 03:03 PM ET
You can put anyimprovement except the superb Boreholes side by side. The two condensors are good because they bump rainynes from arid to rainy. Solar collectors are good at the top of hills I find, especially if you can get rivers to run off it as well. Fungus is always removed, but I like to plant some forrest at the very begining so that it grows and can be harvested later on. Formers can only be put on auto if you limit them, eg put some on Fungus removal, some on Road and Tube laying and disable the Raise/lower option.
p.s As of version 3, you can't start boreholes side by side.
sandals posted 04-08-99 04:34 PM ET
Teeman - Is this Teeman from Teeman's Think Tank? I think your unit guide will be have to be a little longer for SMAC!
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Author	Topic: Questions on Terraforming.
Teeman	posted 04-01-99 08:06 AM ET I looking for some pointers on what to do with which squares. When you click on a square and it tells youthe resourse for that square(nutrinets:1 with farm:1) does that mean you get one normally and 2 when you farm it or does it mean that you get 1 wether or not you have a farm or not? Should I automate my formers or do it manually? Where is the best place for farms/mines/mirrors? Are thermal bores worth the eco damage? What about creating rivers? When trees expand do they destroy the enhancements in that square? Should I leave some fungus or get rid of all of it? Are sensors useful at all? I think thats enough for now. Thanks in advance Teeman
Teeman	posted 04-01-99 08:27 AM ET Oh yea, one more thing. How exactly do supply crawlers work? They pick up resoucres from a suqare and return to a city right? Can another crawler work the same square? Do they bring in all of the resources from that square or just one? Teeman
GaryD	posted 04-01-99 08:36 AM ET Your best option is to download some of the stuff from the private SMAC dedicated websites. I have a spreadsheet at I downloaded (sorry can't recall creator's name) than shows best options for each type of terrain. You can probably find more. Only automate formers if you are really sick of micro management. Their AI isn't up to scratch and they will often charge around doing nothing useful at all. I try to get rid of all fungus (how else are you going to p*ss off planet ?) But I am unconvinced you are supposed to.
Plato90s	posted 04-01-99 08:49 AM ET In general, these are the main choices. Arid - forest or fungus. You won't get nutrients worth a damn. Moist - forest or fungus or condensor-aided farms. It's relatively easy to get a moist square to rainy with condensors. Rainy - farm In addition, there is the terrain level. Flat - farm or forest Rolling - farm and solar collector Rocky - Mine and road
Plato90s	posted 04-01-99 08:52 AM ET Forests will not destroy existing facilities, but fungus can. Boreholes are VERY worthwhile, despite the eco-damage. When you are at the points where minerals aren't important to a city use a supply crawler to harvest the energy. Minimal eco-damage when you don't "mine" a borehole. Rivers are great, put them everywhere you can, particular on high elevation. Free +1 energy everywhere there is river. Sensors are also very useful to detect mindworm intrusions and to give your defending units that +25% bonus if they are in a base or bunker within 2 square of an sensor array. It's best to put sensors in forests or fungus because they don't interfere with each other.
Fiannaidh	posted 04-01-99 09:08 AM ET You might want to leave a little fungus if you have xenoempathy dome and pholus mutagen, makes a great natural barrier between you and your enemies, and you will be camoflauged while in it, and get combat bonuses. But as far as keeping it in your main city area, not worth it until late game, then make fungus every square!
Teeman	posted 04-01-99 12:44 PM ET What are some good private websites? I know there have to be some good ones out there because all good games have them but I can't find any and I can't stand doing web searches. Teeman
Cadfael	posted 04-01-99 01:13 PM ET Apolyton CS http://civilization.gamestats.com/smac/ is probably the pick of the litter right now. I'm sure as time passes additional sites will become available. There isn't anything out there yet to rival CII's late great Civilization Heaven. Maybe Mike will become addicted to SMAC too.
GaryD	posted 04-06-99 09:39 AM ET ONCE YOU FOUND ONE YOU HAVE PROABLY FOUND MOST AS THEY DO TEND TO LINK TO EACH OTHER. A REASONABLE START IN CASE YOU HAVEN'T FOUND IT YET IS http://members.tripod.com/ACHeaven/captcomal.htm
eNo	posted 04-06-99 05:40 PM ET Do formers manually. Rivers give +1 Energy and help travel. I don't know how much Eco-Damage they cause though. Except for fungus, I have not experianced forests growing into any already improved square. I like to get ride of all the fungus within a 3 square radius of all my bases. Sensors let you see everything within a 2 square radius and gives you a +25% defensive bonus. I make sure all my bases are covered by at least one sensor. My site is members.xoom.com/eNo_Talon. It just has a whole bunch of links on the SMAC page.
eNo	posted 04-06-99 05:42 PM ET You send the supply crawler to a square and tell it to convey resources to the home city. (O on the keyboard) You have to select a particular type of resource (minerals, nutrients or energy) to convey. I'm not sure if you can build three crawlers and convey all three of resources from the same square. GaryD, why did you type in all capitol letters?
Plato90s	posted 04-06-99 05:56 PM ET Rivers do not cause any eco-damage as they are considered a standard terrain feature. Farms, Soil Enrichers, Mines, Solar Arrays, Condensors, Echelon Mirror, and Boreholes cause eco-damage. Sensors cause none, and Forests reduce eco-damage from terraformed terrains. Also, only one Crawler can be used for each square.
Shadow1188	posted 04-06-99 06:57 PM ET Try http://www.sidgames.com/ac/loband/i2lo.htm. Try the "Voice of Planet" (archives) section. There was a terraforming guide in the last issue. Plus it's a great all around site, with great strats, guest columnists and the hilarious "Hologram Theatre (Humor For the Drones) " section.
RSHER	posted 04-07-99 01:55 PM ET New question: I am playing my first game since buying it (played lots of demo games, tho). The starting location that I was given has very little rain making food a difficult to come by. I have one city that is stuck at pop 3 due to lack of food. Question: How do I improve the food productivity of arid areas. Farming works to some extent, but only just to keep up with population growth. If I raise the elevation to the west of one city, my cities further east will suffer even more. HELP! BTW, am playing Gaians, Thinker, Huge random map, extra aliens. Tech levels are around 3 acroos the board, Conquer's a little lower. Thanks! Rodney
Ronbo	posted 04-08-99 03:29 AM ET Rodney--do you have the Weather Paradigm secret project? If so, you can build condensor units (hotkey is "N"). The condensor will increase the rainfall level by one in each square surrounding it, which will increase the food output by one in each square. You cannot construct two condensor side by side, and they cause eco-damage, so use them judiciously, but properly employed, they can be a godsend. If you do not have The Weather Paradigm, you need a particular technology (I cannot remember which one) but you should already have it (it is fairly early in the tech tree).
GaryD	posted 04-08-99 06:29 AM ET eNo because, not being a touch typist, I don't look at the screen until the end (too busy looking at the keyboard and failing to spot that the capital lock light was on). Really couldn't be bothered to change it afterwards. Sorry if it is a faux pas re protocol around here. Must write out 100 times "I must not shout at the other posters" "I must not shout at the other posters" "I must not shout at the other posters" ....
RSHER	posted 04-08-99 08:33 AM ET Thanks Ronbo. I hadn't thought to check what all the Weather Paradigm would let me do. I'll try that the next time my wife let's me play!
Igor	posted 04-08-99 11:24 AM ET Hello, I'm playing as Hive on Talent level and my automated formers placed two condencers side by side :-). Bug, of course, but looks interesting (this is for Rondo). Igor
GaryD	posted 04-08-99 12:55 PM ET Well thank you Shadow !!!! I've just spend most of the afternoon reading about Kosova in the forums, first at sidgames (!) and then on to gamepost (courtesy of Melan Choly) and I'm now going to have to put in a few hours unpaid overtime to get this darn programming done. And you know who I blame ... Mutter...mutter...mutter....
ApcJK	posted 04-08-99 02:10 PM ET I think you can build any enhancement that cannot be built side by side by starting them before the other one is completed. It is possible to start drilling to aquifers in adjacent squares.
Primogen	posted 04-08-99 03:03 PM ET You can put anyimprovement except the superb Boreholes side by side. The two condensors are good because they bump rainynes from arid to rainy. Solar collectors are good at the top of hills I find, especially if you can get rivers to run off it as well. Fungus is always removed, but I like to plant some forrest at the very begining so that it grows and can be harvested later on. Formers can only be put on auto if you limit them, eg put some on Fungus removal, some on Road and Tube laying and disable the Raise/lower option. p.s As of version 3, you can't start boreholes side by side.
sandals	posted 04-08-99 04:34 PM ET Teeman - Is this Teeman from Teeman's Think Tank? I think your unit guide will be have to be a little longer for SMAC!