Morgan Biochemical - SMACX AI Growth mod version 1.37

[bvanevery]

Details tokenspawn

tokenspawn

MY 2346.  Eerie silence!  This is about all the popping I've got.  I might actually be able to get some work done for a change.

Details merchants exchanged

merchants exchanged

I buy Parrot Landing.  I was waiting for Planet to calm down, so that new cities wouldn't be liabilities.  I doubt the Merchant Exchange is going to make me any money, but I like saving our great works.

Details harsh language

harsh language

I drop one of my 2 remaining ancient Fission Frog Probe Teams on a spit of land next to Cutlass Cay, home of the Xenoempathy Dome.  The AI may be stupid enough to leave my probe team alone.  Svensgaard gives me a tongue lashing though.  I guess taking over one of his cities didn't impress him, and likely never will.

Details try to be sneaky

try to be sneaky

I drop the 2nd probe team in some fungus near Roze Function, home of the Weather Paradigm.  Its ability to move around will improve quite a bit if I nab the Xenoempathy Dome.  I wanted to get closer but kept getting told that enemy units were in the way.  With my luck those will be mindworms.  Come to think of it, Roze is probably unsubvertable anyways and I've just wasted my time.  Yep, she's gone Thought Control.  I'll have to use ground troops on her if I want the base.

I finish the year with 29k.  It's 2 more years to my next tech.  I notice that none of the other factions have any nukes.  When I set off mine, I wonder how angry Planet will get?

[bvanevery]

Details super polluter

super polluter

MY 2347.  The way this project counts minerals is odd.  It's like minerals before any bonuses are applied, so it ends up becoming a lot more minerals and eco-damage in practice.  I've now got some bases producing 100 minerals.  They can chuck out a Quantum Planet Buster in 3 turns!

Details what a moron!

what a moron!

In fairness, they're Pirates and aren't prone to occupying land.  This makes land adjacent to Pirate sea bases, a pretty good place to launch covert operations from.

Details not a bargain

not a bargain

It ain't cheap, but I've got loads of cash and it's convenient.  The Xenoempathy Dome is mine.  I still finish the year with 21.5k.

[bvanevery]

Details liar

liar

MY 2348.  Never touched the guy.  Considering that Yang thought I'd done something to him when I never had, I just don't believe the game's BS on this stuff.  I suppose there's a chance that he had a unit in a city I gassed, but I do remember checking the cities before razing them.  Maybe it's not possible to remember every detail in such a long game.  The idea of unforgivable gassing is odd and purely game mechanical.  How do the modern day Japanese feel about the modern day USA?  Heck, what does everyone think of Germany, or countless other countries that have committed atrocities in their history?

Details useful!

useful!

Fungal pops have been light.  Presumably that's due to the Bulk Matter Transmitter goosing my minerals.  Now I will finally be able to repair the land!  Oddly enough, dropping a Tectonic Missile counts as a Major Atrocity, same as a nuke.  Go figure.  So fixing the land is not going to slow down the mindworm fun for the home audience.

Details the only one with sense in the game

the only one with sense in the game

I think I'll spare her.  She's going to start hating me when I light up Deirdre with the nukes though.

Details who's putting this stuff out about me

who's putting this stuff out about me

Well if Miriam believes it, it's more than a faction specific bug.  Lord Knows how I managed to gas Svensgaard.

Details terraforming genius

terraforming genius

I swear I meant to plant a tree here.  CTRL-F, SHIFT-F, who's counting?  The fungus is actually worth more than a forest anyways.  It's just the principle of the thing.  My Earth bias.

Details buy and die

buy and die

I just had this great idea for how to use my drop probe team!  Land it next to a low population base.  Buy the base.  Convert the conventional units to some kind of useful Drop unit.  Next turn, fly those away.  Leave 1 unit behind to Obliterate the base.  What a great plan!  I don't know how economically efficient it is compared to anything else, but I need the Pirate capitol destroyed for it to work best.

Details a hole in four

a hole in four

The pirate seas are thick with units, presenting ideal targets for taking out multiple cities at a time.  It's a bit like miniature golf!  I think the blast radius on a Quantum warhead is 3.  Fission is 1, i.e. the squares surrounding the impact.  Singularity warheads have truly spectacular impact.

Details conscientious nuking

conscientious nuking

I could only take out 4 cities at once.  Since I had a choice of epicenters to do that, I tried to take out as little of the shallows as possible.  Planet does such a good job of sinking the land anyways.  I'd like to keep whatever I can, as a sort of Global Park Service.

Details we were so close to compromise

we were so close to compromise

Of course Miriam's response is so predictably boring.  At least it gives me the excuse to wipe out that Spore Launcher she put on my land.  That I bet she was going to 'surprise' attack me with anyways.  She's prone to that sort of thing, even without my lousy rep.  Reputation in this game is pretty one dimensional though.  I've been pretty conscientious about who my enemies are!  Not like I gassed everybody.

Details 5 in 1

5 in 1

Pretty sure I'm going to wipe out 5 cities with this shot.  Keep those Isles and Clean Transports coming, Svensgaard.

Details Presto!

Presto!

Wow my territorial waters look so much better after this.  This is a really good plan.  If Planet doesn't kill me.

Details straightforward

straightforward

This one the cities themselves had a good grouping.  No bank shot needed.

Details lost a mine

lost a mine

The radiation lapped at the edge of my city's waters, but we still stood.

Details go away

go away

I love the pretty blue flash.  It's like a fire log, changing colors.

Details permabuilding

permabuilding

I just noticed something interesting.  Terrain improvements in the ocean, do not get destroyed by the blast.  That's some crazy selective fire mode!  Well I'll take it.  I've suffered under the Pirate encroachment yoke for long enough, and so have countless other factions in other games of SMAC.  Don't feel sorry for them!  Don't even feel sorry for them if you're playing them.  You're a horrible, mean, horrible Pirate you!

It's 1:45 AM and I've exhausted my present nuclear arsenal.  1 new nuke and Planet vengeance funzies next year.  I'm going to bed.  In the morning I'll figure out how to use my probe teams to commit further mayhem.

[bvanevery]

Details who makes up these prices

who makes up these prices

Still MY 2348.  Taking over bases is likely to use a lot of money, so I want to know what competing options cost.  Rushing a Quantum Planet Buster is ridiculously expensive!  Guess I need to look up the unit completion penalty rules somewhere, to see if this is typical of units or not.  No way I'm paying 10 credits for 1 mineral.  I didn't get rich by being stupid!

Details new port

new port

I've had 2 Fusion Cruiser Probe Teams imprisoned in my capitol since the stone ages.  They were trying to get past Pirate waters and got interrogated and returned to me, I think.  Pretty dumb to send ships to a landlocked capitol; how did the Pirates manage that, exactly?  I never disbanded them as I figured someday, they'd float again!

Details targeting spread

targeting spread

The best use of my probe teams is to take out small "scrap" cities that got missed by my nukes.  When I hit Provision Point, it will take out the cities near it, but Kappa Sector will be left isolated.  Thus I will take it over and Obliterate it now.  My naval probe teams weren't close enough to do it, but I have an Isle that can carry a frog to target.

Details the peasants inhale caviar

the peasants inhale caviar

This is much more expensive than I was expecting a size 2 city to be, with no capitol.  I did destroy their capitol this year; maybe its loss isn't computed until next year.  I know I deliberately cranked up the mind control costs in my mod, because probe teams are grossly overpowered in the stock game.  Still this seems a bit much.  I've also noticed a late game phenomenon of bases being crazy expensive to take over, and I'm not sure why that is.  I will go through with it this time, mainly because the sea is crawling with enemies and I don't want my one Isle to be wasted.  But if this level of expense keeps up, I'll find something else to do with my money.

Details rebate

rebate

All Pirate bases have a Naval Yard once they get Doctrine: Initiative.  Since I have the Maritime Control Center, that makes them excellent things to sell.  I get 40 credits, ever so slightly offsetting my takeover expenses.  I captured an Isle and 2 Transports.  I upgrade the Transports to something more durable, and use the Isle to Obliterate the base.

Details covert action done right

covert action done right

That cost me 1/20th of a credit per colonist.  I've gotta get my accountants on this.  It's no way to win a war.

Details get out of my water

get out of my water

At Landlubber Inn I can perform a similar maneuver.  It's just a bigger city.

Details say what

say what

No, this isn't worth 5k to me.  The base is poorly defended by 2 Isles, and well within the attack range of my home guard.  I take it conventionally and scrap the Naval Yard.  To be cute, I sail my Transport in and put my probe team into orbit, since it hasn't actually moved yet.  Then I Obliterate the base.  I could have saved myself the trouble by probing with a naval unit earlier, but I wasn't thinking about this base before I repositioned my naval probe teams.

Details for spite

for spite

This whole probe team approach is starting to look a lot less useful than I originally thought.  I'm seeing small cities next to land, that I can hit with Quantum bank shots as part of larger clusters of death anyways.  I send my frog to Gaia's Landing, having nothing better to do with it at present.  Maybe I'll start gassing Gaians sometime?

I finish the year with 21.5k credits.  Bring it on, Planet!

[bvanevery]

Details usual floods

usual floods

MY 2349.  I've got 8 Locust pops, but that's not any worse than what I've already dealt with.  I do have the troops and ships to deal with it.  I am not dissuaded from my campaign of Quantum terror!  Those are good weapons.

Details eye in the sky

eye in the sky

The Geosynchronous Survey Pods do seem to do a better job of revealing enemy positions than Sensor Arrays do.  That neatly and conveniently solves a major problem with defending against Planet.  Granted I can also do it by flying a Needlejet over every fungal square, but that's tedious and error prone.  I've also used a Conventional Missile for that, since in my mod they have high movement and can stay aloft indefinitely if I want.  In fact I dredge one up just to check on the spotting, and yep, WYSIWYG.  No hidden horrors detected in 38 squares of movement.  Truth is, a lot of my cities aren't doing any eco-damage anymore, despite the nukes.

Details Chevrons locked!

Chevrons locked!

I do have the prereqs for Matter Transmission.  3 years until my next tech.

Details too dear

too dear

No I'm not paying 3.5k to get rid of this.  I'll do something else dastardly eventually.  Maybe just leave it completely alone until the very end?  I think my strict rule about only committing atrocities to one faction at a time, doesn't matter anymore.  It seems I will survive all floods and Planet attacks, and nobody's got the productivity to make a nuke anyways.  Even if they did, I've got an Orbital Defense Pod screen.  Even if those got wiped out by Solar Flares, I've got Flechette Missile Defenses which could stop a nuke.  And they're not going to be able to build anything, without me being able to see it first and intervening.

I finish the year with 24k, reasonably confident that Planet won't be doing anything horrible to me.  My Tectonic Missile prototype will be done in 3 turns.

[bvanevery]

Details do I believe you

do I believe you

MY 2350.  I pick off some mindworms without difficulty.  I'm starting to shift some production to Tectonic Missiles in anticipation of finishing my prototype.  The Gaians want a Truce.  The last time I agreed to one, they attacked immediately.  I go through the motions, but it's not going to matter because I still have a nuke to dispense this year.  They'll declare war yet again.

Details bye bye

bye bye

After the blast, Deirdre declares war and won't talk to me.  I don't bother moving a unit up to her, to see if she'll change her mind.  It doesn't matter.  When she wants a Truce, she'll talk about a Truce.  You'd think a faction would be brighter about making peace with, or capitulating to, a superior foe.  I finish the year with 28k credits.

[bvanevery]

Details the last conventional target

the last conventional target

MY 2351.  Had a few mindworms but dealt with them easily.  I've clearly weathered the worst that Planet has to give me.  All of my remaining bases are shifting over to Quantum Planet Buster production now.  I will keep dropping them until I win.  I produced a few Tachyon Skybases in my Gaian territory, which have been modestly making their way to Roze Function.  It's quite a bit more beat up than the last time I saw it, with only Scouts for most of its defenders.  It will take a few turns to capture the city, as I don't have many Skyforts around it right now.  More are coming, and I'll occupy with a few Drop troops I have and am making.

Details shore shearing

shore shearing

I don't like clipping the Datatech island, but I prefer knocking out 2 cities rather than other measures.  I was hoping for a unit to be between the cluster of cities to the south.  Perhaps another year.

Details more trimming

more trimming

Details artistry

artistry

Details hovering

hovering

In principle, someone could shoot down my nuke.  In practice, I don't think the AI knows how to do it.  In the stock game, nukes can't hover.  Mindworms are making me wealthy.  I finish the year with 31k credits.

[bvanevery]

Details upgrade time

upgrade time

MY 2352.  Upgrading all Tachyon artillery and ships to the R-Bolt is a slam dunk.  Upgrading armor is not so certain.  I need to look up whether 12-Res armor does any better than 3-Res armor against mindworms.  I suspect it does not.  It probably just provides better cover against conventional troops.  With my enemies rapidly fading into nuclear oblivion, that's simply not my problem.  To the extent that they do attack, the Pirates and Gaians are using Isles and Sealurks.

Details awfully cheap

awfully cheap

This is for my one Speeder based unit.

Details true cost

true cost

This is for the Infantry chassis units.

Details shiny new fleet

shiny new fleet

Boy I have a lot of these things!  No wonder I'm safe from Locusts.

Details chemicals obsolete

chemicals obsolete

I officially don't believe that nerve gas has anything to do with our future.  Quantum annihilation is more efficient, for the same or less harm to Planet.

Details be prepared

be prepared

Sometimes I've needed to fight Gaian mindworms with these things, although not recently.  I perform more arguably pointless upgrades and obtain a highly uniform army as a result!  After the year's few facility improvements, I have 10k credits left.

Details megaforming

megaforming

I complete my Quantum Tectonic Missile prototype.  I have 7 more in production.  Truth is in the meantime, my homeland has adapted to life at sea.  It's pretty easy to defend with all my fast moving ships, and I don't really see much advantage to be gained from a rail network and land defense anymore.  It's not easy to find a spot where a huge new chunk of land will fit, without ruining something, or closing off a port that I actually prefer to have open.

Details Gaian inheritance

Gaian inheritance

Still, there is the Earth bias of preferring dry land.  And the threat of Planet sinking even more.  My terrain is less developed in my Gaian territory, so I set one off here first.  The Gaians get to have a little bit of land back.  I'm generous that way.

Details blight removal

blight removal

I don't think I'll soon be blessed with a perfect shot at all 4 cities, so I take out 3 of them.  If I want to hit multiple targets with my nukes, I'm going to have to find another victim.  The Pirates are down to isolated scrap.  I try hailing the other factions on my commlink, but none are answering.  I have 12 QPBs in production.

Details precision approach

precision approach

I don't think there's much benefit to extending rails anymore, as I've built what I can on high ground, and everything will sink eventually if I don't intervene.  I gather my 8 mainland Formers and start raising land next to one of my cities.  I need to build more Formers if I want to do a good job of this.  Taking the Weather Paradigm would help too.

[bvanevery]

Details I like it when they die

I like it when they die

MY 2353.  No fungal pops this year.  That makes me think all the stuff about a Tectonic Missile doing the same eco-damage as a nuke, is a lie.

Details shoring up defenses

shoring up defenses

My Skybases complete their work.  The city is sitting on a 1x1 island so I'm able to drop units into it to permanently reinforce.

Details you and what PB

you and what PB

Roze sees a nuke heading for a grouping of Pirate and Datatech bases, and offers to have a little chat.  She demands an absurd amount of money, and then says she's going to kill me.  Yeah right!  She's working on a nuke but she'll never get there.

Details collateral damage

collateral damage

Pity I couldn't hit the 4th base.

Details coastal shear

coastal shear

I commit my 1st Gaian atrocity.  My targeting pattern is simply radial.  Whatever I can hit immediately, from wherever my QPBs are produced.

Details unlucky day

unlucky day

I think it would be cute to put Cutlass Cay on dry land.  It'll take 2 QTMs to do it.

Details in between

in between

Will I have time to terraform before the game ends?

Details cheap and not that useful

cheap and not that useful

I complete a Fungal Missile prototype, but I'm not trying to pave anyone under with fungus.  That's a much less aggressive strategy than nukes.  I just park it.  I finish the year with 9k credits.

[bvanevery]

Details 5 gone

5 gone

MY 2354.  A few fungal pops, not a big deal.  I think this grouping used to be the Monsoon Jungle, before changing sea levels dried it out.

Details go figure

go figure

This is the year I can finally propose to Launch a Solar Shade!  They're not into it.  Maybe it's like two party politics: must do the opposite of whatever I want.

Details no grouping

no grouping

Everything within immediate striking distance of me is scrap now.

Details raising Alpha Basin

raising Alpha Basin

QTMs aren't that useful to me now, which is why I stopped making them.  I could have used them much earlier in the game.  There's a pocket of deep ocean west of Alpha Basin that I'm trying to get rid of.  I have 1 QTM in flight that will arrive next turn.  Again, I think the AI is too stupid to shoot it down.  I finish the year with 9k credits.

[bvanevery]

Details ruthlessness

ruthlessness

MY 2355.  I used my Skybases to take this base conventionally last year.  Problem is, the "B" command for air units is taken by Bomb, and you can't Obliterate with them.  To work around this, in a case of pure bastardism I built 1 Police Scout.  Its sole purpose is to Obliterate the base this year, drowning in the process!  I am too lazy to push ships over here to do this without suicide, and I decommissioned my drop ships a long time ago.  I can't be bothered to make new ones.

Details Aquateam don't play

Aquateam don't play

Details my artificial island

my artificial island

If the game weren't going to end relatively soon, this might be a fun place to colonize.

Details the northern treasure

the northern treasure

This is the only supply pod on the whole map!  I may have created it by raising land.  Or I may have overlooked it for a couple hundred years.

Details bleh

bleh

I drop an old unit on it and... I get to die.  I take 50 credits in Planet Pearls with me.

Details go

go

Details orange roughy

orange roughy

This game is in essence over.  I'm just mopping up.  I finish the year with 11k credits.  It's 3 AM and I'm going to bed.

[Geo]

Details merchants exchanged

merchants exchanged

I buy Parrot Landing.  I was waiting for Planet to calm down, so that new cities wouldn't be liabilities.  I doubt the Merchant Exchange is going to make me any money, but I like saving our great works.

Do you know the difference between "Attempt Total Thought Control" and the "Mind Control Probe" options? Is it just a lower chance of succes, but if succesfull the exact same result?

[bvanevery]

The difference is if you do Total Thought Control, you get to possess the city without any other factions becoming politically aware of it.  They won't declare vendettas or otherwise have any knowledge that the base was taken from them.

Details obnoxious game designers

obnoxious game designers

MY 2356.  We're not doing this.  It's not the money, it's the principle of the thing.  How would anyone ever amass the roughly 200k credits currently needed for Economic Victory, if events like these are spawned for 11k credits, knocking it down to 20% of wealth?  Well ok, I haven't built the most massive number of Orbital Power Transmitters ever, to know just how silly the level of wealth could get.  But if one were trying to farm mindworms, one would never get there.  Anyways I hate this about SMAC, I'm already marked as a Cheater, and I'm simply trying to finish an all-but-won game at this point.  It probably doesn't even matter for that agenda, but it is the amount of money for a couple of very expensive Secret Projects, I figure.

Details suppression

suppression

Restarting the .sav didn't stop the event, so I've used the Scenario Editor again.

Details a little late to matter

a little late to matter

Psi Gates might be amusing to play with in other circumstances, but QPBs move pretty fast.  There's really no need.  I can hit half of planet instantly, and all of planet after a 1 turn delay.

Details more death

more death

Details last of the QTMs

last of the QTMs

I make some land for the Weather Paradigm.  I timed the production of QTMs about right.  There's really nowhere worth bothering to raise land, unless I made large quantities of them, to march all the way across oceans.  That production should go towards QPBs to end the game, or this is only sandboxing.  I turn random events back on, and I finish the year with 16k credits.

[bvanevery]

Details boom

boom

Details drum

drum

Details voomp

voomp

Details raise it

raise it

MY 2357.  Uneventful.  In many places I've finished working on all the ocean shelf squares I can.  I'm assigning individual Sea Formers to raise ocean squares, in essence "parking" them so that I don't have to deal with moving them anymore.  I have 22 QPBs in production, but my output per turn doesn't seem to be that high.  I finish the year with 17k credits.

[bvanevery]

Details whomp

whomp

Details lucky sealurk

lucky sealurk

MY 2358.  I'm experiencing technical difficulty.  I had to replay my turn and have become cautious with frequent saves.  I'm having trouble ending my turn without the game freezing up.  I am in the middle of archiving a Yahoo! Groups forum, before that site's content is wiped out on Dec. 14th.  That could have something to do with it.  The production scrolling menu is one of several things that seemed to cause a freeze, so I used city popup menus to rush my few facilities instead.  I finish the year with 20k credits.