Noob questions

[Gartch]

Hello everybody

I recently started to play again this excellent game that is SMAC but I have a certainly noob question, but I could not find information about it anywhere (I searched on several sites like yours):
How medic and Psych affect Drones?
I just can't figure out I mean at first I thought each psych point "cancel" a drone but it's not.  After I thought it was 2 "psych points" cancel a drone but it's still not. Now it seems both psych points and number of doctor/empath affect the number of drone, but in a different way  Well actually I'm completely lost
I don't understand how you know how many doctors or empath you need to prevent a drone riot.

My question is not how to prevent a drone riot, I know you can remove worker on ressource and create doctors or empath. But I would like to understand HOW it does work in order to be able to know how many and when I need doctors/empath BEFORE the drione riot arrive.

On the base managment menu, on the psych screen, I understand how other factors affect drones: facilities and units at base, but for psych/doctors/empath, I just don't get it

Also in the manual it is stated if you have more talents than the number of drones, you don't have riot, but when I just create non doctors/empath talent, it never ends a riot, so I don't understand this "rule" too.

Sorry again for the very noob question and thank you for your help

[Buster's Uncle]

Hi Gartch. Welcome to AC2.  How did you find us?

Your question is outside my focus, but a lot of the guys will be able to help you - even on a Saturday, weekends not being the busy time here. 

Everybody was a newb once, so no need to be apologetic about it.  In fact, if anyone but you called you noob or n00b, spelled that way, they'd get a scolding.  I'm informed that there's a hierarchy of insultingness there.  So anyway, don't sweat the questions; we'll get you up to speed fast enough.

[Gartch]

Hello BUncle and thank you

I found you through another SMAC forum (but I can't remember which one ), there was a thread about SMAC online games redirecting toward your forum.
And I think my question is very noobish, since in all the "wiki like" site or forums related to SMAC I found  I could not find the answer, I guess everybody except me know the answer

[Buster's Uncle]

Not everyone; I just react to drones when I find them, 'cause the formula is ridiculously complex.  Yitzi has actually worked it out and posted it; I think if you look around in this folder for threads he started with drones and formula in the title, you'll turn it up easily. 

Good luck wrapping your head around it.

[Buster's Uncle]

Okay, here: http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=3538.msg22366

[Gartch]

Oh thank you very much, it's what I was looking for

Indeed it's more complex that what I thought

Thank you again

[Buster's Uncle]

Sir, we are all in this together, and the value of our community is that we can take care of each other.  Ain't nothin' but a thang.

[Kirov]

Oh thank you very much, it's what I was looking for

Indeed it's more complex that what I thought

Thank you again

Indeed, Yitzi's done good work there, I believe he covered it all.

But you could also probably use a few more basic and practical tips, at least until you get the hang of it and find it out for yourself.

1) For most factions, one scout patrol subdues one drone and you can take advantage of that by placing one unit per base (matters less once you go Free Market, while some factions can use more police).

2) At the start, if you haven't met anyone and are feeling like a little hitler, you can nerve staple your base. This solves the problem of riots for 10 turns, but there is no in-game counter, so watch out for the drones to come back (I use the 'shift+N' option - 'name landmark' around my empire to leave useful notes to future me like 'HQ stapled in 2110' ).

3) If you care about your reputation and don't want/can't nerve staple, just pick up one worker and he'll change into a doc, quelling one drone. One of the most standard ways of doing it, just mind your nutrient input and don't starve the base.

4) Build your Recreation Commons early as they are very useful and cheap, but not too early as at the very beginning you want to be busy cranking out colony pods and formers.

5) Personally, I avoid Holo Theatre due to its high maintenance (3 EC). Better build a supply crawler, move it to harvest nutrients and change a worker into a drone. I believe not all players would agree on that. What they would agree on is that you can never have too many supply crawlers, so when in doubt, build another one.

6) Keep your eye on drone-related secret projects. HGP is cool in early expansion, but the ones you really want to beat your competition to are the Planetary Transit System (my favourite in the early game) and Virtual World. Bear in mind that the former has one undocumented feature - all your bases size 1-2 grow to size 3. Super powerful.

7) Consider switching to a very useful but very challenging Free Market as early as reasonably possible. Move the PSYCH slider to 20%, you'll still earn more than on Planned. You can't use the police then and may experience problems with exploration, so be careful.

8 ) This reminds me: always take a look at your ECON/PSYCH/LAB output. I find it interesting, but for most factions with 0 Efficiency, often you get better results with 40/10/50 than say 40/0/60. The 10% PSYCH usually does nothing for drones but decreases inefficiency losses.

9) Yes, 2 PSYCH gives one talent, i.e. one drone less to worry about.

10) Enjoy yourself as truly they don't make games like that anymore.

11) Welcome aboard!

HtH.

EDIT: one mistake.