Can Terraforming be expanded?

[Impaler]

We are all familiar with the enabling of normal land terraforming options on the Sea and the interesting/weird results.

But I'm wondering, can our .exe modders actual ADD new options that do not currently exist?  For example could a new type of route be created.  I've always thought a direct jump from dirt-roads to an mag levitation vacuum tube to be a rather big jump.  Some kind of intermediate like our modern railroads seems appropriate.  Obviously this would be a big undertaking, you would need a new movement speed parameter on the alphax, a new set of graphics for it, the insertion of the option into the terraforming popup menu and possibly big AI modification too.

Perhaps a simpler change might be to modify how certain terraforming options work.  One thing that has always irked me is that Solar has this weird altitude based formula, this makes no sense the sun is not appreciably closer on the top of a mountain.  A much more logical behavior would be for solar energy to be inverse to moisture level (cause moist areas have clouds that block sunlight), so Arid gives 3 energy, moist 2 and wet 1.   This would create a bit of a trade off between energy and nutrient production so the player would have a more interesting choice to make, if we wanted to be very realistic we could have solar and farm be mutually exclusive as they really are.  If you want to produce some energy on a farm tile then build wind turbines, the turbine would produce energy inverse to rockiness (3 on flat, 2 on rolling, 1 on rocky) which is would give an energy/mineral trade off.

I'd imagine that modifying the formula for how much energy an improvement adds to what I've described is doable because we already have very similar formulas in place, if adding a new terraforming option isn't possible then modifying Solar, or moding solar into the turbine might be a very interesting modification to the games energy economy, by eliminating the incentive to raise land and build super energy farms, something that kind of 'breaks' the game in my opinion and which the AI is just not competent at.

[Buster's Uncle]

A graphical component would not be a big job to generate - scient told me years ago, when I made the negative energy icons, that making the .pcx bigger to make room was no problem - he just had to address the new coordianates.  No idea how much trouble that would be for the coder, but windmills and such would be pretty easy to add, given an .exe guy willing.  -Now, how much trouble to have the game use them is probably a whole 'nother huge kettle of fish.

[Geo]

A much more logical behavior would be for solar energy to be inverse to moisture level (cause moist areas have clouds that block sunlight), so Arid gives 3 energy, moist 2 and wet 1.   This would create a bit of a trade off between energy and nutrient production so the player would have a more interesting choice to make, if we wanted to be very realistic we could have solar and farm be mutually exclusive as they really are.

On Earth, you're right.But remember the interlude remark about an atmosmheric haze on Planet helping to keep the greenhouse effect in check. Perhaps this haze thins out rapidly with altitude, explaining the increase in solar cells yield.

[gwillybj]

Windmills and Farms wouldn't be mutually exclusive if the blades of the turbines didn't reach too close to the ground. As long as there is clearance, Formers would work right up close to the turbines' bases.
Solar Collectors, otoh, do interfere with optimal use of farmland.

[Sigma]

On Earth, you're right.But remember the interlude remark about an atmosmheric haze on Planet helping to keep the greenhouse effect in check. Perhaps this haze thins out rapidly with altitude, explaining the increase in solar cells yield.

Where does that come from exactly?

I'll add that while this explanation is reasonable, it would be more interesting if it were balanced in the way that Impaler suggests. As it stands there's no reason not to plop down a couple condensers at each base to jack up the rainfall on your farms; making Nutrient production inverse to Energy capacity, the same as Minerals and Nutrients offset each other, could open new strategic choices. It would give you a reason to take advantage of the local climate instead of just overwriting it all the time.

[Geo]

On Earth, you're right.But remember the interlude remark about an atmosmheric haze on Planet helping to keep the greenhouse effect in check. Perhaps this haze thins out rapidly with altitude, explaining the increase in solar cells yield.

Where does that come from exactly?

I believe its the base renaming interlude triggered by the death of your closest assistant when in charge of your first bred mindworm boil.

[Yitzi]

Changing how things work can generally be done; truly new terraforming is probably not feasible.

[gwillybj]

On Earth, you're right.But remember the interlude remark about an atmosmheric haze on Planet helping to keep the greenhouse effect in check. Perhaps this haze thins out rapidly with altitude, explaining the increase in solar cells yield.

Where does that come from exactly?

I believe its the base renaming interlude triggered by the death of your closest assistant when in charge of your first bred mindworm boil.

... Through the plasma glass dome, Alpha Prime soars high in a hazy sky, cruel cousin of Father Sol. How you miss the soft blue skies of Earth, but $SHIMODA9 says the stratospheric haze helps stave off a runaway greenhouse effect on a world otherwise a bit too close to its solar furnace.

[Impaler]

Windmills and Farms wouldn't be mutually exclusive if the blades of the turbines didn't reach too close to the ground. As long as there is clearance, Formers would work right up close to the turbines' bases.
Solar Collectors, otoh, do interfere with optimal use of farmland.

You misread my post, I said farm/solar should be mutually elusive and farm/windmill allowable, just like real-life use of these technologies.  The more strategic use of local terrain is gravy.

[Nexii]

I think solar working better at higher altitude makes sense.  Would be more above the low level cloud cover.  More uptime on solar collection -> more energy produced.

Also unless you mod ecodamage to be higher with M, and also reduce former time for solar/echelon/raise terrain, it's not near as powerful as a forest+borehole strategy.  Making N reduce with solar would only weaken it even more.  There already is an E downside in that a condensor tile cannot have solar/echelon.  Seems more an issue with how AI terraforms than terraforming itself? 

As far as farm being placeable with solar/echelon/condensor, but not mines&boreholes, your guess is as good as mine.  Logically I can get this argument more.  A counterargument might be that some terrain is arable and some is not on a given land square.  Or that mines/boreholes pollute too much for plants to grow in the area. 

[Impaler]

Cloud cover correlates with rainfall which is why I'm arguing for energy to be inverse to moisture, even in your senario it is not the altitude that cause energy it is a secondary change that causes it.  SMAC's climate system will simulate a ran-shadow effect so you can dry out an area by raising the land to the west, you just need to change the location of your mountain building if your trying to create an energy-park by altitude changes.

Forests have always been OP and everyone knows this, forests need to lose at least 1 FOP, I drop them to 1/1/1 which makes them quite second tier which I think is appropriate, a lot of investment should be made before forests start to outshine normal terraformings.

Farms actually can exist with mines, but the default -1 Nuts is brutal and dumb, I remove this and it helps the AI a lot as they like the Farm/Mine combo.

[Dio]

Forests have always been OP and everyone knows this, forests need to lose at least 1 FOP, I drop them to 1/1/1 which makes them quite second tier which I think is appropriate, a lot of investment should be made before forests start to outshine normal terraformings.

The SMAC instruction booklet shows forests as giving 1 Nutrient, 2 Minerals, 0 Energy. This is the combination I play with, and it seem fairly balanced.

[Nexii]

The thing is there is no N/E/M tradeoff with condensor/borehole.  It would have to be bigger rework than just that. 

Also forests actually don't have amazing FOP - pretty average actually.  They're good because they have low former turn requirements, and everything else by default costs a lot of former turns.  I would argue an excessive amount contributing to former spam.