Base
Bases are the cornerstone of your faction in Alpha Centauri. These manufacture your units, collect your energy for your economy and research, provide votes for supreme leader, and provide some defensive assistance. If playing with Do Or Die, taking all of a faction's basses results in game over for that faction. It is through your bases that everything your faction does gets implemented. Conquering a base has important effects.
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Base Screen Overview
Most base management is done through the Base screen. This can be accessed by right clicking on a base and clicking on "Goto Base Screen." At the top are #Governor Settings. Down the left side are the nutrient tanks for #Growth, the commerce that your base is doing, and a box containing the mission year, your faction's energy reserves, and this base's Eco Damage. The right side contains a list of #Base Facilities and #Secret Projects this base has produced. In the center is a screen where you can see this base's #Resource Production, #Support map, or #psych effects. Bellow this map are details of this base's #Budget.
At the bottom left is information on and controlls for this base's Base Production. In the middle bottom is the name of this base, the #Citizens of the base and the list of Units occupying the base square. At the bottom right is a list of units supported by this base. By clicking the arrows next to the base name, one can jump to the base screen of other bases in your faction.
Citizens
At the bottom of the base screen is a list of citizens that live in the base. Each citizen is listed as an icon and has particular effects. There are various ways to lower the number of drones at a base or increase the number or talents.
- Workers: are rendered yellow and are the working class of a base. These citizens can #work a square in the base's grid and contribute no special benefits or penalties.
- Talents: are rendered blue and are the citizens of your base who for one reason or another have an abundance of leisure. These citizens can #work a square in the base's grid. Having more of these citizens than drones prevents a drone riot and having most of the citizens (including specialists) of a base these citizens and having no drones produces a golden age at the base.
- Drones: are rendered red and are downtrodden citizens (for one reason or another). If there are any of these at a base, it prevents a golden age at the base and if there are more of these than talents in a base, the base experiences a drone riot. There are multiple ways for drones to be created:
- Dependent on Difficulty every new citizen after a certain number at a base is initially rendered as a drone.
- Dependent on Difficulty and a faction's Efficiency rating, once a faction controls a certain number of basses, each new base controlled adds a drone randomly at one base.
- As a result of conquering a base, that base will have additional drones for the next 50 years. The number of extra drones is mminimum of either 5 minus 1/10 times the number of years since the conquest or the sum of base size and difficulty level minus 2 all over 4 and rounded up. <math>\min \left ( \left \{ \left ( 5 - 1 \over 10 \right ) * t , \frac {BaseSize + Difficulty - 2} {4} \rihgt \} \right )</math>.
- For pacifism resulting form a low Police rating.
In addition to these citizens, you can create Specialists at your bases. These citizens no not work base squares and thus don't contribute to nutrients, minerals, or pre-budget base energy. This means that they need other citizens to feed them and they won't help the base build things. What they do is that they is they add energy at this base to the different energy allocations at the end of the #budget. When there are not base squares a citizen can work, any new citizen must be a specialist. They do impact the calculation for whether a base is in a golden age. Because of this, a golden age is imposable a base that has more than 40 population even if it has 20 talents and 21 transcendi.
To create a specialist, left click on a citizen and assign it to a particular specialty. To change a citizen's specialty or to turn it into a worker, do the same. Any citizen can be a specialist and turning all citizens into specialists can prevent any of them from being drones but could cause a crash in base production, mass starvation, and stranding units (causing them to disband).
There are several specialists who become more special with advancing technology. Once a specialist replaces a particular specialists the more ordinary specialist is no longer available.
- Doctor, +2 Psych
- Technician, +3 Economy
- Librarian, +3 Labs, requires Planetary Networks
- Empath, +2 Economy, +2 Psych, requires Centauri Meditation—replaces Doctors
- Engineer, +3 Economy, +2 Labs, requires Fusion Power—replaces Technicians
- Thinker, +1 Psych, +3 Labs, requires Mind/Machine Interface—replaces Librarians
- Transcend, +2 Economy, +2 Psych, +4 Labs, requires Secrets of Alpha Centauri—replaces Empaths and Thinkers
Psych
Psych is a measure of how devoted a base is to making its citizens happy. A base that invests in psych should have few to no drones and several to many talents. Through different processes a base's energy, nutrient, or mineral output can be invested in psych. Energy can be spent on psych by a faction's factionwide budget, nutrients can be spent to support psych generating specialists, and minerals can create #Base Facilities, #Secret Projects, and Police units.
By clicking on the "psych" tab on the base screen one can view the psych effects on the citizens of the base. These effects are calculated in a specific order and is given bellow.
- First the base calculated its base citizenry. The non specialists start as workers and are changed into drones and talents per the above descriptions. The total population in a base (including specialists) are included in this calculation and faction effects come last.
- Second the base changes workers into talents based on this base's #psych spending. The final spending from the #budget and the input from specialists is included here. 2 energy spent on psych changes a worker into a talent. If there are no more wokers than 2 energy spent on psych changes a drone into a worker (with 4 changing a drone into a talent).
- Third the base includes the effects of #Base Facilities. These mostly change drones into workers but they can also change citizens into talents or drones depending on the facility.
- Fourth the base includes the effects of Police. Ordinarily one or more combat units (up to the maximum allowed for your faction) acts as police with each police unit turning one drone into a worker. A high police rating can see a police unit turning another drone into a worker, and Non-Lethal Methods can turn another drone into a worker.
- Fifth the base includes the effects of #Secret Projects. These effects are the same factionwide and not limited to a particular base.
- Sixth the base includes the effects of pacifism from low Police ratings and having combat units outside your faction's territory.
The result after these calculations are the base's population composition. Specialists are not effected.
Drone Riots
If a base has more Drones than Talents then it will be in a state of a Drone Riot. While a base is experiencing a drone riot, the workers still work base squares but all #Minerals after supporting units are lost and #Energy not going towards psych is also lost. This means that the base ceases to produce anything and does not contribute towards your energy reserves or towards psych. The base is maintaining things as they are but not progressing.
If a drone riot continues, the riot can destroy #Base Facilities. This can destroy facilities that will make the riot worse (e.g. the rec. commons) by increasing the difference between drones and talents meaning greater chances of destroyed facilities or defection and making it more difficult to restore order. A base that is rioting for long enough can defect to a rival faction. The faction that is chosen is likely to be the Drones or one whose leader has a poor impression of you. This defection can happen after one turn. Drone riots do not destroy secret projects.
There are a few ways to handle a riot. One can increase the policing in a base. One can increase psych spending either factionwide or by turning citizens into specialists. One can commit an atrocity such as destroying a base. One can change production to a facility that shows negative time to complete on the Base Production grid that can help quell the riot (eg. the rec. commons) or to a colony pod to reduce population. One can build or gain control of a [[Secret Project
Long term base facilities should be built, police should be added, or factionwide effects should be changed to make a drone riot harder to happen at this base.
The The Telepathic Matrix prevents drone riots at all basses belonging to the controlling faction no matter the difference between the number of drones and talents at a base and ends any riots that are currently ongoing.
Golden Age
If a base has no drones, at-least half of its population are talents, and has a base population of at-least 3, it is in a golden age. Golden ages are determined base by base and while unlikely, it is possible for a faction to have 1/3 of its bases in a golden age and 1/3 in drone riots. While a base is in a golden age, that particular base is considered to have the social effects of +2 growth and +1 economy over what your faction would otherwise provide for that base.
Resource Production
Your workers, talents, and drones work base squares. There are twenty squares surrounding a base which can be worked by these workers. A worker that works one of these squares collects nutrients, energy, and minerals from the square dependent on the underlying terrain, Terraforming and technology. The square the base is in also provides resources and never has anyone work it. Faction benefits, social engendering, base facilities, and secret projects determine the productivity of this base square.
The squares workers at a base can work are called that base's grid and are visible when one clicks the "resouce" tab in the base screen. It is possible for the base rid of two bases to overlap. If a worker at another (or this) base is working a square, no other worker from any base can work the same square. Squares worked by a worker at this base show the number of nutrients, minerals, and energy that worker is generating. Drones, Workers, and Talents all collect resources with equal efficiency.
Everything that is collected goes into the #Base Budget
Base Budget
The base budget is given bellow the map. These two screens shows how all of the nutrients, minerals, and energy collected by a base's workers and at the base square are allocated and spent. These amounts can be changes and adjusted by moving workers around for different #Resource Production and changes in your faction's Social Engineering.
Nutrients
There are no nutrients lost during collection and distribution though each citizen (no matter the #type) eats two nutrients each turn. Any surplus is added to the base's nutrient tanks and any deficit is subtracted from the nutrient tanks effecting #Growth.
Minerals
There are no minerals lost during collecting and distribution though units may require support depending on the number of units call this base home and your faction's Social Engineering. The surplus is added to base production and any deficit results in supported units being disbanded.
Energy
Energy is lost during collection. The amount lost called loss to Inefficiency and is impacted by this base's distance from the faction headquarters and the faction's Efficiency rating. The amount of energy lost to inefficiency is given by Inefficiency = (Energy × Distance ÷ (64 - (4 - Efficiency) × 8)) or <math> \frac {Energy*Distance} {64 - 8 \left ( 4 - Efficiency \right ) } </math>. If a faction headquarters does not exist, Distance=16.
The ratios are given in this table. A base can never lose more to inefficiency than it collects in energy and there is never any inefficiency at a faction headquarters (regardless of any other effect).
| Inefficiency Table | |
|---|---|
| Efficiency Rating | Percent Lost to Inefficiency |
| 4 | Distance/64 |
| 3 | Distance/56 |
| 2 | Distance/48 |
| 1 | Distance/40 |
| 0 | Distance/32 |
| -1 | Distance/24 |
| -2 | Distance/16 |
| -3 | Distance/8 |
| -4 | 100% |
The energy accumulated after inefficiency is taken into account is allocated to economy, labs, and psych according to your faction's social engineering. Bonuses given by #Base Facilities and some #Secret Projects then take effect. These bonuses stack additively. For example two 50% bonuses to economy count as one 100% to economy and not a 125% bonus. Economy and Labs spending is covered in Faction Economy which economy enlarging your energy reserves and labs progressing in research. #Psych spending contributes to the well being of this base's citizens and is covered above.
You base's facilities (for the most part) require maintenance. At the beginning of a turn, each base in turn contributes its economy spending to the faction energy reserves and then reduces the faction energy reserves to cover maintenance at facilities. When a base is doing this calculation and there are insufficient energy reserves to cover the base's maintenance, energy reserves are depleted to zero (but not negative) and the computer moves on to the next base. All base facilities provide their benefit however. In this way, an economy surplus at one base can cover an economy surplus at another.
Growth
The nutrient tanks in the upper left determine population growth. The surplus or deficit of #nutrient production gets added to or subtracted from the nutrient tanks. When the nutrient tanks are full a new citizen is produced (who immediately needs to eat. If, for example, population grew with one nutrient and the new citizen cannot produce new nutrients, it is not created and the nutrient tanks are emptied) and when nutrient tanks are empty and there is a nutrient deficit (whenever the tanks would go negative) a citizen is destroyed leaving the nutrient tanks empty for the next turn.
Population at a base cannot change by more than one from turn to turn. The number of columns is 10 + your factions Growth rating and the number of rows is 1 + the base's current population (the population the base will be at after growth). The exception is if a faction has a -3 growth rating. The base has nutrient tanks as if it had a -2 growth rating (12 columns) and the mechanics work the same except that if population growth were to occur everything happens the same except the base population number doesn't change.
A base that has built a Children’s Crèche is considered to belong to a faction that has a growth rating of 2 gator than what it is. If a faction is at a -3 rating, the base grows normally with 11 columns. If a faction has a -3 rating (but would have lower if allowed) then it grows normally with 12 columns or it stays at a -3 raiting. If a faction has a growth rating of 4 or more than it is in a population boom. For all other situations the base grows normally with 2 fewer columns in its nutrient tanks.
A faction (or base) that has a +6 Growth rating or controls The Cloning Vats is considered to be in a population boom. During a population boom, if a base produces a nutrient surplus of at-least 2, it adds one population. Bases with a growth rating of +6 have nutrient tanks of 5 columns (used to store food for leaner times). A base still does not grow by more than 1 population each turn.
Support
A unit normally requires a unit of minerals to support. This value can be modified by the clean reactor ability or by a faction's social engineering. The that is designated a units home base pays this mineral meaning that base has less than one mineral available for manufacturing. Pictures of the units supported by a base are at the bottom right of the base screen and clicking on a unit's picture activated that unit. A map of where all the units supported is available by clicking on the "support" tab. Orders can be given to a unit to change its home base to the one it is currently in.
Base Production
In the bottom left there is the base production controls. Any #Minerals collected that don't go to support units go towards this production. Units, #Base Facilities, #Secret Projects, and Stockpiling Energy can be produced. At the top of this box is an image of the thing being produced. In the middle is the mineral progress for the current production. At the bottom is the number of turns until the current production is finished.
The number of columns in the production for a thing is 10 minus the faction's Social Engineering#Industry rating and the number of rows is determined by what is being built. Unit costs are here while #Base Facility and Secret Project costs are bellow. While Stockpiling Energy, the number of minerals going towards production is divided by 2 and rounded up. This amount gets added to your faction's energy reserves.
At the start of a turn the computer goes through each base and progresses production. If production finished, the Unit of Facility is completed and the base moves on to the next item in the queue, what the governor decides, a repeat of the item it finished, or stockpile energy. The computer prioritizes this choice in that order. If less than one row of minerals is left after production, all of these minerals are applied to the new item under production. If more than one row of minerals is left after production, the new item under production has one row of minerals applied to it and half of what minerals above one row are left over. On Citizen or Specialist Difficulty, all of the minerals left over are applied to the next thing under production.
To the right of this box are the queue list, change, and hurry controls. Clicking hurry allows you to finished an item sooner. The hurry cost is different for different for different items and making a partial payment is possible. The costs are given in the table bellow. Hurrying an item won't immediately finish it but if all minerals are purchased for an item it will be produced at the start of the next turn. A partial payment gives the number of minerals to produce an item in proportion to the payment made to the cost to complete the item. These rules mean that it can be advantageous to make the smallest partial payment so that the item can be produced in one turn rather than completing it.
The minerals cited in this table are the number of minerals needed to complete the item.
| Hurry Costs | ||
|---|---|---|
| Item | Cost to make a full payment. | Adjustments |
| Unit | 2 times the number of minerals plus the number of minerals squared divided by 20. | Rounded down |
| Base Facility | 2 times the number of minerals | Doubled if less than 10 minerals already filled |
| Secret Project | 4 times the number of minerals | Doubled if less that 4 mineral rows already filled. |
One can change the object being produced. On Citizen and Specialist Difficulty no minerals are lost from changing production but on higher difficulty, half of the minerals more than the first row of production are lost. This can hit twice if one changed what a governor starts to produce after another item has finished production. Switching from a Secret Project does not lose minerals. Clicking on change brings up the production screen for the base. The screen is arranged in a grid with the units at the top, base facilities in the middle, and secret projects at the bottom. The number of turns listed are the number of turns until the base finished that item given the current mineral investment (without considering the losses from switching). Clicking on an item switches production to that item. If you want to build a unit that is not available click on "workshop" to bring up the Design Workshop.
Clicking on the "queue" button brings up the queue controls. This brings up the base's production grid which is the same as if one were to change production except the turns are the number of turns to finish the production from 0 minerals at the base's current mineral production. Clicking on "workshop" brings up the Design Workshop, "delete" removes the currently selected item from the queue list, "replace" replaces the currently selected item in queue list with the currently selected item in the production grid, "insert" puts the currently selected item in the production grid in the currently selected slot in the queue list moving all items currently in the queue list in the currently selected position and bellow down, "cancel" leaves the queue list reverting it to what it was when you clicked on the "queue button," and "ok" leave the queue list as it currently stands.
Eco Damage
Description
Governor Settings
List
Combat Effects
Description
Base Facilities
Table
Secret Projects
Table
