Bug list/Bingmann
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This list is from here, and needs splitting into bugs, fixed bugs, and undocumented features. Please move things into the sections below.
Contents |
Unorganized
- Colony pods can be added to an existing base to increase the base population by 1 using the join base command (b). This operation can be used to increase the size of the base beyond the limits imposed by lack of hab complexes/domes.
- A unit will always survive an air drop; the air drop damage will be reduced to preserve the final hit point.
- AI players have no intelligence when it comes to trading bases with human players. They will often trade their best bases for newly built size 1 bases in the middle of a desert.
- Submissive AI players can be forced into negative energy reserve balances by demanding that they trade their cash for technology.
- If the "do or die" game option is turned off, it is possible to profit from destroying all of your units to restart in a different location. Most factions will receive an extra terraformer by doing this while Morgan will also get a synthmetal sentinel and +100 energy reserves.
- Boreholes can only be contructed in land squares where all adjacent land squares are at the same elevation "level" or higher and do not contain boreholes. It used to be possible to build boreholes adjacent to each other by having them built at the same time, but this has been fixed in the latest patches.
- A borehole on the west coast increases moisture levels to the east. A borehole anywhere else decreases moisture in the surrounding area.
- Drill to aquifier is not allowed in squares adjacent to an existing river. It is possible to create rivers in adjacent squares by performing the drill to aquifier operation in both squares at the same time.
- River courses are partly random (will be different each time); rivers will avoid rocky squares and will occasionally run uphill for one tile.
- It is possible to set home base (Control-h) for a unit to be the base of another faction when the diplomatic stance is pact. The unit will then require no support from either faction.
- When a land unit is unloading from a transport in a sea square to a land square, it will always cost only 1 movement point regardless of the terrain in the land square, including rocky, forest, and fungus squares. The rumor is that old versions of SMACSid Meier's Alpha Centauri would cost 2 movement points to unload into a rocky square.
- The designs for captured units can be modified in the design workshop. This allows the use of unit technology from the captured unit to make different unit designs even though the technology is not known.
- Once Planetary Networks is discovered, the probe team design can be modified in the design workshop to make other speeder designs even though Doctrine: Mobility is not known.
- Probe team units that are in land squares can conduct probe operations against other land squares (units and bases). Probe team units that are in sea squares can conduct probe operations against other sea squares (units and bases). The exception to these rules is that foil/cruiser probe teams can always conduct probe operations against land squares. Air units can never be probed, including choppers. Examples: A probe foil in a land base (land square) can probe an adjacent scout patrol in a land square but cannot probe an adjacent gun foil in a sea square. A probe team on a transport foil in a sea square can probe an adjacent sea base but cannot probe an adjacent land base.
- Normally, air transports - including choppers - can only load and unload passengers in a base or airbase. However, choosing the unload transport (Shift-u) command will allow the passenger to unload while the air transport is in flight.
- Drop units without an actual weapon cannot drop into the base production squares or zones of control of units of another faction unless the diplomatic stance is pact.
- If a pactmate has a needlejet in the same square as one of your empty transport ships, then it is impossible to load units onto the transport. If the transport ship is not empty (already has one or more passengers), then more units can be loaded without a problem.
- Selecting "Demand Withdrawal" from the commlinks menu for another human faction causes the AI to decide for that faction whether to comply with the request or declare vendetta based on the AI attitude of the faction. The human player who actually controls that faction will not make the decision.
- When engaging in a probe team operation against another human faction, a window appears asking whether the victim wants to "declare vendetta" or "let off with a stern warning." This window is appearing during the wrong player's turn since the victim should decide and not the prober. Etiquette dictates that the prober should choose "declare vendetta" unless prior approval has been received from the victim to choose something else.
- If an truce/treaty/pact is being negotiated with another human player and that player has accepted the deal, it is possible to perform an action that causes vendetta and then accept the deal to erase the vendetta before the other player has had a chance to respond to the vendetta.
- If a needlejet starts the turn outside of a base (1 turn of fuel remaining), it doesn't move at all during the turn, a base/airbase/carrier appears underneath it during the turn, and one of the hold (h or shift-h) or sentry (l or shift-l) commands is given to the needlejet, then the needlejet will not refuel and will only have 1 turn of fuel when it leaves the base/airbase/carrier on a later turn. Needlejets that haven't moved only refuel if they use the skip turn (spacebar) command.
- Air units are NOT destroyed if the base they are in is destroyed (contrary to what the manual says.)
- Switching industry social engineering does not change the number of minerals in the minerals stockpile accumulated towards production of the next build item. Adding a supply crawler to a secret project or prototype under construction will add minerals to the minerals stockpile equal to the cost in minerals of the supply crawler using the current industry social engineering value, not the cost in minerals of the supply crawler when the supply crawler was built. Switching to a different social engineering setting and then switching back to the original setting in the same turn refunds the cost of the first switch for a net cost of zero energy. Putting all of these facts together creates the trick of building supply crawlers inexpensively using a good industry setting, switching to a bad industry setting with the associated energy cost, adding the supply crawlers to the secret project/prototype for more minerals than it cost to make them, and finally switching back to the good industry setting to produce the secret project/prototype inexpensively, getting a refund of the energy spent to switch to the bad industry setting as well.
- A +3 police setting allows a unit with the non-lethal methods ability to control 3 drones (1 plus 1 plus 1), NOT 4 drones (1 times 2 times 2).
- When voting in the Planetary Council, it is possible to click on the portrait of the faction for a human player and be offered a chance by the AI to pay a bribe for the vote of that faction. The AI decides the bribe rather than the human player whose faction it is.
- When voting in the Planetary Council, the AI will take on the role of a human-controlled faction and offer a bribe to the person currently voting. The player whose faction is offering the bribe is not offering the bribe - the AI is doing it for them without their knowledge.
- Map features are placed on or removed from the map using Control-Click, NOT Shift-Click.
- Do not start with a blank map when making a custom map; always start with a randomly generated map and then edit it. The map elevations are messed up when starting with a blank map, one result being that placing the first river (or popping one in a Unity pod) causes much of the land to sink below the ocean.
- Each save file contains all of the commlink communications between human players made during the game. This is the main reason that save files grow in size to the extent that they do. Unlike the rest of the save file which is encrypted, all commlink communcations are merely plain text appended to the end of the save file. Anyone opening the save file in a text editor can see all commlink communications that have been made during the game.
- If a base completes construction of a facility or secret project and its build queue is empty, then for that turn the base will accumulate energy as if production had been set to stockpile energy in addition to accumulating the usual amount of minerals.
- If a base completes construction of a unit and its build queue contains stockpile energy as the next item to build, then for that turn the base will accumulate energy as if production had been set to stockpile energy in addition to accumulating the usual amount of minerals.
- Production occurs before drone riots are checked. Thus, production of a police unit, facility, or colony pod can prevent an impending drone riot.
- Population growth occurs after production. If the conditions are right, a base can make a colony pod and grow back to its original size in the same turn.
- Population loss removes the citizen farthest on the right. If the base has any specialists, the lost citizen will be a specialist.
- If a worker (not a specialist) is lost due to population loss, the remaining workers will automatically be rearranged by the AI (even for human-controlled factions), usually to maximize nutrients.
- Normally, a base must have an Aerospace Complex to be able to build orbital facilities. However, if an Aerospace Complex is the item currently being built, then orbital facilities can be added to the build queue. If production is switched to something other than the Aerospace Complex, the orbital facilities remain in the build queue and will be built without the need for an Aerospace Complex.
- Population growth occurs before drone riots are checked. Thus, population growth can cause drone riots in the same turn.
- Units can be upgraded individually as long as they have not yet moved during the turn, and upgrading in this way uses up all of the unit's movement points for the turn. All units of the same design can be upgraded at the same time using the design workshop; upgrading units with this method has no effect on the movement points of the units that are upgraded and can be done even for units that have already moved.
- Air Superiority needlejets in a base prevent air drops within 2 squares of the base. Air Superiority choppers in a base do NOT prevent air drops.
- The diplomatic status between factions must be vendetta for interceptors and Aerospace Complexes to prevent air drops.
- Colony pods cannot build a new base unless they have movement points remaining. Colony pods can add to the population of an existing base by opening the base screen, activating the colony pod, and pressing "b", even when they have no movement points remaining.
- When a supply crawler is in a square not being used by a base, it can use the "convoy resources" action to sit in the square and collect all of one type of resource in that square for use by its home base each turn. Only one supply crawler can "convoy resources" in each square.
- Supply crawlers can use the "convoy resources" action even if they have no movement points remaining. Click on the supply crawler on the map (not at the bottom of the screen) and select the action.
- Supply crawlers with no movement points left that are inside a base can use the "convoy resources" action. Open the base screen, activate the supply crawler, and press "o". The "convoy resources" action is also the action used to add a supply crawler to a secret project or prototype. A supply crawler that starts the turn in a base can be individually upgraded (using all movement points) and then added to a secret project all in the same turn using these steps.Players should note that upgrading crawlers to a more expensive design before adding them to a secret project costs only 1-2 energy per mineral added instead of the usual 4 energy per mineral for a secret project, making secret projects relatively inexpensive to build.
- Players have reported being able to "credit up" terraformers by doing terraforming in one square until it is one turn from completion and then moving the terraformer to a different square where the terraforming is completed instantly. Again, the latest patches may have eliminated this since most players now report that all terraforming effort is lost if a terraformer moves. (However, effort can be applied towards a different terraforming task as long as the terraformer doesn't move.)
Undocumented features
(note, I'm putting things which may or may not be documented here, will check carefully later)
- Any rivers flowing into a square containing a borehole will end there since the water disappears into the borehole.
- Skunkworks allows switching of production from one unit type to a different unit type or from one facility to a different facility without losing any minerals for "retooling".
- Choppers and land units can attack multiple times per turn as long as they still have movement points remaining; each attack cost 1 movement point.All other units use up all of their remaining movement points when making an attack.
- Units with an actual weapon (hand weapons or better) use none of their movement points when performing an air drop; they can move normally after the air drop. Units without a weapon use up all of their movement points when performing an air drop.
- Discovering Planetary Networks automatically prototypes the Speeder chassis.
- Discovering Doctrine: Flexibility automatically prototypes the Foil chassis.
- If the old unit design has the Heavy Artillery special ability, then the new unit design must have it, too. If the old unit is an air unit with Air Superiority ability, then the new unit must also have it. If the old unit is an air unit without Air Superiority ability, then the new unit must also not have it.
- Building a prototype of a weapon, armor, or chassis also counts as a prototype for lower-valued (or equal) weapons, armors, and chassis. Example: Building a missile (6) prototype means that gatling lasers (5), impact (4), and lasers (2) will also be considered as having been prototyped. Chassis prototypes only count for the same types of chassis: air, sea, land. Thus, prototyping a needlejet means that choppers and gravships will not have to be prototyped; they are the same type - air - and they have the same chassis "value".
- Social engineering settings for morale, planet, and probe do not take effect until the beginning of the player's next turn.
- When the social engineering setting for morale is -2 or less, units built in a base with a command center, naval yard, aerospace complex, or bioenhancement center will only receive 1 morale upgrade instead of 2, and this result is permanent for those units. (This is part of what the manual means by "modifiers halved.")
- Native units get a +50% attack bonus when attacking non-native units that are in fungus squares; this includes Locusts of Chiron attacking non-native air units that are in fungus squares. Non-native land units in a fungus square get a +50% defend bonus when being attacked by non-native units in a normal (not artillery) attack. These are the only combat modifiers for fungus squares.
- Artillery combat between a land unit and a sea unit is not to the death - there's only one round of combat.
- Sea units can attack each other using either long range fire (attack value vs attack value) or normal attacks (attack value vs defend value). Players should note that this means that a sea unit with a low attack value can be easily destroyed by another sea unit regardless of its armor value.
- A stack of units containing a needlejet in flight can only be attacked by a unit with the air superiority ability. The unit with the best defend value will be the defender of the attack, not necessarily the needlejet.
- Units normally take 20% damage when performing an air drop (26% for singularity reactor.) However, if the air drop is into a friendly base, the unit takes no damage.
- Units are not allowed to air drop into sea squares, including squares containing sea bases or sea transport units.
Fixed bugs/exploits
- Normally, a unit with drop pods can only make one air drop per turn and must start the turn in a base or airbase without having moved to perform the air drop. Activating a unit with drop pods, right-clicking on another square, and selecting the air drop command from the menu will always allow the unit to make the air drop as long as the square is within air drop range; this allows the unit to make an infinite number of air drops in a turn that don't have to start in a base or airbase and that don't depend on whether or not the unit has any movement points remaining. Using this procedure, drop infantry can perform an air drop, attack an enemy unit, and perform another air drop back to safety.
The Repair Bay special ability does not work.- On Thinker difficulty, base facility maintenance costs are reduced by 1/3. On Transcend difficulty, base facility maintenance costs are reduced by 2/3. (This is fixed for SMACX with the patch.)
- When Planetary Transit System is completed, all bases that are less than size 3 will immediately grow to size 3.
Confirmed
- On the turn a terraformer completes its terraforming task, its "flag" will be grayed out indicating that it has moved. Clicking on and activating the terraformer will allow a new terraforming command to be issued to the terraformer with the correct number of turns to completion displayed. Clicking on and activating the terraformer again, cancelling its new orders; at this point, the terraformer will have regained one movement point.
Invalid, documented, otherwise not useful
- Supply crawlers collecting resources in squares outside of bases receive the benefits of facilities and secret projects in their home bases that increase the amount of resources collected in a square. Example: A supply crawler collecting nutrients in a forest square for a base containing a Tree Farm and a Hybrid Forest would collect 3 nutrients instead of *The same is true for social engineering choices where an economy setting of 2 or higher would increase supply crawler energy collection by +1 energy each.
- Biology Lab prevents a random event (Planet Blight) from causing all forests and farms in the 20 base production squares to be destroyed; if the base has a Biology Lab, then the random event will instead provide +1 nutrient per square for 10 years due to the discovery of a beneficial bacterium.
- Wild mind worms fight at 1/2 strength before the year 2115.
- When upgrading units, the new unit design must have the same chassis as the old unit design.
- When upgrading units, the new unit design must have a weapon value greater than or equal to the weapon value of the old unit design. Noncombat units must have the same "weapon" as before.
- When upgrading units, the new unit design must have an armor value greater than or equal to the armor value of the old unit design.
- The Believers have support +2.
- The Hive has immunity to inefficiency; their efficiency rating is never less than 0.
- Each University base gets 1 drone per 4 population, rounding down. This has the same effect as -2 psych per 4 population, rounding down.
- Each Peacekeeper base gets 1 talent per 4 population, rounding up. This has the same effect as +2 psych per 4 population, rounding up.
