Guys, we need your help with a list of cheats

February 12, 2000, 05:03

Ming is compiling a list of "cheats" in different versions of the Civ series (for the Civ3 wishlist), which basically meant Civ2, until now. As you and me both know, this isn't enough. SMAC and SMACX are much closer in time to the release of Civ3 then Civ2 ever was. Therefore it is equally, if not more, important to get a lowdown on all the cheats in SMAC as well!

This is his plea:

quote:

I WOULD WELCOME AN EXPERT to list the cheats for other variations. The key here is to alert the designers on how we abuse there sloppy programming. Please, make this list even longer by showing them their new mistakes.... PLEASE!

Guys, your mission, if you chose to accept it, is to write down every single programming mistake that can be used for cheating in SMAC, even those that might (or might not) be a concious feature. We will then transfer the list to the Civ3 Wishlist forums so that it can be integrated.

BustaMike · February 13, 2000, 06:25

Two words:

POD BOOMING

heardie · February 14, 2000, 02:56

What about infinite city sprawl?

------------------
-Chiron Creators-
"http://members.xoom.com/acchiron"

Qilue · February 14, 2000, 07:02

Island superdefence.

Anyone here ever left cities/bases on an island virtually undefended because you knew the AI would never attack them?

Thaum · February 14, 2000, 11:27

how the AI always knows where your PB's are, and attacks them.

Ogie Oglethorpe · February 14, 2000, 12:44

1)Hanging air units when turn end option used allows for infinite blockade.

2) City gifting for immediate probing and recapture, rinse repeat etc.

Jasonian · February 14, 2000, 16:48

Mouse,

I used to play that way, since the AI would never launch a decient assault against lone islands. That was before SMACX brought us the Pirates. They blocaded my coasts and bombed my lands, cutting my resources so I couldn't build stuff as fast. They then moved up a transport and unloaded. Since artillery now works well, the base garrisons were at 50%.

The base fell easily, and they moved on. I lost the entire island before my transport landed and I took the island back. (The first two transports out would have saved part of the island, but the blockade sunk them before they could land. Dang!

Some stats: 3 bases on the island, 5 Impact Pirate foils, 1 Pirate transport with 2 missile rovers.

Is the AI really that bad? I'm starting to wonder...

February 14, 2000, 18:31

-social engineering inconsistencies have to be fixed. Some changes take effect immediately, some in the year after. Everything should take effect one year after the chnage is ordered and paid for to avoid at least some of the (numerous) possible abuses. For the same reason...

-changes in SE should not be allowed more often than once/ 5 years per category

-units upgraded in the workshop should lose a full turn.

Qilue · February 15, 2000, 04:30

Jasonian, true, but the pirates are the only faction I've seen that will perform amphibious operations. I think it's something to do with how the AI does unit movement.
Pirates are sea->land and normal factions are land->sea but land->sea->land is where the AI seems to have a problem.

Incidently, if you want to see an AI do land->sea->land, play Colonization. The AI in this has no problems at all with amphibious operations.

(gramatical error)
[This message has been edited by Mouse (edited February 15, 2000).]

Ned · February 15, 2000, 09:53

Mouse, About land->sea->land, I am not so sure. I have seen and sunk numerous transports filled with enemy troups. However, this seems to occur early in the game when I am militarily weak. Later, when the balance of power has shifted, the AI seems to look to its defenses rather more than to its offense.

Even so, I am consistently puzzled how I can hold a strategic land position against endless attacks when the AI could easily end run using a few transports.

Perhaps the problem with the AI is that for most factions other than the Pirates it makes transports - at least later in the game - at a very low priority.

Ned

gnome · February 15, 2000, 20:59

That's extremely interesting. It makes me think that a different (and smarter) AI is running the computer than the governors. When I played with governors (for about half of one game, and then never again)... all it wanted to build was transports, even on "Build" or "Discover"

Another imbalance I noticed... when the computer autodesigns units, it spurns units like "Trance sentinels"... yet it will make them for itself.

So not only do we have a dumb AI... but it's even dumber when it's assisting your management. Gah!

Qilue · February 16, 2000, 07:44

Ned, loading the units onto a transport doesn't seem to be a problem, but my question is this, have you ever seen a transport land the troops?

Ned · February 17, 2000, 00:03

Yes, I remember the AI landing troups - but only from foil transports. That limits him to two units and an ineffective attack. I have never been attacked by a destroyer transport carrying a significant number of troups. However, I have sunk such vessels out to sea.

Back in Civ I days, the AI always seemed to send boatloads of troups. Less so in Civ II. Now one can essentially forget about a serious seaborne attack.

I am sometimes amused to look at an enemy city on a near coastline filled with sentinels. The AI always seems to be building more such sentinels and not to be building transports. This is very defensive minded, in my view, and is may be the result of the balance in power being in my favor.

Just some thoughts.

Ned

February 17, 2000, 14:02

I've been attacked on small islands by the enemy... I remember once building a base on an Island near enemy territory well within reach for my Needlejets. I sent some crack defensive troops along to keep the base covered from air attacks, but unfortunately neglected to send a spy unit with them. Within 3 bloody turns, the Bloody damned believers had gotten a foil with three probe teams across, and bought out my base with little or no fuss.

TigToad · February 18, 2000, 15:11

Ok..here is a 'cheat' that I think happens, (I'd have to double check but from random observation it appears to be true).

If you move a former to a square his turn is done. However, if you click on him and give him a terraforming order, he'll start it that same turn. You get an extra turn out of your formers that way, multiply that by a lot of formers and...

Also, I'm not sure if they fixed this, but its a bug really not an exploit. You drag that nice line accross the map to tell your unit to move somewhere.. and if you run accross a city (in the inky blackness you can't see) it tells you its name along with the map coordinates, so you can find all the other factions early on.

Tig

zsozso · February 18, 2000, 17:36

I *think* (but don't have the game at hand to check and be sure), that it will sorta start the terraforming, but it adds an extra turn to the required number of turns, hence it does not gain you anything. E.g. with WP it takes a plain former 3 turns to make a forest, if you move it (no road, exhausting its movement point), then click on it and choose plant forest, then it says Turns to go: 4. Which means it is the same as you would get next turn...

Now, I'm not sure what would happen if you moved 4 formers and did the same to each... Would it complete it immediately or only next turn... ?

Zsozso

Chowlett · February 18, 2000, 19:22

This is a minor thing, but when trying to move a unit into terrain when you don't have enough movement left (eg, rocky with only 1, fungus at all times), and it's the first time you've failed in the game, you get to try again, and sometimes it works. Just a niggle.

David Byron · February 18, 2000, 19:40

Sure that isn't just the next turn?

Chowlett · February 20, 2000, 12:53

I'm sure! It's because the first time it happens, SMAC explains why it happened, and doesn't realise that in order for it to have happened, you must have used up your movement point.

Jasonian · February 21, 2000, 21:34

Ah! You have tutorial messages on then.

If you're a newbie, and you think you know what's going on, and then you try to move a unit, and it doesn't work, you'd be pretty upset! SMAC explains the problem, and let's you have another go at it in case you don't want to move the unit there anymore.

Not a cheat, but a nice little newbie feature, in my mind.

Chowlett · February 22, 2000, 15:54

Ah righty then. I s'pose you're right.