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Skanky Burns
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Skanky Bastard Quartermaster
Aug 2001
time: 14:34
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It is possible to lower mount planet by lowering the tile next to the crater. I just tried it. The crater disappears as soon as you lower it though.
Last edited by Skanky Burns on 13-03-2004 at 11:46
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Santiago_Claus
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A few years back I developed what I called the "Parallel Ridge Energy Park".
It was an attempt to optimize two competing efficiencies: raising terrain in a straight line and deploying E Mirrors in a circle.
The biggest problem with it is a bug which has been in every version of AC and AC-X since 1998 which corrupts the map data whenever terraforming increases the energy output of a square while it is being remote-mined for energy. When the corrupted map data is referenced it causes an unhandled exception in TerranX.Exe (or Terran.Exe for classic AC).
The second-biggest problem is the E Mirrors shut down once they leave your territorial influence, so you must build "outposts" every so often.
The bugs and SMAC-X's ocean energy build conspire to make E Parks impractical, but here's how to build what I consider the greatest land-based Energy Park ever designed:
A Parallel-Ridge Energy Park is best constructed East-West 2.5 squares from a pole, but North-South construction is also possible. The pole squares are all rocky, so you get the added bonus of a convenient location to build mines, and a ridge along a pole has only one side to defend, as the poles don't "wrap".
Because SMAC East-West is diagonal, if you raise terrain in that line, you get a 3000m ridge with 2000m "teeth" adjacent. Our goal is to build 2 parallel ridges at 2.5 squares' distance so that the "teeth" interlock, creating a huge 2000m plateau between them.
Since the best way to raise to 3000m is to start at 2000m, let's assume the best way to get parallel ridges is to raise a 3000m "curve" from one ridge to the next. If you're raising a ridge Easterly and you want to curve South to build its parallel counterpart, raise Southeast, then South, then South. You are now on the line of the Southern parallel ridge, so raise to the West. The North edge of the South ridge should interlock with the South edge of the North ridge like a zipper.
What's most important is getting the distance just right so the "teeth" interlock without any wasted overlap. That distance is 2.5 units, measuring diagonals as 1 unit and horizontal / vertical as half a unit.
Also note that the ridges can be extended in parallel in either direction indefinitely (or until you circle the globe I guess). In fact, if you're using formers that have a move rate of 1, it is slightly more efficient to put 1 former on each of the 4 ends than put 4 formers on 1 end, because of the turns used up moving.
The placement strategy for E. Mirrors is a subject of another thread, because there are 3 different optimizations: build time, land utilization, and crawler utilization.
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Sikander
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Boulder, Colorado, United Snakes of America
Jan 2000
time: 22:34
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quote:
Originally posted by Santiago_Clause
A few years back I developed what I called the "Parallel Ridge Energy Park".
It was an attempt to optimize two competing efficiencies: raising terrain in a straight line and deploying E Mirrors in a circle.
The biggest problem with it is a bug which has been in every version of AC and AC-X since 1998 which corrupts the map data whenever terraforming increases the energy output of a square while it is being remote-mined for energy. When the corrupted map data is referenced it causes an unhandled exception in TerranX.Exe (or Terran.Exe for classic AC).
The second-biggest problem is the E Mirrors shut down once they leave your territorial influence, so you must build "outposts" every so often.
The bugs and SMAC-X's ocean energy build conspire to make E Parks impractical, but here's how to build what I consider the greatest land-based Energy Park ever designed:
A Parallel-Ridge Energy Park is best constructed East-West 2.5 squares from a pole, but North-South construction is also possible. The pole squares are all rocky, so you get the added bonus of a convenient location to build mines, and a ridge along a pole has only one side to defend, as the poles don't "wrap".
Because SMAC East-West is diagonal, if you raise terrain in that line, you get a 3000m ridge with 2000m "teeth" adjacent. Our goal is to build 2 parallel ridges at 2.5 squares' distance so that the "teeth" interlock, creating a huge 2000m plateau between them.
Since the best way to raise to 3000m is to start at 2000m, let's assume the best way to get parallel ridges is to raise a 3000m "curve" from one ridge to the next. If you're raising a ridge Easterly and you want to curve South to build its parallel counterpart, raise Southeast, then South, then South. You are now on the line of the Southern parallel ridge, so raise to the West. The North edge of the South ridge should interlock with the South edge of the North ridge like a zipper.
What's most important is getting the distance just right so the "teeth" interlock without any wasted overlap. That distance is 2.5 units, measuring diagonals as 1 unit and horizontal / vertical as half a unit.
Also note that the ridges can be extended in parallel in either direction indefinitely (or until you circle the globe I guess). In fact, if you're using formers that have a move rate of 1, it is slightly more efficient to put 1 former on each of the 4 ends than put 4 formers on 1 end, because of the turns used up moving.
The placement strategy for E. Mirrors is a subject of another thread, because there are 3 different optimizations: build time, land utilization, and crawler utilization. |
Vi Vicdi?
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Santiago_Claus
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OMG, I can't believe anyone around here still remembers me!
I haven't been around here nor played any AC for years!
The Latin handle, in addition to having long ago expired, was horribly misspelled, so I switched to "Santiago Claus", which also, sadly, is horribly misspelled.
Hmm ... this is a longshot, but would you happen to know to what "Santiago Claus" refers?
Oh, right, energy parks without crashes: Do Not Disturb. Don't look up resource values on the map (you've memorized those anyway, right?), and don't touch your supply crawlers once you've started them harvesting. If I remember correctly, you can cancel harvesting on a corrupted map square, but if you try to begin again you get a crash. Leave your crawlers where you put 'em. No peeking, either: if you move the cursor over a corrupted map square which is being harvested the system will crash, because a reference is made to the energy value of the map square in order to show the supply crawler's stats in the unit window.
By the way, accessing corrupted map squares from the zoomed-in base view won't cause a crash. Something about the map itself rather than the actual game data seems to be what gets corrupted.
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Santiago_Claus
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That's a bright plateau you've got there.
If you place the Headpiece to the Staff of Ra atop the monolith at just the right time, will it focus the reflected light of the Echelon Mirrors into a beam of light that points out the last resting place of the ... err, wait, that's in a big warehouse back on Earth, isn't it? Never mind. I'm digging in the wrong place.
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Santiago_Claus
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Checking from the base works; checking on the map crashes. It's something to do with the map, maybe the map UI or the way the map UI is linked to the game database.
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All times are GMT. The time now is 05:34.
Apolyton Time is 00:34. |
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04-03-2004 08:39
Do you know any way to circumvent this bug and still be able to build energy parks? Due to this bug I have avoided building energy parks in all my games since I first encountered that bug. 
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