10-07-2004 05:56									#1
	Strange Units. Support Apolyton, buy Alpha Centauri

I'm a long time lurker here at Apolyton, first time poster. Mainly because before I came here I 'thought' I knew how to play SMAC. Beat the game on Transcend with ease, played head games with the Original Seven just for kicks. And only played a few games of MP as my connect sucks.

Now, I see I've barely scratched the surface. Learning about the lethal efficiency of ICS and looking over the mods in Creation. Well, let's just say I've been a tad unwilling to voice my opinion in the face of all this experience.

But, I ran into something strange today. A Fungicidal Missle Foil? What? I found myself puzzled. And then intrigued. I immediately rushed a Foil Probe over and requisitioned it in the name of the Provost's need for new toys.

Brought up the workshop screen, found it on the list. But, it never showed on the screen. Simple Missle Foil, no mention of Fungicidal on the Workshop screen. But, there it was down on the list. Fungicidal Missle Foil. I never could make my own.

Looked like a Missle Foil with a set of yellow graphics attached to the front of it on either side of the missle rack.

Anyone else run into this?

	10-07-2004 06:09									#2
	Increase Your PM Length

It's easy to make this possible by editing the alpha(x).txt. However, I've never seen it happen 'by accident' with a normal game. Take a gander down at the units part of alpha.txt and you'll see a bunch of

code:

; Mode    = Offense mode (or noncombat package type)
;           Combat modes: 0=Projectile, 1=Energy, 2 = Missile
;           Noncombat: 7=Transport 8=Colonist
;                      9=Terraformer 10=Convoy 11=InfoWar
;                      12=Artifact

code:

Terraforming Unit,    Formers,        0, 9, 6, -1, Ecology,

code:

; Flags  =
;          00000000001 = Allowed for Land units
;          00000000010 = Allowed for Sea units
;          00000000100 = Allowed for Air units
;          00000001000 = Allowed for Combat units
;          00000010000 = Allowed for Terraformer units
;          00000100000 = Allowed for Noncombat units (non-terraformer)
;          00001000000 = Not allowed for probe teams
;          00010000000 = Not allowed for psi units
;          00100000000 = Transport units only
;          01000000000 = Not allowed for fast-moving units
;          10000000000 = Cost increased for land units

code:

Super Former,           1, EcoEng2,  Super,     00000010111, Terraform rate doubled

or in your case

Fungicide Tanks,        1, Fossil,   Fungicidal,00000010111, Clear fungus at double speed

either of which, if a '1' is place in the appropriate slot, will make a unit appear with two yellow (usually) 'super-former' ears stick out of a combat unit.

That was more of an answer than you asked for, but I've been workin' on this stuff today anyways. And welcome to Apolyton, where lurking is an art.

-Smack

Edit: Note, this is just slightly different in alphax.txt, where there are 4 more abilities and 2 more zeros on the special abilities.

	10-07-2004 06:13									#3
	Tired of ads?

See, this is what I mean. Knowing about all the txt things and how to modify the game. Not me. And I'm not quite ready for that yet.

Anyways, yeah. I can see how you could 'make' it happen, but I've 'never' seen the game do it on its own before. Shocked the hell out of me and I'm wondering 'why' would you want to do that, anyway? Armed Formers? Crazy

	10-07-2004 06:14									#4
	Re: Strange Units. Support Apolyton, buy Civilization 2

quote: Originally posted by Infernis Anyone else run into this?

Yeah indeed. It was kinda fun to see those.

Would my guess be correct that it was Miriam who had those fungicidal missile foils?

	10-07-2004 06:19									#5
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization 2

Santiago, actually. I was playing as the good Provost and the blackhaired devil woman came calling one day not long after I got PN. She bullied some tech out of me before I got my probes built and then I went calling. Found those Fungicidal freak-machines on their way over to visit.

	10-07-2004 06:25									#6
	Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations: Deluxe Edition

Any ideas Maniac on what triggers this 'feature'? I know you have some ideas

See, there ya go. An experienced modder like me comes along, and there is always someone more experienced

Come to think of it, I think I have seen this. Are you running just Smac, and not Smax? Armored Formers have their use, but Formered-Military is just silly.

-S

	10-07-2004 06:27									#7
	Inflate your Upload Space

Just SMAC. Don't have SMAX and can't get it online and it's nowhere near where I live. Don't ask. I hate Credit Cards now.

Anyways. Just SMAC, patched to the hilt, run on WinXP.

	10-07-2004 06:35									#8
	Support Apolyton or Terrorists Win

Ok, well I've played a lot more Smac than Smax, so it could still happen in Smax. Not sure. I hope you don't have to have an answer, 'cause I don't think anyone really knows.

This is my guess as to what happens: The AI builds 'custom' units all the time, right?

Tangent-1: Sometimes the AI has it's formers attacked, and decides to send out a few armored ones. Just at that time, they happen to be prototyping a new armor. Now you have a 1-3-1 armored former (that happens to be fungicidal). Oh no, now they need a new ship. They take the best-armored unit they have and build a prototype from that base. IE turn a 1-3-1 former into a 1-3-4 foil. Step one, change the chassis to a foil. Step two, change the 'weapon' to a gun. Step three: publish new unit

Tangent-2: Variations of above, but with gifted units. The special ability sticks to the newly 'customized' units built on shiny old prototypes.

-S

	10-07-2004 06:45									#9
	Put an end to popups!

That has the sound of logic to it. I'm going to write it off with that explanation simply to bring some closure to the insane thing. Only Santiago would put a missle launcher on a Former unit.

	10-07-2004 07:19									#10
	Remove this text

What, you mean you don't take a gun with you to the garden? Santiago probably has missile launchers in every room of her house, just in case a fly needs swatting

	10-07-2004 11:08									#11
	Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations

What do you mean 'missiles on formers', Fungicidal Missle Foils can't terraform, the ablility does nothing at all, I know because I tried giving the Unity Mining Laser the ability to terraform and attack but theres no way short of making all formers able to attack or all lasers able to terraform.

	10-07-2004 11:14									#12
	Inflate your Upload Space

I believe that was somewhat figurative. See the top of the thread for the unit in question.

	12-07-2004 01:31									#13
	Support Apolyton, pre-order Civilization IV

quote: Originally posted by smacksim What, you mean you don't take a gun with you to the garden? Santiago probably has missile launchers in every room of her house, just in case a fly needs swatting

In my house it's snakes, so I keep a hatchet at the ready. ssssCHOP
I'm working up the nerve to cook one for dinner.
As for strange units: A couple of weeks ago I opened a pod in fungus and got the "Indigenous Lifeforms!" announcement, but what appeared was one "Alien Colony Pod". This was a SMAX game but with the SMAC-7 factions, so no Progenitors. It looked just like a standard human colony pod, with 0-0-1 for the Weapon-Armor-Chassis, but the body was red instead of white. It had a red morale flag, so it did, indeed, belong to the Eighth Faction. I didn't attack it because I wanted to see what it would do: Would it attack like a mind worm? Would it establish a base? It just moved off into the fungus, though, and I never saw it again.

	12-07-2004 01:43									#14
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization: The Boardgame

But what about weird graphics? For example, play one of the scenarios, like Single Player Fun, on Crossfire, and the graphics for some of the units are all screwed up...

	12-07-2004 02:17									#15
	Remove this text

quote: As for strange units: A couple of weeks ago I opened a pod in fungus and got the "Indigenous Lifeforms!" announcement, but what appeared was one "Alien Colony Pod". This was a SMAX game but with the SMAC-7 factions, so no Progenitors. It looked just like a standard human colony pod, with 0-0-1 for the Weapon-Armor-Chassis, but the body was red instead of white. It had a red morale flag, so it did, indeed, belong to the Eighth Faction. I didn't attack it because I wanted to see what it would do: Would it attack like a mind worm? Would it establish a base? It just moved off into the fungus, though, and I never saw it again.

Hehehe, wierd. I have noticed that in the scenario editor, it lets you create any unit in #units part of alpha.txt for any faction, including the aliens. So, if you want to try that again, open up the scenario editor, hit shift+F1, and choose colony pod (why not give them a rover or two also) and choose "aliens" as the faction. I've never tried this before, so I'd be kinda curious to see what happens...

	12-07-2004 02:46									#16
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

Hmmm, very interesting. It seems that the humanoid alien units behave exactly like regular alien units. They move around, usually trying to avoid settlements, but when they stumble across one, they attack. At least that's what happened with the scout patrols and rovers. Now, the colony pods and terraformers on the other hand, they behaved the same way, for the most part (just wandering around) but when it came time to attack, they couldn't (obviously) so they quickly perished. Never once did the terraformer terraform or any of the CP's plant a base.

Also, it seems the humanoid units used the combat graphics, sound, and mathematical variables of a conventional fight. Although they still had the first 30 years penalty when attacking (when an alien scout patrol tried to attack my rover, it's combat strength was 0.06.) So, funnily enough, the colony pods were slightly harder to kill (as they only had the non-combat penalty).

I was actually kinda dissapointed. It would have been funny to see the aliens sprout humanoid cities and start producing humanoid units.

	12-07-2004 02:48									#17
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

Oh, I forgot to mention, when the humanoid alien units move into an undefended city, they can't capture it. they just reduce the pop and destroy facilities, just like regular native lifeforms.