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CEO Aaron
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Everything has its price. Even you.
Aug 2002
time: 05:22
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Okay, the scenario: Me, playing on Thinker (I'm not a Transcend stud just yet) as the U.N. The hated University has nearly finished the Command Nexxus in a nearby port city(I'm already Governor, so I can see his city production). After seeing the warning, I quicky divert some nearby foil probes to sabotage the project. First probe: Kills the Network Node. Second probe: Demolishes recycling tanks. Last probe: Yahtzee! Command Nexxus production stopped.
Smugly congratulating myself for resourcefulness and initiative, I proceed to the next turn, where the Command Nexxus appears, completed, out of nowhere, in a completely different city. Feeling suspicious, i returned to a pervious save, and discovered that the turn before, this offending city was producing an Impact Rover. What gives?
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Mongoose
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Harrisburg,PA USA
Apr 1999
time: 00:22
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Cash Rush?
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MariOne
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Erewhon in Neverland
May 1999
time: 06:22
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Technically then, you need one turn to pay the the rush, and you get the item only on *subsequent* turn.
Cash Rush can't be considered the reason for something that you saw wasn't already rushed the turn before.
But OTOH you can beat the AI by rushing a project even if you got informed that it was due for next turn.
IF turn sequence were respected as it happens between humans, no matter how you rush your project, the AI should get it before you.
Instead you can snatch it, against the physics laws...
So, this shows how normal time-sequence restraints do not apply when talking aobut AIs and Project. And this could be imagined to happen the other way round, not only when it favors you...
The rationale of all this... you guess what my advice could be?
If you're tired of the AI inconsistent behavior, play against humans! 
BTW, to end all this fuss about "heating" AI.
Why should you expect that the AI abides by the SAME rules that apply to you???
Can't you plainly accept that the mechanics or at least the parameters ruling the AI behavior are DIFFERENT than those you're subject to?
Hell, to many players, those AI advantages are NOT EVEN enough to make it a challenge, so that they alter the game to give even MORE advantages to the AI!!!!
So why *****ing?
The only (SAD) catch, is that for it to be fair, you should be totally AWARE of the way your AI opponent behaves, and which restraints (slacker than yours, by design!) it is forced to play within.
That is, IF you expect to play a game the "scientific way".
Many game designers (and some players...  ) think that it is NOT desirable to KNOW the maths underlying game behavior, but only general conceptual trends, to truly enjoy a gaming experience.
It is fun to be forced to face lots of enemy AI units, rather than just a few. Why should a player care whether the AI achieves to produces that big army because it's efficinet and smart in the provisioning and usage of resources, or plainly because AI units are muche cheaper to produce that the human counterparts?
(beware, I understand but do NOT agree with this school of thought, so don't argue with me because of it )
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CEO Aaron
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Everything has its price. Even you.
Aug 2002
time: 05:22
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Its not the cheating, per se, that annoys me about this situaction, its the fact a strategy that would be completely valid against a human player is worthless against the AI. Sure, the AI can fudge production, build better than it terraforms, etc, because its shitty at terraforming, horrible at unit tactics. But _come_on_, I blew that project up fair and square, found his city, stole his map, and got probe there in time to stop it. To be robbed of this victory, simply because the programmers didn't see fit to make the AI smart enough to realize that it had lost its project is just LAME.
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MariOne
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Erewhon in Neverland
May 1999
time: 06:22
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OK, OK, you made your point!
as this discussion is far from pointless, I invite you to reflect on these two thoughts:
1. most of the posts here report strategies valid against AI but completely worthless against a human opponent. Some even praise/boast such strategies *because* they are tailored against the AI...
I fully understand your point, and I hope you understand how I shared the same kind of frustration all the time I posted here, now that you see it from the other end.
2. Yes, it's lame, but once you know it, you'd adapt to that as it's the (lame) way the SMAC AI works, just as you adapt tho the (lame) way the game allows you to steal a Project under the AI's nose by breaking the turn sequence.
You'll know which lame ways are allowed to beat the AI on a project (or in general), and which lame ways won't work...
See, FurXs® was not even good to consistently program the way the AI cheats!
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Flubber
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With a view of the Rockies
Aug 2000
time: 22:22
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quote:
Originally posted by Cybergod
What I meant was - could the AI build AtT in one turn???
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Not really that relevant a question IMHO but i see no reason for the AI to have different behaviors for different projects ( for which it has the tech)
The more relevant question is why the AI would have the tech for those projects ??
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Mongoose
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Harrisburg,PA USA
Apr 1999
time: 00:22
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quote:
Originally posted by Urban Ranger
In a single player game the human player always goes first. |
Nonsense. Fire up a game of SMAC. Choose the Peacekeepers. Select 'look first' from among the games' parameters. Found your first base in the landing square. Check the monuments. You will see a message about which of the other factions was the first to found a base. (ususally the Gaians, because they move first in the turn sequence)
This is beside the point, anyway. In the case where the game gives you warning about impending AI completion of a SP, if you check their F4 screen (you do have them infiltrated!, right?) you will see that they have already accumulated enough minerals for the project already or will have enough counting their next turns' mineral production. At that point, it is your turn. If the turn sequence were followed properly, the only things you could do to prevent that project from completing would be 1) sabotage it (CEO Aaron's choice) 2) take the bases where it is under construction or 3) (in the case where the upcoming turns' production will be required to furnish enough minerals) disrupt the mineral producing ability of the bases so that it produces below the required threshold for completion.
However, the normal turn sequence does not strictly apply here, as MariOne has noted. If, instead of one of the above three options, you rush build that same project yourself, either entirely or so that your next turns' production grants enough minerals to finish it, you, and not the AI, will complete the project. In this case, you will often get a repeat of the previous turns' warning message about the AI nearing completion of that project, which will then be immediately (or almost so) followed by the movie playing when you complete it.
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Mongoose
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Harrisburg,PA USA
Apr 1999
time: 00:22
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I think that happens when they rush it at the end, Cybergod. I never verified that.
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24-09-2002 04:12
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