24-11-2000 12:01									#1
	Wow! I found a Unity Chopper! Avatar Enlargement: We've got the solution

Did anyone else find something almost unheard of? Did anybody find a Unity Chopper outside of the U.S.N. Unity Wreakage site. I DID!!!!! WOOHOO!

	24-11-2000 12:49									#2
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Yeah there are UCs to be poped if you wait long enough in the game. I know they are pretty useless without an upgrade... was it slow too? There is nothing worse than a land luber faction finialy getting a u-foil from a coastal pod only to have it cursed with slowness... well there is worse, but you know what I mean.

	24-11-2000 13:27									#3
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After the odds have "been rolled" as to what the pod contains, if it has come up "Unit" (ie rover, foil or chopper) you ahve a 1 in 3 chance of it being a chopper if by then you have researched Fossil Fuels. (so says prima's guide).

You won't get a chopper before you have Fossil Fuels. Range is 8 (same as a transport needlejet) and about all it is good for is exploration and weak mindworm kills.

But hey, it beats getting an 8 mindworm spawn (unless you're Cha Dee).

G.

	24-11-2000 20:14									#4
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[q]pretty useless without an upgrade[q]

I know. I sent it to a small base in the middle of a large fungus field (Uranium Flats under base. Only reason being there.) to help a Unity Rover defend the base from mindworm attacks.

I think that there is some type of limit to how many Unity class equipment you can find. During the great expansion time of my faction I found quite alot of Unity Rovers and Foils. (The foils didn't help much, rovers hunted mindworms.) Then suddenly, as my great Isles roamed the oceans popping pods, the flow stopped. Now there were tons of alien artifacts! I found tons of them but no Unity stuff. I guess it tries to put a limit on how much the Unity was carrying. (Never found a Unity Foil. Must be useful in the New Sargasso, though.)

And I think the Fossil Fuels tech is the time this starts. (To stop the chance of tons of choppers being popped.)

This game is the most interesting because aside from the chopper popped by the Drones near the wreakage, two others were found! One by me and one by the Caretakers (Who wasted it on one of my impact foils.).

	25-11-2000 02:35									#5
	Avatar Enlargement: We've got the solution

In my games the unity chopper outside of the crash site is scarce but not rare - similar odds to the Mk2 Ogre pod-pop. I seemed to get more with vanilla SMAC, than SMACX; although that is not counting the unity crash site. The odds of a successful chopper pop seem to climb dramatically for the pods far away from my HQ.

I also think that the chopper can be highly valuable. First explore, then kill native life forms. You should be able to get above veteran experience by the time the first enemy planes attack. Since the chopper is SAMed you can really have a field day against the AI planes.

If it survives to be upgraded when you get MMI that is just an added bonus.

	25-11-2000 08:10									#6
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. On a few ocassions on a huge Planet I have poped up (including on sea pods) Unity choppers so far from a base that could not reach one for fuel. After a caculation of the fatal distance they became kamikaze reconosance.

------------------
Gauis Mucius Scaevola Sinistra
Pontificator Pendanticus
older richer & wiser than you

	25-11-2000 18:04									#8
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I have popped a chopper before SFF. I can't remember if any of the other factions had discovered it yet. It may be that if another faction has it, you can pop a chopper.

	25-11-2000 18:22									#9
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Yeah, I think the rule is that if any faction discovers fossil fuels, the Chopper becomes available. I personally have never had one before SFF, but then I have only had two before in my SMAC-playing career....

	25-11-2000 19:05									#10
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Correction:

Prima says:

If Synthetic Fossil Fuels have been discovered, you have a 1 in 3 chance......

I inferred from that that if you have discovered - obviously an incorrect inference.



G.