unlimited terraforming cheat

[bvanevery]

Heard about this on a long Ycombinator thread about SMAC.  Haven't tried it.

john_moscow 16 hours ago [-]

In case anyone else is playing the game in 2019 (2020?), here's a nice little cheat that allows instant and unlimited terraforming:

1. Open the alphax.txt file and locate the Chassis definitions. Set the "Missile" flag for the Missile chassis to 0 (set it to 1 for Needlejet) and change its range to 99.

2. Replace the 'deleted' technology in alphax.txt with an arbitrary name and link it to the 'missile' platform.

3. Edit your faction txt file so that it starts with the missile technology and the gravship technology.

4. Open the unit designer, make a gravship former and switch the chassis to missile (the gravship step is important). This will make you a "missile former" capable of instant unlimited terraforming (i.e. terraforming doesn't end the turn) and unlimited range (is gets reset to 99 once it reaches zero).

Kinda breaks the balance, but makes it possible to play for an otherwise weak faction, while eliminating the grind.

[Vidsek]

  If you're going to go to all that bother just to rig the game and cheat, why not simply open the scenario editor and put whatever improvements you want wherever you want quickly and directly?  Plus you get the honesty of having the blazing red CHEATER label 

[bvanevery]

I don't really know.  For that matter, why not mod the terrain costs to be much quicker?  Or maybe even zero time is possible.  Haven't tried it.  Wouldn't have a natural interest in trying it.  But this exploit was amusing enough to repost.