Why did my pirate build a land vehicle in the middle of the ocean?

[eoirbhofdihos]

And what do I do to get it onto land? Is it stuck there forever?

(More dumb questions to follow. New player, much confusion.)

[Buster's Uncle]

Maybe because it's cheaper and works fine as a garrison?

[bvanevery]

If you mean the Pirate faction under AI control built a Speeder in some sea base, it will also build plenty of Transports and eventually bring them to the base, to move that Speeder onto land somewhere.

If you mean you are playing the Pirates yourself, but you activated a Governor for some city, and it built something you consider a bit silly and pointless... that is why you don't use Governors.  And why you don't let the AI do your terraforming for you.  Do everything by hand yourself.

Infantry units will, generally speaking, be used to defend sea bases.  Unlike ships, they have POLICE value.  They keep your population happier if your POLICE rating is -1 or higher.

Comm Jammers also work against ships.  They are not allowed on ships, so you'll need a land unit to have a Comm Jammer defense.  Of course, you didn't say that a comm jammer unit was involved, so it may not be relevant at this time.  It'll become relevant later though.

Ships in the original game also have a penalty for being "in port".  Which I think is totally stupid, as of course you'd defend a sea base with a ship.  I got rid of that in my mod.  But in the original game, a land unit defends better than a sea unit "in port".

[Misanthrope]

  Yay!  New players!
Seriously, seems like community here is pretty chill, so no worries, mate.  Also, a new SMAC(x) player is a happy thing here.  Newbiw questions?  Fire away! 


Sounds like your question was pretty well covered.
If you have your governor activated and controlling production, then they have a really stupid habit of making incredibly bad decisions.  Leave that turned off.
(Small red 'down' arrows next to the 'GOVERNOR' button in the base menu... uncheck 'controls production')

A/P the ground unit at a sea base, also already been covered.  They're GREAT For defense and a lot less expensive to build than sea units (unless you're building vehicles, then yeah, why even?) so having at least one infantry defender at a sea base is a wise move IMO.  Protects from wandering raiders and the very real threat of mind-worm attacks (SeaLurks and Isle of the Deep's at sea)

To get units from sea base to land, yes, build a transport, load the ground unit aboard and away they go.
If it was building something really lame, then you can get rid of it by pressing ...wait.. was it SHIFT+D or CTRL+D  ...I forget, sorry.  Can also right-click and choose 'Disband' to get rid of unwanted units.

After you run a game or two to get familiar with the basic game play and controls, you'll want to play more with managing bases, controlling production and esp. designing your own units.

Using the production schedule is pretty important, or you'll be checking every base every turn, and that gets real tedious real fast.
Also, setting up production presets for new bases, ESP. later in the game, is a useful time-saver.  (Right click on production list to save current and/or load your saved set)

Hope this helps.

[eoirbhofdihos]

I would like to sincerely thank the space wizards above for their insights on the above matter.

[Misanthrope]

Wizards?  Maybe, maybe not... OCD cases fixated on a fun old game?  DEF!
...and welcoming new players to this delightfully complex world?  Our pleasure.   

Seriously, if you need hints, tips or fixes for pretty much ANYTHING, then PLEASE Ask, it gives us a chance to flaunt our nerd-ish-ness. 

[magic9mushroom]

Ships in the original game also have a penalty for being "in port".  Which I think is totally stupid, as of course you'd defend a sea base with a ship.  I got rid of that in my mod.  But in the original game, a land unit defends better than a sea unit "in port".

The "in port" bonus (it's treated as a +100% bonus to the attacker, not a penalty to the defender) doesn't apply when it's a ship attacking. Ships attacking ships in port receive no bonus. Planes attacking ships in seabases get the bonus, though, as do amphibious land units (the latter is not too big an issue, since you pay for it and in many cases have to use a transport, but the former is a bit lousy).