I'm still a new player to SMAC I'm going to ask questions here

[Metaliturtle]

so if you were to re-write the governors, using the existing 4 categories, what would each governor do?

[Buster's Uncle]

Oh, not so much different - only a lot less stupid, for a preference.

[Metaliturtle]

That's really useful

[Buster's Uncle]

Sorry; Mart will have a much better answer.

[Eadee]

ICS a thing in SMAC?

What does ICS mean?

Also, how I start a usual game:

I usually build a Former or a Recycling Tank first if I have the corresponding tech (through starting tech or Unity-capsule) and if Mineral income is higher than food-income.
If I have none of these techs or Food income is already great while Minerals suck, I simply start with the Colonypod or Scout-Colonypod opening.

I never use the governor for anything than deploying workers to tiles. Its painfull to set the governor to this setting in every city but I hate to loose controll over building queues.

Also I do blind research but I change the goals very often to get the techs I want. The first techs I try to get are: Biogenetics - Social Psych - Ethical Calculus - Gene Splicing(to be able to get 3+ Nutrients per square). If the tiles of my Base suck, I squeeze Centaury Ecology in (but most of the time I'm playing Gaians anyways). And if I start as Lal then I go Social Psych - Secrets of the Human Brain to get the bonus-Tech. I usually try to get rid of the early game restrictions as soon as possible (Ecological Engineering for Minerals and Environmental Economics for Energy.)

I use the formers to improve Special Ressource-Tiles to maximum yield (the early game restrictions do not apply to these tiles) and try to get at least two tiles per base with good nutrient yield. I build a lot of forests early since they yield every ressource and spread on their own so I can save terraformer time.

[Metaliturtle]

ICS is Infinite City Sprawl.  Really could probably call it IBS (infinite base sprawl) except I've got roots in CIV...  Do you push nutrients for growth?  what does that advantage get you?

[Buster's Uncle]

Ninja'd before I could answer.  Eadee, the other owner is Romanian and half the membership here is not native English speakers, so no worries on that - your English looks fine.

[Eadee]

ICS is Infinite City Sprawl.  Really could probably call it IBS (infinite base sprawl) except I've got roots in CIV...  Do you push nutrients for growth?  what does that advantage get you?

Well more nutrients does mean more people, more people does mean more tiles to work and more colonypods. More tiles to work means more ressources (again nutrients, but energy and minerals as well). More colonypods mean more bases etc...
It just feels as if focusing on nutrients early is a more exponential growth in the whole economy than focusing on minerals or energy.

Ninja'd before I could answer.  Eadee, the other owner is Romanian and half the membership here is not native English speakers, so no worries on that - your English looks fine.

Thanks, I'm just careful when joining new communities because sometimes I try to explain things and the words I choose really upset people because they don't get what I mean or even feel offendet by things I never meant to be offensive. I'll change the signature when I feel that I know the community better and when I'm sure you can handle a mishap on my side.

[Metaliturtle]

Thanks Eadee for the response (no worries about the language btw, English is my native language and I make it very flawed most of the time)

[Yitzi]

so if you were to re-write the governors, using the existing 4 categories, what would each governor do?

Explore would seek to increase the number of bases, via exploration units and colony pods.  Crawlers go here too, because they're most useful when you have a lot of territory they can use without taking squares from your bases.  A few projects would fit here, but not many.  It would seek to increase nutrients in low-population bases (so that they have the pop to build pods), and minerals in higher-value bases, but limit energy considerations to avoiding drone riots.

Build would seek to increase the value of bases, via formers and most facilities.  A significant number of projects would fit here as well.  It would seek to increase nutrients whenever not pop-capped, minerals whenever there's something to build, psych whenever it will avoid riots or give a golden age, and economy all the time (but to a lesser extent than minerals or nutrients).

Discover would seek to increase tech, via tech-boosting facilities; some projects fit here as well.  It would seek to boost labs, with everything else secondary.

Conquer would seek to boost army strength, via military facilities/projects and a lot of units.  It would seek to boost minerals, with everything else secondary.

[Metaliturtle]

Referencing the wiki:

http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Ecology_%28Revised%29

Is it a viable strategy to have a base that builds just tree farms and sells them on repeat?  This seems exploitable.

[Mart]

There are two sides to this:
- mindworms and fungal blooms which damage tile improvements do harm to your faction. So getting higher "clean minerals" value is beneficial
- ecodamage causes spawning mindworms, that can be harvested for planetpearls EC. Later in the game you can have literally thousands of EC/turn. That is beneficial, though destroying late game, in my opinion.

[Yitzi]

Referencing the wiki:

http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Ecology_%28Revised%29

Is it a viable strategy to have a base that builds just tree farms and sells them on repeat?  This seems exploitable.

Without my patch, yes.

We decided, however, that the ability to do that (and associated other things) are a bug, so now (if you use my patch starting I-forget-when but I think 2.0) it's based on the number of tree farms etc. you own (if there's been at least one fungal pop), not the number you've built since the first fungal pop.

[lolada]

In that formula:

DamageReductionInBase = CentauriPreserve + TempleOfPlanet + NanoReplicator + (PholusMutagen + SingularityInductor)

PholusMutagen and Singularity Inductor count as +1 only each?

 I kind of wondered about their "reduces mineral effect on ecology" description.. looks pretty minitaure.

[EmpathCrawler]

It's a divisor so it's very powerful. If you build nothing but the Pholus Mutagen, you've halved the damage factor in all of your bases.