SMACX Thinker Mod

[Neil]

Hi, I am trying out this mod after not playing for a few years. Thanks for all your effort on this!
When I load the mod through the launcher shortcut, it seems random whether it works or not. I have SMAC mode enabled, and half the time it loads Alien Crossfire and half the time the original splash screen. Any ideas?

[EmpathCrawler]

Hi, I am trying out this mod after not playing for a few years. Thanks for all your effort on this!
When I load the mod through the launcher shortcut, it seems random whether it works or not. I have SMAC mode enabled, and half the time it loads Alien Crossfire and half the time the original splash screen. Any ideas?

I also consistently have this issue across the two PCs I use.

[Induktio]

Hi, I am trying out this mod after not playing for a few years. Thanks for all your effort on this!
When I load the mod through the launcher shortcut, it seems random whether it works or not. I have SMAC mode enabled, and half the time it loads Alien Crossfire and half the time the original splash screen. Any ideas?

You're probably using Windows 10 or newer? There's some kind of incompatibility issue caused by these newer Windows versions, unfortunately I have not yet diagnosed it.

As a workaround you can use terranx_mod.exe from older releases and combine it with newer thinker.dll (and other txt files), so you should be able to start the mod without problems. For now terranx_mod.exe is still compatible with newer thinker.dll versions.

[Neil]

That's ok. I can just keep retrying it until it works..

I notice the AI is a lot smarter in some ways and builds a lot of supply crawlers and satellites. I also notice it designs some interesting unit designs, like armored probe teams. Very cool stuff! Well done!

However I notice the AI still doesn't build many facilities. Eg even after a long game, they had hardly any energy banks. I think once the AI gets into war, it spends most of its time building military units. Although this makes sense, it should still keep developing some of its bases. Warmongers don't even build many command centers.

I also found my neighbor (late game) defending large bases with only single rover units without armor, which made them easy to capture with a surprise attack. Well, I say surprise attack. I asked Lal to withdraw from my territory and he got mad!

[EmpathCrawler]

Hi, I am trying out this mod after not playing for a few years. Thanks for all your effort on this!
When I load the mod through the launcher shortcut, it seems random whether it works or not. I have SMAC mode enabled, and half the time it loads Alien Crossfire and half the time the original splash screen. Any ideas?

You're probably using Windows 10 or newer? There's some kind of incompatibility issue caused by these newer Windows versions, unfortunately I have not yet diagnosed it.

As a workaround you can use terranx_mod.exe from older releases and combine it with newer thinker.dll (and other txt files), so you should be able to start the mod without problems. For now terranx_mod.exe is still compatible with newer thinker.dll versions.

Found an even easier temp fix: Set the terranx.exe compatibility mode to XP. Just toyed with that and got it to run with your launcher without fail 10 times in a row.

EDIT: On Windows 11. Also it started in 1024x768 resolution twice, haha.

[EmpathCrawler]

As promised, I think, I have two examples of decent amphibious assaults and one of a rather foolish one from my latest game.

Miriam Good was a pretty good Believer attack on University Island. The Believers took Zoloto-Gold with an Impact rover, then mind controlled Relativity School. Very destabilizing attack that put them on the wrong foot for a bit. Miriam went for Relativity School a handful of times, but I only noticed after the fact.

Yang Good was a nice outflanking maneuver around the huge Peacekeeper/Hive front line.

Unfortunately, though, neither was able to make good on their attacks.

Miriam Bad was an ill-advised attack on me, though particularly daring and unexpected by going through University territory. If the Believers had landed on the tiles directly next to The Flowers Preach I absolutely would have lost that base (only defender was a 1-1-1 cop) and it would have thrown me off balance. Landing that far off made it easy for me to contain that attack almost instantly.

[EmpathCrawler]

Oops, attached is Miriam Bad.

[Neil]

Does automatic fungus removal work with Thinker managed formers? I set some formers to this, and they are doing other improvements.

[Induktio]

> However I notice the AI still doesn't build many facilities. Eg even after a long game, they had hardly any energy banks.

Then some people say the AI doesn't build enough defenders or military units. So go figure. It's currently tuned to emphasize unit production more heavily. If they have many active wars, it's almost unavoidable. You can adjust this by choosing conquer_priority=50 or similar.

> If the Believers had landed on the tiles directly next to The Flowers Preach I absolutely would have lost that base

Often the landings are done on squares not directly adjacent to enemy units, so they can avoid immediate counter attacks from the enemy. Not saying it's the best choice here, but it has its own rationale.

> Does automatic fungus removal work with Thinker managed formers? I set some formers to this, and they are doing other improvements.

No, it's not implemented. All Thinker formers will follow the same strategy regardless of other option menus in the game.

> Found an even easier temp fix: Set the terranx.exe compatibility mode to XP.
> On Windows 11. Also it started in 1024x768 resolution twice, haha.

Good to know it can be fixed in that way. That's very useful. Did you find any way to make it start in the native desktop resolution (e.g. DirectDraw=0 in vanilla)?

[Neil]

Then some people say the AI doesn't build enough defenders or military units. So go figure. It's currently tuned to emphasize unit production more heavily. If they have many active wars, it's almost unavoidable. You can adjust this by choosing conquer_priority=50 or similar.

The AI was producing lots of military units but still defended key bases with only 1 unarmored rover. I tried changing the conquer_priority. But perhaps the AI can divide its bases between development and unit building in some way? A better economy helps unit production. A conquer AI should also build more command centers.

[Neil]

Regarding supply crawlers.
Not everyone's cup of tea. I tried to disable them, but they still seem to be available. How do I do that? I tried commenting out the module and preset unit in smac_mod\alphax.txt which is what I play, but they're still in the game.

Some techs say they allow supply crawlers to haul multiple resource types, yet I couldn't figure out how to make use of that ability?

I noticed the AI had some bases with all the tiles exploited due to high population and some tiles still being worked by supply crawlers. Surely it would be better to stop crawling those tiles, so the base pop can extract all 3 resources from there? And maybe send the crawler elsewhere.

Does the AI build sea crawlers?

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

Regarding supply crawlers.
Not everyone's cup of tea. I tried to disable them, but they still seem to be available. How do I do that? I tried commenting out the module and preset unit in smac_mod\alphax.txt which is what I play, but they're still in the game.

Code: [Select]

Supply Crawler,         Infantry, Supply,       Scout,     10, 0, 0, Disable, -1, 00000000000000000000000000

Do not comment out any predefined units in alphax.txt. They are hardcoded internally.

Some techs say they allow supply crawlers to haul multiple resource types, yet I couldn't figure out how to make use of that ability?

Seriously? Which one? Never knew crawler can harvest multi-resources.

[Neil]

Multiresource convoys ??

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

This is some modded version. Check what are you playing.

[Neil]

I am playing Thinker Mod with SMAC-in-SMACX.