Alpha Centauri 2

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri & Alien Crossfire => The Theory of Everything => Topic started by: Daemonjax on May 07, 2017, 02:52:03 am

Title: I don't understand unit support mechanic
Post by: Daemonjax on May 07, 2017, 02:52:03 am

Sometimes when I find a bonus unit on the map it picks a random base to support it.

Sometimes not, and so it's free to support.

The games where I can get a bunch of units freely supported go really well in the early game (Gaians), but I can't seem to figure out the mechanic behind it.

The first free scout given doesn't have a home, so I figured that if I found the bonus units with that unit, then that would cause the found units to also not have a home... but that isn't always true.

Anyone know how it works?

Title: Re: I don't understand unit support mechanic
Post by: gwillybj on May 08, 2017, 12:05:04 am

Quote from: Daemonjax on May 07, 2017, 02:52:03 am

Sometimes when I find a bonus unit on the map it picks a random base to support it.

Sometimes not, and so it's free to support.

The choice of home base isn't random. It homes to the nearest base. This will cause a sea unit to be homed to an inland base if it's the closest.
As for how a found unit is not homed ("free"), I don't know that. It has something to do with distance, iirc.

Title: Re: I don't understand unit support mechanic
Post by: Daemonjax on May 08, 2017, 11:41:27 pm

Maybe it's as simple as: If the finding unit has no home base, then the found unit has no home base UNLESS it is found within a base's territory -- in that case, the found unit will automatically use that base as its home.  Or something like that.  But I'm pretty sure the first converted mindworm was never homed, and I usually find it within the first base's territory.  Maybe the first one or two found are never homed.

EDIT: I just read in a post from 1999 that if you get a bonus unit that's closer to an enemy base than your own, then it's independent.

Title: Re: I don't understand unit support mechanic
Post by: Yitzi on September 10, 2017, 01:52:46 am

I know that it's a question of distance from your bases where it's found, but I don't know the exact rules.

Title: Re: I don't understand unit support mechanic
Post by: Buster's Uncle on September 10, 2017, 01:57:33 am

Based on how it treats homing captured worms, it's something to do with when in the game, very early on is more likely to be independent anywhere, and distance is a factor, and whether or not it's inside your territory at all matters - even very late game, a worm captured in another faction's territory not close to your border has a good chance of not being homed.