Aquarium SMAC Scenario Scenario v1.0 Simon de Vet sdevet@istar.ca http://home.istar.ca/~sdevet ----- INTRO: Upon arriving at Chiron, the Unity probes discover something quite startling. Instead of the lush, earthlike planet you had been promised, you stumble upon a world of water. A mistake? A conspiracy? It is hardly relevant anymore. Luckily, before the crash landing, you and your crewmates manage to download the Unity files on seafaring. Just be happy that the landing probes can double as personal floatation devices. GAME INFO: NOTE - Game comes with scenario.txt, and should thus be unzipped into its own directory. No objectives set. Factions start with one sea base, and a few units. Victory is determined by the player, all options left open. Starts in 2100, with Doctrine: Flexibility for all. This is, of course, an all water planet. However, it is not entirely uniform. There are still distinct geological regions (notably the Geothermal Shallows and New Sargasso) along with more minor regions that confer other bonii (one for energy, minerals, and nutrients). The planet is also possesses a good number of oceanic plateaus which are better suited to colony growth than the deeper regions, which require raising to build most improvements. Fungus is common, but resticted to shallow waters. Watch out if sea levels drop. The AI is not very good at this kind of a map, even at the most difficult levels, and may well be best suited to a multiplayer game. However, it can still present an interesting challenge. There are several ways to succeed: Growth ------ Trying to produce enormous numbers of colonies. Pros: Easy to surround opponents, easy to gain territory, as colonies can be built everywhere. Cons: Sea bases are easily taken over, borders are not very relevant without ZOC. Conquest -------- Take over all the bases you can find. Pros: Sea bases are easy to take over. Cons: Captured bases are hard to keep, ships are expensive. Build ----- Improving bases and land. Pros: Can make usually unproductive sea bases quite succesful. Cons: Can't raise land out of sea with formers till you get gravships. To make the most use of the deep areas, raising/lowering is needed. Diplomacy --------- Solar Shade Pros: Gives some much needed land to work with. Almost guaranteed unanimous vote in favour. Cons: Takes a long time to get required tech. Factions will support some shading, but will not allow for enough land to be viable. Of course, any combination of these tactics would be successful. Terraforming and a Solar Shade are a good combination, as would be growth and conquest. Some tactics are better suited to different factions. KNOWN PROBLEMS: - The nice looking landforms under the sea become more chaotic when sea level drops. - With sea level drop, all land is flat and moist. no rocks are present (unless you trigger an earthquake) making it ideal for boreholes, but lousy for any other mineral production. - AI is lousy at sea, won't take advantages of special regions. - There may be too much fungus. Not sure about this, yet.. CONTACT: If you have any suggestions, problems, complaints, etc, please contact me at 'sdevet@istar.ca' This is still a first version of the scenario. I'd love to hear from players, and make improvements. Enjoy playing! I enjoyed making it! Simon de Vet