User Guide
minerals transfer, with no loss. If you have invested 40 minerals, the first 10
transfer, as do half of the remaining 30: you transfer 25 (that is, 10 + 30/2)
and you lose 15 (30/2).
If the transfer more than pays for the designated purchase, up to 10 of the
remaining minerals are held over for your next production, with no addition-
al loss. Anything over 10 minerals is lost completely. Continuing our example,
where you have transferred 40 minerals (which are reduced to 25 minerals in
the transfer): if you transfer those 25 minerals to a purchase that only requires
8 minerals, 10 of the remaining 17 minerals (25 - 8) are held over and can be
applied to yet another purchase. The last 7 minerals are lost completely.
Up to 10 minerals can be held over between production orders even when
orders are completed normally. For example, if you have a base producing 23
minerals, and it has 5 minerals left to create a unit, on the next turn it creates
the unit (expending 5 minerals), carries 10 minerals over to the next produc-
tion orders, and the final eight minerals are lost completely.
UNITS
Units are those elements of your faction—people and equipment—that actually
go out upon the face of Planet and do things like fight, explore and discover.
At the most basic level there are three kinds of units in Sid Meier’s Alpha
Centauri—land, sea and air units. Land and sea units are basically self-
explanatory—land units can only move on land squares, sea units on sea
squares. Both types are subject to movement restrictions from fungus and
other obstructions (see How Terrain Affects Movement, p. 44). A unit’s chas-
sis determines what kind of unit it is (see Chassis, p. 83).
Air units are a special case. They have no terrain restrictions at all, but most
have a limited range. Air units carry only enough fuel for two turns of opera-
tions. The unit must replenish its fuel every other turn at a friendly base or air-
base, or it runs out of fuel. The unit’s movement is displayed as a split num-
ber, for example, 12/24. The first number is the amount of moves remaining
COLONIZING PLANET
CHAPTER 4
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