Units

Units are the principal means of affecting the outside world in Alpha Centauri and Alien Crossfire. Built at bases or recovered from Unity pods, they allow you to reshape the face of Chiron, build new bases, and of course, wage war on unfriendly factions. The game abstracts the size and a single pawn represents different amounts of troops and vehicles:


 * Each infantry unit represents a company (100-300 men). However, the units are smaller in the very early stages of a game. In particular, the Scout Patrol units with which most factions begin the game probably represent platoons (30-60 men) or even squads (10-20 men).
 * Each ground vehicle unit (rover or hovertank) represents 5-12 vehicles, a platoon of infantry support, and a logistical "tail" of mechanics with their equipment. Some units may have mixed composition, and may include repair rovers with large machine shops, troop transports, etc. Note that the Unity Rover unit is a single vehicle.
 * Each naval unit (foil or cruiser) represents one ship.
 * Each air unit (needlejet, copter, etc.) represents 2-6 aircraft with their logistical support (mechanics, loaders, air-traffic controllers, etc.). However, the Unity Scout Chopper represents a single vehicle.
 * A Terraformer unit represents 100-300 engineers, agronomists, technicians, etc. A Colony Pod unit represents about the same number of engineers, along with about twice that number of dependents and a great deal of equipment.
 * A Probe Team unit represents a squad of operatives (no more than 10 men) equipped with a variety of advanced sensors and covert-operations equipment, including computer intrusion devices and software. A squad of conventionally armed troops usually supports the probe team itself.
 * A captured or bred native life unit (mind worms, spore launchers, etc.) represents 1-3 telepaths and the boils, swarms, or colonies bonded to them.

Overview
Every unit is characterized by three statistics: Offense - Defense - Speed (O-D-S). Reactors mounted on units determine their durability, namely how much damage they can take before being wiped off the map.
 * Offense represents the strength of the unit when attacking in combat, as a numerical value. It is determined by weapons mounted on the unit. Non-combat units like formers do not have any offense.
 * Defense represents the strength of the unit when defending. It is determined by armor applied to the unit.
 * Speed shows how many squares the unit can move per turn before any modifiers are applied. It is determined by chassis types.

Unit design
Every unit consists of three parts at minimum: Additional parts can be applied:
 * Weapons and equipment determine their offensive power and function respectively.
 * Reactor that determines cost and
 * A chassis, determining its speed and area of movement.
 * Armor for protection.
 * Special ability that provides a major bonus (two with Neural Grafting researched).

Unit cost
When designing new units, bear in mind that units strong in three areas (weapon, armor, chassis) will be vastly more expensive than units strong in only two areas (or one).

The basic cost formula, to which there are several modifiers, is:


 * Cost = Weapon * (Armor + Speed) * 10 / (2 (Reactor + 1))


 * Weapon value never less than 1/2 Armor value.
 * Non-combat units substitute ""Equipment Cost"" for Weapon value.
 * Cost is halved for units with Speed 1.
 * Cost is halved for sea units, and Armor is discounted 50%.
 * Cost quartered for combat air units.
 * Armor cost doubled for air units.
 * Cost +25% for each unit of Special Ability cost.
 * Cost +10 minerals if both Weapon and Armor greater than 1.
 * Cost +10 minerals if Land unit's Weapon, Armor, Speed all greater than 1.
 * Minimum cost (Reactor*2 - Reactor/2)*10 unless all values are 1.