Maniac
Apolyton Sage
Ellestar, is it possible to code the stuff not written in Italic?
Things written in italic is stuff that is too imprecise yet to be programmed, but I thought I'd mention them anway, in case someone has ideas to concretize them.
Flowering Counter upon game startup
X = number of plots the map has, minus all plots Fungus can't ever possibly grow on, even not with a Counter of 100.
For each plot covered by Xenofungus or Sea Fungus or Hybrid Forest, 100/X is added to the Counter.
I'm not exactly sure about the X's and Z's, what's currently coded in the DLL.
Stuff that affects the Flowering Counter during the game
Z = number of plots the map has
1) For each tile xenofungus/sea fungus/hybrid forest (henceforth simply referred to as "fungus" unless specified otherwise) appears on, no matter how it happens (through natural growth, planting or fungal bloom), the Flowering Counter raises by 100/X. The other way around, for each fungus tile removed, the Counter decreases by 100/X.
2) For each Condenser worked by a base which has the Atmospheric Processor base facility, the Flowering Counter decreases by Y/Z each turn. What Y should be I can only tell through experimenting (some number much smaller than 100 of course). May I therefore suggest, for easier modding, to make a new define in GlobalDefines.xml for Y?
3) Use of a weapon of mass destruction - nuclear weapons and planet busters - increases the Flowering Counter. Rather vague as we don't even have planet busters defined yet.
4) building certain buildings related to moving towards Transcendence gives a one-time increase in the Flowering Counter
5) Researching the Terraforming tech gives a decrease to the Counter.
6) Researching the Eudaimonia tech gives an increase to the Counter??
7) The more Fungal Towers, the higher the Flowering Counter?
8) For each Transcend Great Person born, the Flowering Counter increases somewhat.
9) Melt Polar Caps/Launch Solar Shade Planetary Council voting options which directly or indirectly lower/increase the Flowering Counter[/i]
Stuff that the Flowering Counter affects
1) an XML tag under Promotions which gives a combat strength percentage bonus equal to the Flowering Counter. (precise bonus all subject to testing of course)
2) A minimum Flowering Counter level (suggestion to try out: 30) should be reached before randomly spawned native life can enter factional borders. Once this level has been reached native life can always move into cultural borders, even if the counter later drops under again.
3) Farms should upgrade to Farm->Outpost->Settlement(->Human Zone)->Eden. The lower the Flowering Counter, the faster they should upgrade. Some formula needed which leads to an absolute stop of growth at Counter 100, but still makes it take some turns for these improvements to grow at Counter 0.
Possible implementation:
4) There is a minimum Counter level C before Fungus can grow into Highlands at all through natural <iGrowth> (so seperate from Fungal Blooms).
5) A minimum Counter level E should be reached before Fungus can grow inside factional territory.
6) Standard Civ4 rules are that features can only grow into empty tiles. I'd like to deviate from that in three cases.
a) as in SMAC, forests (not hybrid forests) should be able to grow over fungus (not hybrid forests). At a lower probability than growing into empty tiles though.
For Planetfall, I'd also like Planetmind to return the favour though. :evilgrin: Therefore:
b) Provided the Counter is above a certain minimum level F, fungus can grow over forests.
c) Provided the Counter is above a certain minimum level G, fungus can grow over (Monsoon) Jungle.
7) The higher the Flowering Counter, the more diplomatic polarization between Hybrid and Terraformed ecologists.
I'm thinking the following might not be such a good idea anymore:
8) Only farms on Highlands should upgrade if the conditions under 3) are met. Farms on Lowlands should have a maximum Counter A allowed above which they don't grow at all.
9) The <iGrowth> tag of all fungus features should be affected by the Flowering Counter. At Counter 0 growth should be zero. Not sure what formula to use.
10) Fungus <iGrowth> should also always be affected by the elevation level of the plot to grow into. Chance for growth in Highlands is always smaller than chance for growth in Lowlands and water terrains.
11) At very low Counter levels, forest growth should be increased. No difference at medium or high Counter levels though.
To provide the big picture, what I'm hoping for with all this, is that there could be a true battle for control over the fertile land (and waters...) between the player and Planetmind. The Highlands, the Monsoon Jungle and Polar areas can serve as a sanctuary for humans where they're less bothered with native life, because it doesn't thrive well in the climactic and atmospheric conditions of those terrains. For this to work, there should be more Highlands than just a sole peak here and there like it is now. More like a couple true highland plateaus. Requires work on mapscripts. If even the Highlands are overrun by Fungus, the player can always retreat to polar areas. Perhaps having a "Launch Solar Shade" Planetary Council option as in SMAC, which here increases the Polar area, would be neat, increasing the fungus free land.
Though of course the Polar areas can't support as much human life as you can only build Greenhouses here, not Farms. If you want to gain more economic power but don't want to go Green and side with Planet, you'll have to try and keep the Flowering Counter low and expand into the fungus infested Lowlands. Then as a reward, you'll be able to upgrade your farms towards a human Eden even on Lowlands, plus build Boreholes there (can't be built on Midland and Highlands).
Things written in italic is stuff that is too imprecise yet to be programmed, but I thought I'd mention them anway, in case someone has ideas to concretize them.
Flowering Counter upon game startup
X = number of plots the map has, minus all plots Fungus can't ever possibly grow on, even not with a Counter of 100.
For each plot covered by Xenofungus or Sea Fungus or Hybrid Forest, 100/X is added to the Counter.
I'm not exactly sure about the X's and Z's, what's currently coded in the DLL.
Stuff that affects the Flowering Counter during the game
Z = number of plots the map has
1) For each tile xenofungus/sea fungus/hybrid forest (henceforth simply referred to as "fungus" unless specified otherwise) appears on, no matter how it happens (through natural growth, planting or fungal bloom), the Flowering Counter raises by 100/X. The other way around, for each fungus tile removed, the Counter decreases by 100/X.
2) For each Condenser worked by a base which has the Atmospheric Processor base facility, the Flowering Counter decreases by Y/Z each turn. What Y should be I can only tell through experimenting (some number much smaller than 100 of course). May I therefore suggest, for easier modding, to make a new define in GlobalDefines.xml for Y?
3) Use of a weapon of mass destruction - nuclear weapons and planet busters - increases the Flowering Counter. Rather vague as we don't even have planet busters defined yet.
4) building certain buildings related to moving towards Transcendence gives a one-time increase in the Flowering Counter
5) Researching the Terraforming tech gives a decrease to the Counter.
6) Researching the Eudaimonia tech gives an increase to the Counter??
7) The more Fungal Towers, the higher the Flowering Counter?
8) For each Transcend Great Person born, the Flowering Counter increases somewhat.
9) Melt Polar Caps/Launch Solar Shade Planetary Council voting options which directly or indirectly lower/increase the Flowering Counter[/i]
Stuff that the Flowering Counter affects
1) an XML tag under Promotions which gives a combat strength percentage bonus equal to the Flowering Counter. (precise bonus all subject to testing of course)
2) A minimum Flowering Counter level (suggestion to try out: 30) should be reached before randomly spawned native life can enter factional borders. Once this level has been reached native life can always move into cultural borders, even if the counter later drops under again.
3) Farms should upgrade to Farm->Outpost->Settlement(->Human Zone)->Eden. The lower the Flowering Counter, the faster they should upgrade. Some formula needed which leads to an absolute stop of growth at Counter 100, but still makes it take some turns for these improvements to grow at Counter 0.
Possible implementation:
Spoiler :
4) There is a minimum Counter level C before Fungus can grow into Highlands at all through natural <iGrowth> (so seperate from Fungal Blooms).
5) A minimum Counter level E should be reached before Fungus can grow inside factional territory.
6) Standard Civ4 rules are that features can only grow into empty tiles. I'd like to deviate from that in three cases.
a) as in SMAC, forests (not hybrid forests) should be able to grow over fungus (not hybrid forests). At a lower probability than growing into empty tiles though.
For Planetfall, I'd also like Planetmind to return the favour though. :evilgrin: Therefore:
b) Provided the Counter is above a certain minimum level F, fungus can grow over forests.
c) Provided the Counter is above a certain minimum level G, fungus can grow over (Monsoon) Jungle.
7) The higher the Flowering Counter, the more diplomatic polarization between Hybrid and Terraformed ecologists.
I'm thinking the following might not be such a good idea anymore:
8) Only farms on Highlands should upgrade if the conditions under 3) are met. Farms on Lowlands should have a maximum Counter A allowed above which they don't grow at all.
9) The <iGrowth> tag of all fungus features should be affected by the Flowering Counter. At Counter 0 growth should be zero. Not sure what formula to use.
10) Fungus <iGrowth> should also always be affected by the elevation level of the plot to grow into. Chance for growth in Highlands is always smaller than chance for growth in Lowlands and water terrains.
11) At very low Counter levels, forest growth should be increased. No difference at medium or high Counter levels though.
To provide the big picture, what I'm hoping for with all this, is that there could be a true battle for control over the fertile land (and waters...) between the player and Planetmind. The Highlands, the Monsoon Jungle and Polar areas can serve as a sanctuary for humans where they're less bothered with native life, because it doesn't thrive well in the climactic and atmospheric conditions of those terrains. For this to work, there should be more Highlands than just a sole peak here and there like it is now. More like a couple true highland plateaus. Requires work on mapscripts. If even the Highlands are overrun by Fungus, the player can always retreat to polar areas. Perhaps having a "Launch Solar Shade" Planetary Council option as in SMAC, which here increases the Polar area, would be neat, increasing the fungus free land.
Though of course the Polar areas can't support as much human life as you can only build Greenhouses here, not Farms. If you want to gain more economic power but don't want to go Green and side with Planet, you'll have to try and keep the Flowering Counter low and expand into the fungus infested Lowlands. Then as a reward, you'll be able to upgrade your farms towards a human Eden even on Lowlands, plus build Boreholes there (can't be built on Midland and Highlands).
How is the counter calculated?
In other words: great idea of yours! 
So I'm wondering, could you please describe how currently the initial Flowering Counter at the start of the game is determined, and how it evolves from there?
