Gameplay or Flavour?

I have to decide on what I should focus next in Planetfall development. Both options are rather big projects and they both sound appealing to me. However they are very different, so I figured I'd present the issue to you guys.

One option is to focus on a Better AI.

Common game design wisdom is that you should focus on implementing all your features first and then at the end of the project improve the AI. I don't think Planetfall necessarily needs to follow that tradition for two reasons:

1) My feeling is Planetfall already has very solid bones, and can offer a good gameplay experience even without adding any extra SDK gameplay features. Stuff that gets added now is more like adding flesh to the body. (If you disagree with this feeling, please share in which gameplay areas Planetfall is currently lacking. I can then attach higher priority to those.) So from this viewpoint, there would be nothing wrong with taking a pause in adding new features, and instead concentrate on making the AI better use those already added.
2) Some of gameplay features I plan to add in the future wouldn't work without a better AI.

More concretely, I would focus on:

a) making the AI better at overseas and sea colonization. For overseas colonization, I've heard JDog's Better AI project touches that.
b) making the AI better at a Terraformer strategy: having a low Planet Attitude yet avoiding fungal blooms etc
c) making the AI better at a Hybrid strategy: the opposite of Hybrid: making sure they have a high Planet Attitude!

If the AI could perform Terraformer and Hybrid strategies, I could then add a Transcendence victory, and climactic end-game wars between Terraformers and Hybrids.


The second option is to focus on the SMAC flavour aspect of Planetfall. Recently I made two discoveries which can help in this regard:

1) Civ4's diplomacy dialogie is rather static. It doesn't change much depending on who's talking to or about whom. I now figured out how to make the dialogue more dynamic, so I could let the Gaians be accused of dancing naked between the trees, let Yang be accused of social experiments, let you be refered to with your title (Provost, Lady etc). And so on. Mimic the SMAC dialogue in other words.

2) I figured how to record the ambience sound of SMAC. So I can now give each faction their own SMAC ambience soundtrack! Besides background ambience, there are also special sound effects which can be used. The victory sounds for the Spartans for instance. The Hive sound when founding a new base. You name it!


So what shall it be? Focus on Better AI or on music and diplomacy dialogue? Gameplay or Flavour?

As much as I like flavour, clearly a better AI and the new features it makes possible - it will create (for me) at least as much atmosphere as any flavour additions would.

Music, Maniac, provides a powerful atmosphere to a game, particularly this. The original SMAC soundtrack was pretty good, I thought and still think. You are obviously having to accommodate the Civ IV soundtrack to your Planetfall MOD. Any chance of going back to the original?

Live long and prosper.

Cmcastl, I was going to mention the same thing, though the AI does need a little tweaking certain aspects. AI intelligence improvements always a win.

Be cool to hear the same sounds from either SMAC or SMACx (I perfer SMACx overall) as a extra media pack perhaps? Find replacement music would be ideal, choosing it would make me pull me hair out.

Other then a few minor issues I posted on my site about, perhaps you could fix the custom game options? I love custom games, longer the better. I know I am sick right? The media packs don't work yet, but then again eye candy cosmetics are secondary to any Mod.

I would have to disagree. Improving the AI now is really a stopgap if more features it will need to contend with are being added in the future. And besides, it was the flavour that originally made SMAC so great. Adding that back in would be a huge step towards bringing this mod closer to where it is headed.

It's really hard to pick between the two...on the one hand, you have the AI which needs to learn to use the new tools that Planetfall gives them. Teaching the AI to use a Terraformer strategy or a Hybrid strategy would help make sure the Human player doesn't have to fight planet all on its own...and ensure the threats it DOES face are posed by the neighbouring faction's opposing strategy (Terraformers having to deal with the nutty eco-freaks and the fungal blooms their fungus causes in border bases, and Hybrids having to fend off fungal blooms that spill over into their territory occasionally).

On the other hand, you have this remarkable flavour system that sounds really spiffy and wonderful. The dynamic dialogue options would probably have spillover effects into other mods (I must admit, I'd appreciate a look at those features myself), and the ambient music systems sound like they'd add a lot of atmosphere to the game.

On that last point though, I'd like to say something. I rather like the new music of Planetfall. If such a music system would supplement the new music in Planetfall, that would be great. If it replaces it...well, if I could turn it off, it'd be great, but I'm sure you have better things to do than code in "opt out" options. I'd live with it graciously...perhaps even grow to like it.

Anyway, the point about "waiting on other features" is valid, but only if these new features substantially affect the gameplay. Besides, if I've read what you're saying correctly, you plan to develop your AI based on these future features, and that sounds like a good idea to me...but I have no experience with AI, or game design, so take my opinion for what it's worth. Regardless, it all sounds good to me...mostly.

I'm patient. I can really wait for both to be done. I just...need to muse a bit over which I'd take if I had to pick. I can make decisions in an instant if need be...but I generally prefer not to. Hence, I write this long-winded post with no answer payoff...I just ask more questions, and think out loud about my options. A necessary, but annoying part of my thought process.


Though...answers might help me with my vote, I'm not certain. Might help others too...but I hesitate to bias a poll. Your call on whether you want to answer them or not. I'll decide either way.

Tssha said:

Though...answers might help me with my vote

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Did you ask any questions?

Well, Maniac.

I don't want to appear "dog in the manger". Many thanks for your mods.

Planetfall works!

The original SMAC or SMAC-X doesn't work in XP! God knows I have tried.

Live long and prosper.

Cmcastl said:

The original SMAC or SMAC-X doesn't work in XP! God knows I have tried.

Click to expand...

What exactly doesn't work for you?

I can run them with no problem under XP and even Vista (the only thing I had to do was changing a single value in the .ini file, something called "ForceOldVoxelAlgorithm" from 0 to 1). This fix is explained on the offical Firaxis website under Support/Sid Meiers Alpha Centauri/start-up help.

Ok, I've gone ahead and voted for Better AI since it's probably what would get me to play this again. It's a pretty sexy feature, after all...might add some spice to a neglected relationship.

Not that I wouldn't appreciate a chance to dig into some flavour modding tools, but I'm voting based on what would get me playing again, not on what I'd like to see for my own nefarious purposes.

Course, I should probably figure out my unit list before I look at flavour tools...

hm.. I think I'll change my vote to add a touch of earcandy, superficial as I am!

I usually listen to my own music so making a soundtrack wouldn't matter to me, but a few well chosen ambient sounds could easily add to the flavor (maybe just some base machinery to replace old Civ car horns in city screen?)

I now figured out how to make the dialogue more dynamic

Click to expand...

are you talking about the diplomacyinfos XML? Filling in those is probably enough for decent diplo atmosphere and is pretty fast to finish in my experience, but I'd think it's probably not worth the effort to try going beyond that xml file. So, I'd vote to add a few more items of flavor as long as it doesn't take too much distraction and effort, since I agree the longterm focus should remain on gameplay features + then AI.

Yeah, the way the poll is going on, I think I'll add some SMAC ambience music, but not bother yet with the diplomacy dialogue (which would take much more time than the music).

I like Orlanth's idea of making the sfx, when you go to inspect base facilities, more futuristic than car horns!

Here's some Gaian/Peacekeeper ambience music:

http://www.gamingvault.net/files/CivilzationIV/BtSPlanetfall/GaianSMACTheme1.zip

very Brian Eno.. if you need background sounds for the cityscreens, you could grab the ones from Final Frontier which are quite good.

how about this soundclip for the Cybernetic Consciousness religion sound?
edit: on 2nd thought maybe the 2nd one's better.

I'm not sure electronic fits into the atmosphere of SMAC.

K... Orlanth,

You have my attention. Where do I get this sound file and where do I put it?

Live long and prosper.

Hi Maniac, a good addition to game play I feel are some options added to choose the 7 factions you play with including the ones from SMACx at some point. Make the Aliens slightly stronger that appear at a certain point in the game. Could be interesting if you plan it correctly, the aliens & humans would be about the same battle strength.

I always preferred the factions in SMACx, I found them much more interesting. Besides I hate Miriam in Planetfall even more then I did with SMAC.

(Linkage to your to do list for text entry sir, I shall do some now I don't know what ones need to be done, where they are located in SMAC and Planetfall (assets I asssume))

Where is the leader dialogue kept? If you send me the file I could rewrite it to make Morgan stop channeling shaka

Completely apropos of nothing, I always found the futuristic music of Civilization: Call to Power very suggestive of futuristic city sounds. If I knew how to meld them to Planetfall I would but I don't. Then I am entirely dependent on the genius of Maniac et al. for improvements to Planetfall, for which I am endlessly grateful.

Live long and prosper.