Planetfall

[Maniac]

I know you brush this off every time, Maniac, but, at least at the lesser levels of difficulty, could you please, please consider make the Psi and anti-native qualities of human units more powerful.

Only if more people who play below Noble feel the same way. Plus your issue is not with the game balance, but rather the game design.

I built a bunker and short time after, there was a fungus bloom nearby. I thought: Crazy, good defense, but also not bad for attacking Worms, so I wanted to clean the mess, then I thought: Ups...

I'm afraid I don't understand what you're saying, how a bunker and fungus ended up on the same plot.

grrrrr. I cant get this to work. It just comes up with an error message when i try to launch either through the planetfall logo or by trying to initialise the mod in BTS. Am i doing anything wrong? Ive downloaded and installed the main v 12 and the 12g patch. Am i missing something?

The usual suspects would be not having BtS patch 3.19 installed, or UAC problems if you're running Vista. Does any of these apply to you?

 

[limboldt]

First there was the bunker.
Then suddenly Fungus grew on an adjacent field, in the german version the event is
called "Fungus bloom" when the native Psis abruptly appear on your territory.
Together with the fungus bloom neigboring field were also coated by fungus.
And one of this fields was that with my bunker.

 

[Maniac]

Patch 12h for Planetfall, the Alpha Centauri total conversion mod for Civ4 BtS, has been released. This patch needs to be applied on top of the main v12 file of Planetfall. It does not break savegames from patch d or later, but it breaks savegames from versions and patches older than that.



This is a bugfix patch. It also adds the following graphical changes:

1. New Believer cityset, by Lord Tirian.
2. New Colony Pod and Sea Colony Pod graphics by Lord Tirian.

 

[Maniac]

Patch 12i for Planetfall, the Alpha Centauri total conversion mod for Civ4 BtS, has been released. This patch needs to be applied on top of the main v12 file of Planetfall. It does not break savegames from the previous patch. Problems might arise if someone has already built Nanoreplicators though.



This is a bugfix patch. It also adds the following gameplay changes:

1. Morgan can hurry units for real.
2. The Nanoreplicator gets an Engineer specialist slot.

 

[Lord Tirian]

Only if more people who play below Noble feel the same way. Plus your issue is not with the game balance, but rather the game design.

Huh... playing *at* Noble, so not sure how helpful the feedback is... but I feel that native life is fine right now. There are only of couple of things about native life I don't really like right now... (but all are minor things, the last one is probably the most relevant one to Cmcastl):

a) I like that the most Green faction is almost never attacked by native life... but the PA feels too much like an on/off-switch for native incursions. I think the factions with a modestly green PA should get occasional attacks from natives.

b) Spore launchers that have withdrawal chance and their subsequent tendency to attack with impunity. For some reason it's just odd to me that they are more bold to attack than mindworms, while being big and semi-stationary in concept, and even run away from failed attacks (you'd think a big swarm of tiny worms could get away more easily than huge trunks sticking to the ground) - though that's just a "story" concern.

c) The loss of Virtual Worlds a while ago made it rather hard to get units starting with some extra levels, which was very useful for getting promos (since promos help against natives). Some replacement for that would be nice - perhaps a "High Group Morale"-style spec ab for getting a couple of XP for free?

Cheers, LT.

 

[arkham4269]

Huh... playing *at* Noble, so not sure how helpful the feedback is...

I play on Noble and agree that it seems fine. About the only thing I've noticed is that the Peacekeepers seem awfully aggressive. Perhaps it is because I'm playing as Gaian w/hybrid + fanatical and that causes the PK AI to freak out. I mean I would expect the Believers to attack me before the PK's.

One general question, though, and probably one that has been asked a zillion times so I'm sorry about that but why aren't there more of the original Secret Projects? While I admit it was too powerful, I miss the Weather Paradigm.

I mean it's sad that you can't import the movies like you can the sounds if you have access (like I do) to the original SMAC & SMAC:AC Cds. Although after watching the movie Baraka, it's funny to see how much of those Secret Project movies were taken from that film.

 

[Maniac]

a) I like that the most Green faction is almost never attacked by native life...

If you're talking about random wandering native life, it must be your imagination. There's no code for native life to avoid pro-Planet factions.

b) Spore launchers that have withdrawal chance and their subsequent tendency to attack with impunity. For some reason it's just odd to me that they are more bold to attack than mindworms, while being big and semi-stationary in concept, and even run away from failed attacks (you'd think a big swarm of tiny worms could get away more easily than huge trunks sticking to the ground) - though that's just a "story" concern.

Imagine they're doing a ranged strike of sorts. I wanted ranged strikes to be the specialty of the more anti-Planet tech themes (bunkers, artillery, air units), so I just made Spore Launchers like catapults rather than true artillery like they were in SMAC.

c) The loss of Virtual Worlds a while ago made it rather hard to get units starting with some extra levels, which was very useful for getting promos (since promos help against natives). Some replacement for that would be nice - perhaps a "High Group Morale"-style spec ab for getting a couple of XP for free?

1) I prefer Special Abilities to have a situational use, so that units built in bases that don't give special abilities won't always be inferior.
2) There's Empath Song, Plasma Shard and Hypnotic Trance. Already more spec abs than units can pick.
3) Have you tried Power or Fundamentalism?

About the only thing I've noticed is that the Peacekeepers seem awfully aggressive.

Must be your imagination too. Of course it differs from game to game. Hover over the leader name to see why they like or dislike you.

One general question, though, and probably one that has been asked a zillion times so I'm sorry about that but why aren't there more of the original Secret Projects?

Because you haven't suggested cool effects for them. Plus I have high quality standards. I'll probably add the Citizen's Defense Force and Planetary Datalinks some time soon.

 

[arkham4269]

Because you haven't suggested cool effects for them. Plus I have high quality standards. I'll probably add the Citizen's Defense Force and Planetary Datalinks some time soon.

Actually I was asking a more technical question of why you don't use some of the Secret Project movies from the original game, if only (perhaps) as an option you could turn off if one didn't have the original content. I'm sure Activision would probably sue somebody if people started copying the original movie files to be used in this mod. However, I was just wondering if the sound files can be used, why not the movies? I'm thinking the Ascetic Virtue Secret Project could easily fill in when building their 'holy city'.

I'm sure there is a very good technical reason for it; I'm just curious.

 

[Pfeffersack]

If you're talking about random wandering native life, it must be your imagination. There's no code for native life to avoid pro-Planet factions.

I get attacks from wandering native life as well, especially on transports, which are a pain to defend vs. lurks...

Must be your imagination too. Of course it differs from game to game. Hover over the leader name to see why they like or dislike you.

It might be also a question of expectations - Lal isn't supposed to be a true Pacifist like Gandhi...he is designed to be aggressive, if you get between him and his vision of a free world (e.g. by running Police State)

 

[Lord Tirian]

I get attacks from wandering native life as well, especially on transports, which are a pain to defend vs. lurks...

Ah, the same happens to me - I was talking about flat-out base assaults, I almost never observe these when I'm playing hybrid. Wandering natives *do* attack my units.

Cheers, LT.

 

[Maniac]

Don't you guys use the Stealth special ability?

 

[zeden]

I don't suppose that there's a mirror for the patch? I can't get it from weplayciv because their database appears to be screwed.

 

[Pfeffersack]

I don't suppose that there's a mirror for the patch? I can't get it from weplayciv because their database appears to be screwed.

Keeper_GFA has loaded patch i) up in post #323 of this thread:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=253775&page=17

 

[Maniac]

Patch 12j for Planetfall, the Alpha Centauri total conversion mod for Civ4 BtS, has been released. This patch needs to be applied on top of the main v12 file of Planetfall. It breaks savegames from the previous patch.



Changelog:

1. Datalinks text by Pickly.
2. New Hovertank graphics by Lord Tirian.
3. New Scout Patrol graphics by asioasioasio.
4. Updated flag graphics by Lord Tirian.
5. The Hovertank now requires Needlejet instead of Psionics.
6. The Longevity Vaccine now requires Retroviral Engineering instead of Cloning.
7. The Planetary Datalinks have been added as a project. They give the builder any tech known by three other teams.
8. Citizens' Defense Force secret project added: gives +25% defense in all bases and +50% domestic great general points.
9. Telepathic Matrix secret project added: removes anarchy for switching civics or religions.
10. A Naval Fortress special ability for Bunkers has been added. It increases range by 2, but decreases attack strength against land terrain by 75%.

 

[zeden]

Keeper_GFA has loaded patch i) up in post #323 of this thread:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=253775&page=17

Thanks for the heads up, though thanks to Maniac it's a little redundant.

Really looking forward to getting stuck into the mod and checking it out properly. Reinstalled Civ4 and all the expansions just for it.

 

[ezwip]

This mod is awesome. I recently installed Alpha Centauri just to play around. It looked so old and I just couldn't get back into it. Then I remembered you guys made a mod for it. I thought I'd give it another shot. This has come a long way. It's what I would want if a new version was released. I'm hooked this far exceeds expectations. The best mod ever.

 

[Deon]

Actually I like the "old" feel of the original SMAC.

But this mod plays in a different way, it's expected because it uses many BTS concepts, and I like how I have a choice of different games in the same universe.

 

[arkham4269]

Odd question here but is there any plans for scenarios based on Planetfall?

The reason I ask is that it seems that most of the AC:AC factions would either make good 'minor' leaders that could later become major or ones you could create as vassals. That and I feel that the story behind the game seems to fit with the Rhyes & Fall type mod.

I mean if you look at it, the initial factions (plus the Pirates) would start up first. Then after the game has gone on a bit, the Consciousness, the Drones, the Cult of Planet and the Data Angels would gradually come in.

That being said, I've always felt that if Planetfall had the Rebellion mod, it could be tweak that either cities falling into rebellion would become Drones or that each Civ would tend to have their cities fall into one of the AC:AC factions. I mean maybe Gaian cities would revolt into Planet Cult and Hive into the Consciousness.

Anyway, after that, then the two Alien races could show up after the humans have started out a bit.

It is too bad that Civ doesn't have the option, like Alpha Centauri did, of having blind research. I always felt that was a great way to balance the human player vs. the AI.

Like I said, just a thought, but I figure that Planetfall is getting to a point where one might want to look at specialty ideas like that.

 

[Maniac]

I have some ideas for an official history of Planet which could be turned into a campaign. However that would require a fiction writer and a mapmaker.

Plus designing a mod and a scenario are two different things. When playtesting a mod, you're playing on different maps each time, so the experience is always new even for the mod's designer. When playtesting and balancing a scenario, you have to play the same thing repeatedly, which can get boring really quickly. This leaves me little motivation to make such scenarios myself.

 

[arkham4269]

When playtesting and balancing a scenario, you have to play the same thing repeatedly, which can get boring really quickly. This leaves me little motivation to make such scenarios myself.

Yeah, that's sort of why I thought it would be easier to sort of piggy-back on the Rhyse Of Civ mod; hoping it would cut down on much of the scut work.

I must say, though, a lot of the work in Planetfall, Dune Wars and a lot of the effects in the Fall From Heaven would seem to be an interesting way to do a Colonize Mars! mod sort of based on the Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars books by Kim Stanley Robinson. You would start with little on a barren Mars but you'd get periodic reinforcements from your 'mother' country. You'd be in a race to colonize as much territory as possible from the other countries colonies. Then as things get bad on Earth, they'd either stop sending you stuff or perhaps drop out of the game for awhile and return as a One world dictatorship bent on subjugating Mars. While there wouldn't be much in the way of animals, later in the game you could have "Red" units fighting against the terraforming efforts necessary to make Mars more inhabitable.

...just a thought.