Cottages?

Along with using the cottage mechanic, what about having upgrades via formers?

Late-game techs give formers that ability to build a 3rd level thing [=town], but it takes 20 turns?

Condensers already kinda do this. That is, a later-game improvement which gives more food than a simple farm, but takes more turns to build.


I'm bit surprised to hear you guys saying there are too many techs btw. A comparison: SMAC and Civ4 have around 85 to 90 techs. Planetfall currently has 73.
 
I don't think there were any true third level terraform improvements in SMAC/X. Condensers did increase nutrients and did take longer to build than farms, but they didn't require farms. You could even build them on rocky tiles. ...although it still wouldn't provide any nutrients to the tile itself until the rockiness was reduced. Then there's the soil enrichers that did require farms, but not condensers.

I'm personally of the opinion that there aren't enough tech advances in the game. I think we could go for at least 90, which is certainly higher (if by one) than the number of tech advances one could ever get into modding SMAC/X. Of course, the next time I propose a tech tree, I'm making sure there's enough stuff to go with each advance.

Edit: For reference. SMAC has 77. SMAX has 86. Civ4 vanilla and Warlords have the same 86. BTS has 92. And the tech tree I proposed last July had 94.
 
The problem then isn't so much the number of techs available, but the fact that more than dozens of them are available at all times without much of a prerequisite structure. SMAC and SMACX were careful to put things into a structure of Build 1, Conquer 2, etc., where Planetfall's system feels a bit willy-nilly. And more of the initial tile improvements need to be available grouped together. I think I got to around 2191 without being able to build mines, and only recently discovered the farm. SMAC and CIV both have paths that seem intuitive and connected, so you have an idea as to what you are doing, and that there is a natural progression to research. So rather than reducing the number of Techs, we just need to consolidate unnecessary ones and re-organize a bit, so that the player isn't at a loss as to what is important in the early game. I suppose some writing in the descriptions of the techs would be useful--I could do some of the writing materials for you guys if you want. I was almost a Creative Writing major, but I switched to just mathematics. So I can at least flesh out some of the stuff we currently have to be beyond just the Dan Quayle quote that is on everything now.

Also, it would be could if we could get the interludes back into the game. Both some "classic" interludes and newly created ones for new events and whatnot.

Also, (again, not related really) we should shorten the length of the audio clips for religions--I like Deidre's voice, but I don't need to hear it say the same paragraph every time a religion spreads.
 
I think it seems to feel like there are too many techs because in Civ4, they're clearly spilt up into eras, and it doesn't feel overwhelming, and in SMAC, you never saw the full tree like that in the game, and had only a few options to choose from.

I don't mind having this many techs, so long as each one is worth its price and actually does something.
 
The problem then isn't so much the number of techs available, but the fact that more than dozens of them are available at all times without much of a prerequisite structure. SMAC and SMACX were careful to put things into a structure of Build 1, Conquer 2, etc., where Planetfall's system feels a bit willy-nilly. And more of the initial tile improvements need to be available grouped together. I think I got to around 2191 without being able to build mines, and only recently discovered the farm. SMAC and CIV both have paths that seem intuitive and connected, so you have an idea as to what you are doing, and that there is a natural progression to research. So rather than reducing the number of Techs, we just need to consolidate unnecessary ones and re-organize a bit, so that the player isn't at a loss as to what is important in the early game. I suppose some writing in the descriptions of the techs would be useful--I could do some of the writing materials for you guys if you want. I was almost a Creative Writing major, but I switched to just mathematics. So I can at least flesh out some of the stuff we currently have to be beyond just the Dan Quayle quote that is on everything now.

Also, it would be could if we could get the interludes back into the game. Both some "classic" interludes and newly created ones for new events and whatnot.

Also, (again, not related really) we should shorten the length of the audio clips for religions--I like Deidre's voice, but I don't need to hear it say the same paragraph every time a religion spreads.
True. The number of techs available at any one time IS too high. In fact, if randomly going through the Planetfall tech tree, it will on average get this high:
Spoiler :
planetfall1choices.png
That's what you get for having nine or ten techs per level and nearly all of them each have two or-prerequisites. I personally liked it when the average number of techs available stayed below ten. Of course, I'm also someone who dislikes dead-end techs, and was glad to see them absent in Vanilla SMAC (unless you count Transcendent Thought).
 
Yeah, under 10 is probably a good number--and they need that descriptive enough names and descriptions so that the player can immediately see their use. Right now it is just abstract icons with vague names.

I remember that I tried to research something which appeared to give me the ability to train mindworms, but it said nothing of the biology lab and whatnot that are also needed, so it is a bit misleading there (I think it was the 2nd tech I researched). However, Civilization IV does that too, so that is probably less the fault of Planetfall's Tech Tree.
 
I suppose some writing in the descriptions of the techs would be useful--I could do some of the writing materials for you guys if you want. I was almost a Creative Writing major, but I switched to just mathematics. So I can at least flesh out some of the stuff we currently have to be beyond just the Dan Quayle quote that is on everything now.

That's something which anyone with lots of patience and resistance against boredom :mischief: could do if they wanted to: convert the SMAC blurbsx.txt into a Civ4 compatible XML file.

Also, (again, not related really) we should shorten the length of the audio clips for religions--I like Deidre's voice, but I don't need to hear it say the same paragraph every time a religion spreads.

Um yeah, I only want that quote to play once upon the religion being founded or the shrine being built. Unfortunately I don't see a way to do that. :( Eg the construction sound for the shrine seems to be ignored.
 
I'm not sure, but I think in SMAC you could get this many tech options at once, but it never seemed that way because the game would only show you a set number, if you were playing without blind research [which I always played with].
I've checked years ago (Alpha Centauri made me obsessed with tech trees since I first saw the poster): unless stealing or trading techs out of order, the absolute maximum number of techs available in SMAC at any one time (assuming a third of them aren't spending their turn being hidden) is 11. Those 11 are Silksteel Alloys, (Nonlinear Mathematics or Superstring Theory), Applied Relativity, Organic Superlubricant, Advanced Ecological Engineering, Planetary Economics, (Centauri Empathy or Centauri Meditation), Orbital Spaceflight, (Bio-Engineering or Retroviral Engineering), Doctrine: Initiative, and Mind/Machine Interface.

With SMAX, that number rises to 12, with the 12th option being (Field Modulation or Bioadaptive Resonance). Of course Bioadaptive Resonance and Centauri Empathy won't be available at the same time there... A handful of options each also have the opportunity of being replaced by a prerequisite.

This is of course much higher than the average number of techs available at any part of the game, even the very beginning where (if you have no technology) that average is 7 or 8. By the time this opportunity happens, the average number of techs available has dropped to 5.
 
Back
Top Bottom