Planetfall University faction's missing free Network Nodes??

[dmjones217]

Hi all - great job so far on Planetfall!

I love(d) SMAC so I also am going to love Planetfall more and more!

Thank you all whoever created, designed, worked and contributed to my new favorite Civ IV/BTS mod! What is your PayPal email for contributions?

I just have one quick question for now, correct me if I'm wrong:

Shouldn't faction University automatically be getting a free Network Node

whenever they establish a new city?

I noticed playing University faction doesn't do this curretnly,

each new city must build their own Network Node -

did I remember the free/automatic one from SMAC correctly?

Or did you all decide not to do that? Why?

Thanks for your help,

keep up the great work!

DMJ

 

[deadliver]

That is SMAC. In Planetfall iirc they get a beaker bonus.

 

[dark_sheep]

Yeah, either the Mod is not complete or they decided to change some things.

Although, if someone wanted to put the work into making a modmod of Planetfall that got as close as possible to the original SMAC, I don't think too many folks would be upset!

 

[Keeper_GFA]

From the first post of the download thread.

Planetfall will not be a clone of SMAC using the Civ4 engine, but rather will incorporate the Factions, general storyline and Characters combined with the newest gameplay modifications to allow for more strategic gameplay.

 

[GeoModder]

What is your PayPal email for contributions?

Maniac! Quick!

 

[dmjones217]

.

(I'm rethinking how to say my next comment/question)


My 9-11 quote for today

: Let 1,000 Predators sort them all out with death from above :

 

[Keeper_GFA]

The faction bonuses are a little mixed up right now. Techs come from your faction. Other bonuses/changes can come from your leader, palace and/or the governor's office.

Currently for the University, Zak gives each scientist specialist +1 beaker which can be seen in the civilopedia and when you mouseover your flag on the main screen. The main bonus comes from the governor's office building which is given free to each city; that bonus is +20% to research and -25% espionage defense.

 

[Pfeffersack]

The research bonus is provided by the Governor's Offics, a special faction building which each base gets immediately. It is a 20% boost and mirrors the SMAC effect of the University base social tech setting in research. IIRC, the reason why it was done this way and not just by creating a "faction trait" was a technical issue, but Maniac said somewhere this could be changed.

The Network Node works differently (provides a Librarian slot and a few absolute beakers each turn - increased when the Alien Artifact ressource is present) compared to SMAC (a 50% reasearch boost and the one time chance to connect an AA for a free tech) I'm not sure why Maniac dropped the 50% for the NN (maybe it would be too much to have such an early booster for science at all or for more realism), but I understand why the University would not get it for free (they would tech away with no end). Even the nerfed version of the NN in Planetfall would be probably too much.

 

[Maniac]

Thank you all whoever created, designed, worked and contributed to my new favorite Civ IV/BTS mod! What is your PayPal email for contributions?

What percentage of the profits do you want, Lord Tirian & co?

Yeah, either the Mod is not complete or they decided to change some things.

Both. Of all the factions I have the least inspiration on how to make the University special. Neither a free network node, research bonus or boosted scientist output seem particularly exciting to me.

I'm not sure why Maniac dropped the 50% for the NN (maybe it would be too much to have such an early booster for science at all or for more realism)

The opposite. 50% of nothing is still nothing. Absolute boosts seem more useful in the early game. Plus while such a bonus would be weak in the early game, it would be too good later on.

 

[Keeper_GFA]

Even at the start of the game, a 50% bonus would be +4 or more beakers. Remember that the palace gives 8 energy. The +20% is an good bonus IMO.

 

[Lord Tirian]

Both. Of all the factions I have the least inspiration on how to make the University special. Neither a free network node, research bonus or boosted scientist output seem particularly exciting to me.

Cheaper unit upgrades could be interesting and fitting? It decreases dependence on credits, meaning you can put more into the science slider and represents that they sort of use prototypes all the time and that all of them are excellent engineers. That's probably the closest you get to science in combat short of mad-science weaponry. As a balancing factor, their unit production speed could be decreased a bit, if necessary (again, representing the extra time taken for prototypes).

They could get unique buildings, for example the genejack factory would produce extra beakers for drones instead of extra production (they don't use them for work, but for "scientific" experiments, mwhahahaha!).

Cheers, LT.

 

[Maniac]

Reduced upgrade costs would lead to the exploit described in the Tips thread.

But I remembered a previous discussion on the University: I was planning to make other factions more willing to trade tech with Zak, and let him ignore 'no tech brokering' restrictions. That migh suffice in addition to his current boni.

 

[WarKirby]

That exploit wouldn't really be so bad if it were possible to buy things at an earlier stage. Why do credits have to be useless for so long ? It makes Morgan's advantage a lot less meaningful. What's the point in money if you can't buy anything with it?

Maybe nanites could just reduce hurry costs and make it more useful, rather than locking it off completely until that point

 

[GeoModder]

That exploit wouldn't really be so bad if it were possible to buy things at an earlier stage. Why do credits have to be useless for so long ? It makes Morgan's advantage a lot less meaningful. What's the point in money if you can't buy anything with it?

Well, he can buy techs with it if necessary?
And another use could be to let it the Morganites be possible to spent energy to finish production under their favorite civic.

 

[Keeper_GFA]

I posted a couple of ways to spend your early money in the tips thread.

If spending to finish production comes earlier, it needs to be much much less efficient because of the (mostly) low building costs.

 

[WarKirby]

being less efficient would be perfectly fine by me, so long as it were just possible at all.