Planetfall

[Pfeffersack]

About native sea life: It's also due to the fact that the AI is a bit water-shy - in other words: On the high seas, you bear the brunt of the native attacks alone on the ocean, as the AI doesn't kill them, so they just keep spawning.

If the naval AI gets better (like start guarding aquaformers more often), it should also decrease the severity of naval natives (though I still think that the cruiser line should get some bonuses against natives to cement their naval superiority role).(...)

Thanks for posting this, Lord Tirian - I gave me a new idea, why seemingly all players on low levels expect unpleasent numbers of native life on sea, while it is still hard, but managable (for me) on Emperor. Emperor gives the AI enough boni to have a decent navy and they actually engage in combat vs native life - I often encounter weakened IoD's and Lurks and some AI ships have a number of promotions. Also, with v11 the fill up the map quite quickly and even the larger aquatic regions of the planet are at least surrounded by big costal cities. I guess on lower levels they just struggle with and concentrate on problems on land - leaving the player alone. I remember similar experiences a few versions ago, where a bug prevented the AI from attacking Fungal Towers on sea.

Perhaps their should be really a reduction of native life on lower levels, because if neither AI nor the player can compete with native life, it is bad for gameplay.

Strategy 101: if attacked by wolfpacks, sail out with wolfpacks.
Sure, you'll still lose a third to half your ships at first, but the survivors WILL gain experience.

Besides, with psi combat a more advanced (higher strength units) navy won't make a difference. The strength values are ignored, remember?
And carriers with scoutplanes are a must to get early warning.

+1 to this, sending out ships alone (or even in pairs) is a risky business. Also, concentrate on getting Naval Yards before building ships if possible - two special abilities always help. I mainly use Subs vs. Native Life, because they can also enter fungus tiles. Playing Hybrid makes things easier, as you can cover your ships with captured IoDs and Lurks; if you go Terraforming, try to breed some - they are a good protection if you end up on aseafungus tile or if you try tom assault native life on such atile (for the latter, Flanking promoted Lurks shine especially...) Also go for buildings/civics which give you extra experience from the start.

So here's a start on a Beginner's guide to Planetfall. I copied a few sections out of the datalinks. I have more to add, but I got tired of working on it for today . I'll add more later. Also, if you feel like it, you can let me know what you think of what I have so far.

I'd also like to copy in some of the hints, but I don't know where to find them.

Nice read and contains a lot of useful info for beginners If I have an idea, what could be added I will post. Maybe we should open a seperate thread for creating the guide?

 

[slugwalk]

Nice read and contains a lot of useful info for beginners If I have an idea, what could be added I will post. Maybe we should open a seperate thread for creating the guide?

Already done

 

[Maniac]

Perhaps their should be really a reduction of native life on lower levels, because if neither AI nor the player can compete with native life, it is bad for gameplay.

Native Life frequency already scales with difficulty level. Of course I can't know what native life activity feels right for skill levels other than my own, so I'd recommend people to experiment themselves with what feels right.

These are the two relevant tags in handicapInfos:

			<iUnownedTilesPerBarbarianUnit>150</iUnownedTilesPerBarbarianUnit>
			<iUnownedWaterTilesPerBarbarianUnit>375</iUnownedWaterTilesPerBarbarianUnit>

In addition, I have included some experimental lines of code in patch a, which will make naval native life less likely to move into human territory.

 

[slugwalk]

IIRC, formers aren't killed in Planetfall. "Just" defeat the intruding native life with some unit, and park it on the former until it comes online again.

Remind me, are formers only supposed to be temporarily disabled by native life, or any time they're killed by a unit?
I haven't been paying a lot of attention, but I just noticed a rotor completely eliminating one of my formers. I have a save file if that would help.

 

[Maniac]

Patch 11a 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 v11 file of Planetfall. It doesn't break games started under v11.



Changelog:

1. Recycling Tanks building graphics, by Lord Tirian.
2. Retextured Research Hospital and Planetary Council building graphics, by GeoModder.
3. Solar Power Transmitter graphics by Lord Tirian, woodelf and GeoModder.
4. Native Life promotion buttons by Lord Tirian.
5. Planetfall Beginner's Guide added, by slugwalk.
6. A 'Big and Small' mapscript has been added.
7. Spore Launchers are now immune to collateral damage from other native life units.
8. Native Life no longer costs credits in maintenance. Instead one Planet per unit per turn is deducted from your Total Planet accumulated throughout the entire the game (see Planet Attitude widget).
9. This Total Planet value is now called Psi Potential.
10. Besides limiting native life capturing, the Psi Potential value now also limits native life building/training/breeding.
11. Fungal Towers can no longer be captured.
12. Probe teams can no longer move on plots with Spawning Spots.
13. The Cloudbase unit gains +100% Psi Defense.
14. Medic I and Navigation I promotions turned into special abilities.
15. Centauri Preserve improvement has been renamed to Commune.
16. AI will now found sea bases (if easily available land is drying up).

 

[Cmcastl]

Strategy 101: if attacked by wolfpacks, sail out with wolfpacks.
Sure, you'll still lose a third to half your ships at first, but the survivors WILL gain experience.

I appreciate the response, Geomodder, but I don't think you shouldn't have to wait for advanced tech to create a AC viable navy. I see no earthly, or no Alpha Centauri reason, why Psi defence can't a) be more effective and b) able to be applied to both formers and acquaformers! Planetfall is IMHO way too hard on sea at even the lower levels compared to SMAC. And it ain't a picnic on land.

Live long and prosper.

 

[Cmcastl]

Native Life frequency already scales with difficulty level. Of course I can't know what native life activity feels right for skill levels other than my own, so I'd recommend people to experiment themselves with what feels right.

These are the two relevant tags in handicapInfos:

			<iUnownedTilesPerBarbarianUnit>150</iUnownedTilesPerBarbarianUnit>
			<iUnownedWaterTilesPerBarbarianUnit>375</iUnownedWaterTilesPerBarbarianUnit>

In addition, I have included some experimental lines of code in patch a, which will make naval native life less likely to move into human territory.

Maniac, for those of us without your computer genius, we really need you to help us out here; please, please, reduce the aggressiveness of the alienlife AI on the "lower slopes", so to speak.

Nevertheless, I still thank you many times over for giving us the opportunity to play SMAC updated.

Live long and prosper.

 

[GeoModder]

I appreciate the response, Geomodder, but I don't think you shouldn't have to wait for advanced tech to create a AC viable navy. I see no earthly, or no Alpha Centauri reason, why Psi defence can't a) be more effective and b) able to be applied to both formers and acquaformers! Planetfall is IMHO way too hard on sea at even the lower levels compared to SMAC. And it ain't a picnic on land.

Live long and prosper.

I thought I specifically stated that advanced ships are no benefit for naval superiority over earlier ships. Rather, that if you want a decent amount of surviving ships which thus gain promotions you leave your bases with a naval stack instead of singletons.
And I never ever commented in any way on the topic if formers must have Psi Defense abilities or not.

 

[Cmcastl]

I am not trying to die you down to a legal defence, Geomodder! Just giving my opinion on what I consider are problems with the Planetfall AI where native life is concerned.

Live long and prosper.

 

[GeoModder]

I am not trying to die you down to a legal defence, Geomodder! Just giving my opinion on what I consider are problems with the Planetfall AI where native life is concerned.

That's your god-given right by the power of law, of course.
But please be so kind not to use my statements to post your pet peeves.

 

[Cmcastl]

I would never dream of using your statements for my pet peeves, as you put it, Geomodder. I wouldn't want to put anyone on the spot like that. What I can confidently say, for myself, is that the easier levels of Planetfall are in my opinion far too difficult, particularly the naval challenges. Surely, I have a right to express that opinion as well as say thank you to Maniac et al. for at least giving me the opportunity to play Planetfall, at which I was up until the early hours last night before I realised it was time to go to bed!

Live long and prosper.

 

[Daemian Lucifer]

Thanks for the great mod Maniac,I enjoy it a lot.

Sorry if these were already mentioned,but the search engine gave me nothing.Anyway:

A suggestion for psi combat:Instead of the classic SMAC 3:2 odds for psi combat,why not mix in the flavor of first strikes?So psi combat could become 1:1,but the attacker would get a number of first strikes(say 1 first strike and 1 additional first strike chance).Or,even better,just the native lifeforms would get first strikes for psi combat.This would then allow for psi combat promotions,which would work like drill promotions in CIV4,and could be unique to native lifeforms only.Also,some artificial units(cyborgs and clones,for example)could be immune to psi combat,thus negating all first strikes.

And a question:Why is shelf bonus so weak?It gives just +10% on attack and defense,thus it is basically just a combat promotion,but for specific terrain.Why doesnt it work like guerilla and give +25%?

 

[Lord Tirian]

And a question:Why is shelf bonus so weak?It gives just +10% on attack and defense,thus it is basically just a combat promotion,but for specific terrain.Why doesnt it work like guerilla and give +25%?

AFAIK, that promo is a relic from earlier times when foils got that promo for free - I think Maniac is going to buff it up or remove it.

Cheers, LT.

 

[darkedone02]

can you add in that civ accelerator in your mod, so that we could gain a 15 percent increase on speed.

 

[Maniac]

Patch 11b 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 v11 file of Planetfall. It breaks savegames started under previous patches or versions.



Changelog:

1. Multiple Production modcomp by denev added.
2. Military Academy building graphic, by Lord Tirian.
3. Updated to Better AI 0.80.
4. Lots of new promotion buttons, by Lord Tirian.
5. New Planet Value icon, by Lord Tirian.
6. Updated Gaian cityset art, by Lord Tirian.
7. Ground texture graphics for bases added, by Lord Tirian.
8. Many technology and building buttons, by Lord Tirian.
9. University Scientists produce +1 science, thanks to Priv_Joker.
10. Morganic Merchants produce +1 credit, thanks to Priv_Joker.
11. Spore Cloud promotion for the Spore Launcher added: +100% vs. air & 50% collateral damage reduction.
12. Flagella promotion for Mind worm added: gives amphibious effects.
13. Miasma promotions for Spore Launcher and IoD added: gives extra collateral damage.
14. Swarming promotions for native life added: gives withdrawal chance.
15. Snow Camouflage special ability for Infantry units added: double movement and +25% strength on Polar terrain. Graphics by achilleszero and GeoModder.
16. The Marine Detachment special ability is now available for Choppers and Cruisers, gives +25% strength vs. Submarines, -20% strength vs. Cruisers and only has 1/3 chance to capture Cruisers.
17. Ships with Marine Detachment can't be captured.
18. The Energy Nexus building now provides +2 Influence and +1 Merchant Great People Point.
19. Native Life no longer requires Biology Labs to breed
20. Submarines no longer have the inherent ability to move through rival territory.
21. The Stealth special ability enables moving through rival territory.
22. With Doctrine : Initiative you can now research Magnetic Acceleration
23. Empath Guild now costs 75 minerals.
24. Planetary Council now costs 350 minerals.

 

[Cmcastl]

Many thanks again, Maniac et al., for providing the gaming experience that Firaxis could, have should have updated themselves! Most grateful, SMAC was and this is my all-time favourite game!

Now a trivial request which may not be feasible but there is no harm in asking... I always got a bit of a fillip to my ego after a happy couple of hours gaming when occasionally I would log off SMAC and I would get the voice which went "please don't go. The drones need you... They look up to you."

Live long and prosper.

 

[arkham4269]

Now a trivial request which may not be feasible but there is no harm in asking... I always got a bit of a fillip to my ego after a happy couple of hours gaming when occasionally I would log off SMAC and I would get the voice which went "please don't go. The drones need you... They look up to you."

Best game quote ever. I have it set up on my machine to use that wave file when I log off. Actually I use a lot of those game sound files for most of my computer effects. I just like to hear "Faction Eliminated" when I empty my trash file.

 

[Cmcastl]

Well, how do I set it up, please?

 

[Cmcastl]

I must ask again, modders Maniac et al., please, please, please tweak the AI so that in the easier levels of the game the sea fauna/flora of Alpha Centauri is not so overwhelming. It was never so difficult with SMAC! May I humbly recommend you provide some Psi defence to sea formers and increase the Psi defence to naval vessels. I have been accused of having "pet peeves" but I am simply concerned with a game balance which I believe the earlier SMAC got just right.

Live long and prosper.

 

[Pfeffersack]

I must ask again, modders Maniac et al., please, please, please tweak the AI so that in the easier levels of the game the sea fauna/flora of Alpha Centauri is not so overwhelming. It was never so difficult with SMAC! May I humbly recommend you provide some Psi defence to sea formers and increase the Psi defence to naval vessels. I have been accused of having "pet peeves" but I am simply concerned with a game balance which I believe the earlier SMAC got just right.

Live long and prosper.

As said before, it would be helpful if you could load up a save or two of a typical game of you - best would the starting save (or shortly after) and then at the point were the trouble really starts. That way it would be much easier to track down what causes the problem(s) in your game - because currently it is not really clear to me. Is the problem too many marauding IoDs on sea or too many fungal blooms (spreading native life then)? Regarding the issue with "(Aqua)formers getting destroyed instead of disabled" by native life - since no one else complained, a technical reason seems to be more likely (see my comment on Vista and UAC earlier). Same for the effect of Hypnotic Trance on your ships - if you always get sunk, it must be something technical. If it is just too often, it might be a bad RNG streak or just not enough ships.

I'm interested in a save, because then I could compare with my test game on Chieftain I runned recently (see my report about "Terraforming with Miriam..." in the Planetfall subforum) BTW, a consequency of that game was that some free planet value ("green hearts") was added for the lower levels with the latest patch, which should help both with running a green economy and nerfing the damage of a terraforming startegy.