SMACX AI Growth mod

[bvanevery]

I have released version 1.14. Weapon strengths are returned to those of the original game, because unique weapons artwork is tied to those strengths. Armor is strengthened to match weapons at the same tech level. Fusion and Quantum reactors return to more traditional places in the tech tree.

 

[bvanevery]

I have released version 1.15. The Believers gain immunity to Mind Control and +1 GROWTH. They can now use Knowledge, but they can't be Cybernetic. This fits the lore of the game: Miriam hates dem Cyborgs and nanorobots and Self-Aware Colonies. We must dissent!

Other factions get buffs to put them closer to parity with the best endowed factions. Morgan makes filthy money. Lal spews babies. Hive learns to handle cash properly and forces a few babies of his own. Drones have even fewer drones and some babies. Nerve gas and soporific gas become available earlier.

 

[JH24]

I really like the changes, especially the Believers. Their Cybernetic aversion fits perfectly with Miriam's quotes about technology. I like how the factions have much more of an identity.

Thank you so much for all your hard work! I look forward to try this version out later this week. Hopefully I can update my existing Peacekeeper game with it, I haven't been able to play much the last few days.

 

[Volcanon]

Immunity to mind control is awesome, that's always been one super imba part of the game. You can steal somebody's entire army for literal pennies. Somehow the AI always has the money to mind control a city with a 40 unit air force.

 

[bvanevery]

> Thank you so much for all your hard work!

You're welcome! Maybe 1.15 is it for changes. Barring some playtesting discoveries, like, uh, making Lal or Domai invincible now or something. Or the Hive still being too weak. At one point I almost gave the Drones their +2 INDUSTRY back, but I didn't want to go there. The rate at which they could grind out Secret Projects was seriously annoying.

I would totally like to rewrite the city takeover rules, but that takes binary patching. You should have to buy all the units in and around the city, not just the city. I've also experienced another strange phenomenon late game: cities that are godawful expensive to buy, even though they're only size 1, have nothing in them, and the enemy may not even have a capitol. Makes me wonder if late game, the takeover costs are a percentage of your own credits? In my last AAR I had to outright conquer everyone because I couldn't afford to buy all the cities.

To test 1.15 I played the beginning of a game as the Caretakers. I stomped the Hive, because they walked into one of my newly founded cities unprovoked. I think the Hive did poorly because they started near to me. Nobody else did. I seemed to be pretty much on a path to supremacy and that was boring so I quit. The Drones were doing well with their new "can go up to size 4 without any drones" bases. Peacekeepers were doing well. Morganites doing ok not great, shoved a bit behind the Peacekeepers but still had land available to them. 3 colony pods milling about, to no good effect. They were 1st to try to build a Secret Project other than myself though, so it can't all be wailing and tears for them. Believers ok not great, not threatened though. At war with the Pirates, who are doing just fine as usual. I didn't give the Pirates any new bonuses in 1.15. I think their minerals rich moat is possibly the ultimate bonus of the whole game. I mean think about it, +1 minerals on most of your tiles? How can you lose?

 

[Volcanon]

Fixing spying and diplomacy (no more 'forever wars' with somebody 4000 miles away) would be great for this game.

The Pirates could probably use an early game nerf, but no clue what that could be. Maybe the no science for X turns penalty?

 

[bvanevery]

Why early game nerf? Because they show up with lotsa boats and are annoying to the human player? I may have fixed that, I made them Passive, pursuing Wealth, and an Explore + Build faction. On the other hand, I don't think the Pirates have been geographically close to me for many games now. I play on Enormous 80x160 maps. Do let me know if you're seeing overpowered early game Pirate behavior in 1.15, or whatever version you did see such. Pirates have been Passive etc. since 1.8.

I'm playing an all RANDOM game where I got the University. I am of course doing well, which makes me think the University wasn't in any way an impoverished faction. The Drones have kicked the snot out of the Morganites, contesting the Monsoon Jungle. So it seems the massive economic bonus I've given Morgan, won't save him from Domai's industry. I was right not to increase his INDUSTRY bonus, wonder if I went too far with the happiness and growth bonuses. Then again it is the Monsoon Jungle which skews things. Any violent faction dominates there. I will have my eye on Domai though.

 

[bvanevery]

In another random opponents game, Domai did not turn out to be overpowered. The Peacekeepers and the Pirates were beating him up. However he held his ground and eventually took back some bases. No evidence of having overpowered anyone so far.

Pirates started near me and eventually got in war with me. They did not do the super annoying dozens of ships thing. So I think Passive Wealth fixed the Pirates. They are dangerous; it is only because they were sandwiched between Domai, Lal, and myself that they weren't dominating. Oh, almost forgot that they were surrounding me and I took all their bases immediately around me, lol. Didn't want all of the Pirates, just the stuff that would make a good empire for me.

The Consciousness nuked me, unprovoked! I set them to Aggressive a long time ago, but it is the wrong decision for their progress late game. They should relax and do research. Going to make a 1.16 for this. Trying to remember if anything else needs fixing, but not thinking of anything.

 

[bvanevery]

I have released version 1.16. Consciousness changed from Aggressive to Passive, per above. No other changes.

 

[bvanevery]

I have released version 1.17. Mindworm and other PSI units are made cheaper. Gaians get a 20% PSI bonus. Cult of Planet no longer gets free Brood Pit. Cyborgs no longer get IMPUNITY to Cybernetic social engineering choice. Sensor Arrays can be built on water. Unity Mining Laser is now a Particle Impactor.

 

[bvanevery]

I have released version 1.18. Took Democratic ECONOMY bonus out of the game because it made it really easy for Morgan to corner the energy market. He only paid 1000 credits and almost won, mid-game! A few other minor bugfix and convenience changes.

 

[bvanevery]

I have released version 1.19. A surprising number of changes were precipitated by playtester Vidsek. Rec Commons and Hab Complex become cheaper. Data Angels no longer need to infiltrate to get free techs from other factions. Cyborgs and Caretakers become Erratic so they will fight better. Fungus edibility and energy is now like the unmodded game. Some Secret Project costs go up, a few go down. Research focus continuity in the tech tree is smoothed out.

 

[bvanevery]

I have released version 1.20. University gets free Biology Labs. Believers, Hive, and University add Explore research focus, which helps early game expansion. Cybernetic Consciousness adds Conquer focus. Gaians go Explore only because their mindworms are tough now. Spartans go Conquer only. Free Drones, Peacekeepers, and Pirates become Passive, as they are better off building larger cities than fighting wars.

 

[Petek]

Looks like you've put lots of work into this mod. I noticed that you wondered how the problem with factions spawning on one-tile islands ("the problem") worked. I studied this issue several years ago. I've posted this information before, so please feel free to disregard.

1. The problem occurs only in SMAX, not SMAC.
2. I speculate that the problem arose because the SMAX developers had to change the "landing place" algorithm to allow space for the three factions that land later than the others.
3. The workaround consists of playing on pre-generated ginormous maps.

See the files BigSMAXMaps1.zip and BigSMAXMaps2.zip in the Alpha Centauri Downloads folder. I generated these maps to bypass the problem.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

 

[bvanevery]

Heh! Do you have a way to generate these maps without actually seeing them yourself? Because if not, then people are beholden to having someone else generate maps for them, when they run out.

 

[Petek]

I just generated so many maps that I couldn’t remember which was which. You also could name the maps to disguise their parameters.

 

[bvanevery]

Well I guess that's a partial answer for someone truely dedicated to ginormous maps. I've written plenty of AARs about very large map games, and I'm pretty much done with the attraction to that. I got the problem mostly solved up through Giant sized maps, which are sufficiently tedious to provide a challenge IMO.

 

[mayford]

Unfortunately there is no mechanism to do what you suggest. Firaxis didn't think of that back in the day.

No, you did not understand. Just as you added Biolaboratory University. Each faction - on the original building at each base.

But do they survive in the midgame? My experience running AIs vs. other AIs on Transcend, is that by midgame some other faction is often trashing the University. To me that means they're still not in the strongest tier of factions, even with their new tech advantage. I think the reason for this is that on Transcend, all the AIs are given a huge tech advantage, so it takes a lot ot distinguish a faction that way. I'm not willing to give them any more than a free Biology Lab, that would just be getting ridiculous.

The university is already too cool, if you do not crush it at the start, then it will crush everyone. I propose to remove his biolaboratory from him and remove -1 probe compensation.

So my questions would be, what difficulty level are you playing on, what map size, what are the factions in your game, who is the University fighting against, and how close did they start to their enemies?

Difficulty - Transcend, map - Huge, rules - All kinds of victory, Intense Rivalry, Tech Stagnation. I completely surpass the remaining factions in 100-200 years from now.

 

[bvanevery]

You're right, I didn't understand what you meant. You were proposing, various free buildings for various factions. In principle, you're right, that's a way to adjust faction strength. In practice, I only give a faction a bonus when I see them getting their ass kicked by other factions. The Spartans in my mod do not need a bonus for instance, they are one of the most dominant land factions in the game. If they're in the game and I'm running AI vs. AI, I can almost guarantee that they're going to stomp any next door neighbor early. The other really dominant land faction is the Usurpers. I don't think it's an accident that they both have an Aggressive personality and are focused only on Conquer techs, in my mod.

If you always play Intense Rivalry, Tech Stagnation, then you are violating basic ideas under which I've balanced the University compared to other factions. Adding a free Biology Lab would be disproportionately powerful when playing with Tech Stagnation. Also in my mod the University has a Passive personality. When you play with Intense Rivalry you're throwing off the ecosystem I've devised between the factions. I don't know if your choice would make Zak Erratic or Aggressive, but either will definitely start wars more easily. My suggestion is, try playing Transcend on a Huge map with default settings, no Tech Stagnation or Intense Rivalry, and see what the experience is like for you. I seriously doubt Zak is going to dominate, because he hasn't managed to dominate any AI vs. AI test game I've run. The Spartans, Usurpers, and Pirates are far more likely to challenge you.

 

[bvanevery]

I have released version 1.21. The mysterious Global Energy Theory and Inertial Damping techs, which shipped with the original game but weren't used, are enabled! Neural Grafting, Cruisers, Hovertanks, Genejack Factories, Clean Reactors, and Genetic Warfare come earlier in the tech tree. Made Fungi Rover Former, Cruiser Colony Pod and Submarine Probe Team predefined units to help the AI.