SMACX Thinker Mod

[Edoo]

Thank you for your extremely competent reply, you provided me with the exact kind of info i was looking for!!!

Short mod intro from what I know:

I played AI Growth AI a bit, it is interesting. It is closer to vanilla experience in my opinion than both Thinker and Will to Power mods. The author also designed it for large maps, so people who like large maps may prefer it. Sea units have a bit more movement, mag tubes come earlier, you get access to clean units earlier which alleviates support problems. This makes AI much better, all the mods are improving on support now I think. Secret projects are moved to T3-T4 techs, that also helps AI, no reason to build them when you dont have minerals - and then there are some cost rebalances that game badly needs to be frank. Secret projects costs and terraforming is rebalance, and probably some more things. Social Engineering tree is changed and renamed a bit, seems quite flexible to me, which is cool approach. In vanilla for example some combinations are no go - especially the ones with minus efficiency. I think the author did well with changes, people who want closer to vanilla experience or like larger maps should try it. Downside is that by not patching DLL - like Thinker and WTP, there is a limit to how good you can make AI. This is the most chill mod of the three here, if you like nice somewhat relaxed game, this is the mod to go to.

Thinker mod for example improves AI a lot, but it is a bit different experience than vanilla. Largely due to relentless AI base spam (50 bases default), AI will flood the map, that can be overwhelming and then the AI is better, more units, smarter, terraforming is improved. You can mod easily this base spam and lots of players do limit AI a bit. So this could be scary on highest difficulties. Thinker tries to keep closer to vanilla as well which makes it familiar to players and its practically go-to mod nowadays with lots of other fixes as well. Almost nobody plays vanilla anymore.. I think. Thinker makes only slight rebalances to most OP stuff, like nerf to choppers, but it does not rebalance costs of anything for the most part - there are couple of exceptions maybe. In that sense player can use these imbalance to overpower AI - like conquering the planet by using mostly rovers/or later needlejets, but it is still significant challenge. Thinker mod is probably all you ever need for most players.

Will to Power is based on Thinker, so it has its great AI to start with, and then the mod tries to rebalance and improve on the game further. That does move it a bit farther from vanilla experience, but it is more challenging to win, especially by going conquest route. Defending is easier - armors buffed, attacking harder - weapon power nerfed, unit cost is rebalanced seriously not to favor rovers so much, secret projcts, facilities are rebalanced. The mod tries as well to stick to vanilla experience to stay familiar to players which is good approach I think. Terraforming is refreshed, there are couple of significant changes, forest spam is not go-to solution that is one thing I really like about this mod. And unit rebalance makes it worthwhile to build more infantry - rover and needlejet spam is not nearly as strong. If you find to win Thinker relatively easy or want to try rebalanced Alpha Centauri this mod is great.

So for AC enjoyers I would try all three, they all offer different things and are good mods overall.

 

[Induktio]

It can be more subjective to consider what we mean by gameplay experience but if the definition applied here is the game rules used then Thinker is relatively close to the original game especially when looking at alphax.txt settings. As an another example you might be playing against Stockfish at easy mode or hard mode, but you are still playing the same chess game even if the opponent plays at different levels. Now if you use same chess pieces but play some completely different rules variant such as antichess, the experience might change but the game played will be some something different than standard chess.

Conversely there might be mods out there that reorder the whole tech tree or apply significant changes on different basic rules, but it is doubtful to consider these variants being close to the original game since the tech tree is maybe the first thing players look at when considering the changes in the mod. Thinker applies a couple of changes on rules here and there too, but the player can still look at most of the original manual and apply the same information on the modded game. Generally this mod tries to only apply changes that don't cause large differences on gameplay experience compared to the original game rules. There is nothing preventing adjusting alphax.txt or thinker.ini values since by default the changes are somewhat minor compared to the original game.

 

[0verkil1l]

Hey, does anyone know how to change collateral damage? Let's say 10%.

 

[0verkil1l]

I'm currently testing the Thinker mod. I applied it to an earlier save. What I've noticed is that in my city, with the PLANET setting on full. Eco damage is 104%. Previously, I had around 3 or 7.

 

[Induktio]

Eco damage display has been updated in the mod as it is described in details.md. The actual calculation will not change but the result is displayed in a different way. This is not included in the game tutorials so just have to check the mod documention.

 

[0verkil1l]

I played more, delved deeper, and I assert that this mod is amazing. It's one of the best possible gifts. Much better AI and very interesting solutions. I didn't
like collateral damage, and I'm curious about how playable the game will be when it's turned off. In alphax, nothing is mixed up, so if someone likes standard
rules, they can stick with the old version, while those who like to experiment can change it to their liking. This mod is totally a higher level.

Oh, it's great stuff, great stuff!

 

[Psyringe]

Oh, it's great stuff, great stuff!

You just have to watch it closely - because if it gets the chance, one of the AIs may be strong enough to ... run away. ;D

I totally agree with your assessment, btw. I'm on my third game now (first one was on standard map size, the others on a modded size between large and huge), and it's literally a dream come true.

 

[0verkil1l]

I'm continuing to test and it's really fun to play. Indeed, a dream has become a reality!

- Personally, I like smaller maps and intense territorial fights from the start. 30x60 is my favorite, or even smaller maps without water.
- My previous game was really interesting, but global warming totally weakened my opponents and caused too much chaos overall, so I've turned it off this time.
- The AI can indeed make solid progress, you need to form alliances, attack from multiple sides, and gradually destroy its economy.
- Capturing a base now is quite a challenge. I increased the armor by +2 and it is possible to build Battle Ogres. Defensive units with double the armor compared to current tech, but no offensive capabilities.
Now entire fronts emerge that grind through units and drain resources. War is really an expensive business. It creates interesting strategic and tactical scenarios. Key points, base sieges, infrastructure destruction, and artillery defense are all crucial (in my game, artillery can totally destroy units).
There's a lot more planning involved. I also enabled bunkers to be built earlier with Doctrine: Loyalty, and it's worth doing so. Whole Maginot Lines! Previously, once you reached the right tech, it was just blitzkrieg on all fronts, and that basically ended the game.
- A naval landing near my capital totally caught me off guard. The AI cleverly bypassed my defensive positions—great job!
- I think it’s worth pushing clean reactors and supply crawlers to late-game tech and reducing the forest bonus to 1-1-0, but that’s just my personal preference and not mod-related.
- I've been playing SMAC on Transcend for ages, but now on Thinker, it's tough-very tough.
- I noticed that to refuel a Needlejet now, you first have to press space and then repair it. Not sure if that’s intentional, but I don’t mind—it makes you think more.
- The solution with Reactors, Magtubes, and Choppers is excellent. However, for me, Choppers are still too powerful and completely overshadow Needlejets. In my setup, Choppers are expensive land units with slightly more movement points.

Before starting a new game, I thought I'd go to bed early, wake up fresh, and play in the morning. But I couldn't sleep all night! The last time I felt this way about SMAC was as a kid!
This is an amazing mod, and I highly recommend it to any fan because the creator did an excellent job.