The Alpha Centauri Project

[Twotons]

I know everyone wants it so I'll just put this here to get the ball rolling.

I made a rough outline of what I feel would be a feasible SMAC inspired mod for BE. There's still quite a bit of stuff to fill in...

OUTLINE

Spoiler :

Overview
Alpha Centauri (working title) is a total conversion mod for Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth (BE) that draws inspiration from Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri (SMAC). The mod will take the lore and possibly some of the mechanics of SMAC and fuse it with the gameplay of BE.


Factions
Spartan Federation
+Military
-Economy

Gaia's Stepdaughters
+Health

University of Planet
+Research
-Military

Peacekeeping Forces
+Health

Human Hive
+Industry

Lord's Believers
+Military
-Research

Morgan Industries
+Economy
-Military


Native Animal Life
The only creatures that need mentioning on the planet are mindworms and they come in 3 variants:
Mind Worms
Land based melee unit

Isle of the Deep
Sea based melee unit

Locusts of Chiron
Flying melee unit

Each mindworm variant will come in 3 flavors: young, mature, elder (weakest, strongest)


Global Resources
Nutrients
Required for city growth, acquired the same way as in BE

Minerals
Required for manufacturing units and base buildings, acquired the same way as in BE

Energy
Currency, acquired the same way as in BE

Culture
Required for border expansion and acquiring virtues, acquired the same way as in BE

Pollution
Pollution determines the level of intensity that you're faction is attacked by native life forms. Pollution is acquired from building certain buildings and tile enhancements. It can be reduced by researching technologies, building certain buildings and tile improvements, and gaining affinities.


Terrain and Features
Most terrain features from BE will be kept.

The mod will introduce 1 new tile feature: Xenofungus
Initially Xenofungus will only provide a defensive bonus to units defending in it but will yield resources as technologies are unlocked. Xenofungus cannot be terraformed until the appropriate technology is unlocked. Bases cannot be built on Xenofungus.


Terraforming and Enhancements
Will largely be the same as BE.

Wishlist include being able to change tile elevation, planting forests that expands into undeveloped tiles, and building enhancements that affect surrounding tiles.


Unity Pods and Monoliths
Unity Pods are goodie items that are scattered throughout the map. They behave exactly like BE's Pods.

Monoliths are structures of unknown origins that can be investigated with explorers to gain benefits such as research or culture. Monoliths are removed once they've been investigated(?)

Technologies
The names will be changed to use the original technologies from SMAC, but the benefits will be similar to BE.


Buildings
Will largely stay the same with new names and a few tweaks to reflect some of the mod's additions.

Secret Projects
Will largely stay the same with new names and a few tweaks to reflect some of the mod's additions.

Affinity
It'll probably be renamed or removed altogether.

Virtues
Same as Beyond Earth

Units and Structures
Will largely stay the same with new names and a few tweaks to reflect some of the mod's additions. Art assets will reflect the designs of the original Alpha Centauri game.

Unit upgrading will probably happen once a particular technology is researched or a particular amount of tech is researched.

Orbital Layer
It'll behave the same way but won't be available until the appropriate tech is researched.

PROGRESS

Spoiler :

Remade all of the SMAC factions, buildings, and technology icons as vectors. Currently in the process of learning how to mod BE.

I'm open to suggestions with this mod. I'm more of an artist than a programmer or designer so if you're interested in helping out, just make a post. Not really in any state to get organized just yet.

 

[Twotons]

reserved

 

[Carolus Rex]

Been using your mods for factions a while now and I really like them! As a huge fan of SMAC I really am looking forward to see how your work on this potentially super-awesome mod will progress. One thing I want to suggest right away is to redo the diplomacy in BE to work like it did in SMAC. IMO the SMAC diplomacy system is the best system ever developed in a Sid Meier game.

Would that be at all possible, you guys think?

Cheers and thanks for a couple of great mods so far!

 

[alysander]

What s more valuable for me in AC are terrain features/landmarks (can be made as additional resources with special alhorithm of placing):

Pholus Ridge +1 Energy = can be basic resource (genetic based, can give +health)
Uranium Flats +1 Energy = can be changed to some Thorium/Uranium resource (atomics)
Monsoon Jungle +1 Nutrients = (unique forest biome)
Garland Crater +1 Minerals = (passable crater)
Mount Planet +1 Energy, +1 Minerals = can be just geothermal resource point
Freshwater Sea +1 Nutrients = maybe some unique algaes?
Geothermal Shallows +1 Energy = water geothermal analog?

would be nice to have tech (~Aquaculture or smth) to build algae farm on hex without resource with additional work or smth.

also can be good to have some genetic "resources" maybe based on worm's skeleton model for build advanced alien units.

 

[Minor Annoyance]

You could use the three future society civics for affinities. Those being eudaimonic, cybernetics, and thought control.
I think affinities are too interesting a concept to not use.
Edit: I had already been thinking about this and since you were ready to abandon affinities all together I'll post my ideas. You can't really just use the old ones for the sole reason of the Gaians. The could not not be harmony and you can't have a no choice affinity so something else is needed.

 

[Minor Annoyance]

So here's some affinity/Future Society ideas.

Cybernetic
Rejigger supremacy
Still use Firaxite
Is supposed to have better efficiency, science, planet and bad police.
Efficiency translates to more cities so some per city health and/or expansion
Planet is supposed to be improved ecology which doesn't really exist in this game and use of alien life so it could borrow some of harmony's stuff.
Police doesn't exactly translate. Could make it hard to control captured cities or get more unhealth from population.
Keep the old unique units for now

Thought Control
Replace harmony
Keep xenomass as a source of mind control chemicals
Better police, morale, probe, and bad support
Police less time to take control of captured cities
Morale is combat bonuses
Probe is spying
Support is unit upkeep
I wonder if the slavery and draft functions of civ 4 would work? I think I remember seeing them referenced in civ 5 files but weren't used so maybe they were never functional.
For unique units a unit that is made up of lower class citizens forced into military service. Fast to build but not especially remarkable in combat. Berserker soldiers that have now fear, possibly using the heavy charge ability from BNW. An air unit that does extra damage if it is killed in combat, like a kamikaze unit.

Eudaimonic
Replace purity
Use floatstone because why not?
Better growth, economy, industry but bad moral
They're supposed to be pacifists with a very good society so improved culture, and have recruit defectors and coup take less time. Have unit exp be slow to gain.
Military is hard to do for a pacifist society, but could make capturing (liberating) cities easier, use the harmony units scatter effects, have negative combat modifiers on opponents like Polynesia's UU in civ 5. Mostly defensive units and ranged.