posted 03-20-99 08:17 PM ET        

Morgan: change pop, 3 to pop, 2 in the morgan file. This gives the maximum early base size as 5, rather than 4, and allows Morgan to use specialists.

Peacekeepers: eliminate the pop, -2, (not much use anyway) and instead grant a SHARETECH, 3. This powerful upgrade gives Lal his own version of the Planetary datalinks. I justify this on the basis that his current array of special abilites are too narrow, i.e he is dependant upon getting big bases and pursuing a dip vic. This change gives some variety. I also balance this by changing the effic -1 to effic -2 (which is more reminiscent of the U.N, anyway).

Believers: In the alpha.txt file, change the prerequisite for fundamentalist politics to Social Pysch, miriam's starting tech. Then, in the believers file, change support +2 to support +1 and add IMPUNITY, FUNDAMENTALIST, to the list of abilities. This allows miriam to play fundamentalist almost from the very beginning (similar to Yang's police state), without incurring a -40% penalty to tech (they remain at -20%, which is bad enough).

Datalinks info for all of these can be changed in the blurbs lower down the faction files.

posted 03-21-99 08:50 PM ET            

Morgan already gets a sizable number of bonuses however - Econ +1 (very useful, as with Wealth value gets him a +2 bonus, without having to use free market). He also gets a reasonable commerce bonus, and starts out with a lot more money than the other factions. But you're right, it does make sense, especially as Morgan is supposed to have a very significant cash advantage over the other factions.

I suspect it wasn't included simply because the Hive and UoP already have automatic base improvements, and this would simply add to the number of freebees being given away. Causing complaints like "why don't the Gaians get a free recycling tanks", and "why doesn't Lal get a free rec commons", etc.

Having said that, I agree, it would a good change to impliment. But the POP, 3, would have to be reinstated, to stop morgan's energy running too far ahead in the early game.

posted 03-21-99 10:04 PM ET            

More changes:
Peacekeepers: Give Lal a free com frequency at the start of the game. As the diplomat, it makes sense for him to have this bonus, and also boosts his fragile early game prospects. I find the Peacekeepers do tend to get overwhelmed quite early on, simply because their abilities are only valuable in the later parts of the game.

posted 03-22-99 12:13 PM ET            

First, to restate a position I've given in other threads, I don't find the Believers as problematic as others. Played with the correct Holy Crusader attitude, they are viable. That being said, my two cents worth goes as follows.

I would be in favor of giving the Beleivers two abilities right up front: the ability to build Probes on turn 1 and the ability to become a fundamentalist government on turn 1. My point is this: all other factions have the ability to make use of their strengths from the first turn, e.g. Gaians can capture mindworms immediately; UofP gets a free Node immediately; Hive gets their free PDs and enhanced breeding potential immediately; Morgan starts making use of his Econ bonus immediately; Sparta gets their rover chassis and morale bonus immediately; Lal, um, OK, so he's the other exception. The TBs are unique, though, in that they're the only faction that has to do any significant research to begin to make use of their strongest asset (combination of probe + fundy probe bonus) and that's problematic for them because of their crippled research. So my proposal is to simply make them more like other factions in allowing them immediate acees to their advantages.

posted 03-22-99 12:27 PM ET         

I don't know if being able to use probes teams from turn 1 is a good idea. If they get some quick economy bonuses (POD's) and kill a few MW for more credits. They could literally BUY another faction out of the game before they reached base size 2. This seems a little unbalanced but I do agree they should have SOMETHING to use right away.

Perhaps they get an infiltrator in every faction from the start?

posted 03-22-99 05:27 PM ET            

Impunity Fundamentalist has also been added, that -20% penalty already seems big enough.

Which still leaves them with the crippling tech, and no probe teams. The only thing that occurs to me is to give Miriam a free probe team from the start, as a one off boost. Which is a bit hit and miss, in that nothing gets solved if the probe team gets itself killed on the first attempt.

Otherwise, you need to redo the whole early game tech rules, with factions starting out with large amounts of technology. I don't want to do this.

posted 03-22-99 05:37 PM ET            

Morgan: TECH, INDECON instead of industrial base, and FACILITY, 6, at the end of his abilites. Hence he starts with an extra commerce bonus for the technology, as well as his own, and a way to earn energy (free energy banks) without having to trade. Rich assed.

Peacekeepers: Eliminate Pop, -2, and give SHARETECH, 3, and COMMFREQ. So Lal starts with his own version of the Planetary datalinks, appropriate to his highbrow, scholary, talent fueled civilistation, and can exercise his diplomatic skills from the word go (esp with ver 3.0's more spread out approach).

Believers: In alpha.txt, change the prereq for fundamentalist to Social pysch (called psych, I think). Add IMPUNITY, FUNDAMENTALIST, to her list of abilities. (I haven't tried the free probe team thing yet. I think the line UNIT, PROBE, might do it?)

posted 03-22-99 07:33 PM ET            

Perhaps she could benefit from a bonus COMMFREQ. Being an evangelist and everything, I think it could be justified on the basis of her needing to spread the good word (and acquire planetary networks...)

Phreak: Good point about the probe team. *sigh*. I guess we'll just have to classify Miriam as the 'Magic-User' faction on SMAC - difficult to keep alive at the start, but very powerful later on.

posted 03-22-99 09:40 PM ET            

micje: Miriam can do some early game research, but later in the game, why bother when you can steal it?

And oh yes, back in the demo days I came up with some super-powered factions for the AI to play as. Not nearly as much fun for a human player to play, but they give the AI quite an advantage. It's assumed you would use the normal file for your faction.

Gaians: +1 Growth (those sunny lover's trysts) and a free Bio Lab each base (a strong researching faction- originally a +1 Research, but this is slightly more in character, and makes the Gaians a holy terror early in the game when those 2 research points mean a lot)

Believers: +2 Growth (God wants you to have many children- unbalancing if played by humans due to population boom with Democracy & Planned), free Rec Commons each bae (happy, contented fanatics at church).

Hive: Recycling Tanks (Very efficient, and maximizes all city space, plus makes for faster tech and economy at start), +1 Police (gives them the Ascetic Virtues + Police State doubling of police effect)

Spartans: Free Command Center (even greater morale units), +1 Probe (Difficult to brainwash followers

Morgan: Free Energy Bank (already discussed), +1 Industry (strong Industrial base), starts with 300 energy credits instead of 100 (they're still arguably the weakest- this makes it tougher to take them out early)

UoP: +1 Efficiency (Various energy-saving contraptions), Free Prototypes (all the protoyping done in the labs) I couldn't really think of another bonus to give them without totally unbalancing them, so they get the short end of the stick here.

PK: Children's Creche (Reading Mindworm, Mindworm to all the kiddies: plus, insures growth to fill those big cities as well as beats efficiency penalty), Commerce +1 (from efficienct trading- might not be recognied by game due to too many parameters), +1 Support (recognize need for large military- also, counteracts Democracy support penalty).

posted 03-22-99 10:03 PM ET            

The Impunity, Fundamentalist is still needed, IMO. Not only does their research stagnate at more than -2, but they need the +1 Morale from fundamentalist as soon as possible (I believe I've mentioned their -1 Planet, and how this makes them vunerable to mindworms early on...) Which makes sense, anyway, since they're already a fundamentalist state more or less, and should be better able to deal with the consquences.

Basically, its all about getting those essential early technologies, Non Linear Mathematics and Planetary networks. After that, they're pretty much as powerful as any other faction on Planet, especially in the hands of an aggressive player.

I might just try your super factions out, they would certainly provide a massive challenge on Transcendance.

posted 03-23-99 05:49 PM ET            

With the spread out locations of version 3.0, Miriam should be able to rush to Planetary networks without delay, before encountering any major opposition. I think she's pretty stable with the Impunity, Fun change. I'm still not sure about the bonus commfreq, though - easy to justify, but sorta intruding on Lal's abilities. What the hell.

Morgan: TECH, INDECON instead of industrial base, and FACILITY, 7, at the end of his abilites. Keep population limits to slow new cashflow boosts.

'Economic Infrastructure: Free Energy Bank at each base.'

Peacekeepers: Eliminate Pop, -2, and give SHARETECH, 3, and COMMFREQ. So Lal starts with his own version of the Planetary datalinks.

'Scholarly followers: Gains any tech owned by three other factions.'
'Diplomacy: Starts with free commfrequency'

Believers: In alpha.txt, change the prereq for FUNDAMENTALIST to PYSCH. In Believers.txt add IMPUNITY, FUNDAMENTALIST, and COMMFREQ to the list of abilities

'Suffers no negative effects from fundamentalist politics'
'Evangelism: Starts with free Comm Frequency'

Hive: Change IMMUNITY, EFFIC, to ROBUST, EFFIC.

'Disciplined followers: All efficiency penalties halved.'

Recommended Alpha.txt changes:
Non-combat penalty: Set to 25%
Time between council meeting: Set to 12
Minerals from harvesting forest: Set to 10
Hovertank: Set prereq to Monopole magnets
Plasma shard: Set prereq to Nanominiturisation (appears later,
more space between fusion lasers and shard technology).
Sensor array: Set time to 2 turns.
Perimeter defense: Set to build 4.
Recycling tanks: Set to build 3.
Borehole: Set to 5,5 and time 20 (balancing against rocky ground with
minerals/road/mine = 7 minerals - now worthwhile to build).

posted 03-23-99 07:24 PM ET            

But I agree, you seem to be correct wrt the UoP. I've considered adding a -1 Industry or -1 support to their list of abilities (which incidently I can't remember right now. They get the drones, the tech bonus, the probe penalty, and the free network nodes, right?). Which is a massive +70% each base to starting tech.

The probe penalty is quite major, but it might pay to have something to stop the university being so able to take advantage of its technology advantage.

-2 Support
'Reluctant to support military endeavours'

This would add to the University's expansion problems somewhat, with only one free unit being supported and no minerals for new bases.

But that leaves the university at:
+2 Research -2 Probe -2 Support
Free network node at each base
Extra drone for every 4 citizens

Which means the University's only hope is to pursue a very fast reseach program. Still, this seems to be their only real strategy anyway.

OTOH, the University has a unique advantage to them - the Virtual World and the Hunter Seeker algorithm together almost completely eliminate their negatives in the later part of the game. And a smart UoP player will do anything to obtain these projects.

posted 03-23-99 08:39 PM ET         

I've played the Believers last two games, and have an observation on Shining1's and others' suggestions concerning this faction.

Punishment Spheres are the One True Church of the Believers. True, PuniSpheres make Free Market ideal for any faction, but they also adversely impact Lab output. But the Believers are the one faction that can do without Lab output - in fact I consider it a waste of energy to devote anything to Labs after I have probes.

A healthy Free Market Fundamentalist Believer with Punishment Spheres and Econ ramped up to 80-90% is a dangerous opponent indeed. What do +4 Elite Probes + money = ?. Lots of bribed units and bases - this is specifically how the Believers conquest style differs from the Spartans. This optimal Believer playing style has two implications, one for the starting position and the other for the Planet rating.

It highlights that the real issue at the start is probes, not Fundamentalism. Setting IMPUNITY,FUNDAMENTALIST does not really resolve this issue, since you can get that same initial Lab juice necessary to guarantee getting to Planetary Networks, by NOT going Fundamentalist until you get probes, while at the same time you don't really NEED to go Fundamentalist UNTIL you have probes. So this setting's net advantage for the Believers is +1 Morale - that's all. The only solution is that Miriam starts with probes - but NOT fundamentalism, which should still require Brain Secrets. This will lessen the effect of having probes from the start - and if you land near the Believers, well, heh, better build your 2nd base in the OPPOSITE direction! Now, if only there were a practical way to allow probe-building for the Believers and no one else...but if it were possible, it would resolve their start game problems to my satisfaction.

posted 03-23-99 09:23 PM ET            

Get +3 Probe with Fundamentalist, and also +1 Morale. Punishment spheres arrive only after discovering AMAlgorithms, which takes a short while to reach.

Free market gives -3 planet, so for the Believers this gives -4 planet, -5 police, and the punishment spheres will wipe out any remaining research.

So at this stage you have +2 Econ, +2 support, +1 Morale, +3 Probe, -4 Planet -5 Police, -2 Research (assuming Impunity). Values and future society choices are not included yet.

So you'd better be highly aggressive, and hope to hell you own the planetary datalinks and the Neural Amplifier, 'cause those mindworms are starting to look pretty scary.
Having said that, against most other factions, especially the univerisity, this is looking like a pretty fearsome array.

Note: I believe (heh heh) Miriam's probe team woes are pretty much solved by the more spread out nature of version 3.0 - firaxis is way ahead of us on this one . With careful research, you can get the Planetary Datalinks (D2) quite quickly, especially at only -2 research, and having an inital probe team isn't necessary - there's nothing to apply it too. After that, the believers have the OPTION of going totally probe/military orientated, or alternatively trying to stay middle of the road, with slow research balanced by good spying.

I think Impunity should stay, just to give that option - with the variability of SMAC, having options is very important. Basically, if you follow the main tactic, your research score is irrelevant anyway. But there may still be situations where you need to gain tech using this method - e.g when trapped between a fundamentalist morgan and a Hunter Seeker equiped UoP.