posted 07-08-99 04:25 AM ET        

My suggestions:
1. Drone Centre
A base facility that increases the Police rating of that base by +1. The only issue here is the sound file, one suggestion is to have a riot sound followed by 2 shots .

2. City viewer
A popup option, able to be viewed either externally or internally, that gives info on all city bonuses/penalties from the relevant social engineering and base facilties. This can be included in the right click menu for the base (external) and under the city infrastructure list (internal).

POLICE
GROWTH
EFFICIENCY
MORALE

Eco-Damage modifers: [e.g tree forest, preserves]

posted 07-09-99 12:38 AM ET            

1. Unit enhancement: Quantum shielding. +50% defense bonus to unit.
I hate fighting wars unless I have to, but my perimeter defenses and tachyon fields are useless against singularity troops with the 'blink' enhancement. Add nerve gas pods and/or the Believers Belief enhancement and pretty soon my cities are undefendable. All I ask for is one measly enhancement to bolster my units' defensive strength. Of course, if there were two such enhancements, so much the better...

2. City improvement: Singularity vortex. All enemy units (except probes, I suppose) occupying that city's squares receive, say, 5 points of damage each turn, and cannot be repaired (unless that faction has the Nanofactory).
This sucker will put an end to siege warfare real fast, believe you me! It might be able to wipe out a unit with a fission reactor too quickly for most peoples' tastes, but I figure, hey, if the defending faction needs Naked Singularity to build the thing, then the attacking faction had BETTER have more than fission reactors!

3. Eudaimonia?
I've been wondering...why is it that all of the future societies, with the proper Secret Project, create no negative side effects with the exception of Eudaimonia, which always incurs a morale penalty?

4. City improvement: Geological engineering facility. Will use energy to slowly raise/lower all surrounding city squares until finally the base is at the top of a huge mountain surrounded by land or is atop an ocean trench surrounded by shelf.
I hate water. It gets in the way and doesn't produce as well as land does. But it's so tedious to terraform up the land surrounding all of my cities, the Council's terraforming actions take a long time (and are expensive to get passed, what with bribes and all), and it's a real pain moving around the planet when my mag tubes can't connect. And I'm sure that someone out there hates land just as much as I hate water. Well, this will solve everybody's problems. Not only that, it adds a defense bonus to a city containing bombarding units, what with the altitude advantage. And the constant expenditure of energy required makes this process too expensive to be abused.

posted 07-09-99 09:27 PM ET            

5. Social engineering. I don't have the latest patch yet so I'm hoping that this has already been handled, but I've noticed that past a certain point benefits and penalties associated with Social Engineering choices have no effect, i.e. I currently have a research rating of '6' or '7', but am only receiving the benefits of a '5' research rating. Since I'm playing University it is quite necessary that I receive all of the tech I possibly can, as it is my life-blood. The same likely holds true for the Gaians and similar factions who rely on one social engineering benefit--after achieving a planet rating of '3' or '4' (I forget which) further planet bonuses are wasted.

6. City Improvement: Advanced Environmental Engineering Facility. For an energy expenditure, will terraform surrounding city squares.
Personally, I think it would be cool if you could just queue up some forests and mag tubes and let your base build them on its own. The constant energy expenditure would make this less effecient than standard terraforming, so once more it cannot be abused too readily.

7. Queueing.
I wish that AC would allow you to not only queue building projects, but would also allow you to auto-hurry those projects. In other words, as soon as a new project comes to the queue, it is automatically "paid for", assuming there is enough energy available, and built the next turn. This would help those of us with money to burn who don't feel like waiting around for their facilities to get built but who also don't like 'hurrying' the production at all ninety of their cities every turn. It gets tedious, believe me.

8. Terrain enhancement: Gun Emplacement. 24 turns build time (or something).
If you've got a pacifist society, there's nothing worse than having to post guard duty on your borders and have your populace get upset with you. That's where the Gun Emplacement can be used to keep your enemies at bay and your citizens happy. It requires no support from the city responsible for its being built (the city supporting the responsible terraformer), can be attacked and destroyed just like a normal unit, is TOTALLY IMMOBILE, and it doesn't make your citizens unhappy. It can be subverted by probes, but you can also build two on a square (thereby eliminating that risk). They cost a few hundred (maybe thousand?) energy to build, so they are not without their costs. But just think of the possibilities! Other possibilities this opens are:
SAM site: same as above, but can attack air units (and has a penalty for attacking ground units),
Artillery Emplacement: same as above, but acts as artillery and has deep radar.

9. Population growth.
It's always made me angry that human population grows exponentially while AC population (and Civ population) grow linearly. I understand why this must be for the sake of having a playable game (otherwise The Hive would get themselves a billion citizens and wreak havoc across the world), but I don't think that growth should be SO AGONIZINGLY SLOW! Heck, without Cloning Vats, you'd never get anywhere! I'm thinking that Population Boom should actually mean something, as in 5 new citizens per turn while supplies last, and that 'normal' cities should be able to gain a new citizen each turn without the use of golden ages or Cloning Vats if they set their minds to it.

10. Secret Project: Symbiosis. Requires 1000 minerals (or a similarly large number) and a whole slew of advanced techs. Grants complete symbiosis with Planet-all squares produce one additional resource which that square can normally produce (i.e. forests will make one additional energy, nutrient, and mineral, while a mined rocky square will only produce an additional mineral). WILL ONLY WORK if the controlling faction's Planet rating in Social Engineering is 3 or greater (maybe 4 or greater?).
Wow. Just think of the power this one can give you. Again, it cannot be too easily abused (it has a high cost, requires a lot of tech, and most importantly, requires a high Planet rating to be of any use), but it also kinda makes sense. I mean, Xenofungus and Forest squares are the only two squares that would fully benefit from this project, and they're also the most Planet friendly terraformings.

posted 07-09-99 11:04 PM ET            

11. City improvements/unit building.
I hate the fact that no matter how far you progress in the game you can never build more than one unit/city improvement per turn. While this may go a long way towards stopping rush tactics, it doesn't exactly reflect what a nano-tech society would function like. I've got cities producing in excess of 400 minerals per turn, but there is nothing that I can apply that windfall to except a secret project (I've built them all, except for Voice of Planet, which I'm holding off on) or Stockpile Energy (which doesn't do me a whole lot of good when I'm trying to build sattelites and pressure domes). It seems to me that once you reach a certain tech level (let's say, if a base has both a quantum converter and a nano-replicator), then you should be able to build two units/improvements per turn and avoid having all those minerals go to waste (or just double production if you 'hurry' what you're building.)

12. Unit enhancement: Booster pack. A one-use-only drop pod which doesn't take up an enhancement slot (there can be two additional enhancements).
Here's my reasoning here. Nobody likes having to transport troops to the front line (or transport terraformers to new lands) the slow way, and even Psi Gates have their limitations. So what do you do? You put Drop Pods on all of your land units and make an orbital insertion, and voila, you've got an instant army wherever you want it. Except, that army is now missing an enhancement. Maybe you wanted 'Blink' and 'Nerve Gas Pods' on your troops because you're in a conquering mood, but instead you're stuck with useless drop pods that you'll never use again on your suicide squads. This enhancement would cost an arm and a leg, but would be vital for the commander who needs to move some reinforcements around and fast.

13. Unit Enhancement: Artificial Brain. Takes up one enhancement slot and provides two additional slots, for a total of three free enhancement slots available to the builder. Limit one per unit. Cost: extremely prohibitive.
Personally, I don't use super-units, but I'm all for super-units being available to the fools who do use them. The cost of additional enhancements increases exponentially with each enhancement put on a unit, which is why a unit with two enhancements can cost more than two units with one enhancement each. The beauty of the Artificial Brain enhancement is that the builder gets THREE enhancements for the cost of FOUR! That's right! The Artificial Brain takes up a slot and provides two, for a total of four slots on a unit, one of which is used by Artificial Brain and is therefore useless. Heck, just let some Believer go at me with some singularity troops outfitted with Artificial Brain, Nerve Gas, Blink, AND Deep Radar (or some such ludicrous combination). Can you IMAGINE how much one of those would cost him or her? Can you IMAGINE how many stasis garrisons I'd get for the cost of one of those super troops? Can you GUESS who'd win?

14. Unit Enhancement: Stimpak. Increases regeneration capabilites of unit.
The benefits of this one are obvious--quicker heal time, perfect for those unlucky enough to NOT have a Nanofactory. The costs are equally obvious--the enhancement costs money, and healing capabilities are useless when you're dead.

15. Unit Enhancement: Life-Support System. Increases hit points of unit by, say, 25% or something.
Same as above. Great for defense and offense both.

16. Unit Enhancement: Tactical Planet Buster Launcher. (Possible atrocity? I don't think it warrants it, but if so then it needs a new name.) Requires bombardment enhancement. When distance firing, warhead will damage adjacent (diagonal also if using a singularity reactor?) squares to the square fired upon. Acts as bombardment damage to all squares, -50% attack to splash damage (surrounding) squares.
Another possibility (this one would definitely warrant atrocity standing): full bombardment attack to adjacent AND diagonal squares, complete elimination of all units/terrain enhancements/bases at ground zero.
I personally like the first idea better. Great on defense (just the way I like it), useless when attacking a city, expensive--I don't see this getting too powerful for its own good. I'd use it just to stop an attack if the enemy was clustering in preparation for a rush. Fire a few rounds of Planet Busting Artillery (bad name, I know) into the thick of it and the enemy goes limping home while your choppers and grav-ships pick off the stragglers.

posted 07-10-99 01:37 AM ET            

17. City Improvement: Training Camp (or Training Facility). Possibility for a morale increase each turn, with the chance decreasing as the morale increases.
Again, perfect for the defender who's just putting a garrison in his bases, even if he already has a Bioenhancement Center, Naval Yard, Aerospace Complex, and Command Center. The previously mentioned improvements do not increase the unit's morale to Elite status, and without them the unit is stuck at Very Green until attacked (which is the wrong time to be gaining a morale upgrade). This way a defender can build a garrison, put in a Training Facility, and let the soldiers gain morale over time. Awful for the attacker who wants to rush his opponent with reinforcements, as the morale increases take time in coming (as previously stated, there is only a chance for an increase each turn).

18. Terrain enhancement: Granite caps. Built atop Boreholes, these will decrease the productivity of the Borehole by a little but will allow other improvements to be built on the same square, i.e. a square with a Borehole as well as a farm and soil enricher. Granite caps automatically terraform rocky or rolling soil into flat terrain permanently, even if the cap is later removed.

19. Terrain enhancement: Thermal Farm. +1 nutrients on ANY square, does not affect other terraforming on that square (can even be built on Xenofungus, Deep Ocean, or Rocky squares).
This enhancement taps into the core's heat and uses it to nurture a colony of thermophiliac bacteria (the kind that lives by volcanic vents on the ocean floor or in the hot-springs at Yellowstone). This stuff is extremely resilient, which is why this enhancement can be built anywhere. Should require some hefty tech advances.

20. Terrain Enhancement: Psi Gate. Places a Psi Gate in a square. Does not preclude Xenofungus, Forest, or Farm from being in the square (nor Thermal Farms or Soil Enrichers), but no other enhancements are allowed.
You ever needed to get a sea-former into a lake in order to plant some kelp, but found out that, although your bases utilize the sea squares, none of them actually touches it? Don't you just hate that? Well, this way you could just put a Psi Gate next to the water, bring your former in, and warp the former back out later. The cost and time put into one of these should be rather high, otherwise they might be put towards unsavory military purposes too often.

21. City Improvement: Transcend Matrix. Increases Psych and Labs output of city's Transcends by +1.

22. City Improvement: Data Processing Center. Increases Labs and Economy output of city's Engineers by +1.

23. City Improvement: Governor's Residence. Halves inefficiency. Requires a Children's Creche and 8 citizens to function. One less Drone in Police State politics.
No matter how hard I try, I still lose an awful lot of wealth, psych, and research to inefficiency. The 8 citizen requirement is so that (most) factions will have to build a Hab Complex first, and also to reflect the fact that a governor would not be wasted on a tiny city. The Police State Drone bonus just seems to make sense.

posted 07-11-99 01:54 AM ET            

25. Terrain enhancement: Entrenchment. +50% to defense, can only be built on a square with a bunker (making a total +100% to defense), requires one full turn of 'holding' to be activated.
Basically just a bunker with more permanence to it--a 'true' defensive position, used to create a bottleneck and not necessarily useful for mustering troops. This is because the second +50% defense bonus created by the Entrenchment enhancement only works for units which are 'holding', and the bonus does not take immediate effect, i.e. a unit ordered to 'hold' this turn would not receive the bonus until NEXT turn. Also good for a bombardment position, where a few singularity bombardiers to the damage while one or two statis sentinels make use of the defensive bonus.

26. City Improvement: Temporal manipulator/Repulsor field (I prefer the first). 50% chance that any enemy unit (with the exception of probes, I suppose, and the possible exception of air units) attempting to move into one of a city's squares fails in the attempt and wastes a movement point (even if using a road or mag tube). If the unit still has movement it may attempt to enter as many times as it would like until no more movement points exist. Movement made AWAY from the city is also impeded.
This improvement would put a stop to rush tactics (and maybe even bombing runs) and would give city artillery a better chance of doing preliminary damage (especially if the Planet Busting artillery mentioned above is put into effect. A Planet Busting artillery unit stationed in a city would obviously not want to damage itself or any other units in the city). This would also prevent mag tubes from being used against the faction that built them (which I've never especially liked, but there really is no good way around that problem. This would be a possible solution. Another could be to just disallow the use of mag tubes by enemy factions if the mag tubes are in your city squares). A note: perhaps morale should play a part in the movement, as in a unit with higher morale has a better chance of successfully completing the move. If this is the case, than the name should probably be changed to reflect this, as a Time Manipulator or a Repulsor Field probably doesn't care how much willpower you have, it's still going to steal your movement points.

27. City Improvement: Dread Sphere. +50% to Psi Attack and Psi Defense for all friendly units stationed in the city's squares. +3 drones.
This is kind of like a Dream Twister and Neural Network in one (for only one city, of course), except that it has the drone penalty. It just makes sense to me that anything that messes around with your mind so much as this thing, and anything named a Dread Sphere, would cause unhappiness, no matter how much protection it affords the citizens. Another possibility: there could instead be two city improvements, one for Psi Attack and one for Psi Defense, each with a drone penalty. In this case I suggest that the drone penalty be one each, as two facilities are less efficient than one.

posted 07-11-99 03:28 AM ET            

gun pod, like a colony pod it consumes a unit of population it is positioned and deployedlike a colony pod but ther are diferant graficsfor the sity, the sity will only ever hav one population and may be captuerd as a sity, it must hav acses to enuf nutrents to ceep the population aliv but it cant grow, it aqlso cant build units or produce enagy or suport units. units can be plased in it and resev benigits as per normalin a sity. in adition the sity starts withe a gun (wepon one) aqnd no armor (armor 1) this can be upgraded at cost of enagy and dependance on tech to hav the saim aror and wepons as units. basicaly it functions the saim as the gun turit terain inhansment but it includes the benifets of a bunker and alowes it to be upgraded. it can alwas bombard and becomes avaliabvl at the saim time as bombardment. serton basfacilitys withe miletery aplications can be constructed thay include psi gate defence perimiterand probably others.

terain ingansment, hidroponic farm,can be constructed on any square exept arid and regadles of other inhansmens and rainfallproduses a very lage amount of nutrint (many as high as 6) and cold be positiond in teh saim square as say a borhole and still work (i belev borhols negate fams) to componsate it wold cary a planit penalty so serownding all your bases withe borhole and hidrow farm wold not be convenint.

unit ability (captur pods) very costly and gratly incres teh chanse of capturing mindworms. wold be very usfull in conjunctiion withe other psi modifiers to create a few units wich wold run arownd colecting worms for you.

Edward

Edward

posted 07-11-99 10:24 PM ET            

Just a few things to say-

posted 07-12-99 12:47 AM ET            

Anyway, the tirade must continue, I suppose...

posted 07-12-99 05:18 PM ET         

An Engineers unit, which can create other units away from bases, using resources from the square it's on and surrounding squares controlled by the player. These units would all be "supported" by the Engineers unit, so the player should make sure that while moving the Engineers enough resources are available in surrounding squares to continue to support these units.

posted 07-13-99 01:04 AM ET            

I do like the terraforming idea (maybe dirt can be "created" later on in the game, when fusing dirt out of air would actually be possible, although moving dirt would still be available and, as you suggest, free...)

30. Terraforming idea: Somehow be able to create geological and environmental changes on a grand scale. I don't know how this would best be done, but it should be powerful, require a lot of tech, and be extremely expensive. Have any of you ever played SimEarth? In that game you could generate earthquakes--not the pansy "raise a mountain out of nothing and cause no damage whatsoever" earthquakes that randomly happen in SMAC, but the HUGE continent-shaping things, resulting in trenches, ridges, and incrased rockiness. Heck, maybe even a few cracks opening in the ground--after all, any earthquake that could alter the face of the planet in such a short amount of time (a few dozen years instead of a few billion) would probably be powerful enough to rip the earth to shreds. Other "man-made disasters": volcanoes, tidal waves, hurricanes, asteroid impacts (double the power of a PB, no atrocity rating: "gosh, we didn't know our hyper-magnet would ram that rock into your territory. Honest."), the list goes on and on. But unfortunately, like most of my ideas, this too is probably beyond the scope of the game's sequel, let alone an enhancement.

31. Unit Chassis: Juggurnaut. 5 moves, acts like a hovertank in relation to movement, +25% offense and defense, +50% hitpoints, requires controlled singularity.
Probably too powerful, but if long drawn-out wars can get so tedious. So, if you have the tech, and you can afford one of these things (they should, of course, be extremely expensive), then you can always whip up an army of Juggurnauts to crush those stick-wielding heathens in half the time it would normally take you. (this is my love of UoP talking again, though, since they'd probably the the first faction to be able to use the new chassis). But the recommendation remains that one or more new chasses (is that the plural?) be created which actually have some decent benefits, not just the increased movement (and price) you get with the other chasses. For example, a unit that can attack multiple times each turn (and not another chopper).

posted 07-13-99 04:47 AM ET            

And again, I vote for mines, sea mines and turrets (perhaps some against aircrafts, some against ground and naval troops). Hidden mins could be an atrocity. Unhidden mines just keep the enemy from passing.

I support the idea of an space-based "Ioncannon", so if your opponents build it, you've got use for you defense pods.

posted 07-14-99 10:12 PM ET            

One thing you said earlier though, good old sid is workin on a product called "sweep of time". It's premise is HUGE. It will work to combine civ3(firaxis is working on it), good old smac and another unnamed product (maybe after samctakes place!) into one game.

posted 07-15-99 02:00 AM ET            

Build International Space Station. Simple majority to pass it. This proposal when passed would set about the construction of a space station that would benefit everyone who voted for it. There would be 14 components that would require construction (each component would cost 120 minerals), everyone who voted for it would have to build components (if 7 factions voted for it each faction would have to construct 2 components, if only three factions were left and two of them voted for it then each one of them would have to construct 7 components). The benefits of this space station would be that every city in a faction that voted for it would receive +3 to labs, and the top 3 cities in every faction that voted for it would receive commerce with it.
Note: If you didn't vote for the space station you would receive nothing from it upon it's completion and if your faction had the appropriate technology you could attempt to shoot it down. This would of course be an atrocity against all factions who had built it and all those factions would declare vendetta upon you

The Centauri Games. Every 20 years a Centauri version of the Olympics could be held (starts with the first council). The council would meet and decide who hosts them. The same faction could not host them back to back. Simple Population vote whoever has the most wins (can�t vote for faction that held them last). For 3 turns the city holding them would be in an automatic golden age and commerce would also double in that city and be increased by 50% for all cities of the factions participating in the Games. The last turn of the golden age would be when the games actually took place. Attacking the city holding the games during the 3 turns it was in a golden age would be an atrocity and you could only attack if you were boycotting the games. The computer would randomly select which faction won the most gold medals and that faction would receive +2 talents in everyone of it's cities for 2 turns after the games in joyous celebration of their Olympic victory. Additionally when the vote for which faction will hold the Games takes place you could vote to boycott the Games. Finally the Centauri Games would be a monument item, whenever you first hold the games it would go on the monument beside all of your other achievements
I love this idea, so PLEASE PLEASE include it in the expansion

Ground Bases Anti-satellite missiles. Cost 50. Tech Orbital Space flight. You could only build these at facilities with Aerospace complexes. Instead of being built and operated like normal missiles they would operate like an orbital facility. You build them, and when completed you select a target for the missiles and they launch against that orbital facility. They would have a 25% chance of destroying that orbital facility, and would increase satellite warfare and make it easier for factions trailing in technology to break the satellite stranglehold of the leader

posted 07-15-99 02:06 AM ET            

change the bulk matter transmitter so that instead of what it currently does it gives +1 industry to the faction that builds it

posted 07-15-99 04:53 PM ET            

How bout a spy satillite. To take a photograph of, say, the size of a base radius, it would either cost energy or it could recharge after a few turns.

posted 07-18-99 12:43 AM ET            

alternitivly mak it a one use only spesial ability lanch intercontanental balistic misile. onse a unit has done so it cant do so agen,infontary and air units canrt use it destroyers, tanks and gravships can hav this as bothe spesial abilitys aloiwing them to lanh 2 misiles

if it is implemented as a spsal ability then ther shold be 2one withe standerd payload and one withe planit buster.

ther shoold be mor atrositys and if you comit an atrosity agenst somone then thay shold never hav serender to you regadles of un charter maby thats to sever thay wont serener for a number of years determind bu the atrosity.