posted 08-05-99 06:35 PM ET     

I. Interface
A. F4 screen - I end every round on this screen to fine tune my production. A couple of additions would be helpful, and speed gameplay.
* The energy/Nutrient/Mineral production information should be included for each base.
* The ability to hurry production should be added.
* The ability to change the jobs of specialists from here would be nice.

B. Base control screen
* The ability to change orders for supported/garrisoned units should be added here, perhaps by right clicking on the icon. I use supply crawlers in unused forest a lot, and changing what is convoyed from here would be helpful. Very versatile technique, btw.
* An indication of when your citizen allocation would lead to a Golden Age would be nice, as in the F4 screen.
* Some indication of those $%@%'ing Beaurocracy Drones would be nice.
* An evacuate option is essential for consciencious players who want to employ the 'scorched earth' defense.

II. New Terrain types
* Delta - Where a river meets the ocean. +1 Nutrient (+1 Energy from the river)
* Lake - where a river flows to a tile with no lower ones around it, forms a lake, then continues to another tile. Also make by dams (see below).

III Terraforming
* Build Dam - +1 Energy, and forms a lake. (+2 energy, +1 Nutrient total)It can coexist with a forest.
* Canal - allows Ship movement at 2 moves/square.
* Minefield - 1st nonallied unit to enter the square loses 1 power.
* Finer control of automated Formers is desperately needed. Ideally, you should be able to tell how to improve each terrain type. I'm one of these Forest everywhere, mine/road on rocky people, with the odd borehole (unless I'm playing the gaians) and condenser here and there. I know you get less overall, but it's fast, easy to replace, has defensive benefits, and darnit, it just looks prettier.

IV. Unit actions
* Dig in - This would give +25% (or 50%) defensive bonus, but take a FULL round to complete, i.e. dig in this round, and NEXT round you get the bonus.
* Observe - drops Zone of Control so the unit can hide in fungus and make note of troop movements without being seen unless an opposing unit moves into the same square (of course).
* Destroy monoliths - This, along with evacuating bases, is essential to stop the "Rover Rush" tactic using the scorched earth defense. Thermite can be formulated with ingredients common to any household.
* Limit Choppers to their reactor value in attacks. They are too unbalancing as they are.

V. Satellite Chasis - Satellites are now treated as buildings. They can also be designed and used as units. Here's some suggestions.
* Killer satellites - This is what you use to destroy enemy satellites.
* Orbital bombardment satellites - acts as a single arty attack on any square. Costs 1 credit/attack value/shot.
* Spy Satellite - reveals normally visible terrain/units in a 5x5 area anywhere on the map. These will be the first to be targetted by the killer satellites for sure.
* Upgrading satellites should cost a *lot*.

VI. Diplomacy
A. Trade
* Allow trade with non treatied factions, but keep the amount tied to relations (lowered tariffs).
* Trade amounts should be based on economy, not raw energy. This makes citizen allocation, buildings, etc. more important.
B. UN Charter
* Vote to repeal the UN charter article by article. right now, if you want to be allowed to destroy your own base, you gotta ok Busters too. Not good.
* Add some articles like:
1. Destroying a colony pod.
2. Destroying a pop 1 city.

C. The AI
* Currently, the AI only looks at SE choices to determine if they like you or not. Actual gameplay is not considered by the AI. For instance, You can pollute like crazy, but if you have a Green economy, Deidre likes you. Here's how I see it:
Deidre - looks at total eco damage. 0 eco Damage improves relations.
Yang - hates those who allow drone riots to continue. No Drone riots improve relations.
Lal - Hates Treaty violaters (low integrity rating). Noble and Faithful ratings improve relations.
Miriam - Hates those who research without considering spiritual ramifications (higher on the tech tree than her). Giving (or trading) her tech (for approval only, of course) Has double positive effect.
Santiago - Hates those who disarm their citizens (small garrisons). Giving her combat units has double positive effect.
Zak - Hates those who hoard tech. Giving (or trading) him tech has double positive effect.
Morgan - Hates those who won't engage in trade with him. Loaning (or getting a loan from) or trading with him has double positive effect.

VII Pregame setup
* Wrath of Planet - Right now, a good way to 'win' is to cause a lot of eco damage in a base that has a prepared garrison. When the worms show up, you attack. This reaps a tremendous windfall in planetpearls and, if you have a positive planet rating, a potential instant army. This gets truly green players laughed at. This option would give the worms caused by a fungal bloom the ability to move immediately. Set this one on, and we'll see who laughs at whom!
* Customize UN CHarter - This would allow the ground rules for ethical conduct to be selected from the start of the game.

VIII. Buildings
* Market - gives base +1 (or +2) commerce. Should come early and cheap.
* ABM Silo - 50% chance to stop a missile (replaces defense pods).

IX. Unit Abilities
* Ballistic missiles - gives unlimited range. I can hear the groans now, because of the bug. It took me precisely 2 attacks to figure out how to defend against them. Here's what you do. Set your rinky dink bases to produce (1)-1-1 police (cost 10). These are among the most useful and cost effective units in the game. Move them to the bases under attack. They will, at the very least, stabilize your population. En masse, they tear rovers to shreds, especially if the rovers have to traverse forest/fungus/rocks. Finally, designate them as defenders. In the event of a missile attack, you can claim a military victory when they destroy a missile (cost 60). Be sure to give their families a posthumous medal.
* Cruise missiles - Allows the missile to continue at it's movement rate for an extra turn. They can be shot down by SAM's, tho. Can be taken twice.
* APC - removes the transport movement penalty. This makes rover tranports useful.
* Large Chasis - +50% (or 100%) hit points. Only for rovers, cruisers, hovertanks, or gravships. Allows tanks/battleships/Deathspheres to be taken seriously. Can be taken twice.
* Small chasis - allows foils to negotiate rivers.
* AAA for armored noncombat units. I just love watching choppers destroy themselves on supply crawlers.

I think that's a nice chunk of reading for now. I'd be interested in feedback and other ideas. None of these changes are really major coding efforts. I had a concept for a commodities market to add an element of economic warfare, but I decided that was a bit much to expect.

posted 08-05-99 06:59 PM ET            

You wanna hear it.

FIRAXIS sacks everybody.

Rehire on new contracts based upon suitable performance.

We treat many manual workers this way both in the US, Europe and Australasia.

Clearly, FIRAXIS management have people focussed on the wrong jobs. Sack 'em all - redesign the company - rehire.

You know it makes sense.

.. and I've just saved you big bucks on managent consultancy. So you owe me - don't forget it.

.. but you owe all your unpaid betatesters too don't you.

posted 08-05-99 07:42 PM ET         

W_U_J, some creative and interesting suggestions, even though I can live without most of it (I happen to like that the whole UN charter works together, for example, and I don't need minefields) and still play a fun game.

My wishes for the AI:
- that Dierdre not be the biggest eco-wrecker:
I guess there's 2 kinds of eco damage, the one that appears as a little red number in the base screen, and the one that changes rainfall patterns and raises sea levels. Gaians are the biggest perps of the latter kind in most of my games. I don't care what she does with the first kind because planet deals out the justice without Dierdre's help)

My wishes for the Design Workshop:
- replace the icons at the bottom of the screen, from which you choose which design to work on next selected. It looks cool but is slow to use and does not provide all the info.
- for the replacement use a window like the F7 (?) screen with all the info listed as rows of a table, so you fit more on the screen at once. Make it so you can sort by status (obsolete, active, etc) as well as by reactor type, weap, armour, chassis, abailities, name (so you can index them yourself) and cost. Make it so you can select multiple designs to upgrade from and upgrade or retire them as a group. That would speed things up.

My wishes for dipolomacy:
- A declare war option
- An "I will declare war unless you..." option (like, the "crush like a bug" option also declares Vendetta like you meant it).

My wishes for former scripting:
- A script device that works like setting up a patrol with waypoints, but with hotkeys for what work to do at each waypoint. So you can "set and forget" a young base almost as easily as setting up its build queue.

posted 08-05-99 10:25 PM ET         

Kang - In my 'Wrath of Planet' discussion, I made mention of the fact that if you are prepared, the fungal blooms are in reality a benefit to your faction. The loss of a couple squares of terraforming improvements can be readily replaced, and you can *buy* several formers with the windfall of planetpearls from the worms that show up from the occurance of eco damage. I just don't think that is the way it should be, is all.
Note - the little red number is the percentage chance of reaping that huge windfall I just mentioned, according to the book.

posted 08-05-99 10:56 PM ET            

But the number one fix for the F4 window is that when you zoom into a base, then exit back to the F4 list, the screen should STAY where it was, NOT go back to the top of the list. When I have more than a screenful of bases (which is most of every game), the current ABERRANT behavior WASTES so much TIME, and is therefore VERY annoying, and (Sid Meier, are you paying any attention?) is NOT FUN.

After all, the last base is remembered (in outline in the F4 list), so how hard can it be to centre it on the screen?

Ditto for the Unit Scrollbar! When I add or delete units, it scrolls to the end of the list after each one. UGH! Stay put, blast it!

Firaxis: Go to Timewasters Anonymous, do not pass go, do not collect $50. (Then attend ergonomics school.)

Sometimes (but not always) you _can_ change the jobs of specialists on the F4 list. Looks like another dodgy, unreliable implementation of a good idea.

You _can_ hurry production from the F4 window: amazingly, it's the Hurry button.

The bases in the F4 window should be listable in order by Name. It's much quicker to scroll a page at a time on the F4 list, than a base at a time in the base window.

Deltas: excellent. When I first played SMAC I was so hopeful on the basis of the advertising guff, that weather patterns, sea currents, and so on would be included, that I imagined that the sea fungus must be fresh water entering the sea, because I first saw it at the mouths of rivers. Was I disappointed! HOMM2 which ran on lower-end machines did dynamic geography (lava that varies its glow, eddies at sea, lapping waves), so why can't SMAC?

In SMAC, wind flows _only_ from west to east: what a cop-out! I'd like to _see_ the wind patterns swirling about. Where are the cyclones/hurricanes/typhoons and tornadoes?

If I'm not mistaken, the reports on which bases are affected by terraforming still aren't correct.

Dams: another good terraforming option.

Lakes: the only lakes in SMAC are at sea level. What a laugh! And when sea levels rise, inland areas surrrounded by high land are inundated. Excuse me! Why is the Dead Sea surface way below sea level, then?

Maybe the 3D fractal generator and contour map maker can't handle lakes above or below sea level, or the process of inundation through low-lying corridors, but that's a very good reason to improve it.

There should be land above 3500 metres. Planet Chiron may have heavier gravity, but not by much - it's not Jupiter. Mountains should reach 7000 or even 8000 metres. It would take twice as long to raise land to that height, but such effort merits the reward of higher solar energy ratings.

posted 08-05-99 11:08 PM ET            

W_U_J:

I. Interface
A. F4 Screen
I agree with everything you have here
B. Base Control Screen
Ditto, especially the evacutation option suggestion. This would incorporate into the game a tactic that would be used if this were real life by the factions, if you ask me.

II. New Terrain Types
The delta should also have a -1 mineral, not only to add balance, but also to reflect how river deltas often are not the most abundant sources of industrial growth.

III. Terraforming
I disagree with several of your points in this one.
*Dams should not be able to coexist with forests, but rather should be treated like Echelon Mirrors and Condensors - they destroy forests when they're built but forests can grow into their squares.
*Minefields would have to harm anyone who came into the square, just like they do in real life.

IV. Unit Actions
I agree with you here except for your Choppers idea. I think the solution should be to make the other air units stronger, rather than to make this one weaker. Air power, in this game like most TBS games, is not significant enough to reflect reality.

V. Satellite Chassis
Interesting suggestions, but this really would require a major rewrite of computer code. I think the way C:CTP treated space was good as far as realism, but I also like SMAC's in respect to gameplay.

VI. Diplomacy
A. Trade
I agree
B. UN Charter
I agree that we should be capable of Charter revocation article by article, but I don't like your two add-on suggestions. That is too nit-picky.
C. AI
Not only would this take a *major* code rewrite, but I also disagree with many of your interpretations regarding what the faction leaders would value. I think the system they have works. I will say that I think that the AI should be less sensitive to SE choices. If you choose one that they don't have an aversion to, they should NOT get mad, even if it is in the place of their agenda. They should get really cooperative, however, if you have their agenda choice.

VII. Pregame set-up
I disagree with the customize Charter idea, as the Charter should be something pre-imposed before you leave Earth. That would also be a problem when it came to the Planetary Council and suggesting Charter changes.

VIII. Buildings
Market - I like the idea, but the name should be changed.
ABM Silos - NOOOOO! I love defense pods, and I really dislike the idea of only having a 50% chance of success.

IX. Unit Abilities
I disagree with your two missile suggestions. Ballistic missiles cannot travel around Earth, and Earth is smaller; as for whether tech might change this, I just have to say that it would wreck gameplay, realism aside in this case. As for your other suggestions, I disagree with the small chassis suggestion and the AAA. The small chassis idea would be difficult to program and it would be an unbalancing factor as far as gameplay. As for AAA for non-combats, you seem to have missed that Anti-Aircraft Ability requires offensive weaponry - how else would you shoot a plane down?

Nice piece of work, overall

posted 08-06-99 02:54 AM ET         

1. Make AI factions recognise sea borders as they do land borders so I can kick them out of my territory without having to declare vendetta (via the "You have violated my territory! Leave at once!" diplomacy option). That one is really annoying, seriously affects sea battles & strategy!

2. Make the terriforming automations at least SEMI intelligent! As they are thay are totally or next to useless. The BEST would be to allow for scripts or macros for terraformers, although I recognise this could require major coding. If not macros then allow for more menu control over terraforming options, like "Terraformers may build mines, ...may build farms, ...may build solar collectors, etc., so you can be alot more Specific with terraforming automation, so I can set a terraformer just for farms, another just for Forests. Also what would be great short of scripts would be an added menu designating the conditions for building each of the above allowances, like forets select "if arid or moist", or for solar collectors, "if altitude>2 or river". That would make the game, in my view. Micromanaging terraforming is one of the biggest pains late in the game with so many terraformers about, and you'd have to pay me to trust my empire to the AI to automate my terraformers, and one of the biggest things that slows down play time, once the game gets majorly under way, say by 2300.

3. Teach the faction AIs to terraform a little more, without my having to cheat in the editor and select "build terraformers" from the faction strategy menu. By the time it is 2300, I've terraformed almost every square of every one of my bases while all the other factions are barely half the way there. It makes for very boring opponents who don't terraform very much and recoup much resources. Some games maybe one faction will keep up in terraforming, but will chose things like building a forest on a minerals bonus square, which a horrible waste of such a delicious square. The AIs need more terraforming smarts.

4. And teach the AIs to fight wars not just battles.
- Like designing innovative units like needlejet colony pods or rover formers, stuff like that should the situation demand it.
- And have the AI analyse alpha.txt, so if there are modifications in the combat bonuses to compensate their strategies accordingly. For example, I like to put 5&7% respective bonus/penalties in the alpha.txt file for attacking from higher/lower terrain; then I play in a world of very low erosion, and suddenly the high ground becomes very strategic. Have the AIs adapt to this.
- Have them focus on destroying enemy boreholes and condensors to stifle production in enemy bases.
- Or use seige tactics and surround an enemy base it is attacking so no reinforcement units can move into the base.
- Or use probe teams to specifically sabotage a defending base's defense grid to pave the way for the other units.

Things like that. Of course all of these advanced strategies would need to be AI-implemented in Transcend or the player might not stand a chance.

5. And what is it with the base swapping? Cheech, THAT is a major bug. Have the faction AI's have the intelligence to evaluate the relative worth of the base they are giving away/swapping, and NEVER give away a base with a Secret Project in it!

6. I'd also like the ability to determine the exact year for the Advanced Start option in the custom rules, so I can start a game with an empire already built if I wish, say 110 years down the line. Computing demands and predictability factors and all would mean you might have to place a cap of max start date of say 2300 or so, but it's definitely a real nifty custom rule addition. One real handy for use in creating scenarios, without having to play the game for a month before saving it as a scenario or placing every base, unit, facility, terraforming and secret project by hand piece by piece which is a REAL pain. Would definitely increase the playability of the game, as players could now start the game at practically whatever stage they wished, with out always being limited to the first 30, 60 or 80 years or so.

7. And a more user-friendly map editing GUI would be a definitive asset.

8. Other minor cosmetological changes would be to redesign the look of those choppers and the bunkers.

9. Have a vertical versus a horizontal scrollable menu in the unit design workshop interface -- that wraparound list at the bottom is just impossible to work with. I usually design my units by right-clicking help in the production queue of a unit in the base screen, then changing it/designing a new unit when the workshop pops up from that. At least in the prduction queue I have a fair idea of what units I have designed, unlike the horizontal wraparound scrolling menu in the design workshop -- yeech!

10. Make the user-designed technology capability a bit more user-friendly. Trying to figure out how to reorient the tech grid to incorporate a new tech requires a PhD! One thing that would defenitly help along those lines would be to allow multiple requisites for Facilities and Secret Projects to be built, so that new tech could incorporate, and not substitute for facilities available from other tech. So that a Facility and/or a Secret Project could be available from more than one tech. Either that or EVEN BETTER -- create a Facility Design Studio much like ACEdit, complete with places to insert dialogue, help text and capabilities. And I understand THAT would require some major coding, so I'll be content to wait till SMAC III for that one. That would make SMAC totally customizable.

11. Allow the building of roads as bridges across the coastal waters. Have them require a manitenance cost like a facility, assigned to a particular base no matter where on Planet they are. And, being terraforming, they would be vulnerable to enemy attack. Rules like if a ground unit is on a bridge when it is detroyed, the unit is also destroyed.

12. Allow the building of bunkers, called minefields. You can already do this by altering the alpha.txt file, but make it standard, and maybe present a marker on the board only when you enter an enemy minefield, like uncovering a unit in fungus. Make the placement of Sensor Arrays and Kelp Enrichers (soil enrichers) standard, and show a marker for the Kelp Enrichers -- both of which are also now possible by altering alpha.txt.
- Allow the production of the sea equivalent of Echelon Mirrors, called Tidal Condensors, and have them have a large negative ecological impact, or impede movement in surrounding squares by sea units (stirring up the seas does not make for good passge -- higher energy comes at a price)

13. Have the AI respect the hiding in fugus rather than acting as if it had omniscient view.

14. Xenofungus Missiles which create Xenofungus Blooms is such a cool idea, you just gotta incorporate this one! maybe in conjunction with a new tech, which would go great with the new Native Alien factions to come!!

15. Have the capability to erect Monoliths with terrformers!! Make it very late in the game, maybe through the dev. of a new tech requiring Secrets of Alpha Centauri and Matter Editation, called say, Biometallurgy. And make it take a long time to build, like 36 turns or so, so that multiple terraformers would need to be used.

posted 08-06-99 04:20 AM ET            

Like JKM says, the best thing you can do with SMAC is too return it. If enough people do that, firaxis will be happy to listen to your suggestions.

Personally, I've made a ton of suggestions on these forums about how to fix the game. Not once has firaxis ever even acknowledged this input.

Clearly, it's not a matter of FX not knowing how to improve the game. There are probably thousands of suggestions for minor or major improvements floating round in these forums if you want to look for them. It's a matter of Firaxis actually WANTING to improve the game. SMAC-AX is just commercial tagging. You get seven new factions and undersea mag tubes if you're very lucky.