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Author Topic:   New Faction: Neo-Humans

Al Gore Rythm posted 04-19-99 10:25 PM ET
I'm just gonna throw the raw stats, the story is out there somewhere in The Game forum.
The premise is simple, they're digitally based sentient algorithms. They seek only to perfect sentience. And they are led by a delusional artifical-life being which monitored the Unity during the flight to Alpha Centauri.
Stats:
Free Punishment Sphere at every base (They lack emotions and class desticntion, but also lack innovation)
+1 Probe (Computer-Based Lifeforms)
+1 Growth (Immortality)
+1 Industry (Direct Machine-Interface)
-3 Planet (Couldn't care less)
May use any social engineering choice.
I put this up because I need some help on the balancing. Here are my key concerns:
One nice effect of the free Sphere is the fact that the police penalty from Cybernetic is negated, fitting in nicely. But, this creates a great problem concerning Free Market. +1 Energy per square without the military paralysis is some powerful stuff.
Next to that, there's the Democracy/Planned combo. Which would give them a whopping +4 (or is it +5?) Growth. With no drones and +2 Industry on top of it.
I was hoping this would get tipped off by a number of things. For instance, unlike Yang they can take efficency hits. Next, the -50% research will really be a stinger. But with a little probing (or some Fundamentalism) they can quickly get over that. And then you have a Yang from hell on your hands.
So comment away.
Koshko posted 04-20-99 12:16 AM ET
+1 Industry -3 Green = EcoDamage Nightmare
To compansate for the -50% Tech, you might need to up the Probe to +2.
Since it doesn't fit my style of play, I can't really comment on it further. I like to lead the Research and not steal the Research.
Atombomb posted 04-20-99 12:37 AM ET
Actually the +1 industry does not add additional eco damage, it merely makes things cost less minerals to build. I don't know about the punishment spheres, you would need to get everything from stealing it later on. They do not really grow fast enough to create double the cities, hence equal rate, but the fact that they don't need to worry about drones ever is interesting. The -3 planet is rediculous, however, not having drones lets you grow to be large but then you will just create rediculous eco damage, maxed out at +1 if you get all the techs with + planet. Mindworms would own you completely with this set up.
Tarot242 posted 04-20-99 12:40 AM ET
Perhaps you should remove the growth benefit to help balance them. Sure, they're immortal, but wouldn't they also be stingy about creating new intelligences and entities? They'd want them to be perfect so they could be a proper part of the society; quality over quantity and all. That would make the free Punishment Spheres a bit less nasty. With the Growth bonus, they can creative massive, drone-free cities that can pump out the production. Also, you should apply some kind of Social Engineering restriction. All the factions have them. Perhaps restricting Green economy, so they can't get around their worst negative (the -3 planet)?
Ghost posted 04-21-99 12:14 AM ET
I would knock Planet down to -1 (they are less careful, but don't want to totally destroy planet... are looking towards infecting the planet with their sentience), remove growth, and make (1/1) drones. This would prevent them from ever getting golden ages, which represent a time of excitement and rapid growth... not the sort of thing that computers tend to do. It would also make them vulnerable to probe raids which destroyed the Punishment Spheres.... representing a break in the transmitting system which holds them together.
--Ghost
Al Gore Rythm posted 04-21-99 03:16 AM ET
Ghost:
Punishment Spheres prevent Drones AND Talents, they cannot have golden ages anyway.
I also think that having 0 drones is pretty powerful, so I had to tip it off with something besides the -5 research.
I s'pose I'll remove growth. With Planned/Democracy they can get enough of that anyway.
Atom:
The point for the -3 Planet is so that they have some drawback when they get their uber-cities with no drones. While -5 research can be a pain, it can be overcome with good probing action (or just a good friend.) So I had to invent something to make sure that even if they were on top of the research game they'd have something to wince about.
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Author	Topic: New Faction: Neo-Humans
Al Gore Rythm	posted 04-19-99 10:25 PM ET I'm just gonna throw the raw stats, the story is out there somewhere in The Game forum. The premise is simple, they're digitally based sentient algorithms. They seek only to perfect sentience. And they are led by a delusional artifical-life being which monitored the Unity during the flight to Alpha Centauri. Stats: Free Punishment Sphere at every base (They lack emotions and class desticntion, but also lack innovation) +1 Probe (Computer-Based Lifeforms) +1 Growth (Immortality) +1 Industry (Direct Machine-Interface) -3 Planet (Couldn't care less) May use any social engineering choice. I put this up because I need some help on the balancing. Here are my key concerns: One nice effect of the free Sphere is the fact that the police penalty from Cybernetic is negated, fitting in nicely. But, this creates a great problem concerning Free Market. +1 Energy per square without the military paralysis is some powerful stuff. Next to that, there's the Democracy/Planned combo. Which would give them a whopping +4 (or is it +5?) Growth. With no drones and +2 Industry on top of it. I was hoping this would get tipped off by a number of things. For instance, unlike Yang they can take efficency hits. Next, the -50% research will really be a stinger. But with a little probing (or some Fundamentalism) they can quickly get over that. And then you have a Yang from hell on your hands. So comment away.
Koshko	posted 04-20-99 12:16 AM ET +1 Industry -3 Green = EcoDamage Nightmare To compansate for the -50% Tech, you might need to up the Probe to +2. Since it doesn't fit my style of play, I can't really comment on it further. I like to lead the Research and not steal the Research.
Atombomb	posted 04-20-99 12:37 AM ET Actually the +1 industry does not add additional eco damage, it merely makes things cost less minerals to build. I don't know about the punishment spheres, you would need to get everything from stealing it later on. They do not really grow fast enough to create double the cities, hence equal rate, but the fact that they don't need to worry about drones ever is interesting. The -3 planet is rediculous, however, not having drones lets you grow to be large but then you will just create rediculous eco damage, maxed out at +1 if you get all the techs with + planet. Mindworms would own you completely with this set up.
Tarot242	posted 04-20-99 12:40 AM ET Perhaps you should remove the growth benefit to help balance them. Sure, they're immortal, but wouldn't they also be stingy about creating new intelligences and entities? They'd want them to be perfect so they could be a proper part of the society; quality over quantity and all. That would make the free Punishment Spheres a bit less nasty. With the Growth bonus, they can creative massive, drone-free cities that can pump out the production. Also, you should apply some kind of Social Engineering restriction. All the factions have them. Perhaps restricting Green economy, so they can't get around their worst negative (the -3 planet)?
Ghost	posted 04-21-99 12:14 AM ET I would knock Planet down to -1 (they are less careful, but don't want to totally destroy planet... are looking towards infecting the planet with their sentience), remove growth, and make (1/1) drones. This would prevent them from ever getting golden ages, which represent a time of excitement and rapid growth... not the sort of thing that computers tend to do. It would also make them vulnerable to probe raids which destroyed the Punishment Spheres.... representing a break in the transmitting system which holds them together. --Ghost
Al Gore Rythm	posted 04-21-99 03:16 AM ET Ghost: Punishment Spheres prevent Drones AND Talents, they cannot have golden ages anyway. I also think that having 0 drones is pretty powerful, so I had to tip it off with something besides the -5 research. I s'pose I'll remove growth. With Planned/Democracy they can get enough of that anyway. Atom: The point for the -3 Planet is so that they have some drawback when they get their uber-cities with no drones. While -5 research can be a pain, it can be overcome with good probing action (or just a good friend.) So I had to invent something to make sure that even if they were on top of the research game they'd have something to wince about.