Okay, let's sketch some out.Seasteaders are a pretty obvious route to go. They're basically Libertarians: I'm on a Boat, so there's a lot of easy baggage that comes with it. How about instead CR, HQs or Gardens they get the Perimeter Defense. The natural argument here is that, as they are intensely protective of their floating city states, they naturally lean towards turning them into floating fortresses.
The Seasteaders
The New MonarchyAn excellent counterpoint to the Seasteaders. How about instead of New Monarchy we go with "Triton" or "Neptune Monarchy" as it has a more evocative, nautical feel to it. I feel like all the factions we create for this set should evoke the sea in every aspect of their character.
hmm.. I see the Seasteaders quite differently, I think. Partly to intentionally differentiate them from your libertarian faction. I imagine them very much about experimentation and exit rights, which is definitely libertarian, but slightly different from the classic of just reducing/removing government oversight, since some colonies may in fact be socialist or even communist, it's just about letting people pick what they want and frictionlessly move. If anything I'd imagine them to have fewer drones via NODRONE, due to the whole "if you don't like it, you leave"/"vote with your boat" thing meaning that rather than dissatisfied citizens causing disorder, they just move to a different colony which suits them better. Each colony would have almost totally independant government and they's only act as a faction due to a strong mutual defense treaty.I see where you're coming from and I agree with it. I was reading them more as Rapture, when what you're proposing is more of a loose Confederacy of individuals who share an overarching desire for freedom and independence but not specific ideologies.
I'd also imagine they grow.. maybe not faster than usual, but not slower than other oceangoing factions. Trying lots of things quickly lets you settle on what works to raise populations, and the idea of colonies splintering after a certain size based on different ideologies points more towards lower not higher pop limits. Similarly splintered and diverse small colonies don't seem like great +Indust. +Support is plausible though, as is Research. I'm struggling a bit to come up with good ideas for penalties which fit with my idea of the faction.
I like the title Freeman though.
I see where you're coming from and I agree with it. I was reading them more as Rapture, when what you're proposing is more of a loose Confederacy of individuals who share an overarching desire for freedom and independence but not specific ideologies.
With that in mind, a novel approach might actually be +Growth but -Population. They are quick to grow with the influx of individuals who chafe under the "oppression" of other factions, but the logistic limitations of a Seastead coupled with ideological inflighting would mean that while they grow rapidly they rapidly reach a point where competition for limited resources makes further growth unfeasible, thus encouraging expansion. I'd argue that even a penalty as severe as Pop, 3 would work to that end.
Coupled with P.Defense, you get a very scattered faction of small but well defended, independent settlements. I like it.
Other names: Seastead Confederacy, Seastates
I believe GeoModder made a few in the old days that way, too.
Definitely Seastead Accord.Done.
I don't think that an Efficiency bonus necessary fits the faction's ideology, since Efficiency to me involves the ability of a faction to allocate resources, primarily Energy, in an efficient manner throughout their territory, and a decentralized faction made up of independent city states with their own ideologies is not, to me, a paragon of efficiency. Being able to manage that inefficiency would be a challenge for the player to resolve, similar to a Leviathan player needing to reconcile their Drone/Police problems with their Offensive operations.hmm, okay, I see where you're coming from there. I do think that free HQs fits pretty excellently though, since in a literal sense each faction is running it's own business. And.. without some way to have plenty bases, I could see them just being extremely frustrating to play. If not, they need some other major hook to draw people in and make them seem like a worthwhile faction. Free HQs are kind of a huge distortion of normal gameplay though. I'm not sure if they'd go PS/Power due to tiny bases and lack of need for police, but virtually free planned is awkward.
Other factions ideas:hmm.. yea, that could work. I'm slightly struggling to imagine many people signing up for a Cthulhu faction, but I guess the right Psi interaction and it'd fit.
-Cthulhu themed religious faction is definitely one that should work. Call them the Church of the Deep. They revere Planet's fungus mind as a source of terrible power, in contrast with the Gaian's reverence for it as a benevolent force. They also wish to achieve oneness (Transcendence) but in a much more aggressive fashion. Maaaybe Deep Pressure Hull but that's honestly not that useful of an Ability, as cool as it is.
-Merchants. Easy theme, easy to build. Personally I'm not all that interested in them.Yea, probably worth having one of, but not all that interesting.
-If we identify the Seasteaders as either Techers or Builders, we need to figure out a faction to fill in the other role.Do we need to identify the Seasteaders as either? I kinda like the idea of exploring as many new niches as possible, which may mean we have room for our own take on both a techer and builder.
-I find that Faction sets benefit from a Peacekeeper analog, i.e. "Guys lets stick to the mission." How about a militarized faction with an emphasis on terraforming? They start with Centauri Ecology, get +Support as a Bonus and -Planet as a penalty because their focus is on transforming the native ecosystem rather than preserving it (i.e. Purity instead of Harmony), and Naval Yards as a free facility. We could call them the Centauri Armada or something along those lines. It would be an interesting combination.I like this, though it needs a bit more refinement. Exactly what are they going for/what's their approach to getting it? Possibly free Fungicide Tanks, if that gets applied correctly to just formers. And worth considering Aquafarm instead of Naval Yards, if we go more terraforming than military?
I've played a few aquatic games against them, and one as them.I believe GeoModder made a few in the old days that way, too.
That I did. ;nod
I'm still pretty fond of my Royal Atlanteans with their hidden ships. :D
Let's look at it this way:Other factions ideas:hmm.. yea, that could work. I'm slightly struggling to imagine many people signing up for a Cthulhu faction, but I guess the right Psi interaction and it'd fit.
-Cthulhu themed religious faction is definitely one that should work. Call them the Church of the Deep. They revere Planet's fungus mind as a source of terrible power, in contrast with the Gaian's reverence for it as a benevolent force. They also wish to achieve oneness (Transcendence) but in a much more aggressive fashion. Maaaybe Deep Pressure Hull but that's honestly not that useful of an Ability, as cool as it is.
I like the dichotemy of militarized terraformers, especially considering that the planet is a semi-sentient organism capable of fighting back. One would think that to successfully turn a hostile world into a comfortable one you'd need to wage a war against the ecosystem itself. If we're looking for new niches to fill, this could be a very fun one to play as and against (though the focus on Terraforming would screw up most unpatched SMAC AIs and basically all SMACX AIs)-I find that Faction sets benefit from a Peacekeeper analog, i.e. "Guys lets stick to the mission." How about a militarized faction with an emphasis on terraforming? They start with Centauri Ecology, get +Support as a Bonus and -Planet as a penalty because their focus is on transforming the native ecosystem rather than preserving it (i.e. Purity instead of Harmony), and Naval Yards as a free facility. We could call them the Centauri Armada or something along those lines. It would be an interesting combination.I like this, though it needs a bit more refinement. Exactly what are they going for/what's their approach to getting it? Possibly free Fungicide Tanks, if that gets applied correctly to just formers. And worth considering Aquafarm instead of Naval Yards, if we go more terraforming than military?
@Sigma: What do you think of the industrial green faction I outlined on page 1?You mean the FungMinerals faction? They'd be extremely scary in an aquatic map where Minerals are hard to come by. Not sure about the characterization. They're industrialists who discovered a way to extract an incredible resource from the native life on the planet, and transform it into productive goods. Maybe that's where Andrew Ryan comes in? I like the idea though.
You make a convincing argument. Damn, Planet is scary when you think about it like that. Okay, let's include it.Let's look at it this way:Other factions ideas:hmm.. yea, that could work. I'm slightly struggling to imagine many people signing up for a Cthulhu faction, but I guess the right Psi interaction and it'd fit.
-Cthulhu themed religious faction is definitely one that should work. Call them the Church of the Deep. They revere Planet's fungus mind as a source of terrible power, in contrast with the Gaian's reverence for it as a benevolent force. They also wish to achieve oneness (Transcendence) but in a much more aggressive fashion. Maaaybe Deep Pressure Hull but that's honestly not that useful of an Ability, as cool as it is.
You've arrived on a new planet to escape your dying world. It is mostly comprised of endless, unknown alien ocean. The water is bogged down by dense fungal growths the size of entire islands. Wriggling masses of worms erupt from the depths and drag men into raving psychotic episodes while they devour their ships whole. The fungus speaks to you in your dreams, beckoning you to venture deeper into it. What little land there is is marked by the monolithic remains of a fallen alien civilization.
It doesn't seem odd to me that some people would find the draw of a such belief irresistible.
Change the name to Convenant of the Deep. Much better.
hm, yea, there's something good there. Unite humanity against Planet to transform it into new Earth and survive as a species. They've even got a natural foe in the Covenant of the Deep, which is always nice.I like this, though it needs a bit more refinement. Exactly what are they going for/what's their approach to getting it? Possibly free Fungicide Tanks, if that gets applied correctly to just formers. And worth considering Aquafarm instead of Naval Yards, if we go more terraforming than military?I like the dichotemy of militarized terraformers, especially considering that the planet is a semi-sentient organism capable of fighting back. One would think that to successfully turn a hostile world into a comfortable one you'd need to wage a war against the ecosystem itself. If we're looking for new niches to fill, this could be a very fun one to play as and against (though the focus on Terraforming would screw up most unpatched SMAC AIs and basically all SMACX AIs)
hm, you're right, it could do with some more politics. I'll think about it more.@Sigma: What do you think of the industrial green faction I outlined on page 1?You mean the FungMinerals faction? They'd be extremely scary in an aquatic map where Minerals are hard to come by. Not sure about the characterization. They're industrialists who discovered a way to extract an incredible resource from the native life on the planet, and transform it into productive goods. Maybe that's where Andrew Ryan comes in? I like the idea though.
...I'd just point out that Maniac, not an artist, used to make up his own faction graphics via cut-and-paste from old Network Node factionsI have to ask, what is a Network Node faction? Was that an old AC forum or something?
...I'd just point out that Maniac, not an artist, used to make up his own faction graphics via cut-and-paste from old Network Node factions
I have to ask, what is a Network Node faction? Was that an old AC forum or something?
Suggestions:hmm.. I mostly like it, but think maybe we need different/more penalties. Especially if the green builders have a conventional combat penalty. I'd maybe prefer to go with just pure +Planet? Still included in second post as a sketch.
Covenant of the Deep
Leader: Deacon
Ideology: Fundamentalist
Anti-Ideology: Free Market OR Wealth
Aggressive
Tech: Social Psyche? Or Planetary Networks for Spies
+Planet (Nature lovers)
+Probe (Secretive!)
-Economy (Nobody wants to trade with them) OR -Growth (Creepy faction has limited following)
Free Brood Pit
+Psi Combat
-Probe Cost
-Conventional Combat
Ability: Deep Radar
Centauri Armada or Centaury FlotillaYea. It's a fairly middle of the road faction, with some worthwhile bonuses, but nothing spectacular. Maybe worth having one more minor penalty, but otherwise seems good.
Leader: Admiral
Ideology: Power
Anti-Ideology: Green
Erratic
Tech: CentEco
+Support
-Planet
Naval Yards
Fungicide Tanks
Sea Former
This seems reasonable to me. They lack a clear combat ability like most other factions do, but they also lack clear weaknesses except their inability to deal with the planet's ecosystem in a non-aggressive manner. The Free Naval Yards give them a Morale advantage to compete with the Triton Monarchy, though if the TM can nab the Maritime Control Center they they will surge ahead.
I think we're onto something here.
Green Builders (Tentative)I'm thinking a society of pragmatists? They find that rather than dealing directly with their environment and other factions, they can stay safe at home and send native life off to do the dirty work and heavy lifting. They don't particularly care for Planet and lack an intrinsic Planet bonus, but spend significant effort training Psi talents and breeding native life (not capturing as much as others).
For the Green Builders, I think we need to work with the idea that by using the Fungus for minerals they are literally incorporating the planet's bio-ecology into their infrastructure. What kind of society would that create? Do they have a scientific perspective on Planet, like Deidre, or a reverential view like Cha Dawn?
Tech: Industrial Base OR Biogenetics
+Industry
FungMinerals
-Morale (not a serious military force) OR -Support
Ability: Hyponotic Trance (Fungal construction makes them resistant to native attacks)
Free Fac: Recycling Tanks
I'm thinking a society of pragmatists? They find that rather than dealing directly with their environment and other factions, they can stay safe at home and send native life off to do the dirty work and heavy lifting. They don't particularly care for Planet and lack an intrinsic Planet bonus, but spend significant effort training Psi talents and breeding native life (not capturing as much as others).Good way of looking at it.
I like the idea of a faction where you really want to _build_ natives from a gameplay perspective. The only other example I can think of is the Annihilators, which are not exactly designed for fair play. A combination of normal combat penalties, Psi bonus, high Industry, and poor Planet (maybe even -1) seems the best way to achieve that. Hypnotic Trance would go against it though, by strengthening non-native units.
Yep, that's what I was thinking.I'm thinking a society of pragmatists? They find that rather than dealing directly with their environment and other factions, they can stay safe at home and send native life off to do the dirty work and heavy lifting. They don't particularly care for Planet and lack an intrinsic Planet bonus, but spend significant effort training Psi talents and breeding native life (not capturing as much as others).Good way of looking at it.
I like the idea of a faction where you really want to _build_ natives from a gameplay perspective. The only other example I can think of is the Annihilators, which are not exactly designed for fair play. A combination of normal combat penalties, Psi bonus, high Industry, and poor Planet (maybe even -1) seems the best way to achieve that. Hypnotic Trance would go against it though, by strengthening non-native units.
So maybe take the +Psi bonus from the Covenant and move it to the Green Builders?
I actually think that Aquatic factions have an incentive incentive to build Native Units already, as they are cheap Transports that can defend themselves, and in my experience it's a lot harder to build worm hunters in the ocean compared to on land. So by giving Green Builders +Psi, +Industry, +Fungminerals and no native Planet bonus, that would be a very strong encouragement to flood the world with Islands and Sealurks.It's true, but native units are pretty mineral intensive to build, and at sea you don't have much spare, which is why you need extra minerals to give more incentives. They're also vulnerable to bombardment unless you stack them with bombardment units.
Now the challenge is to make them contrast with the Covenant. The Covenant lacks their Industrial capacity, but they aren't penalized in that area, so they can still build Natives if they want but more more in line to capture them. Now if we give the Green Builders +Psi, maybe we give the Covenant Fanatic. This would make them a cross between Miriam and Joaquin from my faction set, with her Probe bonus and his Planet. Do that and you need to remove the -Conventional Attack penalty, otherwise the Fanatic bonus is neutered.hmm.. that seems mostly about right. They'll need some other penalty to replace that conventional one, but yes.
So the Builders would end up as:Seems pretty close to what I've edited into the second post, I dropped -support.
+Industry
+FungMinerals
-Support? (Not sure about this)
+Psi
-Conventional
Brood Pit
And the Covenant could look like:hmm.. it seems okay but a little.. bland, I guess? A bit like taking a little bit from each of the other native and religion facs and adding aquatic, but not giving it anything to properly stand out with. Maybe Aquatic is enough, and it's okay because of that... hmmm...
+Planet
+Probe
-Economy
-Research, maybe?
Fanatic
Deep Radar
Fac: ???
-Research + Probe on an aquatic map would be pretty awful for an AI because they don't know how to make Probe Boats, as far as I've seen.
Bland is the word that I'd use to describe it too. They look like every other Militant Religious faction except in the ocean.
hmm.. it seems okay but a little.. bland, I guess? A bit like taking a little bit from each of the other native and religion facs and adding aquatic, but not giving it anything to properly stand out with. Maybe Aquatic is enough, and it's okay because of that... hmmm...
And I think we should make including probe foils in alphax standard. They're just too useful to ignore, and it helps the AI.
It's true.. the other one is pretty distinct from all the others I've seen, but I don't have any ideas about how to make this one interesting right now... will think on it.Bland is the word that I'd use to describe it too. They look like every other Militant Religious faction except in the ocean.
hmm.. it seems okay but a little.. bland, I guess? A bit like taking a little bit from each of the other native and religion facs and adding aquatic, but not giving it anything to properly stand out with. Maybe Aquatic is enough, and it's okay because of that... hmmm...
And I think we should make including probe foils in alphax standard. They're just too useful to ignore, and it helps the AI.
The problem is that we are setting up two factions based on native lifeforms, and I don't know if the customizability of the game is granular enough to make them distinct and interesting.
@Sigma: hmm, you're right that it would be good to include something about complexity, but given that a lot of people who'll come across this will have zero or near zero knowledge of NRx, I'd like to lay out as much of the background reasoning as can plausibly fit into the quote. Your quote is good, and captures a relevant feeling/part of movement, but I think adapting mine to include some stuff about complexity would work better?Fair point, though as an American I've not heard about any Monarchist neoreactionaries in this country. Maybe make him Greek (reflecting the current trend in Greece of young radicals embracing fascist ideologies), which would also allow him to take on the mantle of a wise Philosopher King to couch his outright despotism.
I'd like to include that in a pack of quotes to go with the factions though.
For reference, I was mostly basing that quote off stuff from http://unqualified-reservations.blogspot.co.uk/2007/04/formalist-manifesto-originally-posted.html (http://unqualified-reservations.blogspot.co.uk/2007/04/formalist-manifesto-originally-posted.html)(click to show/hide)
I'm okay with switching to british, though some monarchist neoreactionaries are american I think? And as a brit.. very few people here care much about the royals in anything more than a vaguely patriotic way. They're certainly a very, very long way from the kind of figure neoreactionaries seem to want.
So we have the Green Builders, who have learned how to use the Fungus in an industrial capacity. They come equipped with manufacturing know-how (+Industry), but little Military experience (-Morale or -Support). The problem is that both of these are counterproductive to the goal of having them be Native Builders, because Natives can never be Clean (thus alleviating their Support problems) and Morale hurts Psi combat more than conventional combat. And as you said, Natives are not exactly cheap to build. So I don't know if the Green Builders being based around Native life is mechanically sound. Of course we can always change their penalties around.
As for Support, while native units cannot be Clean, they automatically function as Clean while in fungusI HAD NO IDEA THIS WAS A THING.
hm.. I think the green builders should fairly well mechanically using -offense and -defense as an alternative to morale or support penalties (edit: though based on what Yitzi says, those penalties could still work)? The issue is that leaves the Covenant as pretty bland, since having two native factions with double conventional combat penalties is.. too much similarity.So, wouldn't this mean that the Covenant has a permanent +100% Offense, but with the penalty that they would pretty much experience permanent sanctions provided that the UN Charter remains in effect? That's an interesting mechanic which could work if it was coupled with another penalty (maybe negative Interest, for Energy sacrificed to Planet).
How about giving the Covenant free Nerve Gas Pods? Then you have a pretty different setup mechanically:
CotD has captured natives alongside boosted human shock troops which make everyone want to kill them, fitting with the whole worshiping dark gods thing, and they even flood everywhere if they do it enough like their war is powering their god. I like that, and it gives them something new+distinct+fitting.
GBs have constructed native life with a Psi bonus and very little if any conventional troops due to combat penalties, with humans staying at home.
We could even start the Cult with HEC for immediate Nerve Gas, it's a level 2 tech, but it's not a super important one. Probably drop the +Probe, that's been done before? Same for Brood Pit, that firs green builders better anyway.
I don't have any royal leaderheads on hand, no - but the great thing about that is that the King of X has a lot of official portraits made; you won't have a lot of trouble googling up something that suits you. You might try the last King of Spain, Juan Carlos.
So, wouldn't this mean that the Covenant has a permanent +100% Offense, but with the penalty that they would pretty much experience permanent sanctions provided that the UN Charter remains in effect? That's an interesting mechanic which could work if it was coupled with another penalty (maybe negative Interest, for Energy sacrificed to Planet).
Right. I guess we'll just have to look forward to being able to load a modern graphics format.
Not easily distinguishable is annoying, but vastly less of an issue than having two which have literally exactly the same color. With only a handful of colors to choose from, there's forced absolute conflict.Right. I guess we'll just have to look forward to being able to load a modern graphics format.
Even that probably won't help that much; the real problem is that there are only so many easily distinguishable colors, and the need to be visible against the minimap limits your options even more.
Functional, but artless and missing all the cosmetic text, versions of the Covenant and Seasteaders for AI game testing.Would you mind me taking a pass at the flavor text in the .txt? I've got some ideas I think should work.
My first test was pretty interesting. The Covenant AI committed so many atrocities they hit the everyone declares war on you point, but did significant damage to the monarchs.
Not easily distinguishable is annoying, but vastly less of an issue than having two which have literally exactly the same color. With only a handful of colors to choose from, there's forced absolute conflict.Right. I guess we'll just have to look forward to being able to load a modern graphics format.
Even that probably won't help that much; the real problem is that there are only so many easily distinguishable colors, and the need to be visible against the minimap limits your options even more.
256 is still fairly large; even if 3/4 don't show up well against the background, that's still 64 possibilities, which should be enough to avoid conflict.Within a single game of 7 or factionpack, sure. But I have over 160 factions, which means even distributed perfectly with 64 colors each possible color is going to be used at least twice, some three times. I would prefer a color which did not conflict with one of the original seven, but being able to avoid color conflicts in general will be a notable improvement.
256 is still fairly large; even if 3/4 don't show up well against the background, that's still 64 possibilities, which should be enough to avoid conflict.Within a single game of 7 or factionpack, sure. But I have over 160 factions, which means even distributed perfectly with 64 colors each possible color is going to be used at least twice, some three times. I would prefer a color which did not conflict with one of the original seven, but being able to avoid color conflicts in general will be a notable improvement.
Do you mean change colors for an individual game? That's probably worthwhile for AARs by people who know basic graphics stuff, but if with the factionpack being available to the public, it'd be handy to avoid collisions by default rather than requiring messing with files.
Activating nerve gas pods is optional, so they unless the war gets desperate they may decide not to take sanctions. Similarly using nerve gas outside bases against aliens or during sunspots does not matter, other than making the target hate you. Also, I don't think sanctions affects your ability to run for governor? I could be wrong about that though.Fair enough!
It's not a huge penalty, but it seems to be a fitting one. Could be dropped if we think of something else that works better.
Activating nerve gas pods is optional, so they unless the war gets desperate they may decide not to take sanctions.
Also, I don't think sanctions affects your ability to run for governor? I could be wrong about that though.
@Sigma: I like the quote. Maybe something slightly darker than "communication to planetmind" for agenda, and justification of Nerve gas (low value of human life?), but otherwise seems good. And maybe a little more hint of what they plan do with Planetmind? Submit to it and hope for mercy?I figure that I'll handle the most of their dark aspects in their dialogues. Vathe's ideology and beliefs need to be attractive enough to gather a following, with their truly negative aspects only becoming either to outsiders or to those who get in too deep.
@Yitzi: True, and true.
Yep, that's even better.
Also, running an AI only game with all three+Pirates/Yang/Usurper. The Covenant have an awesome start, nerve gas lets them rush brilliantly, but they kind of fall apart later on. Seasteaders have a horrible start, lose like five sea cps to the nrx, but are currently leading. Everyone hates the Covenant (nerve gas) and Yang (nuked the covenant HQ). The UN Charter got repealed, and King Colton nuked the Usurper's HQ and destroyed Mt Planet along with most of the Usurper core continent. Usurpers had been basically tied for first with nrx until then, but they're dropping back now. Seasteaders are still rising, perhaps they need some penalty that only matters lategame? Anything that hurts them a lot early may be too much for their already weakish start.
Yep, that's even better.Are the Seasteaders performing as expected, i.e. major city sprawl to compensate for their population cap?
Also, running an AI only game with all three+Pirates/Yang/Usurper. The Covenant have an awesome start, nerve gas lets them rush brilliantly, but they kind of fall apart later on. Seasteaders have a horrible start, lose like five sea cps to the nrx, but are currently leading. Everyone hates the Covenant (nerve gas) and Yang (nuked the covenant HQ). The UN Charter got repealed, and King Colton nuked the Usurper's HQ and destroyed Mt Planet along with most of the Usurper core continent. Usurpers had been basically tied for first with nrx until then, but they're dropping back now. Seasteaders are still rising, perhaps they need some penalty that only matters lategame? Anything that hurts them a lot early may be too much for their already weakish start.
Perhaps a substantial RESEARCH penalty, but bonus research per base. So early game when each base produces only a small amount of research, they have a teching advantage, but later on they have a disadvantage. It even fits well thematically with a loosely organized semi-anarchic society and encourages lots of bases regardless of EFFIC considerations.That.. is actually pretty brilliant. Each base they have is another social and technological experiment, so the more they have the better they do, but at the same time co-ordinating and integrating that is not easy. Will need to be carefully tuned&tested, but I like it a lot. May also need some other economic penalty to reduce their huge surplus of energy.. but running close to the 8 limit already.
Are the Seasteaders performing as expected, i.e. major city sprawl to compensate for their population cap?
Sounds like most games with these people tend to dissolve into total chaos, which is kind of awesome.
As for the Monarchs, if we want to make the King Greek, here are some suggestions:Okay, that sounds good to me too, changed.
FIRST NAMES
Konstantinos
Kriton
Ioannis
Stavros
Petros
SURNAMES
Agrippa
Apostolos
Xarchakos
Arsenis
I kind of think "King Kriton Agrippa I" has a nice ring to it.
The Pragmatist Order, The Pragmatist, Pragmatist, M, 1, Helen, F, -1, 0, 0, 1, 1,Giving them a good array of bonuses to start with, may need nerfing but I'm not sure how crippling the conventional combat penalties will turn out to be.
TECH, CentMed, TECH, DocFlex, PSI, 25, FREEFAC, 34, FUNGMIN, 2, SOCIAL, +INDUSTRY, OFFENSE, 50, DEFENSE, 75, AQUATIC, 0
Economics, Planned, INDUSTRY
Economics, Green, nil
We've also still got two entirely free slots for factions. No aliens so far, so we could change that. afaik there's only two aquatic alien factions Procyon (massive growth+energy) and Bree (fungmin/fungnut, native, but bad research).Heavy Transport is absolutely the way to go for Traders. Their leader can be Chinese and take inspiration from Cheng Ho. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zheng_He)
Or something else? Maybe that trader faction, even if it's a bit dull? I wonder what happens when you give a sea unit drop pods.. or finally use the Heavy Transport ability for someone?
Cool.So far we have two factions with Aversion: Green (The Armada and the Pragmatists), and I think we can take a page from Morgan and give them Aversion: Planned.
Let's sketch out the Merchants.. There's a name conflict with both Merchants http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Morgan_Merchants (http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Morgan_Merchants) and Traders http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Planet_Freight (http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Planet_Freight) though we could rename the text file of Planet Freight easily enough.
Bonuses:
Abilities: Heavy Transport, Repair Bay, Carrier Deck (?)
Commerce bonus?
Small energy interest?
+1 Support ?
Maaybe +Economy, but then we need some hefty penalties.
Penalties:
Penalty: Green (?) - They're not against it, but it costs them more due to heavy fuel requirements?
Not sure what else here.. ideas welcome.
If we had faction specific custom units I'd give them an awesome souped up transport with loads of extra abilities (clean reactor, the psi ones, deep pressure hull, antigrav struts, dissociative wave, high morale, polymorphic encryption) rather than the three transport-only abilities, but we can switch over to that when the virtual technologies change happens. I'm not sure about penalties, or specific other bonuses, and they feel kinda bland currently.
Armada looks good. Well characterised in the quote. I'll run another sim with all five factions we have ready for testing.
Yes, they built 15 IoDs (5 dead). They're still making a fair number of conventionals.. but enough native to live by. Maybe upping the Psi bonus would be worthwhile, see if the AI responds to that.Fair point, let's go with that for now.
hmm.. my main hesitance is we've already got one somewhat obscure god in the name of a faction, two seems a bit repetitive? I also quite like Harvesters, and Praxis gets across their core philosophy very well. And unlike the Triton Monarchy, I can't really see these guys looking back to ancient myths to decide their faction name.
Edit: Sigma, fancy popping by irc sometime in the next hour or so? http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?spage=Chat (http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?spage=Chat) say ete in the channel to ping me.I'll be out all night. Maybe tomorrow?
QuoteEdit: Sigma, fancy popping by irc sometime in the next hour or so? http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?spage=Chat (http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?spage=Chat) say ete in the channel to ping me.I'll be out all night. Maybe tomorrow?
Thinking about graphics for the Covenant..Not bad - could use a background, and fortunately, would be easy to cut out of the white.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/Chop-Chop-Stab-Cut/Evil-1.jpg)
I should be online all day today.QuoteEdit: Sigma, fancy popping by irc sometime in the next hour or so? http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?spage=Chat (http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?spage=Chat) say ete in the channel to ping me.I'll be out all night. Maybe tomorrow?
Sure, probably around the same time/any time I'm on here?
@BU: Looks good.
Ideology seems good, it's new and a fairly strong one.How about the Archon Caliphate? Referencing back to the Society of Archons, but with a better fitting ideology.
Not sure about the name though, does not give any real hint about the whole keeping knowledge for themselves thing, which I consider more important than being clearly aquatic (though ideally we'd have both like the Triton Monarchy).
Perhaps Custodians or Curators are good words to use?
Not a huge fan of split titles, especially since Admiral is already a title for the leader of the Centauri Armada.Okay. I think I prefer Quartermaster to Navigator.
(Actually on that topic-- maybe change her title from Admiral to Commodore? It feels kind of redundant to have the leader of the Armada be the Admiral, even though it's the most obvious choice)
Actually Quartermaster may work. The Quartermaster in a naval sense is responsible for overseeing the navigation of a ship, and among some Pirate crews the Quartermaster had as much authority as the Captain himself.
(I'd rewrite the quote if we decide to go with that)
My reason for characterizing Lin in the quote like that is that basically all sea travel in Earth's history was first and foremost for the purpose of Trade, so the Voyagers would naturally identify themselves as explorers as much as merchants.Yup, makes sense.
The third image looks like it has some potential, but imo it's best to have the leaders generally looking at the camera?Generally -I've spent many an hour moving eyes around- but whatever works, works...
Right. Ideally we'll find something with correctly positioned eyes, but worth knowing that's an option.The third image looks like it has some potential, but imo it's best to have the leaders generally looking at the camera?Generally -I've spent many an hour moving eyes around- but whatever works, works...
#3 looks pretty centered to me...Ops, the way I opened the three at once confused me. #1 is the one I like, other than not facing the camera (centering is not the issue, it's angle). #3 is looking at the camera, but has maybe slightly too friendly an expression I think? And #2 is at quite an angle to the camera.
Also, the Monarchs are literally called Neo-Reactionaries in-game? Why don't you just go with Monarchs?