The Gaians. They are snobs.
The Gaians. They are snobs.
Aren't they all snobs?
Yes, but I think the Gaians get to have it printed on their T-shirts.The Gaians. They are snobs.
Aren't they all snobs?
Good question.
Yes, but I think the Gaians get to have it printed on their T-shirts.The Gaians. They are snobs.
Aren't they all snobs?
Good question.
An analysis of the factions from a idealogical point of view might reveal some interesting insights.
1. Gaians:
Claim: They claim that protecting, preserving and knowing planet is ultimate good for human race. Faction penalities claim to state they are pacifists and freedom loving. The faction also contains underlying religious aspects.
Interpertation: They often use mind worms as weapons to further cause, as seen in the quotes for "Our Secret War." The quote for The Telepathic Matrix also reveals hints at its potential abuse as a form of ultimate police control, and the fact they can run Police State with few penalities tends to contradict the factions claim of "freedom loving."
In addition, their use of the term "Conclave Oral Law" indicates secret groups inside the faction that conduct activities without the use of written or mechanical aid.
The Lord's Believers is the weakest faction by far with a game against another player.
No partnership can strengthen the Believers.
Although Hive is weak by themselves due to the research penalty, a team game with University is a very powerful combination.
Although Hive is weak by themselves due to the research penalty, a team game with University is a very powerful combination.
??? Is there a research penalty for the Hive? Or are you referring to the economy penalty as being a research penalty due to the decreased energy available for allocation?
Poor misunderstood Yang only wants to take humanity to new heights. Together enough humans with the right know how have limitless potential! Alone I am a man; Together we are GOD! Why worship vengeful father figures from the past or unseen spirits when the power to move mountains, rain fire from the skies, travel the heavens and even defy the laws of that supposed father are all within reach of a humanity given purpose and focus through the loss of self. (except for the upper classes of course! Somebody has to think for humanity)
Giving up your individuality does not mean you cannot think. Is it ever implied Yang would not undergo the same procedures?
I am uncertain as to exactly what Yang's end goal for the faction was beyond advocating extreme self-deprivation, and performing genetic experimentation to make his citizens better acclimated to their roles.While I can think of a few reasons why, from our current societies point of view, what you said is exactly true; to me deprivation implies an unavailable necessity though. You don't need a car if society is designed for you to have available transit when required. You don't need money or status symbols if all goods are free. The loss of self is not the same as depriving oneself. I know there has been no successful example of such a society on our little rock but thats part of what makes the concept so intriguing!
Yes agree with EM, Believers are the weakest by far. It's mainly from their 10 turns of no research. This puts them 2 techs behind which is much more detrimental since Impact/Plasma/Rover are so important for early aggression. Even the pacifist factions can run over them 1 on 1 in the early game. I mod flat unit costs and while this makes FANATIC into a relevant bonus, it also hurts them since it's harder for them to get better weapon and armor techs. So what then is the best fix thematically for Believers? PROBE/SUPPORT just aren't as important early as RESEARCH. I had thought FANATIC working against alien life might boost them a decent amount. I thought about other options like free Recreation Commons (as worship is important to them) or one more starter tech (Applied Physics or Planetary Networks?).
... Bad early game usually means weak all game due to exponential growth rates.Exponential growth rates could be "modded out"
Yea, making the no research turns penalty separate from -RESEARCH would work too - assuming you mean removing just the 10 turns of no research from Believers.
... Bad early game usually means weak all game due to exponential growth rates.Exponential growth rates could be "modded out"
They break late game, as it is not so fun (micro)managing it, I think.
I have impression, they were in such a hurry when making the game, they did not balance late game.
A lot of things aren't balanced in the unmodded game, but would agree generally. The AI doesn't play well in the late game.
What parts of the game are tedious to micromanage?
Yea, making the 5 turns of no research per -RESEARCH into a moddable variable would work. If Believers didn't have this penalty then they'd be more competitive.
Far as growth, exponential probably wasn't the right word. Growth does need to be quadratic or so. Changing that would disrupt the whole game as there should always be that economic vs military tradeoff in all stages. If growth is more linear then the game stagnates and becomes a lot more focused on war than building up. Similarly if growth rate is too high then war is never worth the risk. I'd actually say there isn't much issue here. It's more that quadratic growth means a quadratic increase in former count, because terraforming your land is the main growth bottleneck (the other being infrastructure/drone control). I think that there should have been more than just one former upgrade (Super) throughout the game, and perhaps a better way to queue up former commands. But those would be big changes.
It's 5 per point which is actually better
Yea, I do get what you're saying. Roughly speaking I think population growth is between linear and quadratic (but can be expressed as quadratic equation). There's then other rates like FOP/sq, facility increases, then a few other tech-related boosts like weapon/armor/reactor, SEs, and SPs. Multiplying those benefits from tech & infra with population growthrate, I think you get a total faction power rate that increases faster than quadratic and a bit slower than cubic. But this is all quite theoretical. How many formers are typical for a player at each stage? 1-5 early, maybe 20 or so mid, 100+ late. Same issue arises with military units. I think it's more a mid to late game costing issue. Later on there should be more costly formers and military units that are accordingly more powerful so you don't need huge swarms. Same with native life and probes, I suppose. Reactors probably should have been quadratic (10 HP / 40 HP / 90 HP / 160 HP) with cost increases linear (1x/2x/3x/4x)
First improvements, first buildings, boreholes, crawlers, wonders, lifted resource limits - all of it felt like such an important step in your growth. When i play modern games like Civ 5 or especially something like EU4, i really miss that feeling. You do a lot of different things, and they account for like 5% growth. Why even bother? In SMAC you were doubling your entire economy in 20 turns i think? Or maybe even faster.