Alpha Centauri 2

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri & Alien Crossfire => After Action Reports => Topic started by: Green1 on December 04, 2012, 11:02:57 PM

Title: Considering something a bit... different for AAR4
Post by: Green1 on December 04, 2012, 11:02:57 PM

Once I finish AAR3: Lal must suffer, I have been thinking about something pretty neat for the next one that highlights the wacky world of custom factions. Now, I know some of the more fleshed out Network Node factions are pretty much plug in and go. However, if it was not too much trouble I was going to try to include one or two of the more "interesting" factions from the premier TCMs.

I, of course, will be playing Miriam. I have already decided.

I was thinking a faction from Lost Eden (NEKKID devil Pokeman fornicators have not heard the last of the Sister since her humiliation in a previous GOTM...)

and

Stephanie from LazyMod (The only solution for Icelandic hussy pedobait slvts in satan worship pink hair is liberal use of chemical weapons! Nukes work, too. The Looowd thy Gaawwd approves.)

How much trouble would I have to go through to include these?

Also, any ideas for the other factions that would be cool?

Title: Re: Considering something a bit... different for AAR4
Post by: Buster's Uncle on December 04, 2012, 11:16:31 PM

Both Lost Eden and chuft's Lazymod are rather thorough mods; the Lazytown faction might be a problem - if you've played, or at least downloaded and installed, the LE GotM, you have a version of the Realm of Light designed to work with unmodded SMAC(X); he did have to alter it to work in that enviroment.  You'd have to either test out Lazytown, or ask chuft about it, to determine how well it functions in straight AC.

I do love this idea.  Both mods are (impressive) labors of love from talented modders, and deserve the promotion of having factions featured in one of your, as always, popular AARs.

Title: Re: Considering something a bit... different for AAR4
Post by: Kilkakon on December 07, 2012, 07:15:46 AM

I can answer with a bit more confidence. LazyMythos is largely the same as normal SMAX, with about 5 of the techs in the tree changed and a few more custom units thrown in. From memory, Stephanie should be good to go. :) Only the alien faction should be a problem. I don't have LazyMythos installed on this particular computer so don't quote me on it but it should be fine.

As for Lost Eden--feel free to pick one and I can convert it to SMAX for you. The main problem is that the tech tree is different (easily fixed by giving a free tech) and the social engineering changes are all different as well and even the GOTM one is non-standard and can't be thrown right in. As the civics are different it takes a good 10-15 minutes to work out if any of the stats need changing. I'm happy to do it, just let me know which one you want! I suggest either myself, Oblivion, or maybe Navius or Chuck.

And I'd be sure to follow along. :D AARs are fun!

Title: Re: Considering something a bit... different for AAR4
Post by: Kilkakon on December 07, 2012, 11:09:07 AM

I tested LazyTown out just then--Steph seems to be somewhat overpowered, so just a heads up there. Might have been luck, but just letting you know. I've gone ahead and converted Oblivion over now--he seems the most fitting enemy for the Believers as he is quite literally the "NEKKID devil Pokeman fornicator" but obviously whatever you want goes.

Title: Re: Considering something a bit... different for AAR4
Post by: Green1 on December 07, 2012, 10:39:00 PM

Awesome.  I will take the faction you have suggested. As far as Steph, I am brushing up on my Miriam skills. I usually do very well with her by playing an aggresive game. Not sure about the other ones to choose yet. Need to look through all the stuff availabe.

Title: Re: Considering something a bit... different for AAR4
Post by: Green1 on December 08, 2012, 12:26:56 AM

Added point since I have had a second or two on my bike and have plopped down at a coffee shop since I last logged in to AC2.

Speaking of Stephanie and the silliness of it aside, I think she or something like her represent the one idealogical faction type not originally considered in SMAC or SMAX: the celebrity faction leader.

Ever since the days of Mir, there has been talk of celebrities in space. Hell, MARS ONE even wants to create a reality show. If it was not for the Unity crew put on ice, I think there would be a celebrity involved to help publisize the funding for building the Unity. Such a celebrity would have a huge following and be a faction leader just because of who he or she is.

Not sure yet of the other NN factions. I can handle a little OPness, but some of those things look like someone's easy mode sandbox fun toy while others are unfinished.

Sorry, BU - your Supanewbs will not make the cut!

Title: Re: Considering something a bit... different for AAR4
Post by: Buster's Uncle on December 08, 2012, 12:57:19 AM

The playtest reports I got on the faction as an AI opponent indicated it was too powerful - and the ScotsN00bs were even worse.  -That was sort've the idea, of course; they're training wheels for beginners.  Mylochka had a ball learning with the SupaNewbs.

Title: Re: Considering something a bit... different for AAR4
Post by: Kilkakon on December 08, 2012, 10:13:42 AM

Okay, thanks Green. :) Do you want the G or PG one for your AAR?

Title: Re: Considering something a bit... different for AAR4
Post by: Green1 on December 08, 2012, 10:29:16 AM

As much of a purist and advocate of taking things as the artist intended as I am, I do have a teenage daughter. Plus durnit, I saw a gecko climbing on the fence of the balconey where I live and I saw no genitals. Does not seem right on other lizard creatures either. Make it PG :)

Title: Re: Considering something a bit... different for AAR4
Post by: Kilkakon on December 09, 2012, 07:18:33 AM

I'm not sure if that was a yes or no to genitalia. XD I'll post both to be sure.

As for balance, I tried to make this guy match the other SMAC ones in strength. (In Lost Eden, most of his strength comes from growing early, and then switching to All Must Die (+3 industry and +3 morale) late game, and then steamrolling the planet) If you add some NN ones, I'd say best to have a cursory examination to see how they fare. I like the Neveral Order (which I nerfed slightly to be fair, happy to share if you like)

Too many brackets in that paragraph. :|

Title: Re: Considering something a bit... different for AAR4
Post by: Green1 on December 09, 2012, 07:28:47 AM

Awesome. Got them both. I will see how they both look. I plan on running a short "trial" not published just to see how it is going to go.

Title: Re: Considering something a bit... different for AAR4
Post by: Green1 on December 13, 2012, 06:49:13 PM

Oblivion has been getting butt handed to it in playtesting for AAR4. First by Yang. Then by Steph. Added one version of Borg, then went with BU's far superior, less Hive rip off second version. Just jot NN factions, so I am looking through all those files.

I plan to put more into AAR3 over the next few days and finish it up soon. I have a feeling, that one is going to be a knock down , drag out before it is over with.

Also thinking about a bit more polish on future AARs.

At some point I really feel I need to do an AAR on Civ 4: Planetfall and Lost Eden as time allows. There are some out there who are cautious about DLing stuff, but may if they see an AAR if it hits fancy.

Title: Re: Considering something a bit... different for AAR4
Post by: Kilkakon on December 14, 2012, 02:34:01 AM

Alright, I'll have to give him some more industry (or growth or whatever you suggest! Just go overboard and make him slightly OP I suppose). I did try to make him work but obviously I failed. XD I don't know enough about SMAX balancing... but yeah I did try to warn you about Steph... :-\

Your AAR is pretty good though. :) I've read two, your AAR3, and Chuft's one of his LazyMod. I think Chuft's one narrowly wins out through use of humourous images and stuff, but yours wasn't bad by any means.

If you ever did give LE an AAR, give me a shout beforehand and I'll make sure you've got the absolute latest version on hand for it.

(on a personal note, still raging over email notifications not working anymore... and images still don't work in IE)

Title: Re: Considering something a bit... different for AAR4
Post by: Green1 on December 14, 2012, 03:07:25 AM

Actually did a playtest with only AIs. This time the Borg and the Antimind had to join forces as Rick Flair of the wrestlers repealed atrocities... then the nukes and gas went flying... Oblivion was matching the Antimind till the nukes..

I guess it was randomness..

Maybe I was wrong. It was entertaining to watch the AIs duke it out on the train.

Title: Re: Considering something a bit... different for AAR4
Post by: Kilkakon on December 14, 2012, 05:43:24 PM

I'd say the way to know for sure is to increase the sample size and have a few more AI games. :)

Title: Re: Considering something a bit... different for AAR4
Post by: Green1 on December 14, 2012, 07:52:26 PM

Quote from: Kilkakon on December 14, 2012, 02:34:01 AM

Alright, I'll have to give him some more industry (or growth or whatever you suggest! Just go overboard and make him slightly OP I suppose). I did try to make him work but obviously I failed. XD I don't know enough about SMAX balancing... but yeah I did try to warn you about Steph... :-\

Your AAR is pretty good though. :) I've read two, your AAR3, and Chuft's one of his LazyMod. I think Chuft's one narrowly wins out through use of humourous images and stuff, but yours wasn't bad by any means.

If you ever did give LE an AAR, give me a shout beforehand and I'll make sure you've got the absolute latest version on hand for it.

(on a personal note, still raging over email notifications not working anymore... and images still don't work in IE)

Chuft used a lot of image magic for his AARs. It is a skill I do no have, unfortunately. BUT - I can promise AC2 I will never rage delet any AAR I post out of rage, lol. What I post is a gift to any AC player. Even if Sisko or BU turn Sith Lord on me.

You think Chuft's AAR is good, this one right here is the best Alpha Centauri AAR on the web (not including excellent videos by Quill18 and GimithR on Youtube.):

http://lparchive.org/Sid-Meiers-Alpha-Centauri/ (http://lparchive.org/Sid-Meiers-Alpha-Centauri/)

The author, Fangz, even used flash to show animation of waves of needlejets. The writing is superb. He even opened the game up in scenario editor and had forum to let the readers determine what he needed to do and when to switch sides! Talk about reader participation!

As far as your mod and Maniac's, let me get through with this one (AAR3) and the custom faction madness one and I will get a hold of you. I have a feeling I would do Maniac's first since it is the closest thing we got to AC2 (noise from CFC about rouge-likes and Free Civ forks that never go anywhere notwithstanding). I am insanely curious about what he has done in the last several patches. Then, yours will be shortly after that because I have heard that you have done interesting things with the aging SMAX engine as well.

Title: Re: Considering something a bit... different for AAR4
Post by: Green1 on May 23, 2013, 11:44:52 PM

About ready to do AAR 4 probably next few days. Got really busy December to now with annoying life circumstances and frustrations and a lot of fate that was up in the air at that time.

Steph is fine. After all, the Antimind is in the sample so a little OP is fine. I like brutal, slow paced games.

Oblivion seems to be underpowered. You mentioned Lost Eden gives Oblivion a preferred SE that gives him insane industry and morale. Whith your permission and to go with the spirit of what Oblivion is about, I am considering adjusting his starting stats

current:

Quote

Oblivion's Fallen, The Demon, Fallen, M, 2, Oblivion, M, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1,
TECH, InfNet, FACILITY, 6, SOCIAL, +GROWTH, SOCIAL, +RESEARCH, SOCIAL, -EFFIC, SOCIAL, -PLANET, SOCIAL, -PROBE, IMMUNITY, SUPPORT, POPULATION, 2
Future Society, Thought Control, GROWTH,
Future Society, Cybernetic, nil,
Fallen, Fallen
Nagis, Sauii, Nagis' Fate
Prince, attractive, digusting, powerful, demonic,
Selfish Maniac
enjoy ourselves
to enjoy myself as much as I possibly can
desecrating everything that is good or sacred in this world
desecrating everything that is good or sacred in this world
waste your charms on me
admiring himself in a mirror
admiring yourself in a mirror
using my body to get what I want
balls, M2
desires, M2
disgusting behaviour, M1
subscription, M1
preventing any true evil from rising to power
my demons
my desires

Hmm.. thinking. Oblivion is a race of classic Christianity inspired Lucifer worshiping pokeman. I am thinking almost Jack Chick material here except from an evil, elitist do-as-you want philosophy such as Satanism or more appropriately Anne Rynd Objectavism. How would I make them more powerful AND keep in the spirit of Lost Eden?

Also, kind of wish there was a way to boot them off the human council. I may want to make them an alien race. Just wish I knew a way of doing that without making them have to be always-at-war with other alien factions.

Suggestions?

Title: Re: Considering something a bit... different for AAR4
Post by: Kilkakon on May 24, 2013, 12:31:54 AM

Oblivion is the only perverted faction in my game, and as you say completes the Light <--> Cyndatech triad. He's just in it for his balls really~

In my game he gets very early access to Demonism with no penalty. This brings his stats (in LE at least) to +3 GROWTH, +1 RESEARCH, -1 EFFIC, -1 PROBE, -1 PLANET. I could just give him those stats flat out... (I gave the research but not the growth in the copy I gave you it seems)

Title: Re: Considering something a bit... different for AAR4
Post by: Green1 on May 24, 2013, 01:20:56 AM

Quote from: Kilkakon on May 24, 2013, 12:31:54 AM

Oblivion is the only perverted faction in my game, and as you say completes the Light <--> Cyndatech triad. He's just in it for his balls really~

In my game he gets very early access to Demonism with no penalty. This brings his stats (in LE at least) to +3 GROWTH, +1 RESEARCH, -1 EFFIC, -1 PROBE, -1 PLANET. I could just give him those stats flat out... (I gave the research but not the growth in the copy I gave you it seems)

Yeah.

The plus Growth makes sense. A society based on polyamory  would contribute to that. Although, with that HUGE +growth due to polyamory, I may consider adding drones. Most real life polyamory scenes I have been on the fringes of tend to have a bit of dissatisfaction. Single males are worthless (except for labor) while women would all usually only go after the most attractive/ financially powerful male. In the Bible, Abraham (and many figures of that time) had dozens of wives while normal folks were lucky to have one. Even then, like with King David and Bathsheeba, if a prominent dude wanted your lady, he could get away with taking your lady - maybe getting you killed in the process! Most societies including the Fundy Mormons and even ancient biblical had issues with polygamy that made huge populations of unattached males who were basically made slaves, were forced to fight wars, or turned to homosexuality if that was allowed in that society. I am sure Oblivion does not mind, if he is head honcho pokemon, he probably trades lovers in as younger more nubile females come out of the creche along with his lieutenants. It is good to be king :)

+1 reseach is fine as Oblivion in the classic Christian mythos would have tasted the fruit in the garden from the tree of knowledge. Not insane like Zach, but a bonus nonetheless.

- Efficiency is fine. I can see a society based purely on pleasure not to be particularly efficient.

- Planet. Yeah. Planet's feelings be damned. I almost agree with old Oblivion with this. Leave that to hippies like Deidre or religious nutcases like Cha Dawn. Although Miss Skye probably has some killer weed that Oblivion and crew could grow in the garden while fornicating! That would actually make the drones complacent, too that only can clean up the mess after the orgies and not take part. Yeah, keep them on drugs!

I do think I should make them a prog faction though since pokeman are kind of alien and I doubt that in my custom AAR they should be allowed to be in diplomatic council with humans. Prog victory for him would make tons of sense, too. He is, after all, serving a particularly nasty demi-being like Lucifer. In essence, he would be gating Satan into the world!

What do you edit exactly to make a faction alien?

Also... maybe + POLICE? Even in a society of decadence, you have to have some way to enforce that disorder otherwise the guys serving the decadent parties and cleaning the spurge off of Oblivion's bed sheets could get POed and kill him so they can have some fun instead of dieing and doing all the work....

Title: Re: Considering something a bit... different for AAR4
Post by: Kilkakon on May 24, 2013, 01:54:37 AM

I like your reasonings there. I argee with almost all of the points you made, you seem to have got the main wind of the faction yeah. :)

Oblivion (personally) actually has a special version of the Attract move that works on either sex, so you can imagine that he just takes what he wants whenever really.

I didn't go with a police bonus as the faction gets a free Rec Commons in every city. Note that the support immunity could go as that was me just trying to find something else to make him immune to.

It's plausible for either alien or human, as he can just pleasure up either race really, haha. He also doesn't really speak: in confusing ways. But be sure to stick to just 2 alien factions as otherwise their power goes downhill. "ALIEN, 0" is what makes a faction alien, as you asked.

Title: Re: Considering something a bit... different for AAR4
Post by: Green1 on May 28, 2013, 12:08:01 AM

The other alien faction is going to be the Antimind. Of course, making Oblivion alien means he will be permanently at war with the Antimind. Also, even with those bonuses, Oblivion may not be on par with Antimind. No lie... even Marr has trouble with Antimind. the Caretakers sometimes fare a bit better. Matters not, though. Antimind as an AI tends to attack everyone so for this AAR, I do not think it will be an issue and it does kick him off the council. However, I am not a big fan of losing all the witty Lost Eden diplomacy dialogue as this AAR is to showcase one of your factions. So I may keep it as is.

I will try it with just the changes  +3 GROWTH, +1 RESEARCH, -1 EFFIC, -1 PROBE, -1 PLANET for a test go.

Sadly enough, remember that last AAR with Lal I never did finish before I got bitten by the Eve Online bug before getting some sense after a few months and realizing I dislike Eve's combat system and overly harsh penalties? It got wiped out when a hard drive got corrupted and i had to reinstall OS. I even had to go plop down cash at GOG to get a new copy of SMAX. Kind of sucky. I knew I should have backed that stuff up on flash. Oh well. Hope I do not appear wishy-washy to the community. That is the reason I really should focus myself more and not get distracted by shinys.

On a side note:

I have also been delving a bit into youtube. I do not think a video really is cool for Alpha Centauri as the games tend to go really long and a huge majority are viewing from smart phones. Plus, I like AC2 to have content, as I like this place. Also, I had enough issues trying to convince my computer to take screen shots of the right color. My laptop balks at letting Fraps capture anything from this game. I believe it may be an Intel HD family integrated graphics issue, but not sure.  Still, I managed to get for my first "learning how-to" video over 100 views and some great feedback from another forum community called twinkinfo from World of Warcraft and some folks pushing me  wanting more. Makes me feel good in a nerdy kind of way.

Who knows? If I get better and get more polish, say 1000 views, I could start monetizing. Would not do that while I am learning. That just seems to me to be tacky.  200K views like Wowcrendor or TotalBiscuit get, I could quit my job and just be a pundit of some sort. Heh, unlikely. Till then, I just like having fun :)

Title: Re: Considering something a bit... different for AAR4
Post by: Kilkakon on May 28, 2013, 01:46:06 AM

Alright, let us know how you go. :)


Interesting your points about videoing it. I admit I've been tempted to give a video one a go after I finish my text one.

Title: Re: Considering something a bit... different for AAR4
Post by: Green1 on May 28, 2013, 02:34:16 AM

Quote from: Kilkakon on May 28, 2013, 01:46:06 AM

Alright, let us know how you go. :)


Interesting your points about videoing it. I admit I've been tempted to give a video one a go after I finish my text one.

Much better with those new stats from just a quick game. Will not make alien, as much as having Oblivion on council a bit immersion breaking.

As far as videos, the Youtube videos of obscure games like SMAX do not really get lots of views and the folks that are into them are more READERS than VIEWERS. I guess it is also the age group. On Youtube, you got 2 LPers that have put out some SMAX LPs. Quill and GrimthR. Quill is MUCH bigger than GrimithR, but seems to be because Quill jumped on Civ 5 LPs when many LPers were not touching it. He also promoted it on a huge board - Civ Fanatics. So, he gets carryover from folks going to his channel looking for Civ 5 content. I think dude made some change off of that while his SMAX and Roguelike vids only ended up with less than 1k views. GrimthR tends to mainly get less than 1k views - mainly because I do not really see him doing big games, only games that are VERY niche like Liberal Crime Squad.  I also have not really seen him on various forum boards and the videos are divided up between like 20+ vidoes 10 minutes long. By the time he gets to the 4-5yh video, he is down below 100. That is a pain for folks to watch. However, you look at threads in forums, you tend to get 600+ views and when i look at "who's online", there is always someone looking for one. Plus, it's good for small sites like this which I like to see stay afloat.

Now, I am probably giving a bit too much away here, but if I was a dude that wanted Youtube money while entertaining folks and having fun at the same time, I would probably hit Age of Wonders 3. I believe it is the next "BIG" release of a 4x. Key is, you would HAVE to edit and upload VERY QUICKLY after release to be one of the first the search engine brings a viewer to.. You would have to be GOOD (no umms and ahhs...). BUT - You would then also have to be a good regular poster on all those boads that may like stuff like that (HeavenGames AoW2 forums, ENworld forums, etc.) so you wont look like some loser leecher begging. Once again, tackyness. I see this crap on MMO and RTS boards all the time - folks with one post history putting up videoes. Worse is when they BEG :) makes me laugh. Particularly when it is one of these "PvP vids" with screaming rock music and some dude blowing cool downs over and over. Not that I am pro...

Title: Re: Considering something a bit... different for AAR4
Post by: JarlWolf on May 30, 2013, 05:29:13 AM

New AAR hm? I will be on the lookout. Don't post much at this point in time, but I come and look, always a pleasure reading your stories.

Title: Re: Considering something a bit... different for AAR4
Post by: Green1 on May 31, 2013, 03:46:16 AM

Awesome, Jarl.

Probably next week. It takes quite a bit of time to do these as I have to stop, screenshot, then write most moves.