http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/The_Atlanteans (http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/The_Atlanteans) I honestly don't know. There are too many things going on here, I'm not sure whether the very nice bonuses (+2 Police, +1 Planet, +2 Probe, Terraform bonus) compensate for the very major disadvantages of 125% research and hurry cost and -2 Growth. My instinct is that currently they're significantly underpowered, and I'd like to remove a lot of unnecessary bonuses/penalties. Not sure exactly what that looks like.
Thoughts?
^+2 POLICE and +1 PROBE: {Loyal citizens of a distinct culture}
^-2 GROWTH: {Accidents for the unattentive in a hostile environment and birth control}
^{May not use Free Market economic choice.}
^Free Deep Pressure Hull ability with discovery of necessary technology.
^Terraform Bonus: {Drowning your opponents is an option}
^Bases need Hab Complex to exceed size 4: {Small bases difficult to discover}
^Enhancements may be built in ocean and trench squares with the discovery of Advanced Ecological Engineering: {Trained for life at sea}
^Bonus mineral from ocean shelf squares: {Culture and technology adapted for the ocean}
ATM I'm thinking of giving a free seaformer to start with.Geo, your faction: the problem I see here is that one thing cancels out the other. Pop4 bases with -2 Growth call for ICS ASAP, the faster you can get on land, the better. But the Police bonus is of no use then. Sure, one police quells 2 drones, but that's it - I wouldn't switch to PS with such a faction (what for with pop4?), so I don't know, this Police is kinda wasted. +1 Probe doesn't help here, Pressure Hulls and AEE - see above, you're not gonna see them in standard games. I would say this faction is greatly underpowered. And what's that terraform bonus? Is it like the tech or industry percentage?
I missed a bit, terraform bonus doubles terraform rate (I think).
With pop-boom I wouldn't even catch up with drone facs.
All the stuff which gives you some bonus with a certain tech, if said tech is not up to tier 4, is neglectable. Seriously; just don't bother. If you see the Pirates researching Advanced EcoEng, you see a cat playing with mouse.
Yeah, but if you grab Centauri Empathy or build any psych-boosting facility, a doctor/empath is worth enough to quell drones and then some.
Even at -1 Growth, the Pirates have much more food than minerals. Psych facs are expensive after RecCommons (for that matter, I never build Holo Theatres due to their maintenance of 3). And normally you go for CEmpathy quite late, air power and EnvEcon are much more important. Of course, in the game ete is preparing where EG is not banned, it's no secret that I'm going to try my luck with it. But I tend to ban EG in my games, which severely impairs the importance of CEmpathy.