ET Phone Home - SMACX AI Growth mod 1.19

[bvanevery]

Details those coal belching Morganites

those coal belching Morganites

MY 2358.  The Morganites are doing a minor job of trashing Planet.  Hope they don't get out of hand, but the game will be over soon in any event.  I've finally started adding Genejack Factories in more places, but no more than that, for fear of eco-damage getting out of hand.

Details the AI is stupid

the AI is stupid

If you're going to do something surprising, it should actually be surprising.  Like, it should give you an advantage.  Otherwise you're just throwing your reputation away, making Truces you're not going to honor.  Svensgaard could have completely skipped talking to me last year.

Details wishy washy scientists

wishy washy scientists

I've completed almost all of my city improvements and am only building Former units for the most part, plus a few drop garrisons.  I go Democratic and forego the use of police anymore.  This doesn't cause any drone riots as I guess I'm that far along with my infrastructure now.  Now I have enough EFFICIENCY to put more of my budget into LABS without any penalty.  I will get a tech every 2 years now.

[bvanevery]

Details drop shipment

drop shipment

MY 2360.  Ships can have drop pods in my mod, and I've been able to do orbital insertions for awhile now.  I've finally gotten around to making a drop ship that can walk into undefended sea bases.  They can't land in water, but they can land on a coast and scoot into the water.  Watch as I get the Cyborgs' attention!

Details package delivery for Cyborgs

package delivery for Cyborgs

Now it is a simple matter to slide into the undefended base, also fully healing the drop ship.

Details now youre talkin

now youre talkin

Oh look at that!  Even before entering the base, the cute little cyborg now wants to talk about me not invading her.  After a hundred years of buggy silence!  If I had known a drop ship would have this kind of effect on enemies, I would have tried it a lot sooner.  It might have kept the peace.  Well better late than never.

Details yeah moron I am Cybernetic too

yeah moron I am Cybernetic too

Without a base to enter, that was a one way trip.  I will sail all the way out of this big puddle to the west.  Global warming has opened up an "Antarctic" passage.

[bvanevery]

Details fool me once shame on you

fool me once shame on you

MY 2364.  I overrun a sea base that Svensgaard just settled in my home waters.  This insignificant conquest is enough to get a Truce out of him.  We'll see if it lasts this time!

Details kawabunga

kawabunga

I use the drop ship tactic on an exposed Data Angel sea base.  This base has been left empty before, but it wasn't when I first produced my drop ship.  I've been waiting.

Details are you a liar

are you a liar

When my ship is next to the empty sea base, no reaction or prompt is triggered.  Puzzled, I try to contact Roze myself.  Now she talks to me.  Which is fine, because I don't actually want this base.  It's just a useless nonproductive vulnerability, yet another city to level up at this very late stage of the game.  What I want is a Truce, which she provides.

Details I eat the Nobel Prize

I eat the Nobel Prize

I get her to end a few hundred years worth of war against the Consciousness.  Even though they have permanent ideological differences.  See, Aliens are good for something after all!

Details sea wimp

sea wimp

Morgan hasn't left any cities unoccupied, but I've belatedly realized that most of his sea bases near my territory only have a Scout in them.  I redeploy a drop ship and destroy one of his Sea Formers in my waters.  Next turn I can take one of his bases if I'm willing to sacrifice a Chaos Interceptor to do it.  If that isn't enough to get a Truce, I have my old Missile Cruisers en route to take more of these feeble bases.

Details space race

space race

A lot of my cities are cranking out ODPs now.  Combined, the Morganites and Data Angels are keeping up, but not individually.  I don't know if the AI is willing to desperately hurl nukes when I start buildng Subspace Generators, but I'm taking no chances.  I could probably afford to start building some Orbital Power Transmitters as well, although I haven't felt much need of additional money.  I suppose my mod has been succesful, in that I've denied any easy access to space resources.  The ability to make satellites comes later, and the AI has been plenty able to keep up, threatening to destroy any peaceful satellites I might build.

[bvanevery]

Details I eat fungus for breakfast

I eat fungus for breakfast

MY 2365.  I'm not sure if detonating a fungal missile counts as a hostile act or not.  It certainly doesn't harm me, in fact I mostly raise ocean squares to plant fungus nowadays.  Well we're still in a Truce, which is fine by me.

Details umbrella and record player

umbrella and record player

ET is very close to phoning home!  2 more years, then I start on it.  Artifacts have probably been available to steal or fish all along, but I got lazy about it.  This game hasn't been about winning in the smallest number of turns.

Details why do I build that thing

why do I build that thing

Completionism has its price.  The description of the Bulk Matter Transmitter says it gives +2 Minerals per base.  Somehow I get the feeling it ultimately comes out to be a lot more eco-damage than that!  At least fungal pops are actually a positive for me now.

Details Planet sure complains a lot

Planet sure complains a lot

The fungal pop occurred at the base where I built the Bulk Matter Transmitter.  Luckily this base happened to have some ancient Synthmetal Sentinel units in it, which did a good job of blowing away the mindworms that completely surrounded the base.  I still had to bring in a drop unit to clear an adjacent stack, and 1 mindworm remains at a distance.  It's hard to see them as I have a shortage of both Sensor Arrays and planes.  The base didn't look like it was doing eco-damage, but that's because the mindworms were covering a lot of squares.  Once they were cleared, it did 32 eco-damage, so I'm building a Centauri Preserve.  The same is true in perhaps 10 bases in my empire.

Details why I did not build Robotic Assembly Plants

why I did not build Robotic Assembly Plants

Phantom Forces, a historically beefy city, is doing some serious eco-damage now.  I already built all the eco-damage limiting facilities there, so it switches production to AAA 12-Res Trance units.

Details silent Morgan

silent Morgan

I took the Morganic sea base next to mine, but I got the same bug where Morgan tries to contact me and can't speak.

Details high and dry

high and dry

This feels a bit like Noah's Ark.  I want to fish that supply pod out of Morgan's waters.  That's a heavily armored Drop Transport ship; it remains to be seen whether it will survive long enough to do the job.

[bvanevery]

Details eco damage eh

eco damage eh

MY 2366.  I wonder how many pops I'll get this year? 

Details a bad steward of Planet

a bad steward of Planet

That's the 2nd pop.  This game is unusual for me, in that I've never built a full rail network to deal with problems.   Nor have I bothered to build sufficient drop units to intervene wherever necessary.  This base is actually in danger.  I've scrounged up whatever old drop units I could find, dropped them in the base, and upgraded them to AAA Trance.  We shall soon see if 3 such defenders with the Neural Amplifier and +3 PLANET for PSI combat is enough to repel about 16 Demon Boils.

Details orbital superiority

orbital superiority

Next turn I become Subspace Generator capable.  I have a 2500 credit reserve due to slaughtering mindworms, so I'll probably only need a few turns to build them.  I have more ODPs than my opponents, so none of them are getting nuked.  Although my enemies have been Quantum powered for some time now, I don't think they have the focus and determination to successfully invade me, even with my relatively limited garrison defenses.  They don't have Graviton Theory yet so orbital drops aren't a problem.  Even if they did, I have Aerospace Complexes everywhere, and that greatly interferes with drops.

[bvanevery]

Details ouch

ouch

MY 2367.  Time to wipe out the opposition!  I've started 6 Subspace Generators in various cities, which will take 6, 7, 7, 7, 8, and 8 turns to complete.  I've stopped building ODPs, figuring I have enough.  Instead I'm building drop supply crawlers, which I imagine I can use to speed the Subspace Generators along.  If they cannot be so used, well, oh well!  I've never built a Subspace Generator before so I don't know if they're like a Secret Project or not.  I also have 5000 credits in reserve for next turn.

Details splotching mindworm jelly

splotching mindworm jelly

My anti-mindworm troops did hold up pretty well.  8 more mindworms and 3 spore launchers attack next turn.  I think I'll be fine so I'm not going through any heroics.

Details they came two by two to die

they came two by two to die

The "Noah's Ark" technique does not work for drop transport ships.  Any ship left on dry land at the end of its turn, dies.  Combat ships can scoot off the land, but non-combat ships are stuck, so they just die.  This happened 2 turns in a row.  I wasn't sure if they had been attacked, but I never got any notice or animation about them, so I conclude that they silently died.  Now I've learned my lesson and will depart from a coastal land base.

[bvanevery]

Details winning before dying

winning before dying

MY 2368.  The mindworms have shifted direction and are massing around a city with a new fungal pop.  I don't have defenders in this city to deal with it, and it's in a part of my empire that has never been reached by rails.  If I win the game this turn, it won't matter.  If I don't, then some of my drop supply crawlers do have Trance protection and I will press them into service as defensive units.  Belatedly I'm starting to make some offensive anti-mindworm drop units.  I've been too busy trying to win the game!

Details hurricane Florence

hurricane Florence

One of my cities producing a Subspace Generator is vulnerable to flooding.  Hope this is a non-issue.

Details just dropping in

just dropping in

My drop supply crawler plan was quite flawed.  I forgot that non-combat units lose all their movement after being dropped!  So none of the units produced at sea, or on the wrong continent, are any help at all this year.  But... it looks like it doesn't matter.  I've got enough cash to just buy them!

Details useless supplies

useless supplies

Good thing too, because it turns out Subspace Generators aren't like Secret Projects.  You can't contribute a Supply Crawler to them, aside from disbanding a unit and getting half its value.  So I built all those drop supplies for basically nothing.  Oh well!  I will redirect whatever ones have Trance ability to the defense of the mindworm beseiged city.  I'm going to shift production to a crap ton of drop R-bolt units.

Details resisting Planet

resisting Planet

I'm building a railhead to my beseiged city, and I've thrown a Quantum Trance unit in the way of some of the mindworms.  I upgraded 1 unit in the base to Singularity Trance.  I've got piles of Quantum R-Bolt Drop Penetrators coming next turn, and a few Fusion R-Laser Drop Penetrators for good measure, from the cities whose minerals output wasn't so high.  Even after buying all 6 Subspace Generators, and building a few Temples of Planet and Psi Gates, I've got 500 cash remaining.  Nothing can stop me now!

[bvanevery]

Details a way to destroy civilization

a way to destroy civilization

MY 2369.  If I don't win automatically for some reason, I could build the Singularity Inductor now.  I thought building the Bulk Matter Transmitter earlier was a partial disaster, and certainly an unnecessary distraction.  Why wouldn't the S.I. be more of the same?  Suure they say that eco-damage will be reduced, but will it be reduced more than the amount my minerals production gets cranked up?  Well, I doubt I'll be pondering the answer to that this game.  I didn't even build Robotic Assembly Plants.  I was probably too gunshy about eco-damage earlier, as it appears one can build Genejack Factories without unmanageable problems.  I did of course have to build a lot of eco-damage mitigating facilities to go along with them, so they're actually kind of pricey when viewed that way.  But they don't inherently bring an apocalypse, at least, when one has a +3 PLANET rating.

Details reinforcements suck

reinforcements suck

Here is my sucky victory text!  It's as anticlimactic as the gaming act itself.  But hey, however I might perfect this world, I think I'd rather just start another one.  God wiping the slate clean and all that.

Details 1 generator operational

1 generator operational

Hmm maybe they're going to milk this for a bit.  Like I'll get a message as each Subspace Generator completes.

Details 2 generators operational

2 generators operational

It's weird playing this game for 20 years and never having seen this stuff.  Admittedly, I only started playing Alien Crossfire really heavily 2 or 3 years ago.  I think.  Can't quite remember.  5 or 6 years ago?  Definitely not 10 to 20 years ago.  For quite some time I thought playing the Aliens was pretty much cheating.  I don't think that was wrong about the original game.  That's why they were defanged and balanced out in my mod.

Details 3 generators operational

3 generators operational

What if there's some great reward video for finishing the game this way?  I've got videos turned off!  Well, if it ends the way all the other victories end, I'll just get some text with some sob story about how the universe is.  I will pro forma search for a missing video, but I'm not expecting such to exist.

Details 4 generators operational

4 generators operational

I would have taken some text writing opportunities here.  This is too straightforward.  I feel like I'm recording fungal pops between floodings, as they also come in batches of 6.

Details 5 generators operational

5 generators operational

Theoretically something could happen "between turns" to derail my victory, like a big mindworm attack for instance.  But it didn't.  That 1 Trance unit out in the field got totally and immediately slaughtered, but the city itself held up well.  A lot of the mindworms didn't actually attack.  They shuffled towards a Monolith slightly south of the city.  If I get a chance to actually play this turn, they will all get summarily creamed by my new anti-mindworm air and ground forces.  Have drop pods, will travel!

Details 6 generators operational

6 generators operational

Welp that's the last of them!  Do I get some exciting game ending text now?  Nope!  Looks like I'm actually playing this turn.  Ok whatever.

Details gentle death of mindworms

gentle death of mindworms

First order of business is eradicating these interloping mindworms.  Second is completing all the Psi Gates I'm building everywhere, simply because I can.  Got nothing better to do!  Third will be building the Singularity Inductor just for kicks, with all those drop supply crawlers I made for no purpose.

Details a post research economy

a post research economy

I have a sinking feeling that somehow, this is not over.  What if it's like an Economic Victory and takes 20 turns to win?  The Datalinks don't say one way or the other.  If I don't win next turn, then I'll need to go digging around in alphax.txt or online to find out what's going on.  Meanwhile, I don't need research anymore.  Aside from the last few turns researching the last tech, I just fished an Artifact out of the water.  Next turn it'll be back to base and I'll cash it for my last tech.

Details preparing for mindworm apocalypse

preparing for mindworm apocalypse

I have piles of spare cash now.  With it I've upgraded pretty much all of my garrison units to the one true unit, the AAA Graviton 12-Res Trance.  That's the biggest gun I can put on it without it costing extra.  Should hold up against mindworm hordes a treat!  I've also run out of unit design slots, another reason to upgrade old units.

Details do sunspots block subspace

do sunspots block subspace

I tried contacting Morgan to see if he's ready to sign a Truce now.  I'm reminded that we're in sunspots as of a few turns ago.  I hope this doesn't affect subspace generator signals!

[bvanevery]

Details this is the end

this is the end

MY 2370.  It is over!  I was getting worried, but it's finally over.

Details their version of the Death Star ray

their version of the Death Star ray

I got some green beams!  Not green beans, but green beams!

Details I do not suck

I do not suck

My main flaw this game, was being too timid about building Genejack Factories.  The eco-damage caused by them is mitigable, particularly when one has the Pholus Mutagen.  I think I was absolutely correct not to build Robotic Assembly Plants though.  That would have caused a lot of flooding, much more than the modest number of fungal pops I actually got.  My last AAR, I played through an entire mindworm apocalypse to no ultimate purpose.  So I was quite gunshy about doing that nonsense again.

Details I scored

I scored

My 2nd flaw was not building advanced lab facilities outside of my capitol, and not shifting to a LABS based economy until fairly late in the game.  Related to this, is not attacking enemy bases more often to seize Artifacts, and not popping more supply pods in the oceans.  I'm not sure if these were decisive mistakes though, because I did feel "production poor" through much of the game.  I had a war on!  I definitely needed to intervene in Marr's home territory because he was going to nuke me.  I don't enjoy getting nuked... I found that out the hard way in my last chemical weapons atrocity mindworm apocalypse AAR.  A couple of nukes in my Secret Project teeth was in fact the preciptant that caused me to quit the game.  Wasn't gonna happen this time, I made sure of that!  Maybe a little too sure.

Details Comet Hale Bopp readers digest

Comet Hale Bopp readers digest

My 3rd flaw was building a lot of Super Formers slowly.  The 1st flaw is why it happened slowly.  But in general, the instinct to build a lot of Super Formers is an artifact of my usual play on Enormous maps.  A Huge map is a lot smaller than those.  The dynamics of coming into contact with enemies are much quicker, even if they're slower than on a Standard map.  I usually think of a game victory in terms of terraforming everything around my cities, raising land, and then building railheads right to the enemy's front door.  That simply never happened this game and may not have even been realistic or possible.  Morgan fought back.  I was skirmishing with him in the dregs of Marr's homeland the whole time I was there.  If I had decided to crush Morgan, yes I could have prevailed in that theater, but that would have taken productive energy away from the other tasks needed to get Subspace Generators.  I was trying to find the quicker path to the game's end, and I don't think "terraform, terraform, terraform" was it.

Details usual superlatives

usual superlatives

My 4th flaw was not seizing the Weather Paradigm from Morgan once I had orbital insertion capability.  I started to notice how slowly it was going when I needed to raise the ocean floors to get more food to my conquered sea bases.  I think I can be forgiven for not obtaining it early in the game, as I obtained nearly everything else.  Sometimes a Secret Project slips past you even when you're doing really well.  Morgan and Svensgaard are competitive in that respect.  They did as well as I expected them to do, and I'm pleased that the Data Angels weren't any kind of pushover either.

Details it aint easy bein green

it aint easy bein green

My 5th flaw may have been not using the new, cheap Punishment Spheres.  They only cost as much as a Recreation Commons, on the principle that torture is used by regimes as a cheap way to control the population.  I've rarely done it in any game as I'm just not into it.  It's quite rational to do it in distant conquered cities that will never provide much research due to corruption, but from a roleplaying standpoint, it's not really in the Caretakers' nature to do it either.  Much more of a Usurper thing.  Although, factions that need research to get to a victory condition, might be leery of anything that penalizes research.

Details yeah this AAR wore me out

yeah this AAR wore me out

My 6th flaw may have been not using chemical weapons on Marr.  When you're a human, and you use chemical weapons on the Aliens, there's no UN penalty for it at all.  Planet doesn't throw fits about the use of chemical weapons in that case either; you don't end up in a mindworm apocalypse like my last human vs. human AAR.  When an Alien uses chemical weapons on an Alien, I don't think the humans impose any sanctions or even moral judgment, as Aliens don't participate in human Commerce anyways.  They have their own energy grid to feed, just by having more and more cities.  The reason I didn't use them on Marr, is I thought I wanted to take his cities intact.  I thought I'd get some decent big cities that way.  In practice, I don't think the cities I conquered ended up being all that big.  They seemed to lose some population in the ordinary course of fighting, and few of them ever represented "big prizes" as opposed to obliterating them and starting fresh.  Especially if I was Marr, I might be more "scorched Planet" the next time around.

Details the infinite cycle continues

the infinite cycle continues

I have no more screenshots to give me an excuse to yabber on about my game!  This is what you see next.  I don't think I'll start a new game right away.  I've pretty much validated the rules for version 1.19 of my mod.  There are no changes in tech trees, units, abilities, etc. to make.  The only real question is whether the Believers are too weak now.  It'll take at least another game to resolve that, and I'm not sure how I'd toughen them.  The Cybernetic Consciousness, actually did get a change for 1.19, but I started this game before 1.19 was finalized.  Too late for them in this game, maybe they do fine in another one.  Both of those factions will be tested in my next game, to see how they do.

I seriously doubt I will write an AAR of the next game though.  It's a lot of extra work compared to just playing the game, and I can't just quit if things get boring or my testing purposes have been fulfilled.  Of course I will quit if a game gets interminably boring, as happened with my chemical warfare mindworm apocalypse game.  That was a tooth pull.  I'm not hankering for another one of those!

Hopefully this has helped you understand how to play my mod!  I'm still learning how to play it myself.  That may sound funny, but it's not easy to anticipate every consequence of game design changes, even when each is rationally justified.  The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.  And as a whole, from where I sit, 1.19 is doing pretty well.

[Geo]

Thanks for walking us through your game, bvanevery.
Not that I read all (I think) of it, but I must have seen the gist of it.
With the Progenitor victory, I wonder if there's a way to have a non-operational subspace generator. Do you have any idea if that's possible?

[bvanevery]

Well they don't do anything until you have 6 of them, so in a sense, "yes".  But that's probably not what you meant.

It's' clear that I could have built a lot more than 6, as the game didn't end immediately upon building 6.  I had to wait until the next turn to win.

If one wanted to keep playing after they go operational, one of course could.  I declined, I'd had enough of that game!  Of course, no further score is entered.

The number of subspace generators needed is moddable in alphax.txt:

Code: [Select]

6        ; Number of subspace generators neededso you could crank this up to as large a number as you like, to have them be "nonfunctional".

I'm not seeing an option in the game menus to disable Progenitor Victory.

Strictly speaking, another way to disable a Subspace Generator, is to drop the population of the base to lower than 10.