Conniving Multiplayer - Game 3

[Nevill]

I should have done so too, I was close and I had a rover. Of course, having played mostly SMAC lately, I forgot such a thing even existed. >_<

500 credits are significant, but the chopper scout is what seals the deal. That's like a mini havoc-rocket.

[MercantileInterest]

Only 300 credits max. Less because I opened it so early. Not just the chopper either. After receiving the starting locations of everyone's bases, I flew over to Lal's capital. Air units can't make contact, so I attacked him but after receiving the odds of success, chose not to fight. Then offered an alliance, with instructions to cancel it after accepting. Lal obliging did so. Thereby returning the chopper and diplomatically connecting our two sides of the world.

[Nevill]

Hey there. Sorry, was a busy week. Where was I?

2177. It was this year when the war has finally started with Drones sinking not one, but two of my ships.

You can see the cruisers that did this - they barely took any damage.

Before that, I was willing to let everything slide, sit back, steal techs, and leave Domai be. I had no interest in escalating the conflict. But these were first real losses on my side, and I tend to be touchy about those.

On the PeeceKeeper front everything was quiet.

They were racking up some pretty big energy stockpiles by trading with everyone, and were building up their infrastructure at an alarming rate. I knew I won't be able to grow vertically as fast as them, so I went for a horizontal expansion with a lot of bases whose only saving grace was that they started at pop level 3. Almost no buildings were built - I relied on my +3 Police rating to do the job. However, my low EFFIC score resulted in humongous energy losses across the Empire. It got so bad that Progenitor bases didn't collect Energy at all. Couple that with my -3 RESEARCH, and it's easy to see why probes became my primary tech source.

Spartan Federation: population 91.

A quick overview of PK units:

Only about 10 formers, but those are super ones. Looking at PK bases, a lot of them had to live off xenofungus. There are very few crawlers, too. I am not sure why the terrain was so underdeveloped - to my knowledge PKs could support at least twice the number of formers.

On my end:

52 normal formers, with more being produced - and it still wasn't enough to service all the bases popping up.

Since the PeaceKeepers fortified their shore base with their own probes, I decided to make probe contact with the Caretakers instead.

They had a few techs I could steal, but I decided not to provoke them for now. It was a mistake, as I could have narrowed down the number of techs I didn't know and increased my chances of stealing Naval Supremacy from the Drones. Their cruisers *hurt*.

2178. PeaceKeepers keep getting reinfoced.


They also get more cranky as time goes by. I imagine the rapidly increasing number of shore bases on our common border is a reason for that.

  By orders of the council! Stop building coastal cities, they look very nasty!!!
  I like Seafaring, I think I mentioned that. More than once, actually.
  The sea and surronding land is the rightful land of the Planatery governor! Your encrouchment on my land is BAD, please remove your bases from striking distances!
  You are being ridiculous. How do I remove bases? How about you remove yours?

More coastal cities appear on the shores of Pearl Sea. Since land probes don't reach them, I need probe foils.

Unfortunately, I can only reach one base from mine, and it has a security interlock installed against all the hacking. This is quickly getting risky.

This year I succeed, though... but steal an armor tech instead of what I really wanted.

I was disappointed it wasn't cruiser tech, but quickly understood how wrong I was, since Havoc Rockets proved to be a game-breaking unit. Meanwhile, the Drones build a probe foil of their own in the very same base I robbed.

I can't afford that to live. What if it buys off my coastal bases? I only have 3 of those in Pearl Sea.

2179. The conflict intensifies as casualties rack up on both sides.


Granted, some of it was from fighting the wildlife on no man's land between me and Yang.

Speaking of Yang, I finally found him when my rover got surrounded by 3 of his unit. Due to ZoC shenanigans, this essentially left me detained in the middle of his territory.

In Pearl Sea, the Drones have made a daring attack and killed one of the scouts on my shore bases, as well as struck at my Transport Foil with one of their cruisers.

But they didn't have a follow-up, and I still had my probes wandering around the map, so I immediately bought off the attacking rover, halting their assault.

The probes were intended to be disbanded into a Secret Project.


It had about 170 minerals to go, and I have build 10 probes to speed this up.


Unfortunately, the Drones got the wind that something was happening and hurried up the Project I intended to take, several turns ahead of their normal schedule

One turn! I was late for one turn!! 

On Lal's border, even more bases are getting founded.

Notice the transport in the center of the screenshot with a lone probe on it. It is a ship that will change the course of the game.

I also stole Industrial Automation with my probe foil this turn (but alas, it died in the process), which should be evident by a lot of my bases switching to producing Supply Crawlers. I have a lot of rocky tiles in my territory, and they will provide a fine boost to my production.

2180. I decided to indulge and built my first Havoc Rocket.

It's a simple device with a 1-tier weapon that can't even guarantee it will kill an unarmored unit inside the base, but its range make it indispensable for scouting and sabotage.

My invasion fleet gets closer and closer to the Drones' shores.

I also see that some of the Drones' bases are left mostly empty. If I destroy a single defender (which should be possible with my number of ships), I might be able to capture it...

Can't help but notice severe problems with drone riots. I wonder why there are no scout patrols or other defenders like that in the base. Isn't that the first thing you build?

The Drones' probe foil seemed to have successfully finished its operation, whatever it was.

Since I have no techs to steal, I assume it either downloaded my map or infiltrated me. Probably the former, because MercantileInterest confirmed infiltrating me upon first contact.

Since I have no probe foils of my own anymore, and I can't leave this alone, I have to get creative. I load a land-based probe on a transport, and send it after the probe foil to initiate probe duel. So what if your base is heavily defended? Probes will still fight between themselves!

(Notice the Colony Pod near Janissary Rock.)

'Land probes on sea transports' is a pretty effective strategy. You sacrifice 1 movement point (as opposed to a probe foil) to gain the following benefits:
+ You can mount several probes on a single transport (gives you more actions)
+ They are separate entities. You can dismount probes if the transport comes under attack, and you don't lose movement points on sea if the probe is wounded.
+ A land probe does not expend its movement by buying sea units, as it can't move in their tile. You can buy multiple sea units with a single land probe.
+ By the same reasoning, you can check sea fungus tiles with land probes to see if there is an enemy there. If someone is hiding in xenofungus, the probe will offer you to buy it. Land probes are thus excellent scouts at seas, even though it  probably is an exploit.
+ They can penetrate deeper into enemy territory than probe foils that are stuck at sea tiles.
- They can't assault land bases directly from the sea without Amphibious pods.

As you can see, they are highly useful. So the enemy probe foil gets killed by my land one. Of course, that leaves my transport exposed in the middle of Pearl Sea...

...and next turn, in 2181, the Drones send a cruiser to deal with it. Of course it dies, but it leaves the cruiser exposed to yet another transport with yet another probe on it.

And that's how I got the cruiser chassis. Too late to make combat ships (and they are too expensive to compete with the ones the Drones field), but still useful for better and bigger transports.

Notice the Colony Pod from the previous screenshot is no longer there, but a message how Drones detonated a Havoc missile near janissary Rock is. Yup, the Drones are pelting me with rockets now.

Alright, that does it. Now I am pissed off.

All production is switched to military now.

You can see the invasion fleet creeping closer.

There are rovers and probes coming south to pick a ride on the transport foil.

Also, check the wounded battle cruiser inside Cannery Row. I have no idea why it's wounded. Was there a fight with Caretakers? Regardless, it's a good opportunity that it got damaged. I can't let it heal back to full with a Naval Yard the Project provides. So I send a Havoc Rocket its way... it can't kill it (too armored), but it should prevent the repairs until my ships get there.

Spartan Federation: population 114.

...to be continued.

[MercantileInterest]

The Peacekeepers just renamed their formers as Super Formers. They weren't any better than ours.

[MercantileInterest]

Right ho, here's how the Drone game went:

Phase I: We started off with the sea to our south. A quick topological scan of Planet revealed the Unity Wreckage due north of our position. Our free scout patrol set off at once. Unfortunately, I chose to send my starting colony pod west in the hope of reaching land rich with rainfall. While wet, the region also turned out to be a peninsula, thus meaning any colony pods built by Base 2 would have to double back. Most irritating.

By salvaging the Unity, we discovered the nearby Spartan presence. This caused some alarm. Meanwhile, the Unity Chopper buzzed off to link up with the Peacekeepers, who (not being nearby), rated a low threat. Soon, high command chose to risk a strike on Nevill but we all saw how that worked out. Other factions donated some technology to the endeavor but Nevill had more rovers than I thought.

Phase II: We restarted on what turned out to be a large island south of our original starting spot. Entering our great golden age, we built many cities, lofty improvements, a sea colony and multiple island outposts. We even indulged in some limited population booming.

Phase III: The infamous 'probe boat incident'. I failed to prevent Sparta from getting into my networks but I did manage to start a ferocious war. The Peacekeepers and Hive swore to build up their forces and launch an ambush on my behalf. Sadly, Nevill beat me all too quickly and the others gave up after he pried the Perimeter Defense wonder from my cold dead hands.

Now, next game...

[Nevill]

Right, the last 5 turns take too long to write down - not because they are that huge, but because I simply lack the time. Still, I suppose I can comment on the mod. Though I do not have the game where I am writing this, and so I have to do so from memory which is a little hazy since I didn't touch the mod for a month.

This is a matter of preference, of course, indicative more of what kinds of games I prefer playing than of 'how to build a mod'. Take it with a grain of salt.

I did not get into an advanced stage of the game, so my knowledge of the mod is limited by what little I saw.

Terraforming:
- The idea of restricting basic terraforming by tech is an interesting one, but I think that all basic options - farms, mines, solars etc. - should be hidden no farther than behind tier-1 techs. Otherwise Blind Research threatens to screw one's ability to terraform quite majorly. What I am talking about is putting mines behind Industrial Base tech.
- I think that formers should be available from the get go, instead of being hidden behind Centauri Agriculture or whatever the first ecology tech is called. It would be nice if no tech were more important than another tech of its level. Right now CentAgri is a complete must. It would also help less research-inclined factions not to shoot themselves in the foot.  There needs to be a default terraforming option available from the start for all factions, but whether it should be a farm or a forest is up in the air. Both make sense.
- The Weather Paradigm (or its equivalent) is too strong for a starting project. Either its cost need to be increased, or the tech requirement for advanced terraforming lowered.
- On the other hand, I liked it when techs allowing to raise the resource limitations you can get from a tile were ways off. Again, that's a reaction to Industrial Base lifting the mineral limits. That's way too early, I think.
- Boreholes need a nerf, because they are now just as much of an 'I win' option as in vanilla. 6 minerals from a tile is outrageous. With Weather Paradigm allowing you to build them earlier and faster than other nations, they could be game-breaking, but even so the one who gets them first and has 50+ formers (not impossible for 2160-2170) has a big advantage. I am thinking making them 0-4-4 or 0-2-6 or something would make them more manageable. Still one of the better options, just not overwhelmingly so.
- Sensors need to be available sooner. As in, 'at the start of the game' sooner. In fact, SMAC is incredibly skewed towards offense, so everything that encourages defence is a must. When did you last build bunkers? Well, if they weren't hidden behind tier-4 tech we'd see them more often? (by the way, the AI cheats and builds sensors whenever it wants anyway)
- Doubling fungal removal time is a good move. It makes those fungucidal abilities useful.
- Raising/lowering terrain needs to be made a very costly action. We used to outright ban this for our games, because they made a lot of things redundant. But then again, our games had 200+ formers in the mid-2200s, which I doubt is something your games have to deal with often.

Misc.
- I believe that making Scout Patrols free (support-wise) would go a long way towards improving early game. Morgan suffers the most because of his -1 SUPPORT, but everyone has that problem. Actually, in my mod I went XTREME and made Clean Reactor available from the start and free for defence-only units. It was still too costly for offense. So you had to have high SUPPORT to wage offensive wars, but didn't need much when you are on the defensive. Considering that you need much more defensive units to be protected from a concentrated strike, relieving the costs in that way seemed adequate. Plus, it takes a special ability slot.
- Perimeter defences need to be made cheaper. Probably in the 40 minerals range, and possibly in the 30s. Every base should be able to build those fast. Spam could be prevented with higher maintenance costs. If one wants to attack a defended base, one will need to disable the perimeter with a probe. That makes combat better... I think.
- Actually, wasn't it one of the points of SMAniaC to speed up the game by getting the building costs lowered? This would go some way to limit the effectiveness of ICS strategies where you build a lot of undeveloped cities as opposed to building big ones. Cheap costs will allow to develop cities faster while maintenance won't allow you to make too many of them.
- Havoc rockets are a cheat. But I like them being ineffective against armored units. One way to fix them would be to raise their cost to 30 minerals (40? too much, probably) and limit their mobility to 7-8 tiles with Slow SA. They'd be perfect for shooting down unarmored air units, but won't deter a specialized assault backed up by AAA troops.
- Speaking of AAA, it needs to be encouraged too. Aircraft is Evil in this game, and it needs more counters. Free for defensive units, maybe? Same as Trance or whatever.
- It would be nice if Native Lifeforms had AAA. What? You think hitting them from air is easy? (seriously, they need a buff)
- Native forms should be cheaper to be viable. Like, way cheaper. Mindworms at 30 minerals, and Isles at 50 (?). They are easy to counter with Trance, so their main advantage is the ability to make  surprise ambushes.
- Ships having faster speed is... ok, I guess? They needed a buff. Bigger cargo, though, may be a bit unwarranted.
- There is too big of a gap between Fusion Tech and everything else. It needs to be bridged. I don't know how, maybe Yitzi has ideas on how to change the number of hitpoints in alphax.txt (the option does not currently work). Cheaper units and double the Hitpoints? Plus Fusion Labs and whatnot? Choppers that now move 7 tiles instead of 5? Yeah, that's imba.

Tech.
- Planetary Transit System and its expies need to be shifted past 2200s. So do the crawlers.
- There are still too many techs that give far too little. It's not as bad as in vanilla that had techs like Optical Computers that gave you nothing at all, but still some are less desirable than others while there are essential techs packed with OP goodies.
- I disliked how some SE choices were hidden behind late techs. Like Free Market. I think that all SE of similar level should require similar tier tech.
- Generally, a parity of 3:2 when it comes to weapons/armor is desireable. Like, when you have a weapon of 6, a similar tier tech should offer armor of 4. Again, if one wants to play defensive, there should be ways to do it, so defensive techs should have some other goodies on them.
- I was unpleasantly surprised that armor 2 was a tier-2 tech. That can kill a faction early on if Blind Research does not cooperate.
- Probe units need to be made widely available. Probe wars are entertaining. Maybe have a probe prototype (not unlike Havoc Rocket) on a different tech to maximize one's chances of reducing tech disparity if they don't have Polymorphic Software (or whatever it's called).

Factions.
- Spartans need a buff. Yeah, I know how this sounds, since I played them, but really. Their Hurry mod needs to be at 75, not 90. I also thought that it makes no sense for them to run Wealth and negate their bonuses and penalties. Make them a facton that has problems with Industry, but who can buy what they lack with money. Free Market would be perfect for them, and if they can run it on Police State...
- Morgan needs a buff. Maybe free Energy Banks in his bases? I never got why they were so expensive.

No opinion on the rest of them so far.

SE choices... I will be writing about those separately.

[MercantileInterest]

Last game had an awful situation with the Peacekeepers sending demon boil locusts protected by the +50% psi secret project. Couldn't kill the monsters. They also had normal troops dropping off the space elevator. Real nightmare.

Interesting idea about the Spartans. Maybe make them immune to negative police, similar to the Hive's inefficiency immunity.

[MercantileInterest]

What do you think of making foils and cruisers cheaper?

[Nevill]

Well, Locusts are the only native unit I actively build. Hence I said nothing about them, though without Brood Pits they are not very cost-efficient. But Mind Worms and IotDs are something I never bother with.

Cheaper foils and cruisers... I think I'm for it, though you'd have to run me through some numbers. Foils feel right-ish as they are, while cruisers are definitely not cost-effective. I could not build the same units as Santiago at -1 Industry that Drones were building at +4, and yet for all their scary firepower they were still demolished by a bunch of cheap yet more numerous ships. As they are now they are just not a good use of minerals.

The sad truth about sea combat is that no matter the unit, with no terrain features or bunkers to protect them, they usually trade 1-for-1. So a battle between 6-3-7 cruiser and two 4-1-5 foils will always result in the foils winning. Is it possible to add visible 'sea bunkers' as a terraforming feature?

Oh, also, Sea Colony Pods probably need to get cheaper too. How much do they currently cost?

[MercantileInterest]

Turns out we had sea bunkers the whole time. They're called 'Mine Fields' but they don't leave any visible markers. Scenario builder confirms they function properly. Sea combat relies a lot on Fungus. That thicket between your land and the Peacekeepers had me tearing my hair out. Didn't know when you'd be moving through.

Foils are currently priced at '4' and cruisers at '6'. Am not sure precisely what that means. Can't find a way to make AAA free for ships. Pity.

Sea Colony pods don't exist as a preset unit. The game generates them, so they haven't a preset cost. Always considered sea colonies appropriately priced. They tend to end up as high population low mineral energy centers.

[Nevill]

It's a chassis cost.

The cost formula can be found here. It's a bit complex.