SMACX Thinker Mod

[Induktio]

Thinker Mod project homepage

Thinker is an AI improvement mod for Alien Crossfire that greatly boosts the stock AIs while providing various gameplay improvements.

Summary of main features:

* New production AI for bases (more sensible and balanced production choices)
* Improved terraforming AI (lots of condenser-farms, boreholes and forests)
* Rewritten code for AI faction social engineering choices
* AI builds more crawlers and deploys them better
* AI will deploy colony pods much sooner instead of wandering on the map
* Unit auto design feature creates improved prototypes for the AIs
* Customizable options for free formers and satellites for AI factions
* Faction placement balances random map starting locations
* Possible to select which landmarks are placed on random maps
* Many other additions to gameplay mechanics
* Game binary includes Scient's patch v2.0

Installation:

* Extract the files to game folder
* Check the readme for release notes
* Change configuration from thinker.ini or use the defaults
* Bundled alphax.txt includes optional/recommended changes only
* See detailed info on compatibility on the homepage

* Download links here
* More detailed information

Latest features are provided by develop builds if the release date indicates it is the newest file.

Other possible mods to use with Thinker:
* Pracx graphics enhancement patch
* SMAC-in-SMAX mod

[Induktio]

There's some new features that could get into the next release. It could be possible to incorporate some of the fixes from Scient's patch to this one.

I attached the descriptions from Scient's patch v2.0 readme below and assigned numbers on them. Of the players who regularly play with that patch, which one of these fixes do you consider essential? These changes are more extensive than the ones in older v1.0 which is still linked in the sidebar for some reason.

(click to show/hide)

1.  [BUG] If a faction's cumulative PROBE value is greater than 3 (SE morale, covert ops center) it is possible to "mind control" their bases when they should be immune. If the University uses SE Knowledge putting PROBE value down to -4, it would act as if it were 0 erroneously increasing "mind control" costs. After patch, PROBE values greater than 3 will always be immune to regular probes and values less than -2 will be treated as if they were -2.
2.  [CRASH] It is possible usually on larger maps that scrambling air interceptors would cause the game to crash. Even when the game didn't crash incorrect altitude values were being used in checks. Both of these have been fixed.
3.  [CRASH][SMAX] If you open up Design Workshop as Caretakers/Usurpers and switching back and forth between colony pod and other "equipment" you can cause text in "special ability" to become overwritten and crash once you exit Design Workshop. Patch increases memory allocation used to manipulate the caviar animation files (cvr) and may fix other buffer related problems other than the one noted. (credit to WBird784 for original patch)
4.  [EXPLOIT] Using the right click menu to airdrop calls the "move to" code directly and bypasses all the checks such as if unit is in airbase/base or has already moved. Since the airdrop hotkey "i" correctly checks these restrictions, the patch makes the right click menu use the hotkey checks before directly moving the unit.
5.  [BUG/EXPLOIT] Setting more than one patrol waypoint with spacebar causes the values to be stored incorrectly. If only two waypoints are set then it is just a display issue showing an incorrect amount of waypoints when clicking on unit. If three waypoints are set, it causes the unit's morale to be set as one of coordinates usually boosting it to demon boil / elite status. Also, with three waypoints the final waypoint gets set to some far off random location usually (0,0) breaking three point patrol completely.
6.  [BUG][SMAX] Transport unit's special ability "Repair Bay" is rendered useless due to an incorrect check that would only give the healing bonus to ground transports. Now, it will give bonus to all ground units except ground transports.
7.  [BUG] Fixed a check that was ending the turn for certain air units (choppers/missiles/grav) when entering a base which had no adjacent enemy units. There is still a check which will end the unit's turn if when entering a base it has less then one turn remaining unless an enemy is adjacent to base.
8.  [EXPLOIT] Inside base UI, after opening up the production queue window it is possible to then open the hurry command window, switch between bases and complete projects for less then their actual value. Patch fixes a clean up issue with queue panel preventing certain parts of UI from becoming clickable when they shouldn't.
9.  [EXPLOIT] When clicking on an unexplored tile, the map recenters on that square. However, if the tile contains a base the map doesn't recenter. Patch fixes it so when an unexplored tile with a base is clicked, the game will recenter like the rest of the tiles.
10. [CRASH] When moving units near or at the poles, it is possible for y coord to exceed the map bounds and crash the game. Patch adds handling to prevent y coord from going over min/max.
11. [EXPLOIT] It is possible to change another faction's workers via Base Ops (F4) if you have that faction infiltrated. Patch fixes it so clicking citizens of another faction in Base Ops has no effect similar to garrisoned units.
12. [BUG] Using "Go to home base" (shift-g) command sends the unit to closest base rather than it's actual home. Patch retrieves unit's home base and sets a "go to" waypoint similar to how a unit is recalled from within base UI. If a home base cannot be found (independent) the unit will go to the nearest base.
13. [EXPLOIT] It is possible to give airdrop or artillery ability to an unit who didn't have it. This is done by using hotkey (I or F) on an unit that has the ability then switching units in bottom center window. The mouse cursor would still have airdrop/artillery up and it is then possible to use it with the new unit bypassing all the checks if unit can use ability. Patch resets the cursor when clicking unit selection window.
14. [BUG] Fixed an unit check to use the "Max artillery range" value defined in #Rules (alphax.txt) rather than a hardcoded value of 2. This fix is geared toward modders so players who use an unmodified version of alphax.txt will see no change.
15. [BUG][SMAX] Enhanced probes (Algorithmic Enhancement) are now able to mind control bases/units normally immune due to high SE morale as stated in SMAX manual. For units it's purely the morale SE value so >=3 acts as if it were 2 (cost doubled). For bases, the value is calculated from morale SE and any base facility modifiers (Covert Ops: +2, Genejack: -1). If final value is >=3, it acts as if it were 2.
16. [BUG] Squares with both a borehole and nutrient bonus don't receive the nutrient bonus. If the "Borehole Square" nutrient value defined in #RESOURCEINFO (alphax.txt) is set to non-zero, a square with borehole will erroneously act as if it has a nutrient bonus. The patch fixes a check whether or not to give a borehole square a nutrient bonus from checking if borehole nutrient value is non-zero to checking if nutrient bonus is actually present in square.
17. [BUG][SMAX] While loading the ambient sound file for game, there is a mistake in faction id check for Believers causing it to use SMAX default of "aset1.amb". Patch fixes check so Believers will now use their correct ambient sound file "bset1.amb".
18. [BUG][SMAX] Enhanced probes don't receive a penalty to survival probability when target faction has built Hunter-Seeker Algorithm. Instead, the success probability is erroneously given the penalty for a second time after it has already been displayed in UI. This could cause diminished success rate when it should have been higher. Patch corrects check so survival rather than success probability is modified.
19. [UI] Removed a check that would while displaying probe success/survival probabilities drop one if they're both the same. For example, (50%, 50%) would just be (50%).
20. [MISC] Disabled cpu check which serves no purpose other than preventing the game from starting on newer cpu's. Patch enables ForceOldVoxelAlgorithm=1 in code by default and suppresses annoying warning.
21. [BUG][SMAX] Sealurk units now do not get a penalty when moving onto Sea Fungus like Isle of Deep.
22. ***REMOVED***
23. [MISC] Fixed a registry check at startup (Vista/Win7) whether a complete installation has been performed. Prevents #FILEFIND_NOCD from being incorrectly displayed.
24. [BUG] Units without the Amphibious Pods ability can no longer move to a land tile from a sea base without there being a transport in land tile.
25. [BUG][SMAX] Prevent the Caretakers from being given the possibility of building secret project "Ascent to Transcendence" which goes against their philosphy and would cause them to declare war on themselves if built.  Problem with logic, code exists which should of prevented it from displaying but didn't.
26. [BUG] Allow tiles with more than one probe ability to evict probes (more than one unit, probe has to be top most) ; when evicting probe, only send top unit to home base -> prevents non-probe units from being booted as well. -> using same code used to return probes to base after successful mission
27. [BUG][SMAX] Fixed bug when AI successfully completes probe action of freeing a captured faction leader (FREEWILLY/FREEWHO) where it would reset a non-captured faction.  The problem was that AI would always try to free the very first faction (usually PC) regardless of whether they were elminated or not.  Fix now obtains all potential faction leaders to free and randomly picks one.
28. [BUG][SMAX] Add references to use a new file (movlistx.txt) for SMAX specific info after secret project movies rather than one shared between SMAC/SMAX (movlist.txt).
29. [MOD] Add "Nessus Canyon" landmark placement on random map generation.
30. [BUG] Fixed "attacking along road" combat bonus in alpha/x.txt.  Set to 0 by default.
31. [BUG/MOD] Fixed NEWRESOURCE and PETERSOUT events to display the correct corrosponding image to match resource type.
32. [MOD] Add ability to set individual datalink entries for armor and reactors (ARMORDESC#/REACTORDESC#) in help/x.txt.
33. [MOD] Enable the display of Sea Formers unit (UNITDESC4) in datalinks.  Also, hide '*' from showing in name.
34. [BUG] Fixed logic in PB code to prevent ODP/Flechette defenses being called a 2nd time (with a chance for defenses to fail) even after PB had already been shot down.  Each faction has one chance to defend against incoming missile based on closest base or unit to PB blast.  However, there is secondary check to give the tile owner a chance to defend against PB even if they have no units or bases in this space.  This check didn't take into account whether or not PB had already been shot down.
35. [BUG/MOD][SMAX] Fungal Missiles would spawn MW in ocean tiles -> fix by spawning IoD instead and adding in one Sealurk instead of Fungal Tower.
36. [BUG] Fixed a bug that would display NERVEGAS message even when attack on base failed -> checking attacker health
37. [MOD] Add ability to set reactor (1-4) for #UNITS in alpha/x.txt (ex. "Colony Pod,..., 00000000000000000000000000,4" -> gives Colony Pods Singularity Engine).  To do so, just add comma after Abil with value of reactor you want for unit.  If no value is set, it defaults to "1" like original code.  For SMAX only, there are two exceptions for Battle Ogre MK2 and Battle Ogre MK3 where default isn't "1" but "2" and "3" respectively.  The Ogre default can still be overriden if you set a different reactor value in alpha/x.txt.
38. [BUG] Allowing colony pods to be added to bases with fungus on tile ; allowing sea/land pods to be added to existing sea/land bases ignoring building restriction
39. [BUG] #DISEMBARKFAIL wasn't being displayed due to incorrect logic check ; when you try to move a transport with no units on board (L) onto land this message should display (doesn't include moving into land base, does include two transports on same tile one without units and other with) -> update: added additonal check so #DISEMBARK code wasn't being particially loaded for non-transport units
40. [BUG] Changing start date for Perihelion event to be 2160 from 2190.  This is to be consistent with info about Planet and cycle from readme regarding 80 year cycles (20 years near, 60 years far).
41. [BUG][SMAX] FM would sometimes display #FUNGMOTIZED due to faction id of FM memory location would change and instead would use faction id of MW.  Fixed by storing faction id in variable.
42. [CRASH] Under rare circumstances, the game would crash when an AI faction with no bases attempted to upgrade a unit.
43. [BUG] Abandoning a base after building a colony pod no longer skips the base production of the next base.  This was caused by the upkeep function using incorrect base values after the abandoned base was destroyed.  Fixed so acts like #STARVE.
44. [BUG] Movement to and from pact bases should be identical to your own bases. Since a non-amphibious unit can move from a transport into your own sea base, it should be able to move from a transport into a pact mate's base.
45. [BUG][SMAX] Interludes 6 and 7 would display incorrect string variables specific to Caretakers or Usurpers for non-Alien factions.  They now show correct values for human factions as well as Aliens.
46. [BUG] Interlude 6 would sometimes be triggered by native life forms causing issues with variables and not making sense, this interlude (and it's follow up #7) are designed for another specific faction.  Add check to skip if faction killing unit is alien.
47. [BUG] Fixed display when scenario editor is enabled for changing former owner inside a base (#CHANGEFORMER) since menu didn't load correctly.
48. [BUG] Fixed parsing of alpha/x.txt of "retool strictness" to include "never free" which only really applies to giving penalty secret projects.
49. [BUG][MOD] Giving FREEPROTO factions (spartans) undocumented retool strictness ability when learn necesseary tech.
50. [EXPLOIT] Save/Load queue
51. [BUG] Additional check to initial tile when build aquifer rather that tiles around it
52. [BUG] Diplomacy dialog sometimes had wrong faction id set

[PvtHudson]

1,2,7,10,15,18,20,21,27(! - major obstacle),34,36,37,38,43,51.

[Induktio]

For clarity, here are the items from PvtHudson's list:

1.  [BUG] If a faction's cumulative PROBE value is greater than 3 (SE morale, covert ops center) it is possible to "mind control" their bases when they should be immune. If the University uses SE Knowledge putting PROBE value down to -4, it would act as if it were 0 erroneously increasing "mind control" costs. After patch, PROBE values greater than 3 will always be immune to regular probes and values less than -2 will be treated as if they were -2.
2.  [CRASH] It is possible usually on larger maps that scrambling air interceptors would cause the game to crash. Even when the game didn't crash incorrect altitude values were being used in checks. Both of these have been fixed.
7.  [BUG] Fixed a check that was ending the turn for certain air units (choppers/missiles/grav) when entering a base which had no adjacent enemy units. There is still a check which will end the unit's turn if when entering a base it has less then one turn remaining unless an enemy is adjacent to base.
10. [CRASH] When moving units near or at the poles, it is possible for y coord to exceed the map bounds and crash the game. Patch adds handling to prevent y coord from going over min/max.
15. [BUG][SMAX] Enhanced probes (Algorithmic Enhancement) are now able to mind control bases/units normally immune due to high SE morale as stated in SMAX manual. For units it's purely the morale SE value so >=3 acts as if it were 2 (cost doubled). For bases, the value is calculated from morale SE and any base facility modifiers (Covert Ops: +2, Genejack: -1). If final value is >=3, it acts as if it were 2.
18. [BUG][SMAX] Enhanced probes don't receive a penalty to survival probability when target faction has built Hunter-Seeker Algorithm. Instead, the success probability is erroneously given the penalty for a second time after it has already been displayed in UI. This could cause diminished success rate when it should have been higher. Patch corrects check so survival rather than success probability is modified.
20. [MISC] Disabled cpu check which serves no purpose other than preventing the game from starting on newer cpu's. Patch enables ForceOldVoxelAlgorithm=1 in code by default and suppresses annoying warning.
21. [BUG][SMAX] Sealurk units now do not get a penalty when moving onto Sea Fungus like Isle of Deep.
27. [BUG][SMAX] Fixed bug when AI successfully completes probe action of freeing a captured faction leader (FREEWILLY/FREEWHO) where it would reset a non-captured faction.  The problem was that AI would always try to free the very first faction (usually PC) regardless of whether they were elminated or not.  Fix now obtains all potential faction leaders to free and randomly picks one.
34. [BUG] Fixed logic in PB code to prevent ODP/Flechette defenses being called a 2nd time (with a chance for defenses to fail) even after PB had already been shot down.  Each faction has one chance to defend against incoming missile based on closest base or unit to PB blast.  However, there is secondary check to give the tile owner a chance to defend against PB even if they have no units or bases in this space.  This check didn't take into account whether or not PB had already been shot down.
36. [BUG] Fixed a bug that would display NERVEGAS message even when attack on base failed -> checking attacker health
37. [MOD] Add ability to set reactor (1-4) for #UNITS in alpha/x.txt (ex. "Colony Pod,..., 00000000000000000000000000,4" -> gives Colony Pods Singularity Engine).  To do so, just add comma after Abil with value of reactor you want for unit.  If no value is set, it defaults to "1" like original code.  For SMAX only, there are two exceptions for Battle Ogre MK2 and Battle Ogre MK3 where default isn't "1" but "2" and "3" respectively.  The Ogre default can still be overriden if you set a different reactor value in alpha/x.txt.
38. [BUG] Allowing colony pods to be added to bases with fungus on tile ; allowing sea/land pods to be added to existing sea/land bases ignoring building restriction
43. [BUG] Abandoning a base after building a colony pod no longer skips the base production of the next base.  This was caused by the upkeep function using incorrect base values after the abandoned base was destroyed.  Fixed so acts like #STARVE.
51. [BUG] Additional check to initial tile when build aquifer rather that tiles around it

Scient's patch was built on a slightly different version of the game binary than the GOG version, so in the case one tried to import all of the patches, there's some chance it might cause new glitches. Over some of the changes, it could be said people have learned how to play around the bugs over the years, so changing them is not strictly necessary. At minimum, I think the crash bug fixes 2. and 10. should be included maybe in addition to 27. also. Probe bug fixes could be quite important too. If people have save games where bugs 2/10/27 can be triggered easily, that would be useful.

[Induktio]

After some investigating it seems Scient's patches can be imported almost verbatim to the GOG version. There are some interdependencies in the code, so it would not be simple to take out any single fixes out of the whole patch, though. Importing all the fixes is pretty simple and can be done for at least v1.0. Here are the changes that would be imported from Scient's v1.0 patch:

(click to show/hide)

1.  [CRASH][SMAX] If you open up Design Workshop as Caretakers/Usurpers and switching back and forth between colony pod and other "equipment" you can cause text in "special ability" to become overwritten and crash once you exit Design Workshop. Patch increases memory allocation used to manipulate the caviar animation files (cvr) and may fix other buffer related problems other than the one noted. (credit to WBird784 for original patch)
2.  [CRASH] It is possible usually on larger maps that scrambling air interceptors would cause the game to crash. Even when the game didn't crash incorrect altitude values were being used in checks. Both of these have been fixed.
3.  [CRASH] When moving units near or at the poles, it is possible for y coord to exceed the map bounds and crash the game. Patch adds handling to prevent y coord from going over min/max.
4.  [CRASH/MISC] Removed and optimized out a number of CPU checks which serve no purpose unless you're using a 15 year old computer. In some cases, these checks actually prevent the game from starting on newer CPU's causing them to exit out or crash. Because of these changes, you now shouldn't need to set ForceOldVoxelAlgorithm to 1. It is recommend that if you've already set it to 1 to either change it back to 0 or delete the entry entirely causing the game to automatically reset it to 0 on launch. Doing so may improve performance since setting ForceOldVoxelAlgorithm to 0 enables SMAC/SMAX to use your CPU's MMX capabilities for voxel algorithm.
5.  [BUG][SMAX] Transport unit's special ability "Repair Bay" is rendered useless due to an incorrect check that would only give the healing bonus to ground transports. Now, it will give bonus to all ground units except ground transports.
6.  [BUG][SMAX] Enhanced probes (Algorithmic Enhancement) are now able to mind control bases/units normally immune due to high SE morale as stated in SMAX manual. For units it's purely the morale SE value so >=3 acts as if it were 2 (cost doubled). For bases, the value is calculated from morale SE and any base facility modifiers (Covert Ops: +2, Genejack: -1). If final value is >=3, it acts as if it were 2.
7.  [BUG][SMAX] While loading the ambient sound file for game, there is a mistake in faction id check for Believers causing it to use SMAX default of "aset1.amb". Patch fixes check so Believers will now use their correct ambient sound file "bset1.amb".
8.  [BUG][SMAX] Enhanced probes don't receive a penalty to survival probability when target faction has built Hunter-Seeker Algorithm. Instead, the success probability is erroneously given the penalty for a second time after it has already been displayed in UI. This could cause diminished success rate when it should have been higher. Patch corrects check so survival rather than success probability is modified.
9.  [BUG][SMAX] Sealurk units now do not get a penalty when moving onto Sea Fungus like Isle of Deep.
10. [BUG] If a faction's cumulative PROBE value is greater than 3 (SE morale, covert ops center) it is possible to "mind control" their bases when they should be immune. If the University uses SE Knowledge putting PROBE value down to -4, it would act as if it were 0 erroneously increasing "mind control" costs. After patch, PROBE values greater than 3 will always be immune to regular probes and values less than -2 will be treated as if they were -2.
11. [BUG] Fixed a check that was ending the turn for certain air units (choppers/missiles/grav) when entering a base which had no adjacent enemy units. There is still a check which will end the unit's turn if when entering a base it has less then one turn remaining unless an enemy is adjacent to base.
12. [BUG] Using "Go to home base" (shift-g) command sends the unit to closest base rather than it's actual home. Patch retrieves unit's home base and sets a "go to" waypoint similar to how a unit is recalled from within base UI. If a home base cannot be found (independent) the unit will go to the nearest base.
13. [BUG/EXPLOIT] Setting more than one patrol waypoint with spacebar causes the values to be stored incorrectly. If only two waypoints are set then it is just a display issue showing an incorrect amount of waypoints when clicking on unit. If three waypoints are set, it causes the unit's morale to be set as one of coordinates usually boosting it to demon boil / elite status. Also, with three waypoints the final waypoint gets set to some far off random location usually (0,0) breaking three point patrol completely.
14. [EXPLOIT] Using the right click menu to airdrop calls the "move to" code directly and bypasses all the checks such as if unit is in airbase/base or has already moved. Since the airdrop hotkey "i" correctly checks these restrictions, the patch makes the right click menu use the hotkey checks before directly moving the unit.
15. [EXPLOIT] Inside base UI, after opening up the production queue window it is possible to then open the hurry command window, switch between bases and complete projects for less then their actual value. Patch fixes a clean up issue with queue panel preventing certain parts of UI from becoming clickable when they shouldn't.
16. [EXPLOIT] When clicking on an unexplored tile, the map recenters on that square. However, if the tile contains a base the map doesn't recenter. Patch fixes it so when an unexplored tile with a base is clicked, the game will recenter like the rest of the tiles.
17. [EXPLOIT] It is possible to change another faction's workers via Base Ops (F4) if you have that faction infiltrated. Patch fixes it so clicking citizens of another faction in Base Ops has no effect similar to garrisoned units.
18. [EXPLOIT] It is possible to give airdrop or artillery ability to an unit who didn't have it. This is done by using hotkey (I or F) on an unit that has the ability then switching units in bottom center window. The mouse cursor would still have airdrop/artillery up and it is then possible to use it with the new unit bypassing all the checks if unit can use ability. Patch resets the cursor when clicking unit selection window.
19. [MOD] Squares with both a borehole and nutrient bonus don't receive the nutrient bonus. If the "Borehole Square" nutrient value defined in #RESOURCEINFO (alphax.txt) is set to non-zero, a square with borehole will erroneously act as if it has a nutrient bonus. The patch fixes a check whether or not to give a borehole square a nutrient bonus from checking if borehole nutrient value is non-zero to checking if nutrient bonus is actually present in square.
20. [MOD] Fixed an unit check to use the "Max artillery range" value defined in #Rules (alphax.txt) rather than a hardcoded value of 2. This fix is geared toward modders so players who use an unmodified version of alphax.txt will see no change.
21. [UI] Removed a check that would while displaying probe success/survival probabilities drop one if they're both the same. For example, (50%, 50%) would just be (50%). This change makes interface a little less confusing.

A total of 21 fixes is less than the 51 in v2.0 but many of those extra changes are a little bit on the modding side in contrast to simple bugfixes. I already have a savegame for the interceptor scrambling bug but can anyone remember where to find savegames where these bugs trigger?

[CRASH] When moving units near or at the poles, it is possible for y coord to exceed the map bounds and crash the game.
[BUG][SMAX] Fixed bug when AI successfully completes probe action of freeing a captured faction leader (FREEWILLY/FREEWHO) where it would reset a non-captured faction.

[PvtHudson]

Attached a save to reproduce "AI frees wrong captured leader" bug. Just press End turn and you will be "freed". Made on configuration described in http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=21007.0 though.

[Induktio]

Yeah, that is a really funny bug when it occurs in the game. It is also reproducible in the base game without any mods. After I applied the patch, I can confirm the AI now frees Peacekeepers instead of the player. It seems the AI will not always perform the same probe action though.

I could probably consider creating a separate development build of Thinker if people want to try these changes before they get into the actual release. There's been quite a lot of stuff added to the code since the last release (v0.6).

[Induktio]

I now updated the downloads page to also include develop builds of the mod. They are versioned by the build date rather than a normal version number and contain all the recent changes from the repo. Also Scient patch v1.0 is included in the mod from now on.

[DrazharLn]

Scient did good work on their patch and their fixes aren't controversial. I don't really see why you don't just use their latest patch or Yitzi's as your starting point. Maybe that's been covered in another thread.

[Induktio]

Scient did good work on their patch and their fixes aren't controversial. I don't really see why you don't just use their latest patch or Yitzi's as your starting point. Maybe that's been covered in another thread.

Well, occasionally somebody has requested "include some patches" without going to specifics. The issue is just binary patching is not very maintainable and the behaviour is not configurable. Particularly Yitzi's patch diverges from vanilla game behaviour on multiple aspects. Maybe it would be easier to look at this if you could describe the features that people want from those other patch versions?

On other news, I included a screenshot of a test game to see how the AI builds its empires in the current version. Turn is 145 and this is the moment when Gaia actually first reached 1000 labs output per turn. This test was done using version Thinker-dev-20180924 (it's in the downloads page). Next version after this will also see another big improvement because it will contain a patch that makes the governors choose borehole tiles more often.

[PvtHudson]

OMG, then what will Yang look like!

[Geo]

OMG, then what will Yang look like!

Boreholes I have known...

[DrazharLn]

Scient did good work on their patch and their fixes aren't controversial. I don't really see why you don't just use their latest patch or Yitzi's as your starting point. Maybe that's been covered in another thread.

Well, occasionally somebody has requested "include some patches" without going to specifics. The issue is just binary patching is not very maintainable and the behaviour is not configurable. Particularly Yitzi's patch diverges from vanilla game behaviour on multiple aspects. Maybe it would be easier to look at this if you could describe the features that people want from those other patch versions?

Vanilla SMACX has a bunch of bugs, some of them game breaking, many of them confusing. Everything listed in Scient's patches is worth including IMO because they're almost all bug fixes and where they're not they're small and unobtrusive fixes (and I have checked the entire list )

The only controversial change I can find in the changelog is: "Fungal Missiles would spawn MW in ocean tiles -> fix by spawning IoD instead and adding in one Sealurk instead of Fungal Tower.", and the only controversial bit about that is what to do instead of spawning a fungal tower (which looks awful and dies at the end of the turn if on water). The remaining non-fix changes are backwards compatible and small.

I don't entirely understand your point about maintainability, either. Scient and other members of the community spent a lot of time discovering and fixing bugs and then testing the fixes. These bug fixes don't really need onward maintenance. The sites of the fixes are also annotated by scient, so if you're going to be hacking on some code nearby you can be aware of it. Tell IDA about it, even.

Similarly for configurability: bug fixes don't need configuration switches.

The only way these fixes could hurt maintainability are if they 1) confuse your reverse engineering tools too much; 2) break the boundaries of functions you want to hijack (unlikely). Including these fixes is likely to improve maintainability by removing bugs from the code base and so reducing bug reports etc.

Scient and others on the bugfixing team did good work over many years on SMACX. It seems pretty daft to me not to build on that work.

I attach scient's v2 patch files here for ease of access.

[DrazharLn]

Also Gaians shouldn't be building loads of roads and boreholes

[Induktio]

The only way these fixes could hurt maintainability are if they 1) confuse your reverse engineering tools too much; 2) break the boundaries of functions you want to hijack (unlikely). Including these fixes is likely to improve maintainability by removing bugs from the code base and so reducing bug reports etc.

Scient and others on the bugfixing team did good work over many years on SMACX. It seems pretty daft to me not to build on that work.

Yes, I've seen what those changes are in v2, and maybe you consider them important changes but you can't expect to have the opinions heard if you don't comment which patch should be included. There's a big difference in patch size when it comes to v1 and v2. The first has 1300 bytes of changes while the second has over 3100 bytes. Even this website offers the v1.0 patch in the sidebar. Maybe it should be updated, but dunno. We might look into that later.

I do take an issue here about saying that I would not be building on Scient's work. There's probably very little chance I would have undertook this project if it was not for the reverse engineered databases Scient had provided. Maybe you notice this if you look at the header files. Figuring out what all those variables do would have been way too time consuming to do without any help. Even then I had to fill in some gaps continuously because some features needed to added.

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Looks like I cannot overstate the importance of that borehole worker allocation patch. In some cases it can increase AI research output by as much as 50% because so many of those boreholes are left unused until the population is high. I actually continued the game in the screenshot after some changes and in only 10 short turns Gaia would deploy satellites, build cloning vats, and balloon the labs output to way over 2000 per turn. It would probably transcend around turn 180 but it is kinda bottlenecked by the mineral cost of the Ascent project when it has "only" 50 minerals in the top base.