Turning SMAX back into strategy game

[bvanevery]

So being 10% ahead of others in research is a big advantage.

You are never going to be 10% ahead of anyone else on RESEARCH with the Datalinks.  It only gives old techs that 3 factions already know.  If you are typically behind on tech, like say the stock Believers or your version of them, it will get you to a basic tech parity.  If you are ahead of everyone on tech, it is nearly worthless to you.  It is a block to keep other "bad RESEARCH" factions from catching up.  Being in possession of it, also slows down the AI tech trading economy.  They don't have techs, you control the trade.

Planetary Datalinks will allow you to cost shift into some other area of empire building, because you don't need to try very hard on early tech.  You can be 10%..20% ahead on something else, like money or units, because you didn't have to spend it on tech.

For instance in my mod, the Data Angels get techs from everyone with no infiltration.  I thought it was unrealistic to expect the AI to send probe teams across the board to infiltrate everybody, making the faction ability pretty useless to an AI.  So I changed it so it would actually be useful to an AI.  My Data Angels are fierce at the beginning of the game, because they get techs from everybody.  Got this, got this, got this, got this, got that.  But in my mod, nobody's averse to trading Tier 1 and Tier 2 techs anyways, so it's not quite as huge an advantage as one would think.  As early game progresses to middle, the Data Angels aren't as big an advantage anymore.  Factions are researching techs in a more specialized way, those that survived and thrived that is.  Nobody has 3 of the same tech so you don't end up with much.

In another for instance, in my current play of your mod, both Lal and Domai are researching techs faster than I am, even though I'm Zhakarov.  I built the Datalinks, it's no help at all.  Only 2 dominant factions other than myself.  They're not researching the same things, and even if they were, that's only 2 factions who know the stuff.  The other 4 players are too wimpy to know anything.

Making this wait until midgame, and making it expensive, is a special kind of uselessness.  I built it because I literally had nothing better to do.

[bvanevery]

MY 2304.  I obtain Organic Superlubricant from the Great Library Planetary Datalinks.  I was getting ready to steal it from the Pirates, but the Datalinks saved me the trouble.  Domai is only 1 tech ahead of me now, with Retroviral Engineering.  Lal has it too so perhaps it won't be long before I get it from the Datalinks.  Lal has Doctrine: Air Power but has made no effective use of it.  Not a single air unit being built.  He's building a lot of Photon armored units though.

I finally remember to drop in alphax.txt and all the faction.txt files from 1.3.

MY 2305.  4 other factions just started the Ascetic Virtues.  I was wondering where my copy of the requisite tech was?  I see that it's Gene Splicing, so this must have changed with 1.3.  Well I was working on the Nano Factory, which is boring, nothing better to do.  I switch, apply another Crawler, and my remaining cash to buy it.

MY 2306.  I complete the Ascetic Virtues, changing my -5 POLICE rating to -4.  Lal loses another big city to the Drones, conventional conquest this time.  The Spartans land a pestering probe and rover on my island.  I complete a Shard Infantry prototype.  Almost everyone is working on Robotic Assembly Plants.

MY 2307.  The Spartans foolishly step forward in front of my city, and I blow them to smithereens.  Armored probe teams work real good.

MY 2309.  As I settle a new base, I contemplate my -1 SUPPORT.  Why am I even doing Democratic?  It gives 2 benefits and 4 liabilities.  Police State gives 4 benefits and 1 liability, hardly fair.  I think I was doing Democratic for political reasons for awhile, and for the possibility of growth, which doesn't seem strong enough to justify this.  Shall I let Lal die?  I was sorta eyeballing his Secret Projects anyways, figuring Domai would take them, then I would take them.

I think about how I now have the Ascetic Virtues and that settles it.  I switch to Police State.  Now I've got +0 POLICE.

MY 2310.  Cybernetic has 3 benefits and 3 liabilities.  1 of those benefits may be wasted as I'm not sure +6 RESEARCH buys me anything compared to +5.  Eudaimonic has 2 benefits and 3 liabilities.  Thought Control has 4 benefits, 2 liabilities, and will get me +3 POLICE.  I choose that!  Breakthroughs stay the same at 9 turns.  Income goes up from 45 to 51, the difference between a -2 and a -1 ECONOMY.  INDUSTRY is at a whopping +5.

MY 2311.  With the new Plants, 2 of my bases do 15..19 eco-damage.  Others don't do any damage, presumably due to Tree Farms.  I go Green.  I had intended to earlier, but kept liking GROWTH and INDUSTRY bonuses instead.  Green has a big -2 INDUSTRY penalty, but now I've got INDUSTRY coming out of my ears and don't care.  Eco-damage drops to 3..6.  Fungus provides 2-1-2.  Some cities like eating it a little bit, others don't.  It will be helpful for brand new cities.

MY 2312.  UN Headquarters bites the dust!

MY 2313.  An energy market spike bumps me to 680 credits.  That's one of the few times I remember it happening in my favor instead of some horrible opposite.  I think that was a 200..300 credit gain.

Mindworms pop next to one of my cities.  A 2-3t-1 unit is this game's premiere mindworm defense.  I still don't know Neural Grafting or an equivalent tech for gaining 2 abilities.  I'm only facing a mindworm and 2 locusts, so I don't stress.  I start an untrained 2-3t-1 unit in that city, just in case.

The Morganites and the Drones begin the Nano Factory, so I follow suit.

MY 2314.  The Locust have insufficient offensive power to cause me any trouble.  They inflict slight wounds but it was only 2 of them.  Coast is clear.  I rush the Nano Factory because I can.

MY 2315.  I pick up Doctrine: Air Power from the Datalinks.  Now that the Peacekeepers are eroding, I've prepared a land probe team and a Cruiser Transport to steal Retroviral Engineering from Domai.  Although the Datalinks could give it to me before I get over there.  I'm making Supply Crawlers because I do not feel threatened.  Santiago is a joke.  The Pirates haven't come to bother me in awhile.  I'm not sure why: they are at war with their neighbors the Peacekeepers, but clearly Lal is going down the tubes fast.  They aren't at war with anyone else.

MY 2317.  Got a volcano erupting up north, got a mindworm pop last turn and this turn.  Only got 5..8 eco-damage in these cities.  Ok whatever.  It'll calm down eventually (?) and I can eat fungus just fine.  I don't really want all my handworked forests ruined by a global flood though.

[bvanevery]

Details tiny bubbles

tiny bubbles

MY 2318.  Ok, um, flooding.  People wonder why I usually don't build factories.  More mindworms in exactly the same spot too.  Glad I brought the green Trance unit over.  I'll build a 2nd Command Center in 1 of these cities and belt out some Trance units there.  Routing Crawlers away from the Scuffle, I learn that fungus yields more energy to a Crawler than a forest does.

Lal snivels for 75 credits.  He doesn't like my government.  I buy 2 techs from him and send my probe team and cruiser transport back home.  Now I have the ability to raise land.  I think I'll make a gazillion Super Rover Formers and go stomp someone.  I'm bored.  If I just sit here indefinitely, it seems like Domai wins.  It's a short distance to the far east of Lal's empire, but without rails, that's a long ways to the front line with Domai.  Getting to Santiago is not that far, but conquering her is not valuable.

Good grief, mag tubes are really late game in this mod.  There goes my standard invasion method!

MY 2320.  I'm getting mindworms up the butt.  This doesn't make that much sense.  Checked alphax.txt, numerator / denominator for Global Warming frequency is normal.  So what gives?  Domai is polluting some, but not "Free Market bad" as he's only Simple.  Whatever.  More Command Centers and Trance units.

I'm going east with the Super Formers.  It'll be slow, but it's clearly more important to invade Domai and have direct access to his lands.  Maybe by the time the land bridge is done, I'll have researched mag tubes?

MY 2323.  I've disbanded my Shard weapon and removed all Shard designs, because 1.3 made it available later than my current tech.  My best weapon is currently Tachyon.

MY 2324.  Roze asks me for a Pact.  Eh, why not.  She's also got one with Domai!  She won't go to war with him.  She doesn't like my government.  Whatever.

MY 2325.  I gain Nanominiaturization, which gives the Hovertank (good) and Algorithmic Enhancement.  The latter is nonsensical as we haven't even seen the Hunter-Seeker Algorithm yet.

[bvanevery]

Details glub glub

glub glub

MY 2329.  The sinking is still modest, but it has doubled.  I haven't built any new factories, but my populations have gotten a little bigger.  Domai has researched 3 new techs including Quantum Machinery.  I guess I shouldn't automatically worry, since there's nothing more than a Fission reactor in this game, but he seemingly advances awfully fast for a -2 RESEARCH faction.  I remember having serious gripes about his rate of research in AARs I played with the stock game.  I'm sending a probe team over to do some theft.  My land bridge is advancing, into Pirate waters because I'm squeamish about destroying the resource bonuses that pop out of the water.

MY 2330.  My contingent of Super Formers is large, 20 units.  It is enough to raise any further land bridge I think.  However, entry into Pirate waters away from my own territory, has exorbitantly increased the land raising cost to 960 credits.  I have to either build a base out there, or find another route.  I have stopped making Super Formers and have started making Centauri Preserves and a Naval Yard, in anticipation of sending forth a combined arms task force.  My capitol is working on an Aerospace Complex.

MY 2331.  Removing a fungal patch has reduced the raising cost to 320 credits.  Exorbitant, but not beyond my ability to afford.  Still, I prefer to build a force and do this in a less costly manner.  I send the Super Formers towards the Spartans.  I steal Quantum Machinery from the Drones, which provides a strength 17 Quantum Laser.  Weapons seem to be going obsolete fast.  A mindworm and sealurk force may prove to be a good idea.
 

Details the long jog

the long jog

MY 2333.  I complete a land link to the Spartan island.  It contains the Monsoon Jungle.  I will retreat these units and work on a link to the back of Lal's empire, far to the west.  Lal is still my ally, but he hates my politics and could end it with me.  I have acquired Nanohospital capability.  As the University, I feel obligated to build them.

Details westward link

westward link

MY 2340.  I complete a land link to Lal's rear.  Lacking a clear way to the Drones, I realize I haven't built Soil Enrichers, so I'll do that.  I have a Quantum Laser ship en route to the Pirate city that was making it expensive for me to raise land.  Meanwhile I'm building a lot of non-military stuff.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

You are never going to be 10% ahead of anyone else on RESEARCH with the Datalinks.

Agree. What do you want to price it then?

[bvanevery]

Agree. What do you want to price it then?

It's not worth any more than the Human Genome Project, whatever you did with that.  IMO it should also be an early project, not a late one.

In my mod, I took the additional step of making its tech easy to Discover (tech=4), but hard to Explore, Build, or Conquer (growth=1, wealth=1, power=1).  My intention was to give Discover factions an easy clear shot at completing the Datalinks early on, but to give other factions the opportunity if it didn't happen for some reason.  With these weights, in a broad tech tree, it didn't work out that way.  Nobody tends to figure it out!  I might have to change this.

[bvanevery]

Details not my fault

not my fault

MY 2341.  Lal has triggered a little bit more flooding.

MY 2342.  I learn Secrets of Alpha Centauri, which gives me the completely nonsensical Non-lethal Methods.

Details closing the gap

closing the gap

MY 2348.  Given that Domai is crushing all of us, I decide I'm being a little too aesthetically picky about my land bridges.  I will never gain any advantage from the kelp in the Sargasso Sea at the rate I'm (not) growing.  Also I've got Habitation Dome capability if I could ever get any growth going.  I still just won't get rid of resource specials; if that loses me this particular game, so beit.  I think something about this game is unbalanced anyways.  Possibly way too many INDUSTRY bonuses, but I'm not sure.

MY 2350.  I finally research Monopole Magnets, giving me the opportunity to employ my most traditional way of destroying enemies.  As you know, I already have the 20 Super Formers necessary to do it.  It may be a bit of an exploit, but this version of Domai seems to deserve it!

MY 2355.  I've completed a rail network, and only need 1 square to complete my land bridge.  However I'm being assaulted by Locusts, so I've stopped military production in favor of Hybrid Forests.  Just can't seem to shake the eco-damage in this game.

[bvanevery]

Details contact

contact

I've completed the land bridge, and even a rail to my 1st victim city.  However I've also completed Mind/Machine Interface, and I want the Cyborg Factory and the Cloudbase Academy.  My invasion is not exactly well timed.  Still, I've probably got enough previous surplus units to wipe at least this base out and hold the line.

Details tough defense

tough defense

Or so I thought.  Quantum Lasers don't really cut through Probability armor behind a Perimeter Defense.  I think I'll make this into more of a siege.

Details too pricey

too pricey

I thought I'd be clever and raise the land so that I can assault with mindworms.  Unfortunately it's too expensive.  I don't have the kind of money I'm used to having in my own mod, due to the differences in social engineering choices.  I only make 31 credits/turn and I blew a lot of cash to finish The Theory of Everything quickly.

3:30 AM, going to bed.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

Regarding mod naming.
Actually, when I look at weapon vs armor graphs for boxed game and my mod, they are not that conceptually different. I understood designers idea to increase weapon strength toward the end of the game so they can penetrate tachyon field. I did the same. See pictures attached. How do you insert pictures in the post by the way?

If you look at the SMAX picture then you'll see it's biggest flaw. Starting at about 25% of the game the weapon is consistently twice as strong and keeps growing. Missile Launcher discovery is twice as strong than contemporary Plasma Steel Armor. Even if defender rushes armor technology in attempt to save themselves they can only get as far as to Silksteel Armor bringing attack/defense ratio to 3:2 only at best. Same story with Plasma Shard and Probability Sheath. And this is assuming defender keeps up on research with attacker. If attacker is somewhat advanced they can easily achieve 2.5-3.0 weapon advantage.
In my mod I made armor coming at quick succession at the beginning and at a regular intervals. Same for weapon. This way it stays about 1:1 until 40% of the game and diverges at 2:1 only at the very end of the game. Even if attacker advances in research by 10-20% they wont get more than 4:3 advantage around middle of the game. With such odds attacker won't have advantage at all attacking bases even without Perimeter defense and only sensor.

Do you still think "Fission armor" will be good name reflecting this change?
How about something like "Defensive" or "Improved Defense" one?

[bvanevery]

How do you insert pictures in the post by the way?

Use the full editor, not the quick editor.  Second line of icons, 5th icon from the left, is a thing that looks like a colored orange rectangle on top of a colored blue rectangle.  That's the button for inserting a picture inline.

When you click that, you want the "file to upload" line.  Click "Browse" and then the name of your file.  There's a lot of other superfluous junk on that screen which can confuse you.  It's even possible to get caught in a kind of Inception loop where you're editing an editing an editing of a picture.

At some point you'll want to set up your own Album for the screenshots you're producing.  If you don't, it'll still work, but it goes under some kind of general pool of screenshots.  BUncle would prefer that you use an album associated with yourself.  I created something called "AAR screenshots" a long time ago and it has been the default ever since, I never have to change it.

Missile Launcher discovery is twice as strong than contemporary Plasma Steel Armor.

Not in my mod.     I wonder what your analytic tool produces for my mod nowadays?  Barring a wrinkle at the beginning, it's rigidly slaved the idea that "weapons and armor of strength X both come at Tier X".  I designed my Tiers very rigidly, i.e. Tier 4 always comes at roughly the same time period in the game.  That's because there's such a density of tech as prereqs for any given tech, that I can count on the probabilistic behavior to be consistent.  I can say with complete confidence that any Tier 4 tech is at least a "midgame" tech, there's no way to get it any earlier. 

In my mod I made armor coming at quick succession at the beginning and at a regular intervals. Same for weapon.

What I have observed in my current game of your mod, is that I have frequently been at a 2:1 advantage, but it has just as frequently gone away in due course.  As I have been playing on a Huge map, and my starting position was isolated on an island, I have rarely been in combat with anyone so far.  Now that I'm actually seeking combat with a mag tube, I find that my 2:1 units can't punch through a Perimeter Defense, since it doubles the defense.  I find that the enemy has actually deployed enough Trance units to make it problematic to overrun him with mindworms.  That said, my mindworms might be tougher than I think, because they're coming off the assembly line as Mature Boils.  That's from Biology Lab in every city, + Xenoempathy Dome affecting all cities, + Centauri Preserve in cities dedicated to mindworm production at present.  I have Temple of Planet capability but am not committed to using it at present.  I'm wondering where the Pholus Mutagen went, haven't seen it yet.

Do you still think "Fission armor" will be good name reflecting this change?
How about something like "Defensive" or "Improved Defense" one?

I can't really commit to a name recommendation yet.  I hope I've helped with the brainstorming.

[bvanevery]

MY 2360.  I did some checking and found I've got 3 cities that are in danger of sinking.  Of course they're committed to expensive projects.  Hopefully they are not going to sink immediately, but I lost enough land last turn that it interrupted my rail network.  I had to rebuild it.  I don't usually raise land to deal with floods, but in this case it may be a good idea.  My Super Formers have nothing else to do right now, having drilled Aquifers on all of the Rocky Mine squares I could.  I really don't have the oomph for conquest, I am production limited right now.  If Domai sends forces at me, I believe I have the reserve strength to repel and destroy all kinds of stuff, but pushing into a highly productive enemy is another matter.  Hopefully Domai's AI is sufficiently confused about the narrow land juncture he'd have to come down, or maybe he's just got other priorities for the moment.

MY 2362.  Yeah, sure you can raise land to keep a city from sinking.  At the expense of landlocking it!  Got an expensive and useless Quantum Battleship in production now.  Well maybe I'll find a way to edit my coast to free it up someday.  Actually, no, screw this, I'll just play the turn over and not do it.  It's also going to destroy any sea resource specials next to a coastal land base, this just isn't a good approach.  It's all because you can't raise land inside the city itself, where it is needed.

MY 2363.  Maybe the 1st time one raises land next to a city, the city's altitude goes up after all.  I'm not sure why such a city is now at 837 meters, as it didn't seem to be before.  I will check more carefully with the next city.  Here's a "before" shot of Gagarin Memorial:

Details no sink me please

no sink me please

And here is after raising on the same turn:

Details I don wanna die

I don wanna die

Maybe next turn the altitude will update?  Maybe it only updates when the land sinking cycle is implemented?  That's what seemed to happen this turn with the other city.  I've raised land next to the 3rd sinking city in this manner, so we'll see if my cities are safe next turn.

Details not ready to invade anyways

not ready to invade anyways

Good grief, the flooding is bad enough that I'm no longer connected to Domai's territory!  Oh well, I'm preoccupied by eco-damage that just won't quit.  I'm building Temples of Planet in some places even after Hybrid Forests to mitigate the damage.  Domai started on the Neural Amplifier, which I started in a minor city a long time ago.  It's nowhere near getting done, and I suspect Domai has vast resources for finishing it quickly.  So I switched it to the Cloudbase Academy, which will never get done in that city alone.  It won't get done with money either, I don't have it.  I'm really production limited, I need Hybrid Forests and Temples of Planet.

[bvanevery]

Details all those other creeps

all those other creeps

MY 2364.  This ain't gonna stop.  It has nothing to do with my civ.  I suspect that the SE table has given runaway production capability to the other factions, particularly Domai.  I don't ever remember a game where the AI was able to get this far ahead on the graph and force this kind of ecological damage on everyone else.  At least on a Huge map, there doesn't seem much way to mitigate it, if one starts at a distance from other factions.  Which is the point of a Huge map, you're not really supposed to have near neighbors, although it does happen.  Not like I've had the productivity this game to send an invasion force to Domai.

Domai had the temerity to travel up my rail and hit my picket with a mindworm.  What did he do, land it on shore last turn, then move this turn?  Whatever.  It died, since luckily I had used a Trance unit.

Details Still believing in my death

Still believing in my death

The altitude of my 2 threatened cities did not update.  So, it's not a turn delay thing.  I hope that when the flooding update finally comes, it's predictable rather than capricious.  We'll see.  I've got another city threatened now, because the water is going to go so high.  Raised that land too.

Details supply denominations

supply denominations

MY 2365.  My capitol finally completed stuff, so now I can get to work on Secret Projects.  I have created supply crawlers in various denominations by giving them more armor.  This is so that high production cities don't waste the production when encasing it into a supply crawler.  The values of the crawlers are odd because I have +1 INDUSTRY.  If I ever change my SE model then I could rename them according to the number of bars of production they cost, but there's no need now, as I can't think of a better SE model than what I've got.

Details whatever floats your boat

whatever floats your boat

MY 2366.  After a flooding update, Gagarin Memorial is now shown at altitude 330 meters and out of danger.

Details a hair away from disaster

a hair away from disaster

However Climactic Research is at 10 meters!  My previous land raising next to it, clearly didn't do it any good.  I guess I'll go at it again.  Another city is also endangered and not saved, but at least it's not in as much immediate peril.

[Geo]

Too bad base tiles themselves can't  be raised anymore.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

I wonder what your analytic tool produces for my mod nowadays?

Here is for some of you versions.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

What I have observed in my current game of your mod, is that I have frequently been at a 2:1 advantage, but it has just as frequently gone away in due course.

Sorry about that. That's a work in progress. I am tuning this. The chart I posted is for v1.4. There you'll see armor coming up quicker.