Thinker mod attempt 13

[bvanevery]

Details March Thinker mod development version

March Thinker mod development version

Induktio released a new development version of Thinker mod in March.  I have been testing it in combination with my own SMACX AI Growth mod.  His AI abuses Condensers, Supply Crawlers, and Boreholes to the hilt.  I've been working on various cost increases and technology delays to curb this abuse in the game.  I think I can only curb it, not end it.  I believe he's on a development trajectory where he adds new and better AI capabilities, but never removes the buffs that were given to the "fairly stupid" stock AI.   I view that as a big problem and hope he changes his mind someday.

One can reasonably ask, why am I doing all these tests?  Is it to hurl rocks at Thinker mod?  No, it's to improve my own SMACX AI Growth mod.  That's the short version.  I've commented at greater length in previous attempts.

Things I am testing this time:

• using stock binary faction placement, not Thinker mod's new version
• Peackeepers in my mod no longer get +2 GROWTH.  No easy pop booming.
• Pirates in my mod get -1 INDUSTRY and -1 SUPPORT to offset their +1 sea minerals.
• Hive gets +1 GROWTH as in the original game.
• Believers get +1 SUPPORT and their FANATIC attack bonus, but MORALE bonus is removed.  Erratic personality.
• Inherent base defense lowered to +25%, same as the stock game.
• Perimeter Defense available at tech Tier 3, not the beginning of the game.
• Skunkworks available with C3 Applied Physics.
• 2 unit abilities available with C4 Organic Superlubricant.
• Weather Paradigm 1.33X cost, increased to 400 minerals.
• Soil Enricher 0.75X cost.  I've always hated waiting for those to complete.
• Advanced Ecological Engineering is now a Build 5 tech.
  
• Condenser 2X cost and moved to Advanced Ecological Engineering.
• Raise/Lower Terrain 2X cost.
• Industrial Automation is now a Build 6 tech.  It gives Supply Crawlers and Thermal Boreholes.
  
• Supply Crawler on infantry chassis: 80 minerals for Fission reactor, 50 minerals for Fusion reactor.
• Thermal Borehole 2X cost.
• Bio-Engineering is now a Build 6 tech.  It gives Genejack Factories.

In short, this is a fairly serious retooling of the Build portion of the tree.  Minerals won't become plentiful until late midgame at least.

In attempt #11, I got a seriously bad start.  No room to expand, totally 8-balled behind 2 factions.  Same in attempt #12.  I've wondered if the faction_placement=0 behavior is bugged.  I've given the code a cursory inspection but have not tried to run a debugger on it.  That's probably higher than my pay grade.

In both #11 and #12, I also observed that the Pirates did not move their sea colony pods.  In #11 they were eventually killed by an earthquake set off on shore by another faction.  I ran a fair number of test games trying to duplicate this bug but was unable to.  I keep my eye peeled for it in the future.

[bvanevery]

Huge map, 30%..50% land mass with my large continents and large oceans, average settings.  Transcend difficulty, default Thinker mod cost_factor.  Thinker mod's faction placement algorithm disabled by setting faction_placement=0, as it has been unfair in every test game I've played.  Now in the last 2 games it was grossly unfair anyways, which has made me wonder if it's really turned off now.

The Pirates, the Hive, and the Believers shall be in the game and played by AI factions.  I want to test their performance with my faction changes, and I'm on the lookout for the "Pirates not moving" bug.  They shall be the 4th, 6th, and 7th factions respectively.  I suspect the bug could be dependent on faction order when the Cult, Caretakers, or Usurpers show up, so I want to leave room in the faction order for that to happen.  The remaining factions shall be random.

Details Cult, Aliens, and Pirates

Cult, Aliens, and Pirates

I get the Cult of Planet again.  The Caretakers and Usurpers are also in, so if the Pirate bug depends on the "starting position distorting" factions, this is a full house.  The University rounds out the lineup.

[bvanevery]

Details the breeding Yang

the breeding Yang

MY 2133.  I gain the commlink frequency of the Hive from a supply pod.  We sign a Treaty.

Details no miracle spread

no miracle spread

MY 2134.  We trade techs and sign a Pact.  We are far apart.  Their spread rate is unimpressive.

Details can't command zero troops

can't command zero troops

Both Hive bases have wasted their time building Command Centers, a really stupid move at the very beginning of the game.  Even if at war, one will do.  The Hive capitol has depleted itself of minerals.  The other base has enough.

[bvanevery]

MY 2145.  Yang gains the comm frequency of the Pirates.  I sign a Treaty with them.

Details radical earthquake

radical earthquake

MY 2150.  I set off an earthquake that radically reconfigures my island.  I'm now part of a major continent, and have lost the easy north-south water passage I once had.  Previously I did not have much room and was making Recreation Commons due to lack of room.  Now I have room!

[bvanevery]

Details I believe you're up north

I believe you're up north

MY 2159.  Up north I meet the Believers.  We sign a Treaty.  I've also gone Green.  I killed my 1st Isle with my own Isle this turn, causing it to grow bigger.

[bvanevery]

Details sneaky Pirates

sneaky Pirates

MY 2160.  I finally notice the Pirates are west of me.

Details Pirate spreading

Pirate spreading

MY 2170.  The Pirates trade maps and sell me the comm frequency of the University.  They definitely don't seem to have any spreading problem this game.

Details University spreading

University spreading

I sign a Pact with the University.  I buy a number of techs.

Details Believer spreading

Believer spreading

I seek to sell the Believers a comm frequency.  Out of the blue they ask for a Pact.  I take it.  Yet they won't trade techs.  Their spread is not very good compared to a previous game I played against them.  Strange to see that +1 SUPPORT doesn't help all that much.

MY 2174.  The Hive blows off our Pact.

[bvanevery]

Details your face is ass

your face is ass

MY 2177.  I meet the Caretakers.  They suck.

Details boat face

boat face

MY 2180.  I meet the Usurpers.  They don't suck.  We sign a Treaty.

[bvanevery]

MY 2184.  Somehow last night I forgot that I learned Doctrine: Loyalty, which makes Fundamentalist available.  In my mod, one of my major faction powers is my RESEARCH never goes below zero.  So I switch.

Details ass face is better than boat face

ass face is better than boat face

Looks like the Usurpers are getting stomped.  They seem to be sharing an east-west supercontinent and I suppose the Caretakers got the better spread.  Or perhaps captured mindworms and made good use of them.  Or explored better with mindworms, getting more money.  In the north I'm totally cleaning up with my own mindworms, as I am also on a different supercontinent.

[bvanevery]

Details lucky Usurpers

lucky Usurpers

MY 2195.  5 more turns and the Usurpers would have been gone for good!  I wonder where they will pop up next?  The map certainly has a lot of room.  I'm having a very easy time, just exploring indefinitely.  I'm building lots of Formers to try to get a rail together in my large empire.

[bvanevery]

Details far flung Nexus

far flung Nexus

MY 2197.  I have discovered the Manifold Nexus.  It is unclaimed.  Currently I can get to it by water.  If the Pirate canal closes up, I could still do it by land.  I begin making a Colony Pod.  I have more than enough Isles to get to site.

[bvanevery]

Details transplanted Usurpers

transplanted Usurpers

MY 2205.  I found the new Usurper homeland.  Unfortunately for them, all the supply pods are going to be gone.  It will be a long time before they bother anybody again.

[bvanevery]

Details longest boat ride ever

longest boat ride ever

MY 2208.  It sure was a pain sailing my Foil probe team all the way around my continent, then all the way around theirs, just to get to the 1 sea base at the extreme of the Caretaker homeland.  Sending probe teams overland would have been way easier.  But, I made the Foil probe teams back when I thought I needed them, and here they are at last.  1 just got killed by a random Isle this very turn.  That's like sailing from London around Cape Horn headed for San Francisco only to get sunk outside San Diego.

And of course, that Foil probe team died.  I stole Intellectual Integrity which makes the Ascetic Virtues available.  I rush it for 600 cash and 3 Artifacts.

[bvanevery]

MY 2209.  Yang tires of my Fundamentalist ways and declares war on me.  I'm hardly troubled.

I contact the Pirates to see if they want to make a Pact about it.  We have the same enemies and he offered one earlier, but at a time when it would have hurt my Integrity rating.  He's not into it now.  He does trade Optical Computers for my Intellectual Integrity though, which is a mistake as the Planetary Datalinks is not finished yet.  Granted he's not working on it, he's busy with the Weather Paradigm and the Planetary Transit System.  Zhakarov is working on it and needs 13 turns to complete.  He's also working on the Weather Paradigm and needs 10 turns for that.  I begin work on the Planetary Datalinks, but my rail is not quite complete and I can't bring the needed Artifacts to site this turn.

Details a few Secret Projects

a few Secret Projects

MY 2212.  I complete the Planetary Datalinks.

[bvanevery]

Details the Manifold is mine

the Manifold is mine

MY 2213.  I claim the Manifold Nexus, boosting me to a whopping +5 PLANET!

[bvanevery]

MY 2115.  I steal Centauri Mediation from the Caretakers.  I switch production to the Xenoempathy Dome.

MY 2219.  The University completes the Weather Paradigm, giving them access to Condensers and Boreholes.  I rush the Xenoempathy Dome.

Details the Builders

the Builders

MY 2221.  The Caretakers complete the Citizens' Defense Force, blocking my 2 copies of it.