SMAX - The Will to Power - mod

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

It is their priorities compared to myself and other factions, that I question.  It is one thing to build out your own empire as though you intend to survive.    It is another thing to build with the tacit understanding that your goal is to harass the human player, in concert with all the other AIs.

I am positively sure that the AI part of computer player is designed in a way to maximize own survival. They don't sacrifice themselves just to bring human down.
That would be unethical.
😂
Seriously. they don't.

Another thing is that their survival algorithm can be not perfect and they can do all kind of weird things those you may perceive as targeted human player annoyance. That's your point of view.

[Sardaukar]

Infantry:

• Chassis Speed: 4
• Road Multiplier: 3

Rovers:

• Chassis Speed: 6
• Road Multiplier: 2

Hovertanks:

• Chassis Speed: 10
• Road Multiplier: 1

Magtubes same as in vanilla.

Tables are a pain with this software. Will try.

chassis	chassis speed	movement points	field cost -> distance	road cost -> distance	tube cost -> distance
infantry	4	12	3 -> 1	1 -> 1	free
speeder	6	12	2 -> 1	1 -> 1	free
hovertank	10	10	1 -> 1	1 -> 1	free

Of course, this is all theory and would require in-game experimentation. Am having radical ideas about jiggering with the txt values. For example, rovers could have the same chassis costs as infantry. Infantry might have a better bonus against bases. The penalty for drop troops attacking on the same turn as they drop could be reduced from 50% to 10%. Modifications to base defensive bonus, infantry against base, mobile-in-open, etc.

Overall, am envisioning a radically more open and mobile style of warfare with bases becoming lynchpins in the defense networks. Tough nuts to crack.

In regards to movement, this proposed system would benefit greatly from slowing the movement rate in rocky and fungus squares.

Movement Costs:
Open tile: 1
Rolling tile: 2
Rocky tile: 4
Fungus tile: 6

Can't find values for this in the txt. Not sure whether is worth distinguishing between open and rolling. Might just confuse the AI. But definitely, slower rocky and fungus would create interesting strategic barriers.

As for rivers, I like the idea of them working as in vanilla. Slower than roads. Same with native life moving through fungus. But haven't thought it through yet.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

Infantry:

• Chassis Speed: 4
• Road Multiplier: 3

Rovers:

• Chassis Speed: 6
• Road Multiplier: 2

Hovertanks:

• Chassis Speed: 10
• Road Multiplier: 1

Magtubes same as in vanilla.

Tables are a pain with this software. Will try.

chassis	chassis speed	movement points	field cost -> distance	road cost -> distance	tube cost -> distance
infantry	4	12	3 -> 1	1 -> 1	free
speeder	6	12	2 -> 1	1 -> 1	free
hovertank	10	10	1 -> 1	1 -> 1	free

Didn't understand how chassis speed and movement points are tied to each other? What is chassis speed? How many open tiles unit can go without road?

Free tube movement is something we tried to get rid of in this mod. At least this is common understanding that tube movement could be fast but still should be limited.

In regards to movement, this proposed system would benefit greatly from slowing the movement rate in rocky and fungus squares.

Movement Costs:
Open tile: 1
Rolling tile: 2
Rocky tile: 4
Fungus tile: 6

Can't find values for this in the txt. Not sure whether is worth distinguishing between open and rolling. Might just confuse the AI. But definitely, slower rocky and fungus would create interesting strategic barriers.

Not in txt. One can plant fungus for such barrier for sure.

[bvanevery]

That game that crashed, for some reason I was able to resume it without any problem.  I continued for a time, although I didn't play especially well, as I was rusty and initially undermotivated to do colonization.  The AI eventually displayed competence at attacking one of my many weak bases.  At that point I quit.

Details Drones trashing me

Drones trashing me

Maybe my eh performance wasn't entirely my fault, as the SUPPORT reshufflings are rather disruptive.  It's pretty anti-exploration.  You pretty much just get in trouble all the time and find yourself sending units back to rehome them.  I noticed the AI wasn't exactly aggressive about popping pods either.  Especially when you only have a few bases, it becomes this major major task instead of an early game land grab.

[bvanevery]

Played as the Believers, with better initial colonization to 5 cities with minerals.  They were not as affected by the SUPPORT issue since they have a bonus for it.  The game crashed again.  Pretty sure there's something wrong with WTP in that regard.

Replayed from Autosave 1.  This time it didn't crash.  The main difference in movements, aside from incidental ordering, was the supply pod that the Transport popped.  Instead of sprouting an Isle, this time it gave me 75 credits.  If the bug is a memory leak though, then it may not have anything specifically to do with actions I take on a turn.  It may be that restarting the game, gives more memory before a problem manifests again.  I do note that these crashes are coming at a roughly similar time of playing the game, a sort of early game thing.

SOB it crashed again, just another turn after I overcame it.  Played from "replay no crash" and then it crashed.  Now restarting and loaded "before 2nd crash" game.  It would have to be an awfully quick memory leak, so that's probably not it.  Continuing, the game crashes.

Started the game again.  Loaded "before 2nd crash" and hit Turn Complete.  It didn't crash.  So, it's indeterminate.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

I discovered and fixed few crash producing bugs. The faulty code was there in vanilla forever it just never triggered and it could happen that Thinker/WTP triggers it. Please send me a turn before crash I will try to squash it.

Oops, sorry. Didn't pay attention to attachment. You are all good. I'll study them.

[bvanevery]

It crashed again before MY 2176.  Well if you found vanilla bugs then I don't have to worry about whether this is Windows 11 specific.  Will wait for you to make a new release before trying any more games.

[Sardaukar]

Didn't understand how chassis speed and movement points are tied to each other? What is chassis speed? How many open tiles unit can go without road?

Free tube movement is something we tried to get rid of in this mod. At least this is common understanding that tube movement could be fast but still should be limited.

Pretty sure I get it. Is just laid out in a format that seems really unintuitive to me. But it works.

If movement/roads are substantially faster, as laid out in the table, there may be less reason for tubes to have limited movement.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

Unlimited tube movement effectively renders infantry a superior chassis. No other chassis are needed anymore.

[bvanevery]

You need hovertank chassis to build the tubes in the 1st place.   Although Xenoempathy Dome can almost do as well.  Which is part of why it comes rather late in my mod.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

You need hovertank chassis to build the tubes in the 1st place.   Although Xenoempathy Dome can almost do as well.  Which is part of why it comes rather late in my mod.

I meant for combat units moving across the network, not formers.

[Sardaukar]

Still thinking about alternate road speeds but had an unrelated thought. How about an alternative to raze base which still demolishes the base but sends the populace to your other cities?

So you have a military unit in base and press B (iirc).

--->

Warning Box: "Are you sure you wish to eliminate base? This is a major atrocity."

--->

1) Yes
2) No, I want to relocate the populace (X credits based on pop size.)
3) No, wrong button. Sorry.

Something like that. Whether the new people would be spread out across your faction or sent to a specific base, am not sure.

[shayfiles]

Still thinking about alternate road speeds but had an unrelated thought. How about an alternative to raze base which still demolishes the base but sends the populace to your other cities?

So you have a military unit in base and press B (iirc).

--->

Warning Box: "Are you sure you wish to eliminate base? This is a major atrocity."

--->

1) Yes
2) No, I want to relocate the populace (X credits based on pop size.)
3) No, wrong button. Sorry.

Something like that. Whether the new people would be spread out across your faction or sent to a specific base, am not sure.

I think an option such as "Abandon base as refugees" would be pretty cool. For instance, a size 7 base could produce seven colony pods that need to be re-homed at another base or HQ to be activated. This could end the massive base sprawl a conqueror ends up acquiring.

[Sardaukar]

With that in mind, roads providing a multiplier is funky. Rovers and infantry (riding rovers that belong to basic faction infrastructure), should move at about the same speed. Instead of a multiplier, why not a standard movement bonus to roads?

For example, all ground units may move over 10 friendly road squares for free. Could be some value other than 10 but I like the thought of rapid redeployment around your territory. Plus, this would ensure that hovertanks and rovers don't move less than in vanilla. It would, of course, substantially alter the meta but that could be resolved through testing and fine tuning a number of variables.

I agree that would be more realistic to imagine that foot soldiers are actually transferred by some land transport. This would require complete game rewrite, though. Currently units have only their speed and road multiplier (which is common parameter). To implement your proposal we would need to keep "speed without road" and "speed on road" parameters and there is no space for them both, unfortunately. It is too much game mechanics change proposal. Would you be willing to invent something of the same sort but within the current game mechanics scope? Probably by changing some parameters only?

Besides, what would be the difference between land classes chassis then if infantry start moving that fast?

Been thinking of this again. Would it really require a "speed on road" parameter for each individual unit? If we say ground units have their chassis speed but each can make 10 total moves on roads per turn that's a universal value. Can this information be stored somewhere else? Each individual unit only needs to keep track of how many of these 10 "road moves" have been expended.

I imagine there's no space for that but have to ask.

Some combat rebalancing:

50,       ; Combat % -> intrinsic base defense
100,     ; Combat % -> Infantry vs. Base
50,       ; Combat % -> Territorial Defense (This is a Will to Power feature. Not found in vanilla.)
50,       ; Combat % -> Mobile unit in open ground
25,       ; Combat % -> Defend vs. mobile in rough
25,       ; Combat % -> Comm Jammer unit defending vs. mobile unit

Speed:

Infantry: 1
Speeder: 4
Hovertank: 4

Would require some testing. Probably alter some costs. Speeders the same as infantry. Speeders would be used for controlling open fields and dominating areas with roads. Would need infantry for assaulting bases.

As I write this post, it occurs to me that I can pretty much achieve the desired feature with txt editing. Setting magtubes to a basic or tier 1 tech would do it. Give it a construction cost of 1. Since I'm mostly concerned with multilplayer, not a big deal that AI can't handle tubes.

[Sardaukar]

Still thinking about alternate road speeds but had an unrelated thought. How about an alternative to raze base which still demolishes the base but sends the populace to your other cities?

So you have a military unit in base and press B (iirc).

--->

Warning Box: "Are you sure you wish to eliminate base? This is a major atrocity."

--->

1) Yes
2) No, I want to relocate the populace (X credits based on pop size.)
3) No, wrong button. Sorry.

Something like that. Whether the new people would be spread out across your faction or sent to a specific base, am not sure.

I think an option such as "Abandon base as refugees" would be pretty cool. For instance, a size 7 base could produce seven colony pods that need to be re-homed at another base or HQ to be activated. This could end the massive base sprawl a conqueror ends up acquiring.

In reference to "my mod,"  colony pod construction very much more expensive than in vanilla (but pop growth is faster). This proposed feature would work much better for me if it didn't produce new pods but bolstered the pop of existing bases. There's a logic to it too inasmuch as you're just throwing a new shanty town in Morgan Hydroelectric, instead founding a new base with its own grid, life support and transit.