SMAX - The Will to Power - mod

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

*one thing you can do is value energy slightly more - then they build solars more often on good tiles (+2/+3 energy) before moving to another food tile - not sure if it is a good idea overall - but it makes them move less work more

You mean value energy more comparing to nutrients not minerals? Yes, I thought about it. Current weights are 1.0, 1.0 ,0.5. So if we don't touch minerals/energy ratio but want to value energy more comparing to nutrients we need to lower them like 0.8, 1.0, 0.5. I need to try it and see, you can try it too.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

I am also thinking to take base needs for example and emphasize on preventing disasters. For example, start valuing nutrients more when it is close to starvation, minerals - when it is close to support limit, energy - when it is close to maintenance limit. I don't know if AI does this too but anyway algorithm can help it.

[lolada]

Yeah these resources need to vary in value over time if you want competent AI over game duration, but its tough to actually code that in.
Some tweaks are appreciated, doesn't have to be perfect. Can you mod what tiles governor choose to work?

Weighting over time.. thats my main issue with roads :
- roads early do not matter much - roads later are really important; magtubes are really important for example;
- roads matter for empire - so i don't care much if level one base can get 1 food or min, if i have 15 bases.. but i really want it to be connected to road network - i want road connections way more for protection and quick improvement of the base

I am also thinking to take base needs for example and emphasize on preventing disasters. For example, start valuing nutrients more when it is close to starvation, minerals - when it is close to support limit, energy - when it is close to maintenance limit. I don't know if AI does this too but anyway algorithm can help it.

That would be helpful. As i mentioned - i really want like 2+ minerals very early, 5+ minerals for base size 3-4 usually or base just stalls with production. This is really hurting AI - it focuses food and then ruins production with - support. So this is nice area to improve if possible.
(if you can teach AI to rush buy more in lower production bases - that would good tweak; high prod. bases can build on its own). Maybe its possible to code these weights in somehow..)

- food needs to go 2+ - if the base does not have 2+ food i try to build farms; 0 food is only ok if base can't grow due to drones or using doctors already. "using doctor (or empath)" might be good metric for AI - if base is using it then there's no much need to spam more food. I also like to have some food in food box to prevent starvation.. being at 0 food is disaster waiting to happen. But that's governor micro.. not terraforming

- energy i pick up what i can from tiles - its the least important - i tend to want some +energy for rushing, but i usually look at SE settings and tweak that rather than tiles/terraforming

I tried 0.6 for energy and it seemed enough to me to make formers build more of those solars on +2/+3 tiles - thats like breakpoint. 2 energy > 1 min or 1f (if you value 1f = 1m) in that case. From what i observed formers often built farm+solar and them moved.. on 0.5 they tend to farm/farm/farm. They still built farms before solars as they should on 0.6.  Setting it to 0.7, i presume, would for example make them really like those 2-1-3 tiles. It would be interesting to test at what point they build solars before farms - thats one scenario i would try to avoid.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

Can you mod what tiles governor choose to work?

Probably. However, The logic is more or less good already and it is so complex that I am afraid I won't be able to do anything better in observable lifetime. Do you have a specific complaint against vanilla governor?

[lolada]

Probably. However, The logic is more or less good already and it is so complex that I am afraid I won't be able to do anything better in observable lifetime. Do you have a specific complaint against vanilla governor?

Then you can teach AI governor some of these tricks/tweaks. To work minimum x minerals if possible, or to avoid/reduce growing if using doctors/empath and focus more energy/production instead.  And terraforming AI can improve tiles according to base needs. These two things are quite connected.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

Then you can teach AI governor some of these tricks/tweaks. To work minimum x minerals if possible, or to avoid/reduce growing if using doctors/empath and focus more energy/production instead.  And terraforming AI can improve tiles according to base needs. These two things are quite connected.

They are interdependent for sure but they not connected in direct way. It's not like governor tells formers what to do. They have their own AI. 😉

IMHO vanilla terraforming is bad but vanilla governor is good. Like "To work minimum x minerals if possible" thing is actually executed by them. If you give them range of different yield combination tiles they will never pick everything but minerals. They'll pick quite a reasonable mix. Sometimes they emphasize more of one or the other but never avoid one of the resources completely. You can test this in scenario editor.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

Discover one more problem with Aquatic faction. They supposed to be allowed to improve ocean squares with discovery of Adv. Eco Eng. However, the message about that is missing from Script.txt. Moreover this tech id is hardcoded so it is not exposed in alphax.txt. Hasty add-on. 😞

I am thinking to allow everybody to build in ocean squares without restrictions. Don't see point in them. Really, with EcoEng2 one can also raise ocean floor to make it a shelf. Another quite useless restriction.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

Net iteration of terraforming AI. This time it seems to at least do sane things with both improvements and roads. It seems to connect new bases rather quickly. At the same time it improves most advantageous squares. Also does not travel too much, doesn't not clump at a single base - more or less distributed across land.

Also quite good mix of mines, collectors, and forests. Didn't test advanced TF yet.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

Advanced terraforming - spreading out a bit on time scale?

I always found myself terraformed everything before EcoEng. Then just long wait with this huge formers fleet that becomes a burden. As soon as advanced terraforming options open I have to immediately double and triple my former fleet just to place these new improvements around. Huge work. Human may understand the fluctuation in formers demand but AI may not. So I am thinking - would it be better and more smooth transition to introduce these new terraforming options gradually and not all at once? This way both human and AI will have something to work on for the whole game without pauses and surges in demand.

I am thinking this sequence

aquifer
Introduce it quite early. It doesn't compete with other resources, serves as more roads, adds a little bit of energy that may be needed for early-mid game tech progress. It also introduces a little bit moisture here and there - good as a preparation for later condenser placement planning.

borehole
In WTP 0-2-6 version they are not incredible source of minerals but quite good for energy. They would serve as a third normal single tile terraforming option along with farm-collector (N+E), forest (N+M), mine (M). It'll give some minerals + energy for bases with already good nutrient supply. Nice but not overpowered option. Maybe just slightly better than rocky mine but not absolutely superior. They are also good early because collector-mirror fields are not yet established.

condenser
Base are growing and land has better coverage with worked squares. Time for mass area effects. In first quarter of the game they would just not work to their max power. Besides, extra nutrient in 9 squares is a very powerful tool. About close to mid game ocean colonies start to significantly outgrow land ones and this should help latter to keep on growth race. Moreover, bases become noticeably populated and growth slows down. So at this time nutrients are not that impacting but still good.

mirror
Bases grow even more and large middle part of your empire become almost covered with collectors. This is a time to use mirrors for their full potential.

raise/lower terrain
Don't know. I don't feel like it is super powered tool at any stage in the game. Slow and costs money. If anyone wants to build a bridge to other continent why stop them? Why wait for the 2/3 of the game and amass military to suddenly poor it unrestricted on other continent? If players want conflict - let them have it early and built it up gradually without all this suddenness. It is also useful to reshape landmass: close unwanted small lakes, adjust shoreline, create channels if one lacks access to other water region, etc.


Update

I think condensers and mirrors can be allowed at the same time. There is no much sense in separating them. They are both area affecting tools.
Terrain raise/lower can be offered quite early, though.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

I just tested new terraforming AI and noticed it eagerly build condensers, mirrors, aquifers but almost no boreholes. With their long build time and reduced mineral output in WTP (0-2-6) they are not that lucrative comparing to these mass area effect improvement. More reason to allow them early.

Of course, with different yield (like the one in vanilla) they may be very very attractive.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

Stumbled across another SMACX but/problem that was always there: incorrect path computation around ZOC. Due to that vehicle sent to destination across ZOC fields sometimes just stuck and cannot move. This is not directly related to terraforming. However, it needs to be fixed for formers to be able to get to their destination. It is especially relevant with a lot of fungal towers and alien units around.

Wrote a path calculating function that accounts for ZOC. Now it correctly sends formers to destination even if it requires circling around bunch of fungal towers to reach it. Of course, quite often terraforming needs change. So former got redirected to another location. However, it is still usable to let them not stuck in ZOC. In case a destination is completely unreachable due to ZOC coverage algorithm sends them to next best terraforming site. Tested it out and it works great.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

Borehole construction time is now does not match its reduced output (0-2-6). I am thinking to either cut the construction time or increase energy output a little like to 0-2-8 or 0-2-10. It should be still relatively strong improvement for that time investment but should not compete with rocky mine in minerals.

[lolada]

Borehole construction time is now does not match its reduced output (0-2-6). I am thinking to either cut the construction time or increase energy output a little like to 0-2-8 or 0-2-10. It should be still relatively strong improvement for that time investment but should not compete with rocky mine in minerals.

That was my first reaction as well. I though Boreholes would be ruined, but there's still usually a crappy tile for them so they are quite useful. That said due to how multipliers work I wouldn't go over 6 energy, its quite unbalanced. Once you have 8 or 10 yield with energy bank/ network nodes for example the faction that gets a tech runs away quickly.

On the other side terraforming time is really long, its as long as secret project build! I'd reduce that number maybe even to 16. Other improvements are built much faster except Aquifier i think. That one could be shortened as well.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

That was my first reaction as well. I though Boreholes would be ruined, but there's still usually a crappy tile for them so they are quite useful. That said due to how multipliers work I wouldn't go over 6 energy, its quite unbalanced. Once you have 8 or 10 yield with energy bank/ network nodes for example the faction that gets a tech runs away quickly.

On the other side terraforming time is really long, its as long as secret project build! I'd reduce that number maybe even to 16. Other improvements are built much faster except Aquifier i think. That one could be shortened as well.

It is incorrect to compare terraforming time to project build time. Yes, building one borehole takes long. However, with large former fleet you assign some part of them to boreholes and in 24 turns you get 20 of them. So the average game time you spend per terraforming item is quite small.

Energy overflow everybody talks about happens only at the very end of the game. Before that it is surprisingly not abundant. At least for AI factions. They build more mines and forests than collectors and even less collectors-mirrors fields and they do not massively raise land to improve energy output. Some of computer factions also has quite a small former fleet. So I don't think extra 2 energy (=1 raw lab = ~2 labs after multiplication) per borehole per 24 turn terraforming is going to push their research forward uncontrollably. Even if this happens we can adjust research cost to account for that but I don't think we'll ever notice that.

Borehole was only distinctive in vanilla as an overpowered item for long terraforming time. Other than that it is pretty unimaginative because there were already huge number of other pretty cool and innovative terraforming actions like fungus and forest. Reducing its mineral output made it not OP comparing to mine/condenser/mirror. Therefore, it is no longer remarkable in any way. I propose to move it slightly (just slightly) to OP side keeping it somehow remarkable.

If we cannot figure out how to make it remarkable I'd even return to its original output to keep it imbalanced but restrict construction location to some special places like specifically arid at lowest elevation (to be closer to mantle probably) instead of stupid no slope restriction. That would make game interesting as player constantly tries to convert them to high wet tiles to increase farm-collector output. With that restriction there will be need to place bases near such land and preserve it and making it so by lowering terrain!!! That would be interesting. 😉
In vanilla there is absolutely no need for lowering terrain anywhere on land or ocean! Waste.

As for aquifer I don't think its construction time is too long. It is super feature that adds extra output to the land without removing any existing items. Pretty OP already in my mind.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

Many confuse balance with equalization. Whereas, if anything, they are opposite things. Working on balance means working on game attractiveness to as many players as possible. Introducing as much distinct and unique and cool features so they do not shadow each other.

I like SMACX because it has tons or cool features already. The only problem is that just because of such diversity they quite often shadow each other producing inferior options. I just try to revive these underdogs to multiply game attractiveness tenfold. That is why it is easy to work with it as imagination part is already done before my time. 😄

Take aquifer/condenser/mirror, for example. They are very distinct/unique/unmatched features. They do not shadow any other improvement but complement them. It would be nice to have all of them like that. Even forest and fungus are pretty nice. They do not override conventional terraforming completely just complement it for barren terrain.

Borehole is not like that in this sense. It overrides rocky mine completely making it obsolete. I am trying to decouple them and keep their flavor intact at the same way. Borehole is already unique in output composition. No other improvement focuses on minerals+energy together.