SMAX - The Will to Power - mod

[bvanevery]

I suspect that a very low popularity of this mod is caused by wild changes to vanilla tech tree and few other aspects and most fans would rather play more familliar SMAC but with more challenge.

I think it's way simpler than that.  Tim hasn't been advertizing his work on r/4Xgaming very long.  And he hasn't finished it, despite saying he thinks he has.  And he disappeared for 3 months, which means he wasn't pushing his product for 3 months.  There's a reason I consistently release every month, it's to provide assurance and set a pattern for uptake.  Even then, uptake is slow.

Early game is awful with all these huge costs for everything

I have to admit, I did not like that.  This feeling of everything being extremely constrained and hard to get ahead.  By itself though, I could have accepted the challenge and continued onwards, doing what I can.  After all, I restrict things too in my mod, just not as severely.  Restrictions are necessary to force an experienced player to think of other ways to do things.  Nobody needs to do a clever pillaging strategy of maneuver if they can just storm the front gate and have everything.

For me the dealbreaker is the mindworm combat.  It doesn't work.  There's no consistency in what's happening, it's random.  Mindworms just march up to my early bases and destroy them, even when I build Sensor Arrays, train my units, and equip them with Hypnotic Trance.  There's no basic contract in the game as to what I'm supposed to do to defend myself from them.  I don't feel like being randomly abused despite having made preparations.  I did an AAR and stopped at the point of this abuse.  If Tim thinks this version of mindworms is good, well I don't, and won't be playing.  He can put that forth in the marketplace of ideas and see if other players think it's good.

[bvanevery]

The more cardinal solution would be just restrict total crawler yield for base same way as for satellites. This would put a stop on their unlimited spawning.

If you wanted to do lots of programming work... in a real industry, the utility of raw materials is restricted by the factories that can process them into manufactured goods.  You could tie the number of crawlers that can be used, to the various facilities that have been built in a city.  To process more mineral crawlers, you would need more factories.  To process more energy, you'd need more energy bonus facilities, such as Energy Banks, Tree Farms, Hybrid Forests.  I admit the game fiction goes a little haywire for energy, as you have to imagine some kind of biological processing, not just extracting oil from an ocean well.  So maybe it's just better to tie it to factories and be done with it.

Food, I guess a city's size is the implicit storage.  Tree farms again don't make much sense for that.  So perhaps your cap idea is best there.

[bvanevery]

Forest SHOULD NOT have mineral focus. But it is how it is in vanilla!

Is it really the problem that forests give 2 minerals at the beginning of the game, or that Tree Farms and Hybrid Forests provide way too many benefits later on.  You could work on the latter problem, since you're a binary modder.  I mean, why give +1 nutrient every forest square?  Why not a +25% or +10% food bonus?  Like "you're growing more walnuts" along with the killer fungal vines.

And why does a Tree Farm or Hybrid Forest have to give a +50% ECONOMY yield?  "Fungal coffee is a lucrative cash crop" ?

 

NERF THE EFFIN' TREES

You have the power.  Do it, do it, do it...

I'll be honest: in my mod, I solved all the minerals problems by pushing all the "minerals abuse" facilities later.  Like factories, crawlers, and boreholes.  This left me with Tree Farm and Hybrid Forest as the absolutely best things to do.  I'm not 100% fond of that, but I've accepted that, because I'm not a binary modder.  Progressions have to be kept under control or the game is a mess.  This is what I ended up with.

And I think trees look pretty on the map.  So I'm down with tree spam.  I keep my existing trees even if I have the Manifold Harmonics and +3 PLANET.  Sometimes I even plant new ones at that point.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

Go into discussion thread and contribute ideas there.
http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=21451.msg125136#msg125136

[bvanevery]

I "did", but time synch doesn't change how I responded above.  Tree Farms are not late game.  They are the beginning of the midgame.  Unless you worked them out very differently.

[scient]

Oh i built tons of probes - i actually think i build hundreds in single game . CoC is good i like that - its really worth it. One has to build ton of probes or you are dead on transcend. I actually think AI is doing itself a bit of disfavor by building too many armored probes - but thats hard to change. AI is using tons of probes to attack mine - they use expensive armored cruiser probes and suicide into 0-1-1 cheap infantry probes. Defending probe has +50% territory bonus. So in that sense it hurts them badly but the do apply constant pressure.
But i must say armor probes come great against other units - and AI is bated to attack probes so they work great AI vs AI.

Note: armored probes have one great stupid weaknes - if they are under another unit - and they are not main defender. If unit dies probes are dead. I killed multiple times 2-3-4 neutronium armored probes this way - its ton of minerals wasted. Poor AI.

Btw i have a question:

Why does AI can subvert my bases when i have +4 Probe rating? I understood you have Scient patch in your mod - and its supposed to fix this issue - as i understand it. I checked AI did not have ench. probes (yet) - they should not be able to do that. They had Hunter-Seeker but thats irrelevant as far as i know. Its quite a big pain not to be able to use +Probe rating to stop mind-probes. (i have save games i could double check this if its needed)

ps. I'll try to make my case about secret projects - i see the logic in your reasoning - it has pluses and minuses. I will describe what happens in my games in new thread and why i think that super expensive projects beat the purpose. There's no need to change anything quickly we can discuss and see where it ends.

Could you attach the saved games with a couple notes about which base(s) get subverted by who? Doesn't have to be anything detailed. I'll have a look and see if there was something faulty with my patch or something else at play. Thanks!

[lolada]

Oh i built tons of probes - i actually think i build hundreds in single game . CoC is good i like that - its really worth it. One has to build ton of probes or you are dead on transcend. I actually think AI is doing itself a bit of disfavor by building too many armored probes - but thats hard to change. AI is using tons of probes to attack mine - they use expensive armored cruiser probes and suicide into 0-1-1 cheap infantry probes. Defending probe has +50% territory bonus. So in that sense it hurts them badly but the do apply constant pressure.
But i must say armor probes come great against other units - and AI is bated to attack probes so they work great AI vs AI.

Note: armored probes have one great stupid weaknes - if they are under another unit - and they are not main defender. If unit dies probes are dead. I killed multiple times 2-3-4 neutronium armored probes this way - its ton of minerals wasted. Poor AI.

Btw i have a question:

Why does AI can subvert my bases when i have +4 Probe rating? I understood you have Scient patch in your mod - and its supposed to fix this issue - as i understand it. I checked AI did not have ench. probes (yet) - they should not be able to do that. They had Hunter-Seeker but thats irrelevant as far as i know. Its quite a big pain not to be able to use +Probe rating to stop mind-probes. (i have save games i could double check this if its needed)

ps. I'll try to make my case about secret projects - i see the logic in your reasoning - it has pluses and minuses. I will describe what happens in my games in new thread and why i think that super expensive projects beat the purpose. There's no need to change anything quickly we can discuss and see where it ends.

Could you attach the saved games with a couple notes about which base(s) get subverted by who? Doesn't have to be anything detailed. I'll have a look and see if there was something faulty with my patch or something else at play. Thanks!

Here i think i got it - its bugged on same turn when changed. Probe rating upgrades turn later. If you change SE to +3 or +4 and disband probes in my seabases AI will mindropbe them on turn end. Looks like its working ok if you defend the bases 1 turn, then rating kicks in. Shame i didnt know

[Nexii]

Most SEs don't technically update until your next turn. It's a bit confusing because POLICE, ECON show their effects in your cities right away. I guess it's more manageable that way. Still it's much less harsh than Civ2 with its Anarchy period of no government

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

Most SEs don't technically update until your next turn. It's a bit confusing because POLICE, ECON show their effects in your cities right away. I guess it's more manageable that way. Still it's much less harsh than Civ2 with its Anarchy period of no government

Not most but all. POLICE, ECON show their effect right away but they contribute to effect in the beginning of next turn.
Essentially, what you see in your bases now is going to applied on next turn.
It is confusion, I agree.
😕

[Nexii]

It's a bit funny because I had the same thing occur when I was testing COC and MC immunity. I set Data Angels to get +2 PROBE using the campaign editor free switch. Apparently even changing it that way doesn't take effect until the following turn. Something I came to learn is that if you look at a faction's SEs in social engineering (next turn) it can differ from the diplomacy screen (current)

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

It's a bit funny because I had the same thing occur when I was testing COC and MC immunity. I set Data Angels to get +2 PROBE using the campaign editor free switch. Apparently even changing it that way doesn't take effect until the following turn. Something I came to learn is that if you look at a faction's SEs in social engineering (next turn) it can differ from the diplomacy screen (current)

Whatever you see on SE screen for yourself or for whoever else using editor as if they are looking at their SE screen. That shows what will be applied next turn.
Whatever you see for others on their SE info like diplomatic screen shows their current effect (the one that was applied at the beginning of their turn).

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

# Version 49

* Condenser does not multiply nutrient yield.
* Soil Enricher does not multiply nutrient yield and instead adds 1.
* Borehole yield is 0-4-4.

[lolada]

Yeah i felt stupid first i tried to reproduce the bug then i couldn't. But i knew i was startled when AI took my base - i was reloading 15-20 mins last night before i figured out what happened. I lost one base due to bad RNG.. said screw it base is ruined anyway it doesn't matter. Then i decided to turn probe rating on to +4 to avoid this probe torture for a few turns at least and then again I lost the base. Wth moment.. so i said screw it its bugged (as i read somewhere +4 probe is bugged) and just replayed few turns from last save and placed 2+ probes from then on in every base. Been doing that since. I didn't realize Scient patch was in at a time and later i thought it wasn't working lel. In few of my last games I got Hunter-Seeker so i never cared for details. My bad.

Anyway this maybe doesn't even need fix, once you know how it works its easy to play around; it may be obnoxious to try to change it. I've also noticed Planet rating doesn't upgrade combat odds on same turn. I saw food and minerals change display on same turn - but i guess that applies afterwards.

# Version 49

* Condenser does not multiply nutrient yield.
* Soil Enricher does not multiply nutrient yield and instead adds 1.
* Borehole yield is 0-4-4.

I can update my current v. 47 game i presume and continue with save? I was gonna test a bit forests and morgan and some other stuff. Gonna be interesting to see how this nutrient and borehole thing affects the ai and game pace.

Btw you have now couple of errors in readme file - I noticed Command Center is 60/1 in game, Brood Pit is 120/3 (like that more than 120/4).. you wrote here and in readme its 60/2.. you also have mistakes in readme with new special projects saying its 60 x 10 bases = and right side is 800.. there are 3-4 of these typos now.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

I can update my current v. 47 game i presume and continue with save? I was gonna test a bit forests and morgan and some other stuff. Gonna be interesting to see how this nutrient and borehole thing affects the ai and game pace.

I can update my current v. 47 game i presume and continue with save? I was gonna test a bit forests and morgan and some other stuff. Gonna be interesting to see how this nutrient and borehole thing affects the ai and game pace.

I am changing functionality only. It is supposed to be save compatible. I myself keep updating versions and then continue from the save without problems. However, keep in mind that problems are still possible. Due to change in functionality you may end up with some impossible state that will never happen under new rules and then game wouldn't know how to handle it, etc. This is infinitesimal probability, though.
Anyway, store you previous game folder completely (save included) just in case.

Btw you have now couple of errors in readme file - I noticed Command Center is 60/1 in game, Brood Pit is 120/3 (like that more than 120/4).. you wrote here and in readme its 60/2.. you also have mistakes in readme with new special projects saying its 60 x 10 bases = and right side is 800.. there are 3-4 of these typos now.

Yep. Multiple hasty updates. Thank you for catching them.
You also may miss few updates. I slapped a lot of them in past days. Readme should match the latest.

Version 50
* Command Center cost/maint is 6/1. Don't know why I made it 6/2 before. It actually adjusted in game automatically to the level of reactor.

# Version 47
* Brood Pit cost/maint is 12/3. Updated in readme too.

Fixed SP costs to be in mineral rows.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

Here you go!

# Version 51

* Default unit morale is Very Green.
* Forest terraforming time is 8 turns.
* Hologram Theatre cost/maint is 6/2.
* AI rushes SP when they can.