SMAX - The Will to Power - mod

[Hagen0]

I have made a tech tree up to level 6 with your restrictions. Some techs had to be shifted by one level. I also spread out weapons and armor a bit more on purpose.

[Nexii]

My tree also ended up being 7 per level (up to level 11) and n-1 / n-2 prereqs. It has to narrow a bit at the end with more n-1 prereqs and less techs at level 12 and onward

Did a similar thing too so that I wouldn't hit the same branch for the second prereq.

A lot of additional work in matching up the techs logically to all the benefits. I think it's in a pretty good place although the order might only make sense to me lol. It's going to feel like playing a new game I think. It was very hard to place some technologies especially closer to the end. I used the lore and tech shorts to some extent as well.

My categories ended up being:
Explore: anything PSI, pop growth, pop control
Build: terraforming, energy, minerals
Discover: armor, defensive abilities, labs/research
Conquer: weapons, offensive abilities, chassis

[Hagen0]

Do you have a graphical representation?

[Nexii]

Unfortunately no, I did all the planning in Excel. There is the in-game graph you can click through but it doesn't really give a 'big picture'. I changed what many techs grant also, not just the ordering.

I wish there was a way to programatically graph the tree. Drawing it out would be a lot of manual effort.

Best bet to view it probably is in-game, just have to back your alphax.txt up first

[Hagen0]

If you have an Excel work sheet that would work.

[lolada]

@tnevoling
Movement is still bugged in v.58

first save:
Unit seems to be able to move diagonally on river tiles for < 1 movement point. In std game it can go so along the river, no shortcuts.

second save:
Somehow that Colony Pod in Halls of discipline can move 4+ tiles. Its weird like its rounding ?! on some tiles it spend 2/9 on other 3/9 points.

[Nexii]

Ok. Where there's just a # that's for n-2. For n-1 I wrote it out.

Had to redo it but your way was better for visualization.

[Hagen0]

I like a lot of it. Some things are hard to reassign like Eudaimonic and Needlejets. Currently, they are both tier 7 techs. In your version they are at 10 and 5, respectively which might be a bit much. Do youhave formers at a level 2 tech now or did you reassign them?

[Nexii]

Formers are B1 Industrial Base

Yea I have Eudaimonic late, after Cyber and TC. It's also very powerful (+2 grow, +2 planet, +2 econ, +2 research) with no downsides. It's either make future societies powerful and late or more tempered and earlier. I like the design of them being more powerful for now. I know a lot of people want them earlier, that's understandable too.

Air comes earlier but in general the armor techs come a little before the weapon techs now rather than after. That is to say it's hard to maintain 2:1... 3:2 or so seems more typical. I may also boost up AAA to 150% or 200%. Though I do have air units costing more that's negated by fusion reactors. With Yitzi costing I had it such that air was a lot more expensive at any reactor level, but that's gone now

[Hagen0]

One key aspect of balancing out Needlejets is to put Air Superiority well before Doctrine: Air Power so that factions without Air Power can fight Needlejets. 3:2 or 4:3 is what I'd like too for weapon:armor but Tim wants 1:1 and it's his call.

Edit: I wonder if it would be a good idea to make Formers available from the start. You sort of can't play the game without them. Would help Miriam a good deal.

[Nexii]

Yea I have to do some tweaking. Technically synthetic fossil fuels shouldn't get AAA, it should be on a discover tech (probably Optical Computers).

[Hagen0]

Not talking about AAA tracking. You need that too and it would be excellent on Optical Computers. I meant the SAM ability needed to attack flying targets. If you do not have that you just die vs needlejets even with AAA tracking mainly because you can't attack land units under a needlejet so they can just walk up to your bases with infantry or probes and there is absolutely nothing you can do about it.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

I have made a tech tree up to level 6 with your restrictions. Some techs had to be shifted by one level. I also spread out weapons and armor a bit more on purpose.

Looks nice!

Keep in mind, though, that this is not a generic requirement for tree building. You can use whatever rule or no rules at all. I picked this one just because it is simple to follow and it allows me to keep fixed number of nodes per level. It is also quite simple to track from tree point of view as both of your prerequisites are as near as possible.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

My tree also ended up being 7 per level (up to level 11) and n-1 / n-2 prereqs. It has to narrow a bit at the end with more n-1 prereqs and less techs at level 12 and onward

Did a similar thing too so that I wouldn't hit the same branch for the second prereq.

A lot of additional work in matching up the techs logically to all the benefits. I think it's in a pretty good place although the order might only make sense to me lol. It's going to feel like playing a new game I think. It was very hard to place some technologies especially closer to the end. I used the lore and tech shorts to some extent as well.

My categories ended up being:
Explore: anything PSI, pop growth, pop control
Build: terraforming, energy, minerals
Discover: armor, defensive abilities, labs/research
Conquer: weapons, offensive abilities, chassis

This is nice division. Pretty close to what I was thinking some time ago.

What is pop control? Drones control?

How do you actually assign technology to group. What parameter do you set for it to get into Explore or any other priority?

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

Unfortunately no, I did all the planning in Excel. There is the in-game graph you can click through but it doesn't really give a 'big picture'. I changed what many techs grant also, not just the ordering.

I wish there was a way to programatically graph the tree. Drawing it out would be a lot of manual effort.

Best bet to view it probably is in-game, just have to back your alphax.txt up first

I agree this is a lot of work. Especially, when you keep changing versions. I don't think there is a need. What one can get from this "big picture"? I use it to track a development to a single target technology. And, to be frank, it is not really such a big help in it. I always can check immediate prerequisites in game and 99% of the time this is what I only need. When I plan the tree I only need to know which level each tech is to make sure I place them right. Plus I make sure they are do not cluster too much. I.e. there is no easy way for some high level tech. However, the latter is impossible to catch visually, anyway. So I have a program for that.