SMAX - The Will to Power - mod

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

Finally. I am happy to include the work of few past weeks into main release. It is still relatively new and it is huge work. That is why I cautiously disabled it by default. Feel free to try it out.
I will keep improving it in future. However, it feels mature enough for first production iteration.


# Version 67

* New AI terraforming algorithm. See readme for notable changes. Off by default. Set ai_useWTPAlgorithms=1 to enable it.

# AI Terraforming

New AI terraforming algorithm replacing Thinker's. These are few notable changes among many.

* Works best tiles first.
* Properly selects best basic improvement option between rocky mine, farm-mine, farm-collector, forest.
* Quickly connects new bases to road network.
* Tries to prevent population loss by emphasizing nutrient development around poorly fed bases.
* Tends not to build forest/kelp and not to remove fungus next to existing forest/kelp due to its potential spreading.
* Properly places aquifer 2 squares from existing rivers to maximize river coverage.
* Properly places condenser to match existing rainfall pattern to maximize rainfall coverage.
* Properly evaluates additional benefit of condenser/mirror to be used by nearby bases.
* Prefers better improvement with equal completion time (construction + travel).
* Prefers quicker improvement with equal benefit (shorter construction time + less travel).
* Redistributes former orders to minimize construction + travel time. Takes former abilities (fungicide, super) and speed into account.
* Checks existing improvements and don't build more of them if equal of better one is still unused around base.

* Doesn't plant fungus.
* Doesn't raise/lower terrain.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

Question about sensors.

I removed their defensive bonus just because human obviously destroy them first before base assault. They are relatively short range and easy to destroy with either artillery or just direct infiltration on enemy territory with help of probes or even with air units. Lame. Therefore they became quite useless without defense bonus and with their short sight range.
The territory defense bonus I've introduced replaces sensor defense bonus. So we are covered in defense bonus area. However, sensors are still there to build and we may as well give this feature some mean.

Defense bonus can be returned to it to make them valuable again if we can fix their flaw somehow else. Some thoughts on this. Feel free to express yours.

One thing can be done is to keep it as is without defense bonus but increase their sight range to turn it to great detector (what it should be based on its name). Like 10-20 range sight. This way they can be placed close to border and can see far out of own territory and inform about converging enemy forces. This allows organizing countermeasures which is much better than 25% defense bonus. This would be especially useful in ocean to detect fast approaching enemy vessels.

Another way to protect them from destruction is just to make them indestructible. End of story. 🤣
When land ownership changes they are automatically destroyed so conqueror doesn't get defense benefit from counter attacks.

Another way to protect them somehow is to don't let air unit destroying improvements at all. That makes penetrating enemy territory behind the base before attacking it problematic.

Another way is to make them long range and give them defense bonus. This way sensors deep in the territory will benefit border bases as well.


Out of these the option with extended range and no defense appeals to me most. Least amount of changes. There is no need to destroy them on approach anymore. The bonus is quite good too - they will reveal all units even those hiding in fungus. It will also be a great way to uncover the map early on. Especially over the impassable obstacles like channels or beyond non pact borders, etc.

[Tayta Malikai]

Hi there.

A friend and I are thinking of playing a PBEM game using this mod. Such a game would no doubt take weeks or months to come to fruition; however, I understand that this mod is still in development and new versions are coming out quite frequently.

Would you say that the current version is stable and complete enough to play a game with?

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

The mod main idea was completed long ago. In this regard all combat related things were done in Version 47. I keep adding features just because original game is a bottomless pit of bugs and because people keep talking/asking about some illogical things to change. Check the changelog.

I believe Version 64 should be stable. After that I merged with Thinker 2.0 and then modified terraforming. Both are pretty big changes. Both do not directly affect game play experience. So you can safely skip them.

Also lolada is playing it now. Look at his post: http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=21438.msg124407#msg124407. Confirm with him which version is he playing and how stable it is.

I understand PBEM but how do you play SMACX this way? Do you enter editor more and reproduce your opponent faction state? This could be pain to control every base and reposition every unit.

[Tayta Malikai]

Hmm, I do like some of the features that Thinker 2.0 added, so we might end up playing a version past 64 depending on what my friend thinks. Thanks for the response anyway, sounds like it should work just fine with regards to the main features.

The game actually does have a PBEM mode; I believe it was added in one of the later official patches. You set up the game like you would a single-player, adding the requisite number of human players (the rest will be AIs). Then you play your turn as normal, and when you finish, the game prompts you to save and exit, at which point you can send the save file to the next player, who loads up the game and plays their turn, and so on.

It's a little rough in some places (you can't trade bases with other players, Council votes are a bit quirky, probe teams are bugged in that the attacker gets to choose whether to provoke vendetta or not, and actually eliminating players requires them to commit suicide by obliterating their bases), and it relies on a degree of house rules and honour system to run well, but it does run pretty well, all things considered!

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

Interesting. Never knew that. It would be fun to play all 7 human players, I guess. 😂

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

# Version 69

* Bases contribute about 50% of their production to secret project construction. Contribution proportion is configurable.
* Every turn the popup shows project completion percentage for each project that was using bases contribution. Neat!

Finally! A long awaited feature (by myself too).
All factions (human included) bases contribute some proportion of their production to the project. For multiple projects only the one in the oldest base get this contribution. Proportion is configurable and can be turned back to zero to disable it completely. Now AI with their appalling unit handling does not need to rush them with crawlers. Project get help from all bases across all continents. Great help to AI. This also helps human in the same way. However, the option of helping project with crawlers is there too if human wants to rush them even faster.

Since project progress may be quite fast with such contribution I display a popup with exact percentage of project completion every turn. I found it very nice and informative. Much more useful than vanilla last minute warning. I don't consider this a cheat as anyone with infiltration still sees completion progress. It is a matter of convenience reminder.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

I plan to work now on major tech tree redesign. That'll take long. So if anyone want to squeeze a small last minute fix - tell now.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

Based on feedback people value meaningful connections in tech tree more than keeping well known tech-feature associations. So I plan to keep most sane vanilla connection in the tree and then assign feature to technologies as I see fit. This will break a lot of associations but this is what people want, I guess.

I will keep only meaningful connection. Plus I may introduce new ones between relevant technologies. I also can swap the order if there is a reason. Here is the list below. Let me know if it makes sense.

doctrines

Doctrine: Flexibility - Doctrine: Mobility - Doctrine: Loyalty - Doctrine: Initiative - Adaptive Doctrine - Doctrine: Air Power

Flexibility goes first as ocean exploration is critical while fast land units is not.

centauri and alien

Centauri Ecology - Progenitor Psych - Field Modulation - Centauri Empathy - Bioadaptive Resonance - Centauri Meditation - Centauri Genetics - Centauri Psi - Sentient Resonance - Secrets of Alpha Centauri - Secrets of the Manifolds - String Resonance

I am mixing them because they are sort of interconnected in vanilla already. It is like a mix of what human race learn about planet sentient life and what aliens already know about it. Let me know if someone feel like they should not be connected at all.

computers

Information Networks - Planetary Networks - Polymorphic Software - Cyberethics - Optical Computers - Pre-Sentient Algorithms - Digital Sentience - Self-Aware Machines

I could move some of them if needed to reposition some features.

industry/economics

Industrial Base - Industrial Economics - Adaptive Economics - Industrial Automation - Environmental Economics - Planetary Economics - Industrial Nanorobotics

biology

Biogenetics - Gene Splicing - Neural Grafting - Bio-Engineering - Biomachinery - Retroviral Engineering

science

Applied Physics
Nonlinear Mathematics
High Energy Chemistry
Synthetic Fossil Fuels
Superconductor
Fusion Power
Advanced Subatomic Theory
Applied Relativity
Unified Field Theory
Superstring Theory
Graviton Theory
Applied Gravitonics
Photon/Wave Mechanics
Quantum Power
Quantum Machinery
Singularity Mechanics
Temporal Mechanics
Probability Mechanics
Super Tensile Solids

There are too many of them. Most likely they won't be in that specific line. I can also split it on "pure science" and "applications".

psychology

Social Psych - Secrets of the Human Brain - Homo Superior - The Will to Power

nanotech

Nanominiaturization - Industrial Nanorobotics - Matter Editation - Matter Compression - N-Space Compression

[Tayta Malikai]

We started playing the PBEM game using version 69, and I'd like to report a pretty major bug in versions 67 and above.

For no explicable reason, I keep losing money every turn. The SE and F3 screens claim I should make ~6 credits a turn, but when it's my turn I don't get any. Last turn I got a nice windfall of 20 credits for selling a comm frequency, and this turn it was gone again.

Shame on me for not taking the advice to play with an earlier version, I guess, but I've no idea how a bug like this could arise from editing the AI terraforming algorithms.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

No worries. First send me your save. I'll check it out.

This is most likely not terraforiming AI as it applies to AI factions only. I believe it is new hurry production feature that I introduced recently. I'll let you know after save analyze.

I also believe all features are runtime so they should be save compatible. You can save game and stash whole directory aside just to be extra safe. Then install earlier version. It should continue working without problems. That is in theory. I tried this few times during debugging and didn't notice any problems. However, anything can happen in first time.

Another thing is multiplayer. I believe you are first to test it out in this mode. Nobody did this before. Thank you for testing it and I will try to fix whatever problems you discover. Just send them over.

[Tayta Malikai]

Sure, here are the relevant save files. I started noticing this bug around 2130, but it might be apparent earlier.

I'll PM you my password, since the game is ongoing. Note to open multiplayer saves, you need to go through the multiplayer menu and select PBEM mode.

I've since installed version 66 and so far the bug is not present.

And no worries, like I said, I understand the mod's still in development and bugs can happen.

I'll open a new thread soon to document how the game goes.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

Fix version 69.1.

Thank you for opening the multiplayer for me. I never knew it existed. It stares at me from the main menu but my eyes slip over it for 20 years. It would be fun to play. 😊

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

I swapped appearance time of Sealurk and Isle of the Deep (in this order). Previously I kept their technology associations and swapped technology positions in the tree. In this release I do the opposite: keep technologies in the order they appeared in vanilla but rearranged associations: Field Modulation
 -> Mind Worms, Centauri Meditation -> Sealurk, Centauri Genetics -> Isle of the Deep, Centauri Psi -> Locusts of Chiron.
Hope this is fine too.
 

[Tayta Malikai]

Fix version 69.1.

Thank you for opening the multiplayer for me. I never knew it existed. It stares at me from the main menu but my eyes slip over it for 20 years. It would be fun to play. 😊

Kudos for coming up with a fix so quickly!

And heh, no worries. Maybe we could try to round up some other players on this forum. I'd offer to play a 1v1, but I'm already playing one and it's occupying me enough for now. Maybe when the turns start to slow down, I'd be open to starting another one.

I would not recommend playing such a game with Will to Power, though. Simply put, it's one thing to spend 20 turns building a colony pod by yourself, it's another thing to spend 20 turns building a colony pod while having to bounce saves back and forth.