SMAX - The Will to Power - mod

[Nevill]

I didn't get it. Why captured base should get a Perimeter Defence and a Network Node??? Are you describing two different cases depending on who captured it?

All (most) bases captured from the University have Network Nodes as part of the University's perk. If the base didn't have a node for some reason (probe sabotage?), it is sometimes rebuilt upon capture (could be a bug, could be a feature).

All bases captured by the Hive get Perimeter Defences as part of the Hive's perk.

We have two cases combined here.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

Sorry, this one is a false alarm. For some reason collateral damage is disabled for tiles that contain Colony Pods. Vanilla behavior. Live and learn.

I'm afraid our lives are not that long to learn everything about AC. 🤣😟

Since we touched on the subject of collateral... can you clarify when non-combat units such as formers or probes are damaged or destroyed once combat units in the tile are killed off? Sometimes formers receive damage, and sometimes they are completely annihilated. Sometimes you can defend a base with a dozen formers, and sometimes the defenders are wiped out on a third attack by a copter. What gives?

An unarmored probe is always destroyed if the base tile has no combat units left. What about an armored one?

I had impression all unarmored probes are destroyed once last non probe unit is destroyed in tile (base included). Formers seem to behave like any other combat units receiving their collateral damage as usual. Beyond that I didn't test it extensively and it seems that you already know more than me. You should update wiki article on this site. It was an interesting finding.

[Tayta Malikai]

Nevill and I finished another test game of the mod, version 122. Game was over by 2150 after three days of gameplay. See, not all MP games require months upon months of play!

I didn't notice native life spawns being significantly more frequent. Barely any mind worms on the mainland. There were a couple IotDs, but those I believe were spawned by us mucking around in the fungus. The optimal way of dealing with isolated worm attacks remains a scout turtling inside the base, which as I've mentioned before I'm not a fan of.

-SUPPORT for Planned hurts, but it was and remains the clear early game choice, so it's understandable. The -INDUSTRY for Police State deterred me from picking it, but I'm particularly sensitive to those penalties, and it was too early to have a lot of units out, so I didn't yet determine when a good trade-off point was.

Field Modulation (E2) really needs something else to incentivize picking it. Drill to Aquifer isn't relevant at this stage of the game, as it is both expensive and mostly benefits factions with lots of worked tiles; one is still trying to put down enough farms, mines, and roads. And the two techs it gates are both further in the tree (tiers 4 and 5), and unlock less obviously useful things.

I'm not sure what would make a good pick though. My idea was making 3-pulse armour accessible there (ECM is already unlocked at B1, and 4 armour at B2), but I recall you're not a fan of the special armours.

Speaking of armour, I can't help but feel you might've gone a bit overboard in buffing defense values. With 4 armour available at tier 2, buffed by the territorial +50% and possibly even further by a base's +50%, it would be virtually impossible to break through the enemy's defense with anything less than 6 attack (C5) backed by nerve gas. And by then the enemy would've upgraded to 6 armour available at B4.

Of course, this may be intentional as an AI buff, in which case there's not much I can say, seeing as we agreed to develop the two realms separately.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

Nevill and I finished another test game of the mod, version 122. Game was over by 2150 after three days of gameplay. See, not all MP games require months upon months of play!

This is like 50 turns? Interesting. Was it just somebody early luck or this is how dumb AI is?

I didn't notice native life spawns being significantly more frequent. Barely any mind worms on the mainland. There were a couple IotDs, but those I believe were spawned by us mucking around in the fungus.

The generation code is very convoluted. I believe there is a limit to it. Meaning it is not possible to generate 10 times more worms than in vanilla. Probably 2-3 times at most. Their spawning spots are also quite dependent on map configuration. Some factions are affected more than others. It is quite difficult to quantify.

The optimal way of dealing with isolated worm attacks remains a scout turtling inside the base, which as I've mentioned before I'm not a fan of.

Don't understand. You are not fun of protecting your bases at all?

-SUPPORT for Planned hurts, but it was and remains the clear early game choice, so it's understandable. The -INDUSTRY for Police State deterred me from picking it, but I'm particularly sensitive to those penalties, and it was too early to have a lot of units out, so I didn't yet determine when a good trade-off point was.

I'll check the Nevill's table you posted somewhere in this tread and try to match it. I am for any particular configuration here as long as they are more or less usable. The big problem with many of them is that they can be very strong early but wimpy later and vice versa.

Planned is strong early with ++GROWTH. And then it diminishes in value as growth value declines slightly as game progress but --EFFIC becomes a huge penalty. Adding -SUPPORT may level it out. Make it slightly less strong initially.

For Police State I think you were the victim of your emotions. It is still clearly very strong early choice. Merely ++SUPPORT and ++POLICE give you two free support police units = two less drones. It is twice cheaper than Recreation Common and requires no maintenance/support. Or you can employ them on top of RC thus having two extra workers without any pacifying investments. For base size 4 it is about 50% secured intake in nutrients, minerals, energy combined. Compare with +10% of minerals only.

Field Modulation (E2) really needs something else to incentivize picking it. Drill to Aquifer isn't relevant at this stage of the game, as it is both expensive and mostly benefits factions with lots of worked tiles; one is still trying to put down enough farms, mines, and roads. And the two techs it gates are both further in the tree (tiers 4 and 5), and unlock less obviously useful things.

Sure. I am taking suggestions. This is the problem of many technologies out there. Even when I tried to distribute feature more evenly there are still some perceived less desirable.

I would disagree about Drilling to Aquifer. I believe it is in place. Even though it may not be needed at massive scale it may be quite useful situational. And when it is useful it is the most useful early advanced improvement. See for yourself.
1. Absolutely free energy on top of what you have already without any penalty attached. That is often quite needed to pay the bill early.
2. Instant free roads when you formers are busy with yield terraforming mostly. Invaluable for speeding up expansion. Beating opponent by one turn in claiming territory - what a sweet taste of victory! 😁
3. Occasionally river tiles increase their moisture level = extra free nutrient.
On average you get like +3 energy, +3 roads, +1 nutrient with just one 18 turns drill operation. Of course, not all these tiles will be useful immediately but compare this to corresponding conventional improvement timing: 3-9 for road + 4-8 for energy + 4 for farm = 16.
Besides, it's not that much of a burden to build 1-2 extra formers those can do this in parallel. I often even re-purpose existing ones from bases not in immediate need of more improvements.

I'm not sure what would make a good pick though. My idea was making 3-pulse armour accessible there (ECM is already unlocked at B1, and 4 armour at B2), but I recall you're not a fan of the special armours.

I don't mind a special armor just don't see much use in extra item. They are not all used up in every game anyway. If anything, it would be better to reduce number of weapons. They are popping up too often.
Theory and practice are different things. Game development varies quite strong. The weapon-armor development progression I charted on paper is quite jagged in each particular game. Extra smoothing on a paper won't help. It may seems 4 armor is a bit early at level 2 and I have tried to move it later but I have discovered that early weapons get discovered much faster than armors - mostly because some factions are focused on conquer technologies. With cheap early tech cost it is pretty easy to pass along this 2-3-4-5 weapon progression and I quite often see it happening. This is 6 weapon and 6 armor that may not get discovered for quite some time. Anything before that is a quick run not worthy of over balancing.

Speaking of armour, I can't help but feel you might've gone a bit overboard in buffing defense values. With 4 armour available at tier 2, buffed by the territorial +50% and possibly even further by a base's +50%, it would be virtually impossible to break through the enemy's defense with anything less than 6 attack (C5) backed by nerve gas. And by then the enemy would've upgraded to 6 armour available at B4.

Of course, this may be intentional as an AI buff, in which case there's not much I can say, seeing as we agreed to develop the two realms separately.

You are still using vanilla thinking where even slightest edge in combat strength was everything. In WTP (with slower healing and more randomized combat) two 2-armor units are about the same as one 4-armor one. The latter being just slightly better in terms of combat performance and maintenance. So discovering 4-armor is not a double jump. Maybe like 20-30% jump or so. With limited early production you can just build so many combined armor worth units.

I often caught myself thinking the same way when I have quickly discovered 2 and 4 armors but not prototyped them yet. Then someone unexpectedly invaded my territory and I need to scramble for defense. My vanilla experience tells me to prototype and build few 4-armor units because anything weaker is just garbage! And then I tell myself - wait, I am playing different game where this problem is leveled up already. So I start prototyping and building weaker units in larger quantities and it works out much better. I can build first of them quicker and, therefore, respond quicker to slow down invasion wave and don't let it approach my production centers. Weaker units are also flexible. With just 2 of 4-armor units I am guessing which key points to defend risking to miss an attack in unexpected direction. With 4 of 2-armor units I spread them widely covering all bases for first response protection which is often succeeds against few units opportunity attacks. And if not I can pull in the rest of them from vicinity to close the gap. With fewer of stronger units I can save couple of bases but the rest of my empire can be devastated. So it is a situational choice. More viable strategies to choose from.

The territory bonus could be reduced to 25%. I don't mind. However, this is practically only thing stopping invaders from roaming victim territory. It seems that bases are strong but territory is weak. Would you agree to reduce base defense instead? Now it is 50%-100%-150% for different levels of defense, correspondingly. With territory bonus (+50%) already in effect, would it be fine to reduce base defenses to 0%-50%-100% instead? This effectively reduces base defense against natives, though, as territory bonus is not applicable to them. Need some thinking.

And yes, this was intentional as AI buff too as you reported yourself that you still can cut through even this tough defense.

In human-human game the mere 30% economical advantage is a sure win even though it may be delayed by defense overemphasis. In single player game AI factions powers could differ by 100% easily due to starting conditions. Therefore the difference in bonuses. I'd say human-human combat don't need any flat defense bonuses except tactical ones (terrain, bunker) as humans beat each other on tactics mostly.

[lolada]

The territory bonus could be reduced to 25%. I don't mind. However, this is practically only thing stopping invaders from roaming victim territory.

This is correct - i think this  bonus is important because it allows AI to counter player. You can't roam AI land carelessly you get killed - gotta plan your movement and bring in defensive cover. I would not change this.

would it be fine to reduce base defenses to 0%-50%-100% instead?

Possibly, base defense is likely a bit too strong. You can change it slightly and playtest a bit. Its better to err on high def side - as if you make it too low it goes towards vanilla easy - get a few rovers and blitz AI. Here one really wants infantry for those +25% base attack. So don't lower too much.

One shot from my game regarding terraforming. AI should put more emphasis on removing fungus, they like to road it : ). Checked inside their bases fungus yield is minimal. Its Miriam after all she starts with negative planet. edit: Ps. rechecked - save in attachment. Its funny  AI is actually working all improved tiles. I must say I am impressed, i might have complained too quickly. . I thought there's more fungus tiles.. that fungus nutrient bonus triggered me  ^^.

They are currently working only 1 unimproved tile in land base - i bet they'll improve it soon. One sea base is working some 1N ocean tiles, but the other one has tiles improved  They seem to like mines thats ok i guess. Interesting.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

Let's keep territory at 50% then. At least for single player.

About base defense. I think 50,100,150 are pretty minimal numbers. Bases are extremely valuable not only because they are production centers but also because they exert territory bonus around themselves! So having them defended at 50-100% higher than surrounding territory is normal. You are forgetting about artillery, man. Everybody are. Serious assailant probably outnumbers the victim. So they sooner or later achieve artillery superiority and then halve unit strength in bases for free of charge! Then relative strength of defenders at base against attackers assuming equal weapon-armor and all bonus combined (territory + intrinsic, PD, TF) will just turn to 1.1, 1.5, 1.9, correspondingly. So no economical advantage is needed to conquer faction without PDs and just 50% economical advantage against faction covered with PDs. This is edge of snowballing.

As far as I noticed, they place mines and harness on ocean about 50-50. It may vary slightly but never only one or another. Which is smart, I presume.

[Tayta Malikai]

This is like 50 turns? Interesting. Was it just somebody early luck or this is how dumb AI is?

Mostly luck, a bit of the quirks of playing MP.

I was University, Nevill was Hive. In the 2120s we both learned from pacts with Morgan that we were on coasts across a relatively narrow ocean from each other; not long after we had both probed each other.

My starting location was pretty sweet, 2 rocky mineral bonuses and rivers all near each other. If I was smarter at the time, I would've beelined RecTanks first thing and gotten a base with 20+ minerals in the 2130s. Nevill took a look at my setup, decided he couldn't compete with that, and threw everything into building a task force of 3x-1-2 nerve gas impact rovers to transport across the sea and wreak havoc on my bases.

My defense was not good enough, some poor decisions were made, and by 2150 he had his rovers on both ends of my territory, ready to cut all my 1-pop bases to pieces. I decided to surrender at that point, since even if I beat off the attack somehow, he still had control of the seas and I had no way of getting to him. So the game ended in 2150.

The AIs were basically irrelevant to the game, except for the Believers starting right next to me and posing a fatal distraction. My advantage in tech and tactics would've allowed me to steamroll them early, if Nevill had allowed me - indeed, I knew I had to attack them early, before they could build any proper forces.

Save game is attached if you feel like looking at it. Password is "raygun".

I'll check the Nevill's table you posted somewhere in this tread and try to match it. I am for any particular configuration here as long as they are more or less usable. The big problem with many of them is that they can be very strong early but wimpy later and vice versa.

Planned is strong early with ++GROWTH. And then it diminishes in value as growth value declines slightly as game progress but --EFFIC becomes a huge penalty. Adding -SUPPORT may level it out. Make it slightly less strong initially.

For Police State I think you were the victim of your emotions. It is still clearly very strong early choice. Merely ++SUPPORT and ++POLICE give you two free support police units = two less drones. It is twice cheaper than Recreation Common and requires no maintenance/support. Or you can employ them on top of RC thus having two extra workers without any pacifying investments. For base size 4 it is about 50% secured intake in nutrients, minerals, energy combined. Compare with +10% of minerals only.

I know, I basically said as much in my post. Those weren't meant to be complaints about the configuration, I just wanted to convey how I felt about making such a choice. I didn't say it wasn't a positive thing.

Don't understand. You are not fun of protecting your bases at all?

My issue with it is that it's too passive. If the baseline odds of a psi-attack are 1:1 and there is no possibility of a reward, why would I send my unit out to attack first and risk getting killed, when I can have him idle and gain the benefit of +50% from being in a base? And of course, once Trance units come around, this calculus only strengthens.

Unfortunately, while vanilla encouraged attacking first, it also made it too easy to farm worms for money. >_> So I guess there's no easy solution for this one.

I would disagree about Drilling to Aquifer. I believe it is in place. Even though it may not be needed at massive scale it may be quite useful situational. And when it is useful it is the most useful early advanced improvement. See for yourself.

I would point out that Drill to Aquifer also becomes a liability once global warming turns river tiles into deathtraps.

But sure, maybe one is just meant to come back and pick it up later once they're in a position to use it. I can understand that.

You are still using vanilla thinking where even slightest edge in combat strength was everything. In WTP (with slower healing and more randomized combat) two 2-armor units are about the same as one 4-armor one. The latter being just slightly better in terms of combat performance and maintenance. So discovering 4-armor is not a double jump. Maybe like 20-30% jump or so. With limited early production you can just build so many combined armor worth units.

I often caught myself thinking the same way when I have quickly discovered 2 and 4 armors but not prototyped them yet. Then someone unexpectedly invaded my territory and I need to scramble for defense. My vanilla experience tells me to prototype and build few 4-armor units because anything weaker is just garbage! And then I tell myself - wait, I am playing different game where this problem is leveled up already. So I start prototyping and building weaker units in larger quantities and it works out much better. I can build first of them quicker and, therefore, respond quicker to slow down invasion wave and don't let it approach my production centers. Weaker units are also flexible. With just 2 of 4-armor units I am guessing which key points to defend risking to miss an attack in unexpected direction. With 4 of 2-armor units I spread them widely covering all bases for first response protection which is often succeeds against few units opportunity attacks. And if not I can pull in the rest of them from vicinity to close the gap. With fewer of stronger units I can save couple of bases but the rest of my empire can be devastated. So it is a situational choice. More viable strategies to choose from.

I don't think I have ever been in a situation where I had to pick and choose which bases to defend from AI attacks. It's usually pretty predictable when and where they will attack from.

I'd also protest that I did in fact build "lesser" ECM scouts and 2-defenders this game when I had 4-defense available! It just wasn't enough to save me from Nevill this game.

You are forgetting about artillery, man. Everybody are. Serious assailant probably outnumbers the victim. So they sooner or later achieve artillery superiority and then halve unit strength in bases for free of charge! Then relative strength of defenders at base against attackers assuming equal weapon-armor and all bonus combined (territory + intrinsic, PD, TF) will just turn to 1.1, 1.5, 1.9, correspondingly. So no economical advantage is needed to conquer faction without PDs and just 50% economical advantage against faction covered with PDs. This is edge of snowballing.

You mentioned artillery in your latest post, that was something else I wanted to complain talk about. Now, maybe I'm just using it wrong, or I'm too used to vanilla or something, but I swear to god, artillery barely ever does anything when I use it. 2-attack artillery repeatedly failed to scratch a scout hiding in the Believers' base. Then of course Nevill used it on my 2-defender and got lucky in knocking off 10%, which tipped the odds enough for his rover to beat it... randomness, ho! <_<

I think this is a consequence of all the defense bonuses. +100% with roughly equivalent weapons/armour means the chances of landing a hit during the one round of engagement are not very good.

"But Tayta! Attacking with artillery is risk-free, so if it was made stronger it would break the AI! You are just not using enough of it!" Well, not for that price I won't be. They cost the same as regular units, so I might as well just build those and throw them at the base instead. Losing units doesn't matter to me, winning the battle does.

I suppose it'd be worth it if the AI stacked a lot of defenders in a base, so the artillery would have a chance to hit every one of them... but I didn't face that sort of opposition when I played. Nevill I think faced a lot more defenders when he was taking on the Hive and Believers in the first game. And anyway, who needs artillery when there is gene warfare? :V


To be honest, I think we have definitely reached the point where we'll just end up talking at cross-purposes, since our objectives with this mod are so different. I might end up playing a singleplayer game with WtP and my custom factions in the future, otherwise, there probably isn't much else for me to say regarding game balance at this point. That doesn't mean I don't like the mod! Just that we have different ideas about what it should do.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

My defense was not good enough, some poor decisions were made, and by 2150 he had his rovers on both ends of my territory, ready to cut all my 1-pop bases to pieces. I decided to surrender at that point, since even if I beat off the attack somehow, he still had control of the seas and I had no way of getting to him. So the game ended in 2150.

That clears it. Initially I thought someone actually reached winning goal by that time.

Don't understand. You are not fun of protecting your bases at all?

My issue with it is that it's too passive. If the baseline odds of a psi-attack are 1:1 and there is no possibility of a reward, why would I send my unit out to attack first and risk getting killed, when I can have him idle and gain the benefit of +50% from being in a base? And of course, once Trance units come around, this calculus only strengthens.

Unfortunately, while vanilla encouraged attacking first, it also made it too easy to farm worms for money. >_> So I guess there's no easy solution for this one.

Then I misinterpreted your words: "The optimal way of dealing with isolated worm attacks remains a scout turtling inside the base, which as I've mentioned before I'm not a fan of." in a way that you don't want to protect your bases at all.

Yes, due to 1:1 odds and no reward, there is no point to go hunting worms out there. I guess, spore launchers are only things worth attacking directly as they destroy crops. Worms are going straight to bases and die most of the time.

I would point out that Drill to Aquifer also becomes a liability once global warming turns river tiles into deathtraps.

Is there anything else I don't know about this game? Why river tiles specifically?

But sure, maybe one is just meant to come back and pick it up later once they're in a position to use it. I can understand that.

Yes. This mod changes pace of research and their application. In vanilla it is very-very hard to get a needed technology even level 2-3-4. One tries to pick the right path and allocate more to labs just to get it 2-4 turns earlier because all infrastructure is ready to accept it. And then once you get it you immediately put it to use. WTP early research flow quite steadily. I don't even feel the urge to allocate super much to labs hurting economy sometimes. Usually research come somewhat before they are needed. This is now infrastructure that needs constant development to keep up with research. Feels more dynamic this way, I think. So yes, it happens a lot when something you already know is sitting idle (or barely used) for some time. That was actually one of the mod cornerstones. I found development restrained by technology quite unproductive in vanilla.

You mentioned artillery in your latest post, that was something else I wanted to complain talk about. Now, maybe I'm just using it wrong, or I'm too used to vanilla or something, but I swear to god, artillery barely ever does anything when I use it. 2-attack artillery repeatedly failed to scratch a scout hiding in the Believers' base. Then of course Nevill used it on my 2-defender and got lucky in knocking off 10%, which tipped the odds enough for his rover to beat it... randomness, ho! <_<

Artillery damage is proportional to [artillery bonus * artillery strength / defender strength]. Standard artillery bonus is 3/2. So 2 strength artillery against 1 strength defender in a base is about 3/2 chance to scratch 10% off it. You were just unlucky two times. I don't understand how being used to vanilla is relevant here because in vanilla it is worse: at some point where defender is 3/2 stronger than artillery they are invincible. Like 2 artillery against 2 defender on a rocks cannot hurt it.

You are right that this is tiny amount. However, I think this is fair. It would be not right to let artillery take off 50% of the strongest defender in a single turn. It takes time to wear them down. It pays off when used in large quantities. And, yes, it is an investment that theoretically will pay off unless opponent has artillery too. And yes, it may be useful against bases with multiple defenders only, etc. It may be easier to fight poorly defended bases without it. So I am not saying one have to use it all the time. It's a special purpose tool.

And anyway, who needs artillery when there is gene warfare? :V

I guess gene warfare beats artillery if you can sneak enough probes in base and don't care the sanctions and such. I need to research it. Maybe make artillery stronger or gene warfare damage units lesser.

To be honest, I think we have definitely reached the point where we'll just end up talking at cross-purposes, since our objectives with this mod are so different. I might end up playing a singleplayer game with WtP and my custom factions in the future, otherwise, there probably isn't much else for me to say regarding game balance at this point. That doesn't mean I don't like the mod! Just that we have different ideas about what it should do.

Looks like most of the conflicting SP/MP options are in text configuration. I can just create MP alphax.txt version and we can evolve it from there.

[Tayta Malikai]

That clears it. Initially I thought someone actually reached winning goal by that time.

I think even if we were to go on another AI-cleansing crusade like the first game, it'd still take at least 100 turns to build the needed infrastructure and actually get the units over to the AI bases. Though I've heard some players were able to speedrun Transcendence much faster than that... but that's a different story, methinks.

Is there anything else I don't know about this game? Why river tiles specifically?

For reasons which I don't really understand, when global warming triggers, a lot of river tiles suddenly have an altitude of 10 metres, which makes them susceptible to sinking. Many former turns have been spent on trying to raise land so that bases founded on river tiles don't sink and drown half their population.

It's still greatly worth it to settle river tiles, of course, just something a prospective faction leader needs to be aware of in the mid 23rd century.

Artillery damage is proportional to [artillery bonus * artillery strength / defender strength]. Standard artillery bonus is 3/2. So 2 strength artillery against 1 strength defender in a base is about 3/2 chance to scratch 10% off it. You were just unlucky two times. I don't understand how being used to vanilla is relevant here because in vanilla it is worse: at some point where defender is 3/2 stronger than artillery they are invincible. Like 2 artillery against 2 defender on a rocks cannot hurt it.

You are right that this is tiny amount. However, I think this is fair. It would be not right to let artillery take off 50% of the strongest defender in a single turn. It takes time to wear them down. It pays off when used in large quantities. And, yes, it is an investment that theoretically will pay off unless opponent has artillery too. And yes, it may be useful against bases with multiple defenders only, etc. It may be easier to fight poorly defended bases without it. So I am not saying one have to use it all the time. It's a special purpose tool.

I think this was actually a big mis-remembrance on my part, sorry. I forgot that I'd been playing Nevill's mod that buffs artillery noticeably (3/1 compared to 3/2). So it's not really a fair comparison.

I guess we'll see if lolada and other players have better luck using it in their games.

I guess gene warfare beats artillery if you can sneak enough probes in base and don't care the sanctions and such. I need to research it. Maybe make artillery stronger or gene warfare damage units lesser.

It could probably stand to be nerfed a tiny bit. Taking off 50-90% from all defenders with a single probe action is a huge advantage, could possibly be worth it even if the Charter was still in effect.

If this is something you can edit, I'd suggest making Biology Labs or some other appropriate facility count as a "defensive structure" for the purposes of blunting HP damage, as described here. In your mod they are maintenance-free, which is good for AIs; in Nevill's mod they are not, which is better for humans.

Looks like most of the conflicting SP/MP options are in text configuration. I can just create MP alphax.txt version and we can evolve it from there.

I'd say that's the best way to address these sorts of things going forward.

I think our next game is going to involve simply porting Nevill's config files into Will to Power and seeing how it goes from there. Might as well work with what we've already got, right? We can see about building something more official with the results from that.

[Tayta Malikai]

Okay, now here is a truly petty complaint from me.

I noticed while writing Money and the Will to Power that you removed the technobabble flavour text from the various weapons and armours. Was there a particular reason for doing this? I had to go wiki-trawling to find it instead.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

I guess gene warfare beats artillery if you can sneak enough probes in base and don't care the sanctions and such. I need to research it. Maybe make artillery stronger or gene warfare damage units lesser.

It could probably stand to be nerfed a tiny bit. Taking off 50-90% from all defenders with a single probe action is a huge advantage, could possibly be worth it even if the Charter was still in effect.

If this is something you can edit, I'd suggest making Biology Labs or some other appropriate facility count as a "defensive structure" for the purposes of blunting HP damage, as described here. In your mod they are maintenance-free, which is good for AIs; in Nevill's mod they are not, which is better for humans.

This seems to be an only article about it on the Net and it still does not explain modification to unit damage. Or I didn't get it. Will look into the code then.

I think our next game is going to involve simply porting Nevill's config files into Will to Power and seeing how it goes from there. Might as well work with what we've already got, right? We can see about building something more official with the results from that.

Would you mind sending me your text configuration for initial version?

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

Okay, now here is a truly petty complaint from me.

I noticed while writing Money and the Will to Power that you removed the technobabble flavour text from the various weapons and armours. Was there a particular reason for doing this? I had to go wiki-trawling to find it instead.

I am Sorry for that but I didn't even know items has tehcnobabbles. I thought this is for technologies only. Where can I see them?

[lolada]

Hey Tim how is Planetary Transit System working now (i am playing v 121)? Datalink says "Any new bases start at pop 3. One drone less in bases smaller than pop 3". I thought you changed it somehow?

[Tayta Malikai]

I think our next game is going to involve simply porting Nevill's config files into Will to Power and seeing how it goes from there. Might as well work with what we've already got, right? We can see about building something more official with the results from that.

Would you mind sending me your text configuration for initial version?

Sorry, but I think we'd prefer to wait until we've finished the game. We haven't played with it in a while and there's a bunch of stuff that WtP enables to test the balance of.

Okay, now here is a truly petty complaint from me.

I noticed while writing Money and the Will to Power that you removed the technobabble flavour text from the various weapons and armours. Was there a particular reason for doing this? I had to go wiki-trawling to find it instead.

I am Sorry for that but I didn't even know items has tehcnobabbles. I thought this is for technologies only. Where can I see them?

The text that is displayed in the game is found in helpx.txt.

There is also a second copy of the flavour text in flavor.txt. AFAICT this is not displayed in the game and is just for fans' reference.

It's not really much to look at, mostly just buzzwords applied to the various items to enhance the sci-fi verisimilitude of the game. But it was useful as a writer resource nonetheless.

Hey Tim how is Planetary Transit System working now (i am playing v 121)? Datalink says "Any new bases start at pop 3. One drone less in bases smaller than pop 3". I thought you changed it somehow?

I think the datalinks haven't been updated in a while, mostly because a) it's bothersome to do so, and b) Tim is releasing and tweaking new features all the time. Changelog and past convos here indicate that PTS was changed to have new bases begin with (avg base size of faction - 2) citizens.

EDIT: Speaking of which, the version number doesn't seem to have been updated in a while either, being currently listed in-game as 74. The date does seem to be correctly listed as 3 September 2020, though.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

Hey Tim how is Planetary Transit System working now (i am playing v 121)? Datalink says "Any new bases start at pop 3. One drone less in bases smaller than pop 3". I thought you changed it somehow?

https://github.com/tnevolin/thinker-doer#the-planetary-transit-system

Sorry. I often miss the help update. Some things are actually changing quite often and take some time to settle. I usually update change log, then readme, then help - in this order. So the help quite often gets very behind. Keep telling me about discrepancies if you find them.
I will also gladly accept help articles or any other in game description in full or parts if anyone would like to author them. 😁