SMAX - The Will to Power - mod

[bvanevery]

Details improved research

improved research

MY 2186.  1 or 2 years ago, an election was called and we got Roze as our Governor.  This year, I allied with the Pirates and got a lot of world map.  I can now better see how I'm doing compared to others.  My research rate has improved, 1 tech every 7 years.  But...

Details unbelievable

unbelievable

Svensgaard is Fundamentalist and getting 1 tech every 4 years.  This is absurd, why play this game?  Unless "every 4 years" doesn't mean anything, if it really means "4 years until the next tech".  I'm unclear on how the newfangled tech progress works.  Heck I couldn't remember how the old one worked anyways.  But if Svensgaard ends up treating me like the po boy, I'm quitting.  I shouldn't be playing second fiddle to the Pirates, let alone a Fundamentalist faction!

Details tidal power

tidal power

The Pirates don't have any laboratory infrastructure at all.  It's just ocean waves and tidal harnesses.  They're making a crapload of money on a Simple economy too, 55 credits/year.  I'm making 13.  They're paying for one Rec Commons, that's it??  And they pay no maintenance on a Thermocline Transducer?  That seems like quite a giveaway, although it doesn't look like it's helping them much yet.  TTs in the midgame totally overpowered the Pirate AI in my mod, so I put them solidly into late game.

[bvanevery]

Details evil democrat

evil democrat

What's with Roze going Fundamentalist?  Her agenda is Democratic.  This was supposedly fixed in version 181:

    Configuration option to allow AI deviate from its social priority choice (social_ai_soft_priority). Turned off by default.

My thinker.ini is correct:

Code: [Select]

; Manage social engineering priorities.
social_ai=1
; AI may deviate from their SE priority when beneficial
; by default soft_priority=0 - never deviate if this choice is available
social_ai_soft_priority=0
No other factions show an agenda error.

[bvanevery]

Details breakable pirates

breakable pirates

The Pirates are now showing a more reasonable 20 years for their next tech.  Still seems pretty good for a Fundamentalist faction though.

MY 2194.  It's almost 2 AM and I quit out of boredom.  Really favoring sleep right now.  I completely hate the University's DRONE penalty.  I get to size 3, then I have to screw around with sending out more colonists instead of going vertical.  It's supremely annoying.  I don't want to play the "I get crippled on happiness" game, the University's bonuses aren't that good.  Even if I'm possibly staying ahead on tech now... what good is it doing me?  I still have to build stuff.  I think the whole DRONE thing, like Morgan's Hab Complex at size 4 thing, is a bunch of misguided ideas that these 2 factions were "powerful" because of their bonuses.  They aren't.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

What's with Roze going Fundamentalist?  Her agenda is Democratic.  This was supposedly fixed in version 181:

Does she has Democratic?

[bvanevery]

Yes, it's right there in Roze's screenshot I provided.  AGENDA: POLITICS, DEMOCRATIC.  But she went Fundamentalist.  We all know from the original game that she's Democratic, a sort of Lal wannabe.  Here are the relevant lines in angels.txt:

Code: [Select]

  Politics, Democratic, PROBE
  Values, Power, nil

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

Yes, it's right there in Roze's screenshot I provided.  AGENDA: POLITICS, DEMOCRATIC.  But she went Fundamentalist.  We all know from the original game that she's Democratic, a sort of Lal wannabe.  Here are the relevant lines in angels.txt:

Code: [Select]

  Politics, Democratic, PROBE
  Values, Power, nil

This is her agenda all right. I am asking did she have Democratic choice available? Did she discover Ethical Calculus.

[bvanevery]

This is her agenda all right. I am asking did she have Democratic choice available? Did she discover Ethical Calculus.

I found the autosave.  It's now attached.  No she did not know Ethical Calculus.  Maybe that helps you with your bug tracing.  It is still a bug.  Her valid political choices are Frontier and Democratic.  Right now she should be Frontier.

[bvanevery]

New game with version 196.
alternative_combat_mechanics_loss_divider=1.0
combat_bonus_territory=15
15,      ; Combat % -> intrinsic base defense
25,      ; Combat % -> Fanatic attack bonus
Trance Scout Patrol, Trance Formers, and Trance Sea Formers removed from predefined units.

Huge map, 30%..50% land, average settings.  Random opponents but included the University to see how the AI would do with it.  I drew the Peacekeepers.

Details janked

janked

I started with fungus touching me again, but the prevailing land was lush.  A pod popped a bunch of solar arrays which removed some fungus, making a better site for my capitol.

MY 2120.  I quit because of another early double mindworm pop.  I'm not playing again until this kind of event is delayed until substantially later.  I had two units to fight those life forms off with.  My Unity Rover, which had all its moves remaining, attacked the spore launcher.  It failed.  My Scout, which had popped the supply pod on the river square between the 2 life forms, only had 1/3 move remaining.  It attacked the weakened spore launcher and failed as well, leaving it barely alive.  Now the spore launcher will destroy the Borehole Complex.  This is one of the many ways in which this kind of "combo" early on is totally not cool.  Finding the Boreholes is valuable, and so is putting all your effort into making your 1st mine or forest patch or whatever.  I'm not putting up with the game janking me like this.  It's a dealbreaker, it's gotta stop.  One indigenous life form is plenty to deal with, early on.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

This is her agenda all right. I am asking did she have Democratic choice available? Did she discover Ethical Calculus.

I found the autosave.  It's now attached.  No she did not know Ethical Calculus.  Maybe that helps you with your bug tracing.  It is still a bug.  Her valid political choices are Frontier and Democratic.  Right now she should be Frontier.

Oh. Is this how it is in vanilla? I shall correct it then.

[bvanevery]

Oh. Is this how it is in vanilla? I shall correct it then.

I can see that Roze's character and story have just excited the hell out of you, all these years.  Yes, this is how she is in vanilla.  Rah Rah Expansion Pack.  Just not up to the same level as the original 7 factions.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

Working on OpenXcom mod now. Could be not responsive here.
https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,8661.0.html

You're working on TFTD, huh? Hats off to you.

Here is another one for MM6 if anyone is interested.
https://www.celestialheavens.com/forum/10/17131

Here also you'll see the thread that (somewhat) inspired me going for my own since the proposed implementation just barely scratched the subject.
https://www.celestialheavens.com/forum/10/10887

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

trojan

[scient]

".Gen" likely stands for generic. It's probably some heuristic rule that is flagging on all NSI installers because some malware used it once.

Here is refreshed scan of installer downloaded off here:
https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/9d378ac1faa4402dcd1f0e2655ee6f1dc6c645b5d84a953cb9e7fa23a337deca

It looks like you can report false positives via interface:
https://community.webroot.com/got-a-question-10/how-can-i-report-a-false-positive-337336

[bvanevery]

Details double mindworms

double mindworms

MY 2119.  I was quite surprised to see a double mindworm event in my own mod.  I thought it was some punishment that WTP had cooked up, rather than a stock game behavior.  I'm still uncertain about it because I don't remember such things being common.  I am playing on an Enormous map this time, whereas usually I play on Huge.

Details triple mindworms

triple mindworms

MY 2134.  Earlier than I remember this sort of thing happening.

Details double spore launcher huge map

double spore launcher huge map

Another game.  MY 2115 on a Huge map.

Details triple mindworm huge map

triple mindworm huge map

MY 2130.  Seems my memory was highly selective.

[MercantileInterest]

Pondering alternate effects for the Planetary Transit System:

1. When the owning faction's bases starve, population is not lost but transferred to a non-starving base.

2. The faction obliterating a base does not count as an atrocity. The population of the obliterated base is redistributed to expand the faction's other bases. Could add a check for the AI when it conquers a base. If perceived as not worth keeping, the AI will sell all base improvements and obliterate. This would add a new approach to the conquest of low value or tactically indefensible bases.

3. If one of the faction's units (or an allied unit) starts within the faction's territory, it gains an extra movement point. Possibly only for ground units. Doesn't make much sense for sea units (fuel caches?) but with the new territory rules, would certainly be helpful. Air units move far enough that it wouldn't make much difference. Alternately, could simply double the effectiveness of roads within the faction's territory, though this would give some vulnerability to invading enemies.

I like the idea of all three together.