SMAX - The Will to Power - mod

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

Yep. That is what I am trying to fix. Sea and land former/colony cost is already same in WTP. Now adding some minerals from Pressure dome should make early sea bases somewhat more sustainable.
They still cannot support too many units but they at least spread pretty fast. That should be good compensation.

[Hagen0]

Btw, I am playing in the rpgcodex Pbem and it he Stockpile Energy bug is active in our game version. Supposedly, the game version is based on WTP with most of WTP stuff disabled. Is that something you looked at?

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

I have responded to that in the thread. It is awaiting premoderation.
What's that? Can you create issue with description https://github.com/tnevolin/thinker-doer/issues? I'll have a look.

[Hagen0]

That's such a well-known bug from the times of yore I didn't think I had to explain it and I was very surprised to encounter it in a modern mod. Since the Pbem version is heavily tampered with I'm not sure the bug is actually in WTP. (Or Thinker, how are they connected?) So I'd rather not create a ticket for it.

Bug description: Every time a base completes a facility it will automatically switch to Stockpile Energy. Since the game handles energy income after production you will then get the full Stockpile Energy amount added to your energy reserves on top of the normal turn production that went into the completed facility. Essentially you get the turn production for that base twice, once in form of Energy.
If you construct a unit instead you normally won't get extra energy as the game automatically inserts another copy of the unit when the first finishes. However, you can trigger the bug manually by inserting Stockpile Energy as a build option below the unit you are producing.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

Pacifism drones thought.

They are applied after all positive effects. Thus effectively rendering all coping methods ineffective. Thus making it a serious issue impossible to alleviate with whatever amount of luxury spend on base.

I am thinking to modify it in two possible ways.

1.
Just swap it with Psych. However, this will turn the situation other way around. Psych now will override pacifism making it less of an issue.

2.
Yutzi did some patch for this and all other drone calculations. Unfortunately, this is not included in Thinker and I don't know how to include it not invasively. So need to reinvent it.
The idea is to compute all methods in a pure arithmetical way without any cutting off, rounding, and other [nonsense]. Then just suppress drones first and generate talents from whatever left.

3.
Nuances.
Superdrones. They complicate everything. Superdrone = 2 drones. Pacifying facilities and police quell a citizen regardless of whether it is a drone or superdrone. Whereas psych offset drones. Meaning it takes 4 psych to turn superdrone to content. Superdrones are not distinguishable from drones on base screen. That is why it is pretty difficult to understand how psych works. Or any other method for that matter.
Should facilities and police quell drone instead of a citizen? Are superdrones at all needed? What is the point in them?

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

That's such a well-known bug from the times of yore I didn't think I had to explain it and I was very surprised to encounter it in a modern mod. Since the Pbem version is heavily tampered with I'm not sure the bug is actually in WTP. (Or Thinker, how are they connected?) So I'd rather not create a ticket for it.

Bug description: Every time a base completes a facility it will automatically switch to Stockpile Energy. Since the game handles energy income after production you will then get the full Stockpile Energy amount added to your energy reserves on top of the normal turn production that went into the completed facility. Essentially you get the turn production for that base twice, once in form of Energy.
If you construct a unit instead you normally won't get extra energy as the game automatically inserts another copy of the unit when the first finishes. However, you can trigger the bug manually by inserting Stockpile Energy as a build option below the unit you are producing.

WTP includes Thinker (some version) which, in turn, includes scient patch.

I just tested it and it is in WTP and Thinker.

Scient claims to fix it.
[EXPLOIT] Fixed the energy stockpile exploit. (credit to kyrub)

Not sure what is going on as it should be in Thinker then.


I have checked scient code and I don't see where it is actually fixed. Can you tell me any version of any mod/patch where it is confirmed to be fixed?

[Hagen0]

Regarding Sockpile Energy bug:
I don't remember. In SP I don't care about minor issues like that and in MP I'm not sure I played with a modded .exe. Can't say for sure. It's been too long.


Superdrones are visible in base screen. They have a lighter red than normal drones.

The main effect of superdrones is to decrease the efficiency of Psych (from slider or specialists) as a drone control mechanism. This has the rather important consequence that you cannot GA-boom past a the first bureaucracy drone warning without the HGP and that you cannot GA-boom at all past the third bureaucracy warning.

[bvanevery]

Psych now will override pacifism making it less of an issue.

That would be a case of it actually working like you'd reasonably expect it to though.  A PSYCH budget isn't magic, it can take a lot of expenditure to make just 1 drone happy, if you don't have any special facilities yet.  In fact it often just doesn't work... I've never worked through the "super drone" problem to figure out exactly what's up with that, but I wonder if that's part of what I've seen.  Anyways, I don't think it's typical for players to break the bank on PSYCH budgets because of EFFIC penalties.  So I'll typically be doing 50-0-50 budget for quite awhile, then switch to 50-10-40 in a Hologram Theater / Tree Farm era, then 40-20-40, then 40-30-30 or 30-30-40 as time passes.

[Hagen0]

Psych is exempt from slider inefficiency. You can dump 100% energy into psych with no losses.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

Superdrones are visible in base screen. They have a lighter red than normal drones.

The main effect of superdrones is to decrease the efficiency of Psych (from slider or specialists) as a drone control mechanism. This has the rather important consequence that you cannot GA-boom past a the first bureaucracy drone warning without the HGP and that you cannot GA-boom at all past the third bureaucracy warning.

Good point. Let's leave them as is. I am still thinking to swap psych with pacifism.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

Quick and sloppy stockpile energy fix. Works the way I tested it but there could be some other edge cases.
https://github.com/tnevolin/thinker-doer/blob/master/wtp_changelog.md#version-287

[Hagen0]

To be clear, I don't actually like the way some factions can't pop-boom when they expand to a reasonable number of bases.

Thank you for fixing this. Switching the mod in midgame is not a good idea, though. It's nice for later games. I just wanted to make sure you are away of the bug.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

To be clear, I don't actually like the way some factions can't pop-boom when they expand to a reasonable number of bases.

Sorry. Didn't get you. Are you still talking about stockpile exploit?

Thank you for fixing this. Switching the mod in midgame is not a good idea, though. It's nice for later games. I just wanted to make sure you are away of the bug.

My pleasure. Since it is just a code change it should work with same save.
😊

However, better be safe than sorry. MP games are very brittle.

[Hagen0]

To be clear, I don't actually like the way some factions can't pop-boom when they expand to a reasonable number of bases.

Sorry. Didn't get you. Are you still talking about stockpile exploit?

No, I meant the way Psych interacts with bureaucracy drones (which are just negative Psych really). Factions like Morgan or Yang can't pop-boom once they have even a single bureaucracy drone unless they have the HGP.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

Really? Are you saying that 100% psych allocation does not alleviate these drones? I also don't see how b-drones are worse than any other drones in their effect on golden age.