ete plays around with network node factions

[Green1]

Now, for the Bree, I am thinking there are two versions.

Research indicates Maniac made the Bree and put them on the Network Node ages ago... but I remember reading that there was a superior version of the Bree that our own Buster's Uncle worked on and improved on.

I need to look into that.

Did not know the Bree were a prog faction, too. It is hard to know exactly what you are getting with the NN grab bag.

[Buster's Uncle]

I didn't do much for the Bree, and I don't think Maniac created them - I'm sure he tweaked the .txt somewhat for SMAniaC, though.

[Green1]

I didn't do much for the Bree, and I don't think Maniac created them - I'm sure he tweaked the .txt somewhat for SMAniaC, though.

Good to know... some of these NN factions have history to them and a place. We are cranking them up so we can catalogue them. That way if someone says... hmm, I want such and such for a game, they (and I) will know what we are getting.

[Buster's Uncle]

...I do think I improved the graphic, mind you...

[ete]

Taken the lead now by dropping out of FM to improve Planet rating for psy, then really stomping with Cybernetic for +4 Planet and the Neural Amplifier. The Bards still have a large empire and a lot of troops, but they're losing both fast. Freelancers are being angry, and Hive was respawned on a tiny (five square) island which was entirely fungus, so I made them a new base from a 'copter pod on a larger landmass connected to the Bree's main area. Bree has over 100 transports, none of them clean. It'd be nice to have that fixed in SMAX too. I'll probably beat them mostly because of the 100+ minerals a turn wasted on supporting that fleet of useless transports (and the fact their research has slowed massively, not entirely sure why).

I was tempted to let the Bree get the Cloning Vats just to see how fast they would grow, but decided against it. This game has been long enough already, no need to massively extend it.

And yea, it's hard to locate factions in a specific class and check what they are. If sisko sets up the things I need on wiki to do it or gives me access, it'll get a lot easier (a large part of why I want to do that project is to use it myself).

[Yitzi]

Hmm... have yall noticed any more Prog factions?

I designed the ideology and mechanics for two more myself, here.

Keep in mind that ideologically, each Progenitor faction needs to have a different (and different enough to go to war over) opinion about how to deal with Planet.  So Usurpers say "force Transcendence, as per the original plan", Caretakers say "quarantine, it's too dangerous"; of my two, the Shepherds say "achieve Transcendence with the Planetmind's cooperation" (similarly to how humans win by Transcendence), and the Destroyers say "destroy it all; end the experiment".  So if you want to make more, think about how they responded to Tau Ceti (in which another planet achieved Flowering and wrecked the surrounding area), and work from there.

[Green1]

Hmm... have yall noticed any more Prog factions?

I designed the ideology and mechanics for two more myself, here.

Keep in mind that ideologically, each Progenitor faction needs to have a different (and different enough to go to war over) opinion about how to deal with Planet.  So Usurpers say "force Transcendence, as per the original plan", Caretakers say "quarantine, it's too dangerous"; of my two, the Shepherds say "achieve Transcendence with the Planetmind's cooperation" (similarly to how humans win by Transcendence), and the Destroyers say "destroy it all; end the experiment".  So if you want to make more, think about how they responded to Tau Ceti (in which another planet achieved Flowering and wrecked the surrounding area), and work from there.

Yeah...

If I go custom factions I tend to prefer the ones that at least attempt to fit in storywise as opposed to some of these "joke" factions or "fan" factions.

I also want them with unique playstyles. There are too many custom factions that seem to be copy/paste of existing ones and are bland.

I guess at some point, I will have to make one myself. All the cool kids do it at some point. But, I get caught up so much in playing various games that I lose my motivation to actually start being creative and contribute sometimes.

I should do something about that.

Speaking of which, in an ancient GameFAQs on SMAX, I heard reference to a "Alien Civil War" custom faction pack. In other words.. I think we are missing some...

from Æther SPOON, gameFAQ 2002:

/   Part 03:                              Networknode.org Custom Factions    |
*******************************************************************************
*   NOTE:  All of these custom factions listed are from the faction packs at  *
*    http://www.networknode.org.  If you wish for me to update my FAQ with a  *
*    faction pack of your own, please read Part 10 for infomation on          *
*    contacting me.                                                           *
*    Zeta Set - Progenitor Civil War Factions                                 *
*           a.......................................... Terran Federation     *
*           b................................................. Aggressors     *
*           c................................................. Dominators     *
*           d.................................................. Predators     *
*           e................................................. Developers     *
*           f................................................. Preservers     *
*           g................................................ Researchers     *
*    Iota Set - WaterWorld Factions                                           *
*           h..................................... Bringers of the Deluge     *
*           i........................................... Full Fathom Five     *
*           j......................................... Legion of Aquarius     *
*           k......................... Oceans Extraterritorial Commission     *
*           l........................................ The Hydra Institute     *
*           m............................................ The Multimakers     *
*           n............................................ The Triton Sect     *
*    Lambda Set - Second Mission Factions                                     *
*           o.......................................... The Briach Estate     *
*           p................................................... CerraGen     *
*           q............................................. Delgusia, Inc.     *
*           r................................................. Jorgenstad     *
*           s................................................... Obrioshi     *
*           t.................................. The Rensallir Corporation     *
*           u................................................. Serabollio     *
*                                                                             *
*  Custom Faction notes:                                                      *
*   Zeta Set:                                                                 *
*    After trying all three of the 'bundled' faction packs on                 *
*     networknode.org, I can honestly tell you that this one is my least      *
*     favorite.  Why?  Not as much depth to it...  the other two actually had *
*     more of a storyline to it, whereas in PCW only one faction (Terran Fed) *
*     has anything of a storyline in it.  The Progenitors all are copies!     *
*   Iota Set:                                                                 *
*    A nice faction pack with story.  Use the map that was included with the  *
*     faction though...  or a 70-90% water random map.  Either work.          *
*   Lambda Set:                                                               *
*    This has got to be one of the most balanced faction packs                *
*     I have ever seen.  I even have a somewhat more challanging time when    *
*     playing as any of these factions!  On top of it, it has a neat story to *
*     it, as well as a fan fiction on networknode.org (albiet a bit short) on *
*     Second Mission...  and I love storyline!                              *
*                                                   

He goes on to list these and review them. For the TLDR:  http://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/198636-sid-meiers-alien-crossfire/faqs/12572

did we miss some factions?

[Kilkakon]

I haven't seen any of those myself.

[ete]

Yea, I'm not seeing those in the downloads. The web archive of network node has more, click downloads: http://web.archive.org/web/20060222192258/http://www.networknode.org/indexflash.html

It seems we're missing all of the faction sets (Aldebaran 2, return to earth, second mission, progenitor civil war, and waterworld). Perhaps one of the older players here may be able to contact a few people who may still have the files lurking on their computers? Or maybe they're findable with some creative googling, I found some possibles for Aldebaran 2.

I'm sending out an email to all of the people listed on contacts on the slim hope that one of them uses the same email and has a set of downloads handy.

Edit: Sent the following message to all four contacts, two failed to send:

Hello, I'm ete from http://alphacentauri2.info/, where we're building a home for those who still love SMAC/X. We've tracked down most of the factions which you used to host on the network node, but have not been able to find a download for your faction sets (return to earth, second mission, progenitor civil war, and waterworld), faction templates, or ModMan 1.05. I know it's a long shot, but if any of you happen to have a copy of any of these or know where to get them (or even contact details for others who may still have them) it would help us greatly with the project to build a wiki with a searchable/categorised database of as many custom factions as we can find.

~ete

edit2: Also, we may not have all the other factions. Comparing lists, we're missing:
Generic Faction
thunderbirds
Virtucon

Also, I realised we do actually have return to earth.

[ete]

Back to the game, I provoked the Freelancers into war since I wanted to make them surrender before the battle against Bree, but Bree decided I was getting too strong and went right from pact to vendetta. I've gone exponential in the powerchart thanks to the cloning vats and mass satellite production and finished the tech tree, but my army is actually pretty small and even the huge technical advantages I have are negated by Bree's native focus. And they've got a lot of angles to attack me from, plus Planet is starting to get angry with my eco damage and spawning stacks of worms 15+ deep, annoying since I had skimped on defenses in my back bases (just had one clean/trance scout at most). Turning a lot of my empire to centuri preserves to mitigate this, more seal level rise would be hard to deal with (had two 333 m ones in five years).

Bards are forced back to a few bases, most should die soon. FLs will too once I have more than three ships.

Should be easy if I want to transcend, but that seems like a cheap way out at this point.

Map currently

[ete]

You know the stage in the game where it takes an hour and a half to play five turns? I'm there. Damn Bree and their huge number of bases, and so many units (almost all transports and IoDs >_>). I'm killing ~8 bases a turn, plus gassing a few smaller ones. Still taking forever. Have 30+ of every satellite, but at least the telepathic matrix is up so I don't have to deal with riots any more. Am at 100% econ, getting about 5000 credits a turn, and several of my bases are producing 200+ minerals a turn (without eco damage! yay for centuri preserves.), while the rest are generally 50+. Still having sea rise problems, have used solar shade twice but got two 333 m rises and a 666 m rise, and this planet has a LOT of low lying land, so looks like it'll be mostly ocean very shortly. Ah well, 'copter+gravship won't care.

Considering buying the ascent to transcendence, can probably afford it in a couple of turns.

PS: I love the water maze on this map. So fun, kind of wish I'd got to play in it earlier, but Bree was too tough really early on.

[Green1]

You know the stage in the game where it takes an hour and a half to play five turns? I'm there. Damn Bree and their huge number of bases, and so many units (almost all transports and IoDs >_>). I'm killing ~8 bases a turn, plus gassing a few smaller ones. Still taking forever. Have 30+ of every satellite, but at least the telepathic matrix is up so I don't have to deal with riots any more. Am at 100% econ, getting about 5000 credits a turn, and several of my bases are producing 200+ minerals a turn (without eco damage! yay for centuri preserves.), while the rest are generally 50+. Still having sea rise problems, have used solar shade twice but got two 333 m rises and a 666 m rise, and this planet has a LOT of low lying land, so looks like it'll be mostly ocean very shortly. Ah well, 'copter+gravship won't care.

Considering buying the ascent to transcendence, can probably afford it in a couple of turns.

PS: I love the water maze on this map. So fun, kind of wish I'd got to play in it earlier, but Bree was too tough really early on.

Do not beat yourself up about it.

I think the non-conquest victories are put into Civ type games to avoid mindless grinding.

and, yes, that is a pretty original looking map. Occasionally, the random map algorithms come up with some cool stuff. It is more than I can say for some of the other random map algorithms for some of the other classic games of that day.

[ete]

Yea, glad they had ways out. Usually I just force through a diplomatic victory, but against aliens that fails.

And yea, I think I can reproduce this kind of map though. The trick seems to be using custom size and making the map significantly wider than it is high.

Edit: Okay, turns out I'd broken their back when I last stopped. Took or gassed almost their entire empire in one turn. weeeeee. This is why 'copters exist, so won games v AI are not endless.

Edit2: It's over, infinite numbers of psy units is no match for about 80 bases which mostly produce an empath singularity R-Bolt 'copter each turn, backed by +5 Planet and the neural amp.

[Kilkakon]

Well done. :O Sounds like they took some killing! Who would have thought naked alien ladies would be so tough.

[Green1]

Any decent Prog faction should be

I remember one guy did an AAR where he had his own sweet custom faction on youtube. He stopped making the video after he started getting STOMPED by Marr.

Well... his fault.. he DID raise land to get to Marr.