The AC2 Wiki

[Buster's Uncle]

Then make dozens of posts.  I'm sorry, but that will get more art done.

[JarlWolf]

Yes: Give us the factions and people like me and BUncle will work our magic: I can't really give life to a faction if I don't know which ones are dead and vacant now can I?

[ete]

Okay, I went through and tagged all factions currently on wiki which lack base graphics: http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Category:Factions_missing_base_graphics

Off the top of my head, none of those seems to fit particularly well into the AC universe, so I'm not going to pick any out as priorities, but if any take your fancy feel free to improve them.

[JarlWolf]

The only problem with a fair number of these is they have no background on their actual ideology, backstory (if they even have one) and the like. (and its hard to made appropriate bases if I don't know their theme, some I can obviously guess but others its harder to.)

On my Crimson Comrades page I put in backstory/ what their actual ideal is, if we could do this for any factions it'd be a good idea. Even the actual original factions, if we put in their ideal and maybe some information of their backstory/background it'd be good.

[ete]

Even if it's just dropping one of BU's existing unused bases in it's better than having a Spartan or PK base, but yea it would be nice to have them done properly. That would be good, and there are readmes with info on a fair few factions which I should add at some point.. okay, I'll do them all now.

Edit: Done. Most turned out to be how to install instructions, but a few have info now.

[ete]

http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Category:Factions_with_free_ability (surprisingly underused, only two custom factions use it!)

Include these guys.

^+2 POLICE and +1 PROBE: {Loyal citizens of a distinct culture}
^-2 GROWTH: {Accidents for the unattentive in a hostile environment and birth control}
^{May not use Free Market economic choice.}
^Free Deep Pressure Hull ability with discovery of necessary technology.
^Terraform Bonus: {Drowning your opponents is an option}
^Bases need Hab Complex to exceed size 4: {Small bases difficult to discover}
^Enhancements may be built in ocean and trench squares with the discovery of Advanced Ecological Engineering: {Trained for life at sea}
^Bonus mineral from ocean shelf squares: {Culture and technology adapted for the ocean}

ATM I'm thinking of giving a free seaformer to start with.

I think I have a different version of them already, without Deep Pressure Hull: http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/The_Atlanteans

Download for your version?

[Buster's Uncle]

The Atlanteans had those bases in the SMAniaC version. 

It might be a good idea for you to PM Maniac and direct his attention here, to pick his brain for what he can remember about what came from where for his factions and what the differences were from previous versions, and what-not.  I believe he did a lot of repurposing of art - I did upgrades of the art on many of them (and was pretty thorough in documenting changes in the .pcx credits).  He's also a Senior community member who's more than usually interested in custom factions, so he might be helpful beyond his own work...  He's a member here, and it's an opportunity to eliminate that much confusion.

[Green1]

To be honest, Ete, some of the NN ones probably do need to die. But, there are some of them that are worth it.

Much of the life of a custom faction is how much we use it on the hard drive and in our game rotation. When I mean "we" I do not mean just me and my nuttiness, but how many other SP folks on AC2 or 'poly or even lurkers use it. I doubt seriously any of the custom factions will make it to the folks in Command Nexus. (Although I have posted over there about it) MP is rightfully a bit more anal than we are because of theirs is about competition and bragging rights. We SP folks do not like it, we just leave the game while they do not (that is - if they want to get into more MP games)

I will make it a point from here on out to put at least one custom faction in any AARs I do and it fits that theme. You are doing an enormous service by going the power game route as well which I approve of. But, at the end of the day, if a faction is not inspiring, it probably will not inspire someone to complete it for the sake of "completion". Who decides that? The alphax.txt of everyone on here.

[JarlWolf]

Yes: For example, certain factions that seem to have a really weak idea (Looking at the nationalist factions of "The French/British/ whatever nation) style ones or factions based on celebrities are typically boring and horribly unfitting for SMAC/X. I wouldn't field those factions in my normal gameplay or an AAR: As none of the are really crazy or interesting.

Now, some of them did appeal to me. I'd like to know more about certain ones such as the COLLECTIVE, or Vanguard. Or the Cannabis league for that matter, that thing is hilarious.

[Buster's Uncle]

I like joke factions - provided they're decently playable and the joke's funny.

The Cannibis League is actually in need of some fixing - the fungus-working bonuses don't work, or something like that.

[Buster's Uncle]

Here it is:

I've noticed that the Cannibis League, a novelty faction that was one of the very first custom factions I tarted up the art for, doesn't get the fugus bonuses it's supposed to.  I don't think that's my doing, but I can't swear I haven't forgotten making some adjustment to get it to run at all, as I often did with old factions when I was starting out.  Here's the stats:

#CANNABIS
Cannabis League, The Stoned, Cannabis League, M, 2, Shaggy, M, -1, 0, 1, 1, 1,
  TECH, Ecology, TECH, Biogen, SOCIAL, +MORALE, FACILITY, 3, TALENT, 4, SOCIAL, -EFFIC, SOCIAL, --POLICE, SOCIAL, --PROBE, SOCIAL, ++PLANET,  FUNGNUTRIENT, 2, FUNGMINERALS, 1, FUNGENERGY, 1, IMMUNITY, MORALE, IMPUNITY, Green
  Economics, Green, PLANET

This is someone else's work, and the .txt files are not my thing.  Can anyone set me straight?

...I now recall that I probably did run it through Acedit, because I was playing SMAniaC, which shaves off a point from everyone's Planet rating, at the time I was working on it, and a green faction should have at least +1, or it's not a green faction and can't capture worms.  So I added a plus to Planet rating, and that may have had something to do with the problem...

[JarlWolf]

I personally don't use any patches as of yet.
Yitzi's looks promising but I am not touching it until I do a thorough examination, and considering he is constantly updating it that examination won't come for a while.

Other then that, I like vanilla gameplay too much to convert to the other ones: All I'd really care for is smarter AI in terms of terraforming, but that's about it.

[Green1]

I personally don't use any patches as of yet.
Yitzi's looks promising but I am not touching it until I do a thorough examination, and considering he is constantly updating it that examination won't come for a while.

Other then that, I like vanilla gameplay too much to convert to the other ones: All I'd really care for is smarter AI in terms of terraforming, but that's about it.

the patch you are looking for is Kyrub's SMAX patch PLUS

http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?action=downloads;sa=view;down=108

It is what I use. It improves the terraform AI very noticeably. It includes bug fixes like the stockpile energy bug.

Unlike Yitzi's, it is much more stable (at least on my system) and does not mess with your alphax.txt.

[ete]

mm.. not sure what to do with factions designed for modified games yet. I'll probably download SMAnaC and take a look soon, but should be able to figure out what changes have been made.

While I agree that many factions have ill fitting concepts and poor execution, I don't feel that any factions need to "die". The faction archive will include as many factions as are available, and track which parts of factions are missing. If the artists feel that finishing a faction by putting some bases in it is worth there time, that's cool. If they don't like the faction and don't want to bother, that's also fine. My role is to build and improve the archive (and hopefully encourage some other people to help out!), and my skills do not include graphics work so that's up to other people if they wish to improve things.

Yes, balance is not a huge deal for everyone, but I think sticking firmly to having a well balanced version of each approved faction is a good principle. I love fighting overpowered AI factions as much as anyone, but I'd like to get a chance to use some of them against standard power factions without just curbstomping them from the start. Having a set of factions MPers may approve of for use is an extra reason which may well be accepted by at least some, but the primary reason for wanting a balanced version is for SP human use or use as opponents for less skilled players.

And note that Yitzi's includes Kryub's.

[ete]

Had a name conflict between Pretty Princesses's and the Planet Buster .FLC animation, so renamed the faction text files to "busters" from "buster"