Some help with a faction set

[Sigma]

Hmmm I suppose I should clarify that I'm not absolving myself of involvement, just that the actual finalization of the set will need to be done by a collaborator, since I have nowhere near the availability needed to put it together. So Open Source is the wrong word.

The biggest thing that I know needs to be added is the tertiary faction graphics (i.e. the monument/leader capture graphics). Those haven't been done at all for any of the factions in the set. The only other graphical changes that I can think of is that the Technocrats could use a second pass on their bases.

The Genome Syndicate also needs another pass to balance them out with the rest of the factions, and Satori needs to have its lore revised to be more tonally consistent. The Syndicate could also use some work on this front.

[ete]

Okay . I'll see about making a full set of comments on current balance and other things next time I have internet and time. Main specific I remember is fixing Satori's morale to be a SE penalty to avoid the elite bug.

[Sigma]

Okay . I'll see about making a full set of comments on current balance and other things next time I have internet and time. Main specific I remember is fixing Satori's morale to be a SE penalty to avoid the elite bug.

Yeah I noticed that. The trouble though is that the Technocrats already have that penalty.

The reasoning behind laying it out this way is that if Satori got the SE penalty, then their Probe actions would be weakened off the bat, and if they go with Wealth instead of Power then their Probes are pretty much permanently gimped. I didn't want that since I envisioned them as a faction that is highly reliant on, and capable with, Probes and Espionage in general. On the other hand, the Technocrats are reliant on their research for their combat prowess, which makes them getting the -Morale penalty more logical. Of course this could be fixed if both factions got the penalty, but my express goal with the set was to avoid using the same bonuses and penalties on different factions.

[Sigma]

http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?action=downloads;sa=view;down=208

Okay so I uploaded the Zip file of my Faction set from last year when I (more or less) finished working on it. I don't think there are any errors in it, but I may be wrong and having another set of eyes look at the TXT files would be helpful. I think we can start with this as the baseline for moving from Beta to Final version.

Should we make a new thread about this?

[ete]

Sorry for the delay, my internet was terrible and inconsistent where I was staying last and I knew this would take a while (on the plus side, the Taj Mahal is pretty cool). A new thread could be a good idea, up to you. Let's review the factions for balance.

Pilgrims

^+25% Bonus when attacking enemies, from strength of convictions.
^+1 PLANET:  {Believe that Planet must be protected}
^-1 INDUSTRY: {Weak industrial base}
^+1 minerals in fungus squares
^All units gain Hypnotic Trance ability upon discovery of Secrets of the Human Brain
^Does not suffer negative social effects from Fundamentalist Politics: {Modern religious movement}
^{May not use Free Market Economics in Social Engineering.}

In my game these guys were actually pretty great, but I feel like that was mostly good starting position+taking over other factions who don't have a good start early with rush. They seem like they'd be moderately scary to start next to, but start to be a lot less threatening later unless they took someone's empire. The combination of two rush styles (worm and fanatic) would be much more dangerous if not for the Ind penalty and fanatic not applying to natives, as is it's nice but probably not too much to handle baring exceptional circumstances (you don't want to land right next to them in a big patch of fungus). Being able to run fundy is fairly cool/unique, and their advantages are nicely balanced by two big things which will slow them down later on (no FM, -1 Ind). Free Hypnotic Trance is nice for worm hunting/fighting other native factions, and +1 fungmins may occasionally help, but neither is going to make a big difference.

Balance: Probably fine. A bit rush heavy, but not more than Mirriam or Cha (and kinda a cross between the two in playstyle).

No proposed balance changes.

Everything fits flavorwise, I could see these guys getting a following (especially in timelines where Cha does not pop up to take in the radical Gaians). Maybe change the "Weak industrial base" to something more specific to how their society functions? And add in a reason for Hypnotic Trance/fungmins?

Genome

^-2 GROWTH:   {Exacting population control}
^+2 MORALE:   {Elite field operatives}
^1 additional talent for every 4 citizens: {Gene enhanced workers}
^Free Recycling Tanks at every base
^Free Biology Lab at every base with discovery of Centauri Empathy
^{May not choose Fundamentalist Politics}

These guys are potentially quite dangerous at all stages of the game. -2 growth hurts, especially a human going for pop boom, but even aside from the Morale boost which is a seriously underrated advantage (less so super late game, but being able to explore safely and win wars early is huge) they've got something great for every important part of the game. Right near the start those Rec Tanks are amazing. A little later that bonus Talent per 4 pop means you can delay building drone control facilities and/or invest less in psych, which is a pretty huge deal. Then when those advantages starts being a bit less significant in mid game Boom! Free Bio Labs for turbo research.

Balance: I don't think any one part of this is too much, but the combination of four good to great advantages, countered by only one bigish disadvantage (no fundy is irrelevant) looks like it needs something changed.

Balance suggestions:
Morale to +1: +2 morale is a bigger deal than I'd initially thought, look at sparta which takes a -1 Ind penalty and has this as its only major advantage.

If that's not enough (and it seems like it probably won't be), maybe give them some other mid level penalty? I'm not seeing amazing fits thematically, but possibly -1 Support (Resources invested in biomed at bases are not available for troops) or -10% energy interest (available funds poured into research). A smallish hurry penalty could be a good option, but still a bit hard to justify.

Flavorwise.. I think I like them more than most people will, but I'm pretty heavily biodeterministic over populations as a whole (did you know that levels of automobile lead emissions were found to explain 90% of the variability in violent crime in America? or having adequate iodine during pregnancy gives ~15-20 IQ?). If there was room, I'd love to expand them to more than just genetics, be more about optimizing human biology in general (e.g. performing mass-trials of different diets/nutrients on their population, experimenting with lots of different cognitive and physical performance enhancing drugs, iterated embryo selection, doing psychological/developmental research on every child and learning how to bring up basically everyone well-adjusted+intelligent). I think there's a lot of potential here, and they are (by my interpretation) supporting a pretty justifiable philosophy, there's just not enough space to explore/explain it fully in only the one faction quote. Maybe some tweaks to various parts of the faction to show this off would work?

Flavor suggestion: Swap out some references to genetics for general "make human biology work better with science" stuff.

Satori

^-1 SUPPORT:  {Resources diverted to economic ventures}
^-25% cost for Probe Actions {Extensive espionage network}
^Units deployed with -2 Morale penalty: {Averse to direct combat}
^Energy reserves gain +2% interest per turn
^Incresed commerce rate: {Experienced traders and merchants}
^{May not use Police State Politics.}

Closest parallel in the official factions would be Morgan, but these guys are way more extreme traders. Their ability to field an actual army is downright abysmal, but if they can get a few pacts their income is incredible. Super vulnerable unless they have allies to feed their trade and use probes a lot, but also scary if they really get going.. I think overall it comes out reasonably. Dropping commerce to +2 may be a good idea, especially in human hands, but it's probably okay as-is. Two notable advantages for probing (-25% cost and 2% interest) plus one conditionally really great one (commerce) makes them probably the best probers in the game, despite their morale penalty.

Oh, and that bug with Morale is kinda weird. I know you'd rather avoid doubling up on -2 Morale SE, but imo you should either do that or give a justification in the datalinks thing for your starting units being elite.

Possible changes:
Commerce to +2 - but probably fine as-is.

Flavor: I know you're not super happy with this one as-is.. one possibility would be to make it more family-focused? As in, the Satori family sets their members up as leaders/important advisors of lots of important businesses/organizations in both their own faction any anyone who'll sign treaties/pacts with them, by buying up/bribing/maybe a bit of blackmail and/or assassination when the opportunity arises (fits perfectly with the Probe angle). They then use this influence to get themselves the best contacts, and support each other/push out competitors (fits perfectly with the commerce/interest angle). Unlike Morgan who does similar things but believes in capitalism, the family believes in supporting the family and accumulating power. Their low level followers would be largely unaware of this side, and just think they're in with a group of exceptionally skilled traders/business people, but not be particularly committed to the cause so be unwilling to go die in a war (fits perfectly with negative morale and support).

Also, typo on "^Incresed commerce rate".


Technos

^+1 RESEARCH:  {Focused on scientific advancement}
^+1 EFFIC:   {Society regulated by artificial intelligence}
^-2 MORALE:  {Reliant on technology rather than training}
^Free NETWORK NODE at every base
^Hab Complex requirements tightened to Size 5: {Digital infrastructure prioritized over civic}
^EFFICIENCY penalties reduced by half: {Computer assisted government}
^{May not use Power Values.}

I like the technos a lot. They're well balanced, fun to play, and have a sound philosophy. The only negative I could remotely point at them is their similarity to the University in values, but there's enough difference in fundamental aims to make that not a big deal (Uni wants to know for the sake of knowing, mostly science, Techno wants to know to make humans lives better through, mostly technology). Fun SE choices.

Balance suggestions: None. They're good.

Leviathan

^+1 Growth:   {Populist movement gathers supporters}
^-2 POLICE:  {Distrust of law enforcement}
^+15% Offense: {Activists willing to fight for cause}
^Can exceed Hab Complex requirements by 2
^Bases and Units cannot be Mind Controlled: {Strong willed followers}
^Suffers double penalties from Free Market Economics
^{May not choose Police State Politics}

Interesting faction.. Quite a few notable bonuses (growth, hab, offense, MC immune), but two potentially crippling disadvantages (FM is horrible with -10 Police and -6 Planet, and weak police+no PS). I *think* the fact that the growth/hab advantages make the police issues a huge problem may make it relatively fair, but I could see this being a monster in human hands. I'm tempted to suggest dropping one advantage, but this is a tricky one to judge without playing a few games with it. Likely not overpowered without heavy optimization (like rehoming to a Punishment Sphere/all specialist base which is crawled a lot of mins), so probably fine for single player games at least.

Balance suggestions: Could drop one advantage, but it's probably not necessary/may make it too annoying to play.


Authority

^+1 SUPPORT:   {Well funded military}
^+1 POLICE: {Strict legal system}
^-1 RESEARCH:  {Resources divereted to military spending
^-1 PLANET: {Unconcerned with preserving native ecosystem}
^All units gain Non-Lethal Methods upon discovery of Intellectual Integrity
^+15% Defense: {Heavily equipped security forces}
^125% Hurry Cost: {Manufacturing neglected due to enlistment}

hmm.. I think these guys will struggle a bit. They're not exactly weak, being able to get +3 support is good and +15% def/NLM on everything later is cool. However, they are definitely not builders thanks to those hurry and research penalties, exploring also kinda sucks with -1 Planet and expensive/normal morale units, and worst of all they can't really rush that well. I mean, it's not going to be the worst rush (+1 support is eh until you get fundy or power, though defense boost is fun), but it's also not going to be a great rush because units cost more, you lose more to worms, are likely behind on research, and your main advantages come either too late or are just not important enough early on to offset the problems. Altogether this leaves them as a faction who won't die very quickly, but they also don't excel at anything other than being fairly resilient against rushes... which is not that great. I think you could potentially drop their biggest penalty (hurry cost) and end up with a still perfectly fair, and much more fun, faction. Maybe set it to 110%.. but maybe it can just go. It does not fit the flavor that well either.

Balance suggestions: Reduce the hurry penalty to 110% or drop it entirely. These guys could use a boost.

Flavor: Yea, this is a faction which could get traction on Planet. Again, it'd be nice to be able to expand on them more, but oh well. A bit similar to sparta in how they'd be run, but different founding philosophy/playstyle so it's fine.

Apollo

^+1 INDUSTRY:   {Well motivated work force}
^-1 EFFICIENCY:  {Internal economic competition}
^Free Supply Crawler at Planetfall
^Extra Drone per 3 Citizens: {No social safety net}
^85% Hurry Costs: {Fully staffed factories}
^{May not choose Green Economics}

mm.. two powerful bonuses with good synergy (hurry and Ind), plus a handy bonus supply crawler at start (superfast SP potentially). But nothing else positive, and all three penalties work together to frustrate you with effic+bdrone+drone problems. It's a fairly novel combination, but I think likely to be close to balanced. AI may struggle with drones though, and lategame efficiency will be nightmarish.

Balance suggestion: Switching to extra drone per 4 citizens may be better, but either way should be okay.

Flavor stuff makes sense, but only if you have a background knowledge of objectiveism. Which you can probably assume from AC players luckily .

[Sigma]

Sorry for the delay, my internet was terrible and inconsistent where I was staying last and I knew this would take a while (on the plus side, the Taj Mahal is pretty cool). A new thread could be a good idea, up to you. Let's review the factions for balance.

Genome

These guys are potentially quite dangerous at all stages of the game. -2 growth hurts, especially a human going for pop boom, but even aside from the Morale boost which is a seriously underrated advantage (less so super late game, but being able to explore safely and win wars early is huge) they've got something great for every important part of the game. Right near the start those Rec Tanks are amazing. A little later that bonus Talent per 4 pop means you can delay building drone control facilities and/or invest less in psych, which is a pretty huge deal. Then when those advantages starts being a bit less significant in mid game Boom! Free Bio Labs for turbo research.

Balance: I don't think any one part of this is too much, but the combination of four good to great advantages, countered by only one bigish disadvantage (no fundy is irrelevant) looks like it needs something changed.

Balance suggestions:
Morale to +1: +2 morale is a bigger deal than I'd initially thought, look at sparta which takes a -1 Ind penalty and has this as its only major advantage.

If that's not enough (and it seems like it probably won't be), maybe give them some other mid level penalty? I'm not seeing amazing fits thematically, but possibly -1 Support (Resources invested in biomed at bases are not available for troops) or -10% energy interest (available funds poured into research). A smallish hurry penalty could be a good option, but still a bit hard to justify.

Flavorwise.. I think I like them more than most people will, but I'm pretty heavily biodeterministic over populations as a whole (did you know that levels of automobile lead emissions were found to explain 90% of the variability in violent crime in America? or having adequate iodine during pregnancy gives ~15-20 IQ?). If there was room, I'd love to expand them to more than just genetics, be more about optimizing human biology in general (e.g. performing mass-trials of different diets/nutrients on their population, experimenting with lots of different cognitive and physical performance enhancing drugs, iterated embryo selection, doing psychological/developmental research on every child and learning how to bring up basically everyone well-adjusted+intelligent). I think there's a lot of potential here, and they are (by my interpretation) supporting a pretty justifiable philosophy, there's just not enough space to explore/explain it fully in only the one faction quote. Maybe some tweaks to various parts of the faction to show this off would work?

Flavor suggestion: Swap out some references to genetics for general "make human biology work better with science" stuff.

My thought process on their bonuses is cutting them to +1 Morale and taking away one of their two free facilities. My main problem is figuring out which one. Bio Labs is the easier one to go with, since they need to reach the requisite Tech first, and Tanks is the more useful of the two, but the problems are a.) it's harder to justify thematically than Bio Labs, which fit their characterization better, and b.) between that and the Talent bonus it makes them somewhat similar to the Peacekeepers. Tentatively, I'll go with keeping the Bio Lab and seeing how it impacts their performance.

That's some great input on their characteristics. I'll give that some thought, as I have some ideas on that front, including a better name than "Genome Syndicate."

Satori

Closest parallel in the official factions would be Morgan, but these guys are way more extreme traders. Their ability to field an actual army is downright abysmal, but if they can get a few pacts their income is incredible. Super vulnerable unless they have allies to feed their trade and use probes a lot, but also scary if they really get going.. I think overall it comes out reasonably. Dropping commerce to +2 may be a good idea, especially in human hands, but it's probably okay as-is. Two notable advantages for probing (-25% cost and 2% interest) plus one conditionally really great one (commerce) makes them probably the best probers in the game, despite their morale penalty.

Oh, and that bug with Morale is kinda weird. I know you'd rather avoid doubling up on -2 Morale SE, but imo you should either do that or give a justification in the datalinks thing for your starting units being elite.

Possible changes:
Commerce to +2 - but probably fine as-is.

I'm making that change, along with a matching change to the Technos, seen below.

Flavor: I know you're not super happy with this one as-is.. one possibility would be to make it more family-focused? As in, the Satori family sets their members up as leaders/important advisors of lots of important businesses/organizations in both their own faction any anyone who'll sign treaties/pacts with them, by buying up/bribing/maybe a bit of blackmail and/or assassination when the opportunity arises (fits perfectly with the Probe angle). They then use this influence to get themselves the best contacts, and support each other/push out competitors (fits perfectly with the commerce/interest angle). Unlike Morgan who does similar things but believes in capitalism, the family believes in supporting the family and accumulating power. Their low level followers would be largely unaware of this side, and just think they're in with a group of exceptionally skilled traders/business people, but not be particularly committed to the cause so be unwilling to go die in a war (fits perfectly with negative morale and support).

Also, typo on "^Incresed commerce rate".

So play up the espionage angle more then.

The difference between Satori and Morgan can be summed up to "Morgan sees Power as a means to accumulate Wealth; Satori sees Wealth as a means to accumulate Power." I can work with this.

Technos

I like the technos a lot. They're well balanced, fun to play, and have a sound philosophy. The only negative I could remotely point at them is their similarity to the University in values, but there's enough difference in fundamental aims to make that not a big deal (Uni wants to know for the sake of knowing, mostly science, Techno wants to know to make humans lives better through, mostly technology). Fun SE choices.

Balance suggestions: None. They're good.

Reflecting the change to the Satori SE, I'm switching their -2 Morale to -2 Support, on the grounds that military spending is diverted to R&D, pretty much the inverse of the Authority.

Leviathan

Interesting faction.. Quite a few notable bonuses (growth, hab, offense, MC immune), but two potentially crippling disadvantages (FM is horrible with -10 Police and -6 Planet, and weak police+no PS). I *think* the fact that the growth/hab advantages make the police issues a huge problem may make it relatively fair, but I could see this being a monster in human hands. I'm tempted to suggest dropping one advantage, but this is a tricky one to judge without playing a few games with it. Likely not overpowered without heavy optimization (like rehoming to a Punishment Sphere/all specialist base which is crawled a lot of mins), so probably fine for single player games at least.

Balance suggestions: Could drop one advantage, but it's probably not necessary/may make it too annoying to play.

Actually, if you think about Penalty: Free Market, it's not that bad of a penalty for the Leviathan. Consider the following:

• Free Market already carries the maximum penalties for Police and Planet, barring any mitigating bonuses
• The Leviathan's anti-ideology is Police State, which is the only source of +Police outside of Future Society choices or Secret Projects
• The only reliable source of +Planet apart from Future Society is Green economics, so it's impossible to mitigate a -6 Planet anyway until that point.

So frankly I don't think Penalty: Free Market is that much of a punishment beyond what Free Market normally incurs. I'm not really sure where that leaves the Body.

Authority

hmm.. I think these guys will struggle a bit. They're not exactly weak, being able to get +3 support is good and +15% def/NLM on everything later is cool. However, they are definitely not builders thanks to those hurry and research penalties, exploring also kinda sucks with -1 Planet and expensive/normal morale units, and worst of all they can't really rush that well. I mean, it's not going to be the worst rush (+1 support is eh until you get fundy or power, though defense boost is fun), but it's also not going to be a great rush because units cost more, you lose more to worms, are likely behind on research, and your main advantages come either too late or are just not important enough early on to offset the problems. Altogether this leaves them as a faction who won't die very quickly, but they also don't excel at anything other than being fairly resilient against rushes... which is not that great. I think you could potentially drop their biggest penalty (hurry cost) and end up with a still perfectly fair, and much more fun, faction. Maybe set it to 110%.. but maybe it can just go. It does not fit the flavor that well either.

Balance suggestions: Reduce the hurry penalty to 110% or drop it entirely. These guys could use a boost.

Flavor: Yea, this is a faction which could get traction on Planet. Again, it'd be nice to be able to expand on them more, but oh well. A bit similar to sparta in how they'd be run, but different founding philosophy/playstyle so it's fine.

Internally I'm already boosting their support to +2, which I think will be a big help, but removing the Hurry penalty may either or also be necessary. What do you think?

Apollo

mm.. two powerful bonuses with good synergy (hurry and Ind), plus a handy bonus supply crawler at start (superfast SP potentially). But nothing else positive, and all three penalties work together to frustrate you with effic+bdrone+drone problems. It's a fairly novel combination, but I think likely to be close to balanced. AI may struggle with drones though, and lategame efficiency will be nightmarish.

Balance suggestion: Switching to extra drone per 4 citizens may be better, but either way should be okay.

Flavor stuff makes sense, but only if you have a background knowledge of objectiveism. Which you can probably assume from AC players luckily .

I've already made the change of Drone/4 internally, which will be in the next Beta Pack.

[ete]

My thought process on their bonuses is cutting them to +1 Morale and taking away one of their two free facilities. My main problem is figuring out which one. Bio Labs is the easier one to go with, since they need to reach the requisite Tech first, and Tanks is the more useful of the two, but the problems are a.) it's harder to justify thematically than Bio Labs, which fit their characterization better, and b.) between that and the Talent bonus it makes them somewhat similar to the Peacekeepers. Tentatively, I'll go with keeping the Bio Lab and seeing how it impacts their performance.

That's some great input on their characteristics. I'll give that some thought, as I have some ideas on that front, including a better name than "Genome Syndicate."

Okay. Thinking more, I like the idea of hurry penalty (110%-120%?) quite a lot from a mechanics perspective, and authority may well lose theirs, so consider that too if fiddling with facilities does not do what you want.

So play up the espionage angle more then.

The difference between Satori and Morgan can be summed up to "Morgan sees Power as a means to accumulate Wealth; Satori sees Wealth as a means to accumulate Power." I can work with this.

Essentially, plus some "the only ones you can trust are the family" stuff. An organizational setup a bit like the modern day yakuza, who have a significant amount of legitimate business under their control and do pay some attention to PR (e.g. helping out in disasters), but also more than dabble in mildly to moderately illegal things for profit (drugs, prostitution, extortion), while making themselves too well integrated/not causing enough visible trouble for authorities to step in.

Reflecting the change to the Satori SE, I'm switching their -2 Morale to -2 Support, on the grounds that military spending is diverted to R&D, pretty much the inverse of the Authority.

I'm not sure about this.. -2 support is really nasty because it drastically weakens one of the best SE options in the game: Democratic. Admittedly the technos are not as synergistic with demo as most due to robust effic, but still. -4 Support means every unit costs 2 minerals to support. Even at times of peace, that's a huge deal just in terms of terraformers and the odd defender. Take a conservative 1-2 defenders, one exploration unit, and three terraformers for a mid-sized base. That's 10+ minerals per turn per base, without trying to build an army. Even a tiny base with one defender and one former loses 4 minerals, when its income is probably only 3-5.

You can drop demo or run demo+power, but power is ugly with that ind penalty, and PS.. PS has uses but no pop booms is eh. I think it could work, and would certainly add to their character as a faction with interesting SE options, but maybe they'd want some other small bonus to compensate for the loss of building ability. Lift the pop cap to 6 perhaps?

also, this is a cool thing i built a while back for easy SE effects reference: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AhADYlhLMFj-dC1LNjhHOVMyNXU5c1J4ZDhUbVRxeUE&usp=sharing

Actually, if you think about Penalty: Free Market, it's not that bad of a penalty for the Leviathan. Consider the following:

• Free Market already carries the maximum penalties for Police and Planet, barring any mitigating bonuses
• The Leviathan's anti-ideology is Police State, which is the only source of +Police outside of Future Society choices or Secret Projects
• The only reliable source of +Planet apart from Future Society is Green economics, so it's impossible to mitigate a -6 Planet anyway until that point.

So frankly I don't think Penalty: Free Market is that much of a punishment beyond what Free Market normally incurs. I'm not really sure where that leaves the Body.

Planet actually does have negative effects beyond -3, it has a 10% penalty per stage reduction (see my handy SE effects table linked above), so at -6 levi would face a -60% penalty vs native combined with very high eco damage. Aside from struggling with natives (poor formers don't have a chance), other factions could easily exploit this if they ever went to war. Fighting expendable captured troops with -60% against +20% just because they went green is scary. FM is not unusable for them, but it comes with fairly significant costs.

Internally I'm already boosting their support to +2, which I think will be a big help, but removing the Hurry penalty may either or also be necessary. What do you think?

It'll help, but I don't think all that much. +1 support is great because it lets you hit the magic +3 (support up to base size free) with just one SE change (fundy or power), the difference between that and starting with +2 means: +1 mineral per base per turn if and only if you have 4+ units which need support, and don't have power or fundy. It's a help, but not a huge deal and won't let them rush well enough to compensate for builder issues. I'd suggest robust industry over that, which would let them run Power much more easily than anyone else and fits pretty nicely with their flavor. Even with robust ind, I'd still suggest at least reducing their hurry penalty a bit, if not dropping it.

I've already made the change of Drone/4 internally, which will be in the next Beta Pack.

Okay

[Sigma]

Internally I'm already boosting their support to +2, which I think will be a big help, but removing the Hurry penalty may either or also be necessary. What do you think?

It'll help, but I don't think all that much. +1 support is great because it lets you hit the magic +3 (support up to base size free) with just one SE change (fundy or power), the difference between that and starting with +2 means: +1 mineral per base per turn if and only if you have 4+ units which need support, and don't have power or fundy. It's a help, but not a huge deal and won't let them rush well enough to compensate for builder issues. I'd suggest robust industry over that, which would let them run Power much more easily than anyone else and fits pretty nicely with their flavor. Even with robust ind, I'd still suggest at least reducing their hurry penalty a bit, if not dropping it.

Consider this though: at +2 Support, the Authority also has the option of running Democratic with net zero penalties. Does that count for something?

As for the Genarchs getting the -Hurry penalty, the justification could be simply the faction has an unmotivated work force due to their feeling of elitism. They're think they're too good to work overtime at the Hovertank factory.

[ete]

eh, the difference between -1 and 0 Support works out as one mineral per base per turn. It's not nothing, especially early on, but by the time you've got Demo as a faction with research issues a lot of your bases are probably big enough that this is not an immense difference. It'll help for sure, but it seems unlikely to be a big enough attraction to want to play as them, especially since +25% hurry cost will often slow your production by about as much as those few minerals help. Being able to hit +3 is great because you jump from supporting 4 to 7 (later 14) in one go (potentially +3 to +10 mins per turn per base). -4 is horrible because it straight up doubles support costs. All the other changes are somewhat noteworthy, one mineral per turn per base is cool, but not spectacular.

And yea, that sounds like a potential explanation.

[Sigma]

eh, the difference between -1 and 0 Support works out as one mineral per base per turn. It's not nothing, especially early on, but by the time you've got Demo as a faction with research issues a lot of your bases are probably big enough that this is not an immense difference. It'll help for sure, but it seems unlikely to be a big enough attraction to want to play as them, especially since +25% hurry cost will often slow your production by about as much as those few minerals help. Being able to hit +3 is great because you jump from supporting 4 to 7 (later 14) in one go (potentially +3 to +10 mins per turn per base). -4 is horrible because it straight up doubles support costs. All the other changes are somewhat noteworthy, one mineral per turn per base is cool, but not spectacular.

Good input; what I'm getting from that is that +2 Support on its own isn't a huge boost because there's no benefit to having higher than +3 Support; conversely this means that while there's no major benefit, raising it to +2 won't significantly unbalance them either when taken along with removing their Hurry penalty. Which is what I'm going to do. That should make them more fun to play, since currently they are kind of a slog though quite good at higher difficulties thanks to their Police ratings. One of the test games I ran with the Authority was on Thinker, and they performed very well except for the fact that they were playing second banana to the Technocrats past the early game. I just couldn't catch up to them, even as my territory continued to expand via Conquest.

EDIT: You've also given me some great ideas for House Satori in making them shadier via implied criminal activities. Their background would be that the Satori clan, though by all accounts a legit operation, none the less had ties to organized crime, to the point where critics nicknamed their business empire the Satori-gumi. Atsumi's father, Junichiro, worked hard to shake this reputation but it lead to financial ruin in several sectors of their operation. Atsumi isn't quite so idealistic as her father though...

I'm trying to think of names which invoke themes of human improvement via medicine and biological enhancement. "Chimera" came to mind but that's not quite right since Chimera is an actual biological term with a definition beyond what I'm going for.

[Buster's Uncle]

Chimera's also something like the engineered six-parent rat, which is a real thing - I'm not sure you're not onto something.

[Sigma]

I'm thinking more along the lines of their faction symbol-- a DNA ladder crossed with a butterfly. The concept of metamorphosis and all.

[Buster's Uncle]

Are you familiar with the SMAniaC Genesis faction?  Same idea, and a logo along those lines, IIRC...

[Sigma]

I've seen it before, but can you provide a link?

[Buster's Uncle]

We have SMAniaC posted in Downloads under Modding - http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?action=downloads;sa=view;down=144