Lets make some aquatic factions

[ete]

Currently there are four custom factions (plus 13 aquaticized versions of official ones, and the pirates).
http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Planet_Freight%E2%84%A2
http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Bree
http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/The_Atlanteans
http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Procyon_Consortium

And that's it.

I'd like to have more to play with, shall we make some?

Some ideas
Mechanics:
A faction with free Repair Bay and Carrier Deck
A faction with free AA (stops humans running over AI so easily once you get air)
A faction with a significant (+2/+3) FungMins bonus, but no other fungus bonus (Free Bio Lab+Brood Pit for actually scary natives early?)
A faction with Impunity Power
Some factions with free Deep Radar (it's free anyway at sea, but they don't clog up their ability slots if it's from faction power)
Faction with Slow Unit imposed on all units as a penalty (on land would make someone just never use rovers, at sea it's different). Likely combined with significant combat bonus, like Morale or Offense.

Flavor:

[ete]

Maybe combine a few of these elements.. One faction could be a native faction with:
http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Centauri_Meditation (start with IoD production)
+2 FungMins bonus
Free Bio Lab+Brood Pit for actually scary natives early and nice bonuses

Maybe a growth or hurry penalty?

[Kilkakon]

I make a SMAC version of my LE pirates sometime, but I suppose that didn't count.

I'd agree more watery ones would be good. I know NN wanted to make some but I don't know if we ever got them.

[JarlWolf]

In my custom faction pack I got my crazy cloning faction, if you want to take a look.

[ete]

Playing an aquatic game with pretty much all the aquatic custom factions I could find (Kilk, could you link me?). I've got all the ones in the OP plus Jarl's cloning faction, along with aquatic Cult and Hive. Seems pretty fun and very different so far. Playing as these guys: http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Planet_Freight%E2%84%A2 turns out penalty Demo AND -1 Support is pretty crippling (-5 support makes each unit cost 2 mins, urg), but Doc Int at the start is nice as is trading. Social engineering is just really annoying though. I settled on PS/Green and building Creches everywhere which.. works. I miss Planned, but without demo to cancel the effic and with spread out bases it's kind of bad.

So far no one's been eliminated, and there's a whole lot more intermingling of territories. Have been trying to keep humans united to trade, but it's hard sometimes, especially given that I don't want to fight Bree early and a load of other people do.

[Kilkakon]

Reuploaded for you now.

Glad you're having fun though

EDIT: I threw both the G and PG versions of the main pcx in the zip, so just use whatever you prefer.

[JarlWolf]

 

[ariete]

@jarl wolf : you already have the acquatic version of your comrades fac (cool presentation poster), i remember the role of russian marines in sebastopoli siege and crimea battles ... mmmm .... i'm getting one thing in mind, i'll tell you

@ete : i found the graphics of network node facs could be good 13 years ago ... maybe ...
i'm working on my last 7 custom facs set and inside there are 2 acquatic facs, one alien and one human. i report below the link for BAY COMPANY and PIRATE HORDE txts (i've already the graphics files for both but i'm waiting some inspiration from the outside, if anyone give me, i don't want influence anyone about tips on the logo or leaderhead)
http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=1257.225

[ariete]

ete i'm courious to see the 13 aquaticized versions of official nautilus pirates but i don't found them in wiki. instead i saw you put navy federation, storm confederation, ... my previously set of facs, not properly finished, indeed abandoned, maybe it can help to inspire someone.

however in navy federation i had put free ability marine detachment for which i do not know why it appeared also to ground units

[ete]

Kilka: Okay, will add to my collection.. though the name conflict with the official faction is going to be annoying.

Jarl: It's a pretty fun game but... I'm off for a week tomorrow, and AARs delay it enough that I'd almost certainly not finish the game before I go. Maybe I'll do another aquatic game and do a brief AAR.

ariete: Do you have a download link? And it's not 13 pirates, it's the OTHER 13 official factions made sea based.

[Kilkakon]

They are called "Blackband's Pirates", outside of the zip. Their filename is blackband.

Could be a fun collection to have once it's done.

[ete]

Okay, got 'em. And yea, aquatic games are.. really different. Units move a lot faster to start with, and unlike normally when you play as pirates you can actually defeat people with pure naval power. I have a feeling that air power would be significantly less vital for war in this kind of a game, especially with marine detachments available to steal ships and formers (<3 stealing those expensive formers). Lack of roads is kind of weird , you can't be much more mobile than your attackers so defending should be actually a challenge. IoD captures are very important since units are expensive, but I've not got many this game despite +3 Planet (nexus+green) oddly.

No serious mineral squares, the best around are 2 nut/4 min with mineral bonus, bumped up to 3/5 quite late with facilities. But both Nuts and Eng are plentiful with a 3 nut/3 eng (+1 min) square being easy to get pretty early on, and bumped to 4/1/4 with the earlier two facilities. Unlocking nut and eng restrictions seems like the core focus early, and before that nut and eng squares are massively important since they take a square from 2/1/2 to 5/1/2 or 2/1/5.

[Kilkakon]

Interesting. In my game, oceans are great for minerals rather than energy. Sounds like it'd be a fun way to play, without air power being such a presence. Of course AA Escort vessels would still be required.

[ete]

mhm, and yea it makes a nice change. Air power is still great of course, but the fact that you've got a ton of mobility from the start makes earlier aggression much easier and I would imagine in Human v Human forces a lot more static defense.. perhaps making air power more important for a defender than an attacker, since otherwise keeping spread out cities (since special resources are so vital to growth/tech/building early on, you can't just stick everything in one place) with no roads defended is hard.

[ete]

Also: Graphics request:
http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Planet_Freight%E2%84%A2 could someone make the land bases for this one look less like a puddle of water (remove water and splash effects), and give them perims/tachyons? Download them along with the others here: http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=4221.0